After the Third Apocalypse - Zombie Campaign Part 2

 

Part 2 of my campaign set in my post apocalyptic world of 2500AD. The Zombies of Russia periodically rise up and batter their way through eastern Europe intent on devouring the rich pastures of western Europe.

The campaign will involve four battles, all using the One Hour Wargames rules for Pike and Shot and adapted for Zombies, and appropriate scenarios to build a narrative. Basically it will let me play with the three armies I have painted.

Following the Zombie victory in part 1 the Outlanders need to stop the Zombie menace.

9: Double Delaying Action - in this scenario the Outlanders need to exit the three units and their accompanying civilians from the north road as well as stop the zombies following them.

The Outlanders need to exit a unit and civilians on turns 4, 8, & 12 as well as stop 2 zombie units exiting after them. This represents the Outlanders safely evacuating their population from the advancing zombie hordes. The Zombies also need to capture the town. the game will go for 15 turns.

The zombies are on the south side of the river. They need to cross at either the ford (left) or bridge (right). The bridge leads directly to the town. The woods on the left is impassable to all units. The Outlanders and zombies need to exit from the road at the top of the photos.

I forgot to add any additional scatter terrain for this game so it looks a little bare.

End of turn 1 - The zombies approach the bridge and ford. They have taken fire from the Outland Rangers on the far side. One of the Ranger units (centre) has run out of ammo. The first civilians and ranger unit are headed for the road exit.

End of turn 2 - The zombies have crossed the bridge and ford and are attacking the defenders. The Outlander Rangers on the right have run out of ammo after shooting.

End of turn 3 - the Outlander Rangers hold the zombies at the river while the first civilians exit.

End of turn 4 - the Outland rangers at the bridge fail their morale roll and retreat in face of the zombie assault. Just in time to lead the next civilian unit from the road exit. The Rangers at the ford hold on but are close to destruction.

End of turn 5 -  The rangers at the ford are destroyed. The Zombies move across the bridge into the town, contacting the next Ranger unit. The second evacuation convoy moves towards the exit.

End of turn 6 - The Zombies move across the ford and deploy into line. In the town the Rangers hold on as the evacuation convoy moves to the exit. 

End of turn 7 - The zombies on the left move to engage the defending rangers. In the town, the first zombie unit is destroyed. 

End of turn 8 - The zombies on the left lurch towards the Rangers. In the town the zombies contact the Rangers. While the rangers get bonuses for defending in the town, the zombies get reinforcements from the ranger casualties.

End of turn 9 - On the left the Zombies contact the defending Rangers. A zombie unit is flanking the rangers, this does not look good for them.
In the Town the Rangers who were in contact with the zombies have retreated and will escort the final evacuation convoy to the exit. The last Ranger unit gets ready to hold its ground to the end.

End of turn 10 - on the left the zombies have flanked the rangers. Will they be able to hold until the evacuation convoy exits?
In the town the Rangers hold on. They may be able to destroy one zombie unit, but two? probably not.

End of turn 11 - On the left the rangers have been destroyed. But they may have given the evacuation convoy the time it needs to escape.
In the town the battle continues. 

End of turn 12 - On the left two units of zombies lurch towards the exit while one moves towards the town.
In the town the battle continues. 

End of turn 13 - the zombies surround the last unit of Rangers in the town. It can't be long now.
The other zombies move towards the exit.

End of turn 14 - the zombies have taken the town and got two units next to the road exit. Once again the zombie hordes have triumphed over the humans.

Well the Outlanders nearly won that battle. The Zombies winning in the last turn.

Figures:

Outlanders are from Pendraken 

Zombies are N scale railway people from Aliexpress. They come painted, all I had to do was base them and add some red. This is a very quick and cheap way of creating a zombie horde. Not as good as Pendraken's but much easier to get the mass.

The town buildings are (appropriately) from Outland Models :) 

Onto part three where the Zombies fight the later Medieval tech humans. Armoured troops impervious to zombie bites so they cant be turned.

After the Third Apocalypse - Zombie Campaign part 1

 This campaign is set in my post apocalyptic world of 2500AD. The Zombies of Russia periodically rise up and batter their way through eastern Europe intent on devouring the rich pastures of western Europe.

Between them and their target are the Waste-landers in the devastated areas Link, the Rangers of the  Outland  Link on the fringes of habitable Europe and then the Medieval areas. The Medieval areas have created special armoured  units who are impervious to zombie bites who can only be knocked down but not turned. 

The campaign will involve four battles, all using the One Hour Wargames rules for Pike and Shot and adapted for Zombies, and appropriate scenarios to build a narrative. Basically it will let me play with the three armies I have painted.

The Scenarios used are:

13: Escape - in this scenario the zombies need to break through the Waste-landers and make it to the better pastures of the Outlands

9: Double Delaying Action - in this scenario the Outlanders need to exit the three units and their accompanying civilians from the north road as well as stop the zombies following them.

15: Fortified Defence - stop the Zombies occupying the two towns by the end of the game.

30: Last Stand - this will depend on which side has won the most of the three preceding scenarios. Either the zombies trying to stop being wiped out or the humans trying a final defence against the encroaching zombie horde.

Zombie rules adaptations are:

Zombies count as Infantry who can't shoot. Out of ammo from start of each game.

Zombie Unit Combat: When zombies cause any casualties on an opposing unarmoured unit they will get “reinforcements” from the enemy dead. These reinforcements will be equal to one half of the casualties caused rounded down. These will reduce the Zombie unit casualty marker by the same amount. The marker cannot be reduced below zero.

Human Unit Morale: When a human unit is activated, roll a D6 and add it to the current casualty marker of the unit. If the result is 15 or greater, the unit must retreat one full move. 

Onto the first battle.

13: Escape - in this scenario three units of zombies need to break through the Waste-landers and make it to the better pastures of the Outlands

End of turn 1 - the zombies have marched onto the board. A single unit of Waste-landers holds the road. On turn 2 two more units of outlanders will appear on the hill, On turn 4 a further two units will appear north of the ruined city at top left and on turn 6 a final Waste-lander unit will enter on the road at the bottom of the picture.

Following Norm's suggestion in his blog Link I have added additional terrain to the rather bare OHW setup. Only the road, hill and ruined city effect the game, the rest is there to add some atmosphere.

End of turn 2. The Zombies approach the Waste-landers on the road having taken some fire. The Waste-landers on the road are out of ammo but the ones on the hills can still fire.

I have used Peter's idea from his blog of little barrels to show a unit is out of ammo.  Link

End of turn 3.  The Zombies have contacted the blocking unit and are deploying to attack the two Waste-lander units on their flank.

End of turn 4. One zombie unit is making an end run around the Waste-lander blocking unit while the rest attack. Top left the Waste-lander reinforcements arrive and race towards the action.

End of turn 5. The zombie unit attacking up the hill has been destroyed (red tokens). The other flank defence is getting the better of its Waste-lander opponents. While the Waste-lander blocking unit has failed its morale as it has lost 13 of a possible 15 casualties.  The Waste-lander reinforcements in the top left race on but will they be in time?

End of turn 6. The zombies finish off the Waste-lander blocking unit, luckily another Waste-lander unit has arrived just in time. But with zombies in front and to its flank it will be in trouble.
At the zombies' rear one zombie unit has turned around to hold off the chasing Waste-landers while on the right flank the zombies are chomping through their opponents.

End of turn 7. The zombie unit at the rear is shot to pieces while the Waste-lander on the right is eaten - see red tokens.
On the bottom of the road exit one Waste-lander unit needs to hold three zombies until their support arrives in two or three turns.

End of turn 8. The blocking Waste-lander unit is holding on. 11 casualties to 12. If it can kill one zombie unit the Zombies will not have the three units to exit they need to win.

End of turn 9. The Waste-landers have failed. Eaten to the last man the three zombie units will be able to exit in turn 10. The Zombies have broken through in numbers and ready to feast on the unsuspecting Outlanders closer to the rich parts of Europe.

Next up. Scenario 9: Double Delaying Action - in this scenario the Outlanders need to exit the three units and their accompanying civilians from the north road as well as stop the zombies following them.

Thanks to both Norm and Peter for sharing their ideas on their blogs. Both blogs are excellent and well worth following if you don't already.

Figures:

Waste-landers are from Pendraken 

Zombies are N scale railway people from Aliexpress. They come painted, all I had to do was base them and add some red. This is a very quick and cheap way of creating a zombie horde. Not as good as Pendraken's but much easier to get the mass.

Back again - The Grand Census and The 2024 Plan

After a year of inactivity on the blogging front I am back again. I am sure the internet will go wild!

I have not done much in the hobby space over the past year but have managed to make a few purchases, complete a small amount of painting, conduct a grand census of my painted and unpainted figures, and was awarded an international prize by ACW Ditty writer of the century Stew of A Terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth. What follows is a wall of text and tables. Please feel free to close the tab and move onto something more interesting.

The Grand Census

Earlier in the year there was a number of posts on blogs I follow on planning for 2024. This prompted me to consider what I was going to do if I could get myself motivated. But when I started thinking about it all, games to play, new projects, old projects, etc. I realised I did not really have an idea of what I had. So I decided to complete a grand census.

I spent some time deciding how to complete my census and chose to collect data on Scale, Era, Type (infantry, cavalry, etc.), Nation, what box they are stored in, and any relevant notes.

I thought I had a maximum of around 5,000 painted and unpainted figures (that's what I said in the last Wargames Survey - sorry Jonathan) but it did not take long until I was well in excess of that. 

So onto the results

Painted and Unpainted by scale

This aligns with what I thought I was doing so that is nice. That is, concentrating on 10mm with most of the other scales being from before I decided 10mm was the sweet spot for me or for projects where 10mm is not practical. e.g. Spaceships.

By Era

There is some confusion/duplication in how I determined different armies. For example, most colonial armies can also be used for VSF, HOTT is Fantasy, 40K also includes significant numbers of 6mm Epic. It makes sense to me 😂 

Broken down by Type - not a particularly useful table but does show the problem with just counting figures or models. For example, a ship in 1:144 scale that is 30cm long counts as one while a single 10mm infantry figure also counts as one. This means the lead mountain is somewhat larger than indicated by the raw numbers.

Still to do

While the figure census has told me what I have and just as importantly, where it is, I also think I need to add a list of projects, completed and uncompleted, and a list of terrain. This will help me to determine what I need to purchase or paint to complete any planned games.

The 2024 Plan

In all honesty, the plan is more of a guideline that something set in stone. Although the first two items I am keen to complete.

Zombie Campaign - Play    - in 2023 I created a zombie army of 6 units to use in One Hour Wargames. This campaign will follow the zombie army as if lurches from the wilds of Russia through the outlands and borders of Europe on its way to lunch in the rich heartlands. Set sometime after the Third Apocalypse. This is currently underway.

Project Stew - Paint and Play   

I was the Winner of Stew's  6 Years of Blogging competition. This was a very generous GBP25 voucher at Pendraken. I struggled with a project to use this on until Stew provided the answer. More on this in future posts but the goal is to paint the new figures purchased and then design and fight a campaign of 3-5 battles. 

Springfield - Paint - To complete the painting of the buildings I purchased for my 40K version of the Simpson's Springfield. Once this is completed I can then contemplate starting my 40k Space Rangers campaign that has been on the back burner for 15 years or so.

League of Augsburg - Paint - paint the French and Allied armies that I have already purchased and undercoated.

Pendraken SciFi - Purchase - Pendraken has released a new range of 6 human science fiction armies. While these are promising, what I am looking forward to is the alien  armies, one of which is Space Ducks!! I have suggested they be inspired by Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a half Century but have not yet received any feedback. In any event, they will be purchased.

Moon Wars - Play - design and complete a campaign on the moon between SpaceX and Blue Origin. The figures and terrain are all complete.

Other stuff if I suddenly get really productive or can't be bothered doing any of the above.

Project Nemo - Paint  -  Make and paint my model 1:144 scale Chinese Protected Cruiser as the Nautilus - and paint Captain Nemo and Crew.

Desert Army - Paint - Paint the Camel mounted army plus their dismounted infantry. Each of 6 units. Useful for colonial or VSF or Post Apocalypse. 

Terrain and Project Census - complete the review of all the stuff I have and why I purchased it in the first place. What I have done already has been very useful in stopping me buying or holding onto a lot of stuff.

HOTT Campaign - Play - complete a HOTT campaign of 5 different armies all fighting goblins

Board Games - Play some boardgames

Well enough for my first post in 12 months. Hopefully something more interesting next time.