Cherry Blossoms and Zombies!

Cherry blossoms and zombies

"Is everyone alright?" “Amy?”
"The Pilot didn't make it. A tree branch came thru the cockpit."

"Damn. Amy, Doug, Wanda, take care of the pilot and then gather our packs. Ned, check the weapons. Josh and I will scout the surroundings."

The pilot had done a fantastic job in getting us from F’d SF, to the outskirts of DC. Refueling at remote airfields had meant only a few minor encounters. But had eaten into our ammo supply.

Our time on the yacht had ended, courtesy of a lack of parts. While basing out of Alcatraz, we picked up a Civil Defense broadcast which has led us here. It made sense. There must have been plenty of security and military in the area. The Hope for a sanctuary was impossible to ignore.

"Ned, how is it looking?"
"Damn Phil. That first tree we grazed a mile back ripped the belly out of the plane. Our gear is history!"

"Alright. Spilled Milk. We've been here before. Grab what you can. The outskirts are about a klick away. When we get there, spread out and start searching. Priority is weapons. Check? Check. Let’s move out.”

As planned, the team entered the town from several side streets. Initially all seemed quiet, save for sounds of battle coming from the White House area. 

Wanda saw an APC straddling the intersection and rushed towards it having heard people inside.  The others began entering various shops, hoping to find fellow survivors and weapons. 

Damn. The area was crazy with baddies. For support, the group began to pair up. We needed to have each other’s back.

Things were getting hairy. Wanda was about to be overwhelmed. Her Friends rushed to stem the tide.

Amy entered the remains of an Eckerd Drugs, just in time to help save the pharmacist from several zombies. She escorted him out, he thanked her and said he needed to see if his family was safe, and took off down the street.

Amy wanted to know why Phil was Smiling. “Kid, you realize you just saved that P.I. dude from Hawaii!” “ Or his long lost twin….”

Blushing, Amy headed into the next store, hoping there’d be some undead she could ‘vent’ on.

On the other side of Main Street, Josh was surprised to discover a couple young kids hiding in the rubble.

Knowing he couldn’t leave them, he scooped them up and went to find the others. Josh was desperate to pawn these squids off on one of the others. After all, he prided himself on his Lone Wolf image. 

Something was up at the far end of the block. Too much noise for an empty building. Having rearmed with discoveries, they all began to pick and weave towards a Diner. Out maneuvering zeds more important than ending them. The sun had set, and a tough job was made worse. The dark had everyone on edge. What you can’t see, can hurt you.

They’d spent too much time searching, the streets were flooding with zombies. A moonless night. Only occasional groans from the dead to tweak our nerves. Soon a flood would wash over the group.

Wanda and Amy broke into the sealed up Diner. Ned joined in. 

Once the trash was taken out, Amy discovered yet another survivor, locked in a back room. And when Josh entered the Diner, his two charges screamed with joy, seeing their mom.

The team threw up a hasty barricade, hoping to slow the horde. Then exited the only way open, out the back service door, a mile closer to the sounds of war coming from the White House.

They needed to gain some separation from the horde and find a safe haven to wait out the night. 

To be continued…..

Debrief:

   Our first Zombicide 2E game. We were skeptical about changes being made to one of our favorite systems. However, we are liking these changes. And the Campaign mode is fun. Although, we only gained 1 XP per survivor. So extra benefits will have to wait. Four of the six characters suffered wounds. We really liked the day/night, companions, and especially the story cards for the mission. 

   We are borrowing ideas from other systems for handling wounds. After the mission, any wounded characters will make a roll per wound. Results will be things like “just a scratch “ “a heal able wound” “permanent wound” and worse case “turned”. 

With so many cool survivor minis to play, having some churn suits us.

Great War Commander - Birth of a Legend

One of our Old School Gamers played scenario 1 solo. It’s close to the 107th anniversary of the engagement. 

The Kaiser’s lads had the initiative, allowing Lt Rommel the opportunity to advance his troops forward. A good initial hand for the Germans, while the French were stymied. 
Followed by a timely HMG suppress card. 

Effective fire breaks the French platoon. Lt Rommel presses on (German objective required capturing the objective hexes).

Street Fighting goes well for the Kaiser’s troops.

The German Left flank worked their way up a gulley leading into the town. French Line units prepare to hold the outskirts.

The French decide to break the stalemate, advancing into melee with a good support card, winning the contest on the Left Flank. The German holds no response, and spends time cycling cards. 

A few turns latter, flush from the earlier success, another French Line pushes forward and again gets the drop on a German platoon which quickly falls prisoner to the French. The Left Flank is looking solid, time to transfer a platoon back towards the town center.

A Hero of the 3rd Republic arrives and anchors the outskirts, freeing two French platoons for redeployment. The lack of leaders makes this a slow process (initial setup has both French Officers in the town center).

However, it happens too late. German card cycling paid off with 3 turns of constant fires and an Offensive which cleared the center of town. 

The French lost on casualties. 

A lucky sudden death flip by the Germans gave them another two turns to hammer the French (whose hand became clogged with less than valuable cards). 

If the German Sudden Death flip (needed an 8+) had failed, the French would have won on VPs, given their secret objective. 

This is a fun game. Early Air Power is near useless. The Suppress is nice, but 3 bombing factors is darn ineffective. 

Hand size and discard ability plays large in this game. Especially in the early battles. Many unusable cards passed thru both Armies. 

Thought an early win was in the offing when the Germans played a Rout card with 3 French Broken units on the board. Oops. Not going to root folks out of buildings, and it was surprising to read the rules (Oops part 2) learning the the best result would be a retreat. Cohesion is so high, this may never amount to much. 

Still learning and getting comfortable with the rules, but very much looking forward to the next play.

ATZ Casino Carnage

“Sarah, you are sure the casino bosses were stockpiling all kinds of stuff in the hidden

safe room before you left to try to find your mom back in DFW?” asked Shane. 

“Yeah, as soon as the craziness started they started stocking up on meds, food, ammo, 

and I swear maybe even gas”, exclaimed Sarah. 

“Well sounds like it’s worth a trip north of the Red River and we’ve got enough gas to 

get us there…I think”, added Tex. 

Mission

Get into the casino and find the master key which didn’t look special so it should

be on his body whether he is a survivor or zombie. Unless he’s locked in the safe 

room of course but positive thoughts. Finding a Luxury Item will represent the 

object we are looking to acquire. 

Group

Shane Rep 5 Star Shotgun

Sarah Rep 4 Pistol

Tex Rep 3 BA Pistol

We arrive!

We enter the map at Parking lot E and it’s Ragers! Ragers are the genius result 

of the government’s attempt at a cure. People who have the cure injected not

only still turned but became fast and super aggressive zombies. There are not 

too many in the world but they are trouble. Luckily in the parking lots we see 

them first and quickly dispatch them. 

We move into the entrance and quickly kill the lone zombie but don’t find 

anything valuable. 

The group heads to the front desk when we spot three other survivors. We cautiously 

engage them in case they have what we need. Luckily Shane passes the encounter 

tests and after a brief interaction determine they just are looking for food. We give 

them some and they head for the exit. We are force to move on and after clearing 

another area head back to the front desk as we couldn’t search after encountering 

the survivors. 

Zombies!!! Where’d they come from? The zombies have the drop on us and 

charge. Shane drops two and Sarah gets one as they move in but Tex misses both

of his shots. Tex manages not to get bit but can’t take out the zombies. I use a house 

rule that after three rounds of melee others unengaged can add in. 

Shane and Sarah each move in and quickly eliminate the zombies. 

Yes! Our loot card is a luxury item. In fact one of the zombies was the boss. 

He must have come out to try and secure the outer doors. 

Our first mission is done. We will regroup and make our plan to get to the 

safe room. 

Final Thoughts

I plan to play the entire campaign to clear the casino. The easy of play and fun

delivered in Casino Carnage was top notch. The rules are a quick read and I 

think the table used if you get wounded by a zombie is awesome. I may port

that to every zombie game I play. 

The game is a good basis for generating your own scenarios as well. The building, 

loot, and encounter decks have endless combination. 

I will play each of the 10 THW board game offerings and post an AAR and my

thoughts. 

Battle Ravens!

After too long on the shelf we broke out PSC’s Battle Ravens. It is a game of

Shieldwall dark ages combat for two players. It plays in about an hour and uses 

great flat standing figures to represent the clashing armies. The core box comes 

with Anglo Saxons and Norse Vikings. Each army comes with a special cards

which add flavor and game effects for each army. Only a portion of the cards 

are used in a battle and are randomly dealt which adds nice differences to each

play. The first player to control three of the other players six zones wins. 

Each turn players allocate Ravens to each zone which equal dice to be used for both

attack and defense. Players alternate placing Ravens which creates interesting 

choices. Do you match what they did or hope to hammer an area where they did

not chose to support. Players can also transfer units to adjacent zone but not across

an enemy controlled zone. 

Old School Games Grade - We will play again!

Quick AAR of our first game

Setup and ready to allocate Ravens

Norse clear the Saxon right flank

Norse maximize the Berserker card!

Currently 2-1 Norse but the Norse center is crumbling

The Norse claim victory 3-1!

Thanks for stopping by and good gaming!

The Hunters: Kriegstagebuch das Unterseeboot U-35

Before dawn broke over Wilhelmshafen on September 30, Kapitän Leutnant Hagen took his VIIA to Sea, ordered to hunt for shipping in waters around the British Isles. 
War had arrived. The assigned hunting grounds were remote and should allow time to drill the crew. Spotting only a lone freighter U-35 surfaced and the 88’s gun crew rushed to ready their gun. Hagen fired 2 torpedoes with no success. The 88 fired a few rounds as the SS Solo turned away. Both shells fell short. A shameful first mission.

November proved only modestly better. U-35’s first score. SS Berganger at 6800t.
As 1940 dawned, U-35 was back in British waters. An unlucky sortie. A RAF Hudson forced an emergency dive. A severe storm in the channel limited opportunities. Heading home, SS Santa Rita at 8400t filled the periscope, and was quickly dispatched.

In March, the crew began mumbling about being a jinxed boat. We spotted nothing. But were forced to dodge RAF Arvo aircraft twice.

Mai was U-35’s first taste of the Happy Times. Scoring four times. SS Tiberton 5200t; Tanker Capulet 8200t; SS Embassage 5000t; SS Empire Crossbill 5500t.

Summer was quiet, with only SS West Notus 5500t falling prey to U-35

As Autumn chilled, spirits buoyed. The Ship’s Dr was promoted. As was Hagen, now Korvetten Kapitän. But more joyous were the orders for hunting in the Atlantic!

Dodging escorts, 4 victories were scored. 2 tankers, a large freighter and a small one, totaling 31300t. Cassequel; Santore; AF Corwin; and Oilfield were stricken from the logs. But the jinx had not been idle. Returning home, a Tommie A/C dropped out of the sun, shattering the 88 and it’s crew and damaging the engines. A solemn crew slipped back into the pen.

Again, punished and sent back to hunt British waters. But glory awaited! U-35 caught HMS Avenger in open waters. Braving her escorts U-35 sunk the CVE.

Januar ‘41 brought orders for the Atlantic. But only the SS Gregalia 5900t was torpedoed.

So back the British waters again. RAF patrols are improving. As U-35 sorties it is Wasser bombed, causing minor hull damage and flooding. But there is no turning back. Two lone merchants are sent to the bottom. 10500t. SS Ballader and SS William Bryant.

Success brings orders for the Atlantic, but U-35 finds no victims to hunt.

The boat does a fast refit and in Juli heads back to the Atlantic. Verdammt! Again the RAF is waiting. Collaborators must be signaling them. A fuel tank is damaged beyond repair so an immediate return to port is needed. But the RAF catches on again and scores more hits.

While finishing the year in dockyards, Hagen is again promoted. Now a Fregatten Kapitän.

As 41 closes, U-35 is order into the Mediterranean. Hunting should be good. Shortly after clearing Fortress Gibraltar a Convoy is spotted. Jinx! The escort causes unrepairable damage to the fuel tanks and several crewmen die in the bombing. Again  the RAF catches U-35 close to base. Bombs cause more crew casualties and damages the hull. 

March 42 is spent in the Atlantic. As SS Santore 7100t is sent to the bottom, it’s Escort depth bombs U-35, severely wounding the ship’s doctor and both torpedo rooms. The doctor passes before port is reached. 

The bloodied crew is now viewed as Veterans by all in the Fleet. And Hagen is awarded the Knights Cross.

Finally in July ‘42 U-35 heads back into the Atlantic. A second Happy Time is this.
3 large freighters and a smaller are sunk totaling 19700t. SS Torny, Royston Gorge, Kennebac, and Treverbyn are stricken. 

In late ‘42 U-35 heads back to the now familiar Atlantic Ocean. Again, the veteran crew scores well. 3 small freighters and a larger one. 16200t. SS Kinross, Aviemore, Merisaar, and R.E.Lee are stricken from the rolls. 

As February ‘43 opens, U-35 heads back into the Atlantic. The crew is confident and joyous to be back at sea. As the boat clears the Bay of Biscay, the RAF pounces. Expert in the anti submarine role, the aircrew lands a 500lb’er directly in the conning tower of U-35. Rolling “box cars” sends U-35 and all its crew to a watery grave.

Code Name Jupiter SOG-X.4

Brass calls last mission a failed success. The rescue has been kept from the press, except for reporting that a certain CEO was “lost while on safari “. Vivisecting CEOs isn’t ready for 6PM coverage yet. The plus was uncovering that Dr Frankenstein has some how survived and flourished since WW2.

Here’s the brief for your next one. You’ve seen the news of monoliths popping up around the world. We’ve traced these back to the Commies. They’re using these as a distraction while he “real” monolith is brought online. Once operable, it will provide a comm link to one of their black Ops satellites. Ultimate purpose unknown.

Grab the site, collect intel, then blow the station. Wheels up in 30.

The SOG team dropped into the deep jungles of the Amazon, where the Commies had been working, under the guise construction engineers, with locals to erect several hi-tech power stations.

The group pushed into the High Grasses bordering a plateau. A Hired Muscle goon stepped out of the jungle behind the team and shouted an alarm. The team found themselves in the mist of a drug lords hidden crop field, defended by an army ruffians.

The team had faced tougher and quickly began sweeping the enemy from the field. Sgt Burton, Cpl Beck and Cpl Abadi, as the bounding element, leapt forward. 

Cpl Beck kept charging deeper into the jungle, pitching a grenade at a group of smugglers. Deep jungle protected most from the blast.

The others pressed forward in the confusion.

AMBUSH! 
The drug runners had practice defending their realm from Federales! The SOF team was caught in an ambush. Vega caught a burst of fire and went down in a heap. Cpl Duchetta also caught a slug but kept moving.

Cpl Beck, showing why baseball is not big in Europe, pitched his last grenade ineffectively at a Toyota packed with Hostiles.

Sgt Burton took half the squad forward and established a Kill Zone of his own. Time for some playback.

After a ferocious firefight the team turned the tide and consolidated. Sgt Larson caught minor wound stopping a flanking move. 

Close to the Objective, the team prepared to entire the ravine leading to the monolith.
Where are all these Hostiles coming from? They are sporting serious firepower.

Larson and Burton heaved grenades at the larger concentrations. Shattering Squad and Truck before it’s cargo of Hostiles could off load. Time to descend the ravine and secure the monolith.

 

WTF! What the hell were the Commies working on? An army of apes launched a shock and awe attack.

Fortunately, having already dealt with many sorts of weirdness, the SOG force recovered quickly and began emptying their mags into the new threat. Grenades seemed ineffective against these strange foes. 

Time and ammo were running short. Time to focus and make every shot count.

Bad luck, an ape leaps out of the bush....

Cpl Beck suffers a severe clawing before the ape is dispatched. The team scatters the remaining Hostiles and secures the site long enough to call in a chopper. Time for some R&R....

Aftermath 
Another fun game. We won on the last clock turn! The current news stories gave us a tailor made plot line. Our only miss was not working in some “planet of the apes” type Hostiles. Also, Pretty sure it’s time to recruit a PS with the Medic skill! The 203 is a sweet weapon. And one of “us” need new dice for those grenade rolls. Saturday’s dice were HORRIBLE!

WarFighter has proved a great game for us to play over Zoom during the pandemic of 2020. The Three of us each work 2 soldiers. We have one camera on the PS “hands”, and another one on the player mat. Play goes smoothly and has provided us with tons of fun. 

Let us know if you have comments or thoughts on the SOG-X theme. 

Special thanks to David for his support and quick responses to questions that have come up.