Farmer Brown Comes Home

I've decided to begin an All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out campaign. I wanted to keep it relatively simple so I'm beginning with one character, Farmer Brown. I've also decided to begin on Day 30, since I've already played several Day One and early outbreak campaigns. We will see how it goes...

Farmer Brown

REP 4; Survivor; Male; Right Handed; People 2; Savvy 3

Attributes: Rage (+1d6 in melee, +1d6 for Charge into Melee); Mr. Fix-It (+1d6 to repair all)

Assault Rifle (Range 48, Target 1 or 3, Impact 3)

Machete

Mr. Brown has been a loner for most of his life and especially since his wife died 4 years ago. He’s smart, fit, good with a rifle, and has a no-nonsense attitude about life. His age is catching up with him somewhat, but he’s still hard working and fiercely independent. He has no children and no real friends to speak of, though he has a few acquaintances from the local cafe. He is a Vietnam Vet, having earned a Purple Heart by being shot through the left shoulder. He was an army Ranger and still has nightmares about being in ‘Nam during Tet in 1968. He loves dogs of all sorts. He has a knack for fixing things.

Up to now, Mr. Brown has been hunkering down on his farm. He watched the news until the TV station went offline, so he’s aware that something terrible has happened, but he is not clear of the extent of it. He’s been spending his time following his usual Springtime routines - prepping his equipment, cultivating the soil and starting to seed his fields.

His farmhouse sits well back from the main road - a little over a mile. The entrance to his lane from the road is overgrown and appears abandoned. He rarely has left the farm in the last 4 years and no one comes to visit. The house and other buildings are obscured from the road by several large stands of trees. A casual passer by would never know a functioning farm was up the lane.

He has plenty of food and water, enough to last one person several years at least. He has a fair amount of fuel for his truck and for his tractor and other farm machines. He really has no reason to leave and, left undisturbed, he could likely survive here for a long time.

The Scenario: Defend the Farm

For the opening scenario I decided that a "herd" (ref. The Walking Dead) has wandered onto Mr. Brown's property while he has been walking down to the main road and back. He always walks out to the main road in the evening and has done so for years. Since all the trouble began he's taken to carrying his assault rifle and machete on these daily walks, just in case. On this particular Spring evening, he will be grateful he took this precaution.

The Brown Farmstead.
Mr. Brown will enter on the dirt road at the left side of the map.

The mission will begin with Mr. Brown moving onto the map. I will generate zombies normally, but decided that for this scenario the farm, a rural location, will count as being suburban (i.e. zombies will generate on a 5-6 on a d6).

A peaceful evening for a stroll.

Need a better backdrop for my photos...yikes.

I preloaded my PEFs, deciding that I would make them all zombies. I created a little chart that I will roll on whenever a PEF resolves into something:

PEFs (roll d6 - result is number of zombies to generate in the normal fashion centered on Mr. Brown)
1 - 2d6+3
2 - 2d6+2
3-4  - 2d6
5 - 2d6-2 (minimum 2)
6 - 2d6-3 (minimum 1)

Obviously this could be a deadly scenario for our intrepid farmer.

PEFs deployed - 2 behind the shed, 1 at the edge of the field.

Once the PEFs were in place, I moved Farmer Brown onto the map and generated 6 initial zombies.

As Mr. Brown walked casually up the lane he spotted 3 figures moving around his pickup. He paused, unslinging his rifle, not sure who, or what, these folks might be.

"Whoever they are, they aren't welcome here," Brown thought to himself. He shouldered his rifle and squeezed off 3 quick shots.

One of the figures fell back and lay still. The others let out low moans and started moving towards him. To his left and right he could hear movement in the woods. "Not good," Mr. Brown muttered, glancing around, "not good at all."

On turn 2 the zeds activated first and closed within Charge into Melee range. Mr. Brown was quickly surrounded and I thought sure the game would end in moments...

Crashing through the woods, zombies were suddenly all around Mr. Brown. With no other options, he fired again and then, slinging his rifle, he readied his machete for some close quarters action.

Mr. Brown managed to win the Charge into Melee test and fired 3 times, again killing only one zed. The rest moved into melee with him and a desperate 4 vs. 1 fight ensued.

It was like the years dropped away and, in an instant, he was again the 19 year old who had fought for his life in a jungle far from home. He lashed out with a vicious kick and knocked one of the zeds back on it's ass. Then, spinning, he shoved another one hard and it stumble back and fell as well. Two others lunged at him from behind. But he was too quick, his machete decapitating both with one powerful, back handed swing as he rotated through 360 degrees and ended facing the others coming at him. Despite his obviously superior skills, they showed no fear. 

Mr. Brown had a sinking feeling as he realized  he would not win this fight by scaring them off.  He'd killed four of them and knocked two others down but still they were coming. Judging from the noise in the woods, others were closing in on him from all around.

The melee in the road was close but Mr. Brown managed to do very well. I was surprised, honestly, and wondered if I might have messed up the rules. After reviewing everything though it seems I did it correctly. Mr. Brown had just gotten lucky. Even more luckily, the next turn the zeds did not activate so Mr. Brown had a chance to move away. I considered standing my ground and letting them come, but didn't want to tempt fate.

The zeds stumbling towards him got entangled with the two trying to stand back up. Taking advantage of  the confusion, Mr. Brown leapt the fence and ran along the edge of the woods. He brought his rifle out again, deciding it was best to deal with these monsters from a distance. He'd been lucky and he knew it.

Circling around the woods and taking position at the rock wall, Mr. Brown fired.  One of the zeds went down, it's head exploding in a spray of gore. The woods were alive with movement. "Seems like every time I kill one, another pops up!", he mumbled to himself.

I was getting kills with the rifle, but I was also generating z's from noise on nearly a 1 for 1 basis. This wasn't going to work for long.

Managing to clamber over the fence, the zeds  moved along the stone wall.

Mr. Brown fired, dropping one in it's tracks. Then, switching back to machete, he charged and killed another.

For the next several turns, I managed to close into melee, kill a zed, and then fall back again before the rest could catch me. It was a game of cat and mouse and it worked pretty well as long as the activation rolls went my way. Again, I was lucky and was able to thin the ranks enough that a mass melee didn't seem so overwhelming.

Mr. Brown settled into a tactic he'd learned in jungle fighting: let the enemy come to you, destroy the lead elements with overwhelming firepower, fall back, repeat. It worked easier on these zombie-things than he'd ever seen in 'Nam. These dumb creatures just kept coming, never tried a flanking maneuver, and died easily.

Mr. Brown repeated the mantra:
"Let them come to you...

Destroy the lead elements with overwhelming firepower.

Fall back...Repeat."

In the span of a few turns all the zeds were killed. Fortunately the activation rolls continued to be in my favor and Mr. Brown seemed to be making a breeze of it. By this point only 1 PEF remained on the board. The other two had been revealed early on but only increased the Encounter Rating by 1 point each. I ruled that the final PEF had to be revealed before the scenario would end. So Mr. Brown began circling the house to get eyes on it. At this point I was kind of hoping for more zombies as I'd made pretty short work of the others.

The last zed dropped at Mr. Brown's feet, the side of it's head caved in. Suddenly, everything seemed very quiet. Mr. Brown stood for a minute, breathing hard, trying to control his racing heartbeat. Crouching, he strained his senses for any perception of the enemy. On the evening breeze he thought he heard a low moan from beyond the house, out towards the fields.

Moving in a low, fast crouch he went to the corner of the house, hoping for a better view. He thought he saw movement just beyond the hedge behind the tractor, but he couldn't be sure.

Still running low, he moved to the fence at the edge of the lane, gun held ready at his hip. When he reached the fence he raised the rifle, scanning for any movement or sign of the enemy. A red fox darted from behind the hedge and ran into the fields. Mr. Brown took a deep breath and waited another minute. Slowly he stood upright, looking all around and listening intently. Nothing seemed amiss.

The last PEF turned out to be nothing but a case of nerves. Mr. Brown had been very fortunate indeed as none of the PEFs turned out to be anything.

Mr. Brown sat on his porch as the sun was setting. He rubbed the rifle with the greased rag he kept for gun cleaning. His machete lay on the wooden porch floor next to his chair, the edge gleaming where it had been freshly ground to a sharp, honed edge. He was relaxed but highly alert.

"Well," he said to no one in particular, "I guess this trouble is gonna come find me even if I stay here to avoid it." He turned his plan over in his mind: tomorrow he'd start exploring the other farms in the area and see what he could scrounge. He was content for now, but he knew he'd need to fortify his position if he was going to stay here. He'd need supplies, building materials mostly, and maybe another vehicle he could stow for an emergency bug-out. He felt certain there'd be more of those things coming, and maybe something else too. He knew all too well the depths of depravity to which humanity could sink, given the right conditions. He was determined to defend his land to the last. Only time would tell if hunkering down and fortressing up would be the right course.

In all a very successful game, despite a couple of hairy moments. I hope you enjoyed the read. This campaign is shaping up to be a bit different as Mr. Brown is not interested in exploration and movement. His plan is to fortify and remain in place.

My next scenarios will have him searching nearby farmsteads to gather materials to fortify his own home. We will see what happens after that.

Until next time, carry on!

All Things Zombie Returns!

I pulled together a couple friends Friday night for some All Things Zombie. The players were both new to the game so I played as the referee and ran the scenario. I created a Search Mission where the players had to secure a safe place to stay for the night. I loaded up a farmer and his wife as one PEF, a rogue cop as another, and a mom and her two kids as a third. Not all of these would automatically be generated by PEF resolution, but were possibilities on a d6 chart I made. The rest of the entries on the chart were zombies.

This was a one off scenario in a rural area with the farmhouse as the main feature. Since I was refereeing, I said the farmer and his wife (Mr. and Mrs. Brown) would be in the house if they did not generate as a PEF. Too bad, considering what happened...

Both of our heroes, Shawn and Ed, are stars with Rep 5. Shawn has a sawed-off shotgun and a cricket bat. Ed has a katana and a pistol. I did not use attributes as I was keeping things simple for my friends who were unfamiliar with the game.

I took a few pics throughout the game, but did not really log each turn in full. I think I've captured the flow of it though.

My idea was that the heroes would have to gain entry to the house and convince the Browns, one way or the other, to let them stay, all while dodging zombies and trying to stay alive. Of course, as is often the case in ATZ, it did not turn out that way at all...

The Farmstead. The main road runs east to west - right to left in this photo.

A look down the lane.
The house is a Stoelzel's Structures farmhouse.
The shed is scratch-built.
The rest of the terrain is random bits I've collected over the years.

My collection of zombies and humans.
Not a huge hoard, but plenty for most of my games.

Our heroes, Shawn and Ed, started on the east end of the highway.
They opted to cut though the hedge and run along the tree line on the east board edge.
Wise choice, considering all the zeds generated at the start of the game were randomly placed in the road.
This probably should have been a sign of how the luck was going to go for this game.

Shawn and Ed make their way towards the propane tank and the back of the shed.

Suddenly the farmhouse erupts into flame!
(We rolled doubles for activation and drew an event card.)
Tough break for our heroes, considering they were planning to stay there for the night.
Even tougher break for the Browns, who are about to lose their home.

You can see the PEFs hovering around the house as it goes up in smoke.
Then the alarm on the car in front of the house started to shriek.
(We had another doubles and an event card.)
Things went down the crapper pretty quickly.

A couple turns later zombies are closing in.
Our heroes have crossed the field, killing a few zeds on the way.
The PEF in front of the house resolves as a mom and her two preteen children.
Marie and the kids choose to join our heroes, but the relief of having a bigger group is short lived.

The zombies around the shrieking car pounce on Marie and the kids!
Before Shawn or Ed can do anything, the girl is ripped to shreds while Marie screams curses and the boy fights for his life.

Shawn leaps forward to help the boy but is bashed and stunned by a lucky zed.
Ed wades in and barely keeps the zeds from feasting on the girl.
Marie fires her pistol wildly, hitting nothing.
With the burning house and the car alarm, it's chaos!
Meanwhile, from the field, the zeds are quietly closing in on the noise. 

The survivors manage to finish off the zeds in melee and move to cover near the car.
Ed is able to hot wire the car to shut the alarm off as the rest of the gang blasts away.
A flurry of bullets and shotgun blasts takes down a number of zeds, but they keep coming.

It's a bloodbath in the yard as the flames fully engulf the house.
The heat is terrific, but our heroes fight on.

A view of the propane tank and fuel yard from the woods to the east.
Everyone remembers the house is on fire and this is a fuel yard, right?

Finally, the last zed is felled.
The survivors move to investigate the shed.
Maybe they could stay here for the night?
But what about the heat from the house? Isn't this a fuel shed?!

The survivors choose the better part of valor.
After a few more turns, they open the shed to find enough fuel for the van.
Surprisingly, the keys to the van are in the ignition.

Taking what they can, the heroes pile into the van and head off down the road, churning gravel. Behind them, as they turn onto the highway, a fireball erupts into the sky. The sound of the explosion rolls like thunder through the night.

"I guess there was propane in that tank after all," says Ed calmly.

"Yup," says Shawn, equally passive.

Marie lays on the back seat holding her son, the two of them weeping quietly.

So, not the most successful mission. Although, to have a fully fueled vehicle is nothing to dismiss lightly. Still, I sure hope the Browns weren't home after all!

We had a great time! My friends are hooked and want to play again. I'm hopeful that we might even get a regular game night going.

Until next time, carry on!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to say "Happy New Year!"

Looking back on 2013 I can't say I posted all that often or that I really did much painting or modeling.  I had a fair number of game nights with the family but we played board games - mostly Settlers of Catan - which is fine but not exactly tabletop gaming.  I got some new games this year, though, which was great fun.  We especially enjoyed Zombicide and Pandemic.

Learning Zombicide...

Kids loved it!

The kids bought me a new game for Christmas.  We haven't tried it yet but it looks like fun.

Still in the shrink wrap but we'll unbox it probably New Year's Day.

Aaaannnd I bought myself a treat for my birthday...

"BIG" does not begin to describe it!
Ogre was my first war-game so this was a mandatory purchase.  Wish I could have gotten in on the Kickstarter but I'm happy with the retail version.  Looking forward to playing this one soon also.

Not much of a year model-wise, but in all other aspects of living it's been good...

Barney got a sweater...

Oscar took some naps...

Elizabeth and I made a baby...
(Due January 17)

The kids had some good times...

Caught the puck at his brother's hockey game.

A new crazy-cool hat!

Dalek socks and Dr. Who book!

...and all is well.

I'm hopeful that 2014 will bring more hobby stuff from this blog.  Meanwhile, I wish you and yours the very best for the New Year and look forward to ongoing gaming, building, painting and blogging in 2014.

Peace to all!  Carry on...