Warlords of Erehwon - Elizabethan Zombie Wars

The latest Antediluvian Miniatures got me thinking about scaling up the Elizabethan Zombie Wars. I took the plunge and picked up a copy of  Warlord's Warlords of Erehwon rules.

The rules are well put together and well laid out, although a touch more proof reading would not have gone a miss. 
Much like many of Rick's offerings they are quick to pick up and very playable and should more than handle the larger units that I have in mind.

I also picked up this cracking sculpt from Heresy Miniatures whilst a glimpse of what's to come for the Zombie wars revisited.

It may seem to be a bit of a paradox but I do like my fantasy gaming to be based on a degree of history and keeping the focus on Elizabethan times, I spent some time reading up on the Witchcraft Act of 1563. The stuff you find on the web.

The Act was passed to persecute those witches said to invoke evils spirits to commit murder. There were also a number of superstitions revolving around witchcraft:

• Witches had the ability to fly using broomsticks.
• Witches used a huge black pot or cauldron to make and brew their magic potions.
• Witches had the ability to change into animal forms like cats, dogs, raven, etc.

Now that sounds like my sort of game... :-)

Most supposed witches were usually old women, and invariably poor. Any who were unfortunate enough to be ‘crone-like’, snaggle-toothed, sunken cheeked and having a hairy lip were assumed to possess the ‘Evil Eye’ ! If they also had a cat this was taken a proof, as witches always had a ‘familiar’, the cat being the most common. If convicted many were hanged or tortured with thumb screws or leg irons.

But what if the Witches were real and fought back?

With plenty of Zombies already painted up, what else could I bring in from English folklore to plague the English and Spanish.

Reading through the rules there are loads of special characteristics and stats available for your regular fantasy army lists but a couple of tweaks to these should allow me to pull together the various forces and factions for the Elizabethan wars.

Something to do while I wait for the paint to dry on the latest additions.

LOTR Zombies Rules

Having played several games of Pike Shot & Zombies over recent weeks albeit with an Elizabethan flavour, the urge for bigger games has started to take over, having spent a number of nights working away without PC or paints, it gave me the perfect opportunity to attempt some in house rules merging GW's Lord of the Rings Rules with Pike Shot & Zombies.

PS&Z has some great mechanisms I love the idea of umpire driven arrival points and their random movement is a great way for the umpire to keep control, rather that the more random movement rules with All Things Zombie which has been a favourite of our club for quite a while. However trying to move PS&Z beyond 10 figures aside bogged the game down a little.

So here goes a first draft of Zombie rules for LOTR, For the most part, the rules are exactly the same as The Strategy Battle Game - The Lord of the Rings.

The stats for your basic undead figure is as follows.

	F	S	D	A	W	C	M	W	FT
Zombie	2/-	2	3	1	1	-	0	0	0

Zombies move 4" and are worth 4 Points Value.
They have no Courage rating and will always fight to the death.

Special Rules

Terror

The Living Dead have no fear and rely upon tearing and biting attacks on the living, Any human wishing to charge a Zombie must test their courage or will stand in place racked by fear.

 

The Shambling Dead
The Living Dead aren't the most agile, so any model must roll two dice for Jump and Climb tests, selecting the lowest score as a result.

Devour

Should a Zombie defeat and kill a living character they and any victorious zombies will spend 1-3 Turns feeding on the body. Any Zombie with 12" will move to join the feast of flesh.

Dead Sight

The undead will pursue any living character with 12" within their Line of Sight, once line of sight is lost the undead will follow the most recent and loudest sound generated by the group or living characters.

Any zombie characters without an active target will move on the random movement of a dice, for each group of undead roll 1D6 this number represents the move distance and number of zombies that my move from the group this turn.


Plague Pits & Burials Mounds.

The starting points for your undead forces. These will be hidden from the players at the start of every game and will be come active once a player comes within "X" inches of the plague pit.

Plague Pits will generate 1D6 Zombie each turn, until the Zombie player reaches his point allocation or you run out of models....

Burial Mounds can be suppressed/closed by inflicting 3 wounds on the terrain item, the stats are as follows.

	F	S	D	A	W	C	M	W	FT
Plague Pit	5/-	-	8	-	3	-	0	0	0

They are worth 120 Points Value.

Each turn a player conducts one of the actions below roll the following dice if the distance reaches the location of the plague pit the pit will be activated and will being spitting out its evil content the following turn.

Sounds             Description                                                           Dice Modifier
Quite                 Moving                                                                  1D10
Noisy                 Hand to Hand/Shouting/Musical Instrument        2D10
Loud                 Firearms                                                                 3D10 + 3
Deafening         Volley Fire or Cannon Fire                                    3D10 + 6

I would welcome any feed back as like many rule sets it will take a few more competitive games to iron out any kinks.

World War Z - Elizabethan Style

Saturday Night saw the continuation the occasional campaign games set in  England during the Black Death, when the Dead rose from their Plague Pits and terrorised the land.

In previous events we have seen the Oakley Militia attempt to quell the village of Littleham. (Episode one).

Several miles away is the small town of Begley, surrounded by dense woods on one side and a fast flowing river on the other, they had been largely protected from the nightmare spreading across the land. However news reach them by a local Parson that an infestation had broken at at Gatford on the road to Begley and the walkers are edging ever closer to Begley.

Daniel Fanshaw the local land owner leads the Begley trained bands under Captain Henry Milton on an expedition to Gatford.

 

 

The Village of Gatford with the undead already in evidence as the Begley trained bands approach. A heavy wagon can be seen outside the stable this was to play a key role in the strategy of the living.

Daniel (played by Dave an occasional wargamer, I say occasional we last played 20 years ago when we were at sixth form... sorry mate.. I siad I would not mention it..) had a straight forward plan, use one unit to create a distraction whilst the second crossed the river and blocks the bridge preventing further incursions. 

 

 

 

The Begley Militia enter the table drums beating and flags unfurled, straight away attracting the attention of several walking corpses. The Militiamen prime their weapons and take aim.
The walkers prove difficult to put down taking several musket balls before they are dispatched. 

 

 

The noise from the constant discharge of  Calivers and Muskets causes more of the dead to rise from their burial mounds, the current of the river holds them at bay for now.

The second militia unit skirts the town house and heads for the bridge, the clink of helmet and brest plate disturbs a 3rd plague pit, this should but pressure on the living.

Danial Fanshaw draws his sword and after passing his courage test charges into the encroaching undead  (we were using an adaptation of the LOTR rules, so his 3 attacks and high strength score made him very effective). His efforts shields his raiding party as they rush over the bridge.

Meanwhile on the left flank the sheer mass of undead allows them to clamber over each other as they fall into the water edging ever closer to the defenders, their poor marksmanship only serves to  attract more of the foul creatures.

On the opposite bank the militia see the wagon parked outside the stable and rush towards it, knowing that if they can position it on the bridge they can stem the evil plague when the river rises in the coming weeks with the on set of winter and the anticipated rise in river levels.

Their rapid movement awakens a final burial mound which spills forth it's foul contents. Once again our hero throws himself into the fray.

 

The militia steady themselves for the advancing dead, one of the militia falls to retreat far enough and is pinned by one of the walkers, he is soon swamped and his colleagues are forced to stand and watch unable to assist him, they prime their weapons hoping to avenge him once the dead have finished lunch.

On the river bank the shotte continue to distract the main concentration of zombies, despite dispatching several they edge ever closer to the far bank.

 

Having secured their goal the militia drag the heavy wagon back towards the bridge, Daniel fights on carving his way through wave after wave of undead, but they just keep on coming.

View of the whole encounter with  fighting taking place across the table.

The Militia fall back from the river bank choosing to enter hand to hand to dispatch the first zombies to cross in the hope that the others will be drawn to the firing at the bridge as they themselves had ceased firing.

Sensing their numbers weakening the militia close with the advancing zombies hoping to clear the western river bank.before others arrive.

Well they had several of their number run out of ball due to a few rounds of poor dice rolls.

 

  

Disaster strikes the Begley militia, two of their number are struck down before the last of the zombies are dispatched. The lack of breast plates or helmets meant no saving throw.

With the western side of the river clear of the walking dead and the heavy wagon blocking the bridge, the militia pour fire into the zombies pinned in the river trapped between the musket fire and the current, a small victory in the on going war against the undead.

Nice to get a game in over the weekend for a change and a chance to blood new units, with maybe a player back from a 20 year hiatus......

Elizabethan Wars - English Musketeers

Week one of 2013 and another unit complete, I finished the remaining musketeers and calivers from Wargames Foundry Elizabethan and Swashbuckler range.
I used the uniform design from one of the colour plates from the Osprey Armada book. They will serve as Trained bands to go up against the Irish in the Plantation Wars or the Spanish in the Netherlands.

I suspect they will need additional support in the form of the pending Pike Blocks before they go up against the Irish.

Elizabethan Wars - English Calivers

With the Spanish and Irish forces completed to a level that I can put on a viable scenario, I wanted to kick start the English Trained bands to go up against the Irish in the Plantation Wars, The Spanish in the Netherlands or an alternative universe where the Spanish land in England or the victims of the Black death rise from their graves.

Elizabethan Zombie Wars

These fit the bill on all counts. 

 

Technically there was little in the way of uniforms in the Elizabethan Army, but I wanted them to mix well up against the Spanish who I had applied a uniform approach to the painting scheme, there is a colour plate in the Osprey Armada book that has a figure in a similar colour scheme.

All Calivers and Musketmen from Foundry with an officer figure from Warlord Games.

Elizabethan Zombie Wars - Dead Man's Hill

Last Sunday saw the continuation the occasional campaign games set in  England during the Black Death, unfortunately I forgot to take any photo's. however in true Blue Peter style here's one I prepared earlier....

The scenario is based upon a small Spanish outpost holed up in a village, barricaded to stop the undead hordes that sweep the land, every week potential victims are escorted to a large hill outside of town where they are left to the ravages of undead.

 

 The Spanish defenders drive off all comers for fear of letting the walking dead enter the town.

 

Meanwhile members of the Littleham trained band are on a scouting mission looking for survivors and supplies when they see the Catholic priests shackling the victims to their stocks.

The incessant chanting and bell ring brings the undead from their plague pits and shallow graves. break cover from the trees and head towards all members of the living regardless of race or religion.

Yet more victims sent to their certain death, under Spanish guard.

The undead set upon the train band, their fire arms let loose which only serve to attract more walkers craving for the flesh of the living.

Spanish cavalry join the fray fearing that they will be dragged down by the tide of the undead appearing from the numerous plague pits that surrounded the hill.

The noise from the continuing melee attract more of the undead, whilst the remaining Spanish defenders look on in silence.

The priests leave the scene and hope to flank the undead when they stubble upon a further plague pit, which breaks open and the priests and their escort are set upon  by the evil hordes. Their faith could not protect them from the walkers.

The melee on the hill continues, Spaniard fighting back to back with English man as they fight there way to the top of the hill.

The prisoners are set upon unable to defend themselves they fall victim to the tide of death sweeping the hill.

One of our heroes goes down in a mass of undead bodies.

The survivors flee the hill heading for the safety of the village the undead in slow pursuit.

Both games were played using a variant of LOTR's rules with tweaks from Pike Shot and Zombie, a few more adaptions are needed to ensure the right feel for games, such as exhaustion rules and chance cards, but given the numbers involved a conclusion in under 3 hours on the first outing will do for me.

Redoubt Enterprises - Stocks

Warfare next week and plenty on the shopping list, even though I have not finished last years purchases.... With that in mind I have made an effort to clear a few items from the back log.

I picked up the punishment set from Redoubt Enterprises to add a little flavour to the Zombie/Irish War scenario's within the Elizabethan era, they went together really well and were crisp castings, they will form the basis for tonights scenario over at Wyvern Wargamers.

Jon on the Wyvern forum prompted a question regarding the use of lighting after seeing Neil from Wargames Illustrated and his kit. I thought I would try a couple of alternatives to see which result works best for future pics.

The photo above was taken using the standard flash off the camera.

The shot above with a day light lamp and flash whilst the one below with good old winter daylight.

Not sure what I achieved here, but until the Summer returns I guess it will be flash going forward.

Elizabethan Zombie Wars - Spanish Invasion force.....

Having painted a number of units for the Irish for SAGA and the Elizabethan Project, I thought I would turn my attention to the Spanish Forces of King Phillip.

Whilst the Spanish of the Armarda period typically wore no uniform apart from a red sash or arm band for identification, I wanted to apply a common colour scheme for the various units, albeit slightly different for each section.

Command group and the first unit.

Second Unit.

Unit Three

I am still on the look out for a suitable figure for the Duke of Palma, my Saga Irish will double as Irish mercenaries to help ward off the ‘undone’ or to aid the Spanish in their conquest of Ireland.
Most figures are Foundry with a couple from Sgt Major Miniatures, flags from redoubt.