PLAYTEST: first game of our homebrew rules: World War Z

[General Biakal]

after thrashing out a workable sytem round a table last week, this week we decided to try a playtest.

we used random metal minis for "Us" and gaunts for zombies.

the main objective of the game is to cross the two city blocks while rescuing the "babes" (duke nukem 3D style).

the game come about becuase we all ended up fighting like little bitches when we played each other at 40k and we wanted a cheap alternative. weve ended up using a bastardised 40k 5th ed rules set as a basis, but with our own ideas on shooting and moving.

the board is cut into six sectors, each with a zombie spawn point in which spawns random numbers of dead-heads per turn. they then either move random direction 4" or head towards noise or movment.

there will be more as we develop further but for now here are some pics:



thats me on the right, in the dark blue T.


here is me, surrounded by the dead. i smashed some heads a few seconds later i was running all the way to our objective, the white painted bunker at the far end (see below). i was first there, so i guess i won.

Endgame. Im safely at the bunker, terry (with tape) has two Babes in tow and is going for the third, Dan (seated) is surrounded and in the middle of that huge knot of zombies to the left/centre  of the picture, and chuckles (standing left) is god knows where... possibly down towards the very right of the picture, hiding behind the building next to Terrys left hand.

[Marchomer]

mmh! Interesting game, i like it. Does it works well?

[General Biakal]

yeah its not bad. the trick is to keep moving and if you are locked into combat get out as soon as you can. zombies are either hit and knocked down, returning next turn, or headshot, which kills em. on a shotgun, using the flame template, the front rank of zombies under the template are knocked down on a 2, headshot on 6. with an assault rifle, 3/4 is nocked down and 5/6 are headshots... etc. there are loads of zombie gaes out there but we wanted our "own".

each weapon has a "carry value" and each gender has a "carry load", so men can carry more than women, but women are faster in combat and move faster over the board. once we have some decent rules down i will put them up here.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

excellent stuff! looks like a lot of fun

what kind of changes did you make to the rules?

the Babes are a nice touch, a lot of people forget you need an objective to encourage players to move around the board and not just run to the exits in this sort of game. Have you thought about adding supply crates full of medi-packs, different kinds of guns and extra ammo as a secondary objective? maybe have them air-dropped in randomly worms style (scatter 4D6 from the centre)

I know your using them to stand-in for zombies, but I think 'nids make for great generic monsters in this kind of game, how about doing an alien infestation variant? like SpaceHulk on an open battle field, or why not go the other way: Survivors fighting off Zombies in a huge underground bunker complex with lots of narrow corridors and rooms full of supply crates to raid in the desperate struggle

I guess your looking to buy a fuck-load of zombies now then?
I recommend the new Mantic Zombies £18 for a box of 30! and they look better than the Citadel ones too!
For the Babes and Survivors I'd goto EM4's Future Skirmish range if you havn't already

maybe get some 28mm modern or near-future military trucks and paint them up as Zom-B-Gon vans!

I look forward to hearing more about WWZ

[General Biakal]

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

 Have you thought about adding supply crates full of medi-packs, different kinds of guns and extra ammo as a secondary objective? maybe have them air-dropped in randomly worms style (scatter 4D6 from the centre)

honky PLEASE!!! this isnt my first wargame....

we have med packs and ammo points. each weapon has a specific "burst" ie number of shots, plus a D6xX value for total ammo. ammo points give you the chance to roll again on your ammo value, halved rounded up.

right now its bordering on a 40k/hive war thing and a contemporary Zombie game. the baes are strippers from Hasslefree.
main changes are the "to wound" system, movment and niggle things like if you have two SMG's you fire twice the shots, that kind of things...

[MortiS-the-Lost]

cool, sounds like you have those kind of rules in already

General Biakal wrote

once we have some decent rules down i will put them up here.

I look forward to trying them out when you do, there's been talk among my group of doing a Carmageddon style zombie game with zombie-mashing vehicles

[MarkRG]

Looks a great game mate,

I have considered a game fighting nids where you just throw the space hulk blips over the table and where ever they land that number appears.You would have to make some other markers for the bigger stuff thou.

[General Biakal]

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

I look forward to trying them out when you do, there's been talk among my group of doing a Carmageddon style zombie game with zombie-mashing vehicles

NIIIIIIIICCCE!!!!!!!!! like that idea! i always thought GW's rolling road idea was clever....