Victorian Zombie Campaign Journal Game 3

Scenario 3 – The Silent Towers

 Compiled by Alan, of Tring Wargames Club ©2021

While searching a ruined section of the town, a group of ominously silent Towers is discovered.

Set-up

A ruined tower of 10” and 3 floors high is central. On either side linked by catwalks are three smaller towers. The area around the towers is the usual ruins and buildings.  The Towers were scratch-built by Henry just for this scenario.

One Special supply token is placed at the top level of the tallest Tower. Players deploy in the usual way and activate in usual way. One cache of supplies is placed at the top level of each of the other three Towers.

Card Choice

Survivor	Zombie	Tank zombie	Zombie Horde	The Round ends.	Zombie Rising	Random Occurrence Card
4	4	0	0	1	0	0

 

Spawning Points

The Players each place a spawning point in the usual manner as supplies etc.

Special rules

The towers are strange places were firearms mysteriously don’t seem to work inside and the walls of the towers block line of sight into the tower.

Victory points

The Special supply token when recovered is worth 1D6 points to the player.

If the leader of the group is the one discovering the supply token he receives 5 Points. To obtain the points the figure need to survive the game.

 

The Adventure

The game began with the deployment of items of interest (supply caches), according to the campaign rules, and then with deployment of the Zombie Spawning Points according to the scenario rules.

Alan won scenario 2, so he had the Initiative for the first move. On subsequent turns, we diced for the Initiative, and then proceeded clockwise around the table from the high roller.

Each team had added a new character, and also beefed up their skills and weapons to the extent allowed.

As before, Henry opted for the Northwest corner of the board as a deployment point; Alan took the Southwest corner, while Martin chose the Northeast corner.

 

Fig 1: The terrain looking North

In this scenario, the Zombie Spawning immediately produced a Zombie Liche plus another Zombie in the middle of the board, together with a number of Zombies clustering in the towers.

The Zombies immediately got a move, which resulted in the Liche calling as well. This had the effect of causing all the Zombies to move towards the centre of the board, where the Liche was, even those in the towers, who began to descend to ground level.

Henry’s Butcher St Boys and Alan’s Society of Africa were a little cautious, but at the first available opportunity, Martin’s Bow St Runners advanced and started to ascend the tower nearest to the Northeast corner.  Sgt Calahan climbed immediately to the top of the tower, intending to melee with the Zombie remaining there.  The Zombie successfully grabs him, and Sgt Calahan is defeated in the ensuing melee – he is down and out of the game, although he will get a saving throw at the end.

The Liche call moves the Zombies away from Martin’s other characters; however, in doing so, they succeed in blocking the Bow St Runners’ exit from the tower.

 

Fig 2: The Zombies block the Bow St Runners escape route

Meanwhile, the Butcher St Boys and the Society of Africa have been considerably more circumspect in avoiding the attention of the Zombies; the Society climbs their nearest tower without attracting attention.

 

Fig 3 - The Society of Africa climbs a tower looking for supplies

At this point, the Bow St Runners are in fairly serious trouble. With Zombies both ahead and behind, they have no option but to fight their way out; their best option looks like the catwalk across to another tower. One Zombie blocking the way forward is killed, and a second one fails to grab PC Plod, who is bringing up the rear.

 

Fig 4 - The Bow St Runners evade the Zombies- JUST!

The Runners charge round the tower making for the catwalk; the last one grabs the supply cache as they pass it, snatching it from under the noses of the Zombies who are trying to close in.

At this point, the Zombies spawn again.

Up to this point, the Butcher St Boys have been staying well away from trouble, while working their way towards the tallest Tower. Suddenly they race up the tall Tower, to seize the Special supply cache, while the Society of Africa also grabs the supply cache in their Tower.

 

Fig 5 - The Liche climbs the Tower

The Bow St Runners are now surrounded by Zombies and are forced to fight their way out - a seemingly hopeless task, as they are all being summoned by the Liche, and that team is by far the closest.  The Liche starts to ascend the Tower in pursuit, drawing the rest of the Zombies to it.

 

Fig 6 - The Bow St Runners fight their way out

The Runners kill one Zombie blocking their escape, and the PC McGarry kills another. Their escape route now looks clear, and they race across the catwalk.

At this point, it is clear that there is little advantage to remaining in the Towers, and the Butcher St Boys and the Society of Africa begin to retrace their steps to ground level.

 

Fig 7 - The Bow St Runners come face to face with the Butcher St Boys

Suddenly the Runners come face to face with the Butcher St Boys’ Lord Muck, who happens to be carrying the Special supply cache; behind him is Dapper Dan, who is carrying a regular supply cache – all in all, quite a haul of Victory Points. All that separates them is a gap in the floor where it has fallen away. Will the two teams ignore the Zombie threat and attack each other over the supplies?

Unfortunately for Martin’s  Runners, they have no actions left on that round, and on the next human move, Henry rolled the higher Initiative. His Butcher St Boys elect to continue retreating from the Tower, hotly pursued by the Runners, but the Runners prove unable to catch them.

The Zombies, led by the Liche, respond by also descending from the Towers, and spreading out at ground level.  Bothe the Butcher St Boys and the Society of Africa form defensive lines at the base of the Towers, to cover the retreat of their colleagues.

 

Fig 8 - Members of the Society of Africa cover their colleagues retreat

And the Butcher St Boys do the same on their side of the table, while Dapper Dan and Lord Muck retreat off-table with the loot.

 

Fig 9 - The Butcher St Boys defend their Tower

At this point the Zombies spawn, followed by an end of turn, followed by another Zombie spawning. There are now 4 Zombie hordes, 1 Tank, 1 Liche, and 26 ordinary Zombies on the table, far too many even for all three teams to combat together.

Back on the ground however, the teams discover that their firearms are suddenly working again, so they decide to rack up a few points by killing Zombies. For the Society, Lord Dunce kills one Zombie with his new sword-stick, while George pots one with his shotgun. He fails to get a clean kill, but does achieve a knock-back.

As the Bow St Runners retreat off-table with their loot, the Butcher St Boys become the object of the Zombies’ attention, and the Liche starts summoning all Zombies to converge on them. The Detective retaliates, by shooting the Liche, and causing 1 wound, but their man with the shotgun is unable to finish it off.

The Zombies move, threatening to engage the Butcher St Boys. Fortunately for them, on the next Human move, they are able to kill the Liche with the shotgun, and then retreat off-table to safety. This concluded the scenario.

Tallying the Adventure

Under the campaign rules, Victory Points were awarded for gathering supply caches (3 points) and killing Zombies (1 point each), and under the scenario rules, points were awarded for capturing the Special supply cache.

Martin’s Bow St Runners had retrieved a supply cache, and killed 3 Zombies – worth a total of 6 points. His Sgt Calahan made a successful saving throw, and lives to fight another day.

Henry’s  Butcher St Boys had retrieved a supply cache, and the Special supply cache (for which he rolled 1D6, but only scored 2),  and killed 1 Liche (only worth 2 points in this scenario) – worth a total of 7 points.

Alan’s Society of Africa had retrieved a supply cache, and killed 2 Zombies – worth a total of 5 points.

Thus the Butcher St Boys were awarded victory in this scenario.

In discussion after the game, we decided that the Zombie movement rules needed some work, so that the Liche summoning did not override all other considerations. The new rule that we came up with prioritises different criteria, based mainly on distance, to which the Zombies respond:-

1^st priority – a Human within 10” (sight and/or smell).
2^nd priority – a Loud Noise within 20” in THIS ROUND (i.e. since the card deck was last shuffled).
3^rd priority – a  Liche “wail” within 30” in THIS ROUND

Examples of a Loud Noise are:- a gunshot, explosion, vehicle moving, shouting, screaming, door slamming, etc.

In each case, the Zombie will move directly towards the nearest Human which meets the criteria stated. If it collides with an obstacle, it will “slide” along the obstacle until it is no longer impeded. Note that a Zombie does NOT have to have LOS, to react to the presence of a Human.