28mm Modern Zombie Game Report: Zombietown USA Batrep.

Put a zombie game on Sunday for 4 of Posties rejects, the game involved 4 small squads of national guardsmen entering the town to recover a phial of liquid hidden in the town plus 4 side missions.Find and locate a CIA operative (vital information), locate the local governor (political strings still being pulled), locate grandmother/grandson of a Leiutenant General (living in hope) and CBS camera crew with vital footage.

I used the Akula's AR:SE zombie rules which are generated on a playing card system (basically black moves zombies and red moves survivors and a joker ends the turn.

Squad A: Captain Richard plus 4 guardsmen
Squad B: Leuitenant Stuart (Postie) plus 4 guardsmen.
Squad C: Sergeant Surjit plus 4 guardsmen.
Squad D: Corporal Ray plus 4 guardsmen.
Everybody had a M16 plus a few guardsmen had grenade launchers and SAWs, I was in control of the zombies and umpiring, the zombies were generated on spawn points (4 static and the 2 mobile zombie hordes), if zombies were to be generated I threw that amount of dice (sometimes 25+) and placed them at that numbered spawn point.

Squad B and D enterd from the north with squad A and C entered from the south (all other points were blocked to them) and squad D went for it blazing away and attracting a lot of attention (there were about 20 zombies on the board to begin with and a lot of them headed towards the gunfire).Squad A and C were more cautious and started to sweep the buildings for survivors and phial of liquid (the survivors made contact when a guardsmen was within 3 inches and the phial was detected with a sensor each team had when within 3 inches).For the first few turns anything dead got a bullet between the eyes and the shooting of most squads was deadly and the spawn points were kept busy.

Within the first 4-5 turns most survivors had been located and placed among the squads and the general consensus was that things were good and finish things off by finding the phial and everybody would exit the town the way they had come in (by this stage I was having a fit as there had been one or two close shaves but no casualties and my zombies were getting slaughtered).Squad D needed to exit the town on the other side due to his rear been overrun with zombies.Then the phial was located in a container and things started to go wrong for the guardsmen (black cards started to come out together and allowed mass movement by the zombies to corner the guardsmen).

Squad B had its first infected guardsmen trying to remove the phial from a container (I roll a D6 to see how many turns before coma and reactivation), the CIA operative recived a infection injury aswell (Squad A got most of its kills through close combat in these turns?) but the other squads over 2 turns lost 4 guardsmen (including sergeant Surjit) to been zombie food while another 3 got infected by injury.The phial was not recovered as the game ended and the container became a zombie meeting area.Squad A, D and C left the area (South) with survivors but B had problems and would have to exit to the north.All survivors were found but the CIA operative never made it (ended up as zombie food metres from getting off table).

All in all the game lasted longer than we thought ( 6 hours but could have gone on longer) as I had another scenario ready to go.The guys actually liked the game even though zombies are not their thing, military forces are very strong and between the 20 guardsmen they put about 150+ zombies and tanks into the void and bad luck eventually lead to their casualties.The next game will be normal survivors without all the weapons and skills that the military have, the other thing is if a friend receives a bite should they be despatched there and then ( I will probably put in a dice rule to reflect this). Postie actually won among the players by killing an awful lot of zombie tanks. (P.S close combat with zombies is a bad thing!)

Some pictures from the game, hope you like and apologies for any mistakes but thats life ( any questions just leave a comment as I always respond).

Squad A and C pooling forces after entering the town.

A zombie horde spawns.

A choke point of zombies.

Another zombie horde spawns more zeds.

An aerial view of the fighting around squad A and C.

Numbers are starting to count against the guardsmen.

CIA operative receiving his first wound.

No respect for the dead, tough fighting at base camp.

Aerial veiw of the worsening zombie numbers.

A squad view of the container containing the phial.

Guardsmen Van Damme with a target rich enviroment developing but he is wounded already.

Umpiring is not easy............

Put on a game yesterday (Zombie) for some of the boys from Posties Rejects, usually Postie umpires nearly all (95%) of our games but now and again some of the group put on games and this time it was me and I made sure Postie attended so he could actually game for a change.The game took a couple of days to prepare (scenery and figures), also familiarising yourself with the rules (never played with them before), cooking (optional), 6 hours to play and basically hoping to satisfy the people who play your game because if you don't game with your figures or people don't want to play, what's the point?

Afterwards the boys said they enjoyed it and went home happy and tired and stuffed but it does give you an appreciation for the umpires who put on games with figures and scenery they painted (and sometimes see damaged and mistreated by others) but usually only get to see others play with them.So in conclusion be nice to umpires as without them there would a lot more solo wargaming out there and its not as fun as it sounds.

15mm Napoleonic Game Report: Freisadt 1809 French vs Austrian(Picture Heavy).

Posties Rejects met up on Sunday for a 15mm napoleonic french vs austrian game using General de Brigade with house rule changes.There were 6 of us John, Ian, Lee, Richard, Surjit and myself and the umpire Postie of course,there were 6 divisions present with 3 per side with virtually identical forces per side for a meeting engagement that was fictitious but could have happened.

The French:
John:1st Division(French):1st Brigade,3 battalions of the 36th line and 1 battalion of the 30th line.2nd Brigade,1 battalion of the 27th and 3 battalions if the 10th leger(elite).3rd Brigade,1st and 5th regiments of cuirassiers(elite).1 heavy and 1 medium batteries of artillery.
Richard:2nd Division(Saxon):4th Brigade,2 battalions of Prinz Max,1 battalion of Prinz Anton and 1 battalion of light infantry(elite).5th Brigade,3 battalions of grenadiers(elite),1 battalion guard(elite).6th Brigade,1 regiment each of Albrecht chevau-leger and 1st Hussars.1 heavy and 1 light batteries of artillery.
Ian:3rd Division(Bavarian):7th Brigade,2 battalions of Kronprinz and 2 battalions of Prinz Carl infantry.8th Brigade,2 battalions of Herzog Wilhelm and 1 battalion of Herzog Pivs infantry and 1 battalion of light infantry(elite).9th Brigade,1 regiment each of the 1st and 6th chevau-leger.1 medium gun battery.

The Austrians:
Surjit:1st Division:1st Brigade,4 battalions of German grenadiers(elite).2nd Brigade,4 battalions of Hungarian grenadiers(elite).3rd Brigade,1st and 2nd regiments cuirassiers(elite).1 heavy and 1 light batteries of artillery.
Lee:2nd Division:4th Brigade,2 battalions each of the german 24th and 14th line.5th Brigade,3 battalions of the 34th hungarian line and 1 battalion of jagers(elite).6th Brigade,1 regiment each of the 3rd and 4th Hussars(elite).1 heavy and 1 light battery of artillery.
Me:3rd Division:7th Brigade,2 battalions each of the 8th and 18th German line.8th Brigade,3 battalions of the 61st Hungarian line and 1 battalion of jagers(elite).9th Brigade,1 regiment each of the 2nd and 4th chevau-leger,1 light battery of artillery.

This was a meeting engagement and it became a hard fought slog with cavalry regiments killed to a man and even cavalry brigades being wiped out,4 brigade commanders died and a divisional commander went into the void aswell and as you will see with the pictures it came down to the wire 16-15 to the Austrians.Good game over 6 turns.

Initial set up with the french on the left.

Austrian 3rd Division (my boys).

First initial push forward with the Austrian 1st Division in the lead in the center.

2nd Austrian Division about to clash with the 2nd Bavarian Division.

A view from the Austrian troops (4 batteries of artillery awaiting targets on yonder hilltop).

The slog on our left(Austrian) flank with bavarian cavalry in full retreat,they would later rout when they failed their morale.

The cavalry (austrian and saxon) clash on the right flank,brigade and divisional commanders attached.

One of the Saxon regiments in full retreat with me in pursuit and one of mine pushed back with heavy losses and the Saxons then hit one of my infantry battalions and pushed it back with heavy losses.

Lunchtime for Surjit, Lee and John. 

I got round the Saxon flank and 1 inch less this column would have not gotten into square,I won but did not break it.

A view from my side of cavalry versus square..

A view from the Bavarians on their right flank,this stalemated until the end with nobody getting the upper hand.

An along the line view of the slog from the french point of view.

Saxon and Austrian skirmishers clashing.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and apologies for any mistakes that I made in naming units as I was reading Posties handwriting (shocking).

Any idea who makes these figures?

Missed out on ebay winning these figures which were listed as 25mm battlesuits, the seller did not know who made them either but had put a WH40K painted cadian head in one, does anybody have an idea on manufacturer as I would like some for my Neo-US forces.Thanks.

Anyway the last episode of the current series of The Walking Dead tonight and a meeting of Posties Rejects this Sunday for a 15mm napoleonic game between french and austrian forces(I will end up with the dross as usual,neapolitan forces anyone!).
Postie is a great umpire but a git.

Posties Rejects:15mm Crimean Wargame Report(Picture and word heavy)

BATTLE OF CHOULIOU RIVER,27TH NOVEMBER 1854.

Posties rejects turned up for a game last saturday of an action in the crimea between french and britsh forces facing a russian attack at the chouliou river in the crimea(battle is fictional but river existed at the time and there was fighting near the area).There were 4 players and Postie as umpire(commands were picked out of a hat at beginning of game,
Surjit: French forces (Allied Commander)
John: British forces
Smithy: Russian Commander (1st brigade)
Me: Russian second in command (2nd brigade)
FORCES:
French: 2nd infantry division(part),1st brigade:7th line, 3rd zouaves(elite), 1st chasseurs a pied(elite), a battery each of heavy and medium guns and an attached cavalry brigade of the 1st/4th chasseurs d'Afrique(elite).
British: 3rd infantry division,1st brigade:1st,38th and 50th line,2nd brigade:4th, 28th and 44th line, 2 batteries of medium guns plus an attached cavalry brigade of the 17th lancers, 4th light dragoons and 8th hussars(elite) and a battery of light horse artillery.

Russian:16th infantry division, 1st brigade, Vladimir and Susdal line regiments plus 2 batteries each of heavy and light guns and an attached cavalry brigade of the 11th/12th Hussars plus 53rd Don Cossacks(conscript).
2nd brigade, Uglutz and Kazan line regiments, 6th schutzen battalion(elite) and 2 reserve batteries of heavy and light guns.

The rules we use are a variation of General De Brigade with house rule changes,the ammo on all artillery is limited(especially shell), the russian units were larger(20 figures to 16 of the allies) but all had muskets(9" range) compared to british and french rifled muskets(15" range).
A brief description of the battle, the russian commander in chief did not come off the hill until it was too late, I got bogged down at the bridge and only got over with my schutzen battalion(skirmishers with rifled muskets) my reserve artillery arrived too late to influence anything.The russian cavalry(huge units of 24 figures) got hammered by britsh and french cavalry and left the game/board(all 3 of them).The russian infantry got outdistanced by the range of the french muskets(the british infantry only arrived at the end turn to deliver 1 devastating volley), the french would move out of our effective range and fire back in theirs.The battle ended when we called a halt to the misery and on points they won 10-4, good game but frustrating on a period I quite like.

Initial set up with the russians on the left.

 

My brigade approaches the bridge of death and despair.

Russian 1st brigade initial set up.

The british forces with cavalry out front(part of the light brigade)

My Uglutz boys crossing the bridge with the schutzen in front,the bridge was the furthest my formed units got.

The first unit took 50% casualties failed its morale went straight back through everything else and disordered them aswell(the yellow markers).

Massed russian cavalry heading off to engage the british and french cavalry.

The disaster at the bridge(the green markers signify march column and white signifies first fire)

Before the first round of combat.

After the first round of combat(something is missing).

My reserve artillery pushing forward but too late.

The russian first brigade engaging the french and british but with horrendous losses.

French and british cavalry finishing off the 12th hussars(3 to 1).

A picture at the end of my schutzen behind the french redoubt(far smaller unit by then) but its my only positive for the russians the whole game.The dice rolling was horrendous on our part but we won iniative nearly every turn but a game is a game and all thanks to Postie(I hope you enjoy the report and apologise for any mistakes I may have written).

The Group with No Name

The boys met up on Saturday for a 15mm napoleonic wargame between russian(me,John and Dave) and french forces(Ray and Smithy), ther report of the game with pictures will be on Ray's blog(Don't throw a 1)which the link can be found on this page(he whined so much we let him have it).The main point is that the russians won narrowly after a good game even with Dave losing 11 of 12 cavalry engagements with 32 regiments on the french side and 35 on the russian side(big game).The other thing that came up was the name of our group which has temporarily settled on with The Group with No Name moniker but we are still open to debate(long bloody debate).

100 Years War Game or I still have 7 inches left.

Our club met up on Saturday for a game but numbers were limited as only 4 people were available but we had a hundred years war scenario set up based on WAB with armies of chivalry thrown in house rules.Postie is the ringmaster and myself and smithy ended up as the french and richard the guy in the picture was the english and the speaker of the title phrase when he was double moving his heavy cavalry into a better position(does not matter how old you are but it brings out the giggles among friends especially when he responded to our heckling with the phrase "well enough to please").
                                                                               The game was started with 3000pts each and deploying your units on a pre drawn map before the game and when we deployed the english had 5 units of longbowmen in the front ranks and our 1 unit of shortbows and crossbowmen went bye bye and the game went downhill quickly for me and smithy but it was enjoyable and it was a game. which we do not get to do as often as we once did or would like.
                                                         But the game finished earlier than normal and we spoke about my blog and Ray's blog another member of the club (Don't throw a 1) and writing about games and showing pictures but we decided then we need a name for the club and a debate has now begun on what we should be called(there were some of the usual less than nice comments,true but not nice) and we are thinking of the"The Devil's Reject's","The Old Dogs of War" or the " The Motley Crew".I have included some pictures taken by Postie but they are not great so he will be taken off camera duties in future,hope you enjoy.