Scoreboard Update (including a complete victory!)

So, our game group played a few games over the last month or so. These included three four-way games of Rogue Trader and a cooperative game of All Things Zombie. (Oddly enough, my one win did not come from the cooperative game.)

The Rogue Trader games were 2000-point(!) free-for-alls, played with similar forces each time, and having the same or similar objectives. (Basically, each force trying to commandeer a communications array or missile silo - while simultaneously trying to prevent the enemy from doing the same.) I got my butt handed to me - of course! - in two of the games, being the second player put out of action each time.

But I emerged victorious from the third game, despite one of the players fielding over 100 troops (about half of which made a beeline right for the right flank of my rogue trader's crew). It was a hairy situation, one I survived by the skin of my teeth. It tied me up for most of the game, and cost me a squad of imperial guard, a tough robot, and over half a squad of space marines. I still don't quite know how I survived, much less won the game, but when all was said and done I still had four models standing. (Although all the players almost lost, as an immature genestealer burst from the twitching body of an impregnated victim my fiancee's group had left in the middle of the objective building. We were expecting to see the genestealer end up as the last model standing. It took down my trader's ogryn bodyguard, Raymond, before being dispatched by his terrified toadie, Round-Short the gretchin.)

Our last game was the cooperative ATZ game - our first foray into that game. (We've experimented with the Chain Raction 3 rules a few times before. I really like the system, even if I have yet to fully wrap my brain around it.) Despite my character being one of the fastest on the table, an unlucky activation roll (and an almost maximum number of starting zeds) put me out of action very early in the game, as I was swarmed by nine or ten deadheads.

That event also put out another player's character, who saw "The Feast" (of zeds tearing my character to bits and devouring him) and blew his Sanity test. He ended up cowering in horror behind a house, which later mysteriously caught fire - which caused the brand spanking new Dodge Challenger in driveway to explode. We quickly made up a couple new characters who came in next turn and spent the rest of the game working their way across the table to join the remaining original characters. (Thank the gods for corn fields!) In the end, the four characters and their five new allies rolled off the table in a VW mini-bus as the table full of zombies closed in on the trailer park they were fleeing. Which brings me to my next point:

I love ATZ!

Sure, the system's a little buggy in places and the Chain Reaction rules take a lot of adjusting to, but the ability to play cooperatively, the simplicity yet personality of the characters, and the unpredictability of the game really make for a great experience, IMO. I'm hoping the other half of our game group are able to overlook ATZ's flaws and see the unpolished gem beneath, because I'd like to see a lot more of this game on our table.

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A Hard Won Thing Scoreboard:

3 wins / 2 draws / 19 losses

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