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

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

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.

Highway to Hell: A No More Room in Hell Batrep - Part 1

Whilst All Things Zombie is our go-to zombie game of choice we thought we’d give Iron Ivan’s No More Room in Hell a whirl as part of our Salute-n-zombies-athon. We played the scenario, The Road, for which, as per a previous post, the roads were made specifically for.

Iron Ivan Games put out some pretty solid rule sets with a dedicated fan-base and a quick flick through Matt’s copy of NMRIH lead me to think we were onto a good thing. After all, it’s just the zombie apocalypse...we know what we’re doing right? I mean...Dr Pepper and all that!?... Maybe?

Here’s what happened.

Outbreak City Outskirts: Dawn

The LED sign looked a little out of place in the stillness of the early morning on the I24 out of Outbreak City.

‘INCIDENT: STAY IN YOUR VEHICLE.’

Nothing moved, but the air was heady with a sickly odor you could taste. From the looks of the carnage of haphazardly abandoned vehicles that littered the interstate nobody had paid much attention. Empty cars covered the freeway as far as they could see in the dull light. Trucks, sedans and utility vehicles blocked every route through, at least for anyone not on foot. A few anxious or impatient drivers had ignored the road and skirted around on the soft verges, but it had been no use. Those that tried had mired in the soft mud and marshy ground that bordered the road on both sides. There was a few feet of solid ground either side of the road but otherwise it might as well have been the bayou.

The Road: Scenario Set up.

“Looks like we walk from here.” said Ken as he cut the engine of the pick-up. They would have taken the Hummer, but there were nine of them and there was a little more room in the back.

“Fine by me.” said Jed who, quite literally, rode shotgun.

“You good to do this Dennis? They’re counting on you.” Ken addressed the other passenger in the front of the truck, a man with a shock of red hair who nervously opened the door.

“They need to get out of here. And so do I.” Dennis replied without looking Ken in the eye.

“Is he gonna be ok?” asked Jed as Dennis wandered away patting his thighs repeatedly.

“We’ll see.” said Ken.

The Road.

The people in the back of the truck were a rag-tag band of some of the least likely survivors from the office block. It appeared that they were from some kind of community social group that met in a building across from the office they had holed up in the past few nights. Dennis was their group leader. Ken wasn’t so happy about having them along, he wasn’t sure they would be able to keep up. Thankfully they were all armed, mostly with improvised weapons and small calibre pistols for home defence, but it was something.

Jed flipped the tailgate and slapped the rear-most passenger on the shoulder. “Let’s go.”

The passengers gingerly dropped down from the truck. They all looked to Dennis, who forced a brief smile and went back to a ritualistic rubbing of hands and drawing and replacing the automatic pistol in the waistband of his jogging pants.

“Keep this with you and keep it on.” said Ken. He twisted the switch on a walkie-talkie and handed it to Dennis. “It’s push to talk.”

“I know how to use it.” snapped Dennis, as he looked up at Ken’s stoic grimace and into his stone cold stare. Dennis’ shoulders sagged. “Thank you, officer.”

Incident: Stay In Your Vehicle.

One hundred yards on they caught sight of a shambling figure that stepped out from behind a truck, it was clear he was one of them. Ken turned to the crowd. “Stay calm. Let’s see if we can keep our distance and skirt around them.”

"Let's see if we can skirt around them."

A deafening yell split the quiet – half scream of terror, half martial battle cry. Dennis rushed forward towards the walker and blazed away with his pistol. He emptied the magazine before anyone could react and every shot went wild or ploughed harmlessly through the walking cadaver. He reached the walker moments later as the slide on his pistol locked back, empty, and the thing lunged at him.

A deafening yell split the quiet.

Jed pushed two anxious looking survivors back behind a delivery truck. With an awkwardly slow movement Dennis twisted as it loomed in on him, broken teeth gnashing after limbs as he clumsily executed a martial arts manoeuvre devoid of any elegance or control. Everyone looked on in stunned silence as, somehow, he picked up his assailant and planted him squarely on its head, snapping the neck in the process.

“Are you trying to draw them all to us? We...” Ken didn’t finish. They swarmed out of nowhere, appearing on every side. “Up there, now!” he yelled, pointing to the tailgate of a utility truck in front.

"Up there, now!"

Dennis wasted no time and clambered into the back of the dumpster. Ken and the others scrambled after him.

Jed saw that the commotion Dennis had caused drew the walkers away from him and the two kids he was with. “Wait here a second.” He said creeping towards a sports coupé.

"Wait here a second."

As they clattered around in the back of the dumpster the moans of the recently deceased increased as they clamoured at the metal walls of the container. “That way.”  said Ken, pointing at a Mini Cooper with its front end in the back of a bus. Dennis sprang up and jumped the gap awkwardly, followed closely by Ken and a man who looked like a college professor.



The dead closed in.

Behind them one of Dennis’ other companions lost his footing and slipped off the roof of the cab. He landed, feet first but the drop sent a jolt through his body. “Sam!” yelled a thuggish youth in the back of the container. The professor yelled for Ken to help but he ignored the horde grasping at him. They dragged him kicking and screaming off the bonnet and fell on him like a pack of hungry dogs. Within seconds Sam was surrounded but somehow, with handgun and fists, he fought them off.

With handgun and fists, Sam fought the zombies off.

Seeing the undead swarm Sam’s way, the thug took his chance. He hopped over the side of the container and dashed for the Mini. But he’d misjudged how many of them there were and was quickly surrounded. They took him down in seconds.

He took his chance, with horrfying consequences.

A pretty girl in a tight vest took a different route and made it to the mini just as they Ken climbed onto the roof of the bus.



Dennis fired into the crowd, close enough to have hit her if she’d still been alive.

“Cease fire and keep moving!” shouted Ken, pushing him on. At the end of the bus they stalled. The next jump, over to the roof of a construction vehicle, looked a little too wide and besides...there was so many of them.

There were so many of them.

The two kids beside Jed clambered onto the sports coupé. Two of the walkers put on a burst of speed and rushed them, arms flailing and teeth bared. The girl hopped out of their reach onto to roof but the other poor kid didn’t stand a chance. He was slammed into the hood with such force Jed figured he must have been dead before they sunk their teeth into him.

Dead before they sunk thier teeth into him.

“Steve!” shrieked the girl reaching after him.

“No, don’t!” Jed shouted. He watched in slow motion as the girl reached down to her boyfriend. One of the walkers turned to her, lashing out at her as the other fed on the boy.

Jed wet himself.

There was no way she was going to match its ferocity. He felt a rush of warmth and wetness in his pants and his hands started to shake. He couldn’t get a clear shot and watched helplessly as she slid off the roof of the car and into its arms and jaws. He backed off and slammed into the delivery truck behind him. It was happening again, just like when they got Emmett.



He closed his eyes and pulled his gaze away. When he looked again, more of those creatures were closing in. He turned and clawed at some hand and footholds on the side of the truck. Up on the roof he looked down on the scene.



Jed pissed his pants...again.

He saw Ken and Dennis a way off, standing at the far end of the bus. Behind them Sam fought his way through a multitude of those things and the pretty girl was struggled to climb onto the bus as a swarm of undead swept in on both of them, he watched the girl slip and slide as more hands reached up and dragged her off the roof into their midst as Sam disappeared under a heaving crowd of flailing limbs in a mist of arterial spray.

The poor girl didn't stand a chance.

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.

To be continued...

"To The Man-Cave!"

In the spirit of a few other blogger's recent posts I thought I'd share a couple of shots of the man-cave.

The man-cave.

It isn't always this tidy.

When we originally viewed the house some 7 years ago the vendor showed us into a back room as she stated "...and this is the games room." Within seconds I'd re-decorated and was figuring out how to fit in two 6' by 4's. There's a room just off this with a sink, and storage area and a seperate washroom. A kettle was added to the ante-room for our last gaming weekend and once a beer fridge is installed (planned for later this year) we can dissapear into the realm of battle without surfacing in the rest of the house for weeks at a time.

Outbreak City's Aftermath
Whenever I play a game I have been planning and working on for some time two things happen:

1) I breathe a huge sigh of relief, content in the warm glow of gaming geekery
2) I get giddy about new projects and start something fresh for the playset.

New projects include: more vehicles for my 40K Orks, some 15mm moderns, the completion of some Star Wars Miniatures 3d terrain and a stupidly ambitious 1/35th scale WW2 skirmish set. All good stuff, but what about the undead for All Things Zombie?

I recently spent a long session basing my Studio Miniatures Zombie Horde 1 hjust before the big game, but didn't get a chance to paint them all. I used the miliput method and, for the most part, copied the examples of the Studio Miniatures marketing shots as reference. It was only the 3rd time I've used miliput. This week's lesson covered mixing only the amount you can work with before it cures. Whoops.

Base Monkey Mafia. SM Horde plus Hasslefree WIP.

I couldn't wait to get some paint on them and so (after the Hazmats were finished) started right away. I've almost finished the first few. The rest should follow shortly.

Studio Miiniatures - WIP (+an old GW mini on the right)

I picked up a couple of new 1/43 scale cars to add to the collection.

Alpha Romeo - Tourer

New York Checker Cab

I am particularly pleased with the New York taxi. I assume it is only supposed to be seen in New York (perhaps someone can confirm if they are found elsewhere) but they are so iconic - let's just say Outbreak City has yellow checker cabs too.

My first battle report was run using the 2005 All Thing Zombie rules and I felt that an upgrade was long overdue.  I picked up ATZ- Better Dead than Zed from Two Hour Wargmes last week. I experienced superb customer service from Ed at THW. I placed my order for the pdf. version on a Sunday and I was reading the rules just a few hours later. Thank you Ed. They look great so far. We have a couple of games planned for the weekend of Salute, in addition to a trip to the show. One using ATZ - BDTZ and one using No More Room in Hell. I'm looking forward to our Undeadathon.

I ordered some Litko THW token sets (here and here) and eagerly await their arrival. One of the reasons I wrote the batrep in a narrative style was that when I looked back at the pictures I simply couldn't remember at what point in each turn I had taken them (there were over 50 taken in the end). I found it surprisingly difficult to explain what is happening in game mechanic terms and tell the story at the same time. I am interested to see if the Litko tokens help make it a little easier to translate what is going on. My hat goes off to anyone who has written batreps. Writing my own has made me appreciate what goes into them all the more.