THE TEAMS

Included in Fred’s team is the three legged Scooby. This is the second time this has happened to him so I may have to convert one! The loss slows him down a bit but otherwise he can still be quite useful.

Bonnie’s gang includes the new “Cronie” recruit Eliza.

THE ZOMBIES RESPOND TO THE NOISE OF THE TWO TEAMS

The combined levels of the two teams means that seventeen zombies start on the table.

TURN 1

Both teams move forward with a random event having a zombie trying to run off with one of the objectives (we used 2 dice for random events instead of one as this brings on more zombies).

TURN 2

Fred, Doc and felicity take out zombies

TURN 3

Bonnie takes out two zombies, while Scooby is sent to lure the zombies away from the main force and back to his base edge. Cunningly this also includes the zombie with the objective who is hand delivering it to Fred’s team. Velma delivers an objective back to base safely, but unfortunately Felicity is taken out by a couple of zombies.

TURN 4

Bonnie, Jeannie and Eliza dish out swift justice to some zombies, Barney picks up an objective and Shaggy continues hacking down zombies with his axe.

At the end of the turn a group of Zombies jump out of a factory building near the already out numbered “Doc”.

TURN 5

Doc fights on Bravely , Bonnie continues to “hit em in the head” and Shaggy arrives to rescue doc by taking out another zombie.

End of turn 5 and again another break out of zombies. Fortunately these are a bit further from the action.

TURN 6

Jeannie and Eliza arrive to help Doc from one end of the street while Shaggy continue his axe wielding prowess from the other. With most objectives now secure and only a few surviving zombies the end game is near…….. or is it?

Surprisingly another lot of zombies appear from the same building near Shaggy, and Doc finally becomes overwhelmed.

TURN 7

Scooby continues to reek revenge chewing up zombies left and right while Shaggy survives his fear test and jumps on top of the shipping container with zombies trying in vain to reach him.

With all of the zombies out of reach of the gang members, and all objectives secure the gangs retreated to enjoy their spoils.

AFTERMATH

Both gangs retrieved three objectives each.

MVP AWARDS

MVP awards go to Shaggy with six zombies dealt with, Jeannie with four, and the three legged Scooby with two.

Both gangs survived the night time zombie attack, and had several gang members with skill increases. Unlike Scooby, Doc and Felicity were unaffected by their wounds and are able to participate in the next foraging assignment. Bonnie was able to build an Armoury and Fred was able to recruit and ex-soldier with a military assault rifle. Unfortunately as the gangs increase in size and skill, so do the amount of zombies meaning the missions will get harder and harder.

Well this one is a bit of a retrospective as it comes from a game we played way back last year……… well ten days ago anyway.

An Industrial part of Gotham

Two rival gangs decide to work together to clear the industrial precinct of much needed supplies in a “Last Days” game. This is code for I wanted to introduce a regular gaming mate Dave K to this genre and set of rules, so playing a co-operative game means he only needed to worry about roaming zombies………. piece of cake really?!

The two gangs:

Doc the medic, Jeanie the Crony, Bonnie the Boss, Felicity a Gang members and Barney the goon.

Fred the boss, Shaggy the fireman, Valma the medic, and Daphne the Good Samaritan. And of course our furry four legged fiend – Scooby.

The objective was to clear the table of all objectives and any other wildlife or should I say “wild dead” they may encounter.

The gangs deploy and prepare to take out the trash.

Both gangs are heading for their objectives whilst a couple of speed humps are dealt with. In particular Shaggy, Fred and Jeannie have become quite adept at the “double tap”.

Things very quickly take a turn for the worse as horror of all horrors instead of Scooby doing the gnawing it is the zombies turn. What will be Scooby’s fate?

While Bonnie’s team was bogged down fighting zombies Fred’s was able to take back the loot to their hide away.

With all of the loot secure and all of the zombies dealt with it was time to count the loot and the cost.

Poor old Scooby had to have a leg amputated to save him from the zombie bite. There were no remarkable finds in the loot and over half of the two groups gaining more skills. Bonnie was able to recruit and new “Crony” and to also set up a walled garden. Fred’s group were still getting over the shock of Scooby’s injury to do anything constructive (pun intended) and decided to keep their stash for future purchases.

Will Scooby take a long walk with Fred or will he continue with the team. Has Bonnie made the right choice to recruit another Crony? Find out in the Ghouls of Gotham 2.

Well it didn’t take long to depart from the plan. While digging out one of this years projects to paint I found something else, and you guessed it, the 2021 project plan is already out the window!!

Lighting Up the Dark (K)night?

I have finally finished this batman objective marker that has been around for about 12 months since regular gaming partner “Bucko” gave it to me.

The “Man of Steel” and his minions.

These “Heroclix” figures are what lead me astray:

Nah that would never happen ………..would it?

I currently have about 160 figures almost finished so my plans for this year exclude these because they are a given and do not need to be planned for.

Given how successful last year was from a hobby perspective without any planning, here are the projects that I would like to complete in no order of priority.

1. Finish the about 200 Zombies remaining – these will be painted alongside other projects.
2. Dead Man’s Hand civilians.
3. Complete 2 Japanese 28mm Warlord plastic clans.
4. The Batman Searchlight.
5. Infinity Nomad faction
6. Complete Japanese village – again this will be completed alongside other projects.
7. About 80 more Test of Honour Japanese figures.
8. Set of 54mm Roman Generals.
9. Egyptian 28 mm skirmish figures.
10. Eureka Miniatures 28mm Anubis and Bast figures.
11. Eureka Miniatures 28mm cricket team.
12. Various objective markers.
13. 28mm Australian Light horse (12).
14. Complete Gotham City railway yard, freeway, port and two ships.
15. Various small Gotham city terrain pieces (bill boards, containers, small buildings).
16. Crooked dice post apocalyptic scatter terrain.
17. Gangs of Rome figures and buildings (this is about half completed)
18. Set of Army tents and camp fires.
19. French figures for Sharpe Practice.
20. British figures for Sharpe Practice.
21. Finish Portuguese for Sharpe Practice.
22. Complete Crooked Dice Shanty Town buildings.
23. Paint assorted farm animals for use as scenery/objectives for several projects.
24. Complete French Indian Wars trapper and Indian canoes and various cavalry.
25. WW2 French Army for Bolt Action.
26. 28mm Skirmish Plains Indians.
27. 28mm US Cavalry.
28. Modern armed civilians and rioters and 2 rock bands.
29. Harry Potter Figures
30. Finish Modern ISAF and insurgent figures and vehicles.

There are about another 25 projects which have not made the list some of which I am thinking I will sell as they are never likely to see the light of day.

This is an ambitious target and a lot will be worked on at the same time and are likely to be completed in blocks as happened this year. No doubt other projects will come along and some of these will fall by the wayside.

I will try and paint these in batches to save time and whose knows what may be on the shelves by this time next year. At least I have put it out there.

Here’s hoping…oops I should have said “here’s the plan”!!!!

Despite Covid-19 2020 it has been a good one for us. I am now working from home and not likely to ever return to the office on a full time basis. This has allowed me to keep working for probably another year.

We have built and moved into a new house and have almost established the gardens and completed the decorating inside.

The 4 children, 10 grand children, and 2 great grand children, by all accounts, are doing well.

My 90 year old mother has come through a serious health scare and is on the mend.

So not too bad really.

Covid-19 has also been good from a hobby perspective. Maree renewed her craft hobbies, made some new zoom hobby friends and is looking forward to catching up with them face-to-face in the New Year. I have been able to get back to blogging and painting little toys as well as preparing some conference papers and finishing some journal articles.

I have also completed an Open University Course on Ancient Egyptian Art – just for fun.

From a gaming perspective here is what has been achieved:

79 new blogs including 15 game reports.

345 Zombies and mutants painted

69 Batman figures completed

284 28mm Napoleonice figures rebased.

15mm Archaemenid army re-based

15mm Spartan army re-based.

75 Modern and post apocalyptic figures painted.

29 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Hercoclix figures touched up and re-based.

15 Dr Who figures completed.

50 Pygmies completed.

14 Egyptian Fantasy models completed.

55 Japanese Feudal figures painted.

40 Meeces painted for Strongsword.

71 WW2 Warlord miniatures assembled and based but not painted.

82 French Indian War figures, 3 rafts, and one canoe completed.

That is over 1100 figures finished AND that does not include the lots and lots of buildings and terrain bits and pieces completed.

Phew!! A productive year like I have never had before!!!!

You would think that there is no more of that pile of lead left to be completed wouldn’t you?

IF ONLY MINE WAS THAT SMALL!

I am looking forward to catching up with you all over the internet in the coming weeks and months and look forward to sharing our thoughts on our hobby and life as we go through what looks like being another challenging year.

I hope you all have a good one.

I have been able to get a run on over the last few days and have had a chance to work on the village consistently.

The second garden has now been completed.

I like the way this one has come up with the combination of function and looks. I have now started painting the Samurai’s walled house and as this is the last building I hope to get this finished soon.

I now need to think how I am going to mount these. Do I create a sculptured 900 mm X 900 mm base board or do I just use the one I have for Dead Man’s Hand or do I just use a gaming mat? The modeller in me prefers the former but storage space is the issue? If I can work this out then that’s probably the option I will go with.