The Game: Battle Of Yonkers
Scale 15mm
Rules Flames of War (Modified)
Players 5
Zombies 1,105 (actually 9.2 million, but we only have 1,105 on the board at any one time)
The board, 4' x 6'. (Of which the zombies cover a 6" deep line that goes the entire width the of the table)
Here is the layout of the table, The zombies start on the far end coming off of the jammed parkway.
There is a residential area with park, a junkyard and some trees. IN the middle of the table is a city center and on the end is industrial buildings.
Initial deployment: The Troops setup at the edge of the residential area 20" from the zombies.
Zombie First move: The zombies move 6" a turn. If they roll a 5 or a 6 on their turn they get an extra 4" move that turn.. Or "Zombie Tide" move.
First round of shooting. Not a bad round but most of the troops are still out of range.
Stand Your Ground
Pull Back: Early on Bill pulls back to create a kill zone between buildings, leaving Sammy's troops alone.
Police guarding the flanks. Mike covers Eric's flank.
Zombie Turn 2 Getting closer
Now in range of his troops, the zombies lose 4" after Eric and Bill have some good shooting.
The front ranks get decimate.
Zombie turn 3 The tide continues – getting close to Sam. With Bill pulled back Sam can't pump enough fire into the Zombies.
A few stragglers get close.
Artillery lands right on target.. (Kills 3, out of 18 targeted)
Another round of shooting and the tide is pushed back(ish)
The right side and middle pull back. The zombie front surges to fill the void,. Only Eric stays in his dug in positions.
With most troops on the move and shooting reduced, the zombies are mostly left untouched, except on Eric's side.
But that doesn't last long. The zombie finally get their Zombie Tide extra move. (Think Storm Trooper move in Flames of War) and go and extra 4"
After Eric's defensive fire the numbers dwindle but he is unable to stop the assault.
2 stands fall and the rest pull back. All military forces take a morale check and in two units their moral is lowered.
Another artillery barrage has little effect. and another round of shooting only make s small dent in the front. The only bright spot is an Abrams tank that runs over 8 bases before throwing a track. (It happens when you get enough Zombie bodies stuck in your wheels.)
The zombies surge forward again right into Bill's crossfire.
After a round of shooting the zombies still manage to break the line and bring down a base of troops.
Bill pulls back to consolidate his line.
The Troops pull back again and continue to bring down zombies,
It just doesn't seem to be enough.
After another Zombie Tide move Eric's troops are in danger again. Jim's troops in MOPP level 4 are nearby to lend supporting fire.
But it's not enough and Eric falls back again.
Sam and Bill are running out of room.
At this point in the game most of the troops are at Half Ammo which means Half Fire Power.
The left and right sides have falling back with Jim and Bill in the middle holding their own.
Eric's Bradley, low on ammo, decides to use the zombies as a speed bump and does some major damage before bogging down.
Jim's sniper is surrounded and left to his own devices…..
Eric and Jim fall back to the industrial complex. They try to make their last stand while their ammo runs out.
One of Sam's company's run out of ammo and leave the table, his second falls back behind the fence and makes a last stand.
Mike's police join Sam behind the fence, while Eric and Jim's troop fail morale checks and leave the table. Bills troops (in the middle) hold are starting to get surrounded. 3 out of 6 companies have left the table and the rest are at half ammo.
It is at this point the game is called.
The troops have destroyed 315 bases, over 1,500 zombies, which is the record so far on this table. The game itself started late and I am sure they could have made it another couple rounds before zombie numbers and their morale checks ended the game.
To simulate the book, morale tests were required more and more as time went on and people started falling back, also after a set time, at the beginning of each round the troops had to roll for ammo shortages. This is what usually gets most players and is something that starts to multiply as the rounds go on. On rounds where artillery is used, we roll to generate zombies from the building behind the troops, in the past this was an issue but Mike and his police forces mopped up the stragglers with no problems.
The key to the game is teamwork. If you don't work together and one side starts to run away too soon or doesn't have sufficient support with attack the game can end in just a few turns after initial contact.
checks out some 10/15mm railroad tracks for wargaming.
