HOLLY FINDS A NEW FRIEND AND CHANGES HER NAME!

After losing her gang, Holly Wood decided to attempt to add some members, and find a better weapon.  She remembered an old, abandoned industrial area in the country, and drove her H2 near, and left it concealed, taking her keys and her pistol with her.

But Holly is no fool.



Turn 1:  Humans 4, Zombies 5

There are already 3 zombies creeping around the site, so Holly turns to the first building to the right and finds Obie, survivor, Rep 3, with a bolt-action rifle facing her.  Holly with her Rep5, ends up with 3 dice, 6, 2, 1 for 2 successes on the Meet & Greet table, and Obie with 1 die, a 6, for no successes.  Overwhelmed, he joins her gang.





Turn 2: Humans 2, Zombies 6

Holly and Obie search the room, and find Meds.

Turn 3: Humans 6, Zombies 4

The zombies advance, but are no danger yet.

Turn 4: Humans 3, Zombies 6

Holly and Obie move to the other room and meet Myron Frey, ganger, Rep 4, with a sub-machine gun.

After a long discussion, he joins the gang, too.  4 rounds of Meet & Greet, before it was decided in Holly's favor.

Turn 5: Humans 4, Zombies 3

They search the room and come up with a Luxury, and unopened bottle of Old Granddad.  Zombies amble.

Turn 6: Humans 4, Zombies 3

Holly leads the group out the front door, and fast moves, but the zombies catch up.

One charges Holly, who snapfires, hits, but has no effect.  Impact 1 pistol.  Holly takes him out by cracking his skull open with the pistol butt.

They ignore Myron (maybe it's the balaclava!) and another charges Obie, who snapfires, and misses!

Obie goes down, Out Of the Fight to the zombie!



All the firing bring 2 more zombies.

Turn 7: Humans 5, Zombies 3

Holly, being Holly, yells "Leave him!", and she and Myron sprint towards the VW Microbus behind the building.

A zombie charges Myron, who snapfires and misses with his SMG, but tears the zombie apart with his bare hands, 3 successes to the zombies none.  2 more zombies are attracted by the firing.

The zombies will feed on Obie for 2 turns.

Turn 8: Humans 4, Zombies 1

Holly opens the door of the microbus to find Bud Kravitz, Rep 5, with a semi-automatic rifle, and a sunglassed guy, also called Hollywood, Rep 3, with an assault rifle.  They are former soldiers, who are now gangers.  The Meet & Greet goes 5 rounds, before Holly gets them to join her for today only.

She offers to trade her pistol and the bottle of Old Grandad for the assault rifle.  Bud refuses.

Holly counters with the bottle of Old Granddad for the semi-auto rifle.  Bud can live with that, and the trade is made.  Bud takes the assault rifle from Hollywood for himself, leaving Hollywood unarmed,

Turn 9: Humans 6, Zombies 4

Zombie appears in the alley, and Bud and Hollywood see him, pass their In Sights, and fire, taking him out.  This causes 2 more zombies to be attracted.

Turn 10: Humans 1, Zombies 2

Holly sends Bud and Hollywood up the alley to their right, with a story that that's where she found the Old Granddad, and there might be more.  Meanwhile she and Myron get into the microbus, and find the keys in the ignition, start it up, and back up to get a way to drive it out.  This attracts 5 more zombies.



Turn 11: Humans 1, Zombies 5

Holly moves forward and runs over the first 2 zombies.  Bud and Hollywood run back towards where the vehicle was.

Turn 12:  Humans 1, Zombies 2

Zombies attack the front of the microbus, and get run over for their trouble.  Holly being Holly, is leaving Bud and Hollywood behind!

More zombies file down the alleyway, and Bud takes an In Sight, snapfires, and OD's one and knocks another down.





Holly moves 8" into the road, running over anothe zombie.  She makes all her tests.  Note that the microbus is accelerating very slowly.  I drove one in the '60's, and they're not too quick off the line.

The shooting and the motor produce another 4 zombies.

Turn 13: Humans 3, Zombies 5

Holly move 10" down the road.  Bud and Hollywood try to cross behind the buildings and catch them at the next turn.

Turn 14: Humans 3, Zombies 2

Holly moves the van forward, but she and Myron are both charged by zombies.  Both snapfirs ineffectively.  Holly dispatches hers in melee, but Myron and his zombie swat at one another to no avail.

Bud and Hollywood are charged by zombies.  Bud fires, taking 2 down.  Hollywood beats his in melee.

6 new zombies are attracted by all the firepower and the microbus' engine.

Turn 15:  Humans 1, Zombies 4

Holly moves 14".  Bud is stopped by an InSight agianst more zombies, snapfires and takes one down.

No new zombies are attracted.

Turn 16: Humans 3, Zombies 5

Holly guns the microbus, and gets out of town.  Bud and Hollywood decide to hightail it out directly across the board.

After the battle:

Holly and Myron search the back of the microbus and the trailer, and find a shotgun and a rifle.  Holly now has 2 rifles, a semi-auto rifle, a pistol, a shotgun, meds and an H2.  However, her encounter with another Hollywood, and her (probably) growing notoriety for leaving people to be eaten by zombies, and ditching one-day companions, have made her give her looks and name a second thought.

So, she decided to go back to her real name, Trudy Holmes, and change her look from bad-ass punk to tough pseudo-military type. (Actually, with all the weapons, I needed to use a different figure, but, hey, it sounds good!)

So here is the new gang, leader Trudy Holmes and follower, Myron Frey.





Indian Mutiny Old Glory figures

Here are a few pictures of the Indian Mutiny figures that I've just painted.

As you can see, I got a goodly number of "Hey Steve" poses.

What's been going on?

Well, my computer died, and reconstructive surgery and final bits and pieces have taken about 2 weeks, so there have been no updates on the blog.  However, it's all done!

I won 18 Indian mutiny Old Glory British on eBay and have painted them.  I'm starting on 40 foot Pathans and 10 mounted, Ral Parthas, to add to my 80 foot, and a couple of gunners.

I've ordered a bag of 30 Old Glory skirmishing mutineers to combat the Brits, and have 10 ghazis from an unknown source to paint.

I'm trying to find a figure that I can easily convert to E. Johnson from "Cherry 2000".  I already have a Super Piper in 1/48, but I'm going to have to do screen captures to get a good paint job reference.  I know that it's filthy dirty.

HOLLY WOOD NEEDS GAS!

You may remember that Holly and her gang managed to hot-wire a Hummer 2, one of America's top gas guzzlers.  Holly looked with alarm at the rapidly descending gas gauge, and announced "Hey guys, we need gas.  Any ideas?"

Sven spoke up. "There's a little gas station not far from here that might have some left.  It's back in the country, and old style."

"Show us the way, if you think you can find it!"

The H2 growls down the country road, and a gas station comes into view.

Turn 1:
7 zombies were on the board, and the H2 generated 3 more.

Turn 2: Humans 1, Zombies 2
The zombies shamble in 6".
Holly takes one out, Sven hits but  his Impact 1 machine pistol has no effect, and Al knocks one down!
All this firing generates 2 new zombies.

Turn 3: Humans 3, Zombies 2
Holly OD's another zombie, as does Sven.  Al misses.
A zombie charges Al, who snap fires, misses, and is OOF in melee.
A zombie charges Holly, who misses, but OD's him in melee.

Turn 4: Humans 4, Zombies 3
Holly splits her shots on 2 zombies, ODing one, and missing the other.  She then moves around the H2, takes an In Sight on the zombie that is so interested in Al, fires and hits him twice to no effect, charges him and OD's him.
Al moves forward and around the front of the H2, takes an In Sight, purs 2 bullets into a zombie to no effect!

A zombie charges Holly, who fires, hitting him once to no effect.  She takes him out in melee.
3 zombies charge Al, who OD's one, but the other 2 take Al OOF.

All this shooting generates 1 zombie.

Turn 5: Humans 3, Zombies 6
Holly moves around the H2, takes an In Sight on the zombies around Al, fires and missed, jumps in the H2, and fails to start it.


Turn 6:  Humans 3, Zombies 2
Holly jumps out the right side of the H2, and heads to the roadhouse.  More zombies move to Al and Sven.
Holly, showing her true ganger spirit, leaves them to their fate.

Turn 7:  Humans 2, Zombies 4
The door is locked, so Holly goes through the window, and comes face to face with Alf Landon, a Rep 4 survivor with a semi-automatic rifle.  They decide to join forces just to get out of this trouble.  The zombies feast on Al and Sven, but just for 1 activation.

Turn 8:  Humans 5, Zombies 3
Holly and Alf search the room and find a can of gas.
The zombies mill about.

 Turn 9:  Humans 4, Zombies 5
Holly and Alf enter the back room to find it empty of people.

Turn 10: Humans 2, Zombies 3
The zombies see no humans and hear no shots, so they mill about.
Holly and Alf search the back room and find a flash-bang grenade, which Alf takes.

Turn 11:  Humans 4, Zombies 1
Holly and Alf go out the back door to the shed and open the door.  There is a military man, Rep 3 with a semi-automatic rifle.  He decides to tag along until they get out of this mess.
The directionless zombies mill about.

Turn 12: Humans 6, Zombies1
In a boring repeat, the zombies mill about.

Turn 13:  Humans 3, Zombies 2
They search the hut and find nada.
Guess what the zombies do.

Turn 14: Humans 2, Zombies 6
Holly and team go to the other hut and pull the door open to find 2 zombies!  Zombie surprise!  Holly and Alf both beat the zombies, so Alf offs his, and Holly fires, puts 2 slugs into hers to no effect, and offs it in melee.

Turn 15: Humans 2, Zombies 5
They search the hut and find nothing.

Turn 16: Humans 4, Zombies 5
Holly fast moves to the van.

In the remaining two turns, Holly jumps in the van, starts it, and the guys go their separate ways.

Holly got no advancement, though she completed her mission successfully, killed zombies and didn't go OOF.  It's very plain that she needs to get a better weapon.  She has a bolt-action rifle, but that's pretty slow against zombies.  Her pistol just doesn't have the power to take out zombies in any kind of dependable way.
So far, in 2 adventures, Holly hasn't met a single ganger, and though she's a Rep 5 and overawes survivors and military so far, she hasn't go anyone to join.

Her new goals:  Get a new gang.  Get a better weapon.  Ditch the H2, or better still, barter it off for a better weapon.

The Holly Wood Gang goes to the country.

My historical opponent had prior committments, so I decided to play an All Things Zombie:Better Dead Than Zed game.  I got out my Risks & Rewards cards and drew out the first 3 gangers.

And here they are.  Holly Wood, with the highest Rep is the obvious leader.

She decided that they would investigate a farm they were passing to see if they could "liberate" any supplies.

Initial scanning of the layout showed only 3 zombies, 2 dead ahead, and one way off to the right.
They all fired, and Holly and Sven downed their zombies, but Asthma Al missed the one in the field to the right.

All these shots only generated 2 zombies, 1 to the rear and another to the right.

They moved forward as a group.

Holly and Sven sprinted towards the house, Holly to the front porch and Sven to check the rear, and see if there was a back door.  Al lagged behind.  Even Holly's LD couldn't keep him up to seed.

Now that Holly was more than 4" from Al, he couldn't activate, but luckily for him, neither could the zombies. Humans 5 Zombies 6.
Sven rejoins Holly, who steps through the unlocked door (should have told the Ganger something), and comes face to face with 2 survivors, Andy Capp, Rep 4 with a submachine gun, and Thumper, Rep 3 with a pistol.
Time for Meet & Greet, and Holly scores 1 more success than the Survivors, so they join up only for this episode.  (Both sides were -2d6 for not being the same types).

We are up to turn 5 and its Humans 3 Zombies 1 on the activation dice, so the humans activate first. Holly searches the kitchen and finds nothing.  Andy and Thumper search the other downstairs room, and find a pistol, which Andy keeps.  The beginning of a trend.  The zombies stumble towards the house, but can't even catch Al, who moves forward.

Turn 6: Humans 2 Zombies 5. 
Holly and Sven go upstairs.  The upstairs landing is empty.

Turn 7: Humans 2 Zombies 4
Holly goes into the left bedroom, and find Mon & Dad, zombified!  Zombie Surprise!

Holly wins the Zombie Surprise, and takes a shot at each, hitting both, miraculously killing both with her pistol!  Sven opens the bathroom door, and finds a Zombie Surprise of 2 zombies!  He outrolls the zombies and fires, taking out 1, going Low on Ammo, and then the other in melee.

(The tension was so great that my hand shook while taking the picture).

Meanwhile, Andy and Thumper have gone out the front door and take an In Sight on the zombies approaching the front porch.  They hold fire.  Al spins around, and snapfires, and misses.  The zombies still can't reach them.

All this shooting has only generated 2 zombies.  Ah, the country!

Turn 8:  Humans 1 Zombies 5
Holly searches the room and finds nothing worth keeping.  Sven reloads.  Al, Andy and Thumper head for the barn.

Turn 9: Humans 5 Zombies 1

The zombies begin to follow the conga line.
Holly crosses to the other bedroom, and finds it empty.

Turn 10: Humans 2 Zombies 4
(At this point company arrived, and picture taking became more haphazard)
The zombies charge the group.  Rep 3 Thumper passed 1d6 on the Being Charged test and melees her zombie at -2d6 for being charged to the rear, and still takes it out.  Andy passes 2d6, turns, fires, hits twice, but doesn't take out the zombie, but kills him in melee
Al passes 0d6, and retires 8" away from the threat.
Holly and Sven descend to the first floor.
Andy and Thumper continue on their way to the barn.
The shooting generates one zombie, about 3" from Al.

Turn 11:  Humans 3 Zombies 1
Holly and Sven fast move towards Al, and Holly fires at the zombie, missing.
Andy enters the barn, and the ground floor is empty.
Al shoots at the zombie and misses.  The zombie charges and Al fires, and misses.  The zombie knocks Al OOF.
1 zombie is generated, to the rear.

Turn 12:  Humans 5 Zombies 3
Holly and Sven charge the zombie standing over Al, and take him out!  The zombies move closer.

Turn 13:  Humans 1 Zombies 5
Holly and Sven move to the pump house behind the house, open the door, and find thmselves staring down the barrels of 3 shotgun belong to 3 Rep 4 Survivors.  The Survivors pass 1 more d6 in Meet & Greet, and wave Holly and Sven off.  "Go away, and we won't kill you!"
Andy digs around on the ground floor of the barn and finds gold: a roll of toilet paper still in its wrapping!

The rest of the turns will become narrative, since the zombies are a little too far away to be really dangerous.
Thumper follows Andy into the barn, with a zombie following way behind her.
There is a Hummer 2 behind the house and Holly sees that there are no people, living or undead, in it, and no keys.  Holly finds a rifle in the car.

Andy and Thumper climb the ladder to the loft in the barn.  It's empty, except for a baseball bat.
Holly tries to hotwire the H2, unsuccessfully.

Andy and Thumper climb back down the ladder to the floor of the barn.  Sven successfully hotwires the H2.
It only generates 1 zombie.

Turn 18:  Humans 1 Zombies 2
A zombie moves to unconscious Al, but before it can start to chew, Holly backs the H2 over it, not losing control.  Sven jumps out and throws Al in the back seat.

A few more zombies are generated by the H2, but they are no match for Holly's driving, and the only one who is in the road is run over, with Holly maintaining control of the vehicle.

The Holly Wood gang has gained a rifle and an H2.

Al passes his "Harry, are you OK?" test with flying colors, and won't become a zombie.  Holly has passed all criteria to increase her Rep, but doesn't make the grade.  Sven, with hotwiring the H2 passed his, but doesn't make the grade either.  Al has failed, but doesn't decrease in Rep.  Holly will have to keep him closer to keep him under her leadership.

For being Gangers encountering two groups of Survivors, they were mighty lucky in the Meet And Greet results.  The 3 Survivors with shotguns could have easily taken them out.

This was fun: I hadn't played gangers before, and they react a little differently than the others.

Napoleonic skirmish

I just figured out how to convert my Comic Creator files to JPEG, so here's  a game at a by-gone Bayou Wars more as a trial than anything.  Please see if clicking on the picture will allow it to become large enough to read.

Tommy Atkins Puts Paid To Johnny Zulu! Zulu Find The Thin Red Line Unbreachable! Captain Woolstonecraft And His Boys Feted in Helpmaeker!

Captain Woolstonecraft cleverly set up his boys from the 1/13th Light Infantry, 90th Foot, and the Naval Brigade in an abandoned cattle enclosure, and let the wave of Zulus come to him.  The almighty Martini-Henry in the hands of our troops proved too much for the Zulus.

British:
1/13th Light Infantry: Rep 5 with a Rep 5 Lt. 1 Rep 4 Sgt, and 2 Rep 3 NCO's
90th Foot: Rep 5 with a Rep 5 Lt., 1 Rep 4 Sgt and 2 Rep 3 NCO's
Naval Brigade: Rep 5 with a Rep 5 Lt, 1 Rep 4 PO and 2 Rep 3 PO's.
Royal Artillery:  Rep 5 with Rep 5 Sgt.
Frontier Light Horse/Natal Carbineers: Rep 5 with a Rep 4 officer and a Rep 3 NCO.
Irregular Horse: Rep 4 with Rep 5 officer and a REp 3 NCO.
Natal Native Contigent:  Rep 3 with Rep 3 officer and NCO.
Captain Woolstonecraft:  Rep 5.

Zulu:
White dots: Rep 5 with a Rep 4 Leader.
Blue dots: Rep 5 with a Rep 3 leader.
Red dots: Rep 5 with a Rep 3 leader.
Orange dots: Rep 5 with a Rep 4 leader.
Yellow dots: Rep 5 with a Rep 4 leader.
Purple dots: Rep 5 with a Rep 4 leader.
Mounted InDuna: Rep 5.
All Zulu are Ferocious and shielded.

The center and right of the main line.

The center and left of the main line with supports visible.

Right flank support

Left flank support

Turn 1: British 6 Zulu 2

The Zulu move into sight in 2 wings.

Turn 2:  British 5 Zulu 2
The Irregular Horse moves to extreme range and fires at the Orange Zulu, who sustain no hits, and move to within 12" of the Irregular Horse, who prepare for the soon-to-follow charge.

Turn 3:  British 1  Zulu 3
The Orange Zulu charge the Irregular Horse and catch them as they volley fire from horseback, knocking down 1 Zulu.  The hit is ignored and the Orange Zulu catch them, and kill 3.  The rest Runaway, leaving the right flank exposed.

As soon as the Irregular Horse run, the Royal Artillery fires into them, causing 1 hit and going Low On Ammo.
The 90th fires at the Red dot Zulu, but their fire control is poor, as they miss, and go low on ammo.  They send a runner for more.
The Frontier Light Horse/Natal Carbineers fire at the Red dot Zulu, and knock one down.  They Carry On.

Turn 4: British 5 Zulu 4
The 90th Foot fire at the White dot Zulu, and miss.  The White dots charge in response, the 90th volleys, misses again,  but kill 2 Zulu in the melee.  They Carry On.  The FLH/NC turn to their right and fire into the unengaged White dots, causing 2 casualties and 1 Runaway.  The White dot Zulus steady themselves and remain at the wall.
The Orange Zulu charge the gun taking 3 hits and 4 Runaways before they kill the gunners.  (They finally passed 2d6) .
The White dot kill 4 of the 90th Foot, but they are unshaken and Carry On, as do the Zulu.
The death of the Royal Artillery causes a Test of Will for the 1/13th and they hold and prepare for volley fire.
The Blue dots advance, causing a Test of Wills for the FLH/NC.  They also hold and prepare for volley fire.

Turn 5: British 1 Zulu 3
The Orange Zulu charge the 1/13th, who volley fire, causing 2 hits, and in the excitement go Low On Ammo.  However, the 1/13th outnumbers the Orange Zulu by 2:1, and they begin to filter away, until they have all Runaway.
The Purple dots ignore their fleeing cousins and advance on the 1/13th, causing a Test of Will.  The 1/13th volley at them, doing only 1 hit, which the Zulu shake off.
The White dots melee the 90th Foot, who lose 2 more soldiers, but both side Carry On.
The 1/13th retires and volley fires on the Purple dots, hit 2 and 7 Runaway.

They advance, the 1/13th takes a Test of Wills, volleys at the Purple dots, taking 2 down and 1 Runaway.
The Naval Brigade fires at the Red dot Zulu, who have now reached the wall, do 3 hits in volley fire, and the Red dots Runaway.  The White dots are wetting their spears and ignore the cowardly Red dots.
The FLH/NC fire at the Blue dots, and miss.  The Blue dots stare at them.

Turn 6:  British 4 Zulu 3
The 1/13th fire at the Purple dots, casuing 1 hit, and the Purple dots Runaway!
The 90th backs away and fires at the White dot, causing 1 hit, but they Carry On.
The FLH/NC fire at the Blue dots, causing them to charge, but the horsemen do not stand the charge and Runaway.

Here is the situation before Zulu activation.  The are 2 Zulu units in good shape on the table and 1 below half strength.  The Blue dots are facing away from the enclosure, and must activate to turn around.  The Blue dots have a Rep 3 leader.  The untouched Yellow dots, with a Rep 4 leader are more than a foot away from the 1/13th, so chances are very good that the 1/13th will get to fire at them andthen get a favorable result on the Test of Will.  The White dots are below 1/2 strength.

We decided that though we could play out the game, the Zulu were to seperated to make any deadly attacks.  The InDuna is in an unfortunate position where he is only helping a 1/2 strength unit with his Rep 5.

Playing the Received Casualty as Ed intended it changes the game completely.  I now do not have enough Zulu to give the British force a run for it's money.  The breech-loading rifle is now queen of the battlefield.  We were both very happy with the result, feeling that the results were "historical."  The Zulu had a very difficult time defeating entrenched British.

Perhaps a few words about how I paly the light horse are in order.  Basically, I treat them as Mounted Infantry firing from horseback.  The time it would take for them to dismount, fire, and remount will result in them dieing in the second turn.  I try to reflect thier fighting method by treating them as infantry if they would charge, infantry if they would fire in the crises tables, and mounted if they would Runaway.  I feel this reflects their fighting style more than treating them either as cavalry or mounted infantry.  These were small local volunteer units, equiped with carbines, and no melee weapons other than a bowie knife, no match for a shield and spear.  Most were excellent horsemen, and able to fire from the saddle.  At Ulundi, they stood on their horses backs and added their fire by firing over the ranks of the square. Since they have no sabres, they do not get the mounted +1 in melee.  They are a brittle unit who's purpose is to get the Zulu out of position to help in the all-important main charge.

You can see that in this game they did this, adding turns before the Zulu units distracted by them could attack the British firing line.