With all this talk of solo wargaming, I had forgotten the grand-daddy of them all. The very first miniatures wargame I played at a Con as an adult: Mein Zombie:
Although blessed with an astonishingly complex combat calculation system, it really does work well once you get the intricacies down. And as it is normally played co-op against the zombies, it is perfect for a solo game. So I dusted off the zombies, found the scenario I wrote several years ago, and started it up again.
The Mission: Crack British Commando Major Mallory and his team have just parachuted into occupied Europe. The Germans are launching buzz-bombs daily. But intel learned that this particular site was a special case. His team was hurriedly sent to investigate. Due to high winds, they arrive scattered around the target. Due to lucky rolls, they all entered the same side of the board anyway. It was the last lucky rolls they would see...
They approach the site from the South. It appears as if it has already been attacked? They must search for clues.
Why are the guns facing in?
I don't think it will launch that way...
The communications van looks extra-important. I bet there's a clue in there...
Major Mallory, along with Brown, Stevens and Miller. All are armed with sub-machine guns. Except Miller, of course. Him and his silenced 9mm...
They got lucky and all started at the same edge.
But what's this? Figures are moving (well, shambling) around. They appear to be wandering aimlessly. Some in uniform, and some in local civilian dress.
Mallory starts by heading along the tree line, trying not to make noise.
A couple of the figures head straight for him. One walks straight into the barbed wire and falls down.
At the start of the 2nd turn, it's time to roll for more zombies. In Mein Zombie, rolling low is good. Rolling a natural 20 is very bad. So of course, we roll this for our first zombie spawn:
A pack of 5 zombies will spawn for each character (I'm not using "special" zombies).
Dusty Miller's group spawns off the board ahead of him, so they get moved closer:
Mallory's group gets spawned a comfortable distance away:
Stevens group spawns 12 inches away from him. Whew, he's safe. But wait...
That puts his group right on top of Brown. Not sporting, mate!
Brown rolls last for his spawn. He returns the favor to Stevens.
Oh shit.
Now it's activation time. What more could possibly go wrong this early? Of course! The zombies activate first:
They move up and mob Miller:
They approach Mallory:
Brown and Stevens get mobbed too.
Now, if the 2nd zombie activation card comes up, people are going to get hurt.
Fortunately, hero cards come up next.
Brown kills a couple with his e-tool, and knocks a couple over. He runs from the remaining zombies, taking a wound in the process.
Mallory has had enough of this crap. He unloads on the approaching zombies with his SMG. Downs them both, but he made some noise. Other zombies will come to investigate.
Dusty Miller goes crazy with his e-tool and mows down all the zombies around him.
Stevens tries to do what Brown did. He cleared out most of his zombies, then tried to run away. One of them hit him!
When you take a wound from a zombie, you have to roll to see if you're infected. He rolled bad:
Stevens is now infected! How long until he turns into a zombie himself?
Will the heroes even make it closer to the site? Will more Germans show up to investigate?
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
