Incursion: No more noise AAR

This is another single player scenario from SNAFU.
.........
MI-13 commander briefs the squad on their mission:

“Alright chaps. Today we’re going down this sector and clear out some of Adolfs walking corpses. Once the area is clear, the Lucky 7th will move through and onto their next objective.”

The soldiers nod in agreement, look down at the map presented to them and start loading up on ammunition and checking their assault rifles. The MI-13 commander interrupts them with a bit of hesitation in his voice:

“Just, uhm, one more thing. We can’t make any noise down in them tunnels else Jerry will swarm the sector with everything he's got. It is imperative that you make this one a stealthy job, so I’m afraid you won’t be going to fire your guns, throw grenades or make much noise at all for that matter.”

The Corporal looks at his superior in disbelief: “Say what?”

“I believe you all had sufficient training in close combat, now would be the time to put those skills with the knife to practice”
…….
In this scenario, as the backstory suggests the MI-13 troops are assigned to clear out a section of the Gibraltar complex – with their knifes alone. If they fire their guns or throw a grenade the mission is automatically lost, though the allied models are allowed to make it a “moral victory” by making a fighting retreat once the cover is blown by clearing the place with their guns. To win, they have to slice up those 16 zombies patrolling (well shambling) around the area. An extra Damage Dice is awarded whenever an allied model tries to knife a zombie from the behind.

The zombies shamble aimlessly; each follows a random movement pattern controlled by 1D6 per zombie. Giving the zombie 4 directions to go, stand still or to move towards the nearest allied model. Zombies have but 2 action points so they are rather slow – but the MI-13 troopers are just as easy to kill by the zombies as the zombies are to get killed by the Mi-13 in close combat. All commandos except for the Corporal have but 1 wound.

However, each turn the German side rolls 1D6 and adds 2 to the result. This is how far away the zombies on the board are able to “smell the living” and will automatically move towards the closest living target instead or shambling around. Having “locked on” this way, the zombies also have the chance of getting a 3rd action point by rolling a 1-3 on a D6.
As long as the Corporal is alive, the allies flip 3 cards each turn, and are allowed to discard 1 for free. The other 2 cards are played according to restrictions, whenever the allies play a card they have to roll 1D6, on a 1 the card has been cancelled by the AI controlled Germans.  The allies receive 5 command points each turn.

Germans don’t receive any reinforcements, unless a Brainwürst card is flipped and allowed to enter play.
….
Turn 1, allies win initiative, and would keep it for the remainder of the game

Cards flipped are Battle Rage, Booby trap that is “paid off” and “Brainwürst” which is discarded.
Moving onto the table like shadows, utilizing the “Infiltrate rule” the Commandos are allowed to move onto the board, and then follow up by performing their turn as usual – in effect making two moves in a row.  Quickly splitting up into two teams, the allies quickly put down the closest zombies to minimize the imminent threat.

Germans roll 3+2 during their “smelling the living phase” which means several nearby zombies will “lock on” the allied troopers. These zombies are all marked with a red dot marker. The zombies shamble towards the tasty smell of fresh brains, some of the corpses end their activation just short of taking a bite.

Turn 2
Cards flipped are Lucky Devil, Minor Injury which is paid off, and another Brainwürst card which is discarded.

The teams now split up so that each soldier can move down a corridor alone. Another pair of Jerry zombies gets to taste the steel knife being showed up their skull to the humming of the Polish national anthem by private Suwalski. So far the zombies are just way to slow to react to what’s going on around them. The commandos creep slowly forwards leaving a trail of stiff motionless zombies.

Germans once again roll 3+2, and more zombies catch the smell of delicious juicy brains. Deceived by how smoothly things are going so far, private Adamski lowers his guard and gets jumped by a zombie that comes out of nowhere. Almost opening fire on the damned thing they both wrestle, and while the zombie ends up frantically chewing on the filter of his gasmask Adamski slashes the spine of his opponent with a well placed blow of the knife. Being a Lucky Devil this time.

Turn 3
Cards flipped are Bucking for a Medal, Booby trap which is paid off, and Jammed Radio which is discarded.

Moving along evenly the commandos press on, carving a path through the dead. Zombies left standing once again catch onto the smell of the intruders and advance towards the allies. Zombies too far away to catch the scent of juicy brains wander about and mind their own zombie business, mainly being confused by existing walls and standing around and moaning for themselves. The Corporal is approached by a zombie which makes an attempt to grab onto him but fails to hold on and is showed aside. The smell carries 3+2 once again, drawing the attention of nearby zombies.

Turn 4
Cards flipped are Rackley Hated His Mask and Minor Injury which both get paid off, and Jammed Radio which gets discarded. This puts a dent in the allied command point supply.

Clearing rooms and corridors the allies catch a break as  the scent only carries 1+2 this turn. So no zombies are within reach to “lock on”.

Turn 5
Cards flipped are Crushing Blow, Lucky Devil which gets negated and Boosted Pinger which gets discarded.

The allies clear all but 1 zombie off the board, the remaining zombie rolls 1+2 to catch any scent of the living, but is simply too far away to do so.

Turn 6
Cards flipped are 2x Rackley Hated his mask, one which is discarded and one paid off, and Booby Trap which too gets paid off.

Wasting little time the closest commando sneaks up behind the confused last remaining zombie and plants his commando knife in its head. “Welcome to Gibraltar” the Corporal mumbles and shoves a zombie corpse aside to clear the path for the approaching APE suits of the Lucky 7th.
…..
This scenario really did go down very well for the allies. They didn’t suffer from bad cards putting dents into their command point supply early on, and the German AI rolled very poorly on the “smelling the living” roll. Last time I played this game the zombies flocked towards the allies from further away which made things immediately more dangerous. This scenario plays real quick despite the Allies being reduced to rolling 1 Damage Die per attack with their knifes instead of blazing away with their assault rifles. This is also one of few times when the “Sturmzombies” act like real zombies and to stupid things that they would never do when controlled by a human. Standing around or just moving about in random directions conveys the brain-dead logic of these shambling corpses.

As for the MI-13 commandos being Polish, I figured I would use the models for my Polish platoon for SoTR – thus I did some converting and painted them like Polish WW2 commandos.

Next single player scenario in line will be Zombie Country, which is something of a Trick or Treat journey through 2 boards where the Allies have to explore locked rooms. So stay tuned for more Weird WW2 zombie mayhem.