Jane Austin Zombie Killer Rules

[dexter]

Jane Austin Zombie Killer by Partizan Press

My girlfriend knows I love zombies, and it seems she knows I have a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies project I’m working on if very ,very slowly.
 She bought me these new rules.
 Thanks dear, love you!

JAZK is a regency skirmish game amongst the unwashed and the undead; obviously this is loosely based on the book and movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
The book is A5 and 48pages. The rules run from page 10-35 and have 10 half page photos showing Mini Figs Regency range of figures in play, there are also 7 large line drawings of heroes and zombies.
There are 3 classes of character; Commoner, Leader and Main character. Each class gets 1D6 +2/4/6 activation points. Movement costs 1pt/per/inch, shooting and melee 1pt, reloading takes from 2 up depending on the type of fire arm used.
Range combat uses 2D6 you kill on a 12 or wound on an 11 or 10. Each gun gets a modifier based on range; pistols get +3 at 0-5 inches, +2 at 10-15 etc. There are modifiers for character class, cover, movement, wounds etc.
Aiming, you get +1 to hit for every activation point used aiming, and you can use as many activation points equal to the distance between the shooter and the target.
Hand to hand combat works by both parties rolling 2dice and the difference between the rolls, when modified, gives you your result.
 There’s a simple chart for morale which provides a number you must roll higher than and a letter which gives you various results if you fail. These range from A-E and all are explained under the chart. Apart from B flee, which is explained two pages back in the Breaking Off From Combat section.
There are two scenarios in the game which look like they’d be fun to play.

These are very light rules and, to me, don’t really convey the feel of the book or movie that they are based on. They look slick and well produced but there are more typos than I’d expect in a professionally produced set of rules, for example range bands go as follows 0-5 , 5-10, 10-20, 20- 30 and 30-16 . This mistake is also repeated on the quick reference sheet.
 Main characters such as Mr Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet and Lady Catherine are described as either MC or RC experts. In the melee section they explain that MC stands for melee combat. However the Ranged combat section does not explain that RC is ranged combat, but were experienced gamers we can figure that out ourselves. There's a list of bonuses for ranged combat including one which is +1 if FC expert.
I've only read the rules twice, FC isn't mentioned again.
Main characters get either RC OR MC expert, which provides them with a +1 in that form of combat. A Dashing Militia Officer, who s classed as a character (presumably the same as a main character) gets MC and this gives him +2 modifier. H. B. Flashman mounted CO of the Rutland Yeomanry gets MC +2. These are the only people who seem to get a +2 bonus in combat.
Optional Rules. Mounted combat. ‘To ride into combat with a Dreadful, their horse must test as below '
Below it tells you what happens if you succeed ,it doesn't tell you how to succeed ,or what happens if you fail.
Earlier in the paragraph on horses it tells you that if a horse charges ,it must pass a test as a Commoner and 'Should it fail ,the rider will be unhorsed 1xD6 inches ,sic, (from) the Dreadful ,taking an EFFECTS OF HITS test.' There is no EFFECTS OF HITS test; the closest is Wounded in Combat test.

The rules at present cost £15.

There are pictures of Minifigs   Regency range of figures, in my opinion the zombies look really rough and some of them have oversized body parts. But who knows until you actually see them ‘in the flesh’ you can never really tell .I do like the look of the Regency women .

[axabrax]

Thanks for this. I have been looking at these as well since reading the review in Wargames Illustrated, and they seem a bit slapdash, but hats off to them for coming up with something.  

The real hurdle is the miniatures which, as you say, unfortunately look quite poor--although the paint jobs on the site may actually be making them look worse than they are. Some of the design choices are a bit odd too like having Lord Byron wear a dragoon helmet!  Missed opportunity in my opinion  to do an appropriately brooding Byron and why not  throw in some of the other romantic poets as well?  Surely Coleridge would be a conjurer?  

If there was a strong, well-designed miniatures range to go along with this game I would dive in for sure.  Maybe if we are lucky front rank will expand their civilian range into combat poses or  someone else will take the plunge.  (There are plenty of other rule sets to do this with. Pulp Alley comes to mind.)

[Andrew_McGuire]

Fun fact: Lord Byron actually had a dragoon helmet, or, more accurately, one in the style of British dragoons and Household Cavalry, which he designed himself. It can be seen at his ancestral seat, Newstead Abbey.

I admit I don't know whether he ever wore it, but if anticipating a zombie encounter he might well have donned it.

[dexter]

I've seen the female zombie hunters now , they're not 28mm. They're heroic 32mm. I don't think they'd fit in with my figures.

[Kommando_J]

Mini figs various ranges are very hit and miss...mostly miss The rules themselves are intriguing though, I have a small scattering of Napoleonic (as I struggle towards a viable sharp practice 2 force) that have yet to see battle, plus after watching the 'Frankenstein Chronicles' starring Sean Bean as a former rifleman(yes indeed) turned detective in a gothic horror murder mystery.

[dexter]

Mini figs various ranges are very hit and miss...mostly miss The rules themselves are intriguing though, I have a small scattering of Napoleonic (as I struggle towards a viable sharp practice 2 force) that have yet to see battle, plus after watching the 'Frankenstein Chronicles' starring Sean Bean as a former rifleman(yes indeed) turned detective in a gothic horror murder mystery.

I agree with you , i recently bought some new Minifig figures ,beautiful sculpting but tiny figures so again no use to me .