Undead of Omyr 2

I'm running a Warhammer 40,000 Halloween campaign using a custom detachment of zombie miniatures from Zombicide. There are 3 scenarios, with a failsafe scenario in case the Astra Militarum detachment falters. The second scenario takes place in the capital city of the planet Omyr, located in the Macharian Sector from the Imperium Maledictum RPG. Although I'm using Cubicle7's setting, the campaign is a wargame using Warhammer 40,000 10th edition rules.

The story so far

A Vindicare Assassin arrives in the labourer's district, along with the 11 Imperial Guards who made it through the zombie-infested ruins surrounding the city. The local military did well to keep the fighting relegated to the perimeter, but nevertheless some soldiers died on duty and are starting to rise again as zombies. Too scattered to form concentrated hordes of undead, these urban zombies meander through streets in search of living flesh.

It was from this district that Magos Biologis Thalion broadcasted her discovery of an antidote. Now it's time to determine whether she left a sample of the antidote anywhere in the city, and to find the magos and either arrest or protect her.

This is a very non-standard Warhammer 40,000 scenario, and uses some special mechanics to evoke a sense of stealth. Warhammer 40,000 doesn't really do stealth, normally. The Stealth keyword grants a nice mechanical benefit that suggests that a model is harder to hit as a result of it being stealthy. But with that rule, you're only playing the aftermath of stealth. Presumably if someone's firing a shot at you, then you've been detected, which is the opposite of stealth. Instead, this scenario prevents zombies from attacking until they're in base contact with the Hero Army's Lone Operative.

As a trade-off to non-stop combat, there are several choices to be made. The Hero player places up to 10 Markers around the battlefield, because each Marker could be the location of Magos Biologis Thalion. However, each Marker also gets a Shambler next to it, each of which immediately moves toward the Hero's Lone Operative. These zombies shamble toward the Lone Operative's position, but they can only Charge up to their Movement speed (4"). This means there are likely to be lots of Rounds in which models Move circuitously around the board in order to either avoid or trigger combat. The effect is that the Lone Operative is "sneaking" around the city while the zombies mindlessly and seemingly aimlessly wander about.

Should the Lone Operative located the magos, the Hero player may choose to either arrest her or to join her.

And finally, the antidote itself is concealed within an objective marker protected by a whole unit of zombies. The Hero player may choose to prioritize the antidote, or take the time to find the magos, or start out doing one and then switch to the other. As a particularly unpleasant threat, the first zombie to die triggers the appearance of the Abomination, so there's another reason to stealth.

It's a pretty unique scenario, so let's see how it goes.

Round 1

Astra Militarum wins initiative. The Vindicare Assassin moves 7" to some blockades meant to contain the shamblers within the city. She had the option to make an Advance, and in fact she rolled 5 so it would have been nearly a double move. However, that would have brought her uncomfortably close to 2 Shamblers, so she stayed on her side of the barricade.

The Guard skips the Shooting and Charging and Fighting phases in the interest of keeping the zombies calm. They've each got a zombie in their scopes, though, just in case.

All zombies Advance 5" in her general direction. This is good enough to bring one of them within 4", but it can't Charge in the same round as an Advance action. The Vindicare Assassin is undetected for now.

Round 2

The Vindicare Assassin backtracks around a factorium building, hoping to draw the Shamblers toward her and away from the Markers. It works, and all the Shamblers move toward her on the Zombie Army's turn. Unfortunately, it works a little too well. The closest 2 Shamblers roll 12 for their Charge, and the Vindicare Assassin is attacked.

Luckily, only a single Hit threatens to wound the Assassin, even after the Zombies spend a Command Point to re-roll. Thanks to the Vindicare's Invulnerable Save, she takes no damage at all. She's fine for now, but she'll have to make a Desperate Escape attempt on her next turn.

Round 3

Astra Militarum wins initiative again. The Vindicare Assassin makes a Desperate Escape and gets away from the zombies unscathed. She makes it around the building and reaches a Marker where her auspex has shown signs of potential life (Adeptus Mechanicus are tricky to pick on auspex because so many of them are mostly made of metal.) She rolls a 6, which prompts the heretic magos to reveal herself.

The Assassin recognises that under the circumstances, arresting Magos Biologis Thalion would be inconvenient. In exchange for the adept's assistance, she agrees to forget they ever met. They team up, and the magos points to an auspex Marker across the battlefield. The antidote is there, but a Fatty has parked himself right next to the Marker and it doesn't look like he's got any intention of moving away.

On the Zombie Army's turn, the Shamblers pick up the Assassin's scent but they only roll a 1 for their Advance. They all move 5", but no fighting this round!

Round 4

Zombies win initiative, but they face a tough choice. Do they Advance to close the distance, or hope for a good Charge roll? There are a lot of Shamblers hanging about, but they're all over the battlefield. In the end, they all Advance, bringing them dangerously close to the Assassin and Magos Biologis. They can't Charge this round, but they know where their prey is headed. It almost feels like a trap is being set, except of course zombies don't have the capacity for clever planning. Or do they?

On the Hero Army's turn, they too have a difficult choice. Do they Advance into the Shambling horde knowing that on the next Round they'll be Charged, or do they Move and then hope for a good Charge roll to rush into melee with the awaiting Fatty? The Fatty does serious damage in melee, while the Shamblers tend to be weak, so the Assassin and Magos Biologis choose a cautious advance. Ideally, they'll be able to creep up on the Fatty's location and grab the antidote on the next Round, take a cursory beating, and then get out on the following Round. It's a serious risk, but better than the alternative. Even if they were able to take out the Fatty this Round, then that would trigger the appearance of the Abomination.

Round 5

Worringly, the Zombies win initiative again this round. There are 3 zombies so close by they can't fail their Charge roll, so they move in. Another 3 zombies Charge in to join, although only 1 can actually make base contact due to the narrow streets.

The 4 Shamblers attack, and score 1 Wound through the Assassin's Invulnerable Save (even with her Command re-roll.) The Vindicare Assassin takes the Wound, but she's got 3 more to spare.

On the Astra Militarum's turn, the Assassin and Magos Biologis reach the auspex Marker. The Assassin has 1 OC and, as part of the Special Rules for the scenario, the magos has 2 OC. Compared to the Fatty's 2 OC, the Astra Militarum now controls the objective, and instantly obtains the antidote.

That's their win condition achieved, so it's the end of the game. No zombies killed, no Abomination reveal, and some pretty tense moments with literally no combat from the Hero Army. Having come to the end, we can assume that the Astra Militarum forces drop from the rooftops once they see that the antidote has been obtained, and escort the Assassin and Magos Biologis to safety. It's probably best to only imagine that, in fact, because as we saw in the previous scenario, it's no small feat for the Imperial Guard to make that happen.

Post-game administration

I was really happy with this scenario. Stealth is hard to do in a wargame, so it's always fun for me to see or to try interesting ways to integrate it. This felt like the Hero Army was sneaking around, and it especially helps that the enemies are mindless zombies. I think it would be a harder sell if you saw all the miniatures on the board as sentient, thinking, observant soldiers who for some reason just couldn't spot a woman in a catsuit and a cyborg walking down the street. I guess you can do a lot with facing and line-of-sight, but with zombies you don't give it a second thought.

Not using the gunners on the rooftops was an interesting strategic choice. The Abomination is really dangerous. The Astra Militarum had good coverage thanks to a pretty successful previous scenario, but I'm not sure they could have brought down the Abomination before it and the Shamblers would have taken down the Assassin.

Another strategic choice, of course, was adding so many auspex Markers in hopes of finding Magos Biologis Thalion. The advantage of obtaining the magos is that she has a +1 OC for this scenario, meaning that when you arrive at the objective you are likely to instantly control it and therefore instantly gain the antidote.

Is the chance for 2 OC a fair trade for 10 Shamblers on a relatively cramped battlefield?

I've played this scenario with just 2 Shamblers, which didn't reveal the magos, and so I did have to fight the Fatty. Luckly I had a good contingency of Imperial Guard on the rooftops, and between their fire power and the Assassin's melee skill, I managed to kill the Fatty. The Fatty rolled a 6 for Deadly Demise, so the Assassin took a Mortal Wound, but was still alive to claim the objective and the antidote.

Clearly this scenario plays out a lot differently if you ignore the Magos Biologis Thalion option and shoot the Fatty in hopes of rushing in for the antidote before the Abomination Deep Strikes his way to victory. And obviously the best laid plans sometimes are thwarted by a good or bad Advance roll, or some lucky attacks, and so on.

The next scenario is the final one of the campaign, and it has another pretty experimental design. It's all vertical interiours, as the Assassin and the Adept try to get the antidote to the environmental distribution conduit, obviously while zombies try to tear them limb from limb.