The Young Ones on Vacation - HeroQuest Skirmish battle report part 9

You can find part 8 of this battle report over here.

TURN 9 

The Hero Phase opened this time with SPG. The poor hamster hasn't moved much all game and is slowly getting swamped by zombies bordering the pond. In desperate need of a break, he finally rolls high for his movement. Scoring 11" of movement he decides to go for it. Crossing the shortest stretch of water to the ponds' edge, he darts between the legs of a Zombie Shuffler and makes a run for open ground and the caretaker's cottage where he saw Vyvyan entre recently. He has just enough movement to get beyond the zombies shuffling reach at the end of the turn.

"Och, out of my way Jimmy!"

Meanwhile Vyvyan decides that he has had enough of the lack of gratuitous violence and decides to take out the two zombies at the front door of the cottage. The door remains unlocked and so it's only a matter of time before even the stupid zombies manage to open in.

Rolling 10" for movement, Vyv heads for the door. The door is now unlocked and so doesn't require him to use an action to open it. This is good because he needs that action free or he wouldn't be able to attack. Vyv having a Cricket Bat gets a special rule. If he is in melee with multiple models, he can swing the bat attacking each one by dividing his Attack Dice as evenly as possible amongst his attackers. So that will be three Attack Dice on each zombie!

"You know, its moments like these that make me lose my usual tolerance towards communal living."

Rolling three Attack Dice on each zombie, Vyv gets three White Shields on the female zombie and two White Shields and a Skull on the male zombie. In defence, the male zombie rolls three Skulls. Vyv's swing of the bat must have missed the female and slammed to mush the head of the male zombie. This leaves Vyv with a zombie to worry about at the end of the turn.

"Missed! But I did smash his face in."

It's now the Security Turns phase and there is only Trooper 2 left alive. Now safe behind the wheel of the Humvee, he is ready to avenge his fallen comrades. He revs the engine and drops the clutch.

As a special rule, I decided that for each inch the vehicle moves, any zombie or person in the vehicle's way will suffer that amount of Attack Dice. For example, if 5" is rolled for movement, then any zombie in the way of the vehicle from the start of its move to where it finishes will suffer five Attack Dice.

Trooper 2 rolls 7" for movement. He elects to drive 5" straight forward and 2" further at a 45-degree angle. But any zombie in that path is going to suffer seven Attack Dice. In order to be eligible to suffer damage though the zombie's base must be in the front of the vehicle as it moves.

Eleven zombie bases are in front of the vehicle.

Road rage ensues as ten Zombie Shufflers and one Brute are in the way of the vehicle and the fence beyond. These zombies experience the craftmanship of the front fender, being smashed into various shades of red. One Shuffler however somehow manages to end up surviving seven Attack Dice and ends up on the bonnet of the vehicle still alive (in zombie terms). SPG meanwhile looks on in horror as the vehicle almost reaches where he is sheltering behind a tree.

The Monsters now get their phase and the female Shuffler in melee with Vyvyan lets fly with a bunch of slaps. Strangely reminding Vyv of his mother as he grew up, he suffers two Skulls in that attack. Vyv, stunned by the likeness of his mum, fails to defend himself and so suffers two Body hits. He has a total of 8 Body Points, so he is still alive. But that was savage.

"Ouch. Mum!"

"That hurt!"

With no other zombies in melee, the remainder shuffle after the closest visible, or the noisiest, non-zombie visible to their LOS. The Humvee is definitely the loudest, but SPG is also visible to some zombies, and a Congo-line forms up directly behind the hamster. Vyv, for now, is mostly hidden by the movement of the Humvee and so escapes attention.

Congo, Congo, Congo

And so, turn 9 comes to a crashing halt.

Happy Easter, 2026

Matthew 20:17-19 (NIV)

Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time

¹⁷ Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, ¹⁸ “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death ¹⁹ and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

 

May this Easter bring you rest, an abiding sense of peace in a very troubled world, and the everlasting deep-seated joy of knowing the one who died for you to give you true life.

The Young Ones on Vacation - HeroQuest Skirmish battle report part 8

You can find part 7 of this battle report over here.

TURN 8 

Vyvyan opens the Hero Phase with a movement roll of 5". Spying his car keys on the table in front of him, he leaves the front door. Going over to the table, he grabs his keys by the weird eldritch keychain a little old lady once gave him as a gift. "Not sure about that old lady. Something odd about her. Brilliant keychain though!" he reminisces to himself.

Meanwhile SPG, Vyv's pet hamster, is having issues down at the pond. The little fella rolls a total of 6" for movement, but he will have to swim across the pond to escape. Given that one inch of movement in water is equal to two inches of movement in clear terrain, the hamsters only options are to move the shortest distance to either side of the pond. However, awaiting there are two separate, hungry groups of zombies. Not a good situation.

Given his predicament, SPG decides to stay where he is for now. The poor little fella hasn't done more than move around the pond. He can't escape these wretched zombies.

So now it's the Security Teams phase. When I say Security Team, I really mean just the last survivor. Trooper 2 has watched in horror as his entire team got whipped out by zombies.

With nothing left to stay for, Trooper 2 uses his action to pop the Humvee roof hatch and drop down inside before closing it. No reason to stand around here shooting at these things. "It's time to get out of this horror show"; he says to himself.

With that, it's over to the Monster Phase.

Zombies aren't bright. The two Shufflers on the cottage porch are no exception to this rule given that they have a Mind of '0'. So, I decided that they can both each roll one die. If one of them scores a Black Shield, then it has managed to accidentally turn the doorknob as it bashes on the door and open it.

They both however managed to roll a Skull indicating that the stupid things just kept bashing on the door without effect.

Over at the pond the Zombies gathered there don't move, electing to stay and stare at the pint-sized snack on the little island in the middle of the pond. If only zombies weren't afraid of water. Actually, they aren't afraid of it so much as they avoid it. So SPG remains safe...for now. The last thing he'd want right now would be for a Spitter Zombie to show up. If such a thing exists. Hmm?

Finally, the remaining zombies all shuffle towards the car park and continue to surround the Security Team's Humvee where Trooper 2 looks on with growing horror.

And so, Turn 8 comes to a quick close and the Hoard shows no sign of stopping.

The Young Ones on Vacation - HeroQuest Skirmish battle report part 7

You can find part 6 of this battle report over here.

TURN 7

Turn 7 opens with the Hero Phase and Vyvyan finding himself in melee with a Zombie Shuffler, with two more Shuffler's closely behind it. Vyv lets fly with his Cricket Bat granting him a massive six dice Attack roll. Vyv scores a lethal four Skulls in that roll, and the zombie isn't able to negate such a massive hit. Vyv slams the zombie's head to mush, and the monster does down twitching on the front porch. "Take that, you bastard," he quips.

Vyv, now free to move, rolls 9" for movement and runs inside the now unlocked front door of the cottage. He slams it shut behind him and leans hard against it. Musing on what just happened as he inspects the blood and gore on his cricket bat, he turns to camera and says: "You know, some people find cricket to be an incredibly boring game. But I find it to be completely brilliant."

Technical note: for this scenario, to open a locked door or lock an unlocked door, requires an Action. However, to open and close an unlocked door does not require the Hero to expend their action for the turn.

Vyv gives the zombie a two-finger salute.

SPG however isn't having as much fun as Vyvyan. Rolling 7" for movement and, seeing the gathering zombies moving around the water's edge, the hamster decides to swim back to the little island in the centre of the pond. At least there he is safe for now. But there appears to be no way for the poor hamster to outpace his perusers by swimming right now. He would need a massive movement roll to get across the pond and far enough away from the Shufflers, and that's increasingly beginning to look less and less likely.

Now it's the Security Teams turn and the only member left of that team is Trooper 2. Having watched the horrid death of his Sergent at the hands of the Zombie Runner, he elects to seek revenge for his fallen comrade and opens fire on the Runner.

Trooper 2 shoots and scores two Skulls on the Runner. In response, the Runner manages to only roll one Black Shield in defence. With only one Body Point left, the Runner fails to negate one of the hits and has its head shot off by the vengeful Trooper. Blam!

And with that, the Monsters now get their turn.

With no visible non-zombie in easy reach to chew on, the zombies move to the closest visible non-zombie that they can see or just recently observed.

The two Shufflers that were coming after Vyvyan gather around the blocked front door to the cottage.

Vyv raises his bat to the window; "Want to play some cricket?"

SPG's admirers gather further around the pond looking for some Hamster snacks.

"Ock, bugger off you lot!"

Trooper 2 also attracts a fan base of zombies interested in inspecting the troopers insides.

With all the zombies now on the table, there are no more available to come onto the playing area. But there are enough zombies here already. 

And with that, Turn 7 comes to an end.

The Young Ones on Vacation - HeroQuest Skirmish battle report part 6

You can find part 5 of this battle report over here.

TURN 6

The turn opened with SPG rolling 7" for movement. Running across the small island and diving into the water on the other side, the hamster makes for the far side of the pond. SPG hopes to escape the gathering zombies on the other side of the pond and get out into open ground where he can catch up with Vyvyan.

Meanwhile, Vyvyan rolls a total of 6" for movement and, now with the keys to the cottage, makes for the front door. With more than enough movement to get there, and using his single action, he hurriedly opens the door.

Now the Security Team has its action phase. The Sergent is still locked in a melee with the Zombie Runner and is about to be surrounded by Zombie Shufflers. He needs to kill the Runner and get out of there as he already has a single Body hit.

Rolling his attack, the Sergent scores two Skulls, but the Runner manages to shake off one hit by rolling a single Black Shield in its Defence roll. So now both the Sergent and the Runner have a single Body hit each. This is very bad news for the Sergent.

Trooper 2, who last turn climbed onto the Humvee, now has a chance to shoot at the gathering crowd of zombies. He can't shoot the Runner as that would risk hitting his Sergent, so he elects to shoot the firefighter zombie that's just below him.

Shooting, the trooper scores two Skulls on the Shuffler, killing the firefighter zombie instantly when it fails to roll any Black Shields in defence.

There is no way Trooper 2 is getting down into the gathering zombie hoard and so he elects to stay right where he is.

So now it's the Monster Phase and each group of zombies move toward the closest non-zombie model on the table visible to them.

The Shufflers at the pond spy SPG making for the opposite bank and shuffle on to greet him there hoping in their undead minds to snack on the hamster's tiny brain.

"Ock, this is neigh good."

Meanwhile, as Vyv was busy with the locked door, the Shufflers following him come up behind him. Vyv turns just in time to see the closest female zombie making a lunge for his throat.

The female zombie attacks but fails to land a blow of Vyvyan, who quickly readies his cricket bat for next turn. So now Vyv and the Zombie are locked in melee going into Turn 7.

Meanwhile the other zombies on the field, and that includes a Brute, shuffle towards the carpark and the closest visible non-zombie. The happens to be Trooper 2.

The Security Sergent meanwhile is in a world of hurt. He is still in melee with the Runner zombie but whilst they scuffle three Shuffler zombies come up and surround him. He only has one Body point left so it's decidedly not looking good for the old chap.

The Runner, being in melee already with the Sergent already, gets first strike on the man. Rolling two Skulls in attack to the Sergent's defensive roll of two Skulls, means that the poor old man is out of luck. Two undefended strikes kill the Sergent outright and the zombies start a frenzy of scratching and biting at his fresh corpse as Trooper 2 looks on in horror.

Last, but not least, the five zombies waiting to come on to the board now enter and move their 5" towards Trooper 2 who happens to be the closest visible non-zombie.

With only three zombies now available, two Shufflers and a Brute, they are lined up on the board edge for Turn 7. The Zombie Hoard has grown significantly in the turns leading up to Turn 7. Things do not look at all good for our heroes Vyvyan and SPG.

Until next time.