Oh boy

Where has the time gone? I added the blogger app to my "Smartphone" which added my defunct blog and not this one and I could not for the life of me figure out how to add a second blog or delete the first one, so I gave up...for a bit.


Needless to say lots has happened.


1) Zombicide Black Plague and Wolfsburg expansion with all the Kickstarter exclusives have arrived and I've managed to get several games in with friends.


Pros: New scenarios, weapons and characters in a medieval setting


Cons: Same old zombicide mechanics...starting to get a tad boring.


Also picked up a micro game called Roll With It. Fantastic!


2) Purchased a whack of Copplestone Back of Beyond Chinese when Northstar acquired distribution rights and had nice discount going.



3) My Art Club painted some Reaper Bones Orcs and Skeletons and build rivers and medieval cottages. Some real talent among the group. I've learned that working with youth is both extremely rewarding but can be frustrating too. They don't all have the communication skills to say, I have an exam to study for, I can't make it today.


4) I've painted seven (7) figures since the last post. I'm elated! I have not painted a total of seven figures over the last 3 years.


5) Related to purchasing of item #2 and results of item #4, I've entered an Army Painter "competition". Basically, I'm required to paint 5-30 figures per month for 6 months to complete an army. What am I thinking?


6) I picked up some triangular shaped Army Painter brushes from Meeple Mart and REALLY seem to like the grip better then the usual round ones. Maybe that has helped me stay motivated?


Hopefully I can stay more regular and keep updating this blog especially with my Army Painter project underway.

Oh boy

Where has the time gone? I added the blogger app to my "Smartphone" which added my defunct blog and not this one and I could not for the life of me figure out how to add a second blog or delete the first one, so I gave up...for a bit.


Needless to say lots has happened.


1) Zombicide Black Plague and Wolfsburg expansion with all the Kickstarter exclusives have arrived and I've managed to get several games in with friends.


Pros: New scenarios, weapons and characters in a medieval setting


Cons: Same old zombicide mechanics...starting to get a tad boring.


Also picked up a micro game called Roll With It. Fantastic!


2) Purchased a whack of Copplestone Back of Beyond Chinese when Northstar acquired distribution rights and had nice discount going.



3) My Art Club painted some Reaper Bones Orcs and Skeletons and build rivers and medieval cottages. Some real talent among the group. I've learned that working with youth is both extremely rewarding but can be frustrating too. They don't all have the communication skills to say, I have an exam to study for, I can't make it today.


4) I've painted seven (7) figures since the last post. I'm elated! I have not painted a total of seven figures over the last 3 years.


5) Related to purchasing of item #2 and results of item #4, I've entered an Army Painter "competition". Basically, I'm required to paint 5-30 figures per month for 6 months to complete an army. What am I thinking?


6) I picked up some triangular shaped Army Painter brushes from Meeple Mart and REALLY seem to like the grip better then the usual round ones. Maybe that has helped me stay motivated?


Hopefully I can stay more regular and keep updating this blog especially with my Army Painter project underway.

Zombicide Black Plague

A couple of weeks ago, Cool Mini or Not (CMoN) announced they would ship the core box of Zombicide: Black Plague ahead of the exclusive/add-ons/expansion. The expected delivery date was "before Christmas".

A shipping label was created December 23rd for my package with the expected delivery date of December 29th. Which was a surprise. As each time CMoN sent me a shipping label, I had already receive the packages. 

December 29th came and went. So did December 30th. Despite the fact Canada Post had the package since December 24th. Obviously, with the Christmas rush, they were busy.

Nevertheless, I was starting to get a little frustrated. Everything is accessible at my fingertips instantly, my ability to wait has diminished. So I checked the Canada Post tracking number I had, and lo and behold, it was on a truck to me! 

Great success! My wife had a small series of chores she wanted me to go out to do! Nope! Had to wait for the package.

And three hours later, I heard a noise outside. Inquisitively, I poked my head out the door, and was met

With a wonderful sight. The Canada Post truck was outside.

Here is it. Being unboxed. At this time, my iPhone informed me I had no more space for pictures so this will have to do for now.

My 4 year old and I sat down to the intro level. He seemed to enjoy it. Success! I'm reading the rules now though as there are some differences between Black Plague and the modern series.

I have a "real" game scheduled for January 2nd, with some friends. Hopefully it lives up to the hype.

That's all for now. Catch you next year...

Happy New Year!

Zombicide "Completion-ism"

Just wondering if any one else suffers from this. I had a quick Zombicide game yesterday and after lookin through the boxes, I thought I should maybe do some organizing.

First, noticed I had a bunch of Season 2 actors still in the boxes. I like to keep the survivors and Zombivores in separate ziploc bags. I also keep each zombie type divided in ziploc bags by genre and class. ie. normal Zombie walkers are separate from normal Zombie runners and are separate from Toxic zombie walkers etc. it just helps locating pieces during game play.

I also decided to snap a picture of ALL the Survivors and Zombivores.

The Zombivores are on the left of the table break and the survivors on the right. This is every survivor ever made minus two family game night promos - Bill and Mr. Phal - which are both in various states of transit to me, and Season 3, which was held up due to the Longshoreman's strike on the West Coast.

8 rows of 7 plus 2 at the back totals 58 survivors and respective Zombivores...

For those with the keen eye, there are three primed survivors on the extreme right which I haven't stripped as I'm afraid of damaging the plastic.

Lastly, I organized the equipment cards and zombie spawn cards.

Here they all the equipment cards! 5 rows of 10 plus 6 extra totals 56 types of equipment (or wounds) you can carry.

I then culled some of the repeats to create a master equipment deck. Wounds and "plenty of ammo" cards aside, no item has more 4 cards in the deck. 

On one hand, I feel good as I organized some of the components a little better but on the other hand, became aware a literal treasure trove of things I may never use but have for the sake of simply having it.

Solo Zombicide Game

So I had a little free time today and decided to squeeze in a quick game of Zombicide while the wife and 1 month old slept.

I picked Scenario 10: Small Town from the Zombicide Season 1 rule book.

I usually like running 6 actors ( lots of actions) but decided to run 4 due to the narrow window.

I opted to use my 3 newest actors as I haven't had the chance yet. Union Worker 42 and Alyana Heska came from a Wrath of Kings Kickstarter Crossover. Thiago (Not Austin Powers) came from the Family Game Night #2 kit (via eBay). Lastly, dependable Phil (aka Rick Grimes from the Walking Dead).

Hindsight being what it is, the first 3 are all melee oriented with Phil is the only ranged specialist.

Turn 1 - lucky lucky lucky! Managed to get Phil the other pistol. Being able to dual wield them means he can shoot them together for 1 action.

The group moves towards the first building and breaks down the door.

After dispatching the meagre zombies. I made my first mistake and split the group. I NEVER split the group. Don't really know why I did. 

The actors moved up to the cross roads and set up shop. ( Mistake #2 - any spawn card with man hole cover spawns zombies on each man hole which means 3 extra potential spawns). Also 3 of the 4 actors have been wounded. Not looking too good for the good guys. Especially with those fatties ( legit game term, honest) coming from the north spawn zone.

The crossroads are finally clear. Time to move. 

Breaking into the bottom right building spawns more zombies. I don't have great equipment so move everyone (minus Thiago- who has been devoured) inside  to search. Not good. 1 actor down. 2 wounded.

Trapped! Trying to break free/whittle them down.

An Abombination enters via the north spawn point. I have nothing to kill it with and a large hoard surrounding Alyana after the space was cleared and she chopped open the next door. Luckily he had a chain saw and the dice gods were kind.

 

Alyana makes it back into the room unscathed. 

 

The actors clear out the room and begin to pray. The Abombination is getting closer...they empty the street and run across into the next building a growing horde at their heels.

Thankfully this building had a back door as the rooms are filling quickly with zombies. They escape the building and make a run for it. Only targeting zombies ahead, and leading the others toward the final building.

 

Outside the final building. Zombies all around. The runners just got an additional move meaning there are 9 within striking distance. The actors kill all the zombies in the spaces immediately north and south and move inside the building.

The actors make it inside and seize the final objective with runners standing on the door step. This one really came down to the wire.

The survivor cards at the end. All three had hit the red level and contiued again. Looking at the numbers, minus he objective tokens Phil and Union Worker 42 killed 48 zombies each and Alyana killed 38 zombies. Thiago added another dozen or so.

Afterthoughts:

I shouldn't have split the group. I possibly could have avoided some of the early wounds. I didn't use Thiago's reaper ability properly by having him fight single zombies.

I also didn't get to use Alyana's sword master ability but she and Union Worker 42 were melee monsters as the levelled up. 

By standing in the crossroads for several turns, I allowed extra zombies to spawn from the man holes.

I love Zombicide and hopefully I can get another game in soon. The season 3 Kickstarter can't come soon enough.

Kickstarters

I received my Wrath of Kings (WoK) pledge the other day. There was a knock on the door and the postman had a parcel addressed to me! Weird, I didn't order anything. It was my WoK Kickstarter pledge. Where was my shipping notification? It wasn't until later that evening I received my shipping confirmation...oh well. Lmao.

I only backed WoK for the exclusive Zombicide crossover characters. But as (long story) I didn't back Zombicide Season 2, I couldn't just purchase the crossover figures, I had to spend $50 on WoK product.

I picked the Shael Han faction below but didn't really follow the rest of the KS. I also got a bunch of exclusives. Yes! I have ZERO plans of playing this game so hopefully I can sell it at a local convention (Hotlead) which is coming up in 15 days or LAF at a later date. Just looking to break even at best. Not including the exclusives of course. I'm not greedy.

Onto the Zombicide S.2 exclusives:

I haven't gotten around to opening the box but Elena looks pretty cool, model wise. Basically she and Charles (see below) are at a convention dressed in gear when the Zombies come. Interesting premise. Charles is also a pretty neat sculpt. IMHO, Probably one of the better of the "passive" poses. 

Stats wise:

Elena's yellow action is interesting. I can't think of another character who doesn't have +1 Action for the yellow. Elena has +1 Melee Action which really pushes the theme of her being a hand to hand specialist. As if double katanas doesn't give it away.

Charles is also suited for hand to hand combat. 

I tend to run more ranged specialists when I play.  But these look like nice additions.

Now just to have the "dock workers" strike finish that is delaying the season 3 shipment.

Zombicide Ridiculousness

I missed out on Zombicide Season 1 on Kickstarter and lucked out to buy the Abomination level minus some promotional figures at cost. The missing figures cost quite a bit considering they were a $10 add on each.

So when season 2 came out I figured I'd join to save myself some cash instead of getting bent over by greedy sellers on eBay.

Having just backed season 3, I am kind of embarrassed about the money I spent, just to get each character.

And don't get me started on the special characters in the gaming night box sets (and yes I have Kyoko and Tiago)ok

Just wondering (aloud/online ) if I'm nuts for what I've put into this game. I have played it a fair bit and do enjoy it but it is getting to be ridiculous....

Maybe in a few years when my son is older and I can game with him it will all be worth it...