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Author Topic: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!  (Read 4742 times)

Offline Battle Brush Sigur

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and Test Game AAR
« Reply #15 on: March 31, 2019, 08:48:33 AM »
@little brothers stuff: Thanks very much! Now I have the problem that I'm not sure if I can set up tables which look not exactly like this one. :D Gotta think of something.

@WitchfinderGeneral: Thank you for making it through the whole thing! Yeah, it surely isn't for everyone. Funny thing is that I think that if you take either one survivor side or the zombies out of it the game would be quite boring. I mean you could ramp up the number of zombies and introduce different types and make it a humans vs. zombies thing, but in that case you'd need a really interesting scenario to make it work. I think the rules work just for what they're intended for; for deviations from that formula stuff from other rules sets should be introduced (on-table looting of items maybe, event cards, stuff like that).

Over the past days I painted some camping scatter terrain (goblin princess for scale):



Tents from Old Glory and Renedra, extinguished camp fire by Renedra (same set as the tent), bedrolls, campfire with bird, tree stump, kettle and backpacks from Mantic Games (from one of these recently released terrain packs; review of those coming up!).


Offline Corporal Chaos

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and Test Game AAR
« Reply #16 on: April 01, 2019, 03:31:00 AM »
@Sigur I have played ATZ FFO and the LNL ATZ: Fade to Black just a slightly trimmed version of Final Fade Out. The newest version is very simplistic as far as miniatures go. Hard for me to express the difference. I got the rule set to see how it works. If you go to the THW website the chain reaction free rule set has been updated with the basic content. The title escapes me right now. I guess simply put it is more directed to a role play with miniatures being there as a secondary thought.... hope this helps.
I should be painting right now.

Offline Battle Brush Sigur

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and Test Game AAR
« Reply #17 on: April 21, 2019, 01:58:54 PM »
@Corporal Chaos: Thanks for the info! Yeah, the way Ed(?) presented the game on the blog and the kickstarter made it feel like it's been changed a bit in direction. I'll look into it.


Last night Cpt.Shandy and I had a go at Last Days, the Zombie game I recently tested solo. This time we went south of the border, into a Mexican village, which is also plagued by the global Zombie outbreak. Where's El Santo when you need him?


This meant I finally had a chance to have a look at Cpt.Shandy's Mexican terrain. Very, very nice stuff. A whole bunch of buildings, along with his great scatter terrain and bits in between, as is kind of his trademark in terrain building.




It's all there - a church with external bells, a well, a village square incl. remnants of a fiesta, snakes, dogs, chicken, cacti, wooden crates, fruit carts, and even a nast international company's oil well. Right next to a graveyard too! I'm sure horrible chemical stuff leaks down into the graveyeard. With GRUESOME consequences. And I'm not even mentioning the portable looks being set up right against the graveyard walls either...

The two gangs are the same as in the first campaign game.

McCoy's Survivors:


Left to right: Jens Gäbel (clerk in an electronics store,armed with cricket bat), Rosie (armed with toy gun and a fluffy bunny), Kyle Nightingale (Nurse, armed with shotgun and first aid kit), Chainsaw Charlie (Dishonorable discharge from the army, armed with a chainsaw), Mr.Jacket (nobody knows what he does. He just showed up, always wears the jacket and the hat, doesn't talk, but makes himself useful), McCoy (taxi driver, Leader, Everyday Hero, armed with surplus assault rifle and a knife), Reverend Ralf (founder of the Online Church of Easily Attainable Salvation, armed with semi-automatic pistol), Luke Isberg (Scout Leader, armed with a sporting crossbow and a knife)


Armando Toblerone's Troublemakers:


Left to right: Kim (Survivalist, left the NRA because she deemed them to be too illiberal in terms of the right to bear all the arms and too liberal in all other regards, armed with a modified surplus assault rifle and a knife), Ron (Gang Member, armed with a shotgun and a knife), Biff (Gang Member, armed with a baseball bat), Armando Toblerone (Gang Leader, Merciless Thug, armed with a semi-automatic pistol and a knife), Spliff (Gang Member, armed with a knife, carrying a first aid kit), Kid (Gang Member, armed with a surplus sub-machine gun and a knife), Michelle Masters (former olympian, former sports model, former reality tv personality, former singer, fitness youtuber, armed with a sports bow and a knife)




After the first encounter last month and since everybody recovered really well everybody went for a trip down South due to rumours of a stable settlement in the border region. On their way McCoy's group encounter Professor Challenger, a keen researcher in the field of mesoamericanic studies. He is looking for clues concerning his theories on the source of the Zombie outbreak. He travels along with the group and for this game he'll replace Rosie (the little girl, who has to spend this encounter on the sideline due to a case of the runs).



After setup the initial three zombies are placed around the centre of the board.



The first of them is easily dealt with by the nurse Kyle Nightingale with his trusty Shotgun. At the opposite side of the table Michelle feels challenged and takes down another zombie with an arrow to the neck. Due to a bilateral agreement that the third zombie isn't really worth paying much attention to. This decision would prove to bite me in the backside lateron...

Cautiously McCoy, Chainsaw Charlie, Kyle and Jens (behind Kyle) advance towards the village square.


Kim goes into position behind an old truck. As Jens charges around a corner he catches one of her bullets and goes to the ground. There's a quick firefight between Kim on the one and McCoy and Kyle on the other side (Michelle can barely intervene, Kid's running around to get into a better firing position).



Just then that darned third zombie surprisingly leaps at Kim. She panicks and wrestles with the monster. Spliff (far right in the photo) rushes to her aid and they kill the zombie together. This cost me time though. Time used by McCoy to get into a solid position from which she's a major problem for Kim. In the meantime Kyle dashed to grab one of the Supply Tokens.

In the mean time at my right Armando (Leader), Biff (baseball bat armed thug) and Ron (shotgun) are facing Luke (crossbow) and Mr.Jacket (Revolver). There's a mexican stand-off and a shootout across the graveyard. Luke fires bolts at the gangers while Jacket keeps zombies off his back. Due to the graveyard walls being good cover there are no clear winners for quite a while, but lots of shooting and shouting between Luke, Armando, Jacket, and Ron. Biff's got not gun and tries to make up for that with cursing wildly.

Professor Challenger uses this chaos to pry the church backdoor open and slips in. Armando and Biff take a gambit and storm right after him, several crossbow bolts burying themselves into the church wall left and right to them. The two bad boys meet the professor in the church and strike him down. In a church! Those two really are no good.

To my far left Reverend Ralf zips from cover to cover and grabs a supply token. Kid fires a few bursts at him with his sub-machine gun, but fails to do any serious damage. This can't stop someone who's on a mission from god and Ralf takes off with the supplies.



In the right neither side sees much use in firing at each other any more. Ron, Luke and Mr.Jacket cease fire to run to the village square to either side of the church to help out their comrades. Ron storms to help out with firepower, Luke and Jacket have the supplies in mind. Jacket stops at the closest supply token and starts picking up canned canneloni. Biff, who sat in the shadow of the church gate, leaps at him and clobbers Jacket. Chainsaw Charlie, who'd just been busy sawing at a zombie, won't let this aggression stand. She kicks the zombie back and lunges at Biff. She remembers their first encounter and who hit her in the head with a baseball bat. Both make ready for round #2.

Seems like there'll be a brawl on the village square as well:



Armando and Michelle storm towards McCoy (mostly to keep her from firing her assault rifle at Kim).

Luke comes to help his boss out, so the wounded Kim and Spliff also join the scram. In the left you can see the duel between Chainsaw Charlie and Biff. In the ensuing brawl Spliff is taken out by Luke. In return he's beaten down by Kim. McCoy manages to hit and wound Michelle, but she stays on her feet. Behind the church Biff and Charlie fight it out. Charlie is wounded, but stays in the fight.



Luke being taken out of the fight pushes McCoy's band of survivors over the edge. They retreat, the spoils go to Armando Toblerone's gang. Shame; Kyle almost got off the table with another Supply Token. Kid (in the lower right) fires his sub-machine gun at him, but doesn't hit a thing.

McCoy's Survivors: 1 Supply Token, 3 Wounded.
Toblerone's Troublemakers: 4 Supply Tokens, 1 Wounded
 

Campaign Phase:

Right afterwards we did most of the campaign phase, so Cpt.Shandy sees how that's handled.  First we see how the wounded turn out after being tended to. They recuperated pretty well (especially so on McCoy's side due to Kyle's medical background and equipment). Luke and the professor are slightly traumatized by the events, same as Spliff. All of them lose an Action Point each.

The Supply Token Reverend Ralf took off the table contains supply points and - interestingly - a riot shield. Armando's gang got mostly supply points out of the ..well, supplies. That and a military-grade sub-machine gun (possibly left behind by military or cartel guys).


Aftermath

A very nice game. Due to me and cpt.shandy being unfamiliar with how dangerous the guns in this game are and so both of us were kinda cautious and the game took a while, but it worked well. I really like Shandy's mexican village terrain. Something different. I think that Cpt.Shandy enjoyed the rules, especially so the campaign rules.



Right, I hope you enjoyed this battle report. Happy Easter, guys!

Offline Corporal Chaos

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!
« Reply #18 on: April 22, 2019, 02:38:47 AM »
A great report! I still haven’t gotten to play yet. I will though. The ATZ rules are fun. I really like the way Last Days is presented. You make it look easy.

Offline dadlamassu

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!
« Reply #19 on: April 22, 2019, 08:14:59 AM »
Love your terrain and figures.  Thank you so much for taking the time to write up the games and a review of the rules.  We play lots of zombie games and Gandad's house often 3 generations of players in one game.  We tried the Project Z rules when they came out, for no reason other than I got a box cheap in a Black Friday sale when i as looking for a game to play with the gandchildren.  Anyway, it is based on the survivor versus survivor idea and that never quite caught on as all parties concentrated on eliminating zombies then sharing the spoils (maybe they have been brought up too well to be ruthless?) 

Many years ago I downloaded Akula's rules for zombies and we tried them, loved them and have used them since.  So much so we have our own British setting (not many firearms but lots of hand to hand fighting) in a town in Scotland called Dedburgh. 

Keep posting your games (some of our games are posted here).  I will follow with interest.
'He could have lived a risk-free, moneyed life, but he preferred to whittle away his fortune on warfare.'
-- Xenophon, The Anabasis

Offline Battle Brush Sigur

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!
« Reply #20 on: April 22, 2019, 08:58:10 AM »
@Corporal Chaos: Cheers! If anything Last Days is darned easy. It's rather simplistic, but it works pretty well. I certainly find it easier to get people to play this rather than ATZ (which in my mind has the superior or at the very least more interesting games mechanics). But what can I say, it works. :)

@dadlamassu: Thanks for your comment! You know what, I've had Akula's rules lie around on my hard drive for many years. I guess I should try them out at some point. :D I'll make it a priority to do that asap. Love the things you tell about your zombie gaming. It's always great when families do something together. The survivor vs. survivor thing really is a thing some people can take or leave. I'm not horribly fond about it myself, but again - it's simple and works (which I think is Last Days' mission statement :D). Are you familiar with Across the Dead Earth? It's a set of miniatures rules for post-apocalyptic games set in the UK. It's also mostly gangs vs. gangs, but maybe it's got a few ideas you could nick for your games. Do you have a link to where you posted your games?

Offline has.been

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!
« Reply #21 on: April 22, 2019, 10:06:26 AM »
+1 to the thanks for taking the time to do the write up, game, review.
I too love your figures & scenery.
As the main thing about the rules seems to be the campaign side of things,
it probably is not the set for me. I would not play it often enough to make it work.
What I want is a simple, but fun skirmish set for the occasional zombie game.
I am (slowly) gathering some survivors & (obviously) zombies. I may use
Fist Full of Lead (& the recent Gothic Horror add on) to 'scratch my zombie itch'.

Offline dadlamassu

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!
« Reply #22 on: April 22, 2019, 10:34:39 AM »

@dadlamassu: Do you have a link to where you posted your games?

They are scattered about on LAF seach "Dedburgh" or "grandad and the boys"
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=112306.msg1404750#msg1404750
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=109038.msg1362887#msg1362887
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=108425.msg1354566#msg1354566
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=108601.msg1357061#msg1357061
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=109973.msg1374878#msg1374878

or look at our website http://www.morvalearth.co.uk/Zombies/Project%20Z%20Intro.htm

If anyone wants a copy of our "Akulas Rules Modified" and event cards please pm your email address.  They work but you need to be prepared to fudge things as not everything is in the rules.

A little bit of Dedburgh


The Black Watch sorting things out
« Last Edit: April 22, 2019, 11:30:25 AM by dadlamassu »

Offline MustContainMinis

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!
« Reply #23 on: April 23, 2019, 11:10:19 PM »
Excellent posts. Thanks so much for sharing them. I really enjoyed reading them and checking out your pictures.
Check out my site Must Contain Minis. I do news, previews, showcases and reviews of miniatures and miniature related products.

Offline Battle Brush Sigur

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!
« Reply #24 on: May 23, 2019, 04:17:54 PM »
They are scattered about on LAF seach "Dedburgh" or "grandad and the boys"
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=112306.msg1404750#msg1404750
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=109038.msg1362887#msg1362887
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=108425.msg1354566#msg1354566
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=108601.msg1357061#msg1357061
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=109973.msg1374878#msg1374878

or look at our website http://www.morvalearth.co.uk/Zombies/Project%20Z%20Intro.htm

If anyone wants a copy of our "Akulas Rules Modified" and event cards please pm your email address.  They work but you need to be prepared to fudge things as not everything is in the rules.
...

Thanks very much for the links and the offer! I'm indeed very much interested in the modifications, as I may have to demo zombie things in the summer, and was thinking of giving Akula's rules another go.

@MustContainMinis: Thanks very much! :)

Offline Munindk

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Re: Last Days - Rules Review and 2 AARs!
« Reply #25 on: May 24, 2019, 10:58:22 AM »
Great AARS they were very entertaining reads :)

I'll probably pick up the Last Days rules as they look simple and fun.
A modification to use them for gangfights where noise attracts the cops instead of zombies could be interesting.