I had invited a group of friends over last Friday night to have a birthday game. As there were going to be nine of us crowded around the table I needed to devise a game that was fun, easy to pick up and one that had some twists here and there.

Heroes v Zombies seemed the obvious choice. So I went about writing some simple rules as after all they are wargamers! Here is what I came up with:

Sequence of play

1. Simultaneous HERO movement. Players have 1 minute to move their figures. Any not moved in this time do not move.
2. Shooting.
3. Zombie movement.
4. Close Combat.

Movement:

6 inches for all heroes. Zombies move 4 inches towards the nearest enemy.

Shooting:

Shooting range 12”. Figures within 1” are considered in close combat and cannot shoot .Roll one D10. Heroes add +2. A score of 1 to 3 is a miss, 5-7 they are pushed back that number of inches, on an 8-10 you have hit them in the head and they are removed from play.

Searching for zombies:

Each poker chip is a potential zombie horde. When adjacent roll a D10 and that number of zombies appear. In this case only, a “0” counts as zero and not a ten.

Close Combat

Heroes and their minions fight first. If the zombie is still alive and still in combat, they fight back needing +7. Each other zombie in close combat adds one to their die.

Hero Powers:

1. Heal one minion.
2. Heal yourself.
3. Roll two D10 v arch enemy and choose the highest.

Victory points:

You receive one victory point for each zombie you killed and 50 points if you kill your arch enemy. You lose ten points for any other hero or their minions that you kill. Host reserves the right to award additional points for any selfless or heroic act (for example saving another hero).

Each group of heroes had an arch-enemy on the table:

• Tarzan V German Explorers
• Batman V Joker
• Darth Vader V Obi-wan Kenobi
• Splinter V Shredder

Obi-Wan and his mates.

Darth Vader and the boys

Batman and the gang from Gotham,

The Joker

Tarzan and friends

German explorers

Shredder and his dastardly followers

Splinter and the TMNT’s

Ships need to be aware of the floating spectacle case!

Batman seizes the German U-Boat.

The Jokers Minions advance

Splinter and minions search for more zombies.

Gamers being gamers tried to kill their arch enemy, restore his health with their hero and then kill him again for another 50 pts! This was allowed because of the creativity!

Joker and Batman slog it out in the docklands.

Tarzan is down!

So is the Joker.

Ninja Turtle was no match for six zombies!

Shredder and Slinter’s gangs fight it out leaving only one Bebop standing.

The U-boat changed hands several times.

All-in-all it was a great night followed by a supper fit for a Guru, and copious quantities of liquid refreshment throughout the night.

Thanks guys you made my 35th birthday (second time around) a memorable one.

Although the Matilda II could negotiate a wide variety of jungle undergrowth, even toppling trees when the need arose, conditions in the Pacific were not ideal for tanks and some areas were still considered impassable to them.

The Japanese took advantage of the rough terrain across several engagements with Australian tanks by establishing ambushes or mining the only viable routes for tanks to take or, alternatively, retreating to positions where it was simply impossible for the tanks to attack.
To cope with the terrain, a close association between the tank forces and Australian engineer units had been established since the Huon campaign of 1943.

The engineering squads made wide use of commercial bulldozers to fill shell holes, clear Japanese roadblocks and level heavier sections of jungle to create new routes for the Matilda II tanks to outflank Japanese positions.

Additionally, the bulldozers were used as recovery vehicles to extract bogged Matilda II tanks, although the bulldozers didn’t always have it their own way and, in some cases, the tanks had to return the favor and unbog the dozers!

This one is a different version than the one displayed at Puckapunyal. Several conversions were made from damaged Sherman bulldozer blade attachments in the field and this looks like one of them.

These conversions were all slightly different. I have made mine from the S&S Models 28mm kit to reflect one of these conversions.

Overall I am pretty pleased with finally having put this one together. Back to the Tank Attack Platoon tomorrow.

What more can I say! Another 6 pdr. I have one more needed for the platoon but not for the competition, so it will wait until all that I need for the comp is completed.

I am really pleased with how the rust and weathering worked out on this gun.

Tomorrow the Bofors AA gun.

Unlike the infantry the Anti-tank platoon did not use the 25pdr Light Howitzer.

Not sure why, but the gun of choice was the 75mm Light Howitzer, maybe because the US gun was easier to obtain?

Now I can use my spotter!!

Tomorrow yet more artillery!

Some time ago now, long time gaming partner and friend, John, presented me with an early and unusual birthday present.

I have not yet been able to identify what it is or if it is histro-fantasy or real. Anyone have any ideas?

Despite this, it is a great model and one that will fit in well with my Very British Civil War/ Weird War “stuff”.

The turret kept falling off so I decided to drill and pin it in place which would allow it to turn but not fall off at the slightest touch. Big mistake.

The model had not been made with a hole to allow the resin inside to dry out. Despite endless hours under the UV light there was little improvement so I was forced to glue it in place to avoid sticky resin figures.

I took the time to also put the tracks on the right way up.

A great early (by about 49 years minus a few days!) 70th Birthday “preezzie” – thanks Chris and John for the thought – will get a lot of use.

I have taken the opportunity with all of these artillery crews to organise them so that I have artillery spotters for the Australian armies that need them. Including the Jungle Division, the 1942 Australian militia and this one.

The Kanga Force (Commandos) and the Tank Platoon do not have any attached artillery and so do not need spotters.

I have chosen this figure as the one that I found most suitable.

Tomorrow more artillery.

The second 6 pdr in the platoon.

Again I have secured the figures to a base and provide a die and die holder for casualty purposes.

Again I have added rust to the gun trails.

Tomorrow, you guessed it more artillery!

I must have been “half-tanked” during this game as a lot of the photos are a bit blurry, so apologies at the outset.

The pesky Russians attacked my French from the get go. A quick retaliation by my leader was required,

The bear arrived early this scenario and was likely to become a problem.

Prussians advance.

The French advance on a revenant.

A clue marker is within reach of the French whilst the Sergeant provides covering fire.

The French grab the major clue (represented by Scenario 1’s monster).

A revenant is dealt with by the French but not before it inflicts sever wounds on one of them.

A revenant come on behind the French,

meanwhile another two Russians are dealth with, but not before the French leader is down.

Oh dear the “fuzzy wuzzy” is advancing on the French.

More Russians down.

The Prussians advance on the Russians, but only after the French have given them a severe denting.

The bear deals with the French with the artifact and starts to carry it away, There has become quite a rivalry between the Prussians of Wayne and the French of Guru to see how many “fuzzy wuzzy” heads we can collect. Brave boys these Prussians!

Aargh the bear headcount is now 1 to the Prussians and one to the French. I think this has now taken over as the major campaign objective,

With all of the clue makers explored and the objectives met we went back to our respective billets.

The campaign aftermath saw the Russians end up with a substantial beating and three of their party starting the next scenario with three wounds. The French leader suffered only a flesh wound and the ladies think the scar makes him quite the “man about town”!

Wayne’s Prussians scored the most experience points for the scenario and have almost caught up with the French.

Australia used both the six pounder and the two pounder anti-tank guns with equal effect during the Pacific campaign.

Early in the war the two pounder was more than sufficient to deal with Japanese tanks, Despite this both were not deployed that often due to the terrain and lack of enemy armour.

In new Guinea the two pounder tended to be deployed because it was lighter and more manoeuvrable in the jungle environment.

In the Borneo campaign late in the war the larger “six” was used because of the more open terrain.

Because of the larger gun and base I decided to affix all of the crew and use a die holder and die to represent casualties.

Rust was added to the more vulnerable areas of the gun.

I already have a “spare” 25pdr and two scout crews painted if I need to use them should time run short on this project, but let’s just wait and see.

More tomorrow.