Undead of Omyr 1

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 first scenario takes place in the ruins of 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

Frantic reports have come in from Omyr, deep within sector Macharian. Initially, the reports were assumed to have been garbled, but over and over again the messages confirmed that the dead have risen. In response, Omyr has been marked as a quarantined world. However, an adept of the Administratum pointed out that if corpses really are walking around the planet, then it's robbing Imperium foundries of vital corpse starch, needed to feed Imperial citizens.

A seemingly coincidental request for extradition sent to local authorities by the Adeptus Mechanicus completed the puzzle. In the request, it's revealed that Magos Biologis Thalion, a Priest of Mars stationed on Omyr, recently alerted her superiours that she'd formulated an antidote to return walking dead to an unanimated state. Because her research was unsanctioned, Magos Biologis Thalion was declared a heretic by the Cult, and she was ordered to report to a nearby forge world for disciplinary action. No one has heard from Magos Biologis Thalion since, but if her report was true then she has discovered a way to quell the undead and save Omyr.

A detachment of the Astra Militarum has been sent to Omyr's forbidden surface to recover Magos Biologis Thalion's antidote, and to arrest the Magos herself.

Round 1

The regiment touches down outside the capital city. The detachment includes 1 unit of Kasrkin, 1 unit of Cadian Shock Troops, 1 unit of 5 Tempestus Scions, a Vindicare Assassin, and a single Field Ordnance Battery (that's a single cannon and 2 crew, also armed with lasguns.) The fringes of the city lies in ruins, evidently having served as a defensive perimeter.

Because the zombie detachment imposes a -1 penalty to Hit rolls (it's technically the Stealth mechanic, but zombies aren't usually very sneaky so I think of it as just general undead resiliency), the Astra Militarum detachment has a standing order to Take Aim, which cancels out that penalty. The zombies also have Scout 5, so before the game even begins they advance 5".

The Vindicare Assassin is an Infilitrator, so she could deploy practically anywhere on the battlefield, but the aim of this scenario is to get to the city centre with as many soldiers as possible. It doesn't do anybody any good for a token soldier to reach the objective and end the game. Instead, the Vindicare Assassin takes position within some ruins in hopes of picking off a few zombies.

The Tempestus Scions have Deep Strike, so they could deploy later in the game, but they deploy along with everyone else in hopes that additional firepower will make quick work of the oncoming horde. Spoiler alert: There is no quick work when it comes to a zombie horde!

The Astra Militarum (also called the Imperial Guard, or "Guard" for short) rolls high for initiative and goes first. The battlefield is really crowded with terrain, so the Guard doesn't have many options. To get a clear shot at the shambling zombies, they move forward even though the worst thing in the world is to engage zombies in melee. The Tempestus Scions and Kasrkins move in anyway.

The Cadian Shock Troops move into some ruins, hoping it'll slow down the zombie Runners heading toward them.

Once everyone's in position, they open fire and actually do a pretty good job of thinning the horde. Over 5 Shamblers are removed, and 2 Runners. But you know how zombies are. The Vindicare Assassin hits the Fatty, but the Fatty saves and then heals its wounds at the end of the Round.

On the zombie's turn, the horde moves forward enough so that the Fatty is in range for a projectile bile attack. He spits some bile at the Tempestus Scions, and they lose 1 soldier.

Then the zombies Charge, and suddenly everyone's in melee.

In melee, the Fatty's Attacks and Strength stats are improved by 1, and the opposing unit's Toughness and Save have -1 penalties. The Fatty takes out 2 Tempestus Scions, and the Runners kill 4 Cadians. Worse still, the 2 Tempestus Scions are instantly transformed into zombies and join the horde.

Round 2

It's only the second Round and it's looking dire for the brave soldiers of the Astra Militarum. Or is it? The Imperial Guard units have some interesting once-a-battle abilities, and a stratagem or 2, that could save the day. I have a house rule that requires a roll for initiative each Round, and the Zombie army wins the initiative roll for Round 2. Can the Guard survive an onslaught of melee long enough to use their special abilities?

Pretty much all zombies on the battlefield are engaged in melee. A few outliers can't get close enough to attack (which is exactly why the Guard soldiers started weaving through ruins in Round 1.) But it's still a lot of attacks.

The Fatty, empowered by the thrill of melee, swings his fist for 5 attacks, and [over] kills the last of the Tempestus Scions! They're dead. All of them are gone now. No wait, they're instantly back as Shambler zombies.

Um, I guess the good news is that there's no chance that they're Battleshocked now.

The Fatty's accompanying Shamblers pile in on the nearby (it's within 3", so it seems legal) Kasrkin unit and attacks. Because of the Fatty's influence, the Shamblers have Lethal Hits and crit on 5+, which they do 2 times. That's 2 plasma guns gone.

Over in the ruins of a post office, the Runners pile in on the Cadian Shock Troops and manage to take all but 1 soldier (conveniently the one with the melta gun) out of commission. The Runners don't get bolstered with kills, so at least their number isn't increasing.

That's all the zombies can do, and there are still Imperial Guards on the battlefield, which means there's hope.

The Kasrkins make a Desperate Escape through the zombie horde, losing 1 soldier in the fray (of course the soldier's back as a zombie now.) As a parting gift, the last one out lobs a once-a-battle Melta Bomb back at the zombies and deals 3 Mortal Wounds!

The last remaining Cadian also makes a Desperate Escape from the Runners and makes it out alive, basically joining the Kasrkin unit for convenience (not mechanically, just literally to make it easier to move the miniatures.)

The Field Ordnance fires into the zombie horde and deals no damage. One of the Ordnance operators takes a shot with a lasgun, however, and manages to take out a Shambler.

And then, the Vindicare Assassin uses a once-a-battle ability to take a Shieldbreaker shot at the Fatty. First of all, in 10th edition it doesn't seem like an Assassin can target a specific model ever. The Deadshot ability back in 9th edition (which I never really played, but I was looking into it and got to know the rules pretty well) allowed the Vindicare Assassin to target a Character model. The Deadshot ability in 10th just adds damage to a good shot and has nothing to do with what can get targeted. Anyway, I thought it would be cool to use the old Deadshot ability as long as the Vindicare Assassin rolled impressively.

The Vindicare Assassin did not disappoint. She rolled a 6 to Hit, a 6 to Wound, and a respectable 2 on a d3 for Damage for a total of 5 Wounds to kill a Character with 4 Wounds.

I'll allow it.

And then finally, to package up this round so it's extra special, the Imperial Guard spends both its Command Points on the Reinforcements! stratagem. This allows the Astra Militarum to select a unit that has just been destroyed, and bring out an identical unit from reserves. I don't know how that works without Deep Strike, but Tempestus Scions have Deep Strike so I don't have to know. A unit of 5 Tempestus Scions appear on the battlefield 9" away from the zombie horde, and conveniently with an Advance move to the city centre.

The Vindicare Assassin is dangerously far from the city centre, so she may have trouble getting out, but then again she has a 7" Move and 4 Wounds available.

If Astra Militarum wins the Initiative roll for the next Round, then it's likely they'll reach the city centre without further casualties. The more soldiers that get out of this scenario alive, the more cover there will be for the next scenario.

Round 3

In a very important initiative roll, Astra Militarum rolls 5 and the Zombie rolls 1. The Cadian Shock Troops and Kasrkins are within theoretical reach of the gateway to the city centre, as long as they use the Advance action during the Movement phase. Because Advance relies on a d6 roll, however, and shooting zombies is a mere secondary objective at this point, it made sense to issue a new order at the top of the Round. Instead of Take Aim to negate the -1 to Hit penalty, the new order was Move Move Move!, which adds 3" to each unit's Movement.

Both units have a 6" Move, so bringing that up to 9" meant that even without an Advance they could easily get off the board. That turned out to be a good precaution, because they both rolled low (1 and 3) for their Advance action. But they take orders well, and vacate the battlefield, leaving only the Field Ordnance team and Vindicare Assassin.

Field Ordnance is a bit of an odd duck. It moves slowly, which makes sense given that it's obviously designed to look like something towed by a tank or a truck. Without a vehicle, it's basically a big gun sat on the battlefield, so under the circumstances I decided it would make sense for the team to abandon the gun. This was a controversial decision, because in the 40k universe that's an offense that could literally get you executed. I rolled dice to help the 2 soldiers operating the Field Ordnance Battery choose between undeath and death, and they both chose to run. Treating them as Cadian Shock Troops, I allowed them to move 9" plus another low Advance roll of 2. Seems good, but is it good enough to escape the Runners?

The Vindicare Assassin has a 7" Move, and rolled 1 for Advance. That was 4 Advance rolls below 3, in a row. Useless.

On the Zombie turn, all Zombies pursue the Field Ordnance Battery crew. I did roll for this decision, but I weighted it in the Assassin's favour. The Field Ordnance team was in plain view only inches away from both the Shamblers and the Runners, while the Assassin was a model with Stealth and in excess of 12" away, concealed behind ruins.

Obviously the zombies ate the Field Ordnance Team for lunch.

Round 4

The Zombie Army wins initiative this time, and with literally no other model on the board I judged that they would go hunting for the Assassin. I went back and forth on this, actually, and even rolled a scatter die to determine where they might go without a visibile target. In the end, I ignored the scatter die because I realised that without pursuit the Round was meaningless, and we might as well just end the scenario. So the zombies pick up the scent, and the Runners dash up the Battlefield to attack the Assassin.

The Runners have a 6" Move, and they roll a 6 for their Advance. To make it even more unbelievable, they roll 11 for their Charge, plus they have an ability to add 2" to their Charge. In other words, the Runners have 25" of Movement (well, 12" Move and 13" Charge) to use up. And they do. They swarm the Assassin and attack with their Tearing Teeth, which means the Hit on 2+ (thanks to a Melee bonus) and Wound on 3+ for 2 Damage. However, the Vindicare Assassin has an Invulnerable Save and manages to negate all but 1 Wound.

The Assassin is down to 2 Wounds, but now it's her turn.

On her Movement phase, the Assassin makes a Desperate Escape and rolls a 3 (a 1 or 2 would have meant death). With the Move Move Move order active, she reaches the gate to the city centre moments before it's shut by the Cadian Shock Troops.

Post-game administration

This was an exciting scenario to play through, and it reinforced just how deadly a Zombie Army can be. They seem trivial at first, but it seems they always have some trick available to them at exactly the right moment.

Running the Vindicare Assassin, who is classified as a member of the Agents of the Imperium faction, along with Astra Militarum got a little confusing. For instance, the Orders Army Rule technically only applies to models within 6" of an Officer. But the Assassin is designed as a Lone Operative, so I guess the Orders never apply to her. In that case, the only way for the Assassin to escape would be to lean on Stealth and while I was initially happy to play that out, it became obvious really quickly that Warhammer 40,000 doesn't really do stealth the way in terms of actual detection. Black Ops does stealth really well, and I toyed around with the idea of borrowing it for this scenario, until I realised how silly it was to bring in a second system for just the last 2 Rounds of a scenario. It made more sense to allow the Assassin to benefit from the Army's prevailing orders (40k's troops must have vox-casters for a reason).

The next scenario takes place in the city centre. Will the surviving soldiers be able to locate the antidote and the rogue priest, or will they be forcefully recruited into the Army of the Undead?