67. Stylish Survivors

If you must survive the Zombie Apocalypse, you might as well do so with style and flair.

I've  just finished painting up some Survivors, or at least some hot chicks with guns.  Whether they're surviving or forcing others to survive is still open for debate.

I also painted up a token dude and a dog.  Dogs are great for getting hot chicks to notice you.  So's the bright red hair, but they may not notice you the way you want them to!

Click the pics for a larger view.  These are all 28mm scale figures.  The manufacturer is listed under each picture.  Links to the manufacturer's webpages are at the end of this blog.

Smile for the camera.  The post-apocalyptic camera!

Why, yes, those are nice paper buildings.  Thank you!

These are Copplestone's "Corporate Babes 2," Pack FW46.

I like the rear view.  Perhaps a little too much to be healthy....

This is my favorite figure of the group.  I'm really not that into the whole "schoolgirl uniform" thing, I just like the pose.  She exudes a confidence well beyond her (assumed) schoolgirl years.

Plus I really like the plaid paint job.  I'm a touch proud of that.  It's the first plaid I've ever painted.  Could it be better?  Sure, but I still like it.

I thought about adding blood to the sword, but in general I stay away from overt evidence of the fighting the figures do.  I simply like the clean look better.

This lady is somewhat mature, dressed more for a night on the town, I think, than a business meeting (the fur-trimmed jacket tells me that).  I added the "Morticia" white stripes as an afterthought; just felt she needed a little "extra" something.

I'm not sure where she is going to put that gun when she's finished with it.  The dress doesn't leave much room for a concealed-carry holster....

This is a New Age kind o' gal.  Bright colors, hot pink hair, not afraid to show her midriff.  Anyone who's brave enough to wear, not just a mini-skirt but, a micro-mini-skirt deserves hot pink hair and bright yellow boots!

At least she's got somewhere to put her pistol when she gets tired of carrying it.  She's also the only lefty in the group.

Here's another gal dressed for a night on the town.  She's slightly more elegant in terms of what she's wearing:  but then again, you're always dressed appropriately for the occasion when you bring a machine gun with you.

All in all, she's relatively unadorned.  No gaudy necklace.  No superfluous handbag.  Just a gun and white pumps.

She does have a cute little white bow on her left hip, which is pretty well hidden by the pose.  Oh, and her dress is slit waaaay up.  That probably counts for something.

Here's the last of the Corporate Babes.  She looks all business to me, for sure.  Grey suit, prim hairstyle, no-nonsense facial expression.

She does have makeup on, but that would seem to be the last concession to her femininity she'll make.  "Glass ceiling, my @ss!"

She's high-class.  Notice that those are actual silk stockings, as evidenced by the seam line....

 

Here are the last of the lovely ladies:  two seriously hardcore damsels.  The one on the left is "Dionne (b)" (HFA021) from Hasslefree Miniatures.  The one on the right is "Girl Werewolf Hunter" (WH1) from Copplestone Castings.  They both have two handguns.  They both look totally prepared to kick @ss:  yours, mine, and anyone else who gets in the way!

I've only ever seen either of them painted all in black.  And while black is totally appropriate, I didn't want them BOTH in black.  So I opted for a little photo-negativity, so to speak.  Not only in the clothing but in the hair too.

In other words, I painted one with black hair and white clothes, and the other with white hair and black clothes.  Personally, while the Copplestone girl is a more dynamic pose, I always think she's about to fall over backwards.  Is she running forwards, or diving backwards out of the way, firing as she falls?  Dunno.  I DO know that the Hasslefree girl is much more menacing and composed:  she's coming for you and you ain't a-gonna be able to stop her.

This view isn't nearly as interesting as the view of the other girls, but I include it for completeness' sake.

At last we come to the token male.  I know you've all been awaiting his arrival breathlessly.  This is "Ray" (HFA007) from Hasslefree Miniatures.  Yes, he's wielding a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun, and a cricket bat.  Yeah, that's what I though too.

Ray has had rather a bad day, I think.  He's a bit stressed out.  While on the one hand he's dressed pretty conservatively in khakis and a nice Oxford dress shirt, on the other hand he's wearing a piano tie (circa 1985) and has dyed his hair bright flaming red!  "I've taken about as much of this as I can stand!"  It's obvious he's a little unhinged.  I mean, who wears a piano tie anymore?  ;-)

Here's a rear-view shot, just to prove that I'm fair to the ladies as well.  Enjoy, ladies!

Well, that's all, folks.  I'm afraid I forgot to take a separate picture of the dog.  For all you dog-lovers out there:  my apologies.  However, it is just a dog.  Plus, I have absolutely no idea of where I got it, so I can't link to it.  (It is very odd for me to not know where I acquired a miniature.  I can usually tell you exactly where I was, what time of day it was, and how long it's been in my closet.  Alas that I can't say the same thing about my kids' birthdays!  [I kid, I kid, I almost never forget their birthdays.])

Two more thoughts about the miniatures:  first, I suppose technically these are not purely Survivors; they're really just girls with guns, exactly as the advertising suggests:  "Corporate Babes" with guns.  Second, I painted the bases grass-green to match almost the entirety of my collection, as opposed to the pavement-grey I painted on my zombies' bases.  I really didn't even stop to think about it, as it's practically muscle memory to paint the bases green.  I do think, now, that grey might have worked out better on the whole, but as green is a natural color I think it is acceptable.  Plus, the sand I use to texture the bases doesn't really lend itself well to looking like concrete.

Lastly, I would like to point out that while I generally don't like to add blood (as I mentioned under the girl with the katana), I did add it to Ray's cricket bat.  This was a color palette choice:  I wanted a darker red to help both offset and draw the eye to his hair.  You'll notice that the bat's handle is dark red too, for that same reason.

The Corporate Babes 2 are from Copplestone Casting's "Future Wars/Civilians" line, as is the Girl Werewolf Hunter.

http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/range.php?range=FW

Ray and Dionne are from Hasslefree Miniatures' "Modern Adventurers" line.

http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?category=miniatures~modern-adventurers

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to look at my little corner of the web!

60. Post-Apocalyptic Times Two

This is Part Two of Two, of a Post-Apocalyptic game I played solo a while back.  The game was actually pretty boring, and I didn't really enjoy the rules; nevertheless, I'm writing it up here as a public service.  :-)

Turn 4.  The Scrags once again (for 4 turns in a row) win Initiative, with a 5 vs 3.

This is how the turn started.  The Scrag Heavy is standing victorious over the body of Amber.  Moonstone is on the left.

The Scrag Heavy runs (6" + 6") and melees with Moonstone.  Despite the fact that I have all the die rolls written down, I find it waaay too tiresome to relate them here.  Plus the fact that I also found the rules somewhat convoluted and difficult to comprehend, so I'm not entirely certain my methods were 100% correct.

Suffice it to say, Moonstone took 1 Wound.

Next, the Diamond's Leader shot at the Heavy, with 5 scores, resulting in 3 Hits, which after Armor Rolls caused 3 Wounds.

The Scrag Heavy was killed!

The Diamond Leader then used her 2nd Action Point (AP) to shoot at the Scrag Leader.  Once again, I ran into the same problem as in earlier turns, in that the measured distance was 18.5".  The charts in the rules were contradictory and conflicting, indicated two different distance scales; so depending on which chart I used meant she caused either 4 or 5 Scores.  However, in this case, because of the Scrag's concealment, there were zero Hits.  The Scrag Leader was pinned (for all the good that does).  Following that, the Scrag Leader attempted to shoot at the G.G. Leader (with the same distance problems), and -- even after using both APs -- caused zero Hits.  Golly, wasn't that an exciting turn!

Next, we move on to the only figure to actually accomplish anything competent this game, Pearl.  She shoots at Scrag #1, for 3 Scores, causing 2 Hits.

The Scrag's Armor Roll isn't good enough to offset them, and so He/She/It takes 2 Wounds!  Scrag #1 is Killed!

With her 2nd AP, Pearl runs (6" + 8"), attempting to get behind the Scrags to eliminate their cover factor.  "You go, girl!"

 Finally, Scrag #3 moves all of 3" (which was luckily all He/She/It needed to move) to bring Moonstone into view.  Shooting at her resolves with 4 Scores, causing 2 Hits, resulting in 1 Wound.

One Wound is all she's got.  Moonstone is Killed!

Turn 4 ends.

Turn 5.   At long last, the Glitter Gang wins Initiative (6 vs 4).  Not that there are very many of them left to enjoy it....

Pearl continues to move into a position from which she can see the Scrag's rears.  Wait, that doesn't sound right....  Anyway, she moves 6".

This does, in fact, allow her to see Scrag #3 from behind.  The range is 17.5", and on 7d6 she gets 1 Score. 

However, a closer reading of the rules indicates that misses from the rear are re-rolled (I was actually a trifle unclear whether ALL the dice are re-rolled, or only the dice that missed; did I mention that the rules are difficult to understand?)  I decided to re-roll only the "missing" dice, and achieved 2 more Scores for a total of 3.  This gave her 1 Hit.  After the Armor Roll, the Hit created 3 Wounds on Scrag #3.

Scrag #3 is Killed!  It's very beneficial to shoot from behind.

The Scrag Leader then moves forward 1 Move (7").  This was to finally overcome the distance ambiguity, as well as hopefully end the game one way or the other--quickly.  For His/Her/It's 2nd AP, He/She/It shot at the Diamond's Leader, now 13.5" away.  This resulted in 5 Scores, however, the Diamond's Leaders Defense value + being concealed cancelled this out entirely, for zero Hits.  She crouched in response to a Morale check.

The Diamond Leader then stood up with her 1st AP, and used her 2nd AP to shoot at the oh-darn-I'm-now-in-the-open Scrag Leader.  However, she spectacularly failed to accomplish anything other than forcing the Scrag to crouch, too.

Turn 5 ends.

Turn 6.  The Diamonds once again win Initiative (5 vs 3).

The Diamond Leader tried shooting at the Scrag Leader again.  She not only accomplished zero Hits, but she also got herself Out of Ammo.  So she used her 2nd AP to reload.

Next, the Scrag Leader shot at the Diamond Leader.  The same problem he had last time occurred again:  4 Scores, but the Defense + concealment wiped them out to zero Hits.

This time, the Diamond Leader didn't have to crouch, and in fact gained a free AP "in reaction."  So she shot back for zero Hits and an Out of Ammo result.  Wow.  Good job.

The Scrag Leader didn't have to crouch, either, as part of its Morale check, and gained a free AP.  So naturally he/she/it shot at the Diamond Leader.  Do you see a pattern here?  I was really trying very hard to finish the game by killing one of the leaders.  Really I was.

Anyway, the Scrag Leader got 3 Scores AND and Out of Ammo result (all game long, no Out of Ammos, and now 3 in a row!).  BUT, the Defense + concealed AGAIN cancelled it to zero Hits, and she passed her Morale check, got a free AP and used it to reload.

The Scrag Leader now used his/her/it's ORIGINAL 2nd AP to reload.  Wow, what an incredibly exciting turn sequence.  I'm all a-flutter....

Finally, tired of all this nonsense, Pearl moves once (for 8").  She then shoots at the Scrag Leader, out in the open, from the rear, from 18.5" away.  She now suffers from the distance ambiguity, but even by using the worst of the two possible results, she finally--finally--FINALLY--causes 2 Wounds on the Scrag Leader!

The Scrag Leader is Dead!  Long Live the Scrag Leader!

This is a view of the battlefield at the end of the game.  There are 2 remaining Glitter Gang members and no Scrags.  I called this a G.G. victory, and gratefully ended the game.

It's actually been several weeks (heck, maybe months by now) since I played this game.  So I cannot give an accurate critique of the rules, other than to say I found them contradictory in many places and quite confusing as well.  HOWEVER, and this is a big however, English is NOT the author's first language, so please take that into consideration (let me caveat that by saying I do not know this for fact, I only infer it from the author's name and where he lives, based on his website).  I actually quite like the background that is included (ie, the different troop types and whatnot), and many of the general concepts are pretty cool.  And if you're less bothered by contradictions than I am (meaning, you can decide on how you want to play something and stick to it) then you'll probably like these rules.  Plus, there is apparently a new version now available, and they are all free, so really, what's to complain about?

Links to where find the rules are in Part One (see the link at the top of this blog entry to get there).

Whew.  Now that that's over, I'll be back soon with something a bit more fun (for me, anyhow).  Stay tuned for...Robin Hood!

Thanks for reading this far.  This is the end, so you can go now.

59. Post-Apocalyptic Means FUN!

It's odd, the things we choose to game.  Wargames in general are odd, in that war, of course, is not fun.  But we wargamers will game almost any period that is conceivable.  I've had a hankerin' for playing a Post-Apocalyptic game lately.  A true Post-Apocalyptic existence would be very depressing to actually live.  But it's a hoot to game!

A while back, I "discovered" a free game called "Crimson Dusk" or as it's now known, "Crimson Dust."

It can be located here.

I played Crimson Dust 3.0 but I think the author is up to 5.0 now (in playtest).  From his website:

"Crimson Dust - focuses on small scale skirmishes, with between a single figure and perhaps 15 miniatures to each side. It is based on a D6 (six sided dice) system, where a player rolls multiple dice to decide to effectivity combat and other tasks. The rules contain full rules for combat including pyschic powers and Hackers and a whole host of sci-fi technology."

and

"Crimson Dusk - is the first wargames rules produced, work on it has currently stopped as work on Crimson Dust has taken over. It is still available for use though. It is a game designed for platoon level games of around 15-30 miniatures a side. It is based on a simple D10 (ten sided dice) system, with few complexity modifiers. The rules also contain full listings for how to design your troops and set points cost to them so you can compete against your friends for mastery of the tabletop. And the great news is that the rules are entirely free to download and share."

Unfortunately, I can't find the current "Dusk" version, but that's o.k. as I wanted to play a skirmish game anyhow.

The game took six turns, played over the course of two evenings (note-taking and pictures drastically extending the time required).

You can click on the pictures and they will magically expand to fill your screen.

"ooOOOoooOOOooo, spooooky"

And now, the participants:

The Defenders:  the Glitter Gang aka the Diamonds.  From L to R:  the Leader (Veteran), 2 Green 'juves, 2 Regular "troopers."  Armed as follows:  Bolt Gun, Pistol, Pistol + Club, Bolt Gun + Club, Bolt Gun.  Everyone has knives, too.  They are built from the Medio Archetype.

The Attackers:  the Scrags, a bunch o' Mutants (or something).  From L to R:  the Leader (Veteran), 2 Greens, 2 Regulars.  Armed as follows:  Assault Rifle (in the rules it can be a laser rifle or whatever), Rifle, Rifle, Assault Rifle, no ranged weapon.  No melee weapons, except for the figure on the far Right, who has a "Sword" and a "Knife" and the Combat Master feature.  They are built from the Suboles Archetype.

The battlefield, 4' x 4'.  The Scrags enter from the bottom Right.  The Glitter Gang is at the top Left/Center.  Ostensibly they are defending the power generator in the top Left corner; in reality it was just something to move the Scrags towards while I worked out the rules.

The Scrags, ready for the first turn.

A Scrag-ian view of the table.  The Glitter Gang is in the far distance.

And here's the Glitter Gang, ready to rumble.

A glamour shot of the Power Generator, which really played no part in the game at all.  You're welcome.

Turn 1.  The Scrags win Initiative, with a d6 roll of 6 to the Glitter Gang's 4.  Each figure has two Action Points (AP).  I Activate the Leader using his Leader 1 characteristic, which enables him to move a second figure with him (Scrag #3).  They both move twice.  Movement is accomplished by 1d6 + their base move speed of 2".  Both rolls are 6 + 2 = 8", for a total of 16".

Play then passes to the other side.  I Activate the G.G.'s Leader using the same technique, and move her and Moonstone once, into a little better cover.  d6 = 3 + 2 = 5".

I Activate Scrag #2 (Scrags aren't really big on personal names, you know).  He/She/It moves twice.  6" + 8".

I Activate Pearl, who moves twice, thinking to get around behind the enemy.  5" + 7".

I Activate Scrag #1 (a Green), moving once.  8".

I Activated Coral (a Green), moving once into some cover.  8".

I Activated the Scrag 'Heavy,' and moved him twice.  3" + 7".

Last in the Turn, I Activated Amber, moving her into cover.  4".

End of Turn 1 Troop Dispositions.

Turn 2.  The Scrags again win Initiative, with d6 of 2 vs 1.  I Activate Scrag #2 (a Green) and move Him/Her/It a double move to cover.  3" + 7".

I Activated Moonstone (a Regular) in order to shoot at Scrag #2.  The distance measures out to 21".  She has a Range value of 7, so I roll 7d6, hitting on 5+.  The rolls are 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6 = 3 "scores."  The Scrag's Defense is 1 + 2 for being concealed = 3, which cancels out the 3 scores; 0 hits.  However, He/She/It has to take a Morale roll:  I was still cogitating on the rules and didn't really play this part correctly.  The end result was that the Scrag stayed where He/She/It was, and Moonstone ended her turn.

Ready to move on, I Activated Scrag #3, moving once for 4".

For Scrag #3's second Action Point (AP), He/She/It shoots at Coral at 18.5" away.  This introduced me to the first of a set of contradictions in the rules:  one page indicated that ranges were measured, for example, 13-18 and from 19-24; and a second place indicated they were from 13-18 and from 18-24.  So at 18.5" which range set should I use?  Usually I favor the Defender in situations like this, but for some reason this time I chose to use the Attacker-friendly version.  Scrag #3 rolled 9d6, hitting on 4+ for 5 scores.  Coral's Defense was 3, meaning 2 hits.  I even gave her an Armor Roll for being behind hard cover.

The end result was 2d6 + the weapon's Strength; both d6 results were higher than the Armor Roll.  Coral is KILLED!

Next, I Activated Diamond (the Leader) and moved her a trifle closer (3") for a better shot (20").  This removed any concealment the Scrag had from the ruined building.  Diamond rolled 8d6 hitting on 5+ for 3 scores.  The Scrag's Defense was 2, for 1 hit.  The one hit got past the Scrag's Armor, for 1 Wound.  This was a Critical Wound, halving all Stats.  Scrag #3 then needed to take a Morale Test, resulting in 3 Passes and 1 Fail; by Passing more than Failing, It basically is O.K; It should move 1 AP to cover, but It has no AP remaining, so I just left where It was.

I Activated the Scrag Heavy, moving twice (7" + 3") intending to get to melee as quickly as possible.

Pearl Activates.  This time I decide to try the Run move action.  This uses 2d6 + 2" for each AP, with penalties if she is shot at, plus she can only move in a straight line.  6" + 12".

My thought is to get her around to the flank or rear of the Scrags.  She is pretty close already!

I Activate Scrag #1 (a Green), moving twice.  4" + 6".

Next, Amber Activates and moves 6".  She uses her second AP to shoot at Scrag #3 at 18".  She rolls 6d6, hitting on 5+ for 2 scores, for 1 Hit (after It's Defense).  The Scrag's Armor Roll is extremely good (a 6), and the Pistol is not able to actually Wound the Scrag.  It is forced to take a Morale Test, with 1 Fail and 1 Pass.  It must move 1 AP to cover, but It has no AP remaining, so I intended to move It on It's next turn (and promptly forgot).

Lastly, the Scrag Leader double moves.  4" + 3".

The Glitter Gang had no one to Activate since Coral was dead, and thus Turn 2 ended.

Turn 3.  The Scrags win Initiative yet again, d6 of 6 vs 1.  I decide to "hold" the Glitter Gang's Leader's Action.

Next, I Activate the Scrag Heavy, and run Him/Her/It twice for 9" + 7".  He/She/It'll be within striking distance next turn.

I then have Amber (a Green) also run (for 10") then a normal move (for 5") which puts her into melee!  It was exactly the distance I needed.  I hope this works:  a Juve against a Heavy....

Melee is not a separate AP, so it begins immediately.  Amber is Assault 6 with her Club, rolling 6d6, scoring on 4+.  She achieves 3 scores.  The Scrag Heavy is Assault 5 but has the Combat Master attribute with a second weapon (a knife).  I wasn't completely certain how the second weapon was supposed to work, but in the end it didn't matter anyway.  The Scrag achieved 6 scores on 7d6.  The final result was 2 hits on Amber, who had no Armor Value, so the Scrag rolled an 8 and a 9 versus Amber's 1, meaning 2 hits that connected.  Amber was KILLED!

The Scrag Leader then shoots at Diamond, at 18.5".  He/She/It rolled 10d6, hitting on either 4+ or 5+ (depending on which chart I decided to use for the range).  This time I chose to go in favor of the defender, so instead of 9 scores(!) there were only 4.  Diamond's Defense value was 5, vs 4 scores meant 0 hits.  (For the fun of it, I tried the 9 scores, which resulted in 4 hits, then compared the hits versus Diamond's Armor value roll, which the final result was 2 wounds, meaning Diamond would have been killed too.  I opted not go that route, as I wanted the game to continue a little longer.  Plus, Diamond hadn't gotten to Activate yet.)

After her Morale Test, Diamond got a free AP interrupt action, which she used to shoot back at the Scrag Leader, to no effect.  The Scrag Leader then used His/Her/It's 2nd AP to shoot again at Diamond, with the end result that Diamond would have to crouch (which result I decided to ignore; it really began to feel like I was getting into a battle of Action Points, like Space Hulk on steroids).  At any rate, Diamond Activated next and shot at the Scrag Leader (yay, isn't this exciting?) (after using her first AP to reload, having rolled more than two 1s last turn).  This also ended up causing the Scrag Leader to crouch.  Big whoop.  Finally, I Activated Scrag #3 and moved him/her/it 4" into cover (see the picture above).

I Activated Pearl next, really hoping for some good results this time.  She shot at Scrag #2, at 15", hitting on 4+.  She scored 3 times against Scrag #2's Defense of 1, for 2 hits.  After the Armor Value roll, she caused 2 wounds.  Scrag #2 was KILLED!

Next Pearl uses her 2nd AP to shoot at Scrag #1, hiding behind the tree in the picture above (that's Scrag #2 in front there, before I tipped him over as dead).  The range was 20.5" with 7d6 hitting on 5+, for 1 measly score.  The Scrag's Defense value ended up cancelling out the score for 0 hits.  His/Her/It's Morale Test resulted in 2 scores, meaning He/She/It was able to get a free AP, which He/She/It used to shoot back at Pearl.  Range 20.5" with 8d6 hitting on 5+ meant 3 scores, but was also Out of Ammo too (1 AP later to reload).  Pearl's Defense cancelled out the scores for 0 hits, and her Morale Test resulted in 1 score, 0 fails, so nothing happened.

Next I Activated Scrag #1 to move closer to Pearl and better cover.  I used the 2nd AP to reload his/her/it's gun.

This is a view of the Pearl / Scrag #1 shooting relationship.

This is a view of Pearl from the Scrag's perspective.

For the last Activation of this Turn, I ran Moonstone 10".

I used her 2nd AP to shoot at the Scrag Heavy.  Range 11" with 7d6 hitting on 4+, that's sure to be one dead Scrag, right?  Hardly.  2 scores, AND Out of Ammo.  Yay.  Good job, Moonstone.  Not only that, the Scrag's Defense cancelled out both scores for 0 hits.  The Scrag's Morale Test resulted in 1 score, 1 fail, meaning he/she/it was supposed to move to cover on its next Activation.  But by this time I was getting pretty bored with the rules and just wanted to finish the game, one way or the other, so I ignored it.

Please tune in next time (whenever that might be) for the exciting(?) conclusion to this game.  It did continue on for 3 more turns, and things got a little faster and better.

Thanks for making it this far!