New Zombie Rules "Ambush Z"
Hi Guys I have been playing "Ambush Alley" a great modern combat set, and the guys at Ambush Alley have made a Zombie version: Ambush Z http://www.ambushalleygames.com/about-ambush-alley/ambush-z/ Give it a look. I'm going to get a copy and give it a read through. I'll give it a review soon as I do. But I must say, I really like the AA system. --Tom :D

I was looking at this - almost ordering the pdf - yesterday. But I feel I've been burned a couple of times from different sets now, and I thought I'd wait. Could I dare you to write a small text about how it works?!?!?! Regards (Lard if I recall correctly)

Well I just got my PDF copy of the rules, and started reading them last night. The conversion from modern asymmetric warfare to Zombies works pretty well. Its an I GO/U REACT system. The living get to dictate the flow of the action, and the Zombies, react to their actions. So the living player, activates a unit, and can shoot/move or move/shoot, and the Undead player, then tries to react, for each unit within LOS of the active unit. Ambush Z is not a skirmish game, more of a fire team game. The living activate teams of any size, but in reality, your talking about a fire team, a weapons team, or a reinforced fire team (2-7) figures. Leaders are there to help morale, but you can expect your guys to do what you want, till they start taking hits, and start failing morale checks. Then they tend to hunker down. There is a very nice interruption system, to determine who goes first in the reaction, with a dice off. Living units can go on overwatch and will trump reaction dice (so you can put a unit on overwatch, then run a unit across the street if a Undead unit reacts, the overwatch unit will fire before the undead get to charge the living unit. Then you would roll off between the living unit and the undead to see who goes next (more likely the living unit). The living units are likely to keep winning rolls. But each reaction they make starts reducing their fire. So they can be overwhelmed. They have brought in rules from the "Day of the Ranger" add on, dealing with stress levels, where living troops can start freaking out on you, and losing their cool. Also neatly intergrated is a system to deal with escorting people. (watch you elite fighting force bog down trying to herd cats). Also there are Fate cards, that the living player draws, as results morale rolls, these can be good or bad, but keep stirring the pot. Making it an unpredictiable game. Troop quality is simulated by a standard check against different dice types. Almost every check is made by rolling a 4+, but troop quality dice range from d6 to d12, so say Delta Force guys roll d12 and low grade Zeds or Civilians roll d6s. Once you get a grip on the idea, it becomes a very fast play system. The game is very WWZ influanced with late war special troops. They decided to try something other than the standard "Dawn of the Dead" style game (though you can do those with the system, using Whiskey Charlies "Worthless Civilians" to hold off the hoards). So many of the scenarios are special ops vs Zombies. The game also includes different styles of Zombies (virus caused zombies concept): Zeds (standard zombies) Odds (old dead guys turned into Zombies) Romeos (dying guys becoming Zeds, read fast zombies) Dexters (psychic zombies, basically Zombie Masters) Zombie generation is pretty much as expected, in buildings, due to sound and off table reinforcements, and the unfortunate Fate card additional Zombies too. Overall a very good and fast playing system. --Tom

Woaw. I gotta have those! I almost always like increased amounts of unpredictability as it adds so much to the story department. And when I read "escort mission" my fate was sealed. Can't believe I hadn't thought of that before! :D