Thanks to Akula and his rules and his (and others) advice and answers. . .
Germans (Matt K, Thomas, Mark) and Russian (Austin, Greg, & Ed) realized in the middle of tense house to house fighting that something had changed drastically in the hellish city scape they were fighting over.
Through the flickering glare of gutted and burning buildings both sides could see the shambling gait of hundreds of nightmare corpses reanimated to unlife.
In broken Russian and German the two sides hastily agreed to a ceasefire and began fleeing from the cursed city. All knew that there only hope was to flee the city into the safety of the countryside; A decimated wasteland, without shelter or forgiveness. They would need food, & supplies looted from city buildings if they hoped to survive the dangers on an oncoming Russian winter on the open steppe.
The Germans needed to get a radio if they hoped to link up with other German units.
The Russians, home town boys that they were, thought first of their kinsfolk trapped in the city, and of the holy relics in their Orthodox church. . .
The Russians moved decisively to escape. Private Austinski found a serviceable auto in the ruined garage of a factory. In no time he had hotwired the vehicle and navigated it through the shell rutted streets. His relieved comrades piled into the vehicle as zombies closed in from all sides.
The Germans sprayed and sprayed (then prayed) from their building with mixed results. Then began to move out as they noticed the shamblers drawing closer
The commandeered Russian auto looked like a clown car with all nine bodies jammed into its crew compartment. Gun barrels and bayonets jutted out of the broken windows.
Austinski carefully navigated into the main street, going as fast as he dared in the near total darkness. The Russians could hear the wet gurglings as the undead lurched towards them. They were not aware that some Germans had reneged on their ceasefire agreement. German Mark opened fire on the tires of the vehicle with his smg, taking out the front tire and cause the vehicle to careen towards a building and an oncoming horde of zombies.
Austinski sought to return the favor to the Germans, and pulled the pin on a grenade, which he promptly bounced off the roof of the car and watched in horror as it landed in the lap of the unsuspecting passenger next to him. . . the doomed frontovik smothered the grenade and nobly saved the life of his comrades.,
Both German and Russian aggressors were swiftly repaid for their murderous intent, as whatever evil had birthed the nightmare in this city had a special fate for those who continued the senseless butchery of fellow humans. From the darkened night sky a winged being swooped down and pulled the hapless Austinski into the air, the sound of his piteous mewling and limbs being wetly ripped from sockets were clearly heard by all
The German continued his attempt to gun down the hated Bolsheviks, and resorted to fragging a group by dropping a grenade amongst them all. wounding a few but bringing about his own demise. His still breathing form was carried off into the night by the same winged horror.
After this both side realized that their only real hope of escape was to work together.
"перемирие" said the Russians
"Waffenstillstand" the Germans answered.
They ran on through the night.
Cpl. Kollmer ranacked an apartment tenement, finding a treasure trove of goods hidden in the floorboard. tinned food, gold chains, cases of ammo. WHile he searched the undead came closer. Until a horde of zombie burst into the ground floor and became clamoring for the stairs.
Upstairs, was the sound of a human voice calling out. . .
Up, up went Cpl. Kollmer. Beneath a falled roof timber lay a Russian soldier, pinned in place but very much alive.
Kollmer and the Frontovik hustled against time, as the groans of the horde echoed up the stairwell.
In desperation the two soldiers decided that the only escape was to jump from the second story window. . .
Hitting the ground both men suffered injuries, stunned and hurt they staggered to regain their feet. Too late, zombies crawled through windows and shell holes from the building's interior and the two men were swallowed up by the horde. . . .
Russians and Germans made it to the river, searching frantically for a fordable spot.
As they searched the zombies pressed closer and closer, some desperate melees were fought.
Lt. Siteovich waded quickly across, leading the way as both sides sloshed after him. . .
One the other side of the river things move quicker.
Edwardski's men struggled across the river, having been wounded by the German grenade. They helped Austin press on to the church where a Russian family had sought refuge. Austin saved the family while Ed lugged out the holy relics.
Austin managed to fire up his second vehicle (a lend lease Ford pick-up) and loaded his family into it. Ed refused to get in preferring to walk down the zombie infested streets than trust his luck to Austin's driving skills, and his 3 Russians bludgeoned their way through a number of zombies. . .
Lt. Siteovich managed to escape a wall of zombies that had trapped him in a factory building. Shooting and fighting his way free. He attempted to hot wire an abandoned half track but could not start it, nor find ammo for the .50 cal.
The Germans had made their way to the tank and Cpl. Kollmer's two Landsers had found the vehicle intact and started it up. They waited for ' Feldwebel Thomas and the private with driving skills to make sure the tank did not bog down.
The Mark III sprayed MG fire into oncoming zombies, literally sawing them apart with point blank fire. Feldwebel Thomas made a typical horror movie mistake "I'll examine this empty building. . .." and proceeded to roll snake eyes, the commander watched in horror as the door he just opened revealed a makeshift morgue filled with hundreds of ravenous zombies.
The feldwebel was mauled again and the panicked Germans buttoned up the tank and began to drive away with their wounded commander clinging to the top hatch.
In another stock horror movie snafu the nervous driver managed to get the tank hung up on a piece of debris as the horde streamed out of the building towards the tank (anything touched by the horde is destroyed) . . .
The Russians had cleared the wall of zombies, Austin and Lt. Siteovich driving to safety while Ed lugged the relics and continued to fight his way clear. Sadly one of his men was dragged down and bitten severely in the leg. This brave soldier struggled for turn after turn, unable to flee but doggedly fighting off the zombie until the bitter end. Sadly no one went back to rescue this brave soul.
Time was up (we had to pick up) we played out the cards, and the tank had managed to unbog itself and drive away leaving the horde behind. Little did they know that Feldwebel Thomas had begun transforming into a zombie while still clinging to the deck of the tank.
Not a bad set of rules for 2 pages, the card activation added a nice bit of tension (especially when Matt K. had jumped to safety and then doomed himself by shuffling and drawing the black ace!) a lot more zombie cards but players could move farther and act more on their own.
People always had the option to escape from a situation as melee's weren't all or nothing.
Not sure what the total casualty count was, but it was pretty low.
Next time maybe we can run it with modern figures (police, survivors, gangs, govt agents)
Thanks to everyone who pitched in their figures and terrain to make a truly epic game (wish I had brought a camera!)
