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[armydillo978]

In no way is this an official Reaper RotD scenario. It's not endorsed or green-lighted by Ed and Gang.

-Bill

After Action Report 11/10/07 RotD – Recover the canister

Unteroffizier Franz Gustan sprinted across the stretch between the two buildings. With a grunt he slammed into the wall next to Lance Corporal Bickers. Bickers had just peaked around the edge of the building to where the Shufflers were. He turned a brown eye to the German next to him. “Blimey mate, your gonna knock your spine out thot way.”


Gustan smiled at the British soldier. “Ja. Better dis vay den vid da zombies.”

“Right, then. Let’s snacker some of them zombies. There’s about twenty of them ahead. You take the one on the left, and I’ll take the rest.”

“Vat? Unt let you have all da fun. I dink not Tommy. Ve go togeder.”

The British shoulder shrugged. “Ok Fritz. If you fall behind, I’ll see you in hell. If I fall behind, I’ll see you in hell.”

The German soldier chuckled. “Nein. Ve are der already.”

Taking a deep breath, both soldiers broke from cover and charged across the platz for the next building.

Scattered around the square where zombies in all shapes and semblances of death. Fresh victims that had little to no injuries; while others were missing limbs, skin, or chunks of their body. The one thing they all had in common was their hate of those not dead like them. Sensing the motion of a living being, they began to turn and shamble towards the two.


= = + + = =

Background:

From the dark of night, combat formations of Kroids and shufflers have pushed west, enslaving or killing all humans before them. Human German and Allied forces have been fighting two fronts. Against each other, and now against the forces of Hell.


While the commanders, SS General Paul Hausser and Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey, strive to continue with their original missions and cope with the new threat; soldiers at the field level are taking extreme measures to stay alive.


In some cases, desperate surviving elements of the German 5th Panzer Army have combined arms with isolated squads from the British 11th Armored Division. Together they might live, alone they’ll surely perish.

On March 15th, 1945 the Luftwaffe put as many planes aloft as they could, to re-supply pockets of Heer soldiers surrounded by allied or Kroid forces. In one case, a lone Junker Ju 52 dropped canisters of supplies to entrapped German forces in the French village of Bevils. In an industrial section two squads of German panzer grenadiers have forged a truce with the Black Bulls, soldiers from the British 11th Armored Division.

The village of Bevils had originally been settled by Germans centuries before. As the years passed, integration took place with the local French population. True to its roots, the village layout and look is distinctly Germanic. Many locals in the village still have strong ties to distant family members living in Germany. In one case, a local factory worker was related to a soldier in the German forces. Having seen two of the canisters land atop a nearby building, he alerted his cousin.

As the combined squads moved to recover the vitals supplies, they encountered a force of Shufflers and Kroids that had entered the village from the eastern side. Kroid handlers were herding shuffling zombies ahead of them to face any initial Allied fire or mines.

Realizing they had to act fast before the zombies could establish a strong presence, the mix of Germans and British took the offensive.

Mission Objective:

Secure vital air drop canisters of supplies from roof top of 3 story building.

Preparing For Battle:
1. Each side will field a force up to 2000 points
2. The combined British/German force will pick starting side on a 4x6’ table.
3. Each side will alternate with putting defensive barriers / obstructions anywhere on the table, including oppositions starting side. British/German player will start.
4. Both players will deploy half their forces with 18” of their deployment edge. All vehicles will be placed within 12” of their deployment edge.
5. Objective marker, air drop canisters, are placed on one of several 3 story buildings.
6. Remaining forces are deployed with one British/German recon squad placed anywhere within their side of the table, but no closer than 12” of the center dividing line of the table or the building with the objective marker.

Beginning the Battle:

Regular rules of deck building are used, with exception of Joker card. See Special Rules.

Ending the Battle:
The battle ends when one of the following has occurred:
1. The Kroids find and secure the canisters on top the building.
2. The Brits/Germans find and can get the canisters down to the ground floor of the building.
3. The Kroids or Brits/German forces have been depleted by 50%.
4. At the end of the 8th turn

Special Rules (Optional):

2 Jokers card are placed within the turn deck. The cards are pre-assigned to the British/German force to the single Pzkw IV tank, and Brit/German sniper (even though sniper already has regular card). The Joker card can be used to give the chosen piece more than one turn. (i.e. A sniper could effectively have ite normal turn, and then two additional ‘Joker’ turns. This would apply to the tank as well.)

What Happened:

The first two rounds were used for establishing positions. The human snipers were picking off Shufflers as fast as they could. Not knowing how long they stayed down for, we randomly rolled a 1d6 die to establish they’d be done for 3 rounds.

Also without knowing the effective hearing or seeing range of the Shufflers, we gave them an effective radius of 12”. Anything over that didn’t fall within their limited attention span.

To not give overkill to the tank, we limited the number of tank rounds to 7. Not wanting to waste them, the Brit/German player decided it would be just as effective to driver over and grind the Shufflers to little bits. To his surprise, several Panzerschreck shots to his side and rear all but destroyed him. But not until several dozens of Shufflers had merged with the dust thanks to the tank treads.

The human snipers did an effective job of holding the serious threat, the Kroids, at bay while their squads advanced. Using the buildings for cover, they essentially stayed out of sight of the Kroid MG 42 and Kroid K98’s. The Kroids were giving a three round down for the count marker. The snipers pinned down the Kroid command/sniper squad by knocking them down each they recovered.

The Kroid anti-tank squad and its assigned rifleman were the most effective in inflicting damage on the humans. Each rifleman had 1 potato masher grenade. They accounted for 90% of the damage inflicted up the humans.

On an oil storage platform, the MG 42 had been set with three areas of fire that the humans would have been expected to approach from. Using the tank as a mobile cover, the British/Germans were able to cross the open stretches. Till the Panzerschreck took it out.

A moment of interest was brought about when the German tank was overrun and covered with Shufflers. The human player had the forethought to spin the turret around to clear the decks off. All Shufflers were assumed to be stunned for 1 round only, but were promptly run over.

The game ended in a draw with the max number of turns. The British/German player was unwilling to storm the building with the canisters. In part due to the Kroid anti-tank squad being in the ground floor and 20 Shufflers in the three adjoing streets around the building.

Neither side inflicted serious injuries to one another. It was considered a success by all and decided that the Shuffler in large numbers did have a daunting presence.