Battleground WWII Weird War - Zombie Rush!

This was a quick game that I played vs me!  It was a pretty simple game.  I was using Battleground WWII rules from Easy Eight, which still remains one of my favorite rules.

First - Zombie rules.

Zombies only get one action per turn, however, their movement is faster than infantry.  They move at 6 inches rather than 4 inches.  If a soldier full out runs for two actions, they will outpace the zombies.

Zombies don't suffer any affects of Light Wounds, Suppression or Morale Checks.  A Heavy Wound counts as a Light Wound.  They will only stop if they are KIA or Gory Death.

To start with zombies will move around randomly until they see a person or hear a loud noise.  This attracts them and they move full move towards the person or sound every action.

Zombie attacks:  A zombie attacks in hand to hand as normal.  If they overcome their opponent, they will immediately start feasting on them.

Zombies are attracted to kills.  If they are in line of sight of a fresh kill, they have to take a test against a 10 or less, or go towards the kill to feed.

Feeding will continue for 1D6 rounds.  If a live victim walks into sight, they will take a test vs a 10 or less to attack, or they will keep feeding.

The game

This is the situation.  We are in Sicily just after the US troops have landed.  There has been heavy fighting in the area, but it has moved on.  The company was ordered to hold their ground and get some rest.  This squad of 6 soldiers has settled down in a small barn for the night.  The rest of their platoon is about a half mile down the road.

The squad is as follows...
Sgt Brown is the squad leader - Leadership +1, Morale 14, armed with Thompson
Cpl Davidson is Leadership 0, Morale 12 armed with M1 Carbine
Pvt Green is Morale 11, armed with BAR
Pvt Walters is Morale 11 armed with Garand
Pvt Levi is Morale 11 armed with Garand
Pvt Jones is Morale 11 and armed with Garand

All soldiers except for Green has a single grenade.

It is night, and so sighting distance is doubled, and range is limited to effective (not that it comes into play in this game!)  Fire at effective range is reduces by -2.

Pvt Levi and Pvt Jones are outside of the house stationed on watch.

Opening round.

Lookout at barn

A Few zombies

A Few More

I didn't use cards for this game.  I rolled a die.  High the US acts first.  Low the Zombies do.  Also, if the US goes first, they take 1 action each THEN the zombies move before the second US action,

During this turn, the zombies milled around a bit, but Levi or Jones didn't notice them.  I used random movement for the zombies.

Round 2.

Zombies move second and continue random movement.  One of them comes within possible range of sight.

Levi and Jones both hear a sound across the road.    (They needed a 12 or less to see.  Both rolled under) They look and see a German soldier emerging from the trees.  Levi shouts for him to surrender.  Jones isn't as nice and takes a shot.  It is in effective range and he moves.

Fire and miss!

Round 3

US acts first.  I make a "guts" Test for the soldiers sleeping in the barn.
Sgt Brown rolls 2 and is instantly alerted by the sounds.
Davidson rolls a 9 and also is awake and alert
Green rolls a 15.  He awakes, but is unaware of what is going on.
Walter rolls a 19 and sleeps through the whole thing.

Outside Levi and Jones realize that there are more than one German, and they both open fire.  Jones fires two shots, and he can tell that both hit, but the stupid German won't drop (Neither are aware that they are facing zombies yet!)
Levi also lets fire with two shots, and is happy to see that one of the Germans drop when he pops it in the head!

The zombies now move, and there are several appearing now.  They move close enough that both Levi and Jones gets a good look.  They see that they are bloody, and have horrible wounds.  They should be dead.  Both soldiers then have to make a morale check.  Both fail by less than 5 (House rule for this game - fail by less than five means they are stunned and can't act, but don't flee)

Shaken soldiers, dead (again)zombie, and others coming out!

For the second action of the US, the Levi and Jones are looking around trying to figure out what they are seeing.  On the inside, the Sarge gets up and starts shouting orders.  Green and Walter are both now awake.  Sgt Brown and Davidson run outside to see what is going on.  They get out in time to see what looks like Germans heading towards them

Round 4

Zombies roll and get to move first.  This is a bad thing at first, but allows US to take 2 actions in a row later, and possibly more if they roll first the next round.

Unfortunately for Levi and Jones two of the zombies are close enough to rush them.  One attacks each.  The zombies are at -1 because both Jones and Levi are shaken.  It doesn't matter though, because on both rolls the zombies easily win.  Sgt Brown and Davidson are stunned as they see two of the Germans rush Levi and Jones and pull them down and start tearing at their flesh as Levi and Jones both scream in terror.

Brown and Davidson both make morale checks and pass.

Now the US finally get to act.  Sgt Brown sees another one closing on them.  He fires a burst of three and all three hit.  The zombie drops, but it is still moving (Heavy Wound)

Cpl Davidson fires at the zombie attacking Jones.  He hits, but it doesn't even affect them!

US second action.  Brown and Walter now reach the door and see what is going on.  Brown fails a morale check and freezes.  Walter fires at one of the zombies closing on the barn but completely misses.

Sgt Brown unloads again on the wounded zombie, and this time is rewarded by a limp creature.
Cpl takes a step closer to Jones and fires one shot at each zombie, and both go down.  One takes a round in the head, and the other in the middle of the back!

Feasting on Levi and Jones - Cpl Davidson takes out 2 zombies!

Round 5

US gets to act first this round.

Sgt Brown now focuses on those who are attacking Pvt Levi.  He fires a burst into one of the zombies, and all 3 shots hit.  In fact he severs part of the arm of the creature, but it simply keeps eating at Levi!

Cpl Davidson sees more coming in from the north and he opens fire missing all of them.

However Pvt Green has seen where he was shooting and turns his BAR on the first zombie he sees.  Three rounds strike into the creature, one of which is a roll of 1 and the zombie's head is vaporized!

Pvt Walters comes out also and fires, but misses with everything.

Now the zombies are on the move.  One zombie is close enough to reach Cpl Davidson, and the others are drawing even closer.  Cpl Davidson tries to push the zombie away, but he is overwhelmed (Davidson rolled a 19 and the zombie rolled a 15 - Bad die for Davidson).  Davidson goes down screaming as a zombie starts tearing at his flesh!

Davidson for lunch

The US now takes their second action.  Green sees more coming around the barn.  He opens fire and sees one fall, but it is still moving!  Walter fires on the one who is attacking Davidson.  At this close range it is hard to miss, and both rounds strike home, but the zombie just ignores them (two light wounds!)

Sgt Brown sees a whole mess of them coming around the building.  He quickly snatches his one grenade and tosses it.  He lands it at the feet of one zombie, and when it explodes, the zombie is virtually vaporized.  Three other zombies are in the range of effect.  Two of them simply ignore the shrapnel showering them, but one sees one of it's legs ripped to shreds!

Grenade attack!

Round 6

US goes first again (thank goodness!)

Sgt Brown sees that they are about to be overrun and yells to fall back into the barn.  The three remaining solders flee with zombies close behind.

Fall Back!

Now the zombies take action.  I roll for all of the zombies, and most start feeding on the wounded and dead soldiers.  Only four follow the soldiers into the barn.

US second action.
As they run in, Walters grabs his grenade and tosses it out the door.  It bounces and rolls right to where four zombies are feeding on Levi.  If Levi wasn't dead yet, he is now as the grenade explodes.  in the mass of bodies.  One zombie is torn to bits by the shrapnel and another one has both legs mangled.  Two others are knocked over, but get back up and start feeding again.

Green sees one coming in the door, and fires a burst from the BAR.  The first round strikes it in the face, easily finishing it, but he also rolled a double jam!  Disaster!

Sgt Brown was about to fire when he saw the zombie go down, but from where he is, he can't see any other targets.  He looks at the two frightened young soldiers, and wonders if they will get out of this!

Round 7

US goes first again.
Sgt Brown moves to the window to get a view of what is happening outside.
Pvt Green hammers away at his BAR to clear the jam.
Pvt Walters can see a zombie outside of the door.  He fires a couple of rounds, but in the gloomy light misses bot shots.

Then the zombies come moving on.  Most of the rest of the zombies start chowing down, but four of them are moving towards the barn doors!

"Dead" zombie can be seen inside.  Lots of mutilated zombies and soldiers around!

Walters sees the first one come through the doors and levels his gun at the face of the zombie.  Two shots at point blank range virtually removes the creatures head.

Sgt Walters sticks his gun out the window and fires at the zombies heading for the door.  Two rounds smacks home on the closest one and it drops.

Pvt Green finally gets the stuck bullet out of his BAR and is ready to join the fight again!

Round 8

Bad news for the GIs.  The zombies go first.
Three zombies immediately enter.  One rushes Green and another rushes Walters.  Green rolls a great roll.  A 2.  The only way the zombie can win is with a...  Oh crap, he rolled a 1!  Green is bowled over by the zombie!

Melee in the barn!

Green is dead!

Walters finally gets a win for the US though.  He takes his rifle and bashes the head of the zombie rushing him  (Walters rolled an 8 vs a 15)!  He takes the zombie down.

1st Hand to Hand victory goes to Pvt Walters (right)

US 1st action.
Walters is now out of his mind with rage.  He sees the other zombie rushing, and pops two rounds into it's face.

Sgt is still at the window and fires into the horde of zombies there.  Unfortunately at that moment, his faithful Tommy gun jams without even hitting anything!

US 2nd action

Lots of feasting going on outside!

Sgt Green quickly expels the stuck round and realizes he is on his last mag.  He is horrified to see that Green is now being feasted on by one of the zombies.  He looks to Walters and shouts, "We've got to get out of here!"

Walter nods as he fires at the zombie feeding on Green.  He hits, but it just keeps eating.  He is ready to run also!

Round 9

US acts first
1st action.
Both soldiers run outside, and start running south, keeping as far from the feasting zombies as they could!

"Shhhh.  Let them feast (I removed the "dead" zombies.)

Zombies action.
I rolled for each zombie, and none of them wanted to leave their place at the buffet.  (I forgot to roll for how long the feast would continue - which was a good thing for the US)

US second action.

They continue to run towards the road, now putting some distance between themselves and the GI buffet.  They could see there were a few more zombies closing in on them!

Not free and clear yet!

Round 10

US gets to act first again!

Walters fires at the closest zombie.  He hits once with no effect.
Sgt Brown fires at the same zombie, and gets two hits, but also fails to kill it! (or re-kill it)

Zombies act.

Swarming Walters

2 zombies are in range of Walters.  Both rush him and it looks like good night for Walters.  They both get a -4 for multiple attackers.  The first zombie rolls a 10 for a modified 6, but Walter rolls a 3.  He swings his rifle like a bat and smashes it's skull.  The second rolls a 14 for a modified 10.  Walters rolls a 9 and barely wins, screaming in rage as he smashes yet another zombie!

Walters strikes again - 3 kills in melee!

US second action.

Walters then turns his rifle and fires on the remaining zombie which is closing fast!  He hits twice, but the stupid thing doesn't even flinch!

However Sgt Green comes to the rescue.  He fires a burst at the zombie, and hits with two rounds.  He rolls a 2 and 3 on the effects table.  -1 for Thompson SMG, and -2 for point blank.  The zombie's head explodes!

Last zombie goes down

Ending.

Run baby run!

The road before them is clear, and Sgt Green and Pvt Walters don't stop running until they see the campfires of the rest of their platoon.

At first no one believes their report, but soon news comes in that other units are being attacked by Germans that they had killed just a day before.

No one can figure out what is going on.  It looks like the liberation of Europe might be in jeopardy!

Recent Painting Flurry

I've been a bit quiet because I just don't have enough time recently to game or paint, however, over the last few weeks I have had a little time here and there, so here are my latest results!

How do you know when you have to many different eras going on?  This is getting close!

15mm  US 57mm ATG

Captain America and the Human Torch for 15mm Weird War II

Goblins from Battle Valor Games.  My favorite 15mm Goblins yet!

A couple of Battle Valor orcs.  These are also great!

Battle Valor Dwarf Hero

Battle Valor Rangers - Some of the best I have seen.  I love the fact that they have a lot of variants!

15mm ACW from Blue Moon.  This one frustrated me.  I had about 30 of these painted and when I was going to seal them with Dull Coat, I dropped them, thus there are a lot of places where the paint was chipped.  Didn't feel like touching up now!

Battle Valor Dwarves

Weird War II for Battleground WWII

I am still a big fan of Battleground WWII.  I think that it is a game that will work well for Weird War II.  I just have to work on creating the vehicles and equipment that I need.

Fortunately, I am not alone in doing this.  I have found a great website that has a lot of rules already created for Weird War II.  http://www.weirdwwii.com/  One brief warning about the site.  There is some adult content on there because he reviews just about every war movie made, and many have gratuitous sex scenes.

With that said here are the first of the items that I have created for the game.

These are both works in progress, but I wanted to give a preview of what I was doing.

Movie - "Fury"

Went to see the movie Fury last weekend.  It was a good, but not great movie, but it does give me some good wargame ideas.

The reason that I say it was good, but not great was that it falls into that Holywood trap of "War is Bad!"  In recent years most of the war movies from Holywood has focused on how deadly war is, and war IS deadly.  However, sometimes it isn't quite as deadly as Holywood makes it out to be.  At the beginning of this movie, I could pick out all of the people that would die, and the ones that wouldn't die.

Spoiler Alert!

I knew right off the bat that all of the other tanks would be knocked out and their crews killed.  I could even pick out that the new guy would be the sole survivor.  Everyone who get shot is killed!

That isn't the case in real life.  Plenty of people that get shot survive.  They often have horrid injuries to overcome, but they live.  They are evacuated to the rear where their wounds are treated.  The ambulance isn't instantly hit as it drives away.  They even can return home without their ship being sunk, or their airplane crashing.  That was something that Band of Brothers did well.

Also, not every crew member in a tank will die when it gets hit.  I know an older lady who's brother was in a Sherman in North Africa.  His tank was hit, and all of the crew bailed out except for the assistant driver.  He went back to help the driver out, but while he was there, the ammo exploded and he as well as the other crew member were killed.

If we wen't by Holywoods ideas, then we would never have to worry about forward hospitals, because you either get a minor scratch and keep fighting, or you get killed.

The good thing about the movie is that the tanks looked authentic.  They didn't use M24 Chaffees for Shermans, and M60s for Tigers.  There were actual Sherman tanks and Tiger tanks, as well as Greyhounds and other authentic looking vehicles.  It was great to see Germans use Panzershreks and and Panzerfausts.  The fighting tactics were pretty good also.  They used fire and maneuver instead of just sitting and having a long ranged slugfest.

Painting Frenzy!

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been doing some painting.  I'm a little A.D.D. when it comes to my miniatures, so I have a little of everything!

Fantasy

The first group are some Khurasan Miniatures Salamandermen, which I am using as fishmen/sahaugin.

Here are some figs for size comparison... Eureka Man Ork, Khurasan orc, Old Glory Human, Demonworld orc

More Khurasan orcs.  I love these orcs!  They are not over the top cartoony like so many, and they are well detailed.  (My painting doesn't do them justice)

A Ral Partha Bugbear with a Demonworld and Eureka orc for comparison.  These are also nice figs, but sadly very OOP.  They also only have two variants, 1 commander and a banner bearer in the pack.

 Some humans from splinterd Light Miniatures Link and Copplestone Castings link.  The Splintered Light are nice, but the Copplestone castings are some of the best 15mm that I have ever seen!

 My 15mm Rohan army gets some reinforcements!

 Eureka Link has some great orcs too.  Their warg riders fit very well with LOTR!  

 More wolf riders from Demonworld.  Also very nice figs.  I have some regular wolf riders, and Clangette's Furies.  They are now produced by Ral Partha Europe (Link).  They are incredible figures with great detail.  They seem to be modeled after GW Warhammer orcs.

Others

I also painted up some German Fallschirmjäger from Peter Pig.  Most of my 15mm WWII are from Old Glory, but I got these in a trade!  They are good figs with some character.  The sculpting is a little more cartoonish than Old Glory's, and they are a hair shorter, but not enough to cause any issues.  Still they are nice figures!

Of course here is one of my Walking Dead dudes!

Small skirmish with Battleground WWII

I haven't been able to do a WWII battle in a little while, so a friend and myself decided to do a small skirmish today with Easy Eight's Battleground WWII.

The skirmish was a US platoon moving forward to capture a french farmhouse. 

The US had 3 8 man squad(1 Squad Leader, 1 Assistant, 1 BAR and 5 rifle), with a Lt. and Sgt aid.  All were regular.
The Germans were defending with 2 6 man squads.  Each with an MG34 and loader, 1 NCO with SMG and 3 riflemen.  They were elite.

I ran the U.S., and have to say that luck was on my side this day.

I could deploy my troops on either one of the two sides away from the barn.  I decided to deploy everyone on the same side.  I send 2 squads up the middle, and one on the right flank with the platoon command.  The Germans decided not to deploy inside of the barn, but instead to put one squad in the hedge row in front, and one on their far right defending against that board.  They deployed in ambush.


1st Turn.
U.S. forces move to the first set of hedge rows and stop.  They make spotting rolls but don't see any movement.

2nd Turn.
(Since the Germans were all on ambush, I just activated one squad at a time without drawing cards)
U.S. 1st squad splits.  The ASL along with BAR and loader stay behind to give cover.  They spot, but don't see anything.  The rest of squad uses one action to cross hedge, and second to move forward.

1st squad moves out

US 2nd squad goes on Ambush.

2nd Squad crosses the hedge

US 3rd squad does the same as 1st Squad.

Germans open up!

The German 1st squad now sees the U.S. troops running across the field.  The MG opens fire, but disaster strikes when they roll a 20 and jam.  None of their dice were good enough to hit!  The riflemen decide to wait for a better target.










The US second squad who were on ambush see the incoming fire, and open up.  A hail of rifle bullets and BAR rounds fly at the hedge miraculously scoring a hit.  The loader for the German MG is heavily wounded and out of action.

3rd Turn
The U.S. first squad activates.  The BAR team opens fire and scores 1 KIA and 1 Light Wound.  The KIA is on the MG gunner, and the Lt. Wound is on a rifleman.  The German MG team is out of action already!  Things not looking good for Germans.  The rest of the squad rush across the field.

U.S. 2nd squad activates.  The BAR team fires but does no effect.  The infantry team moves out across the field.

U.S. 3rd squad activates, and continues across the field.  The platoon leader joins them.

German 2nd squad activates, and judging by the sound of gunfire to their left, realizes that they are in a bad position.  They come off of ambush and move to the hedge row facing the road.

Back to the barn!

German 1st squad finally activates.  For their first action they fire on the advancing Americans, and they all miss!  They then fall back towards the barn.










4th Turn

U.S. 3rd squad activates and moves forward to the hedge in front of them.  They make a spotting roll but see nothing.

GE. 1st squad activates and falls back into barn.

U.S. 1st squad activates and moves to the hedge.  The BAR team moves to join.

U.S. Closing in!

U.S. 2nd squad activates and moves forward.

GE 2nd squad activates and reaches their new hiding place.  They spot, but see nothing.

5th Turn.
German 2nd squad activates first.  They spot and see 2nd squad advancing, and so the 3 rifle men open up fire, they wound 1 U.S. troop who then panics and runs screaming (1st U.S. casualty!).

U.S. squad 1 activates and spends all actions firing (BAR team uses one action to move into position before firing).  The hail of fire is too much, and one of the German soldiers who was previously wounded takes another wound and goes down.

GE 1 activates and fires at the U.S. troops in the hedge, but have no effect.

U.S. 3rd Squad activates and moves to the hedge.  The GE MG team spots them and activates it's ambush.  They wound one soldier who breaks and runs.

U.S. casualties on left flank.

Both U.S. wounded can be seen.

6th Turn.
U.S. Squad 2 activates first.  The broken soldier continues to flee despite everyone's effort to stop him.  Everyone else moves forward.  The rifle team up front reaches the hedge and fires at the German rifles who had fired at them, but miss.

GE squad 1 and commander activate.  They fire, but have no effect.  The one rifle and 2 SMGs just won't penetrate the hedge rows!

Rushing the barn!

U.S squad 1 decides to rush the building.  The BAR plus ASL and loader give covering fire, but has no effect.  The assault team crosses hedge and moves towards the building.









GE squad 2 activates.  The MG team continues to unload.  They force 2 morale checks but both are passed.  The rifle men fire at U.S. squad 2 but miss.

US squad 3 opens up on the German MG.  The first action the BAR team moves to the hedge while rifles fire to no effect.  The second action, the hail of fire strikes the loader for the MG team heavily wounding him and taking him out of action.

7th Turn
GE 2nd squad activates 1st.  The MG team (or man) fires on the U.S. 3rd squad.  The U.S. squad leader was exposed as he tried to give his men orders, and is cut down.  But then, the MG jams!  The riflemen fire at U.S. 2nd squad, but no effect.

German 2nd squad faltering.

GE 1st squad activates.  The commander joins them.  2 SMGs and one rifle pour lead on the advancing assault squad.  1 man is filled with holes from multiple hits.  Another falls before him, but it is not enough!

Assaulting the barn.

U.S. 1st squad comes up and finishes their assault.  The reach the building on their first action, and for their second action, all 3 of the survivors toss a grenade through the door or windows.  The German 1st squad leader is shredded, and everyone else breaks.  The lone German gunman is screaming in a corner for mercy, and the German commander is so shaken that he drops his gun and yells for mercy.

Time to go home!

U.S 2nd squad activates.  They open fire at the German 2nd squad riflemen.  Both of the 2 riflemen are cut down.  The German gunner and squad leader fail their morale check, and decide that there are better places to be.












Aftermath.
This game was a lot more one sided than I would have expected.  The Germans had bad dice rolls, and jams at the worst possible times. 

The US had 2 men wounded who broke and ran for cover.  They had 4 other men killed, including a squad leader.

The Germans had much worse casualties, including the two POWs