7TV: Turtles vs Zombies

Image by RatGnaw on Deviant Art

Having finished my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last week, I wanted an excuse to get them on the table. With a distinct lack of gaming opportunities I turned to the solo option, and the best bag guys for solo games: Zombies!

In search of some inspiration for a game, I stumbled across not only the excellent title card above, but also a short motion comic that serves as a nice introduction to the game. LINK

The scenario was The Hit, and the Turtles would be joined by a VIP representing April O'Neil (in the TMNT PDF, April is a separate character, but I didn't want to worry too much about another set of abilities for this game), and was positioned in the centre of the board. As I was playing solo, I set the objectives (representing zombie spawn points) first and dice randomly for table edges. 24 zombies began on the table, but at the start of each turn I would draw from the 7ombie TV spawn deck for each objective still in action. I also swapped the zombies 'tactics' trait for the solo rule from 7ombie TV where all unactivated zombies gain a free move action. I used the zombie activations on the zombies closest to the enemy.

The Turtles rush to save April.

Zombies stumble out of the factory.

Michelangelo seals the first spawn point, by the bins.

Zombies clamber up onto the trailer to get to April.

Donatello sweeps them clear and hurls a gas grenade he'd invented.

Leonardo and Raphael shut down the warehouse spawn point.

April climbs off the trailer and the Turtles move to protect her.

More zombies swarm over the trailer.

Donnie looks like he's about to be swarmed.

Leo and Raph begin to cut their way through to the factory.

Mikey rushes in to clear out the spawn point beneath the trailer.

Whilst Donnie uses a grapple gun to swing to the builder's yard.

April makes it the safety of a cop car.

But Donnie's being hunted through the brickyard.

And Mikey is alone against the horde.

Somehow, Mikey and Donnie make it clear of their pursuers.

And the zombies keep coming.

Until a special effects sequence thins the horde.

Meanwhile, Raph and Leo are hacking and slashing.

And get closer to their goal.

But more zombies swarm out of the factory.

Raph and Leo find themselves hemmed in.

Ultimately, ninja training wins out and Leo flips over the car to success.

With a big chunk taken out of the zombie horde and all the spawn points sealed, the game was effectively over before the end of Act Two. Although I had fun, the zombies needed a bit of a boost for solo play. In retrospect, it would probably be wise to give them an additional attack or defence dice for each additional zombie in base contact with their intended target, as this would allow a swarm to bring down a hero - in this game the Turtles were never really in danger.

But I've given the Turtles a run out and I'm now aware of their capabilities. Michelangelo is the scout, both fast and resilient. Donatello is defensive, able to hold back foes. Raphael is primed for jumping into the middle of the fight and taking on all comers, especially big hitters. Leonardo is the leader and is able to take down multiple foes - he does well on crowd control.

It will be interesting to see how they do when their opponent can think.