Last weekend, I went to the Model Railroaders bi-annual swap-meet. This is usually a good chance to pick up some buildings for cheap to expand my Gotham collection. I also ran into Terry and Richard from the club and apparently just missed Bruce and Chen.

I grabbed 7 buildings for $30 this year (train buildings run $20-$80). I ended up with a few I don't want (came as a lot). The two nicest were these so I decided to rehab them first:

I'm always on the look out for unique public buildings as well as residential buildings (which are un-represented in railroad building kits). The first one I worked on was this school.

It was in good shape and had a basic paint job. I blacked out the window-glass, painted the metal work and gave it wash. Why railroaders don't bother painting their buildings as nicely as the trains and the rest of their layouts is a mystery to me. In retrospect, I should have painted (or drybrushed) the roof tiles. I may go back and do that.

It will do for a school, research institute or sanatorium.  It could also do for a manor house in a pinch (add some walls and gardens and a big drive way). Overall, super happy with this. A bit disappointed I did not see a stone church, courthouse or bank. Oh well, next swap-meet is March.

This residential building got the same treatment plus a minor structural repair. Again, should have drybrushed the roof tiles--will probably go back and do that.

This will do fine as an upscale apartment block in Gotham. I also picked up a few coffins from Michael's Hallowe'en line to finish out Zomtober.

These will do for a future horror game, scaling well with 28mm.

Longstreet

Bruce hauled out his lovely 15mm ACW figures and hosted a game of Longstreet on Tuesday night.

The south set up on the left (behind the rail embankment). The north set up on the right. Bruce overloaded his right flank (top of picture), the importance of which somehow escaped me as he was doing it.

Forward came the northerns. Some died under bombardment by southern cannon but the rest lined up to charge.

At the bottom of the table, the union and confederate cavalry feinted and basically rode around with only one short engagement (gloriously won by the south).

The northerners forced their way across the embankment and were in the process of rolling up my line. At this point, I was totally hosed.

Fortunately, my reinforcements arrived at exactly the right time and in exactly the right location to make a game of this. I also got another of my units moving and putting a beating on one of Bruce's laggards.

I failed a roll to win the game based on morale, then Bruce surged forward and pasted my reinforcement something terrible. Then he won the roll to win on morale and the confederates advanced towards the rear at double speed.

A fun game--nice mechanics with the cards. I'd like to play again now that I remember how to play! This week, though, I'll be hosting Bruce for some 54mm AWI (maybe Brandywine) on my new gaming table.

Zomtober Week 4: Second Part of Zombicide

I finished off the second half of the Zeds in the basic Zombicide box this week. Slightly different paint palette so, when mixed with last week's efforts, there is a more diverse-looking crowd.

I added the abomination to the fatties this week. There were also a bunch of runners.

Then there were the hordes of walkers. Man, I'm probably good on painting zombies for awhile.

Up next: Hard to say. Maybe an actual game with Zombies?

Hallowe'en Pulp Alley at the Rocky Cove Cemetery

We had eight guys out at the club this week. There was a game of Commands & Colors Napoleonics and I ran a Hallowe'en-themed game of Pulp Alley using some not-Lego figures I've collected.

The premise was that an all-night rave in the Rocky Cove cemetery has gone (predictably) wrong with four groups of zombies chasing 20 costumed party goers across the table (4 of whom are actually horrifying henchmen and minor plot points). The major plot appears when all four henchmen have been unmasked.

Enter four groups of adventurers who have all been brought to the cemetery on slightly different missions.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Big Bad has come to Rocky Cove and you’ve tracked him to an all-night rave in the local cemetery. But packs of zombies are terrifying the young party-goers! Your mission:

• Kill the Big Bad (5 points, Big Bad appears after 4 hidden servants are revealed)
• Giles debunks “ghost busting” (2 points, contact ghostbuster, win cunning check)
• Kill a zombie (1 point each; zombies melee as 1d6 characters but no shooting)

Scooby-Doo Gang: Daphne has been kidnapped by Old Man Corker! You’ve tracked her to an all-night rave in the Rocky Cove cemetery. But packs of zombies are terrifying the young party-goers! Your mission:

• Rescue Daphne (5 points, Old Man Corker appears after 4 hidden henchmen are revealed)
• Fred get Buffy to go with him (2 points, contact her and win cunning check, if successful, Buffy paralyzed for one turn)
• Save a teen (1 point each, contact teen, they join your character, if character knocked down at end of game, teens don’t count)

Ghostbusters: Gozer is set to appear at an all-night rave in the Rocky Cove cemetery. But packs of zombies are terrifying the young party-goers! Your mission:

• Kill Gozer (5 points, Gozer appears after 4 hidden key bearers are revealed)
• Recruit Sheldon to join Ghostbusters (2 points, contact him and win cunning check, if successful, Sheldon joins your team)
• Kill a zombie (1 point each; zombies melee as 1d6 characters but no shooting)

Big Bang Theory: Wolowitz has been kidnapped by Adolf Hitler! You’ve tracked them to an all-night rave in the Rocky Cove cemetery. But packs of zombies are terrifying the young party-goers! Your mission:

• Rescue Wolowitz (5 points, Hitler appears after 4 hidden henchmen are revealed)
• Sheldon debunks “Scooby-Snacks” (2 points, contact Scooby and win cunning check, if successful, Scooby’s health drops one level)
• Save a teen (1 point each, contact teen, they join your character, if character knocked down at end of game, teens don’t count).

Things opened a bit chaotically with the Big Bang Theory (BBT) discovering a defeating one of the four henchmen right out of the gate. The zombies shuffled about, chasing this costumed Trump impersonator into the hands of the BBT.

Meanwhile, the Scooby-Doo Gang (SDG) entered the board and tried to rescue some teens and find some fiends. Roikes! Ghostbusters (GB) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BVS) were doing like-wise.

The four areas of perilous terrain gave everyone fits throughout the game. Above, we see Xander (BVS) trapped in the cemetery trying to rescue a costumed red-coat from a horde of Zeds.  In the end, the teen and Xander bite it, but Buffy returned to kick butt.

The BBT whisked the Trump teen away but left poor Sheldon to face down a horde by himself. He had amazingly lucky dodge and health check rolls and survived the game. Not like poor Raj... .

I didn't get a picture of it, but Giles (BVS) managed to debunk ghostbusting for two points. Both BVS and GBs spent a lot of time farming zombies for points (which opened up the board).

The SDG had lots of trouble taking down the fiendish cop as Scooby got scared (and Fred and Shaggy were useless). A Scooby snack eventually got him back in the game.

At about this point, there was one fiend left to find and most of the teens had been rescued. The unmasking of the fourth fiendish henchman saw the appearance of the the major plot point as Hitler/Gozer/BigBad/Old Man Corker stepped out of statue, revealing both Daphne and Wolowitz tied to a bomb.

Then the race was on to with kill Hitler or rescue the hostages. Hitler's goal was to get off board but his own movement was slowed by his tiny legs (Stump-troopen, quipped Terry). Fortunately a motorcycle was dispatched to snatch him up.

Unfortunately for Hitler (something I never thought I'd write), Buffy stuck a stick in the spokes and the motorcycle crashed. She then returned to laying a beating on the Gorgon. Meanwhile, Freddy snuck up behind her and successfully asked her out (winning a cunning roll), stunning her for a turn.

Back at Deadman's Curve, Hitler is fending off various shooting attacks. As the dice would have it, he was slowly being driven back towards the board edge he needed to exit off of.

In the end, the SDG was able to pass the major plot point and rescued Daphne from the ticking bomb just as Hitler exited the board. This ended the game, about 20 minutes ahead of the 2-hour limit I had imposed.

The teams counted up victory points and Terry (SDG) won with nine points. I think Bruce (GB) was next with 8 and Dan (BVS) was third with 7. Richard (BBT) came fourth (don't recall his total). Thanks Chen for stepping in to run the bad guys.

Overall, better than past pulp alley games. Smaller teams and a smaller board helped (as did whipping the players to keep the game moving). There was too much terrain (especially linear terrain) and not enough opportunity for the players to interact. But live and learn (or not, if you're Raj or Xander...).

Zomtober Week 3: Zombicide base set 1/2

I cranked out half of the Zombicide base set this week. I broke the set into two groups in order to mix up the painting colours such that the final horde has more diversity than if I painted them all at once.

There are 24 in this batch. We started with the fatties above and then switch to various runner poses. I tried to vary he colours as much as I could in this batch but you see some repeats and colour themes.

Then a bunch of dudes and ladies out for a late-night snack.

Mixed up, you get a nice horde effect,

The match pretty well with 25mm Buffy and 28mm Batgirl.

Up next: The other half of the box. Getting tired of Zeds... .

Mixed bag of troops and terrain

No gaming this week, sadly. Staying in theme, I have a ghoulish collection of miscellaneous pieces painted up.

First up are four old West End Games 25mm stormtroopers that I somehow missed in my massive rebasing efforts a year or so ago.

I have picked up a few pieces from Red Claw from the WizKids pre-primed sets. This includes two doors and a bunch of treasure chests.

I also bought some oxen and then struggled to paint them. Not happy with result but tired of looking at them so I finished the bases.

The postman delivered some more ghoulish not-Lego figures. No idea where they are from or when I ordered them. I presume an impulse buy during a terrible faculty council meeting.

Up next: Probably some more 54mm troops.

Zomtober Week 2: Zombicide VIP box

Week 2 of Zomtober and we have a VIP box from the game Zombicide. I picked this up on Boxing Day and finally got around to painting the figures.

Four Santa's seemed excessive to me but there you have it. The four punk rockers were a bit more amenable to paint-job conversion to make them look a but different.

Same strategy with these construction workers. Note the PPE: safety first!

I tried to paint up the four sailors as two short-order cooks and two sailors. Meh.

The cops were easy to mix up with just different shirt and pant combinations. The painting really improves the figures over the grey plastic they would otherwise be.

Up next: Probably some Zombies from the base set.