Last Days:
The cycle of game play
All right game fans, we’re going to start today off
with a look at setting up and playing a game of Last Days. Once you have your warband and your opponent,
you’ll need to setup the board for a game.
Remember, a 3 foot by 3 foot board is the recommended play area. A larger board will take longer to get your
people into the game and increase the likelihood that a zombie horde will
overwhelm both sides.
This is a game that encourages heavy terrain
density. The more is definitely the
merrier, and open lanes of fire in large areas, (like empty parking lots or
streets that are clear) turn it into a shooting gallery rather than the
firefight the game represents). This is
a game that works extremely well with a representation of heavy urban
environment like a city block or two, but I could also see someone using a zone
mortalis board to represent the inside of a ship at sea, or putting together a
large farmstead board to play a movie type scenario from Night of the Living Dead or The
Crazies.
On terrain and scenic elements, this game loves cars
and other vehicles. Fill up your
highways and byways with cars, trucks, school buses and big rigs. It gives your warbands interesting tactical
choices to make and helps bring the setting into the game. It’s highly unlikely that streets would be
empty of everything after an outbreak of civilization, so scattered cars and
vehicles make sense (especially if you can find the ones with doors that open
and feel like painting bloody hand prints all over the internals).
Terrain is classified into one of three types, Open,
Difficult, and Solid. Open terrain is
open streets and parks without any other scenic bits to get in the way of
movement. Difficult Terrain is rubble,
wrecked objects like cars or shipping containers and anything that makes moving
through difficult. Solid Terrain is a
functional car, walls, a building or any other piece of terrain that obstructs
movement rather than reducing it.
Ash has some directions on terrain dispersal for the
game, and presto, you’ve got your board setup.
Now, onward to mayhem and zombie destruction. The game is broken up into five phases, and
once both players have completed all five phases the game turn ends. Once players have completed the number of
turns laid out in the scenario, or one player’s warband has been eliminated or
run off the board the game ends.
Part 1: Menace Phase:
The first phase of the game turn, the menace phase,
represents the zombies and other scenario based game effects going off. The uncontrolled zombies activate during this
phase and follow a set protocol to determine what they are going to do. There are also other game play effects that
need to be resolved and the menace phase is when all of these specific
situations resolve.
Noise tokens represent the accumulated racket or
distraction that a character has gained over the preceding turns. For each character that has accumulated noise
tokens, roll 1D6 and add the noise modifier shown on the tokens. If a 6+ is rolled, then a new zombie enters
the board from the board edge closest to the noisy model. Most guns make noise, and a warband that
relies on guns to put down opponents has the potential to flood the board with
zombies.
Ammo tokens are acquired every time a character
fires a gun and represent the ever increasing chance that the current clip or
cylinder is out of bullets. Roll 1D6,
add the number of ammunition tokens and compare it to the reload value of the
weapon. If you equal that number, the
gun is out of bullets and has to be reloaded during subsequent phases or it won’t
be usable. If the reload number is
rolled, remove all the ammunition tokens from that character and start over as
they use their weapons.
Zombies follow a plan of action that works kind of
like this. If a zombie can see a human,
they will towards it. If they can’t,
they move towards the closest thing that made noise. Zombies move during this phase and if they
get into base contact with a human, they will attack them during the CQC
phase. Zombies have 6 AP base, and will
use their action points to move, (Remember, a zombie hit by a weapon that has
knockback has their AP reduced by that value assuming they weren’t outright
killed).
The last thing that occurs during this phase is the
removal of locked and loaded tokens. L
& L tokens mark characters that have assumed positions and stances to shoot
things that enter their line of sight during the turn, and they can take
opportunity shots against them should they pop up. You have to s pend the token to make the shot,
so they should only be around during this phase if nothing entered your line of
sight or you didn’t want to shoot at the target.
Part 2: Initiative Phase
The Initiative Phase determines who activates their
characters in the order of their choice.
Remember, Last Days is an I Go, you Go, I Go etc. game where both
players are acting in the same phase.
Being able to decide who moves first, or shoots first can be an important
tactical decision, and it comes down to the dice.
Both warband leaders roll an initiative check by
adding their intelligence and their courage to 1D6 roll. Ties are re-rolled if needed, and the winner
of the dice off determines whether they want to be the aggressor or the
defender. The aggressor gets to move
first, which means they can push into areas and get into better positions to
pursue objectives. The aggressor also gets
to pick first in CQC. The defender gets
the first activation during the shooting phase, meaning they get to Han Solo
someone. Remember, if you win the dice
roll, you get to decided which one you want to be, and it will be a decision
that changes turn by turn.
Part 3: Action phase
This phase represents movement and interacting with
your environment during the game. Starting
with the aggressor, players take turns selecting a character to activate. Once you’ve activated a character, you have
their AP stat worth of action points you can spend to do things including:
·
For 1 AP, you can move a model 1 inch in
any direction
·
For 2 AP you can move a model 1 inch in
any direction through difficult terrain.
·
If you want to, you can spend all of
your AP to take the run action, which allows you to move twice your AP in
inches (12 inches for most characters).
You won’t be able to take any other actions this turn though
·
For 3 AP, you can break contact with an
enemy model (Opponent controlled or zombie).
You move 1 inch away from the model you are in contact with and continue
your turn normally. Additional models in
base contact increase the AP cost by 1 per (don’t get mobbed by four or more
zombies).
·
For 2 AP per inch of height, you can
ascend climbable terrain to get on to dumpsters or buildings.
·
For 2 AP, you can open or close a
door. Doors remain opened or closed
until interacted with by another character.
·
For 2 AP you can reload a firearm.
·
For 4 AP you can gain a Locked and
Loaded token (which you can use to interrupt another character moving. They have to be within 12 inches, and line of
sight, but you do get to take shots out of phase. Unlike the other actions in the phase, you
can’t spend AP after you pick up your locked and loaded token, so you should
move first, then prepare the bullets.
·
For 2 AP, you can interact with an
objective, and the scenario will tell you how that interaction works.
After a character has spent all of his AP, turn his
card sideways to indicate that his action phase is complete. Once the first character spends all of their
AP, your opponent activates their character and repeats the same process of
deciding which actions to perform. After
every character on the board activates, the game passes to the next phase.
Part 4: Shooting Phase
This phase of the game is where all of the ranged
combat takes place. Starting with the
defender, players alternate back and forth activating models and taking shots
at zombies, each other, and in some cases, the scenery. Shooting attacks are easy to resolve, for
each shot that you are taking, roll 1D6 and add your character’s FA stat to the
roll. A combined result of a 7 is a hit. There are a variety of modifiers to the hit
roll, including cover, range, zombie, and ROF modifiers that will affect the
difficulty of the shot and modify that 7.
If you have hit the thing you’re shooting at, it’s
time to calculate damage. For Humans,
roll 1D6 and add the weapon’s damage to the result. Take this combined number and divide by the
target’s Endurance to determine how many damage boxes are filled in, (round
down for fractional wounds).
Zombies are a different matter, and some can take
scads of damage without being stopped.
When you hit a zombie, roll 1D6.
If you rolled a 5 or a 6, the zombie has been destroyed and is removed
from play “You got to hit them in the head” rule. Some skills make this easier, but we’ll cover
those when we talk about skills and attributes. Remember, a zombie that isn’t killed has its
AP reduced by the knockback value of the weapon it was hit with.
Once you’ve finished your shots, applied damage,
acquired noise and ammo tokens, turn the active character’s card sideways and
play passes to your opponent to activate their shooting attacks. After everyone has rained bloody murder down,
play passes to the fifth phase.
Part 5: CQC Phase
Starting with the aggressor, players take turns
activating characters in base contact with other characters (humans or zombies)
and start taking CQC attacks. Zombies
always go last during this step, and it’s a good idea to let your opponent roll
for the zombies that are trying to eat your dudes.
CQC is a little different from shooting attacks; it’s
an opposed die roll. The character attacking
and the character targeted both roll 1D6 and add their CQC statistic and any
other modifiers. If the Attacker rolls
higher, he has hit the target and then proceeds to deal damage. If the Defender rolls higher, they take no
damage from the attack. Damage for CQC
is rolled by rolling a 1D6 and adding the strength attribute. Divide by the target’s endurance and fill in
damage boxes.
When zombies enter CQC with a character, that
character has to make a courage check to see if they will have the option to
break off during the next turn’s action phase.
Both the character and the zombie make opposed rolls, (the character
using Courage, the zombie using Horror) if the zombie rolls higher, the
character cannot breakaway next turn, and is effectively stuck to the
zombie.
At the end of the CQC phase, both players will have
to check for a break test, if you’ve taken a casualty. Roll 1D6 and add the number of casualties you’ve
taken, compared against the Courage and Intelligence of the warband’s
leader. If the number rolled is higher,
your forces have broken and flee the battlefield.
Play then proceeds to the start of phase 1 for the next
turn of the game, and the process repeats.
I hope that gives you a breakdown of the basics of Last
Days, and you find this game as interesting as we do.
Game on, Game Fans
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