Line of sight had dropped to less than 25 yards. From his firing position behind the courtyard wall he had a perfect view of the woods; but not much else. Even though he had fought through North Africa and survived the landings at Normandy, he was scared. No training could have prepared him for this. 

There was movement. In the woods. Was it an animal? Or something else…

The question was answered for him. He could see glowing red eyes through the mist and heard low groans and shambling movement. They were coming…

Bolt Action Zombie Horde was a special event held at Tyton Games on October 30. Inspired by Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies and Konflict ’47, Ty and I created a set of rules for a team of survivors to holdout against endless waves of zombies.

We had the survivors start within the walls of the abandoned town. The ruins would provide a fallback position as the zombies slowly advanced. On a players turn they could move and fire a weapon before passing to the next survivor. Once the survivors had each completed a turn, the zombies would all move 6″ towards the nearest survivor. Once the zombies moved, another wave of zombies spawned along the four table edges (we played with five spawning per edge).

And so it began! The survivors desperately tried to thin the shambling hordes.To help out the survivors, we created a list of special weapons they could earn. For every ten kills, a survivor could roll on the Weapons Chart with a chance to find a new weapon like a BAR, flame thrower, satchel charge, or an LMG just to name a few.

Of course, even with the extra firepower, the Zombies never, ever stopped coming. The arrival of a supply Jeep with extra grenades and med-kits helped, but it was still not enough. The survivors might had stood a chance if not for some “random” events late in the game. On round 13 – fast zombies. Round 17 – double zombie activation, and round 18 – tough zombies. Eventually, after 19 rounds to play, the last survivor fell to the zombies in spectacular fashion – fully surrounded with a satchel charge in hand and took a dozen zombies down with him.

All told, the 10 players manged to eliminate 284 zombies over 19 rounds. The game started out slowly and manageable and developed into absolute madness. The game was a lot of fun and we look forward to tweaking the game, adding more depth and making it a more narrative style event for next year.  Huge thanks to Tyton Games for hosting!