Desert of the dead... a Combat Zone Battle Report [PICS]

[Pil]

In a land infested with zombies, a group of survivors meet in the desert. Weary of walking they seek to investigate rumours of a raider settlement. There they should be able to find transportation.


The survivors arrive in the right corner of the table. The desert is littered with the walking dead. To the far left of them is an old radio station which may have some use. Closer to them is a burnt out bar with possibly some useful supplies. In the distance a long barricade blocks all entrance to the town.
 

A shot of the desert, not all survivors are present yet in this shot.


A shot of the town, from top to bottom of the picture are a garage, a saloon, an arms dealer and a church. Salvation lies therein. To the right lie the getaway vehicles.


The defenders start clearing up the zombies in their immediate presence, with differing results.


The fire soon attracts more zombies to these fresh brains.


The survivors advance toward the zombies, the zombies grow in number. The cop narrowly escapes certain death.


The bass player gets swamped and dies, only to rise again moments later.


The survivors hastily retreat to make more room between them and the zombies, nervous potshots attract more zombies from the cafe than they actually manage to destroy.


After more retreating and better aimed shots the zombie hordes thin out, but not before taking out the only surviving woman.


The zombies in the distance are oblivious to the brains in the desert, their noses filled with sand.


An old lady zombie causes the survivors a hard time, She would not die.


In fact, she holds up the survivors for long enough to allow other zombies to eat some brains too! Things are looking grim with nearly everyone in close combat with the ghouls.


With some kick-ass karate Duke Nukem and Rasta take care of their assailants, but Gandalf (the grey suit) and Jesus (the black suit) are zombiefied at the same time.


The survivors had such a hard time the remaining zombies around them fall into the dust without causing further harm (I removed them as GM to speed up the game). The survivors investigate the cafe and find something very interesting.


Marco (the beige suit) strips down completely naked inside the bar and comes out walking in a complete power suit! The zombies in the rear begin to shuffle towards the survivors.
(Combat Zone rules: +5 toughness, machine gun which costs 1 AP less to fire, power fist which adds +D6 and +5 in combat)


Figuring the power suit packs enough punch to break the barricade the survivors make a run for it.


The suit breaks the old bus open for the survivors to get through to the town. They pour, get through it and close it again. But the town is not empty, nor are they welcomed by raiders. The town is filled with...

MORE ZOMBIES!!!
(cheer)


First off the survivors head to the church in hoping to find salvation while the zombies draw closer.

Meanwhile, in the distance, the burning sun causes a small fire to break out near the fuel truck...


Oblivious to the fire, Duke Nukem and the cop go to the curch door, followed by Marco in his power suit.

The cop opens the door...


Another suit! Truly a gift of the gods.


The fire slowly follows a trail of leftover fuel towards the working cars...


The survivors see the fire going towards the cars and decide they need to make haste, the head round the back of the church, Marco in his suit in the front. Zombies soon greet him. Unable to deal with so many opponents, Marco gets infected and zombifies.


Duke Nukem, Rasta and Fatso suddenly face: POWER SUIT ZOMBIE
A zombie in a power suit wielding a power fist and a machine gun... now there's a thought.

Luckily, with one well-aimed shot Duke Nukem (our hero) puts a pullet through the brain of POWER SUIT ZOMBIE.


The cop strips down naked and puts on the power suit, he walks out the church to help. He gets attacked in the rear but with two power fists he is better able to deal with the zeds. Duke Nukem, Rasta and Fatso get the rest of the zombies while the fire creeps ever closer to the cars. Only Duke survives...


The power suit cop tries to make a run for the cars too but gets ambushed by an overwhelming mob.


The suit is torn to pieces by the hungry zombies and the cop is eaten whole.


Duke, now the only survivor, decides it's too hot and makes a run around the arms shop to distract the ghouls.


His plan works but the fire picks up speed. Will he make it to a car in time?


In a final dash he jumps on board a vehicle, however, before he manages to start the car the fire catches up with him and all vehicles explode...


...killing the last survivor.

[FM]

Without the last picture the ending of this battle report would have been quite... dissatisfying 

Now, I love it 

[Pil]

Yeah, I felt it needed an extra punch 

[dodge]

That's a great report,

can't help thinking that the survivors didn't stand a chance though,

I think I might have liked some survivors to survive and go on to another senario 

dodge

[Braxandur]

They normally do, but I guess the hot sun was just a bit too much for them 

It does sound nice to play a number of linked zombie scenarios though....

[dijit]

A very nice report, who makes the power armour suits?

[Darkoath]

Nice battle report Phil!  Too bad all the survivors where killed.

Darkoath

[Pil]

dodge> The intial setup proved to be a bit harsh on the survivors: the zombies were too close, especially in such an open field. If there would have been less zombies close by and they would have a bit better equipment or possibly more survivors it would have been easier in the start. Therefore I had to step in and remove the zombies at some point if they were to survive.

Later in the game they received two power suits which are really rough. However, the survivors got a bit cocky and thought themzelves invincible, which they were not, especially against multiple zombies. If the stars were aligned differently they might have made it, but as it is I thought the ending was pretty spectacular

dijit> EM4 sells them, about 2/3rd of the page down:
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/TROOPERS.html

Darkoath> thanks! _{(BTW my name is Pil, not Phil)}

[dodge]

dodge> The intial setup proved to be a bit harsh on the survivors: the zombies were too close, especially in such an open field. If there would have been less zombies close by and they would have a bit better equipment or possibly more survivors it would have been easier in the start. Therefore I had to step in and remove the zombies at some point if they were to survive.

Later in the game they received two power suits which are really rough. However, the survivors got a bit cocky and thought themzelves invincible, which they were not, especially against multiple zombies. If the stars were aligned differently they might have made it, but as it is I thought the ending was pretty spectacular

Yes but seemed to me to be reminisent of resident evil extinction 

but zombies (i don't play these games) seem very powerful so the survivors were a bit doomed, but then thats the nature of survivors 

I liked the power suit idea , and cocky survivors deserve all they get 

dodge

[Pil]

Without going into details, the nature of the zombies with our rules are as follows:

1. slow moving
2. easy to defeat in close combat if it's only one
3. hard to destroy in combat (combats tend to last long as the survivor fends off the zombie but is unable to kill it, this gives time for other zombies to reach them and kill them with numbers)
4. if zombies do win in combat your survivor is practically doomed
5. they are hard to destroy from a distance without heavier weapons
6. are easy to kill by a headshot with any weapon, but headshots take more time

[dijit]

dijit> EM4 sells them, about 2/3rd of the page down:
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/TROOPERS.html

Thanks, I'd had a feeling i'd seen them somewhere but couldn't quite place them.

[Mancha]

Fun report, although I was intrigued with the repetition of the statement "strips down naked".   

[warrenss2]

Yet another fun reading combat report, Pil.

I am a little disappointed that the main star of one of my favorite PC games keeps on dying in your games.  

I also saw some M&Ms off to the side. Where was the beer? Ahhh... now I see it.

[Bako]

I am a little disappointed that the main star of one of my favorite PC games keeps on dying in your games.  

Brings a tear to me eye too.

Someone's laughing at me because the pictures won't load. Looks like I'll have to check back later.

There we go. Working now. At least Duke was the last man standing as he should be, but his fate was a little too... Cheap.

[therepoman]

Pictures are working now...

Very cool and thematic!

Nice job.