Despite the quarantine, the holidays, my medical recovery, and even my boss telling me to slow down, getting a miniatures game has seemed overwhelming. With that thought, it's no surprise that a Christmas game nearly took until Orthodox Christmas to happen.
I had the idea of running a one-off zombie game using Last Days, once I completed these fine folks:
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| All available in Brigade Games Post-Apocalyptic line |
Backstory: You think a mall is a safe place? Not in the middle of a zombie outbreak, right in the middle of the holiday season, and you're a mall Santa. The carnage inside the mall made him snap, thinking he was the actual Santa Claus, he's recruited a couple short guys to dress as elves, and occasionally help the good boys and girls who can handle themselves in the apocalypse.
Santa - Selfish Leader
Elves - Cronies, toned down the machine guns they're all toting around (that's a lot of ammo to scrounge up.)
Kids - Kids, except I gave the boy a FA of 2. He has a pistol and a slingshot. Kid's got to have skills.
Rather than have a survivors vs survivors... with zombies that the game usually set up, and without digging out the Seasons book, I set up a simple plan while scrounging for supplies.
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| The town, with some ratty shoebox business, too zombies, but supplies... and a Taco Truck. |
Simple set-up using the "Escape" scenario out of the main book. Santa and his elves were on a supply run, when they realized there were too many zombies around the town, but they needed supplies before winter came in full. Three supply markers were laid out. Getting one and escaping in the taco truck would bring doom to the others back in the refuge. Two would be just enough to get by, and three would be a joyful Yule for all.
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| Zombies are already encroaching on the town. Time is of the essence! |
My eleven-year old Maja took control of the Santa and decided that splitting the group was a bad idea, and travel as a pack. No issue with the first objective, but she then proceeded to have Saint Nick and the elves unload on a lone zombie near objective #2... only to not kill it. It was finally dispatched round three, but by then it was too late. Noise tokens (gunfire attracts zombies) brought a few more on the board and each one of the monsters knew the one spot the noise was coming from.
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| Meanwhile, the horde found the location of all the noise. |
While the barn/garage in town was tempting, the Taco Truck was their only chance of escape from the growing horde.
The little girl crawled into the back of the truck, and the others formed a perimeter to give Santa time to get the truck started.
Santa needed to roll a 8+d6 and hit a target number 15. Luckily, each round after the first, he would add a cumulative +1 to the roll.
1st Attempt: Auto failure, but a 12 made things look positive.
Meanwhile, the boy pulled out a revolver, and his first shot was the best shot of the night, blowing away the menacing zombie.
Elf #3 finally got into the action.
Attempt #3 - As bad as it could get, a 12!
The horde finally reached the truck, boy and elf fought valiantly, but were simply overwhelmed by the numbers.
By the back of the truck, Elf #2's marksmanship declined quickly, taking out one zombie, but unable to hit the head on the one behind it. He opened up the back door of the taco truck and decided his last stand would be there... if Santa couldn't get the truck started.
Attempt #4 - With zombies descending upon him, Santa, the jolly old elf made one last try to fix the engine... and rolled a 14.
He took out two zombies before they were simply too much.
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| Oh Santa |
We called it at that. Elf #2 and the Little Girl were probably eaten by zombies, but there is that fleeting hope that he blasted the zombie trying to enter through the backdoor, locked everything up, and the supplies they recovered would be enough to tide them over until things calmed down.
They were probably eaten.
It's been a long time since we played Last Days, which is sad because it has been awhile since Maja picked out the rulebook... and the kids from Brigade Games booth at Historicon (remember conventions?) We butchered certain rules, like noise, but it took a little over an hour and dad and daughter had fun.
Next up: I try to get the younger sister in a quick Pulp game to finish that storyline.
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