Halloween Madness 3: The Dead Walk

Regular readers will know that each year Pulp Citizen and I get together and have a game of Pulp City themed on Halloween. This years wacky game features a LOT of zombies. Superhero on zombie action- What's not to like? 

Pulp citizen has take my photos and tuned them into a story in is usual style- It's very cool but its epic, so rather than reproduce the entire battle report here, I would rather refer you to his excellent blog. 

Pulp citizen is a Pulp City obsessed nut, but he is also one of the writers working on the second edition of the rules, so we used a play test version of second edition. If there is anything that seems a bit odd, that is probably why. 

Anyway, with out further ado here is a link to Pulp Citizen's Blog- I hope you enjoy. 

Zomtober 2013: Final Round Up

Hi Guys and welcome to the final round-up of this months Zomtober for the dynamic duo painting team. This month Charlie and I have managed to paint a staggering 30 zombies and 11 survivors (it was meant to be 12 survivors but one went missing before he could be painted). That gives us enough zombie apocalypses stuff to start our own campaign. We cold do with a few more bits of scenery, but we have made a good start. 

Butch: Generally known as 'Fat Bloke' by Charlie. Butch spent too long playing Battlefield and Call of Duty on his Xbox. He is very over weight, but is convinced his virtual experience has given him the skills to survive a zombie attack. (painted by Charlie)

Joe the mechanic: Joe might not be the best fighter, but he can fix anything- just what you need when you need to hot wire a hummer in a hurry.
(painted by me)

Here are all the survivors including the luckless Graham. Figures are plastic from Wargames Factory

And here are all 30 Zombie. Again they are plastic and are from Mantic

Escape from Zombie Town : A Zombie Battle Report

In order to celebrate a rather successful Zomtober, Charlie and I decided to take all our zombies and our freshly painted zombie survivors to the Wargames Store on the Wirral for a game. It gave us a chance to game in a built up urban environment, because I haven't got much scenery suitable for a Zombie Apocalypse setting. 

Once again we used FUBAR, modified with a few house rules to make each of the survivors unique. The scenario was a simple 'get across the table top and off the opposite side' affair.

In FUBAR both the zombies and the characters activate on a dice roll, which is excellent as if creates a lot of unpredictability and drama, while helping to recreate the whole zombie movie vibe: Foolhardy survivors dashing off ahead on their own, and others lagging behind to be picked off by the packs of zombies. In our house rules we have zombies spawning at random in packs of five, and roll a single activation for the whole pack. Survivors roll to activate separately, as if they were one man squads. 

The survivors move through a ruined landscape of a factory destroyed in a fire. If they can only make it across the canal they will be safe.

The survivors (from L to R) Graham the office worker, Scott the mall cop, Hank the construction worker, Stan the gangster,
Giovanni the chef/hit-man, Marcus the bad ass biker

The survivors get a glimpse of some of the Dead shambling around on the road up ahead. If they can just make it to the foot bridge over the canal before the Dead spot them they should be safe. 

Hank dashes off ahead, but realises too late that another pack of the Dead has cut off their rout to the footbridge. There is nothing left but to fight their way through.

More Dead start swarming across the road bridge, attracted by the living. Things are looking dangerous now. 

'I've got your back son.'
The professional chef/hit-man Giovanni moves up behind Hank to give covering fire. 

Startled by the gunfire Graham starts to hangs back, but realise too late his mistake, as more Dead begin lumbering out of the ruined factory complex!

Hurrrm! Brains! Graham starts to run as the Dead surge after him. 

By now the rest of the survivors have managed to shoot their way through the Dead to reach the footbridge over the canal. But the Dead are closing in on them. 

Graham makes it to the top of the ramp, pursued by a pack of the Dead thirsting for his brains. More Dead  start pouring in from every direction. Will Graham make it too the footbridge?

The Dead grab Graham. He manages to brain one of them with his crowbar, as the rest surge around him, dragging at his flesh with their vicious claws. 

On the footbridge Scott and Giovanni try desperately to hold off the ever growing numbers of Dead, trying to buy time for Graham and the others to make it to safety. 

It's too late for Graham, as the Dead finally tear him limb from limb. 

Giovanni, ever the professional, holds the bridge long enough for the rest of the survivors to make it off the bridge to safety. The steady tap tap of his assault rifle drops one Dead after another as he cautiously falls back. 

The remaining survivors (Hank, Giovanni, Scott, Marcus and Stan) make it to relative safety  and live to fight another day. Graham has presumably joined the ranks of the Dead. 

This was a great game and was full of highlights and excitement. Once again FUBAR proved itself a worthy rule set for a pick-up-and-play zombie game, providing the right mix of drama and action. 

I would like to commend the Wargames Store for their help. They were very friendly and so were the other customers who all took time out to come over and see what Charlie and I were up to. The gaming table was very suitable for the game, and gave us some good ideas. 

I hope you like the AAR, and find it a fitting tribute to all the bloggers  who have joined in this Zomtober. 

Zomtober 2013: Week Four

Week four of Zomtober has seen some strong progress towards our goals. We added three survivors and eight more zombies. We are still short of the planned 30 zeds and 12 survivors, but as it is the October holidays Charlie and I are hoping we can get them finished (Actually we have lost one of the survivors- so it will be 11 in total).

Yesterday Pulp Citizen and I played a game of Pulp City featuring every zombie we have painted- and believe me that is a lot! stay tuned for some Superhero vs. Zombie action in the next few days.

For this Zomtober entry we have three survivors. 

Lewis: Aspiring gangster rapper.

 Before the Apocalypse Lewis built up an arsenal of weapons to give him street cred. Since the coming of the zombies he has put them to good use.

 (painted by me)

Scott the Mall Cop:

 Protecting and serving the community with a shotgun he 'borrowed' from the sporting goods store!

(painted by me)

Graham: A over-stressed office worker who has come to realise that in order to survive the Zombie Apocalypse he must get aggressive.  Office politics takes on a new twist when Doris from accounts is trying to eat your brain. 

(Painted by Charlie)

We also added to our zombie horde- completing another eight. This brings our total to 18. We have adopted a real workshop approach, with me working on the skin, Charlie adding blood, rags and hair, them me finishing off with the bases.  It's a system that seems to work well. 

Zomtober 2013: Week Three



Week three has seen a bit of a slow down as I have been a bit busy in the house, doing DIY, while Charlie has had loads of homework. We have a few WIP, but only turned out one survivor each.

I did Marcus the biker- I am particularly pleased with the leathers and his tea-shirt. Charlie did Billy, a character he certainly empathised with. Hope you like...

Before the Zombie Apocalypse Marcus was a motorbike courier. He is a tough, no-nonsense character with a strong independent streak. His favourite weapon is the machete he picked up in a hardware store, which he uses to behead any zombies who get too close.

Billy 'the Kid', as he has become known by the other survivors is a street smart skater boy, who has survived the zombie apocalypse thanks to his quick wits and bravery. Other survivors tend to look after him, but the truth is he is more than capable of looking after himself.

I Just want to add how amazing this Zomtober has been so far- it's great to see everyone's blogs, and all the new zombies and survivors Zomtober is spawning!

Zomtober 2013: Week Two

Here's this weeks entry. Having taught the Monkey Boy Charlie how to paint zombies he got to work in his relentless style. Within a couple of days he had clocked up nine finished models- and I am well-chuffed with them! They are so good that they are completely indistinguishable from the one I painted. I painted in eyes and teeth, then I painted the bases. Charlie doesn't like to do the faces and bases, but for me they are my favorite bit: I find it relaxing after a hard day at work. 

The only trouble is now I have got to put together a load more, before he starts moaning he has got nothing left to paint!

As well as faces and bases, I have managed to turn out one survivor- here he is. Again I used the Wargames Factory plastics. 

Ex gang member Stanley and his AK.

The AK47: The best there is. When you absolutely, positively have to execute every zombie in the room, except no substitute. 

Zomtober 2013: Arh! Zombie Toast!

This is what happiness if humble toast becomes infected with the Zombie Contagion

Actually it was a jam filled toasty that went horribly wrong, but this being Zomtober, I had to post a picture! Charlie subsequently ate the toasty, so I will be keeping a close eye on him for sights that he might have contracted the contagion. perhaps that is how the Zompocalypse will begin?

Zomtober 2013: Week One

Regular readers of my Blog might recall that last year Pulp Citizen and I decided to declare October to be 'Zomtober'; our intent 3was to paint a zombie a week for the duration of the month. We invited others to join us in this enterprise, and were duly joined by Simon Q (Brummie) and Adam(Havensburg). I managed to get 10 zombies finished, which felt like quite an achievement. 

This year, things are on on a larger scale. Pulp Citizen and Brummie have been busy drumming up support and we now have 26 (at last count) bloggers and hobbyist signed up for the cause. -I think that many fresh zombies counts as a level three contagion outbreak! I hope the authorities are ready. 

Pulp Citizen has been keeping track of all the bloggers and gamers joining in on his blog (The Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer)

A good number of the Zombtober bloggers are doing Victorian zombies, as these seem to be all the rage these days, but I will be sticking with modern. I did contemplate adding to my 'It Snows in Hell' Finland Zompocalypse, but in the end decided to stick with a more traditional modern setting- not least because I wanted to try out Wargames Factory's zombie survivor box. 

So with Zombtober being a much grander affair this year, I decide to push the boat out and be much more ambitious. My 13 year old son Charlie is very keen to paint some zombies, and is a very speedy painter- while I am no slouch either. We are going to combine our efforts this year, and aim to paint no less that 30 fresh zombies and 12 survivors!

Week One got of to a strong start, with four survivors and a zombie (a paint test subject I used to teach Charlie how to paint zeds).

Hank: A middle-aged construction worker. Divorced, bad-tempered, and with a drink problem. The fact that he is antisocial and dislikes people has kept him alive this long. 

(painted by Charlie)

Mich: A strange character with an even stranger dress-sense. The other survivors are not sure what to make of him, as he seems to inhabit a fantasy world of his own creation. No one knows if  he was mentally unstable before the zombie apocalypse or as a result of it. What no one questions is his skill with his matched pistols!

(painted by Charlie)

The Preacher: Driven by a holy zeal, he will stop at nothing to protect 'his flock'. Watching him bring down the wrath of The Lord down on a zombie is an awesome sight. 

(painted by me)

Giovanni: He claims to be a restaurateur,  but his familiarity with a wide range of weaponry have lead many of the other survivors to question this fact. He does make a very good lasagna.

(painted by me)

Our first test subject; this one was painted by me, but the rest will be a joint effort. Charlie is all fired up to paint his own.