Campaign Set up - theory 1

Hello,

I've written this post before I left, because I knew I wouldn't have time to do much of anything hobby related. 

I am thinking much about how my campaign should be run and about tweaks in the rules that I'd need (want?) to make.

Don't get me wrong, I am really satisfied with the rules, but they come out too simple, so to say. Then again you can fit limited amount of things in one book.


Some of the chagnges, as zombies control and additional weapons, will be used in normal games as well, but others, like improved search tables and some campaign specific scenarios, will be, at least for the beginning, limited to campaign play.

I only have rough idea of what to do at the moment, but this is no problem, as I have plenty of time to fix things.  I have also picked the name of the town, by the way, but lets reveal that when the time comes.

To keep it easier for me, to keep it interesting for you, and because my handwriting is horrible, here is a rough to-do list before I start my campaign, by no special order:

Scenery:
- paint buildings
- build more building (fire house (department? station?), police station, clinic or hospital, more apartments)
- build more scenery (trash, rubbish, waste, bins, fences, walls)

Miniatures:
- paint miniatures (obviously)
- purchase survivors (main characters and some random gangsters and police, army, too - rules are very light on NPC alive people, so I will fix that a bit, but I guess team Bloggers will be pretty lonely)
- purchase additional zombies (because...there is never enough!)

House rules:
- additional weapons and equipment (supressor!)
- zombie control
- scenarios (write "quarantine" scenario, inspired by ATZ, but basic. I was thinking police/army roadblock, survivors need to get out of the area - so updated "On the road" scenario from NMRIH; tweak other scenarios to fit campaign - will do that as campaign progresses)
- improve search tables (currently those are pretty basic. I will make special for apartment buildings, police station, firehouse, clinic, various types of stores etc)
- NPC? There are some ideas of NPC in the book, as people shooting at you and so on - will try to make it so they actually appear. The good guys (gives your team bonuses for scenario) will be able to join team for the duration of scenario, or, if I decide, join the team for the campaign)


The plot:
I already have rough idea of the first mission story, but will have to playtest a thing or two. Obviously, story will be made up as we go, regarding the things happening on the table.

After I come home, I will start painting zeds. I will try working with 6 at once, because 3 will take up too much time. Then I'll paint the buildings (bought some less expensive acrylics) and start experimenting with the house rules. I am most bugged with the ammount of zombies on the table, I will have less points on table than it is advised, and don't want my survivors to get overcrowded. To keep things simple, I might just play with the lowest zombie threat level (for example, using rules for rural densitiy, but playing in urban area). I don't want to dig too deep in the mechanics of the game.

You can see I've named this post "theory 1". The reason is, I plan to post updates say...once every 2-3 weeks, when I'd have something big finished. I will start blogging twice a week next week.

Cheers,

Mathyoo

Shelldrake's PBB Mini me

Hello,

I've been just whining and complaining for past two weeks and now I've decided it is time to get a grip and start putting things that belong here. So I present you my character for Shelldrake's PBB 2 game. I've started painting this fellow before I left and finished him yesterday. He is not as good as I'd want to, but well, not too bad either, concerning my skills.  Photos are much worse!

I've added two pictures of his front, none is really good. Ian, please tell me if they're too bad, I will take some more today or next weekend.

As for the miniature itself, I've decided for him to represent me as he is a bit shorter and kind of slim. His hair is awfully done, I just can't paint that. He carries G36C assault rifle, which will probably be my imaginary country's main firearms. Just need some eureka germans and more hasslefree, hehe. I've painted his buletproof vest in "olive drab" kind color, but I went with urban uniform. Main reason is, I wanted to get some contrast to him, all green wouldn't work good for me, neither would all black-white, as I will probably do my SWATs in greys, too. Don't like blue too much. So, if we go back to our man, he could be a reserve formations soldier, with limited uniform. This would justify woodland vest and urban uniform beneath it. He has full cammo pants (which I am very satisfied with, as I was somewhat scared to start it) and grey turtleneck, for cold days in urban enviroment. Its based on one color green turtlenecks we got at the army. It is not designed for use without full cammo shirt over it, but well, who has time to obey regulations once the dead walk the earth?

Painting him was a real joy. I love the fingerless gloves. I love the neck guard on the vest. Don't like the vest itslef much, but well, a man can't have everything! I will definitely buy a civil version of him, give him an axe and use him as me for my own zombie slaughtering campaign!

As for the campaign characteristic, he is conveniently armed the same way as the figure I picked from Shelldrake's list of choices. The only difference, thus, is, this one is really mine :P.

Here are the stats:

Grom (it is just an acronym from my first and last name - it means "thunder" or "thunderclap" in slovenian, I am bad to the bone! :D)
Guns 7 (30)
Fists 8 (21)
Guts 11 (18)
=69

Badass zombie slayer (30)
Gunslinger (5)
I would follow him trough the gates of hell (15)
= 50


Gear
The char no. 4, my choice, was armed with an assault rifle, body armour and a pistol.So is this guy. If you're interested, he carries pistol on his left-side ribcage area. Because it all adds over 50 points limit, Grom counts as having:
A body armour (20)
An assault rifle (30)


= 50

I will jump in the game in June, after I come home so people wouldn't wait for me for no reason, and we will see how Shelldrake delivers me, once we get there!




I am glad my wargaming blog is wargaming blog again and will keep it that way

Blast! I've copied stats from forums and now its all weird. Sorry for that, seems I can't fix it -.-




Cheers,

Mathyoo

A letter from Joe!

Hey again guys!


today, when I've came home, a nice little envelope was waiting for me, all the way from US of A! Thanks for the decals Joe. And don't worry, they haven't came a day too late. My private life is crumbling down to the foundations at the moment and it made my day a bit :). I can't wait to get my TAG minies now, I'll jump on SWAT guys right away and will do my best to make sure those decals look as good as possible!

Hobby wise, again, I can't really do too much. I planned on painting mini me for Shelldrake's campaign, but I need to catch some sleep first. Maybe tomorrow, I really planned to have him finished before I come home.


Well, hope you guys are all right, I will probably post some ideas for my campaign settings next week and after I get home, I'll have enough time to double time the project, should start the campaign itself by august (pretty blind shot at this one, I have no idea how long it will take to get everything up and running :P)

Cheers,
Mathyoo

Not even an update post!

Hello,

just dropping by....its a working weekend this week, and I wouldn't even be home if I wouldn't have to rush here and finish some of the work for the faculty. Madam was not satisfied with the work I've put into her little paper, so I had to fix some things. I still, obviously, can't do much, because libaries are closed on the weekends, and I am on a limited time, but well, I hope this time she'll be satisfied enough to let me be.

Otherwise, I got some tan, I got some bruises, I eat shitty food and I won't be sleeping much next week due to night watches...can't remember what is the right word here. Its about 4 people spending the night awake, 2 hours each, to make sure everything is as it should be, and if, say, fires would start, to get the alarm sounding and all. That is nothing special by itself, but we have 8 guys and 7 days. I don't know who is the mastermind behind this, but it  takes from 6-8 hours of sleep away from  each us (depending on 4 or 3 days of duty) this week. That is one night. Ah well, why bother...16 days and Im as free as a bird!

I don't even have time to check the forums, I will be home tomorrow and will try to check those. I will run over the new blog posts to check the pics, you'll have to excuse me for not taking time to go over them properly and comment today!

Have at least as much fun blogging as I have kilometers to cross walking, and see you next weekend!

Mantic Hasslefree Adventurers unboxing

Hello guys!

On thursday, my package from Wayland games arrived. In it, there were Hasslefree zombie hunters in mantic case (more on that curiosity later) and two "loads", an old couple. Missing was a strip of greenstuff that I've ordered and which I will run out of very soon. This makes me sad, I was really looking forward to it. I was just warming myself up for converting some mantic zeds  and giving them a bit more modern clothes. This does give me an excuse to buy more stuff next time they will have a free shipping thingie, hehe.

 Here is the pic of the things as I got them:

 And old woman, an old man and a huge "carry case". Second pic shows you the other side of the case, if you're interested in some fluff. Let me ask you to pay attention at the lower paragraph on back side "...please do not eat them." So, those are miniature figures, not miniature bacon. Keep that in mind!

When I've ordered the adventurers, I though they are from Hasslefree. Sure it said it comes in a "mantic case", but I didn't think much of it. I even went to check minies I get in the box on the list of hasslefree producs (to avoid any double buying in future :P), and found them all... except "Kenny"  from the case was called "Ken (b)"...or did I? Read on, I'll explain you everything.  However, first thing that came to my mind when I saw the case up close was "wow that ain't painted too well". Don't get me wrong, its nicely painted, above my skill, but still, I've expected something more...artistic? And whole case is much more "meh" from up close.

 After I've opened the case, here's what I saw:

...and it all made sense, looks like Mantic and Hasslefree teamed up. I went to check the Mantic's page and even read how at least one mini in each box (you also have some kids, which I'd like to get and two boxes of females, which are not what I'd want at the moment. At least not the "soldiers" one, they're all the same, hehe).
Included in the box were 4 bases and a "mantic point". Got to find those from the zeds, too. Not sure where I've put them so they wouldnt get lost -.-

Here are all the minies put in a row. Remember, hunters from hasslemantic and old couple from hasslefree. Second mini from left had his barrel broken. I guled it on and my optimism vanished after 3 sec when it fell of and got lost somewhere in all the cuts from cleaning the miniatures. As you can see, Tony guy (the first from left) is huge. And Kev is kinda small. I know he is supposed to be based on the sculptor, Kev White himself, but still, it really is a small mini. So, he has to be perfect to represent me, hah! To be honest, I am 178 cm tall and I call that average (which missus finds funny), but Im skinny enough to look smaller. Unless I find a better miniature, I think civilian version of Kev (with an axe!) will be my alter ego in the campaign. The pose of that mini is just sick...so good. But I am not a katana guy and pistol is "meh"...ah well, more on that once I get him!

I think this picture is good enough so you can play a little game with me! None of the 4 minies is unavailable at Hasslefree's, but they are kind of converted. Spot the differences and post them in the comments below!

What did you say...how do I know they're from mantic? Well, check the slotta tabs, silly! On pic above you can see they all have "hasslefree" written on the tab. And on the other side... :

If you wondered, miniatures came with lots of flash and mould lines. They're awesome sculpts, but crappy molds. Was more of a hasslemuch than hasslefree job, cleaning them up! But I did it once I was done, I had to admire the detail again. Actually, every time I grab them, I just have to watch how cool those minies are. Really awesome. I have much lower standards, to be fair, but it is still nice to have few of the top miniatures.

Here are some more pics of the minies. I will base my old couple once I get a hold of some 20mm bases, as 25mm seem too big for them...well, at least for the lady.

A

I've also took some size comparishon shots and another shot of the redhead from previous post:

Mantic-HF, Mantic zed, Mantic-HF Kev (Looks just like me, doesn't he? :P), WGF Zed, Urban war male, Mantic-HF Ken and Grant, Urban war female

And for the end, some close ups for scale and the "bonus" redhead:

I hope this was helpful at least to the guys who, as myself, were unavare of "Mantic-HF" deals!

And here is a hint for those, interested in an old couple: Click me softly!

Thanks for reading,

Mathyoo

First survivors spotted!

When I bought my Urban war female militia with pistols, I've got one guy instead of girl. I wrote about it to Urban war, and after quite some time (my mail went in their junk, but the guy apologized like 3 times or so :P), I've got it. It was one of my favorites, but isn't any more. When my brother and I played On the road scenario (short report with few findings to follow some other day next month, when I won't have time to do anything but want to keep posting), he was playing with those 3 miniatures. The "lost girl" was his sheeple, because he voted her the ugliest :P.

To show you what I mean, here are two pictures of my (first!) 3 survivors:

They don't have the names yet, but when we played they were named Tanya, Sonya and Alex(andra). There is no extensive thinking behind the pickings. We wanted to name them for the laughs and my brother figured the first one (so Tanya) looks like a russian (no offense here ;) ) so they were all Eastern Europeans. From left to right:
Tanya wears red and black combination and is my hands-down favorite from those three. I've tried to give her latex boots an imitation of gloss, but failed. Did gloss varnished her, tho, so half work done there! I hope you can see she has a patch over her eye. It looks uber cool to me, and no, it wasn't planned. I made a lifetime mistake of trying to paint the girl's eyes. My hand shook and I blew half of her face. So I just made her a patch, problem solved. She has the best face for it, from the 3, so I can call myself pretty lucky. As most of the figures, she is dressed in short skirt, to confuse the living and some kind of lether jacket.
Sonya, in the middle has black and red combination as well, but I've gave her green skirt and blonde hair. We don't want them all to look identical now, do we? Nothing else special, you can see the grey dots at the eyes, I am not trying to fix that anymore! I could do more work on her belt, but the thing is, I was working for 3 days on those 3, because I lack the time (lots to do by the end of the week :( ).
Alex is the one that came late. You can see she is quite muscular, which isn't weird, considering she carries this huge pistol. I wanted to get more constrast between her top and pants, but kind of failed. I did gave her red all star converse shoes, which are quite a lovely touch!

Let that be all for today. I am surprisingly brief, but honestly, I've been typing for 3 days now about IAEA and intelligence's role on countering terrorism, so I hate my keyboard a bit at the moment, hehe.

I could also tell you I got drafted a little "thinking post" for my campaign...as said I will post it some day next month and it will include few short ideas and a to-do list (very shortened, I may add) before I start my campaign. Currently, I am searching the net for suitable miniatures for the heroes to-be.




Cheers,
Mathyoo