County Road Z

Taylor's diary

It wasn't good. Both Aston and I are in a bad way.

Taking stock I assigned Harmony to build a garden which will be the start of our self sufficiency on food. (1 hardware and 1 labour. Generates 1 food).

I set to building a utility room with a view to establishing power and water. (3 hardware and 3 labour. Provides power and water, which is extra building to do before generating anything).

Ashton I got to rest. He complained, though only half-heartedly.

We decided that the nearest food source would be Hodge's greengrocers. It had tins and jars of food as well as fresh fruit and veg. Well, had fresh fruit and veg.

Management phase

(1) Check Rot - N/A

(2) Hunger score - 2

(3) Assign beds - Each has a bed

(4) Unrest score - 2

(5) Store check - pass Fuel-4, Food-0, Hardware-0

(6) Horde - no siege threat

(7) Departures - none

It's a precarious beginning for sure. 

The fact injured survivors can't go on missions was something I didn't expect. I'm not going to stick to that rule. I could handicap the injured instead by -1 for movement and hand-to-hand combat.

In the Road Trip section all members can be used in missions. An injured survivor is still useful even if not totally fit. 

This seems a good compromise.

A VBCW

 Hi!

And now for something completely different:-

The Pinfold Farm Cottages Outpost

Pinfold farm is on the south side of Walkden at the junction of Bridgewater road and Newearth road. So it was an odd affair that the Mosley Common miners used the road instead of the Bridgewater railway to move to Walkden Yard, if that was their destination. Or it could just have been a probe to gauge the preparedness of the Suffragette Regular Army's Walkden's defences.

The miners, an irregular force, came up the road on foot, a not inconsiderable walk. No doubt these hardy men were used to it.

Miners approaching

The Mill Worker's Militia, an irregular force manning the junction, were well placed to receive any incursion by forces against Walkden, held by the SRA (Suffragette Regular Army) of which they were a part. They were stationed in the tenant cottages at the junction which gave hard cover, but in the main were at the fence along the road side.

Mill Workers man (?) the fence

First shots miss

Shake out into line

Advance to contact

Taking hits

MW in the cottages

Still taking hits though they gave some out.

Preparing for contact

The charge goes in

The MW are ousted.

Viva la revolución!

Mill Workers suffered 50% casualties and the Miners 44%. 

A bit of a Pyrrhic victory. The miners withdrew as the position was not defensible for them.

MW had a couple of advantages.

(1) They won the activations most of the time.

(2) They didn't move except to enter the cottages

(3) Hard cover curtesy of the cottages.

(4) Only shooting through one obstruction.

Miners

(1) Movement penalties on shooting

(2) Shooting through one obstruction

(3) One less man!

The MW shooting wasn't great, and at 9 to hit was difficult.

But the Miners 10 to hit was met more often!

My first game of VBCW. Rules used were Went the day Well. They performed decently.

The rules state 3 units but I'd decided to start with a skirmish if sorts to see how the game played.

County Road Z

Starting a new community cont.

Where we left it.

In the meantime, I look at the mission and I can win without killing all the Shells. I just need to kill any within 6" of the house and enter it. That is do-able, with luck.

Harmony takes down the lead Shell

Ashton and Nick moving into contact with the next lead Shell. They manage to kill both but not without consequences.

Harmony missed a shot activating a Shell which attacks Nick.

But she takes the next nearest down with her next shot

He manages to fight it off and kill it

Nick and Ashton search the two resource points

Ashton found a can of fuel and some hardware.

Nick found another can of fuel.

They move into the house. It's good to be quiet

With so many Shells around...

Tyler Watt quietly slinks away

Taylor's Diary

We had an hard time securing the house. 

Being quiet worked to a point.  Maybe Harmony shooting that Zombie from afar set off a chain of events that put us in a spot. (I misunderstood the Zombie motivation and had them running down the road towards Harmony when they should have moved towards the nearest passive Zombie. Then she shot at them actually activating them to attack.) Both Ashton and I suffered two wounds which we are afeard about. We urgently need some medicines to combat the virus.

While the house has some supplies we don't have enough food to keep us going. Someone is going hungry tonight. That's not something each of us hasn't suffered before.

The place isn't large by any means, but it's a start.

Nick and Ashton get 1xp 

Harmony gets 2, one for the mission and one for exceptional performance.

The house is a tier one house. It comes with

4 x Food

4 x Hardware (+1) = 5

4 x Fuel (+2) = 6 

2 x Bunk rooms (as I understand it, each bunk room has 2 beds)

1 x Kitchen

1 x Garage (empty)

1 x Front yard (empty)

I'm thinking they will be lucky to keep this community going.

One near death. One half way there.

County Road Z

Starting a new community.

Nick: "Harmony. How good are you with that bow?" 

Harmony: "I'm passable. No expert" 

Nick:" OK. You have the only silent weapon that we can use at a distance, so we'll try to keep it as quiet as we can.

We can't rush in as we don't know how many, if any, might be in the house or around about.

Harmony can take out the Shell over to the right then we'll head straight for the wall and see what's between us and the house. 

If we encounter too many we'll hightail it back here. We need to watch each others backs.

Let's get too it!"

Harmony downs a shell and they all move

Furthest Shell becomes aggressive and activates another close by.

Harmony moves and takes down another

The men move round and start across the road

The aggressive Shells can see the men and move activating another two

They become a horde!

Ashton moves and stumbles into a Shell

The Shell attacks but it only develops into a scuffle until Nick arrives and bludgeons the Shell with the butt of his shotgun

The aggressive shells tear down towards Harmony

Careful aim. One more down. She moves towards the house.

Harmony feels a bit anxious.

It was at this point I wondered how to move into the house and barricade the door. Move Ashton. Shoot Shell and move Harmony. Move Nick and barricade. 

How long dies it take to barricade? Roll dice, should take one move. 

It was then I noticed you need Tinker skill to make a barricade.

Oh! Oh!

I have to clear the board to win!

County Road Z

 Hi!

First mission: Start a new Community

First, the team:

Nick, Leader, handyman

Aston, the burglar

Harmony, teacher

Cast of thousands:

Zombicide

Mantic

The target area:

The house, with garage.

The blue pebbles are points to search:

The survivor:

Tyler Watt

Search points:

Blue pebbles. 

Poems for wargamers 12

Boots!

by Rudyard Kipling

We're foot—slog—slog—slog—sloggin' over Africa 

Foot—foot—foot—foot—sloggin' over Africa 

(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again!) 

There's no discharge in the war! 

Seven—six—eleven—five—nine—an'—twenty mile to—day

— Four—eleven—seventeen—thirty—two the day before #

Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again!) 

There's no discharge in the war! 

Don't—don't—don't—don't—look at what's in front of you. 

(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up an' down again);

Men—men—men—men—men go mad with watchin' 'em, 

An' there's no discharge in the war! 

Count—count—count—count—the bullets in the bandoliers.

If—your—eyes—drop—they will get atop o' you!

(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again)

There's no discharge in the war! 

Try—try—try—try—to think o' something different

— Oh—my—God—keep—me from goin' lunatic!

(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up an' down again!)

There's no discharge in the war! 

We—can—stick—out—'unger, thirst, an' weariness,

But—not—not—not—not the chronic sight of 'em

— Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up an' down again,

An' there's no discharge in the war!

'Tain`t—so—bad—by—day because o' company,

But night—brings—long—strings—o' forty thousand million Boots

—boots—boots—boots—movin' up an' down again

There's no discharge in the war! 

 I—'ave—marched—six—weeks in 'Ell an' certify

It—is—not—fire—devils, dark, or anything,

But boots—boots—boots—boots—movin'up an' down again, 

 An' there's no discharge in the war!

Having been a foot slogger myself (3RRF) I can relate somewhat to the sentiments of the poem.

I can still remember 'Boots. Denims and PT vest' which we recited each morning before going on our run during training.  And, though it wasn''t hindred of miles on those occasions, it felt like it! 

County Road Z

It wasn't a restful night. It never is these days. But, quiet. The absence of noise is always a litle disconcerting thought Harmony.

Nick: "OK! Are we ready?" Harmony and Aston both nodded. Nick eased the door open and edged outside."Clear" he said.

All three knew of the place Aston had indicated might be a good place to hunker down. He had scouted it out for a 'visit' before it all went to hell. On the edge of town it gave an unrestricted view of the immediate area, for the most part at least. And they could re-enter the town for supplies, until they ran out or things spoiled.

They were quiet, skirting well wide of any Shells as they started calling them. Shells, because they had become shells of what they once were. It was as good as any other description. No doubt others, if there were any, had their own name for them. They arrived and took stock of what they were seeing. Some Shells, but not too many.

"What's the plan?" said Aston to Nick

County Road Z

 Hi!

I got the rules for this game whilst in the US (see earlier post). I'd seen quite a bit of information, and a couple of videos of it on YT, and it looked right up my street.

As usual, I didn't strictly follow the character development rules. In fact, I didn't follow them at all here!

I diced for everything, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Co-operative. There was a little re-rolling when the same number came up for different statistic. Then also for each skill which was risky but worth the difference.

One Hero

Nick Taylor. S3, D1, I2, CO4

Mechanics, Scout, Long Gun, Carry.

Handyman (mechanical skills). Engages in re-enactment societies (ECW) (Scout/Carry). Likes squirrel hunting with his Shotgun.

Two Leaders

Harmony Watkins. S1, D3, I0 CO2

Heavy weapon, Teaching, Archery

Teacher of mathematics at high school. Archery novice (Bow), Blunt weapon (Rounders bat)

Aston Ball. S3, D1, I2, CO0

Blunt, scavenge, Enter

Burglar (Entry) and petty thief (Scavenge). Bunt weapon (Crowbar)

I was quite satisfied how the dicing came out. 

I'm not sure how I'm going to depict the two leaders not having figures holding blunt instruments or bows. It will be fly-by-wire I think to start. But I might look for suitable figures online. But I won't wait for them or it might be awhile.

I used a name generator for the names, being dissatisfied with my own choices.

                                                                                                                                 

Taylor's Diary

The change was sudden.

The virus spread like wildfire. At least that was what people thought it was. What else could it be?

First there were reports about rabid people attacking others for no apparent reason.

And things escalated until whole towns and cities were besieged by whatever these people had become.

I holed up for a while in my workshop until hunger and thirst drove me to seek what I needed to survive. On one forage I saved Harmony who was being cornered by a group of them. I'll call them Z's because they seem like the end of everything. They could easily be called O's, for Omega.

Anyways, We stuck together.

One night, something was scratching at the workshop door. Getting ready to deal out some damage, heart racing, a man jemmied open the door and was extremely lucky to be alive moments later. 

That was how we came by Aston. The workshop wasn't big enough for our needs with three of us and with the door lock broken we decided to search for somewhere to hole up together the next morning. Not that Aston really wanted to in my estimates, but I think he was desperate at that point.

We all were.

Little Fox Ford. The aar

Hi!

Things move fast in this game. 

Being my first attempt with the rules I thought I'd go with a simple scenario using the same movement and ranges as written, though I was using 15mm figures and not 28mm.

And it was over very quickly.

The two sides were both outlaws, of course.

Floyd was a boss (pistol), Benson a gunslinger (pistol) and Bennie a thug (shotgun).

Sam was a Fugitive (pistol), Jeramiah and Velasquez were thugs (pistols).

The Sheriff (pistol) the Deputy (pistol) with three others who were upstanding citizens (2 with pistols and 1 with rifle (the stagecoach shotgun, a rifle being a better choice though not strictly legal)

The first phase started with Benson moving behind a tree from the side of the building to a tree, hoping to shoot someone in the back. 

Velasquez moved(2 moves) down the street to the corner. 

Poker Faced Bennie moved to intercept and let both barrels of his shotgun off, but wasn't holding it tight enough and it bucked-up sending the lead into the air.

Jeramiah ran (two moves) to his friends aid, shot at Bennie and missed.

Sam the Snitch was in two minds, went to support them, shot at Bennie and missed!

Sly-eyed Floyd saw his chance, moved, shot at Bennie who lost his nerve and fled!

The Sheriff, Deputy and Citizens got to the street where the gunfire was heard to find an empty street and wondering what the hell had happened.

It was a funny game and over way too fast.

Maybe it was too close and the movement was too much, but I can see why people like the game.

Benson's move didn't affect the game.

The Sheriff, Deputy and citizens had no chance to intervene as I thought for them to react in the second move to any gunfire. Sam, running away at first contact prevented any necessary intervention.

I can see Floyd wanting to quiet Sam for good. Another showdown is likely.

Merry Christmas from Bradenton, Florida

 Wishing everyone a very merry, and peaceful, Christmas.

I hope you play some good games during the holiday period.