Zombies
Automatic Opponents for Co-Operative or Solo Combat
by Robin Hill

While most Combat Zone players are happy to square off against each other, it’s often as much fun to ally against a common enemy. One player (or a neutral referee) can control this opposing force, but it’s usually more interesting if the enemy is capable of operating without a human controller. It also lets a solo player pit his or her wits against an enemy force devoid of human control (cue sound effect: “ooooEEEEoooooo!”) But what kind of force could do this? Well, the more astute amongst you may have spotted a clue in the title of this article: Zombies! Wargame Table of the Living Dead We are, of course, talking about the shambling, brain-eating, gore splattered creatures, seen in such epics as Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead and even Shawn of the Dead. There are a lot of zombie models available out there, and even if you don’t already have a convincingly large horde of undead to hand, unarmed civilians could be pressed into service instead. There are some differences between zombies of different films, but their behaviour is relatively easy to model. Consider the following: Zombies do not carry or use weapons of any kind. Their only method of attack is to hit, claw and bite. Zombies are reactive rather than pro-active. They do not scheme or plan. They only move toward or attack living humans within their fields of vision. Zombies are difficult to kill. Gunfire knocks them down but they quickly get up again, even after large pieces of their bodies have been blown off. Only a head shot, which severs the brain stem or penetrates the brain itself, puts them down for good. Humans killed by zombies are either eaten or come back to life as zombies. The period between dying and becoming one of the undead varies from a few seconds to several hours. Zombies are conventionally slow-moving creatures (a sort of half-walking shuffle). Some zombies (as in the recent Dawn of the Dead remake) can run and fight with a desperate frenzy when they sense living flesh. Deprived of a visible target, they assume a quiescent, random, meandering state. Zombies have great difficulty dealing with doors, stairs, ladders and so on, unless the plot requires that they continue to pursue the heroes through shopping malls, down sewers, and the like. The Basic Zombie Pete Garnham in 'Night of the Living Dead' describes zombie opponents as: 'Attacks against Zombies are dealt with differently than in the CZ rule book. Roll to hit as normal, but the wound roll depends on the number on the dice rolled NOT the cumulative total. Any single dice score of 6 or more is a kill, and represents the head shot needed to kill the Zombie.' Pete Garnham in 'Night of the Living Dead' describes zombie opponents as: 'Attacks against Zombies are dealt with differently than in the CZ rule book. Roll to hit as normal, but the wound roll depends on the number on the dice rolled NOT the cumulative total. Any single dice score of 6 or more is a kill, and represents the head shot needed to kill the Zombie.' This makes sense and I’m happy to adopt the principle of 'if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it'. If there are any other rules that require the zombie to have a Toughness attribute, use 7+ Pete further suggests that: '...zombies have 6AP and use them the same as "living" figures. They roll 2d8 in Close Combat and will not Panic or Rout.' Pete further suggests that: '...zombies have 6AP and use them the same as "living" figures. They roll 2d8 in Close Combat and will not Panic or Rout.' These rules are going to let you field a lot of zombies (thirty to forty at a time). 6AP and 2d8 close combat makes them just a little bit too hard for my liking. A typical zombie is an undead civilian with diminished life ambitions. It does not use tools or weapons, and appears to exist solely to kill the living. Its Quality Modifier should never be better than Average (0) and most of them are Green (-1). Unless you figure on adding a few zombified militia to the mix, they should have no armour modifiers and may even have positive armour modifiers (+1 or +2) to represent the damage already caused to them during the zombification process. Action points should be no more than 5 (preferably 3 or 4), unless you want to have the high-energy zombies of the Dawn of the Dead remake, in which case the sky’s the limit (these guys are fast). Say, 7 maximum. Zombies do not have shooting attacks, nor do they carry edged weapons or clubs for close combat. “Average” zombies should have 2d6 attack dice (green, wounded but ravenous). Dawn of the Dead Remake zombies should have 2d8 attack dice (as described by Peter), to model their inherently greater nastiness. A typical zombie force should greatly outnumber your human characters by, say, around ten to one. Maybe more if your humans are heavily armed or have particularly good terrain advantages. Battlefield Placement and Movement Initial placement should assume that the zombies have simply wandered onto the area of combat and are dotted about at random like nuts in a fruitcake. In order for the good guys to get prepared for the undead onslaught, they should have a neutral, easily-defended area in which to take stock and decide what they’re going to do. Take advantage of things like locked doors, security fences and the like. As soon as a zombie comes into line-of sight of a human, it will immediately move toward the human, at best available speed. Zombies have no concept of co-operation, so are automatically out of coherency. This is already reflected in the number of APs allocated to them. Zombies will move until they run out of APs or come into close-combat contact with the human. If the zombie loses sight of the human, it will stop moving. If the players agree, and where a formation of zombies is not in sight of any humans, some of them (say, 1d10 at a time) may be moved in a random direction (use an artillery scatter die). Zombies tend to have problems with barriers. Even rough terrain and waist-height barriers can stop them. Locked or barricaded doors will keep them out, but if there is a large crush of them (say 15+), they can collapse barriers by sheer weight of numbers. Again, if you’re going the Dawn of the Dead Remake route, you might want to consider your zombies being able to cross increasingly difficult ground. Fire seems to cause them problems. However little of their intellect survives, they still react to fire. Combat Combat runs as for the Combat Zone rules. Note that the zombies have no ranged combat and, on their own, poor close combat abilities. Their greatest advantage is in swamping an opponent with greater numbers. A zombie horde will automatically wrap around a single figure and can overwhelm it with a weight of numbers as great as six-to-one. Wounded zombies do not take panic reactions and do not rout. If a human is killed, you have the option of adding another zombie to the ranks of the fallen. Retain any armour but drop all weapons and revise any other combat stats to that of a generic zombie.

If a human is bitten (within 1 or 2 points of the victim’s toughness), you have the option of treating the human as Infected. Roll 1d8 – on a 7 or 8 it’s definitely a bite and the wound is infected. The other survivors now have to face the dilemma of shooting the poor sap now or waiting until he zombies out. For every infected fighter, make a 1d6 roll at each compulsory action phase. A result of 1-5 and he carries on as normal. A 6 means his eyes blaze with hunger and he immediately zombies-out, as above. When wounding zombies, use the “6 on any Wound Dice” procedure as described in The Basic Zombie paragraph, above. Ammunition For the first few scenarios, you might want to assume that whatever weapons you have are fully loaded and you have plenty of spare ammo. To increase the challenge of the game, limit each player to a couple of clips for each weapon and keep close track on ammunition (issue the players with tokens to represent bullets that are placed into a discard box as the weapons are fired). For a really hard time, start with little or no weapons and have the good guys search the battlefield for weapons and ammo. (“Hey, there’s a police cruiser over there with a 20-gauge pump-action shotgun on the dashboard.” “Yeah, but the cartridges are in an ammo belt round the shoulders of the zombie cop standing by the Starbucks counter across the street.”) Civilians should start unarmed, but consider giving them weapons if the need arises (and if you have any guns to spare!). Miniatures A lot of manufacturers produce zombie figures, and unarmed civilians are acceptable as well. Though, if you’re reluctant to spend too much on figures that may not see a lot of action, one solution would be to use token figures. I have used small sweets (Smarties, M&Ms, jelly babies) as non-player crowd members. The good thing about this is that if you kill a bystander, you get to eat him. One gaming session we used Gummi Bears, and the carnage was horrific. Scenarios Scenarios can be as simple as simply getting from one side of the battlefield to the other, or something much more complicated involving one or more objectives (rescue the civilians, turn on a fuel or power line, obtain medical supplies, equipment or ammunition and so on). The good guys can be police, militia, biker gangs and the like. You may even have one or two civilians tagging along just to make up numbers or get in the way. Smartass kids, nervy city guys, streetwise hookers, too-cute-to-die couples and surprisingly feisty lady truckers are all useful stereotypes to include in the group. Don’t forget the embittered cop, the fascist gun-toting security guard, the stressed-out nurse, the plucky janitor, the lost-his-faith priest and the ex-marine, ex-biker mechanical wizard who can make a weapon out of anything. Locations should be mundane and everyday - shopping precincts, office blocks, record stores, drive-in burger bars and pedestrian areas where the office folks go to drink their coffee and eat their lunchtime sandwiches. For the more exotic, try a military base or biochemical research facility. Hospitals (with morgues) are also good places to find interesting developments. Weapons and tools can be as easy or as difficult to get as you like, but give your players at least a fighting chance to succeed. Objectives could be just to survive, but you could add a sweetener by declaring the first to kill a bad guy or who downs the most zombies the winner. Of course, to celebrate that victory, they’ve got to get off the battlefield without being bitten… Shopping Mall It’s 8:00 am Sunday morning and the Cross Roads Mall is strangely quiet. There’s an overturned car in the gas station and a delivery truck is embedded in the security gate of the main entrance. Other than that the place looks deserted. What the heck is going on? Guy in the Gunshop. You’re holed up in Sherman’s Delicatessen. You’ve just put your last magazine into your 9mm auto. The pretty-and-pregnant latino woman is experiencing labour pains and the nearest medical gear is in a stalled ambulance at the intersection at the end of the block. Across the street is a Guns For U outlet. On the roof, a lone guy in a sweatshirt and jeans is holding up a sign that says “Secure for now. No water, no food”. A school bus has mounted the pavement at the other end of the block, taking out a fire hydrant. There are several dozen zombies pulling it to pieces, oblivious to the water that is drenching them. You have plenty of food and drink, but no power. The whiny guy in the suit is beginning to really get on your nerves and the sun is going down. What do you do? Doctor, Doctor You are part of a SWAT team. Central dispatching has sent you to a medical facility on the outskirts of town to pick up a research doctor and his team (doctor, two assistants, one nurse, one receptionist). You have two Hummers and a panel van, two six-man squads armed with MP5s, riot shotguns and 9mm automatic pistols. Each team also has a smoke/teargas launcher. The freeway has been quiet, your journey until now has been uneventful. As you turn down the freeway ramp, you can see the facility in its own grounds. The grounds are teeming with zombies. There is a people carrier in front of the main entrance and a supplies truck parked beside a loading ramp to the rear. As you study the facility through your field glasses, you hear the muffled thump of an explosion and smoke and flames begin to belch from the side of the building. Marina You and your partner are city precinct cops called out to a disturbance at the marina. There’s a very large, very expensive luxury yacht bobbing at its moorings at the far end of the quay. Its owner is trapped in the ships’ chandlers on the riverside shopping precinct with your partner and several other customers. You are barricaded in the kitchen of the Beachcomber Bar and Family Restaurant with the owner and his teenaged day staff. Your cruiser, surrounded by zombies, is parked at the kerb a dozen or so yards from the front door. One of the waitresses is tending to a cut on the bar owner’s forehead, inflicted when a zombie head-butted the door trying to get to him. There is another waitress, a cook and a bar assistant, who looks a lot younger than his eighteen years. Your Police Special revolver is down to three rounds. There’s more ammo and a shotgun in the car. You can hear movement in the restaurant, which you estimate to be two or three zombies that pursued you as you ran for cover. Your partner is giving a running commentary from the chandler’s shop, he claims there are “hundreds” of zombies in the street, though he could be exaggerating. You decide to make a run for the car. As you open the kitchen door, you realise that your partner may be right after all…

If a human is bitten (within 1 or 2 points of the victim’s toughness), you have the option of treating the human as Infected. Roll 1d8 – on a 7 or 8 it’s definitely a bite and the wound is infected. The other survivors now have to face the dilemma of shooting the poor sap now or waiting until he zombies out. For every infected fighter, make a 1d6 roll at each compulsory action phase. A result of 1-5 and he carries on as normal. A 6 means his eyes blaze with hunger and he immediately zombies-out, as above. When wounding zombies, use the “6 on any Wound Dice” procedure as described in The Basic Zombie paragraph, above. Ammunition For the first few scenarios, you might want to assume that whatever weapons you have are fully loaded and you have plenty of spare ammo. To increase the challenge of the game, limit each player to a couple of clips for each weapon and keep close track on ammunition (issue the players with tokens to represent bullets that are placed into a discard box as the weapons are fired). For a really hard time, start with little or no weapons and have the good guys search the battlefield for weapons and ammo. (“Hey, there’s a police cruiser over there with a 20-gauge pump-action shotgun on the dashboard.” “Yeah, but the cartridges are in an ammo belt round the shoulders of the zombie cop standing by the Starbucks counter across the street.”) Civilians should start unarmed, but consider giving them weapons if the need arises (and if you have any guns to spare!). Miniatures A lot of manufacturers produce zombie figures, and unarmed civilians are acceptable as well. Though, if you’re reluctant to spend too much on figures that may not see a lot of action, one solution would be to use token figures. I have used small sweets (Smarties, M&Ms, jelly babies) as non-player crowd members. The good thing about this is that if you kill a bystander, you get to eat him. One gaming session we used Gummi Bears, and the carnage was horrific. Scenarios Scenarios can be as simple as simply getting from one side of the battlefield to the other, or something much more complicated involving one or more objectives (rescue the civilians, turn on a fuel or power line, obtain medical supplies, equipment or ammunition and so on). The good guys can be police, militia, biker gangs and the like. You may even have one or two civilians tagging along just to make up numbers or get in the way. Smartass kids, nervy city guys, streetwise hookers, too-cute-to-die couples and surprisingly feisty lady truckers are all useful stereotypes to include in the group. Don’t forget the embittered cop, the fascist gun-toting security guard, the stressed-out nurse, the plucky janitor, the lost-his-faith priest and the ex-marine, ex-biker mechanical wizard who can make a weapon out of anything. Locations should be mundane and everyday - shopping precincts, office blocks, record stores, drive-in burger bars and pedestrian areas where the office folks go to drink their coffee and eat their lunchtime sandwiches. For the more exotic, try a military base or biochemical research facility. Hospitals (with morgues) are also good places to find interesting developments. Weapons and tools can be as easy or as difficult to get as you like, but give your players at least a fighting chance to succeed. Objectives could be just to survive, but you could add a sweetener by declaring the first to kill a bad guy or who downs the most zombies the winner. Of course, to celebrate that victory, they’ve got to get off the battlefield without being bitten… Shopping Mall It’s 8:00 am Sunday morning and the Cross Roads Mall is strangely quiet. There’s an overturned car in the gas station and a delivery truck is embedded in the security gate of the main entrance. Other than that the place looks deserted. What the heck is going on? Guy in the Gunshop. You’re holed up in Sherman’s Delicatessen. You’ve just put your last magazine into your 9mm auto. The pretty-and-pregnant latino woman is experiencing labour pains and the nearest medical gear is in a stalled ambulance at the intersection at the end of the block. Across the street is a Guns For U outlet. On the roof, a lone guy in a sweatshirt and jeans is holding up a sign that says “Secure for now. No water, no food”. A school bus has mounted the pavement at the other end of the block, taking out a fire hydrant. There are several dozen zombies pulling it to pieces, oblivious to the water that is drenching them. You have plenty of food and drink, but no power. The whiny guy in the suit is beginning to really get on your nerves and the sun is going down. What do you do? Doctor, Doctor You are part of a SWAT team. Central dispatching has sent you to a medical facility on the outskirts of town to pick up a research doctor and his team (doctor, two assistants, one nurse, one receptionist). You have two Hummers and a panel van, two six-man squads armed with MP5s, riot shotguns and 9mm automatic pistols. Each team also has a smoke/teargas launcher. The freeway has been quiet, your journey until now has been uneventful. As you turn down the freeway ramp, you can see the facility in its own grounds. The grounds are teeming with zombies. There is a people carrier in front of the main entrance and a supplies truck parked beside a loading ramp to the rear. As you study the facility through your field glasses, you hear the muffled thump of an explosion and smoke and flames begin to belch from the side of the building. Marina You and your partner are city precinct cops called out to a disturbance at the marina. There’s a very large, very expensive luxury yacht bobbing at its moorings at the far end of the quay. Its owner is trapped in the ships’ chandlers on the riverside shopping precinct with your partner and several other customers. You are barricaded in the kitchen of the Beachcomber Bar and Family Restaurant with the owner and his teenaged day staff. Your cruiser, surrounded by zombies, is parked at the kerb a dozen or so yards from the front door. One of the waitresses is tending to a cut on the bar owner’s forehead, inflicted when a zombie head-butted the door trying to get to him. There is another waitress, a cook and a bar assistant, who looks a lot younger than his eighteen years. Your Police Special revolver is down to three rounds. There’s more ammo and a shotgun in the car. You can hear movement in the restaurant, which you estimate to be two or three zombies that pursued you as you ran for cover. Your partner is giving a running commentary from the chandler’s shop, he claims there are “hundreds” of zombies in the street, though he could be exaggerating. You decide to make a run for the car. As you open the kitchen door, you realise that your partner may be right after all…