Outbreak City at Eastern Front 2011

Only slightly more overdue than Episode 1...

Outbreak City at Eastern Front 2011

On Sunday 1st August this year Eastern Front, I made the decision to put on a display game  of All Things Zombie at the East of England Wargames Show. The show was held at St Andrews Hall in Norwich.

After announcing here I was doing so, one of our fellow bloggers, Colin (cmnash) said "I might just try and get over to Norwich to see you there!"

I knew that Colin wasn't local and seeing as he's a gamer and a zombie gamer to boot and making he effort to travel I emailed him to say "Why not play?" A few emails later and, before you know it, a plan was hatched - we were putting on a game together.

Great news because, whilst I was happy to put on the game, I'd only actually done it once beforehand and certainly not alone.

So Colin brought his massive horde of zombies, a few survivors, some wrecked cars, street furniture and a few other goodies and I brought the Risks and Rewards Deck, the gaming table and the terrain.

Colin's rather impressive zombie horde.

For a full report of the games we played, and bucket loads of pictures, check out Colin's post Eastern Front Game with Zombie Ad.

Humorously, Colin turned our display game into a full-on participation event with once quick question to a lady who scanned the board with interest, telling us it was the kind of game she and her husband could play together. "Cool, so do you wanna play?"

"Ooh, ahhh, that's how it starts. Then there's the running and screaming!"

We hadn't realised the impact us taking someone through the game might have on the other people watching. As soon as that game finished (she survived and made it off the table...just) we were approached by another group of gamers who asked "Can we get in on the next game?"

Colin and I exchanged glances and shrugs. "Errr...sure!" we replied.

Things turned ugly fast. Real ugly.

It was great to meet Colin and our combined ability to teach others to play ATZ (with equal measures of us getting the rules right and wrong, the wrong bit being mostly me) drive the narrative and lead the players into as much peril as we possibly could, worked perfectly.

We were busy with people at the table all day long, I was told we had one of the busiest tables and, most importantly we, and everyone who either played or stopped to ask questions, seemed to have a great time. It was great to meet with everyone, discuss gaming, terrain and zombies. Thanks should go to Mike and Dug who both dropped in to say hello and an extra special thank you to Dug, whose photos are shown here. My other half had the camera for a day out she had with the kids and I only had a phone to get pictures on. Epic fail.

Local 'Irwins' capture the action from the roof of the cinema.

One of the most amusing things was more than one person asking "So do you guys play a lot together?" to which we could only answer, "Actually we met a couple of hours ago."

The undead's clumsy ambush was no match for the cowgirl's firepower.

Whilst the buildings had all been built long before the show, the street layout was new and reached the stage it was seen in these pictures in the wee hours the night before the show. It is not finished, there's tons of detailing to go and I'll share the journey of it's development in some future posts.

I'm sure I'll be putting on another public game at some point in the future and this time it will likely be a participation game from the outset.

Thanks Colin, awesome stuff sir!

Happy Halloween

Sometimes you just get an idea in your head...

Jack O. Romero

...so we bought two pumkins this year.

Happy Halloween!

Where have you gotten to Zombie Ad?

I have been meaning to write this post for about a week now, no, make that about a month, erm.. actually how about more than two?

Outbreak City - Eastern Front 2011 (Figures courtesy of Colin)

In answer to a question posted by The Extraordinarii today:

"Where have you gotten to Zombie Ad?" The answer?... Life got in the way.

Life, you say, what have you been up to? In short, I...

• Almost met my match with my new Outbreak City gaming table project
• Ran a display/turned participation game with fellow blogger Colin, awesome stuff
• Worked away from home for two months (for the interactive entertainment software industry's leading publisher). In one word, EPIC!
• Battled the undead side by side with quite possibility the UK's leading expert and author on zombie survival - Sean T. Page from the Ministry of Zombies
• Played some great new Euro games
• Built a Dystopian Wars table commission
• Finished (almost) a 40K Demon Army commission
• Started a Malifaux Crew (Ressurectionists of course), just for me
• Had my busiest month yet with Zombie Shop, it's a Halloween thing
• and, to cap it all off - I started a collectable soldier and wargames figures company with my best friend JJD UK (We even sell 28mm Zombies of which I have my hands on some sets right now).

Like I said... life got in the way.

Life is at it's most exciting when you step up to the plate and say "I'll give that a go."

Blogging took a bit of a back-set so that I could spend what little time I had left with my family.

A very wise fellow blogger once said, try not to do too much otherwise you might face burnout. I'll pay a little more attention in future, thank you Bryan.

Without further ado my fellow zombie gamers... thank you for bearing with me, forthcoming posts include some of the stuff above and plenty of other bits and pieces I started but never quite got around to finishing.

Zombie Ad's back!

RTA: An All Things Zombie Batrep - Part 2

With blood on his knuckles and a second body at his feet the realisation hit Troy like an offensive line. This wasn't an isolated incident; not road rage gone insane.

Something was wrong in Outbreak City. Something very wrong.

Above the typical quiet of an early morning, shrieks of terror could be heard in the distance. Low moans and guttural, feral cries replaced birdsong.

"Hey!" he yelled at the woman reaching in through his now broken car window after Hank. Her head snapped in his direction and she shambled towards him with a high pitched scream.

In she rushed, dead eyes fixed on Troy as he prepared himself for the assault. He braced himself as she came in and grabbed her flailing hands as she clawed at his face. He twisted, turned and pulled her to the ground. She almost had her teeth in him as he slammed her into the tarmac and her vicious thrashing ceased.

Hank's heart reached a crescendo as he repeated to himself 'Gotta get outta here!' under his breath. He cursed himself, frozen with fear, cowering upside down with his head in the footwell of his friend's sports car, unable to even close the door beside him.

Hank snapped out of his panic when Troy slammed the driver's side door. Troy fumbled in his pockets for a moment and realised Hank must have the keys.

"Give me the keys!" he yelled as Hank squirmed like an eel in a barrel in the ludicrous position he'd gotten himself into.

Outside, the walking dead, drawn to the commotion, shambled ever closer to the car.

Hank twisted into a seated position and scooped the keys from out of the footwell. Troy snatched them out of his hand and gunned the engine just as the undead were upon them.

As Troy struggled to keep his composure the squeal of rubber heralded their escape and attracted the attention of more creatures. Out of the darkened alleyways they came.

Troy ploughed across the intersection, the roar of the 3.6 liter engine accompanied by high-pitched screams as the undead, threw themselves at the car in a furious blood lust.

"Look out!" cried Hank as two figures lurched out into the road and Troy drifted to avoid them.

As they neared the figures Hank saw a gaping head wound and bared, broken teeth as the bloody mess flung itself towards them.

The car door slammed hard against Hank's shoulder and he winced at the impact. The body spun and crumpled and a shock of crimson spray appeared across the windshield and wing.

"Holy shit!" said Hank as he looked back at the crowd of walking dead gathered in the street.

Troy didn't say a word. Nor did he risk a glance in the mirror, for fear of what he might see.

They'd certainly had better days.

All Things Zombie

Outbreak City at Eastern Front 2011

We interrupt our scheduled programme to bring you this news from Outbreak City!

The Lead Will Walk The Earth will be running a display game at Eastern Front:The East of England Wargames Show in Norwich on Sunday 21st August 2011.

Eastern Front: East of England Wargames Show 2011

Historically, Norwich held host to a popular annual show for a number of years. The show began to wane and eventually fell by the wayside and now, after a prolonged drought, the new show organiser Kim Daniels decided Norwich was once again ready for wargaming event. Eastern Front premiered last year and was hugely successful.

The show features a number of display games, a strong list of traders, the ubiquitous bring-and-buy and three competitions: The National DBA league, Hordes/Warmachine and Flames of War.

Inspired by The Extraordinarii's stunning work on his Small Town USA project and in the tradition of all pivotal wargames events I have decided to construct a brand new 6' by 4' Modern City Wargames Table (the baseboard) ready for the event. "Quiiick!!!!" Always up for a slightly foolish challenge I dived right in and construction is in full flow, I will post a full 'this is how I did it' (or didn't quite manage it) after the event.

Luckily for me I kinda forgot that I had promised to make a Dystopian Wars Ocean table for my best buddy and, handily enough, he and Matt from Too Much Unpainted Lead will be running a Dystopian Wars display game at the show too. Double the Van-Damage! So I tried to grow and extra pair of hands (didn't work) and the garage is literally full to the brim with battened MDF. In for a penny, in for a pound. Wish me luck.

Eastern Front, The East of England Wargames Show is being held in the fabulous St. Andrews Hall venue in the centre of Norwich.

St Andrew's Hall - Norwich

Come support the show and if you do visit please drop in to The Lead Will Walk the Earth and introduce yourself.

The Lead Will Walk The Earth will returns to it's scheduled programming. RTA: An All Things Zombie Batrep Part 2 follows next episode.

RTA: An All Things Zombie Batrep - Part 1

The sun was almost up over Outbreak City. It was quiet, very quiet and too early for Hank. He'd stayed up late last night to watch the game. The Outbreak City Ragers, his team, were through to the play-offs and, seeing as adrenaline had prevented him from hitting the sack, he'd downed a few more beers to celebrate. It seemed like only a few hours ago, it probably was. Troy pulled the car up across the street from the incident. When he cut the engine Hank breathed a sigh of relief.

Troy Pulled the car up across the street from the incident.

"Does your car have to be so loud?" Hank asked.
"Said the bear with a very sore head." replied Troy, with an eyebrow raised.

The ambulance crew had called in the RTA about an hour ago, single vehicle, most likely a DUI.

"Point taken." said Hank.

This incident really looked no different from a typical scene but something didn't add up. Troy and Hank had worked together for a while now. Road Traffic Accident Analysts; Crash Scene Investigators and they had seen enough scenes to know something was amiss.

As they strode over to the scene they could see two figures stumbling around behind the crashed coupe, both bloodied, both shambling, perhaps delirious from blood loss.

"This doesn't look good." said Hank as they both started off at a trot.
"Sir. Step out of the roadway sir." Troy called out.
As one of the figures stepped from behind the car a glint of recognition flickered in Hank's eye.
"Tony? Tony are you ok? What happened?" asked Troy, setting off towards his colleague, a paramedic he recognised from the work they'd done together.

Tony lurched forward, blood oozed from a wound on his face, his jaw hung limp but his teeth gnawed. He was closely followed by another male, who had to be like the victim of the accident, with a broken nose and what looked like lacerations on his neck.
"Are you sure that's Tony?" asked Hank.
Before Troy could answer the two figures lunged towards them with viscious intent.

Gnashing and flailing the two assailants rushed towards Hank and Troy. Troy jostled with the thing that once was Tony a Hank struggled with the man on him. They were caught off guard but moments later Troy's college wrestling day came flooding back to him. He manhandled the paramedic onto the ground and held him in a headlock.
"What the hell?" yelled Hank holding the wrists of the man biting at his face.
Troy pulled hard against the paramedic till a dull crack reverberated through his limbs and, to his horror, the body went limp. He rolled up out of the hold as Hank kneed his attacker in the face. The thrashing ceased as his assailant dropped to the tarmac.

"We gotta call this in." panted Troy as Hank raced off back towards the car.
"I'm on it." came the reply as Hank opened the door and reached for the radio.
"What just happened?" asked Troy. He stopped in the street, looking back at the two bodies in the middle of the road.

Hank poked and prodded the radio as he slammed the car door
"Just static." He yelled to Troy. "It's like nobody is answering."

Troy rested his hand on his thighs and tried to breath deeply. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and his hands started to shake.
"Let's get back to the office ASAP." yelled Hank. He twisted the ignition key. He was in no state to drive, but at least he'd have the car running for Troy. The engine turned over but the car wouldn't start.

As he looked up from the instument panel to his horror he saw another bloodied figured reaching for his friend.
"Troy, TROY!" yelled Hank, but it was too late. The raging thing was upon Troy just as he seemed to be gesturing to Hank. Hank turned in his seat to open the door but right beside him was a woman, bleeding from a viscious wound on her head, clawing at the car window with hate in her eyes.

Troy twisted as cold bloody hands clawed at his neck. He brought his large fists to bear on the man who had grabbed for him. Once, twice, three times. More than any normal man should be able to take. He connected with a stong right hook and the attacker finally went down like a sack of rice.

Hank jumped out of his skin as the woman smashed the car window and reached in to grab him. He pushed himself away from her as fast as he could, kicked at her hands and cowered down in the passenger footwell.

To be continued...

All Things Zombie

Let's Go Camping! - Even More Vehicles for 28mm Zombie Gaming.

I was going to post another All Things Zombie Batrep this week but having fine-tuned my scale-dar, this was too good not to share.

I went camping with the family this weekend, just a few quiet days with nothing to do except stay out of the rain, catch the sun (when it dared show it's face), eat far too many baked beans and share your sleeping bag with grass and earwigs. It was a chance to completely switch off from hobbies and zombies and I didn't even take a zombie novel with me. My scale-dar had other ideas!

I was looking for a lighter (we'd forgotten ours and uncooked bacon just doesn't cut it) what I found, in the on-site 'glamping' store, was these.

VeeDub
First up was this 1962 VW Campervan from 'Welly'. It's not particularly fancy and it wasn't marked for scale although it is pretty iconic. Having picked up quite a few vehicles recently I was happy to take a chance - the second purchase was marked for scale and the two looked okay side by side. The doors don't actually line up that well but I'm fine with that. It is a toy, not a collector's model. and priced accordingly at just over £4.00.

'Welly' 1/43 VW Campervan with 28mm Studio Miniatures Zombie.

It's the freedom it gives you
The second find was the one that got me really fired up. This 1/43 scale 'Teamsterz' car and caravan set is superb and the caravan would definitely count as a building or encounter location. The generic SUV is nothing to write home about but it's a good representation. A little under £7.00 is not bad, especially as you get two models. The caravan is pretty much all plastic but the SUV is die-cast.

"Pull over!" Teamsterz car and caravan.

SUV from the car and caravan set - with opening doors and tailgate.

These two vehicles have given me a great idea for an All Things Zombie scenario, so it's likely they'll crop up in a future Batrep.

The boxed models - if you want to go internet shopping for these.

Speaking of Batreps... coming soon on The Lead Will Walk The Earth...

More Vehicles for 28mm Zombie Gaming

Finding good die-cast vehicles for a 28mm Modern Wargame isn't necessarily difficult, once you settle on a scale, most of us go for 1/43 (I certainly did), it is simply a case of trawling the interwebs, scouring ebay and visiting high street stores.

Unfortunately, it is not always so easy to pick up suitable models at a reasonable price. Some of the more desirable 1/43 models can sell from anywhere up to £200 (yeah, I was surprised too). And at the lowest end of the price scale, the cars are often not even marked so you know what scale they are.

Whilst hunting for vehicles to fill the streets of my All Things Zombie campaign's Outbreak City one tip I found useful was to keep a 28mm model (unpainted) in my pocket whenever I headed to the shops. So if I stumbled across something that looked promising, I had something to compare it against. This didn't guarantee against the perils of scale creep, but it certainly helped.

This little trick stood me in good stead this weekend when, whilst guarding the trolley against the addition of surplus items (kids do that sometimes) during our weekly food shop, I spotted these three beauties in the reduced goods aisle at Tesco.

1/43 - 28mm stone quarry tipper.

1/43 - 28mm Up-and-over skip

1/43 - 28mm refuse lorry, comes with an 1100l Eurobin

These are from their 'large industrial series' and the three models available were a refuse lorry, a truck hauling a large skip and a stone quarry delivery tipper. These are not the smaller HotWheels/Matchbox scale cars. These 1/43 equivalents are not always on the shelves for long, but they're worth it if you can find them.


£1.75 each in Tesco's reduced section. It got my attention.

The potential of the Tesco models was first highlighted to me over at Colin's Down Among the Zed Men. I've always kept an eye out since. Each one of these models was sold for the princely sum of £1.75. Falling prey to the 'addition of surplus items' demon, I almost bought the lot, but settled on one of each instead.

I think they're actually might be just a little bit bigger than 1/43. But they match very closely in scale to the delivery trucks I picked up - the Tesco Load and Go sets, which I updated with BioFlex livery.

Comparison - same scale, more detail, lower price.

In comparison these vehicles are of a far better standard than the previous ones, with crisper lines and additional detailing. They all have moving parts - great for us gamers who like to move bits on models to represent different scenarios on the tabletop and the inclusion of the 1100 litre Eurobin (sometimes referred to as a Taylor bin) is a bonus.

A little large for 28mm but it works well enough.

However, as the name suggests, I'm not sure they have Eurobins in the states, where my Outbreak City All Things Zombie campaign is set. I think I'll use it all the same.

Zombie Shop - UK's first all zombie online store.

In my last post I said I'd been working on a little project, so, here it is:

What is Zombie Shop?
Everything is better with zombies, so, Zombie Shop is the UK's first all zombie online store. It is, quite simply, as much zombie gaming and entertainment goodness as we could fit into one place. It's a shop... with zombies - shopping... but better.

How did Zombie Shop come about?
I've been a fan of zombies since seeing The Night of The Living Dead late one night when I should have been getting some sleep ready for school the next day. Zombies are awesome and zombie stuff is awesome too, but, something always bugged me a little. I always had to get my zomb on from lots of different places. Wouldn't it be good if you could find all sorts of awesome zombie stuff in just one place?

What does Zombie Shop sell?
That's easy - zombie stuff. Stuff that has zombies in, zombie themed stuff, zombie gifts, zombie play-things and zombie gubbins. Zombie gaming and entertainment!

What's in Store?

Zombie Inspiration
We've got zombie films on DVD and zombie books, both fiction and survival instruction - classic, mainstream and cult. Zombie Shop has a huge offering of zombie entertainment to keep even the most die-hard zombie-phile in countless hours of zom-bliss.

Zombie Tabletop Skirmish Games
Zombie Shop stocks the full range of Two Hour Wargames' much-loved All Things Zombie, including: the All Things Zombie core rules, the two supplements ATZ: Haven and ATZ: I, Zombie and, a current UK exclusive, the fantastic ATZ: Risks and Rewards Deck. So if you're based in Europe and concerned about shipping, import taxes and duty, you know where to come.

Zombie Board Games
We've hooked up with Europe's leading distributor to offer a massive selection of board, card and tile-based zombie games, from the classic Zombies!!! from Twilight Creations to Flying Frog's hugely popular Last Night on Earth.

Zombie Role Playing
We have something for the tabletop gamer with All Flesh Must be Eaten, the fantastic D20 based RPG game from Eden Studios and the Zombie LARP gamer will be right at home with our selection of zombie slaying Nerf blasters and gaming accessories.

Zombie Contact Lenses
We stock cosmetic contact lenses that make a startling impact on the way you look. Perfect for zombie LARP, cos-play, Halloween, zombie walks and costume parties, or just for sending a picture into your boss and telling them you feel a bit 'peaky' today and perhaps it's best if you stayed at home till this all blows over.

What's Next for Zombie Shop?
The current offering is a mere drop in the radioactive-meteorite-borne-virus of an outbreak we have planned for the future. We'll be expanding all the current lines and adding some fantastic new ranges including: zombie fancy dress, zombie t-shirts, zombie jewellery, zombie crafts and zombie novelties.

You can follow Zombie Shop on Facebook, so drop by, click like and share with all your friends.

We're also on Twitter.

And... Zombie Shop has it's very own dedicated Blog where you'll find plenty of fresh meat of zombie gaming and entertainment news, reviews and views.

Tell the world, tell your friends, tell your dog, tell your neighbour, tell your hairdresser! If you need a zombie fix, you know where to go...

Get yer zomb on!

zombieshop.co.uk

What does this mean for The Lead Will Walk The Earth?
The Lead Will Walk the Earth will stay exactly as it always has. This is, and always will be, the blog about my Outbreak City 28mm zombie gaming project: the modelling, miniatures, vehicles, painting, play-testing and Batreps. Somewhere to share and gather ideas from fellow zombie gamers.

I will link to the store if I was going to link somewhere else, it would be kinda silly not to, and you might already have noticed the banners, but other than that it's zombie gaming business as usual.

I'm currently working on some new buildings and some amazing custom terrain that a fellow blogger had quite a lot to do with and the next ATZ Batrep is on its way. Till next time.

Zombie Ad

10,000 Hits & Shelldrake's Zombie Wargame Blog

The Lead Will Walk The Earth reached one of 'those' milestones today.

10,000 hits! Blam!

One good hit is all it needs. You're got red on you.

Colin over at Down Among The Zed Men recently nominated me for a stylish blogger award, thank you Colin. As it was so soon after a previous nomination, rather than follow the rules to the letter and take up the whole post with more tedious facts about me, I wanted to share the zombie love and pimp out the work of an Australian zombie game blogger that I've recently discovered.

Shelldrake's Zombie Wargame Blog is putting out some fantastic work on the development of a new zombie gaming project. He's been moving at a fair old pace and, most notably, innovating. He's experimenting with rules and initiative systems, coming out with some great modelling suggestions (his road sign is inspired) and even designing some of his own custom card/paper terrain which he is offering up for free to other zombie gamers and bloggers. Fantastic! So visit Shelldrake's Zombie Wargame Blog and click follow when you get there.

I couldn't finish this post without saying a massive thank you to everyone who has followed, commented, contacted me or otherwise supported the blog. Special thanks have to go to Matt (who got me stated on the whole thing), Bryan (The gentleman superstar of zombie gaming) and Fran (for the awesome blog, the additional traffic and setting such a superb 'how to' example), and OK, if Ray reads this little bit, sorry dude but your buddy does kinda rock! :). It is wonderful to do something you love and find that other people enjoy it too.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas, the inspiration and for sharing the journey so far. I've been busy of late on a little project that might be of interest, some of you might have picked up on it already, but more on that in the next post. In the mean time here's a teaser of a soon to feature All Things Zombie Batrep.

Just when Troy and Hank thought their day couldn't get any worse...

Highway To Hell: A No More Room in Hell Batrep - Part 2

Previously on Highway to Hell
Jed shook like a clockwork toy. “K...K..Ken.” He stammered, his voice caught in a dry throat. There was no way they would hear him over the shrieks of the dead and the screams of the dying. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this. For the second time in the space of a few moments he felt a warm trickle flow down his leg.

Things weren't looking good.

Highway to Hell: Part 2
Dennis looked down off the end of the bus. There were far too many of those festering abominations around. "We're not gonna make it, are we." he stated as his shoulders sagged.
"Don't be too sure." Ken replied, pointing down at the moaning horde of undead that shambled towards the fallen in a feeding frenzy. "They're being drawn to what happened." Ken pushed Dennis' chin back towards their direction of travel and held his shoulders firmly. They faced down the Interstate, right out of the city.
"Don't look."  he said.

'Don't look.'

"I can do this." said Dennis as Ken released his grip. Before Ken could stop him Dennis stepped off the back of the bus. Ken watched in astonishment - what was the man thinking? Remarkably Dennis landed with ease and dashed out along the verge. He urged Ken on with a silent wave. Reluctantly, Ken followed him, covering their rear as they headed up beside the highway.

Reluctantly, Ken followed.

I always wanted to try that
As Jed watched the zombies around the bus he could see the dead-heads were distracted by the run of bad luck that meant Dennis' lackeys were now on the menu.  He grinned as an idea came to mind. He reached into a pocket of his shooting jacket and pulled out two prized possessions. A gift from his brother Emmett, which he had been saving for just such an time.

Jed watched the zombies around the bus.

Slinging his assault rifle over his shoulder he held one of the egg-shaped objects, olive green with yellow stencilled text, in each hand. He pulled the pin on the first grenade with his teeth. "This is for Em, you f*uckers!" he cried as he tossed the grenade into the horde by the bus.

He was expecting fireworks, shuffling corpses torn to sheds in a massive blast, limbs everywhere. What he got was a loud pop, sun spots and rush of air thick with the funk of rotting flesh. Must'a been a misfire, he thought, and yanked the pin from the next grenade. The creatures swarmed towards the blast and more followed, joining the crush. The second grenade landed square in the middle of the heaving mass. Bang! The same pop, but this time he was peppered with a fleck of congealed blood. Just one of the walking corpses dropped, motionless.

"Dammit, why won't you die?" he yelled, quickly realising his mistake. They were headed for him now. Jed didn't waste a moment, he dropped down off the bus and darted across to the refuse truck, following the route that the others had taken, into the back of the dumpster and onto the roof of the cab. He paused at the gap over to the mini, dead hands grasping for him. This was gonna be harder than he thought.

This was gonna be harder than Jed thought.

Almost there
Dennis and Ken kept low as they skirted an ambulance. Masses of shamblers stumbled down the interstate. It seemed like they hadn't been spotted but there was a crowd ahead of them, at least a dozen. Ken pointed to the roadblock ahead. It looked like the authorities had completely stopped traffic, some kind of aid station or checkpoint with a sea of temporary buildings and medical tents. Beyond the roadblock it looked clearer, less of the walkers.

'Head for the compound.' said Ken.

"Head for the compound." said Ken.
"Damn straight." replied Dennis as he raced off into the crowd zig-zagging as if playing some hellish game of tag.

Dennis zig-zagged through the zombies in a hellish game of tag.

"What the..." Ken tried to stop him but was distracted by a movement close by. Out of the car in front of Ken an abomination of a woman stepped, blood an drool dripping from the remains of her jaw. He fired, putting her out of action and the walkers on road turned towards him. They picked up the pace and rushed in. His Remington spat again and again, one down for every shot, but as he took one down, another stumbled forward to take its place. Just as he thought his time was up the crack and zip of rounds passing too close stabbed the air and the dead began to drop.

Ken turned to see Dennis, on the other side of the roadblock, leaning across the hood of an automobile. As the last of the dead fell Dennis waved a big thumbs up, but to Ken's horror he watched as a lone bloated corpse lumbered from the shadows of a tent. Ken grabbed for the radio on his belt, clicked the switch as fast as he could.

"Behind you!" came the static belch as Dennis jumped out of his skin and ducked. The corpulent cadaver crashed into the vehicle, inches from Dennis. As the corpse drunkenly started to rise Dennis reloaded and shot the thing at point blank range in the back of the head.

Out of the Frying Pan

So many of them.

He charged along to the end of the bus raging at his situation.
"Stupid f*cking dead-heads" he shouted, dropping the dead with speculative fire as he went. "Yeah! That's it. You like that?"
Jed didn't stall at the end of the bus like Dennis and Ken. He run full-tilt, ready to jump onto the cab of the yellow truck.

Jed ran full-tilt along the length of the bus.

It was too far. He landed on the cab but he didn't have the impetus to make all the way. Oh sh*t!

Oh sh*t!

Stars, tons of them and hands too, grabbing, grasping and raking his skin. He snapped out of the concussive fog and pulled himself to his feet as a crowd of dead surrounded him. He let rip on full auto and a haze of blackened blood filled the air as he pushed through the crowd in a desperate charge. On he drove, shooting and thrashing against the clawing hands and gnashing jaws, at the end of the truck one of the things leaped out on him, burying it's teeth into his neck. Jed fought it off, thrusting his rifle into it's maw and blasted it's brains into the stratosphere. He felt the crushing bite of another, then another as a maelstrom of hands pulled him down and piled in on him.

It a final moment of desperation he reached into his jacket and pulled the last of his fragmentation grenades. Against the ripping frenzy of the dead he pulled the pin and let the spoon fly off into the horde. He curled into a ball as they bit and tore at him and held onto the grenade with all he had left.
"I f*cking love you Emmett." he said, as the darkness came.

The darkness came.

An unsure reunion
"I owe you one." said Dennis into the radio. The crunch of footsteps on tarmac caught his ear and he wheeled, pistol raised ready to fire. Ken held up his hand and indicated to the gun trained on him.
"We're good." said Ken as Dennis lowered his sidearm.
"Where are the others?" Dennis asked.
The crump of a blast made Dennis jump.
Ken shook his head. He'd watched Jed go down.
"We check this place out and get the hell on out of here."

Outbreak City: 08:45am

Just like our previous ATZ game we had ludicrously bad luck in rolling for zombies at the beginning of the game. Two times in a row we started with just a few zombies short of the maximum. No More Room In Hell is a great set of zombie apocalypse rules. It suits a 'hordes of zombies' style of play and was a welcome change of pace to the All Things Zombie rules. The NMRIH campaign and encounter rules are reminiscent of the D66 Heroquest 'Between Adventures' charts - very flavoursome and there's humour as well as scares.

The 'sheeples' mechanic fits a 'if the zombie apocalypse goes down I'm tripping you first' way of thinking and we realised, much to Jed's detriment, that having plenty of sheeples with you was probably a really good idea, unless you simply wet yourself every time you witnessed them being feasted upon.

In conclusion, we'll certainly be returning to NMRIH for future games.