October 18, 2013

Tannhauser - Zombie Survival Scenario

Since getting into Tannhauser earlier this month I have been casting my net far and wide across the internet trying to find fan-made materials to add to my games. With Halloween fast approaching I happened upon a fun sounding "Zombie Survival" scenario created by Miah999 over at Front Toward Enemy.

If you want to have a look at the scenario rules for yourself you can find it here. I downloaded the zombie card and glued it to a piece of cardboard off the back of one of my notepads. When I cut the backing cardboard piece, I cut it a little larger to allow for a border around the card. Once it was glued down I finished the edges of it with black electrical tape. I didn't think to take a photo of my card, but you can see it in the photos below, on the left hand side of the game board.

I decided to set up the scenario on the crypt map from the core game set, and grabbed some of my painted zombies that I showed off earlier this year.  With the board set up, zombies and crate tokens placed, and Union equipped with their wonderful toys I was all ready to get my solo game started.


Commando Alpha was the first to enter the crypt, and was immediately set upon by the undead. He died before anyone else could come to his rescue. Realizing that the situation was far more desperate than originally thought, the remaining squad members needed to be careful!


After the first turn the Union had thinned out the zombie ranks by half and started spreading out to search the area under cover of Commando Delta's smoke grenade.


The zombies kept on coming! Barry, Tala and Commando Delta are all under threat of attack.


Tala and John head towards the centre of the crypt while Barry and Delta search the southwest area. More undead are rapidly dispatched, one of them lightly wounding Tala. They seem endless!


Barry radios that his section is all clear and Commando Delta moves in to support Tala. It's looking like she might be in some trouble in that narrow passageway.


John and Commando Delta help break Tala free and then head up to secure the northeast section of the crypt. Barry tries to make his way to the summoning circle but is set upon by an undead child! Unable to fire until too late, he takes some nasty bites from the little monster.


The northeast area was unsafe. Commando Delta is dragged down by the ravening ghouls. John rushes to his aid and falls victim to rending teeth and jagged, clutching fingers. Trying to shut out the echoing screams of their comrades, Tala and Barry take up a defensive position in the centre of the crypt.


"There's no stopping them Barry. We have to get out of here," says Tala.

"You go, I'll cover you. Get word back to command that things are bad. Really bad! Now go!"

With the sounds of Barry's gun trailing off, to be followed by sickening wet sounds Tala runs for the exit. It's only a few meters away, just up ahead...but so are "they". The hope of escape quickly fades as she realizes she's surrounded. She'll fight to the end, but knows in her heart that there's no escape. 


Final thoughts: 

Overall I thought the zombie survival scenario was pretty fun! The death of Commando Alpha on my first activation of the game set a pretty somber tone, but I turned things around and by mid-game it was looking like the Union was going to make it.

A few really solid zombie attacks late in the game caused substantial wounds and my characters were starting to feel the pain. Once I was down to Barry and Tala I knew it'd be a matter of just surviving, but with only two command points per turn and both characters down on their last or second last stat line...it was a matter of avoiding the zombies as much as possible. With movement values of 4s and 5s however, that simply didn't happen.

I'd love to play this scenario with another player! I think it'd work really well as an introduction to the game system, where they can control the zombies and focus on some really basic moving, attacking and using CPs to counter-attack, while seeing what the Union's equipment can do before having to manage it all for themselves.

The scenario is set up for zombies against the Union, but I don't see any reason it couldn't be played with any faction facing off against the zombies. Next time maybe I'll try it with the Reich.

2 comments:

Simon Quinton said...

Nice report it all looks rather dam fine!

Obsidian3D said...

Thanks Simon. Jeremiah has a werewolf character and equipment on his blog too. I'm planning to try those out before the end of the month, and hope to report on that soon.