Zone 33 - Zone Alfa first mission - WOW

[Grah]

I played my first full mission using the Zone Alfa rules last weekend and was so blown away that I decided to write it up and stick it on the web somewhere. It has taken a long time to get around to playing but I couldn't believe how much fun we had.

Please excuse the first attempt at a write up (for a long while).

https://whatzoneareyoufrom.blogspot.com/p/zone-alfa-zone-33-hot-action-this-is-my.html 

Grah

[Easy E]

Glad to hear you had so much fun!  Such a high-level zone right off the bat! 

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Sounds like a great game.
Glad you enjoyed it.

Another game this weekend?

[Grah]

I had sort of had a test game at zone level one and nothing much happened or the hostiles that did appear were dealt with very easily. Plus I liked the idea of the cooperative missions rather than more confrontational. At the start anyway.

This game was action all the way. We made the odd minor rule error - only using one action to go on alert rather than two for instance but I think we used alert maybe three times between us so probably only 'stole' three actions in total. I do I think the zone 'evened' out that transgression by making me roll more than my fair share of critical fails!

Won't be playing this weekend - I spent too long on writing that report. But I will be coming back to it soon.

Grah

[Dentatus]

Nice looking report and a good read. Glad you enjoyed the game.

[Grah]

So am I. Having followed your work on Stalker7 for the last few years, I felt there was a great game in there and I wanted to encourage everyone to give the rules a proper go. That's why I spent some time on the report (and set up a new blogger site to host it on!).

Hope you recognised a couple of the stalker figures. I snapped them up from your For Sale section last year and finally ran them through their paces.

The other thing it has done is send my imagination into overdrive about what is happening in Zone 33.    Ideas exploded as I was adding the background.

Need to know obviously but what i can say is having gotten their hands on some of the salvage the authorities have already made tentative enquiries about further expeditions and Genadi and Ivan are busy recruiting for the next zone run.....

[Dentatus]

Ideas exploded as I was adding the background.

That and you having a good time are the best compliments I can get. It's what I aim for whether I'm playing a game or writing one. Thanks for letting me know.
Contact me if you have any questions.

[Pooflinger]

Great post!  Love your board like a huge traffic jam perfect zombie buffet line!  Great miniatures too.  I think I need  more cars...

I've been preparing my own stuff for a game of zona Alfa as well.  Great fun picking out various monsters.  I love looking at various miniature lines with an eye for the apocalyptic.  Keep posting these are great hobby motivation.

[Grah]

Thanks for the compliments.

I think the Deep Cut mats give the visuals so much detail. Any terrain I put on only adds to that. I got the cars at a Toy Fair last year. I went looking to pick up some US squad cars but one of the traders had a couple of tables with maybe 500 ~1/50th scale cars in rummage trays for £1 each. All beat up with bits missing, some with three wheels. Perfect for modern/post-apoc. I came away from the day with about 25 assorted cars, trucks, lorries, ambulances etc most of what you can see on the table. Never did get the squad cars mind.

There are some great weathered cars in the Zona Alfa rulebook. I had a go at weathering with the white BMW on my report but my technique needs polishing. Maybe you can give tips on how you did that Dentatus?

I totally agree with you about the fun searching for monsters - on the net and at conventions, although I can't see us having either wargames conventions or Toy Fairs in the UK for maybe 6 months at the rate the real-life virus is going 

 

[fastolfrus]

Good looking board and good review/AAR

You were lucky with finding the vehicles.
Which toy fair was it?

[Grah]

It was the Shepton Mallet fair, probably last September or October

https://www.bulldogfairs.com/

I picked up one or two in the £2 range but most of the stalls sell shiny, 'mint' etc models that start at £5+ for the plainest. Then prices get crazy for exotic stuff. I think I saw one US squad car in whole place and the vendor was asking £20+ because it was in its original sealed card/box thing. I saw a couple of Russian civilian cars by Russian manufacturers but when I asked the price, that guy was after £30!

The other place to look is charity shops which seemed to be breeding in Wiltshire pre-covid. Now not so much.

[fastolfrus]

Local charity shops (North Yorks) have largely dried up as a source of vehicles, but we have a newsagent that always has a good stock of Lledo cars in their window (generally 30 or more different ones) but mostly 1920-40s subjects.
Are you looking for modern squad cars? If so I'll try to keep an eye open for any.

[Dentatus]

Lead Adventure Miniatures provided all the photos in the ZA book. I'm simply not that good at mini-painting or photography.

My weathering techniques come down to ugly colors, dry brushing, and ink washes.

[Grah]

Your painting ain't too shabby Dentatus. And the terrain in your games on your website is quite inspirational.

I do agree with you about how difficult it is to get good photographs especially with a phone-based camera, no matter how many mega-pixels it says it has!

I will just have to experiment with ageing techniques, adding grime etc to cars. There are usually lots of people on youtube who put up great instructional videos about pretty much anything these days.