Zombie RV at Wargames Among the Warplanes

 Today is the Fall 2026 outing for Wargames Among the Warplanes, a twice-yearly day of wargaming held at the National Warplane Museum in beautiful Geneseo, New York, one of my favorite towns on the planet. I attended college in Geneseo and for 20 years now have dutifully attended the gaming convention the college gaming club puts on every year (and as a student, served as Minister of Wargames, Minister of Roleplaying Games, and treasurer of the club!). I had to miss the spring show this year, but wanted to make sure I made it to the fall show, not least because Mike Demana of Lead Legionaries and his girlfriend Jenny were making the trip out from Ohio to attend. Mike's terrain builds have been a big inspiration for me, and he's just been genuinely a nice guy and supportive reader. 

The show is actually still going on as I write this, however I've been on a new medication for the past couple weeks that wonks with my sleep, meaning I've been really struggling with daytime fatigue. With an hour and twenty minutes' commute each way to attend Wargames Among the Warplanes, I decided to err on the side of caution and skedaddle on home after the morning session.  

 I used the same table layout (for the most part; some of the scatter is arranged differently) as I used for my last solo game, and had enough time in the morning time slot to play twice; the first game had three players - Mike, Jenny, and John, a gent I used to run a lot of roleplaying games for when I was living in Rochester. After the first game, John stepped away to join a Battletech table, and Mike and Jenny played a second round, changing the deployment zones they started in.

 

The only major house rule I implemented was that zombies who were not in range of seeing/hearing/smelling survivors didn't automatically stand still. I rolled a scatter die for each of them, sending them wandering where the arrows pointed, and only keeping them stationary if the die came up with an "on target" result. This did result in zombies spawning on the edges of the board and immediately wandering off of it, as well as a stretch where five or six zombies were all lined up on one table edge, standing still because I just kept rolling "on target" results for them. 

 

I think the second game is where things really started to get interesting. There were six potential loot drops on the table each time - one in each building except for the tiny little pizza place, since that was the one building on the table without a detailed interior. Or, even, a floor. When the survivors investigated one, they rolled to see what they found; these could be supplies, medicine, weapons, etc. One result that didn't come up in the first game but did come up in the second was that these loot drops could yield a survivor. And in fact, that result came up three times in the second game. 

 So while Mike and Jenny each started with two survivors, by the end of the game Jenny had a crew of four* and Mike was commanding a team of three. The second game also had the largest number of zombies appearing and wandering off the board, or standing stock-still for 3+ turns. 

 You remember that asterisk on Jenny's crew of four last paragraph? Well, three members of her crew were clustered on the table edge, on their way towards the rendezvous point to get back in the VW Vanagon that was their home base, when four zombies spawned right on top of them. The survivor "Mark" put up a valiant effort with his wrench to try and keep everything at bay, but ultimately succumbed even as his compatriots escaped with their lives. 

 I also got to see Mike's infamously bad dice luck in action. With most rolls in Zombie RV requiring a 4+ on a six-sided dice, there was a stretch where - Poor Mike! - he couldn't roll above a 3. Even switching out dice after every roll didn't help him any. 

 It may have been my fault, though - as soon as I stepped away to use the men's room, Mike immediately rolled two 6s with "Hank" and his machete, felling two of the three zombies trying to gnaw on him!

 With the second game at an end, it was just about noon; the morning time slot technically ran from 9am to 1pm with an hour lunch break before the afternoon time slot began at 2. I thought trying to squeeze a third game in might be a bit much, and Mike and Jenny were ready for lunch, so I got packed up, said my goodbyes and texted Gina to let her know I was on my way home. 

All in all, a day (morning) well spent! I'm glad I got to finally meet Mike and Jenny in person, and it's the sort of event that's just really pleasant and affirming; I'm a bit of a shut-in given Gina's health issues, so going out and having people tell me how happy they are to see me, how glad they are I could make it, how much they love seeing my models and terrain on the table... it's a good feeling that I don't get as often as I'd like. I talked a little bit to a couple of people who were happy to just walk around and watch games, including a family with some young kids. At 39, I'm one of the young bucks at Wargames Among the Warplanes - lots of guys in their 60s and at least one in his 70s, so we're all pretty keen on trying to lure in the next generation of wargamers.  

Zombie RV: Game 3, "Trial By Fire"

 I had to take today off work to take Gina to a doctor's appointment out in Rochester, and we got home early enough for me to set up the table and get another game of Zombie RV in, in preparation for putting on a table at Wargames Among the Warplanes in just under two weeks. When we last left our heroes, Dave and Dudikoff, the mysterious ninja warrior, had escaped from the zombie horde with their lives, but without their former companions. This time, they've picked up a pair of new recruits, Bobby and Larry, who are armed with pistols. Both figures are from Brigade Games' "Drug War Z" line. 

 

There were supply caches to check inside the Urgent Care, in the apartments above the Dispensary, inside the Pawn Shop and on the roof of the Off-Track Betting parlor. Five zombies were clustered around the burning dumpster at the beginning of the game; on subsequent turns, I rolled a die to determine if more zombies would spawn at the dumpster or at one of the table edges. 

Dudikoff snuck around to the back door of the Urgent Care, while Dave, Larry and Bobby crossed the intersection, aiming for the pawn shop and the back door of the Dispensary. 

 Bobby, the stealthiest of the group, peeled off and turned up the street, intent on heading towards the Off-Track Betting. Unfortunately, he sneezed and drew the attention of the milling zombies.

 Meanwhile, Dudikoff found the cache in the Urgent Care but nothing registered to him as useful. And some zombies, drawn by the sound of him rummaging, were beginning to enter the building.

 Zombies spawned along the table edge between the Dispensary and the Pawn Shop, right in Dave and Larry. 

 Dave darted past them, throwing himself through the doorway into the Pawn Shop. Larry skedaddled into the Dispensary and headed upstairs. The zombies followed Dave, and once they began to push their way through the door he opened up with his shotgun.

 Dudikoff kept up a fighting retreat as he headed back towards the rear exit of the Urgent Care. Bobby, meanwhile, reflected on the fact that he'd always assumed it'd be his bookie or one of his ex-baby mamas killing him in front of the dispensary. 

 Larry found nothing of value in the dispensary and headed back down, while Dave found supplies in the pawn shop. As the zombies kept coming, Dave made a mad dash for the front door to leave them behind. Seeing Dave running, Larry took off running in the same direction. 

 

Dudikoff ran from the pursuing zombies, but the Nasty Zombie managed to catch up to him; a slash of his katana pushed the Nasty Zombie back, allowing him to duck through the back door of the Donut Shop. 

 Bobby was wounded and knocked down, but the zombies, distracted by the stench of stale beer, sweat and the cheapest cigarettes on the market emanating from Bobby's undershirt, failed to finish him off.

 Larry climbed on to the roof of the video store and started firing his pistol into the air, distracting the growing zombie horde. As the undead clustered around the video store, Bobby managed to get to his feet and begin making his way towards the RV. Dudikoff had the same idea.

 

Meanwhile, Dave made it on to the roof of the OTB and found... nothing! Even with his Scavenger skill, he came away empty-handed.

I didn't take a picture of Dave on the OTB roof. Oh well. He climbed down the drainpipe and started to make his way towards the RV, all of the zombies' attention focused on Larry's gunfire.

And then... click!

Larry ran out of ammo.

 And suddenly Dave was the noisiest thing on the street.

 Fortunately, he was carrying a shotgun into this target-rich environment, and was able to clear a path. Larry leapt across the gap between the video store and the pawn shop to avoid the zombies still pressing against the rear of the video store. He quickly made his way down to ground level and took of running. Zombies began to pursue.

 Fortunately, Bobby and Dudikoff made it to the RV, revved it up and threw it into gear. They were able to pick up both Dave and Larry, meaning the entire team survived, even if they didn't find much of value. 

***

All in all, a good game! I think I've got a good handle now on what combination of the core rules, and the house-rules written by Mike over at Lead Legionaries, I want to bring to Wargames Among the Warplanes. I also think I'm just going to recreate this layout there to make things easy on myself. I managed to fit almost all the scatter terrain inside the buildings, and I can stack those in a plastic tote so I'm not lugging five boxes' worth of terrain from my car to the venue like I did last year. 

So the one remaining question...

Do I want to allow the players at Wargames Among the Warplanes to fight among themselves over supplies? Or should I be firm about "it's all of you against the zombies"? 

Zombie RV: Game 2 "Enter the Ninja"

Following Sandra's death at the cabin, Hector, Mark and Dave soon picked up a new survivor. A man dressed in a white ninja outfit with a sword slung across his back. The man refused to speak, communicating his needs solely through gestures. Mark soon gave him the name "Dudikoff" in reference to the ninja gear. Dudikoff's silence soon proved frustrating however, and before long Mark was shouting at the ninja to say something, anything. 

As the crew pulled on to a city street that looked promising for supplies, Mark and Dudikoff were keeping their distance from one another.

 

The group began to fan out, with Mark scaling the OTB and Dudikoff entering and climbing the stairs to the roof of the dispensary. Dave lined up a few lingering zombies and squeezed the trigger on his shotgun - and discovered he was out of ammo.

 More zombies were soon congregating, and Dave and Hector were in the middle of it - at least until Dave ducked into the dispensary and out the back door, leaving Hector to fend his way down the street alone.

 Mark and Dudikoff investigated two possible supply caches and came up empty, while Dave worked his way around and up on to the roof of the liquor store, finding a small cache of supplies there. 

 As Hector fought his way towards the last supply cache (in the bed of a crashed pickup truck), Dudikoff leapt across rooftops and jumped down, katana at the ready, on to one of the zombies that threatened him.

 Not to be outdone, Mark jumped down to start swinging his wrench at zombies as well.

 Leaping over a crashed car, Hector checked the pickup truck and found...nothing! 

"Let's get out of here," he said, eyeing the growing zombie horde. Dudikoff nodded, cutting his way free from a swarm of the undead.

 Dave was already running for the RV.

 Dudikoff jumped over zombies, and Mark and Hector tried to make it, but the swarm was just too densely packed; for every zombie they killed, two more shambled in.

The two survivors ducked into the RV and threw it into gear. "Looks like it's just you and me, Dudikoff," Dave said.

"You know, Michael Dudikoff wore a black ninja suit in the American Ninja movies," the ninja replied gruffly. "The white ninja look comes from Franco Nero in the movie Enter the Ninja."

"You could talk this whole time?" 

"Hai." 

"Should... I start calling you Franco?"

"No, Dudikoff is fine." 

Zombie RV, First Playthrough - "A Cabin in the Woods"

 It has been a hell of a week here at Casa De Adcock, with an emergency trip to the veterinary hospital on Tuesday for my cat Poppy overwhelming my brain and my ability to do anything painting- or game-related for several days. Poppy is home and doing well and it's time to burn off some of this nervous energy with a game. 

Time to take Zombie RV for a test-spin. I used Mike Demana's unofficial campaign supplement to give my survivors a bit more differentiation as well. Recognizing that I had everything exactly called for, terrain-wise, I laid things out for the second scenario in the rulebook, "Cabin in the Woods." Our survivors are paying a visit to Uncle Bob's survivalist cabin in the woods to see how he's holding up and maybe see if he's got some spare gear for them.

Left to Right: Mark, Hector (in back, with rifle), Dave, and Sandra

 There were four search tokens (the cabin itself, the port-a-john, the broken-down car and the boat) and two zombie spawn points, in the northwest and southeast corners. Our crew cautiously fanned out, no zombies in sight, and began to make their approach, with Dave reaching the broken-down car, though not having time to search it before the zombies began to wander in.

 Dave pulled an old bug-out bag from the car and started sneaking towards the boat to see if there was anything to find there. Mark opened the door to the port-a-john and closed it just as quick. "What died in there?" He asked. 

 Things started to go to hell when Hector kicked in the cabin's door, finding four zombies milling around - including Uncle Bob.

 The four zombies converged, but managed to do little more than get in each other's way, with Hector managing to wriggle out of any sort of meaningful injury from this encounter. Instead, he managed to drive his knife deep into Uncle Bob's forehead and make a run for it.

 Mark started swinging at the zombies shambling his way, while Dave came up empty with the rowboat.

 As the zombies began to shamble out of the cabin in pursuit of Hector, Sandra started shooting them as they appeared in the doorway. 

 Unfortunately, as more and more zombies converged on the scene, she was overwhelmed.

 Dave fired a shotgun blast into a cluster of zombies, as Hector signaled for the survivors to retreat towards the RV. He looked glumly at the cabin; he'd seen the floor safe but the zombie swarm was swelling by the minute and he didn't expect they'd survive opening it. Meanwhile, Sandra rose as a Nasty Zombie and quickly shambled towards him. 

 Dave ducked and rolled into the cabin, opening the safe and pulling another bug-out bag from inside. With both bags over his shoulders he stepped out on to the porch. There were a LOT of zombies between him and the RV.

 The RV engine roared to life. Mark was behind the wheel with Hector riding "shotgun." The mechanic floored it, splattering five zombies including the risen Sandra beneath its wheels, stopping in front of the cabin long enough for Dave to jump in before high-tailing it out of there.

 

***

 My big takeaway from this game is I need to get more zombies painted. I had every painted zombie I've got on the table towards the end and had to stop rolling for reinforcements because I had nothing left to reinforce with! 

It's a game that does exactly what it sets out to do - it's a beer and pretzels zombie apocalypse game, your crew rolls in, tries to find what they can before the zombies overwhelm them, and get out. With the rulebook being 10 pages (four of which are scenarios), there's plenty of room to customize as well; I 100% winged it on "running zombies down with the RV" at the end of the game there. I also fudged a bit on zombie movement - rules as written it seems if there isn't a survivor making noise within 9" the zombies just stand still, and that left a corridor that the survivors could move in without the zombies noticing them at all. On a 2'x2' board, I was fine letting the zombies hear any major noise on the table and moving in that direction. 

It played out fairly quickly - I think about an hour, maybe hour and a half at the most? - and I feel like I got the mechanics down fast. It definitely held some surprises for me - At the end of turn 1 I was feeling pretty confident, by turn 4 I was looking at 4-5 zombies shambling towards each survivor. 

Making a note here, before I forget, that rolling on the loot table, the survivors came up with Extra Ammo and food (Supplies), so while they're sad to lose Sandra, they can continue on their journey.