A 'Dreadful' danger

 So, having all of my kids home from college for a couple of weeks, I gave them what they wanted, which was an entire D&D campaign in the break, I also asked for one gaming night on my choice.  Based on an "outbreak" of Jane Austen among my kids this break (they binge watched two different entire series of Pride and Prejudice) I decided to have a go at Jane Austen Zombie Killer.  

So here is one of my daughter's "Hunts" after its first turn.  A standard "Hunt" consists of seven figures, each rolled randomly from three different tables.  The first is the "Player Character", these are named major characters from Jane Austen novels, these characters are given equipment as well as any specialities they posses.  They are the toughest figure in the player group and best figures on the board for either side.  In this case "Lady Catherine" was rolled, she comes with a sword, a pistol, and is a melee combat expert.  She is the woman in green in the center of the group aiming her pistol.  The second character is "the Leader", the idea in the game (following the Jane Austen model) is that a player Character is a visiting expert at dealing with the Dreadfuls.  "The Leader" is a local notable who has organized some locals to hunt down and eradicate the dreadfuls.  The "Player Character" is an elite who has consented to join in the "clean up".  The Leader in this case is Fanny Price wo is armed with a Musket and has no special abilities, she is the figure in Red just in front of Lady Catherine.  The final five figures are called "Commoners" and do not get names they are simply potentially given equipment.  The three surrounding Lady Catherine and Fanny Price two are armed with carbines, and the other has a sword, although pistols, clubs and even NOTHING are also possible.  The two figures at the table edge started the game unarmed.  The rules state that if a figure starts unarmed, one turn standing still is presumed to have found them so sort of club.  And there you have the first Hunt.  

Here is the other Hunt after it's first turn.  The Player Character is in Green with Blond hair and was rolled as Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy (Sword, Carbine, Melee Combat Expert), he is just above the ruined building.  The "Leader" is Mrs Bennet (armed with a pistol) and standing next to Darcy.  As far as these commoners went two rolled clubs, and two rolled Carbines, the fifth one also showed up to the fight unarmed and is standing still to locate a club. The basic jobs of the Hunts are to check out any designated terrain features, rescuing any stragglers found, and kill as many Zombies as possible. So this Hunt has elected to move toward one of the buildings to clear it as soon as possible.  

 Here we have the first Drove (as the group of zombies are called.  The numbers of Veteran Zombies are determined randomly and it is possible to end up with none.  The presence of the elite Zombie - the "Drover" is also randomly determined, but I decided to give each Drove a "Drover".  This particular Drove ended up with three "Veteran" Zombies and Six basic Zombies in addition to their Drover.  Droves always come in Tens.  This particular child has not played many wargames and chose to line the zombies up in a "Linear formation".  

Here we see my Daughter with considerable wargaming experience, who also elected to run Zombies, who decided to shelter against a buildingto avoid some shooting casualties.  This drove consists of only two Veterans and seven normal zombies, plus of course a drover.  

The game calls for each Hunt and Drove to roll a D6 to determine order of play for a turn.  The living get whatever they roll on a D6.  A Drove that has a Drover, rolls a D6 and subtracts one from the result.  A Drove that lacks a Drover rolls a D6 and subtracts two from the result.  This tends to give the Living a notable advantage as both sides fight in melee regardlessof who initiates the fight, but if the zombies get killed before they can close the distance, then there will be no melee.  However, in turn two the zombies rolled hot for initiative, and the players rolled cold.  Here we see the Zombie player two who won the initiative and thus had to move toward the closest visible living targets.  Unfortunately this made her Drove the primary target of both Hunts for the turn.  

The Hunt down by the mill and destroyed house went second and opened fire on the Drove they could see.  They scored several hits, killing one of the Veteran Zombies.  

Zombie player one went third and Zombies began flowing around the pillers of the raised building.  But not close enough to initiate combat.  

Turn Three saw the zombies again rolling hot and the Horde under fire broke cover and made for the closest Hunt.  Please note that by both buildings on the left of the field that another Zombie has appeared.  In the game, at the end of every turn when firing takes place near an uncleared terrain feature, a die is rolled and on a one, another Zombie appears in the Terrain feature.  After the first turn of fire a zombie showed up in all three un checked terrain pieces.  Through out the game my dice were "HOT", (that is the first time I ever used that term for rolling a lot of 1's) and 9 bonus zombies would 'arise' during the game.  

Meanwhile in turn three the linear Zombies made contact and killed their first Hunt member, a commoner, the recently fallen would not stay down for long and soon rose again as a Zombie. The rules state that when injured a die is rolled, PC's turn on a 1, Leaders on a 1 or a 2, and commoners on a 1-3.  Once again I would be having "HOT" dice all night.    

Meanwhile, the swordsman on the otherside of the battle (Lady Catherine's Hunt) decided to charge ahead and was killed by the Drove.  

Again he would not stay "dead" for long and turned into another Zombie.  There is a turn delay in the "turn into a zombie" event.  Struck down one turn, stand up a zombie the next, begin acting the turn after that.  

A second Commoner fell on Mr Darcy's side of the fight.  

The next turn saw the Zombie horde over run all on Mr Darcy's Hunt except Mrs Bennet.  As Darcy Collapsed from a wound that turned him into a zombie (it was the first wound he took) he looked to Mrs Bennet and told her to flee as the last survivor of his ill fated hunt.  

Lady Catherine's Hunt fared a bit better.  Both Lady Catherine and Fanny Price were still "in the game" as was one last commoner with a Carbine.  But seeing the absolute collapse of Mr Darcy's Hunt, and the un relenting production of Zombies by my dice, Lady Catherine chose Discretion as the better part of Valor and left the scene of the debacle.  Since Zombies can move a maximum of five inches, and most only move four.  While the Living can move six inches, the Living can always outrun the Drove if things go belly up.  

On final analysis, out of fourteen living who came to the Hunt, ten ended up dead, and seven of them ended up joining the Droves.  Overall nineteen Zombies were killed, but that still left 17 roaming the battle, and the potential of more arriving.  

On the whole the game was fun and fast. and once the players had the sense of how the game went it moved along very quickly.  I was very happy with the first trial run.