Zombywood -- a Halloween Sunday Night Thriller

    Mike looks over his set up of Zombywood -- a back lot movie studio. Allen plans how his government agents will close in and recapture the Gerdys, while Keith moves forward some of his zombie hordes

In honor of Halloween, Mike S had brewed up a skirmish game using Fear & Faith rules (the horror equivalent of Song of Blades & Heroes and Song of Drums & Shakos). The action would take place on a seldom-used Hollywood back lot, featuring building props from all periods of history. Government agents were tracking down the fugitive Gerdy Family -- a brood of geniuses that had recently escaped their heavy-handed control. Thrown into the mix were a tour group with really bad timing, the laid-off actors in a high-tech bounty hunter show, a redneck family whose Duck Dynasty spinoff had been recently axed, and a secretive pack of werewolves, who had been using the back lot as their den.

    Carnage reigns as zombies shuffle towards the government agents sent to recapture the Gerdys

To defend themselves from the government agents, the Gerdys had invented a virus that turned civilians into zombies, which they could then control with hand-held remotes. Keith and I were the Gerdys, and we set up in the middle of the board with our family atop roofs to better control the zombies. The government agents (Allen), bounty hunters (Steve V), and rednecks (Mike S) came in on the board edge. The werewolves did the same, but we had no idea what their mission was. We knew the others had it out for us and our zombies, though.

    Zombies swarm into hand-to-hand with the rednecks and one government agent, while more rednecks take pot shots at them from the rooftops

Part of our goal was to have Gerdy family members escape off board. I sent two off to an adjacent mission style building, only to have them chased down and slaughtered by the werewolves. The rest of the zombies surged slowly towards the oncoming humans with high-powered firearms. As the other three began to gun down our zombies, more surged from our central bunker. We were able to kill a few of them here and there, while losing swaths of zombies. Our biggest loss occurred to a government grenade, but at least it landed a tad short and killed one of their own agents!

    Horrified at watching his wife and daughter ripped apart by werewolves, Father Gerdy frantically summons zombies back to rescue him

Father Gerdy called some of the zombie reinforcements over to escort him off the board while more swarmed the werewolves. We managed to kill the alpha male werewolf, which temporarily scattered the pack. As the game wound down, we'd driven back the agents, but were a long way from thinning the ranks of the bounty hunters and rednecks. With zombies engaged to hold them in place, the rest of the Gerdy family high-tailed it for the safety of the far board edge with some zombie body guards to hold off the werewolves.

    Zombies respond to Father Gerdy's call and swarm the werewolves, providing an escort for him to escape off-table

The game was fun, and featured lots of horrific mayhem. Mike's 15mm zombies looked great. Most of them are from Rebel Minis, I'm fairly sure. There is an incredibly variety of them in all kinds of clothes -- cheer leaders, children, National Guardsmen, guys in Hazmat suits, etc. Mike plans on continuing to tweak the scenario for a convention game, so we may find ourselves defending the back lots of Zombywood again, one day...!