I was finally able to get back on track with Liam and his ever-looming date with The Pit.
Since I was behind, I have an extra survivor’s Pit story in today as well. Beware a mother’s wrath…
But first, Liam has been waiting so patiently so let’s give him his due.
Liam is basically a large man-child. He’s really not much different than the other child survivors but he does have some Pack potential and gains a melee die over the likes of Billy & Ben.
I decided to deck him out like a badass apocalypse survivor complete with Chainsaw, Makeshift Padding, and Motorcycle Helmet. This is a far cry from his useless persona in the comics. To shore up some weaknesses, I have a Backpack to increase his pack size, a Paper Bag for his crappy Nerve value, and two luck items to help in a pinch: the Lucky Charm and the Keepsake.
The lights flicker on, blinding Liam as he gets to his feet. As his eyes adjust, the stark room comes into focus centering on the blood scrawled message in the center of the room: “SURVIVE.” Before he can even think about the cryptic message, Liam sees the walkers. With no discernible way out, the message becomes crystal clear as the dead start to notice they too are no longer alone…
Liam tries to play it safe, sneaking forward but a Roamers event pulls in walker Reggie.
Liam knows that cranking up the chainsaw this early with everyone so close will be suicide, he butts the blunt into the walker’s face and downs him.
It doesn’t last long as walker Reggie just stands back up.
Liam has survived round 1 with minimal effort.
Liam goes the far side of the nearest supply point and finds a 2×4 and stashes it in his backpack.
He didn’t quite get far enough away so walker Reggie is back for a rematch.
The universe just doesn’t like Liam very much. The Hunger event draws another walker and this is just too much for poor Liam to handle so he cranks up the chainsaw, looking to dance. This makes the walkers frenzy and brutalize Liam while his chainsaw just sputters, even with the lucky charm. His motorcycle helmet keeps him from outright dying but his crappy makeshift padding fails and a bite still gets through.
The chainsaw decides he’s not worthy and runs out of gas.
The silver lining (if there can be one in The Pit) is that the assault sends him backwards and the Mayhem caused by the chainsaw only pulls in one walker for an extra combat. Pissed that his chainsaw failed, he uses it bash in the head of the new walker. Maybe Liam’s got some grit after all.
And now Liam is getting close to just panicking at the situation all together.
Liam decides to drop the dead chainsaw and pull out his new 2×4, then run out of the walker swarm, drawing in a new friend.
The 2×4 holds and he’s able to fight off the new walker.
Now in panic territory, Liam will need some luck to get through the next few rounds.
Using his paper bag to calm his nerves, he sneaks around the side of the Pit walls only to catch Storm Comin’ event followed by The Walking Dead and Roamers. That brings almost everyone to the party but Liam does his best with what he’s got.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough against that horde.
Seems like Liam can’t fight fate and gets ripped to shreds.
Liam
- Result: Deathity-Death
- Threat Counter: 14
- Rounds: 4
- Supply Counters Searched: 1
- Walkers Killed: 1
Up next, we have Lori Grimes, Caring Mother.
Lori is decked out for pure combat. I imagine at this point, she is early pregnancy at the Prison and foraging for wood and supplies in the surrounding area. She’s got in a Riot Helmet and a Leather Jacket. Completing the package, she has the massive Felling Axe and a couple of baubles from her past, the Lucky Charm and Keepsake necklace Rick gave her long ago.
The lights flicker on, blinding Lori as she gets to her feet. As her eyes adjust, the stark room comes into focus centering on the blood scrawled message in the center of the room: “SURVIVE.” Before she can even think about the cryptic message, Lori sees the walkers. With no discernible way out, the message becomes crystal clear as the dead start to notice they too are no longer alone…
Lori does not mess around! She sees Shane’s ugly walker ass closing in and takes him down in one swing.
Lori then gets over to the supply crate and finds one I’ve never pulled before. Pretty useful but she hasn’t needed it so she moves on.
Lori is pretty good at staying out of the walker killzone…
But hits some bad luck when three walkers wake up from the floor and come after her.
Lori is still rocking that Felling Axe and it fends off most of the attack, settling for a minor hit with no infection.
Time marches on but with a Medium nerve, Lori isn’t in any serious danger.
Relatively speaking, of course. She runs away from the main group to get in the corner to reassess.
This pulls one of the walkers but she just keeps cutting them down, this time using her Keepsake to make sure this threat is neutralized.
Now that we’re in Medium territory, Lori is pressed for time before she starts getting overwhelmed with panic.
Lori sneaks out to the middle again but the pressure is just too much and a Frayed Nerves event card has her screaming, calling in a ton of walkers.
The results aren’t as bad as they could have been.
And her Felling Axe is just rocking the white dice but not quite enough as the 3 extra damage would kill her. She lets the jacket take the brunt of the damage to remain unscathed.
Still in ok territory, it looks like she’ll get one more round before starting to panic.
So she heads back to the corner to find another way around.
Only to see five walkers come lumbering after her.
This is not looking good until I realize that Lori might have found a loophole by ducking into that corner- a maximum of two walkers can get at her at a time! She’s going to lose her activations but at this point, she’d be just panicking anyway.
So Lori starts to get to work, smashing walker heads.
The Felling Axe takes down another walker!
and keeps knocking the walkers down round after round. I’m pretty sure, given enough time, Lori would totally clear this room from this position.
But, alas, it was not meant to be. Time has run out for our walker-felling heroine and so The Pit comes to an end.
Lori Grimes, Caring Mother
- Result: Threat ran out
- Threat Counter: 18
- Rounds: 7
- Supply Counters Searched: 1
- Walkers Killed: 3
Russ Spears
Damnable threat!!!!
I’ve got a rules/how do you handle question for you Christian. In the last melee if the die rolls had been even and the walkers were to be pushed back. With that many rows of walkers behind them, and Lori up against the wall, how would you play that?
Christian
I think the FAQ addresses that there are situations where models can’t be pushed back and in that case, they just stay locked in combat for the next round until they can resolve the push back in a future combat. I think I messed it up in my Shiva Pit game but the Lori’s case, she’s just stuck there until she dies or she clears all the walkers (or the game ends). Given unlimited time, I wonder if she could have cleared them… All the walkers needed was one whiff of the dice and she’d go down pretty quick.
Russ Spears
I’m just now getting into more of the actual playing of the game and seeing things like that pop up. I did away with the solo rule of upping the threat at the end of the turn in part so the game wouldn’t feel as rushed.
I’ve read reports of Negan w/ Lucille taking on 3-4 walkers at a time. It would be interesting to see him in the same backed-into-a-corner scenario as Lori to see if he could fend them off.
I really do like these Pit games you have – nice and quick, but ample opportunity to try different tactics.