Monday 31 January 2011

The Crazies, Apocalypse Z and Bevo Modern Combat

Apocalypse Z arrived in the post on Saturday. Bought in Mongoose's current garage sale. Not bad, not bad at all. As a result, I couldn't help picking up a copy of The Crazies (2010) when we went down to Tesco in Forfar for the weekly shop later in the morning.


I had procrastinated watching this remake, despite the presence of Radha Mitchell, because the original 1973 movie remains burned into my mind as one of the seminal movies of my life. In this 2010 remake, Breck Esiner has made a scary mainstream modern horror movie, but it's no real comparison to the original.

My only real niggle with the movie, is that a whole portion of the onscreen story seemed to be missing from the moment Timothy Olyphant, who plays the town sherrif, works out the source of the problem, before the authorities suddenly step in with force to contain the viral menace.

Nevertheless, very watchable and an enjoyable movie, with great perfromances from the main cast as they struggle to  understand what's going on and then escape from the 'crazies', virus, feral rednecks and the military. Which together make for a lot of potential gaming fodder.

Having bought Battlefield Evolution: Modern Combat earlier in the month, Apocalypse Z was purchased on the back of a recommendation and I was happy to give it a go albeit at a knockdown price. You'll find a  review (click here) that gives the low-down on Apocalypse Z better than I could.

Got to say that Bevo: ModCombat has tripped something within Matt and myself. As a result, we are now scrabbling to collect 20mm Modern Russian ultra-nationalist forces a la Ghost Recon and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Even used it, admittedly fast and loose, to play a sci fi game mid week with Khurasan's new Ti Mohnid - I just couldn't wait whilst I got round to painting them up and wanted to get the miniatures into action asap.

It's time to shake things up a little.....

Cheers
Mark

14 comments:

  1. This free add-on supplement for the WW2 set may be worth investigating for optional rules:

    http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?products_id=59118&filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=2468

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  2. I've collected the BEVO stuff since the first set of A4 blink and you'll miss them rules came out with the plastic pre-paints. I'm not sure that the BEVO rules work well for WW2, I'm not even sure they work well for BEVO:MC to be honest - seems like things are either impossible to kill or fold up like paper targets. The British and US forces are almost unbeatable unless matched against each other, but I guess they knew their audience...

    Might have a look at Apocalypse Z though.

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  3. Thanks for the tip Steve.

    I hear what you're saying GJD. It's game more than war and I agree. Not a patch on Ambush Alley, Force on Force and similar, but it's a case of apples and oranges. We are using Bevo:MC as a bit of light relief to bring Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to the tabletop. It's fast, furious and bloody and a welcome distraction right now.

    Cheers
    Mark

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  4. Not on topic, true, but I liked the old blog header. The Peter Pig/Tabletop combo was more quirky...

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  5. Not off topic at all. I still like the old banner myself and I think "quirky" is an apt description. LOL!

    Cheers
    Mark

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  6. There is actually a reasonably clever CT/Striker mod for BFEVOMC. Let me know if you want it for sci-fi gaming.

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  7. I have just bought BEVO so will see what it plays like. By the way I have some of those Orion plastic modern Russians kicking about if you want them??
    Mike

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  8. I have written tons of unit cards for BF Evo MC together with my mate Pieta. But thanks to spambots we had to clear the evocommand forum's section where they were for download :-(

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  9. I have two of the Peter Pig Bomag landers on the painting table at the moment so yours is a miss. I'm not sure about the 1980's Citadel Miniatures shield transfer though.
    The new banner is great, lovely Critical Mass stuff.

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  10. Dylan - yes please!

    Sgt Scream - I've plundered the Evocommand forum threads - still plenty of content from page 28 onwards.

    Phil - LOL!

    Cheers
    Mark

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  11. Mark,

    I've shared the Striker mod for BFEVO here:
    http://www.mediafire.com/?soyf89dyffwkwam
    and the essential WaW mod (I'd highly recommend you use at least the new Suppression rule in it to avoid the easily exploited flaw in the Suppression rule as written in the rules)
    http://www.mediafire.com/?nd459d44jc05534

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  12. I hope to see you around the Evocommand forums now. :P It's getting rough with all the spambots like Sgt. Scream said, but I'm part of the spambuster team there and we're slowly getting rid of huge portions of it, but keeping it away is the hard part until the new login screening methods are put in place.

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  13. Thanks for the invite!

    Cheers
    Mark

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