Stargrave - Q37 Zombie Shoot

Sunday was our 2nd scenario of the Q37 series. This time we had 4 crews competing.

Scenario:

After the fight at the Medlab, you returned to your ship & patched your crew as best you could. Speaking to your crew, you decide that another foray into this complex could be quite lucrative. This facility was obviously very hush-hush & who knows what lays hidden within, only awaiting those bold enough to discover them.

 

Alas your venture hasn't gone at all well. No matter how many you've put down, there just seem to be more of the walking corpses around every corner. Your ammo is running low & if you don't get back to your ship soon, you might be down to using knives. Your only path to the ship lies through some maintenance shaft hatches in a chamber filled with zombies!

Special Rules: 

1)  All crew members must exit through a hatch. The hatches are locked, but can be picked or hacked (TN16) to open them.

2)  Reanimation & infection rules apply. All infected crewmen are marked with a token. Once they perform a test, the marker is removed. If passed they haven't turned......this time.

3)  Low Ammo. Players who roll a 1 or 2 for a shooting attack jam their weapon. If the same crewman rolls another jam, that weapon is out of ammo for the remainder of the scenario.

4)  The Shambling Dead. At the end of each turn, 3 soldier zombies arrive at different spawn points.

5)  Random Encounters. Whenever a loot token is unlocked roll a D20. On a 10+, 2 plague zombies arrive at different spawn points.

6) Sealed Doors. All the doors are locked (TN14). They can be either picked or hacked to open. Doors can also be closed again, however it will require another successful TN14 test.

Loot & XP:

Roll for loot as usual, however if a player rolls advanced technology, they may choose to roll on the Q37 advance tech list.

XP is gained as normal with the following additions

+5xp for each crewmember who exits through a  hatch

+20 xp for each hatch unlocked by the crew

+5 for each door unlocked by a crew (can only be earned once for each door)

 

The Central chamber with 12 plague zombies!

 

My crew arrives & makes for the first door

 

Dan's crew enters. I realize I don't have all the crews names written down!

 

Chen's crew

Craig's crew

Soldier zombies make their appearance

The crew's are managing to get through the doors. I've helped another crew decide the path they should take by a force wall.

Craig's crew bursts into the centre chamber first!

Chen & Dan filled the room outside the centre chamber, discussing who should go in first.

With many grenades, the zombies were whittled down quite quickly. This was getting near the end where all crews were able to unlock & make it into the maintenance chambers.

All the crews managed to get out. There were several new crewmen who became infected from the bullets of the plague soldiers. I have 2 of my specialists now infected. Hopefully they survive from turning as there are no opportunities to replace them while we explore the station.

Now its time to prepare for the next scenario! Thanks for visiting.

 

Stargrave - Hazmat Plague Zombies

 While scanning the various Stargrave Facebook groups, I noticed that there seems to be a lot of groups currently going through the Q37 scenarios, as is our gang.

I first noticed these 3d printed files on a post by Gregory Padilla. After some quick chats I was also able to find them on MyMiniFactory.

 

I liked his use of various colours for the suits & decided to do the same. 

 

There are 5 figures in the set, the last is the crawling one, which I've not painted at this time.

 

I used the slapchop paint method for most of the figures, that last thing I still need to do is get a small pot of gloss varnish to put on the shattered visors.

 

Once these were done, I decided that I liked the lighter suit colours & will likely stick with those should I print/paint some more.

 

You can expect to see these shamblers in this after game photos from our 2nd Q37 campaign scenario this Sunday. Stay tuned...

Happy New Year - Welcome to '24

As we continue with our Green Winter here in Alberta (for the most part), the Calendar has now ended for 2023 & we find ourselves in 2024.

 

As with most, its when we look back at what's been & look ahead to what may be. I've certainly been around long enough not to make firm commitments at the beginning of a new year as you will often be disappointed as life has a way of launching curve balls at you. 

 However that is not to say we shouldn't make some plans & have goals without limits. 

Before we get to that however, lets see what I've accomplished hobbywise for 2023. 

1.  Well the first goal completed was to finally finish painting the core set of Zombicide (1st Ed). I could have done this sooner, but had bought a 2nd set of the zombies. This had the effect of me painting lots of the walkers, while leaving the Runners & Fatties aside.

 

2. I finally took the plunge & took an intro to airbrushing course in December. Thanks to Maple Airbrush for hosting & Courtney for teaching. All the students received a resin Charizard to learn on. Mine still has a way to go to complete.

 

3. We launched a new Mordheim group & got a bunch of new people into the system. Evan & Taylor are keeping it active, though I've been unable to manage attending the 2nd Campaign.

4. I continue to run Stargrave once a month at my place & am really enjoying the shenanigans, though I am always chasing my tail it seems getting ready for the next game with terrain or figures. Luckily 2 of the gang have done a stellar job at having the critters & pirates available to allow me to focus on terrain. Thanks Chen & Scott. 

Taking a look back at what I posted at the beginning of the year, I believe most of the check boxes are in the positive. 

What to do in 2024?

Now for what I hope to do for this new year & to keep it inline with what I posted last year, I will make 3 goals.

1.  Continue to divest myself of hobby items I know will never get done.  This was started in 2023 & will continue.

2. Select another game system from one of the many kickstarters I've done & get the core box of figures done for it as well. I think this may be a goal every year going forward. I seem to have this odd quirk where I don't want to play the games without the figures being painted if I believe it will make the game look better. 

3. As with the previous year, work at getting more stuff painted up. I did see an improved amount of figures done in 2023 though I don't have one of those tally charts that many use....maybe thats something to look into. 

Well another tradition is looming & thats spending some time gaming at Craig & Arlene's for their New Year Gaming Afternoon.

 Wishing everyone the best for this New Year! 

Merry Christmas!

Taking a few minutes while the turkey is resting to get a post out. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! In this festive season please don't lick any poles!

 

I have several presents under the tree that I will post later, but the one takeaway this year, is that all the gaming items received are either already painted or do not need painting! How rare is that!

Also I've been working away on an upcoming Zombicide club campaign. Here is a sneak peak being that this is a time for giving....

 

I got the wall files from Perrochon on Thingeverse & have a bunch printed out. Now working on colour themes that I can paint up more walls as needed when the campaign progresses. I have lots of graffiti decal sets from various companies. The last building for the first scenario is currently on the paint table & while all the base colours are done, & is now waiting for the decalling to occur. 

I have the vehicles ready (still clean as the Zompocalypse is just beginning), & am now getting some dumpsters together. Will think about adding the garbage bins I am seeing printed too...if I have enough! 

OK my mouth is watering, I need to eat! Best wishes all! 

Stargrave - Q37 The Medical Lab

Sunday saw us begin our Q37 scenarios in our current campaign. It was also the first run through for the ship encounters using Bold Endeavor. Even though there was no plan to have the Unwanted Company arrivals, 3 of us rolled events that added the pirates chasing us to the next scenario. We had 5 players in this game!

To continue the narrative of this current campaign I had to add additional text to the scenario.

 Scenario 3 - The Medical Lab

Having jumped away from the planet that was being invaded by the pirates, your comms picks up a garbled message. Unable to decipher the words, you were able to get a location. Checking against your star charts, the location appears to show empty space....there is nothing there. Guessing it may be a disabled ship, you figure this may offer a lucrative opportunity & set course.

Upon arrival, you find an uncharted planetoid. The signal is being emitted by an orbiting beacon. Getting a visual of the beacon shows that its been heavily damaged by weapons fire, which explains the garbled transmissions. You then turn your attention to the planet, where a surface scan reveals a large station. Hailing the station is met with silence. Your curiosity piqued you land your ship at one of the landing pads, though no-one greets you.

Despite your misgivings, your exploration thus far has proved quiet. Everything seems strangely normal, theres just noone here. It appears as if everyone just got up & left, leaving everything as it was. Yet there is something ominous, an unhealthy smell is in the air, something worse than the usual staleness of recycled oxygen.

Having passed through the outer habitat sections, your draw closer to the centre of the station. You are starting to get a few hits on your sensors. It could be interference from the station itself, potentially other crews or maybe you've finally found the residents.

Setup - In the center is a large room containing 16 Stasis Pods situated around the outer edges. The middle of the room contains various medical/science stations & a couple of computer consoles which are still operating. The remainder of the board contains walls sectioning off & contain various crates & containers. The central loot token is placed in the centre of the table.

 After players determine their starting location, each deploys 2 loot tokens (1 data / 1 physical) using the normal rules, excepting that 1 of the tokens must be placed beside a stasis pod. Players will then deploy 2 small & 1 large salvage token anywhere on the table.

Special Rules 

At the end of each turn, starting with the player that lost initiative, each player has the option to select a stasis pod & roll a d20. On a 13+, the player deploys a plague zombie within 2" of the pod. The pod then sinks into the floor after discharging its occupant. The zombie may be placed into combat with anyone that is within the 2" area.

The Reanimation rules are in effect

All doors are sealed & will need to be hacked or picked to open them (TN14)

The windows are treated as force walls & require a natural 19-20 to shatter.

Whenever a Loot token is unlocked, roll a D20. On a 10+  a plague zombie enters at 2 random entry locations.

 Loot & XP 

Roll for loot as normal after this scenario 

+10 xp if Captain is ever in combat with a plague zombie

+10 xp if First Mate is ever in combat with a plague zombie

+10 xp if a member of the crew is reduced to 0 health

+5 xp for each door unlocked.

 

Aroo-Gah's crew makes for the first doot after dropping a force wall over the unneeded access.

With the first door down, the crew moves to the second.

Oddly enough, 2 of the windows were shattered with the first attempts to shoo them.

Of course this was made much tougher with the addition of the Unwanted arrivals of pirates. It seemed that most arrived behind the Empire Crew

Scott's crew is tied down with Pirate Shock Troopers...

Four crews have entered the main chamber, with zombies running about

Aroogah unlocks an objective while covered by smoke

As my crew begins to withdraw, more Pirate Shock Troopers block the path

Scott's Captain is surrounded by members of Craig's crew.

We had quite a few fall to the zombies, pirates included, which were annoying as they too became reanimated. I believe all the crews made it away with loot, though many had  fewer crewmen for the effort....though I am sure they will return...as Zombies!

Stargrave - Plague Zombies

As we launch the Q37 scenarios in the next part of our campaign I needed to get a bunch of Plague Zombies painted up.

Luckily I have a pile of the Mantic plastic sprues of them. These are multi-part & can be built in various ways.

 

Which I did without thinking too much. I ended up gluing 2 helmets on as if they were 0 environment ones. Realizing it after the fact....well I went with it & am happy with how they turned out.

 

This is the first batch of what I am sure will be more as we progress in the campaign. These were speed painted. I went with grey outfits to represent station security types.

 

It would seem that while trying to control some of the infected, they too became infected. Speaking of the other infected, I was hoping to find generic civilians/scientist/doctor plague zombies, but my current searches have yielded little. Maybe some of you 3d modellers who may visit can run with this! This led me to my Zombicide figures where I painted up the inmates from Prison Outbreak.

They will be good generic plague zombies while I continue my search! The game is this Sunday, so looking forward to the insanity!

 

 

Stargrave - Salvage Tokens

 As we are about to begin using the Bold Endeavor & as I was reading through the Ship Maintenance, it got me thinking about creating some Salvage tokens, that crews could grab whilst on their adventures.

I made 2 sizes, small & large using scrap sprue & some leftover bits of PLA to represent cables.

Painted them up with a bit of weathering, you know what they say about one mans trash...

How these will work is that they will be randomly placed by the crews just like the data & physical loot. A crewman can then grab them by spending an action to pick them up. They will suffer the penalties of a heavy item & be slowed to half movement.

Now you say what about the big one? Well, that will require 2 crewmen to carry.

So, after lugging these 'spare scrap parts' back to the ship, how do they work?

They can be stored in the cargo hold. Small tokens will add 10 structural points if the engineer successfully makes his TN10 roll. Large tokens will add 20 structural points. These can be used after determining the result & seeing where the new structural total falls with regards to the Critical Thresholds. Players may then freely add the extra structure points.

I will be adding these to our next game (Sunday) to see how they are received by the gang. As we all are using well used (almost derelict) craft our ships only have 500 structure points to begin. This little project had reduced more sprue ending up in the trash & I have some ideas of some other piles & containers with scrap to use.