Zombies! Part 2

I played another game of USE ME Zombie Dawn last week with my zombie-loving friend Graham.  This time we swapped roles, I was the zombies and Graham the humans.  The scenario is as follows... the survivors know that the zombies are closing in.  They've decided that it's time to move on, so 2 vehicles have gone into town one last time to stock up while the others wait at the house.  The board (about 2½ x 4 feet) consists of the town to the South, woods in the middle and the house to the North.  Sadly I forgot to take an overview photograph of the board before we started!  Over 70 zombies are lurking in the wings ready to lurch to the attack.  I scattered about 40 across the board with the remainder coming on as reinforcements every turn - a D6 is rolled for the total number of zombies per turn and a further D6 rolled for the location at which each one appears.  Because I haven't got that many painted yet, many are played by GZG unarmed civilians and GZG/QRF aliens instead, but they've all been marked with a red zed to make it clear who they are.  So, without further ado, on to the game...

The gangsters have stocked up with food and fuel.

 The former gangsters Chump, Delilah and Shades have been to the garage to stock up with fuel and all the remaining food they could find.  As they finish loading, they hear the dragging footsteps of zombies approaching...

The hunters have collected the guns and ammo.

Chas, Dave and Derek have collected everything useful from the armoury at the Colonial Security office.

The rest of the survivors are through the woods at the house.

Rick (played here by a stunt double agent because the appropriate colonial security officer was packed up in a box somewhere in my loft), Shane, the 2 kids Lisa and James, Susie the doctor and Ash the chainsaw-wielding lumberjack are at the house.  Seeing zombies shambling through the trees nearby, Rick, Shane and Ash decide to head into town to help the others while Susie holes up in the house with the kids.

The hunters set off, running over a nearby zombie.

The hunters use the weight of their pickup to crush the first zombie they encounter into mush.  Time to head back to the house to rendez-vous with the others.

The gangsters start shooting...

Delilah sprays a burst from her machine pistol into the nearest zombie, killing it immediately.  Shades jumps into the driver's seat and starts the engine.  Chump fails to hit anything with his shooting.

... but sadly only managed a single kill!

With a horde zombies closing in and a complete inability to shoot anything else, they decide that discretion is the better part of valour and beat a hasty retreat.  Shades executes a neat 3-point-turn and they're off!

Running over several zombies they damage the suspension.

Because of their poor shooting, Shades decided to run over one of the zombies.  Not only does he fail to kill it but their vehicle is badly damaged (struck) as they bounce over the writhing corpse.

Rick and Shane to the rescue! (Ash with chainsaw in the background)

With Shane driving and Rick shouting instructions the car rushes to aid the others.  As they swerve around the edge of the woods, Ash leaps from the vehicle, chainsaw whirring to life as he swings it towards the nearest zombie!  Though the zombies are killed, Ash is badly wounded (struck) during the fight.

The hunters blaze away and run over zombies.

The hunters have run into a much larger group of zombies.  Chas and Dave keep up a steady hail of gunfire while Derek rams the closest zombie.  Though one zombie goes down from the shooting.  Although chunks of rotting flesh spray from the bodies of the other undead as the bullets impact, Chas and Dave are horrified to see that the rest of the zombies don't even slow down...

In danger of being overwhelmed...

The hunters reverse to cover the arrival of the gangsters.  A stream of zombies pursues them.  The gangsters Landrover only manages to crawl along at the same speed as the zombies that are pursuing it.  They decide that they'd do better on foot...

Zombies start tearing bits off the hunters' pickup.

As the hunters vehicle sits idling, the zombies start hammering on the bonnet, tearing at the tyres...

Zombies overturn the Landrover (squashing one of them!)

The Landrover succumbs to the tide of zombies, one of whom is inadvertently crushed as the vehicle topples over.

Under covering fire from the hunters, the gangsters run for it.

Delilah and Chump aren't hanging around - they make a dash for safety under heavy covering fire from the hunters and Shades.

Zombies have all but destroyed the hunter's pickup.

As Delilah and Chump vanish into the distance, the hunters' pickup is heavily damaged (struck) by the zombies.  Elsewhere, Ash has been seriously wounded (struck) in his tussle with the zombies and is limping back towards the house.  Susie sees 2 zombies approaching across the lawn in front of the house and knows that Ash is much too far away to help.  She picks off one with an expert head shot as it mounts the steps to the front door.  Her next shots are ineffective so she slams the door and hides with Lisa and James who are whimpering in fear.  Dragging footsteps sound across the porch... then the doorbell rings...

Shane and Rick have taken out a couple more zombies but their car too is badly damaged (struck).  Although they are in a fairly zombie-free area, they can see the shambling horde closing in on the hunters...

Sadly we ran out of time and the game ended here!  I think things could have gone either way if we'd continued.  The humans could have outrun the zombies on foot but with 2 vehicles reduced to half speed and one destroyed, their mobility was badly affected.  Whether Susie could have protected the children until Ash arrived... who knows?

We realised that we'd been running close combat incorrectly for the whole game; we'd been making a single opposed roll to see who was a casualty rather than the correct method of making one roll for the attack and then another for the retaliation.  This explains how a zombie was killed whilst attacking the empty Landrover!  The end result of the game probably wouldn't have been much different if we'd done it correctly.

I also realised that any vehicles with a "struck" result should have had the same penalty applied to the occupants, so most of the humans should have been reduced to "struck" status by the end of the game, but never mind!

I think that about 60 of my zombies made it onto the table but many spent the entire game wandering around empty parts of the board with no humans in sight.  If they had all started on the table, things might have turned out differently but such is life (or death).  I must paint more of my actual zombie figures!

Next time we might try "All Things Zombie" from Two Hour Wargames.  Graham has the boardgame but we can probably use it with little modification for a tabletop version.

A final note on the figures: Our heroes are mostly GZG armed colonists and young colonists.  Rick's stand-in is an agent from The Scene, Susie and Ash are from the The Scene's zombie hunters range.  The 3 gangsters are from Rebel Minis.  Zombies are from Rebel Minis, though you hardly see any in the photographs!  Zombie stand-ins are GZG unarmed colonists, GZG Xenomorphs and QRF small aliens.  Buildings are a mixture of home-made foamcore constructions and Plasticville 1/72 scale stuff.  The big rocks are large car washing sponges torn up and soaked in black/brown/grey/green acrylic paint, they make good basalt-like rocky scenery that is light-weight and squashable so very easy to pack away.