World Warpath

Hi guys

Two of my friends, Ed & Peter have been experimenting with using Mantics "Warpath" sci-fi rules as a base for a set of 15mm WW2 rules.  This may seem like an odd route , but the Warpath rules are very good for squad based combat and port over well for a small scale WW2 game with a band of brothers feel. The guys are using basing similar to flames of war with a squad consisting of 2 bases, each with 4 figures on it and a leader on one of the bases, so 9 figures between 2 bases. They have come up with a very interesting alternating initiative system where you can pass activation back to your opponent after each unit activation or try to activate several units one after another but with deminishing chances of success, a failure means the unit does nothing and initiative passes back to the other player. You get a single commander with a limited command range, but who can relay orders through runners who can daisy chain  commands. I had yet to play a game ( so many games , so little playing time ) so we gave it a go early this week. We took a few pictures, but didnt do a full turn by turn write up as I was learning the rules. We played early war, 1940. I had a small group of Germans, Ed had the French. He had an anti tank gun which was placed hidden, so he put down 3 markers , only 1 of which was real. It caused hell with my transports. We had good fun, and it was a bad day for the French, with the Germans emerging battered but victorious. Here are a few pics of the game. All of the figures are Eds, as are the brilliant buildings, from Foreground, I believe. I supplied the rest of the terrain, tea, sarcasm and homemade viennesse whirls. We had a good game and finished the evening with a blood sugar level that could lead to spontaneous combustion.

Phil

Escape from Zombie town

Hi Guys

Here is a combat zone scenario written by my friend Ed. It is set in World War Z, as an aftermath to the battle of Yonkers. We played it the other day and had good fun. It might be worth changing the initial deployment of the zeds to about a quarter on each flank to stop the players running down the edge, like I did , using a small group to draw away a few zeds with gunfire. Ed has included rules for killing a zed, needing enough damage to kill plus a modified D6 roll to see if it was a headshot making the kill permanent. I have proposed using two thresholds for "killing" a zed, one is the normal for a human to put the zed down, the other is a higher level (10+ ) to keep him down. Anyway , we had a laugh and the scenario should be easy enough to modify to whatever system you are using, although we found Combat zone ideal for this kind of game.

Some pictures of our game are at the end of the scenario.

Phil
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Break out from Zombie Town

Setting

At a place called Yonkers, the US Army attempted to stop the zombie hoard spilling out of New York City. They failed. When the most powerful army on Earth routed you and a few of your squad managed to fight your way clear. But without motorised transport, you were unable to keep up when the rest of the army bugged out West. Joined by a few other army stragglers and a handful of civilians, you found a strong building, fortified it and prepared to wait out the storm.

That was eight weeks ago. While the majority of the hoard has passed you by, hundred of zombies are still the immediate area and while you held them off so far, food and ammunition are running low. You have to breakout of zombie town while you still can!

Objective

The human force starts in a fortified position at one end of the board The objective is to exit the far end of the game board with as many soldiers and civilian as you can.

Set up

Fortified position at one end of the board with some kind of exit out of this compound. The rest of the board should given enough building for an urban setting.  The human force starts in the compound. The zombies should be scattered across the rest of the board.

Initiative

They’re zombie for god’s sake! How can they have the initiative! The human player always goes first.

Forces

Humans

1. Captain Price: Hero, Flak Armour, Assault Rifle, Heavy Pistol, 2 x Grenades, Entrenching tool (axe), Radio (comlink)
2. Sergeant Murphy: Veteran, Flak Armour, Heavy Pistol, Machine Gun, Entrenching tool (axe), Radio (comlink)
3. Private Fuentes: Average, Flak Armour, Assault Rifle, Grenade, Entrenching tool (axe), Radio (comlink)
4. Private Felipe: Average, Flak Armour, Assault Rifle, Grenade, Entrenching tool (axe), Radio (comlink)
5. Private Hans: Average, Flak Armour, Auto Shotgun, Grenade, Entrenching tool (axe), Radio (comlink)
6. Private Gunter: Average, Flak Armour, Auto Shotgun, Grenade, Entrenching tool (axe), Radio (comlink)
7. Police Officer Suzy: Green, Primitive Armour, Light Pistol, Baton (club), Radio (comlink)
8. Police Officer Mills: Green Primitive Armour, Shotgun, Baton (club), Radio (comlink)
9. Civilian Survivalist Sam: Average, Primitive Armour, Shotgun, Heavy Pistol, Grenade.
10. 9 x civilians: Green, unarmed, unarmoured.

Zombies

60 x Zombies: Green, Average, unarmed, unarmoured.

NOTE: Zombie move at only 4cm per AP

Squad Coherency

As per core Combat Zone rulebook any model equipped with a radio (comlink) can ignore squad coherency. Figures not so equipped must remain within coherency distance of a radio equipped figure or suffer a 1AP penalty.

Ammunition rules (or ‘click!’ rules)

Rounds are running short; at any moment you might find yourself reaching into an empty ammo pouch.

Any round in which a figure has fired the player must roll to see if they have run out of ammunition. If the figure fired a single shot then on a roll of 6 on a D6 it has run out of ammo. If the figure fired a burst then on a roll of 5+ on a D6 it has run out of ammo.

NOTE: A failed ammo roll only applies to the weapon fired this turn. If the figure has a second, different weapon that is rolled for separately.

Zombies (Brains! Braiiinnnsss!!!)

Zombies Movement

Because they are basically walking corpses don’t have much in the way of intelligence, they only really become active when they see something edible. As a result zombies mostly move automatically according to the following factors.

• A zombie can see up to 40cm.
• If it gets line of sight on a human it will immediately move directly towards them groaning.
• Any zombie within 30cm of a groaning zombie will start to move towards the groaner. Once it can see a human itself it will itself start groaning and move towards the human
• Any zombie within 30cm of a gun being fired will move towards the nearest source of the noise. It will ignore gunshots if there is a human within line of sight or it can hear groaning.
• Under all circumstances the zombie will move in the straightest line allowing for terrain. Although zombies on roofs, raised walkways, etc will walk off the edge to reach a visible human. A falling zombie takes an automatic hit rolling 1D8 for every 3cm it falls. A head shot (or head hit in this case) is still needed to permanently destroy the zombie, see next section.

In addition the zombie player may move up to five zombies that have not been activated by sight or sound in any direction they wish.

Killing Zombies

Only headshots can permanently kill a zombie, any other result will merely knock the creature off its feet. To reflect this the following applies when shooting at zombies.

If a kill result has been scored on a zombie in the normal manor then the human play must roll a D6. On a score of 6, the zombie is plugged between the eyes and is removed from play. Any other result, the zombie is knocked down; place the miniature on its side.

The following modifiers apply.

• Aimed shot, +1
• Short Range, +1
• Point Blank Range, +1
• Explosive weapon, +1
• Close combat against a prone zombie, +2

NOTE: The first three of the above DO stack.

A zombie that has been knock down misses its next turn completely. The turn after that it spends all its AP getting up. If any human is stupid enough to stand next to a zombie during this second round, it can attack from the ground.

Any zombie killed respawns in a random corner of the board in the next round.

Zombie Combat

For the most part Zombies follow the usual rules for close combat there are a couple of differences. Zombies fight by attempting to grab and bite their victim, thus the following apply.

1. If at the end of the close combat phase a human and zombie are still in contact the zombie will attempt to grab and hold the human. Each side rolls a D6, if the human player rolls higher or equal to the zombie the he has avoided being grabbed. If the human player rolls lower then the human has been grabbed. That figure cannot now move away from the zombie voluntary or involuntary. The player roll in subsequent turns to see if the human gets away from the zombie. Extra zombies may latch on and for each one the zombie player rolls an extra D6.
2. If a zombie wins a round of combat but fail to kill the target there is still and chance the target will succumb to the zombie virus. A human figure struck by a zombie must roll to see if it is infected. On a roll of 6 on a D6 the figure is inflected and collapses at the end of its next turn. Next turn it will rise as a zombie. (Heroes may use re-rolls) Any humans killed will also rise one turn after they were killed.

Supplies

Two weeks ago airforce plane spotted your compound and attempted to drop supplies. Unfortunately they missed - by a lot - three men went out to try to find them but never came back, so the supplies still out there. Finding them isn’t a priority but if you happen to come across them, there might be something useful.

Scatter 20 boxes across the board; on their underside mark half with number 1-10. A figure must get with 3cm to open a box; this cost 1AP per box. The contents of a numbered box are as follows. Boxes that are not numbered contain nothing immediately useful.

1. Box empty, however one of the men who went out looking for the supplies appears from the building where he has been hiding. Private Kenny, Average, Flak Armour, heavy pistol, Entrenching tool (axe), (set up next to closest building.)
2. Lots of ammo. All guns within 30cm of box reloaded. Humans may fire this round without rolling for ammo outages. Start rolling for ammo as normal next round.
3. 10 x grenades
4. Missile launcher with 3 rockets
5. 10 x Mk1 Lobotomizers, count as axe in close combat, gives an extra +2 bonus to headshot roll.
6. Assault Rifle Ammo. All assault rifles within 30cm of box reloaded, may fire this round without rolling for ammo outages. Start rolling for ammo as normal next round.
7. Pistol Ammo. All pistols within 30cm of box reloaded, may fire this round without rolling for ammo outages. Start rolling for ammo as normal next round.
8. Shotgun Ammo. All shotguns within 30cm of box reloaded, may fire this round without rolling for ammo outages. Start rolling for ammo as normal next round.
9. Zombie decoy. Human player may choose to activate the decoy in any subsequent round. Once activated the decoy starts to make a zombie like groaning. Zombies will move towards it at detailed in the zombie rules. The first zombie to reach the decoy destroys it. Decoy can be carried but the model can shoot and is consider unarmed if engaged in close combat.
10. Large radio. See GM

Victory Conditions

• Greater than 66% of soldier and 75% of civilians escape zombie town: Complete Human Victory.
• Up to 66% of soldier and 75% of civilians escape zombie town: Partial Human Victory
• Up to 50% of soldier and 75% of civilians escape zombie town: Draw
• Up to 33% of soldier and 50% of civilians escape zombie town: Partial Zombie Victory
• Less than 33% of soldier and 50% of civilians escape zombie town: Complete Zombie Victory

FOR GM ONLY

Result 10 on supplies

You have found a powerful radio transmitter with which you may contact authorities in any subsequent turn. Upon making contact a rescue helicopter with be despatched to your area. During set up the GM should have put down an appropriate piece of terrain to act as a chopper pad, or left an area 20cm X 20cm bare. The chopper will arrive in D4+2 turns of contact being made, if the landing area isn’t clear it with orbit for up to two turns. For the chopper to land, the pad or centre of the bare area (10cm X 10cm) must be COMPLETELY zombie free. The humans can enter the chopper for one AP. The helicopter will remain landed until all humans are aboard or a zombie gets with 20cm of it (if you don’t have a helicopter model measure from centre of land zone)

If the human player can reach the chopper before it leaves with more than 50% of soldiers and civilians then the human side wins outright. The human player is under no obligation to try to get to the helicopter, it is merely an option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Space Vikings !

Hi Guys


Ed and I had a game of "Sunder the Stars" recently. Very enjoyable. Here are a few pictures and a brief write up of our first game. I started to get distracted when my ships kept blowing up. "Stop dying, you cowards!"

Ed took the space vikings, I took the space spartans, both pregenerated factions from the same website as the rules. We took 1 battleship, 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers and 3 frigates each. This turned out to be too small but it was our first game. We will have another bash, probably with counters to make honking big fleets each.  The vikings use Rack weapons ( missiles with no penalty for firing at long range) and the Spartans are all beam weapons with do better at close range, so my main tactic was straight ahead full and damn the torpedoes. This proved to be a mistake...

Ships-check, dice-check, Tea -hell yes !

Eds German fleet, pretending to be Vikings. Note the D20 showing initiative score.

The viking fleet moves out.

All shiney and glowing. No idea why.

The heroic Spartans, played by my Russians. Obviously !

Turn 1. We both move forward and start feeling out move speeds and range bands. Little to no firing until Eds missile frigates get range on my frigate squardron. One of my frigates goes from perfect to chaff in 1 die roll.

 

 

Turn 2, The Spartan frigates and then Cruisers open fire on the enemy destroyers and frigates, causing some damage and destroys a frigate. The viking  Battleship fires a lot and achieves little beyond another enemy frigate going pop. The beam attacks from the Viking cruisers damage on of my frigates and kills the other. their rack attacks cripple my battleship who rolled very poorly. My crippled battleship still manages to score 3 points of damage on a viking cruiser, from hells heart I stab at thee !

Turn 3, the viking battleship surges forward, destroying the Spartan battleship , damaging one of my cruisers and crippling the other. The clean up operation wipes out the last of the Spartans in quick succession.

Things were looking well for me at the halfway point of turn 2, everything was banjaxed by the end of turn 2 and it was all over by the end of turn 3.  Good fun, but little to no tactics on my behalf. It was mainly a have abash and see how the rules do affair but I enjoyed it.

We had time for a second game and we swapped sides. The Spartans scored a glorious victory and got their revenge. Ed 2, Phil 0.

Sunder the Stars

Hi Guys

Last week Ed and I tried out a new rules system ( new to us anyway) called Sunder the Stars. It is a free to download fleet scale starship rules system, available from http://home.dejazzd.com/broadsword/Sunder_the_Stars/StS_Downloads_Page.html , where the rules are posted, along with several fleets for different factions.

I found this to be a very good system with some nice ideas. There is a nice initiative system which gives very limited control over which of you ships/squadrons you activate first, so everyone goes every turn, but your key unit may not go when you want it too, and it could be glittering chaff by the time its time to activate comes around. It is die roll based but each ship/squadron  gets a modifier based on size so the smaller ships tend to go first, but not always. You roll 2D6 for each sqadron, larger ships can be on their own or grouped with their escort ships. The initiative score is easily marked with a D20, which is removed upon activation so it is clear who has and who has not yet gone.

The damage system is well done, each ship has a different stat profile for how much damage it has sustained, so no marking off hull boxes, just a D6 next to each ship which has taken damage. The ships degrade quite quickly so a damaged ship can go whoomph very easily. Combat is based upon opposed D6 rolls with various bonuses. A 6 is rerolled and added, so a string of 6s can result in a scary attack total. If the firer bets the defenders total, 1 point of damage is caused, if they double the defenders total, 2 points is scored etc. As the defence score of a ship is reduced as damage is sustained, it can be a very steep slope and a low roll can be disasterous. The weapons systems are quite limited, but in a fleet based game, the nitty gritty detail would slow a game down to much . There are beam weapons (phaser/lasers/disruptors) , Rack (missiles and torpedoes, long range and scary but countered with point defence),Drones (missiles with skip drives, they are shorter ranged than standard missiles but only countered by point defence at the point of target, not along their flight path like normal missiles ) and Fusion (a short range weapon listed as a tiny artificial star which causes damage over several rounds. Some weapons can spread their atacks against multiple opponents, but lessening power and sometimes range. There are multiple shield settings ( all forward/ all aft/ double strength etc) bu twe haven't tried those yet.

Ships are listed by standard naval classification (frigate/cruiser etc) as much because this is what many gamers are used to thinking in. There are carriers and fighter rules, although we haven't had a chance to try them out yet. The fighters come in 3 flavours, interceptors, bombers and landers. Interceptors are dogfighters, best against other fighters but also can screen a ship providing long range point defence.They are capable of attacking ships but not as good as bombers. Bombers are much more effective against ships but can fight other fighters. I thought landers would be shuttle craft for scenario missions but are more like armed boarding pods, and can capture enemy ships very quickly if they don't all die horribly under the point defence. Point defence weakens rapidly as damage is sustained, so a damaged capital ship is vulnerable to boarding and is worth a heap of victory points if captured.

There are several pregenerated fleets available from the same website as the rules, each with a different feel to them. There are full design rules and blank ship templates to create your own fleet. Ed has a series of scifi books published ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Nameless-War-Trilogy-Volume/dp/1477645977 ) and the design rules would suit the style of ships in his books, so we might do up the primary fleets and have a bash.

Due to the firepower/defence balance in this game, ships can die very quickly ( which suits fleet actions)  and even big ships are at risk from a pack of smaller ships. Fleet deployment gives protection against missile attacks with overlapping point defence but can be funny is a ship takes a bad hit and goes boom.


For our first try of the rules, we used two existing fleets ( space Vikings vs space Spartans), and each had a battleship, 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers and 3 frigates. This turned out to be small for the scale of the game and probably was unfair to the rules as it left limited options for manouver and a good chunk of your fleet could vanish in quick succession. It would be akin to playing an ancients game with only one flank rather than a whole army, but you have to get a feel for the rules first, I suppose. I definately want to give these rules another go, but with bigger fleets. We might have to use counters rather than miniatures as what we have is based around a Full thrust battlegroup rather than a big fleet.



I will post an after game report shortly.

Phil