Vampifan's Views 58 - Monthly Musings 36

Vampirella and Dracula by Dan Brereton

November has been a very exciting month for me. In October 2013, I backed a Kickstarter project for the Mars Attacks game, along with a shed-load of extras. This took place a mere month after I had been discharged from a four month stay in hospital and I felt a bit of retail therapy would cheer me up. I made a very big pledge (about £200), despite the fact that I'm not really interested in Mars Attacks. I was not a fan of the film or of the Martian invaders. So why make a pledge for it at all? Simple. The human forces (civilian survivors and military forces) coupled with some great scenery items made this an excellent source of material to use in a zombie apocalypse game. I mention all of this because earlier this month I finally received everything I had ordered from Mantic Games, the producers of Mars Attacks. I knew I was in for a long wait for all of the stuff to be made and then shipped, but I'm a patient person and I didn't mind the wait. My order arrived in a very big box and it was like Christmas Day opening the box and admiring all of the goodies within. The miniatures are made of hard plastic and are very compatible with the figures found in Zombicide, which was a big bonus. The human survivors and US Army soldiers are excellent. I even like the Martians, despite my initial apathy.

Mars Attacks scenery items - so cool!

I ordered a load of scenery items to go with the game, including seven resin cast vehicles, five of which are wrecks and two that are intact and drivable. I also ordered a lot of scenery items, like ruined walls and an assortment of street furniture. All of these minis are crying out to be used in a zombie apocalypse game. The actual rulebooks for the game are nicely produced and easy to learn. This is, at heart, a simple skirmish game. Unusually, it uses eight sided dice for all dice rolls. Whether I ever play it or not remains to be seen but there is no doubt at all that I will use many of the minis in future games. Overall, I was very happy with what I got.

Components from the Mars Attacks boxed set. Note that everything comes unpainted.

Vampifan with Super Dungeon Explore and the Von Drakk Manor expansion set.

If you think my zombie gaming has come to an end, think again. I'm going to concentrate on SDE for the next couple of months but in the new year I will return to zombie gaming with a vengeance and with renewed enthusiasm. This is just a short break for me, albeit a most welcome and well earned break. After six years of painting hordes of zombies and survivors, I needed this break, so don't judge me too harshly.
Despite me saying I needed this break I haven't completely abandoned my zombie gaming. Remember I showed you some Stoelzel's SUVs I had recently made? I made one as a yellow SUV in honour of the heroes' vehicle from the film, Zombieland. Quite frankly, I was embarrassed by it. It was badly painted and fell far below my usual high standards. Well, I'm pleased to say it has had a major overhaul. I have converted it so it is now an almost exact copy of the Zombieland SUV. It has had a new paint job, which is much neater and it looks great! I'll post pics of it soon.