TWD: Days Gone Bye Ch. 3

Finally had some time to play through the third solo scenario of Days Gone Bye for The Walking Dead. In this scenario almost the entire Atlanta group is present. Three groups of survivors on the board. From my play through of Chapter 2, I had a few extra points to spend.

I decided, to not make the game too easy on myself. Thus I picked some different equipment and not just ammo, assault rifles and silencers.

Using all event cards (from all expansions and roamer booster), makes the game a bit harder as well. And I roll for random entry by all walkers entering the board. Using a d24 and a d4 to determine where.

Setup
I put everything I had in form of trees on the board. So it became a good looking forest. My tents are from Renadra and the RV is from TTCombat. I play on a 24" mat compared to the 20" suggested, so I threw in an extra walker for good measure.

The view from Carol, Donna and Lori from setup.

Rick and Shane planning their way through the forest.

Top down view of the map and initial setup. I just placed the walkers randomly on the board.

Video
I made a short video flying over the setup with the mobile phone. It's a neat little way to see the terrain.

The plan
The goal of the scenario is for the three female survivors to make it into base contact with the RV. I expanded on the idea a bit, by needing them all to enter the RV through the door. I also made a rule that all the male survivors would have to be within 3" of the RV to win the scenario.

My plan was to run Rick and Shane towards the ladies. And have Allan and Jim do the same. Jim was equipped with defensive gear, so while not able to kill walkers - he could defend really well and draw them in.

Keeping the walkers at bay and make a secure tunnel for the female survivors to get to the RV. Using only 1 action pr round, I would try to keep the threat low through the game. This turned out to be really easy in this map, as Rick (this version of him) could lower the threat a blue die as well.

The start
In the first turn Allen and Jim all went straight for the supplies in the camp, in hopes of finding something good. It unfortunately wasn't anything useful in the tents. Rick and Shane spend the first turn sneaking and lowering the threat (which started at 4). Dale armed with a crossbow managed to kill a walker close by the female group, but despite being reliable, the crossbow was out of ammo.

In order to save some threat. Almost all the guys made a run towards the female survivors, drawing in some of the walkers and getting close to others (in case of bad events). Threat going up by fights, might as well make as many as possible.

Dale tried finding ammo in the RV and other tents, but didn't find any.

Allen fought the walkers, but despite having some melee weapons had a hard time putting the walkers down, scoring no !.

Jim tooled with some good defensive gear, had no problem pushing the walkers back.

Rick and Shane were both armed with some melee weapons and had no trouble killing the walkers they attacked in turn 2.

Middle game
Through the entire length of this chapter I was really lucky with the event cards that I flipped. The generally wasn't raising the threat and didn't bring walkers onto the board. So it was mostly about dealing with the walkers starting on the board.

Allen kept having trouble with the walkers and while fighting two he was bitten (!). That changed the game some, as Rick and Shane rushed to his aid. Shane taking on the walkers and Rick amputating Allens leg with his hatchet.

The tactic with creating a safe tunnel for the female goup worked. This is just aboud the point where Rick cut of Allens leg. Dale was completely out of the action, using his time looting the three supply tokens left in the camp, hoping to find some crossbow bolts.

The finale
The rest of the game was a retreat to safety. Battling walkers, trying to push the into the forest areas to hope the got bogged down and trapped. This worked well with some walkers getting stuck and thus being out of the fight.

Towards the end, as all the survivors were nearing the RV, the threat finally started to climb. The females failing their 'keep calm' rolls and Rick was using all his actions in melee fights. The resultet in a few more walkers entering the board, lucky for me from the safe side. And a lot of walkers starting to migrate towards the RV.

This photo is taken from where the door of the RV is, just as Carol (the last missing survivor) is about to get into safety. Allen is being protected and is staying out of any fight as he is badly wounded.

Aftermath thoughts
This was a great scenario to play and an interesting one - despite it feeling rather safe. I would have liked a few more bad events, to put some more stress on the entire situation. Allen lost a leg and was badly wounded - this is a great result. And in future games I'll have to use point on a prosthetic leg for him.

Next up Glenn and Rick is entering Atlanta. I'll need to get a few more buildings done before doing that scenario, as I want a real close city experience for that.

In the mean time check out the terrain I've already done for it here.

TWD: Fire Engine and Dump Truck

A few thrift store toy purchases turned into terrain. Building some quick scatter terrain pieces is so easy for modern days post apocalypse. Like The Walking Dead, This is not a Test and Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse.

For the dump truck I super glued some coffee groud on the back first. Then I matt varnishes both vehicles. I then drybrushed some rust effects (and the black on the scorched fire truck). Add lots of different washes. Matt varnish again and they're done. Easy, quick terrain.

The fire truck along with some police cars are perfect for the urban board, to add that chaos as everything is getting overrun.

The dump truck has a nice scale, especially as the back fit a couple of models standing next to each other.

Frostgrave: Thaw of the Lich Lord - Lair of the Ghoul King

The seventh scenario of The Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign for Frostgrave was the best one yet. Great game with a strong character in the middle and ghouls dropping from the roof and entering from trapdoors in the floor.

This battle was fought between a friends summoner and my witch, having played the campaign together. After this battle both wizards are level 14, still nice and balanced.

The scenario was a joy to play. We did a dungeon style layout, dropping buildings and only using scatter pieces. We also put all my Dungeon Saga and Hero Quest terrain pieces on the board - which really made a nice dungeon look.

My witch have summoned a lot of zombies, so I really wanted to get the Amulet of the Ghoul King (letting you summon ghouls instead of zombies). My opponnents summoner had no intention of fighting the ghoul king.

The fight went good and I almost killed the ghoul king in close combat. Unfortunately (and stupid by me) I made a push back at one time. An archer then killed off the wounded ghoul king with a clear shot.

We had ulterior motives on the board and my wizard had a chance on getting a free self-chosen potion. I went all in to get it. Giving a treasure hunter a potion of teleportation to help the mission. In the end I was succesfull, but at great peril. A wraith entered the battle near the sarcophagus and ghoul kept swarming in. Only the rangifier had a chance of hurting the wraith.

My wizard is happy, as there's now an Elixir of Life in his vault.

The 3'x3' layout of the Ghoul Kings lair. More photos and lots of tutorials on this hub.

Link to scenario 6.

The demon summoner leading my friends warband.

Treasure hunter, apprentice, templar and men-at-arms about to enter the Lair of the Ghould King.

Treasure hunter and crossbowman fighting a ghoul, who entered through a trap door in the floor.

My witch hiding behind a bookshelf after he was wounded - but obtained the Amulet of the Ghoul King.

My witch hunter Geralt fought great in the middle of the board, near the Kings throne. Wanting to prevent my opponent getting two treasures. Despite being greatly out numbered he made it out alive.

The board is made of scratch build pieces, there's tutorials for most of this things here.

The Ghoul King on his throne, guarded by a Ulterior Motives zombie.

Geralt fighting the Ghoul King (an epic match up). Almost killed him, but then pushed him back, allowing my opponent to finish him. ... with a well placed arrow in the back.

Some wolves entered the crypt as random encounters, luckily my witch was able to gain control of it just before it attacked him.

Ghouls kept swarming onto the board from trap doors and falling from the ceiling. You really had to protect the wizards and keep bodyguards nearby.

A men-at-arms employed by my opponent. These soldiers are used to fighting along imps and minor demons.

Frostgrave: Thaw of the Lich Lord scenario 6

Played through scenario number 6 for Thaw of the Lich Lord. My witch versus a friends Summoner. They've went through the campaign together and are still are the same level. Roughly level 12 at this point.

Despite the luck changing back and forth, sometimes we have scenarios where we get out with only one treasure - the games are still balanced. This is very nice.

We've not taking many shots at the others wizards and use other tricks to get through the scenarios, making for funnier games. Reminds me of the novel Second Chances, where the warbands aren't direct enemies.

This scenario is a bit weird. The portals for getting to the treasure chamber is random and dangerous. the Wraithknights in the chamber is really tough (one killed five rangifiers recently). So we didn't even attempt to enter the chamber. But we played the scenario as it has cultists and a zombie troll roaming through.

We play with random encounters on a 50:50 when picking up treasure and with Ulterior Motives. There was so much terrain on the board for this scenario, that I missed my objective and moved towards the wrong pit - trying to find a geyser. A bad game for my warband as all monsters also entered from my table edge.

For articles on all the terrain projects (incl. tutorials) check this terrain hub. Or the bestiary.

Write-up of scenario 3, 4 and 5 is here.

An Elven Ranger (by Admiralty Minitures) taking up a sniper position over the battlefield.

A dwarven treasure hunter (Oathmark Dwarves) grapping a prize.

A trusted Rangifier hunting the undead.

A templar, summoned minor demon and a dwarven crossbowman entering the frozen city.

A zombie, with a scroll carved into his rotten skin is hunted by the summoners warband.

Buildings on the board are by Laser Model Store.

A treasure hunter and a knight with a Vampire Sword is fighting over a treasure.

A treasure hunter join the side of the knight in his fight.

The demon hunters Geralt fighting a men-at-arms fighting for a demon summoner.

Cultists entering the board, trying to get to a portal for the treasure chamber.

And a big hulking zombie troll. It got blinded quickly and after that didn't present much of a thread to the witches warband.

A banshee and a skeleton enters the board after the central ulterior motives treasure is picked up.

The summoners warband, missing an archer and a crossbowman (they must be hiding). Treasure hunter, men-at-arms, templar, apprentice, summoner, men-at-arms, men-at-arms, treasure hunter, imps.

My witches warband. Dwarven treasure hunter, infantryman, crossbowman, rangifier, witch, familiar, apprentive, demon hunter, knight, elven ranger and bear.