Unfortunately, we had a faulty start to Chapter 5, and had to cancel the scheduled game this weekend. Our player group, although very large at 10 players, was missing half of the group do to scheduling challenges. Admittedly this would have brought the group down to a “reasonable” size – a 5 player group is very workable. However the missing players made up the bulk of the meat shield side of the group, including the monk, barbarian, fighter, rogue, bard, and druid (and cat). The remaining group of wizard, sorcerer, cleric and paladin – though capable and strong – would have been very challenged to deal with the new threats without being overwhelmed without their reinforcements. As such, we will continue during our next session on April 22.
In exchange, we focused our attention on a fresh round of Zombicide: Black Plague, taking advantage of the idle players and using my partially painted zombies. We managed a victory in Quest 3 – The Shepherds, though it was very tense near the end. The group had managed to funnel the zombie spawns into a narrow opening, and with the might of the wizard Baldric, were managing to wipe them out rather handily. Unfortunately, the swarm had grown too fast by then, and in an poorly timed draw, the walkers closed in and devoured the wizard. Samson and Nelly had previously died after being separated from the group, which left only Ann, Silas, and Clovis in a street between two hordes, and closed doors on either side leading to the last two survivors (and more zombies). Ann battered the first door open and dove for the survivor, hoping to manage a hasty escape, but was caught off guard when the survivor was found to have already turned, resulting in her bloody death. On the other side, Silas killed the last nearby zombie, and managed to pry open the last door, to face off with the last couple of zombies. Fortunately, Clovis was well prepared, and waded into the building, quickly clearing the way to the last and final survivor. Realistically, none of the survivors would have managed to escape, but the group did complete the objectives, so it was a welcome victory regardless.
We attempted a second game, playing Quest 4 – Famine, but simply ran out of time. The group was doing decently well, but had managed to block themselves in far away from the vault, with an Abomination and many zombies closing in fast. Though they had numerous dragon bile vials and several torches, it was doubtful that they would be able to break thru the horde before they were overwhelmed, there was simply too many zombies on the board (and plenty of bonus actions during each draw). Officially, we called it a draw, but I am fairly certain it would be considered a loss.
I specifically did not film the games, though thinking back I definitely should have taken at least a few pictures.
