Batrep - Pirates!

The kids and I spent the day playing a campaign of Pirates! to cool down from MagCon.  I had never heard of it before but Nick won a few pieces from a game at the Con and both him and Maggie really enjoyed it so I picked up some more while I was there to supplement the game.  We played where as you collected gold or captured prizes you can buy new ships and/or crews.  Turns out is quite a fun game and requires very few brain cells. This pic shows Nicks ships making a treasure run with the girls in the far background doing the same.

The first couple of games saw the girls form an alliance against the boys.  Early on Sydney proved she has what it takes to make a first rate Pirate.  She cleverly surprised Dad and captured his only ship and she quickly started building a fleet. Maggie thought it was quite a joke and had fun taunting Dad.  Nick is continuing his (foreground) and Dad is the single tiny ship in the center.  The girls are way in the back and scrounging for treasure at their leisure.

 

By the third game you can see that everyone had built a nice little fleet except Dad who is struggling to get back on his feet. Here is a shot of the board from the girl's perspective.  That's Maggie's fleet in foreground and Sydney's to the right.

Nick was pretty quick to offer Dad an alliance because he was feeling pretty vulnerable to the girls massive armada.  He's also played with Dad enough over the years to never completely count him out.  Here Dad and Nick have teamed up to finish looting an island.

Once the islands had all been explored it looked like everyone was going to play it safe and just go back to port and end the encounter but...

Then came the trash talking.  Sydney and Nick started having words and before you know it a duel was challenged and accepted!  Here Nick has come about and is heading towards the girl's position.  Dad stays in port for the time being.

Sydney is being a bit foolish and is bringing a smaller ship to the duel.  She felt that she had more expertise on board and that she could take Nick.  Nicks lower right, Sydney upper right.

They engage and quickly Sydney begins to realize her mistake.

It is over very quickly.  Nick fires a very effective broadside and accidentally sinks the ship.  Rats!  He was planning to take it as a prize.

At this point Nick and Dad decide to high tail it out of there and head for the safety of Nick's home port.

They get away with it unscratched.

 After visiting Dad's Ship Shop for a refit, a new scenario is started and the island chains are very spread out.  Right off, Maggie and Dad head for a nearby island to try and explore it first.  Nick's on the way too.

Nick is the large ship on left along with the small galley.  Dad has the two medium sailships in the center.  Maggie's small fleet is still at anchor on her home island (upper left) and she sent one small vessel to explore that has already reached the island.

Here's a shot from Sydney's side of the table.  Her fleet is very far away from the action and before heading off to help Maggie she is making a quick treasure run.

Meanwhile back in the action we can see that Dad wasted no time in dis-masting poor Maggies treasure ship.  Then Maggie retaliated and severely damaged Nick's Flagship.  He sorely underestimated her small vessels as they almost take him out.  Now Nick and Dad both are mobbing her home anchorage.  Nick has already started to raid the free island.  (foreground)

Maggie is very, very angry right about now and about to bite herself with rage.  She has thrown caution to the wind and launched an all out assault to seek revenge against the evil boys.  Maggie has all the little galleys and that is Nick's Flagship with only one mast left.  He is desperately trying to get it out of there.

Dad is about to capture her treasure ship.  Maggie is getting even madder if that is even possible.

Sydney's armada is under way to come to Maggie's aid.

They are making good time.

Nick is nursing his devastated ship back to his home port in the hopes that he can repair it before Sydney gets into action.

By this time Maggie has struck a deal with Dad and settled down a little.  Dad has agreed to take only the gold and leave her ship so that she can tow it home.  I thought that was quite nice of Dad.

Maggie still doesn't quite trust Dad and escorts his ships out of her waters.  Dad goes home with the gold.

Dad keeps his end of the bargain and goes home so Maggie starts to head back to her own waters and to rescue her damaged ship.  Sydney is still coming..

The leading elements of Sydney's battle group have arrived on the scene.  Meanwhile Nick has been repairing his ship and just about has it back together again.

Remember how I told you about Sydney's treacherous hijacking of Dad's ship early in the campaign?  Well, he hasn't forgotten about that.  Like a flash of lightning Dad sends both his ships out to intercept Sydney's ship and he quickly blows away the masts and rigging, then boards her!  Nick has sailed from port to guard Dad's ships while he secures his prize for the tow home.  And just like that, Dad is a power in these waters once again.

Well that was fun.  Managed to get some easy on the brain gaming done with the kiddos on a lazy Sunday.
Mission accomplished.

MAG CON

This has been a really great weekend!
First things first, I want to give some 'atta boys to some guys who made our Con experience great.  First off, Justo gets a huge pat on the back for putting this thing together.  He did a fantastic job and is a truly pleasant person.  There is absolutely no way you cannot love this guy, I really look forward to any future event that he has a hand in.
Ed Teixeira and his wonderful Wife from Two Hour Wargames.  What a cool dude.  Lots o' patience and a great sense of humor always rates highly in my book.  Ed ran two games of ATZ and a game of Nuts! while we were there and a great time was had by all.  All the games were loaded out and he kept them running smoothly.  Most importantly, the excitement and laughter coming from his table was a testimony to the great rules he produces.  I will never miss an opportunity to game with Ed.
I'd also like to give special thanks to Gary Denton who was running some games of "Pirates".  My kids saw the little ships and fell in love at first sight.  Thanks Gary, for being so patient with them and I'll have you know that they still have not come down from their buzz.  They told me to tell you thank you very much.
Lastly, thanks to all the other guys who gamed with us.  Everyone was pleasant and made the games really enjoyable.  This is what it is all about!

In my opinion, the mark of a great game, and of great gamers is the ability to simply have a great time.  One observation I made during the Con was the mood and "fun factor" at the different game tables.  I've already mentioned how much fun we had playing with Ed and Gary, and there were some other games where the players were animated and looked to be having a wonderful time, but I noticed that at some of the games the mood was quite different.  Things like arguing about a half a mm of firing distance etc.. and rigid adherence to mechanical rules and this reminded me why I set out to find something new in the first place.  If you ever find yourself in this type of game go check out games like Two Hour Wargames or something similar and have a go.  It might just change your gaming world, it did ours.

Unfortunately I was unable to do any Batreps because there were simply too many players and it was too fast and furious to even attempt.  I did manage to snap some pics.


Friday night I brought the kids out to the Con and we had a nice game of ATZ.  The mission was to find a dog who was lost in the mall.  Of course, the Zeds were going to make this a darned tough proposition.

At one point, Dad found himself in a very tight situation but managed to survive.  It was very exciting.  Dad is the little bitty guy in the white shirt with the shotgun slung over his shoulder.  His poor partner didn't make it out of this one.  Eventually, later in the game Dad went back to try to help a companion who had been knocked down and wound up being Zed chow himself.  Did you really expect anything different?

The good news is that both Nick and Maggie survived.  They did not complete the objective but they did manage to get off the board alive and this turned out to be an accomplishment in itself.  In this pic we see the last couple of players trapped in the alley between the malls with Zeds closing from all sides.  They put up a valiant effort but you know what eventually happened don't you?

In the game of Nuts! I commanded a squad of British regular foot and Nick as always played the bad guys.  He was a Kraut grenadier squad.  The Allies started very cautiously and so of course Dad got things kicked off by running across the frontal fire zone of a MG42 but miraculously I got off really easy.  That was pretty much the story of the entire game.  The Germans were just snake bit on their rolls and we steadily worked away at them.  Even so, the first half of the game saw the Germans inflicting some fairly heavy casualties on the Allies, and I think we were even a little worried for a short time but not for long.  Once the Sherman got into action and knocked out the STG it was game over.  Just a matter of rounding up the stragglers.

I did not get any shots of the second ATZ game that LTL Mom participated in as I was tied up with the kids in their crazy Pirates game.  I understand that she did pretty well though, and that she OOF'ed another player that fired at her.  What was he thinking?  You never, never, never mess with LTL Mom, she's a Witch with the dice man.  I also understand that she went down to the Zeds after a hell of a fight at the end of the game.  This makes me feel a lot better because I was beginning to think she's not Human.  I'm not going to count it against her campaign though because it was way out of her control.

While talking to her about the game she told me something pretty funny.  She said she was kind of surprised at how cautious many of the players were.  She wanted to set an attack on the other group when the conditions were amiable but her team mates were a bit apprehensive of firing on the other players.  She also conveyed that she was really surprised that her teammate was wanting to stop to help trigger happy team members who were getting what they deserved.  She just wanted to leave them for Zed chow and get after the business of assassinating the other players while they were occupied with Zeds.

This was all new insight to me on the mindset of LTL Mom when she's playing ATZ.  If you get in her way, your simply going down.  Apparently she has no qualms whatsoever at eliminating anyone or anything that gets in her way.  I'll have to remember this..

Oh, and she called me a dumb @ss for going back to help Brian in my game. :)

I am now going to have a nice relaxing day at the house and play something with the kiddos.  The rest of you need to play ATZ today!

ATZ Batrep - Warehouse Raid Take 2

After the disastrous attempt to raid the warehouse, Mags has decided to call it quits but Dad and Nick are fighting mad and ready for another go.  Here they go again!  They move towards the warehouse and see no Zeds.

Dad and Nick are still Rep 3 no weapons.Suburban area again, Daytime.

Group fast moves onto table. Rolls 5,5,2 (gets extra die for LDR)   pass 1 (rep or lower)

Roll 2D6 for Zed placement, need 5+ but roll 4,1 so no Zeds at start.

Activation - Zed 2 Dad 3 but there are no Zeds.  You still roll in case of random encounter though (doubles)

Nick and Dad burst into the warehouse and find themselves in the office.  It is empty!  They search for loot and find nothing.

Building whats inside check - rolled 6,4 so it is 10 -1 for daytime =9 which means chance 1/2D6 Zeds
we roll a 1 so there are no Zeds.
Check for loot -2D6 Dad rolls 11, and then 1 which is fuel but it does not apply to this area so nothing. Nick rolls a 4 and gets nothing.

Feeling a bit braver they move off into the warehouse proper and find three Zeds milling about.  Nick goes OOF in the melee!

As we move to warehouse we do another whats inside check.  Roll 2D6 and add result together 5,5 =10-1 for daytime so there is chance of 1/2D6 Zeds. We roll a 6 so there are 3 Zeds.  We now roll for surprise 1D6+3 for number of Zedsthey roll 2 and add 3 for 5 surprise total.  Dad and Nick each roll a D6 and add it to their Rep (3) and they get a 8 and 6 so neither are surprised.

Since there are 3 Zeds and we need to split them up against Dad and Nick we roll a die to see who gets to fight two (house rule) and Nick is unlucky.

Nick has 4D6 (3 from his Rep and +1 for Brawler Attribute) He uses 2D6 on each Zed.

On first Zed, Zed gets a 5 (Zeds always get only one 1D6 in melee) and Nick rolls a 5 and 6 so neither one roll any successes and they are matched for this activation.

Then on second Zed, Zed gets a 2 and Nick gets a 4 and 5 so Zed has one success and Nick none, so Nick is OOF.

Dad also rolls 4D6 for same reason as Nick. Dad rolls 3,3,2,5 and Zed rolls 2 (all successes except for the 5) so Dad will roll 3 die again and the Zed rolls 1 and this time Dad gets a 3, 5,6 (one success) and the Zed gets a 5 (no success) and the Zed goes OOF

new activation Zed 4 Dad 3, so Zeds go first

Dad finally manages to kill off the Zeds and tries to see if Nick can regain consciousness.  He doesn't.  Even worse, Dad cannot find anything good to loot either.

First Zed rolls a 6 and Dad rolls 2,3 (he uses 2D6 only because he has to split against both Zeds) Zed is OOF

Second Zed rolls 6 and Dad rolls 4,6 so no success and matched for this activation

New activation Zed 6 Dad 3 - Dad goes first, Zed cannot activate because higher than his Rep (4)

Dad attacks single Zed now with all 4D6 and gets 6,4,3,2 Zed gets 6 Dad has 2 more successes and Zed is OOF

Dad checks for loot 2D6 and gets a 3 and 2 so nothing

 Dad moves deeper into the warehouse and finds a Survivor hiding in the shadows.  Dad tries to join up with him but he is having none of it.  He saw what happened to Nick and decided he was safer without Dad's help.

Activate Zed 4 Dad 3

Dad fast moves rolls 3D6 (born leader attribute or LDR die bonus) 2,2,1 so can double move with pass 2

With this large warehouse it counts as second area so Dad rolls for whats inside again 4,4 (-1 for daytime) = 7 so there is chance of humans. He rolls a 2 so there is one human. Then we roll on who they are table (page 41 and get a 6 so it is a survivor.  Then go to list page 8 and rolled a 5 so it is experienced Rep 4 and then rolled weapon 6 and then rolled 1 so it is machine pistol armed. Now go to meet & greet table and rolled 3D6 for Dad and 4D6 for Survivor.  Dad rolls 2,3,6 (2 success) and Survivor rolls 1,1,2,5 (3 success) so now Dad re-rolls 2D6 and Survivor re-rolls 3D6 and Dad gets 4,6 ( no success) and Surv gets 1,5,5 (1 success) so he will not join but will let Dad go in peace and may barter.

Activate Zed 2 Dad 3 - Dad goes to loot truck container and finds soldier with same process and result as with Survivor.

Dad starts to loot the trucks parked in the loading bays but finds nothing but a scared soldier hiding in one of them.  The soldier shoos Dad off at gunpoint, but luckily Dad is unharmed.

Activate Zed 4 Dad 6 - No Zeds and Dad Rep too low to activate so nothing this activation
Activate Zed 4 Dad 3 - No Zeds Dad checks for whats inside and then loot like before but nothing.

While attempting to loot one of the trucks Dad somehow manages to start a fire!  This attracts a couple of Zeds who had not previously noticed him..

Activate Zed 1 Dad 1 - Doubles means random occurrence and it turns out to be fire (page 51) roll for 2D6 of Zeds and get a 5 and 6 so it is two Zeds, then roll for where to place and I get a 3,3 so they both come from right side of table and are place 12" away.

Dad is a bit confused and blinded from the glare of the fire.  The Zeds start moving closer..

Activate Zeds 3 Dad 6 - Zeds move Dad don't
Activate Zeds 3 Dad 1 - Both activate but Zeds go first
Dad rolls 2D6 +1D6 LDR bonus for fast move and gets 5,5,6 passes 0 die for fast move
Activate Zed 4 Dad 4 - Rdm Occurrence - keys in ignition, doesn't apply

Dad decides it is time to go.  He runs over to Nick and picks him up to carry him off.

Activate Zed 1 Dad 4 - Dad doesn't move

The Zeds keep coming on..

Dad has trouble getting Nick, and a Zed charges!  The Zed goes down.

Activate Zed 4 Dad 1 - Zed move first, charges Dad

Dad rolls 4D6 (rep3 + 1 for brawler attribute) Zed 1D6 Dad gets 1,3,4,6, Zed 2 so they reroll successes

Dad rolls 2D6 Zed 1D6 Dad gets 1,2 Zed gets 5 Dad has 2 more successes and Zed is dead

Dad is finally on his way but he is slowed down while carrying Nicks unconscious body.

Activate Zed 2 Dad 3

They make it out of the warehouse and out into the parking lot.

Activate Zed 6 Dad 2

Oh no, just when he thought he was home free, a car alarm goes off and attracts a Zed!

Activate Zed 1 Dad 1 - Random Occurr - Car alarm goes off - roll for 6D6 of Zeds (5+ generates because suburban area)

Rolled 1,1,2,4,4,6 so only one Zed, Then rolled for place and get a 1 which is top of table, 12" away from Dad.

Activate Zed 2 Dad 3

 

And then a dropped cell phone decides this is a good time to go off too.  You know, sometimes I think that Dad and Nick are just hopelessly snake bit.  But believe it or not, this time they actually get away!

Unfortunately Nick has been infected and Dad has to cap him.  Bummer.

Activate Zed 1 Dad 1 - doubles so roll for random occur - rolled a 6 so keys ignition, don't apply.

Activate Zed 5 Dad 5 - doubles random again - get a 12 and cell phone goes off but roll a 2 for Zeds and no Zed attracted.

Activate Zed 5 Dad 2 - Dad gets t move and Zeds don't.

ATZ Batrep - Warehouse Raid

 

Dad and the kids were having ATZ withdrawals so we decided to have a quick go.  I wanted to try out the new warehouse I built, and Joe from the THW Yahoo group had requested a detailed batrep complete with rolls etc.. so any excuse will do.  This warehouse was my first attempt at trying to copy Vampifan's thick and sturdy walls.  It is not anywhere close to his standards but I am quite happy with it as I think it will hold up very well over time.  LTL Mom is sick in bed so she couldn't be here to bail us out, but Mags is back.  All three of us are Rep 3 still and have no weapons.  I am learning that ATZ is VERY difficult played like this.  I told Nick that after tonight he can start with higher stats and weapons because I think he's getting a bit frustrated.  Ten year old boys simply like to blow things up.  Frankly, I'm surprised he's put up with my hard core games this long.  I'm just stubborn, I figure if Mom can do it, I have to keep trying till I do too!

I'm putting the main story on top and the details below so it doesn't read so choppy, and you can ignore the math if not interested.  Here goes..

The first turn our little group (Dad3, Nick3, and Mags2) fast moves onto the map and a couple of Zeds appear in the distance.

All players are Rep 3 and have no weapons!

Fast move roll 3D6 (get extra die for LDR) 1,2,6 = pass 2 (plus Dad has Born Leader attribute so group acts as him anyway)

Zed Placement - roll 1D6 for each player, Zeds on 5+ for suburban, rolled 4,6,6 so two Zeds. Then rolled 1,2 so both come from top of table.

 Well, it's starting early tonight.  We botch the activation roll right from the start.

First activation roll - Zeds 2, Us 5 so we go first but since we Rep 3 we cannot move.  Then Zeds activate and move 6" towards us (the nearest chow in LOS)

Oh man, it IS going to be another one of those nights!  Another bad activation.  Our little group hesitated in indecision and got caught!  Nick3 is the only one in contact and has to fend off the charge alone.  He downs a Zed but then goes OOF himself. 

Activation roll was Zeds 2, Us 5 again!  So we milled around and they charged.  Since we are all Stars we do not have to roll for being charged, we can choose result.  We decide pass 2 and melee the Zeds.  If we had weapons we could have fired first.

Nick melees against 2 Zeds.  He gets 4D6 because he's Rep 3 and he has +1D6 for Brawler attribute. He has to split his dice against the Zeds and decides to apply 2D6 on each.

First Zed roll:  Nick rolls 3,2 and Zed rolls 2  These are all successes so they both re-roll all these die.

Second roll:  Nick 1,2 and Zed 5 so nick gets 2 successes and Zed none.  Zed is OD

Second Zed melee:  Nick rolls 4,4 and Zed rolls 1 so Zed has one more success and Nick is OOF

Now a "Man down" reaction test would be in order except we are all Stars and can choose result.

And now we get another lousy activation so the Zed goes first and starts to munch on Nick and now Dad3 and Mags2 have to "See the Feast".  Err.. they don't do so well.  They lose their wits and run off to hide and hunker down.

Next activation is Zeds 2, Us 5 again!  This means Zed goes first, (we can't activate because our roll of 5 is higher than our Rep)  he starts to feast on Nick3.  We roll 1D6 to see how many turns the feast will last and get a 3.

So now we roll 6,3 and check "see the feast" table and pass 1D6 so we have to duck back and take insanity test.  I moved us behind the building corner and we roll 6,2 on insanity test, which means we passed 1D6 and have to hunker down.

Next activation roll is Zed 6 Us 5 so nobody goes.

Next activation roll is 3,3 so there is a random occurrence.  Roll on table page 51 and got 6,2 for a total of 8 which means someone shoots at shadows but we have no guns and disregard this.

So re-roll activation and get Zed 6, Us 4 so nobody activates again.

Next activation roll is 1,1 so random occurrence again.  Roll 2D6, get 5,1 so total of 6 which is "left keys in ignition" if we had a car.  Disregard.

It's not long before the Zed finishes his feast and goes to where he last saw us.  Since we are hunkered down in panic we are Zombie chow.

It took about 10 minutes to setup the table and no more than 15 to 20 minutes to play.

Next activation - Zeds 4, Us 6 so Zed moves to where he last had LOS to us and now he's back in LOS.

Since both Dad and Maggie are hunkered down there is no way for us to rally.  We might be able to retire from a charge etc.. but decided to call it quits and give the Zed a good dinner.

LTL Mom - Her New Look

I finally got a chance to start painting some of the new lead that came in from Copplestone Castings.  After drooling over Vampifan's reviews I simply could not stand it any longer and had to follow suit.  Here is the first of Mom's new figures complete with her No Bozos shirt and ready for some butt kicking action.  This is the Werewolf Hunter figure from Copplestone.  I am not a very good painter and cannot do justice to these figures.  Copplestone delivers very, very high quality product, and I'd like to add that their customer service is excellent.  I had a small mix up on my first order and Mark was super attentive and professional.  I highly recommend these figures.

 

While I'm at it, here's some pics from some some of the other Copplestone sets.  Here's the Cops with handguns.

Some Scavengers.  I really love the Scavengers.

More Scavengers.

Corporate Babes.  I think LTL Mom should get some work outfits like this!