Sarissa Small Terraced House

At SELWG, I bought one of Sarissa Precision's Small Terraced Houses (and ordered a Medium Retail outlet and a Survivor Shack).

Here is the kit of parts.

Two sheets of laser cut MDF.

One sheet of card and the instructions.

Once I had assembled the MDF and added the card door surrounds, I masked the windows and the roof.

I then sprayed it with Rustoleum Rust effect spray to give it some texture..

The masking was removed and it was given an overall spray of Halfords Grey Primer.

The inside of the windows and the roof was again masked and the outside sprayed with Army Painter Skeleton Bone.

The windows and doors were sprayed with Army Painter Army Green while still attached to their sheet. Once removed, the edges were painted with Army Painter Army Green by brush.

The brickwork at the bottom of the walls was painted with Humbrol 237 Desert Tan and then the bricks were painted individually with a combination of Vallejo colours with a wet palette.

The top of the chimney was painted Army Painter Stone Golem. The roof was Vallejo Burnt Cadmium Red.

A wash of Citadel Agrax Earhshade toned the walls down. The windows and doors were then glued in place with PVA.

Here's Negan - Training Day: parts four and seven

So, after the survivors did not survive the last three games, it was time for another rematch.

This time they kept their eyes on the prize, with a slight diversion when the first room became Compromised (reverting to unsecured) before Negan had set foot in it. Dwight had to rush back down the corridor to Secure it with John.

Moral: keep Negan in corridors until after that Event card has been revealed, use Clear The Way to hustle him through, but keep him at least three spaces behind the survivor in front if you are in a corridor.

They all made it through to the end room, with only a few bumps and bruises - this time John did not die at the end.

Game five was another two character plus Negan game, this time with Laura and Tara. The different characters have different abilities and weapons (Guns! Lots of Guns - so lots of Noise). This one went a similar way to four. I wish they would not store flammable material in that side room.

Game six was a success, again they kept their eyes on the prize and dragged Negan clear of the first room before it was compromised.

Game seven was Big League. All five characters plus Negan. The map had more doors and rooms to secure.

Because of the pinch point on the corridor, Dwight and Tara lead the way towards the Exit. Sherry and John went and cleared the room behind them.

Laura picked up the Supply token in the first room (an Angle Grinder!).

It was all going swimmingly until one of the Event cards opened the lower side room while Tar was passing releasing a number of Walkers. She fought them off and with John Secured the room.
When Dwight reached the Exit Room, it was on fire.

The Rivals Event card gave Laura +1 Actions (and Sherry -1 Actions) which was put to good use to get Laura up to the Exit room. Laura's ability to spend two actions on the same Action meant that they got the Fires out and the room secured.

Negan was then hustled across the board with Clear The Way with Sherry being the Tail End Charlie and not making it to the final photograph (she survived).

They did not score much on Reputation (Negan jumped up and down on all their Stuff, he was so angry at their lamentable performance), but they were all alive (though once again John was Bitten).

Here's Negan - Training Day: parts two and three

After the first game went so badly wrong for the survivors, I had another go.

As I had a better grasp of the rules, and was not taking notes it ran through much faster (the third game took less than forty minutes from the photograph time stamps).

Unfortunately for the survivors the result was not much of an improvement.

There are a number of learning points to take away from this.

Game Two.

John lead the way. the first room was secured promptly and with no fuss. Dwight followed along.

The second room was flooded which meant that you only got to reveal the Walker tokens when the survivor was adjacent to it,

Unfortunately, no one had the Boss's back and he was overwhelmed by Walkers from the Entry point,

Game Over.

Game three 

Having learned my lesson from the previous game, I used the Clear The Way action to get Negan across the corridor ahead of the horde. John pressed on, only pausing to attempt to put out the fire in the second room (Fire tokens increase the Threat level). This was to cost him as being within three space of fire can cause loss of Stamina. He then pressed on to the exit room. 

Dwight followed Negan to ensure he was not going to get eaten by anything following them. He did have a go at extinguishing the fire, managing to put out only one token.

John found the Exit room to be in darkness, this meant that in every Walker Phase it would spawn a Walker token until it was Secured. He did pick up a Sledgehammer, which would cause any Walkers adjacent to him to be made Prone, but at a physical cost.

He made one attempt to Secure the room, but on failing was overcome by the Walkers spawned in the Walker Phase. Having been Bitten, he turned.

And then Negan reached the entrance to the room. Negan will not enter an Unsecured room so stood in the doorway. Dwight did not have enough (or indeed any) Reputation to get him to move, so the spawning Walkers in the Exit room wore Negan down...

Game Over.

Learning Points

• Do not push ahead without ensuring Negan's safety. Use Clear The Way to move him through pinch points and clear of Entry points.
• Build up Reputation so you can Call Negan if he gets ahead of you. blocking.
• At least in this scenario, ignore rooms that are on Fire that are not on your route, you will need the Stamina.
• Make sure you have more than one character in  front of Negan, just in case one falls.

Now I have to wait until I get to play again, but in the meantime I will be planning my next cunning scheme...

Blotz Spawning Pool

At SELWG I noticed while buying some of Blotz's Crashed Spaceship scenery (qv) that they also had a Spawning Pool. I was not sure whether I was going to use it for Ghost Archipelago or as a large planter for Modern games.

It comes as a single medium sheet of MDF (the curved edges are a nice touch).

Assembly is slightly complicated as you need to  get the four components that make up the inner walls assembled in your hands before you can fit them in the base. Once those are in place (I would recommend letting the glue set) it is slightly easier to get the four pieces that make up the outer wall aligned.

I filled the bottom with Woodland Scenics Cinder ballast over PVA.

Once assembled and the glue was dried, I sprayed it with Rustoleum Rust effect paint for texture. Due to having used most of my Halfords Grey Spray Primer on the Sarissa Mini Mart, I then sprayed it with Halfords Black Spray Primer to cover over the strange metal effect. I was going to use Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray, but the nozzle was clogged up again so I used Citadel Zandri Dust followed by a spray from above of Humbrol Desert Tan.

The whole thing was then washed with Citadel Agrax Earhshade,

A couple of unfinished Snake Men for scale.

Overall a nice simple piece of scenery.

Here's Negan - Training Day

Scenario 1: Training Day.

This is the board set up (note this is for two survivors and Negan – this setup is different for more survivors).

The survivors are:

John, he is good at fighting and is armed with a Crowbar.

Dwight, he is better at shooting and has a Crossbow and a Knife.

I am using the Negan from the TWD:AOW Booster.

The starting threat level is 1.

This is a Solo run, so the player can choose which survivor activates first, this would affect play if two or more players were playing.

Turn One.

Survivors Phase.

Dwight moves forward to the first door, opens it (unlocked doors can be opened automatically), steps through, opens the door across the corridor and steps through.

Survivors can move up to three spaces as a Move action.

Dwight has entered an unsecured room so a Room card is drawn.

The card is “Lockdown”. The text on the card is followed, a supply token is placed in the room and the required die is rolled for Walkers. Luckily a blank is rolled, so no walkers.

As the room is empty, Dwight attempts to secure it. His player rolls the White Die and rolls a 1, this is equal to the Secure number for the threat level so the room is now Secure. Negan will be pleased. Dwight gains one reputation.

That is it for Dwight’s activation so the activated marker is placed on his card.

John moves forward his three squares. He has nothing he can do with his second action, so the Survivor phase ends.

Walker Phase

The player draws an Event Card “They Are Everywhere!”. The threat is increased and walker tokens are added to the board. John is looking at one of the tokens so it is revealed as a Red die. John is not as lucky as Dwight and gets two walkers.

The other Walker tokens are moved one square towards the survivors.

The first one is in contact with John so attacks (they do not move). John’s player rolls a die for defence, and a die for the Walker attack. John gets a 2, the walker a 1 so the attack is fended off.

Here’s Negan! Phase

Nothing happens in the first turn.

End Phase

The activation tokens are removed.

There is one Secured room but three Survivors, so the Threat Level is increased.

Turn Two.

Survivors Phase

Dwight moves in contact with the locked door. With his second action he tries to Break And Enter. The Player fails the roll and Noise is caused. Another token is added adjacent to the entry point (which is currently occupied by a Walker) and the Threat Level goes up again.

John chooses to attack the Walker in front of him. He rolls his Fight plus his Weapon. This gets four hits and two Headshots. The Walker collapses motionless. John bravely moves forward to face the Next Walker, protecting Negan.

Walker Phase

The Event Card is drawn and the text followed. No Threat Level change takes place.

The Walker tokens are moved. Dwight is in for a surprise when that door opens.

The Walker facing John attacks. John once again fends off the Walker.

Here’s Negan! Phase.

Negan wants Dwight (furthest from him) to move three spaces towards the exit (unlocking doors as required) OR ELSE! Unfortunately, there is a Walker behind the door and Dwight takes the Reputation hit.

End Phase

Threat goes up (still three survivors but only one secured room).

Turn Three

Survivor Phase

Dwight tries the door again. Fails again. Dwight is stacking up the tokens behind that door. To pass the time he searches the token. Congratulations, you win a Fat Cigar.

John bravely goes for a “Clear The Way” action, moving Negan three squares towards the exit. He then attacks the Walker in front of him. He beats but does not Headshot the walker and it goes Prone. The Walker token behind it is revealed, and John’s luck does not improve – three more Walkers. Luckily they cannot get to him because of the Prone Walker.

Walker Phase

Poor shuffling of the Event Deck – same card as last time. There is a bit of a queue at the exit! No Walker can contact John because of the Prone Walker.

Here’s Negan! Phase.

Negan is “Sick Of Dwight” causing Dwight to make Noise.

End Phase.

Threat goes up again.

The Prone Walker remains Prone.

Turn Four

Survivor Phase

Dwight decides that discretion is the better part of valour and moves away from the Locked Door.

For his second action he attempts, but fails to Hold His Nerve.

John moves towards the barricade and attempts to jump it. He fails. He will have to move round his boss. This is not going to go down well. He also tries to Hold His Nerve. He also fails.

Walker Phase.

A Red die’s worth of Threat is added and a Walker appears within three spaces of Negan.

Here’s Negan Phase

Negan is not a happy chap. John loses his only point of Reputation. He also loses a point of Stamina, as does Dwight. The Walkers are attracted by Negan’s howls of anger.

End Phase.

The Threat Level rises again, but the Prone Walker does not.

Turn Five.

Survivors Phase

This time it is John’s turn to go first (remember this is a Solo game so the player can choose who goes first).

He moves in contact with the Locked Door and by the magic of his Crowbar, it opens without a roll. Unfortunately that reveals a queue of Walker tokens.

The first one is a blank. The second is a White die, but the player rolls a blank! His luck continues to fluctuate, this time a Blue die. Two Walkers. The last visible token is a Red die, but his luck returns, another blank.

He decides to try and reduce the threat level (it has reached Medium) and succeeds, reducing it by one.

Dwight shoots at the Walker nearest his boss. He gets a blank and a 1, the Walker’s defence roll is also a 1, so it becomes a bit of a pin cushion.

As he cannot do anything else, he also tries to Hold His Nerver. It goes as well as his shooting. There will be trouble.

Walker Phase.

Yes, really make sure you shuffle the Event cards. Brief pause for a shuffle.

New card, Threat goes up and another token is added. There is a definite queue for John’s attention.

Negan takes a hit. This would cost Reputation, if there was anyone with any Reputation in this party.

John defends himself from the Walker in front of him. He defends himself easily.

Here’s Negan! Phase

Well, Negan is Enraged by being attacked! Dwight and John receive a stern telling off from Lucille. Two Walkers also suffer the result of his wrath.

End Phase.

Threat goes up, Prone Walker stays down.

Turn Six

Survivor Phase

Dwight shoots the Walker across the barricade. No effect. He does drop the Threat Level though.

John Attacks the Walker, knocking it prone. With his remaining action he moves to one side. Negan is not going to be happy in the next phase.

Walker Phase.

More tokens and Walkers.

There is one Walker adjacent to Negan alone, and one that is adjacent to both Negan and John. The combat is split so John fights one and Negan fights the other.

John just defends himself. Negan takes another hit.

Here’s Mister Happy!

Enraged again, Dwight and John feel his wrath, as does one Walker.

End Phase.

Threat goes up, Prone Walker stays down.

Turn Seven

Survivor Phase

Dwight shoots and hits a Walker. It goes down (but not out).

For his second action, he pokes at the adjacent Walker with his knife. He pokes it in the eye! He is on the Reputation score board again!

John dispatches the Prone Walker and clambers over the body.

Walker Phase.

Lots more tokens.

John is Bitten, which is not good for him.

Here’s Negan Phase

The log jam (Walker Jam?) stops the effects of Negan’s Action.

End Phase

Threat goes up and the two Prone Walker stay down.

Turn Eight

Survivor Phase

Dwight shoots at the Walker in the doorway. It is knocked down. Once again, his first aid abilities fail him.

John attacks the Walker, knocking it prone. He is adjacent to a door and opens it, the first Walker token is luckily a blank, the second generates two Wakers. He moves into the room (with two Walkers in it).

Walker Phase

The Event card causes Dwight to shriek, the Noise attracting unwanted attention. The threat level is now High.

John is surrounded by hungry Walkers, he rolls his Defence die, while the Walkers roll a cumulative three dice. He rolls a blank. They roll a blank (sigh of relief, cut short by…) and two 1s. John joins the ranks of the Walking Dead (having been bitten then reduced to zero Stamina). The character is replaced by a Walker.

Negan loses another point of Stamina.

Here’s Negan! Phase

Negan is Enraged again. Dwight loses his only point of Reputation. He does dispatch another Walker.

End Phase

The Threat goes up, as do two of the Prone Walkers.

Turn Nine.

Survivor Phase

Dwight dispatches a Walker. He then patches himself up.

Walker Phase

The Secured token is flipped back to Unsecured.

The Walker tokens and Walkers move. Negan loses another Stamina point.

Here’s Negan! Phase

Negan is Enraged again. He dispatches another Walker and Dwight loses another point of Stamina.

End Phase.

The Threat goes up, and one of the Prone Walkers stops laying about.

Turn Ten

Survivor Phase

Dwight fires at the walker in the doorway. He misses. He does some first aid and regains one point of Stamina.

Walker Phase

More and more they come… Negan takes another hit.

Here’s Negan Phase

You guessed it.

End Phase

Threat up, Prone Walker up.

Turn Eleven

Survivor Phase

Dwight shoots again and the target goes Prone.

He patches himself up.

Walker Phase

And the Event Card pushes the Threat over the limit and the game ends.

In conclusion

This went wrong from Turn One with the Lockdown Room card. The plan was to open the door and then snipe down the corridor. Not being able to get through the door from turn two until turn five messed up the plan and allowed the Walker numbers to build up.

It is very difficult with just two Survivors, the entry point in the corridor needs to be held to allow Negan to get safely into the first room. It might be that he is big enough and bad enough not to need that protection, but it will not do wonders for the characters Reputations.

The game itself went fairly smoothly. I did need to check a couple of the rules again (the rules on Doors could do with being in the index).

So reset and try again, maybe with more survivors.

Here's Negan!

So I have painted Negan from the Here's Negan game.

The bit under the right arm needs a bit of work.

The base has had a Zinge Industries Engineering brick (cut in half) added.

Negan about to introduce Lucille to twoWalkers.

Here's Negan! - Rules overview

Here’s Negan!

Here’s Negan is a semi-cooperative board game set in the universe of The Walking Dead comics. I will assume that the reader is aware of the background.

The game is set when the Saviours initially arrive at The Sanctuary. Their cooperative mission is to secure the site for their leader (Negan) while also individually gaining some degree of respect from their fiery and unpredictable leader (not getting him killed also helps).

Rules overview

If you are a player of The Walking Dead: All Out War game, a lot of the rules and components will be familiar. There is a Threat Tracker (slightly different from the AOW one), Event Cards, Supply Cards and the special dice (black, red, white and blue with different values on the faces).

The first difference is that this is a board game, so there are sixteen double sided tiles that will make up the playing area.

The tiles are about six inches square with a five by five grid overlaid. The grid is used for movement and range purposes. These tiles represent the rooms and corridors that the characters have to clear and secure. The scenarios have the layout of the tiles and where to place the various features (also on thick die cut counters) that need to be positioned for that scenario.

There are twelve Walkers to harass the characters and the five characters, plus their boss Negan.

The Walkers are the same as the ones from the TWD:AOW Core box.

The painted one is the Salute 2017 freebie.


To add to their woes, there are a set of “Walker Tokens” which are used to denote the unseen but heard threats. The flip side has nothing or one of the coloured dice symbols to denote the number of Walkers that appear when a character gains line of sight on the token).

One important item is “Lucille”, Negan’s beloved baseball bat. This is a larger token that is held by the “First Player”.

The “First Player” gets to make some of the decisions in the game, at the end of each turn “Lucille” is handed on to the next player. The initial “First Player” can be chosen by the players or by each rolling a Blue die with the highest becoming the “First Player”.

The game can be played solo, but they recommend having at least two characters. Increasing the number of characters increases the difficulty (more walkers, more difficult to secure rooms etc.).

Negan is controlled by a set of Action Cards, plus in each scenario he knows where he is going, get in his way at your peril.

Turn Structure

Each turn is split into four phases:

1. Survivor Phase
2. Walker Phase
3. Here’s Negan!
4. End Phase

In the Survivors Phase, each player (oddly starting with the “First Player”) can perform two different actions (similar to TWD:AOW). This has the usual move, fight, shoot, search, hold your nerve actions plus others such as “Clear The Way!” and “Call Negan” which affect Negan’s actions.

Shooting and Fighting use the “skill” dice plus weapon dice system used in TWD:AOW versus the opponents Defence dice. Unlike in TWD:AOW, the target should be Walkers only.

The objective is to clear and secure rooms, a room can be secured by clearing a room of Walkers and then rolling a White die (plus an additional White die per other Survivor in the room) to beat the Secure target for that Threat Level on the Threat Tracker.

In the Walkers Phase, the First Player draws an Event Card and follows the instructions on it. This may include increasing the Threat Level (which happens before any other effect of the card).

Once the events have completed, the Walker tokens are moved towards the nearest survivor (including Negan).

Once the tokens are moved, the Walkers follow suit.

Any Walkers adjacent to a survivor attack. Player characters can defend using their Defence plus any additional equipment that can be used. Rules for being Bitten can cause a character to be eliminated from the game (an unbitten character who is reduced to zero stamina is just out of play).

Negan has his own rules (moral, keep the Walkers away from the Boss).

In the Here’s Negan Phase an Action card is drawn which determines his actions for the turn. Make sure you are not in his way and are keeping up to his schedule, other wise there will be Words (and a kiss from Lucille).

The End Phase has all the housekeeping. This includes increasing the Threat Level due to Fire or having too many unsecured rooms. Lucille is then passed onto the next player.

Next: Playing the game.

Rosita

So here is Rosita from the Rosita and Eugene Booster for Mantic Games' The Walking Dead: All Out War game.

Here's Negan!

I managed to get a pre-release copy of the forthcoming Here's Negan! board game from Mantic Games.

So here is the box:

A large square section box made of durable card.

Lifting the lid shows it packed with stuff. I removed the two sheets of counters for this photograph.

The character and reference cards bottom left,  Events and Supply cards top left, figures top right and  bags for the counters bottom right.

Walking Dead type dice are used. Bottom right are the double sided tiles.

One of the die cut sheets of counters.

The other sheet of double sided cards with the threat counter bottom right.

The Walkers.  First six. As you can see they are the same as the All Out War walkers. This is not an issue as the walkers are distinctive, but not so much that having multiples of the same figure but with a different paint scheme would be an issue. The freebie figure from Salute 2017 is the painted one.

The second six.

The Saviours and the Initiative Marker in the form of a larger scale version of Lucille..

Here's Negan!

That is an edge effect of the flash by the way.

Another of the Saviours (I need to photograph the others individually).

In case you thought I had just lifted photographs off of the Internet, here is Negan towering over William Killian.

William and Lucille.

Now to start reading the rules.