‘Day of the Dead’

A Kill-team Mission

The Plague of Unbelief has come to Fentore – already entire cities are becoming over-run by packs of flesh-eating undead. Swift action is required or the entire planet will be lost – virus bombed from orbit, to prevent the dreaded virus spreading to Systems beyond. The Imperial forces are ready to take action – they have located the source of the virus, a strange transmission with blasphemous, sorcerous properties, being broadcast by the dread followers of Nurgle.

If the Imperial forces can stop the ritual and the transmission of the signal they will have contained the outbreak of the Plague, and saved Fentore. However, the forces of Chaos have sent their agents to ensure that the signal is not interrupted; and there are other forces at work, those who would either seek to destroy the influence of Chaos, or to attempt to take this viral weapon to study for their own use. And that is not all – before they can reach their objective, and defend or destroy it, each force will have to fight through the former defenders and citizens of the city – now emaciated corpses, hungry for the flesh of the living…

‘Day of the Dead’ is a special Kill Team Mission, for 4 players, and a ‘Zombie master’ (who controls the Zombies!). Each player will field a Kill Team – a single squad of specially selected soldiers with the skills, equipment and training to fight their way past the horde of zombies – and their opponents – to the objective. 2 Players will fight for each side – Imperial or Chaos.

Although the objectives serve either the Imperial or Chaos team, players from other teams are welcome to take part – however they will need to decide whether they will let their result count towards the Imperial or the Chaos. Aside from that, any Victory Points scored by players from other teams will count towards their Team’s VP total for that week!

If the Imperial team win they will have saved Fentore and thwarted the plans of Nurgle. However, if the Chaos Team wins, Fentore will be virus bombed and the System will count as belonging to Chaos!

Choosing Your Kill Team

Each player must choose a Kill Team using the following rules:

  • It may include a total of up to 150 points worth of models and upgrades, and may contain up to 10 individual models.
  • The team must be chosen from units from ONE Codex.
  • At least Two Thirds of the team’s total points value must be chosen from any units which are Troops choices. (That means at least 100 points!)
  • The remaining points can be spent on models from ONE unit from either their chosen Codex’s Elites choices or Fast Attack choices.
  • No model can be armed with a shooting weapon with a Strength higher than 7 or an AP lower than 2.
  • No model can be equipped with armour which has a Save better than 3+.

An example team might consist of Tau Fire Warriors (Troops Choice), Kroot (Troops Choice), and a Stealth Suit (Elites Choice).

Kill Team Deployment:When deploying your Kill Team, you may divide your squad in to a maximum of three smaller teams, each consisting of no less than three Models. Normal coherency rules apply for each of the smaller teams.

Kill Team Leadership Tests: When you split your team in to the (up to) three smaller teams, each is treated as a separate unit for leadership test purposes. E.g. when one sub-team takes a wound from a weapon which causes a pinning test, only that sub-team takes a pinning test – not the entire Kill-team.

Note for players using Codex: Chaos Space Marines: if you are rolling on the ‘Gifts of the Gods’ table, please re-roll any results which would require replacing your model for either a Spawn or a Daemon Prince.

Note regarding abilities which are targeted at other units: if one or more of the models you select for your Kill-team has a specific ability or power which is targeted at a specific unit, either designated before or during the game, these still apply but with the following caveats:

-If the power affects a unit which is normally selected before the start of the game, then it applies to ONE of the opposing Kill-teams – decide which one before set-up; e.g. Necron Deathmarks’ ability.

-If the power affects a specific unit during the game e.g. a psychic power or shooting power, then it affects ONLY the specific sub-team being targeted – not the entire Kill-team.

Mission Outline

The mission will be played on a 6’ by 4’ table, representing an urban battlezone over-run by zombies. Each turn a random number of Zombies will be generated – but the game will start with a number of Zombies already on the board!

Set up: The board is divided in to 6 imaginary sectors (12” by 12” squares). These sectors will be used for the initial placement of the first randomly generated batch of Zombies.

At the centre of the board is the objective, the device broadcasting the source of the plague, surrounded by 7 Plague Marines who are conducting the ritual.

Deployment: Roll for table sides and deployment based on the two sides fighting e.g. Imperial vs Chaos; the pair of players who rolled highest may choose to deploy and go first, or let the other team do so.

The two sides then deploy their forces. There are four deployment areas, one for each player, at each corner of the board. Each player must deploy ALLmodels in their team. Players cannot deploy any of their Kill Team in any other player’s deployment zone! The deployment zone for each player is an area 18” along the long edge, and up to 6” on to the board.

Once both sets of players have deployed, in each ‘sector’ a randomly generated number of Zombies will be placed – D6 + 4. This will be used each time a batch of Zombies is generated throughout the rest of the game.

After deployment of each force and Zombies, any models which have the Infiltrator special rule can make a ‘free’ move at their normal movement speed.

The game starts with the Zombie Master taking the Zombies’ turn, then the first of the two teams may take their turn.

Objective: The Imperial team has to destroy the device broadcasting the signal causing the Plague. To do this, they must first kill at least TWO of the Plague Marines conducting the ritual – then they must spend at least one full turn in base combat with the machine without being assaulted. This represents the model placing explosive charges on the device. Note that Plague Marines are too preoccupied with sustaining the ritual to fire back with any shooting attacks, although if assaulted they will fight their assailant.

The Chaos team must prevent the Imperial team from achieving their objective. Defending or destroyingthe Device is worth 4 Victory Points to the team of the player who does so. If it is unclear which player defended the device, the points will be awarded to the player who killed either the most enemy models, or the models which may have been closest to fulfilling the Imperial objective.

Game Length: The game will last for 7 turns, or until the Device is destroyed, or until one side wipes out the other. At the beginning of each turn, from Turn 2 onwards, before each team’s turn, more Zombies will be randomly generated. A mob of Zombies will be placed on the board in the areas between each player’s deployment zone, along the long and short board edge (so there will be FOUR additional Zombie mobs deployed each turn).

At the start of each turn, before each side takes their turn, the Zombie master will have a normal turn phase – movement, shooting and assault.

So the pattern of play will be as follows:

-Turn One:

  • Zombie turn
  • Team One turn
  • Team Two turn

-Turn Two:

  • Zombie turn
  • Team One turn
  • Team Two turn

Etc etc.

Plague Zombies

As well as fighting their way past the opposing force, each player will be fighting their way through an ever-growing horde of the undead! Each turn a randomly generated number of Zombies will make their way on to the board (no doubt drawn by the sound of small-arms fire and the screams of the dying!). Zombies use the rules below:

WS / BS / S / T / W / I / A / Ld / Sv
Zombie: / 3 / 0 / 3 / 3 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 10 / -
Bile Zombie: / 3 / 0 / 3 / 3 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 10 / -

Special Rules: Feel No Pain, Fear, Fearless, Slow and Purposeful, You Gotta Hit ‘em in the Head!, Mindless Hunger, Bile Zombie, Growing Horde

You Gotta Hit ‘em in the Head!: Any veteran zombie hunter would, of course, tell you that the best way to take out a zombie is a las-shot through the head, or a sharp blow to the skull. It goes without saying that removing the head altogether will work just as well!

Any ‘To Wound’ roll of 6 against a Zombie negates their Feel No Pain save altogether – it may not be taken.

Mindless Hunger: The only instinct left in the mind of an undead plague victim is the desire to feed on warm, living flesh; no distinction is made between whether the next victim was a former comrade or enemy. When there is no living being for them to hunt and feed upon, zombies will mill around aimlessly, until they come close enough to realise the presence of their next potential meal…

A mob of zombies will always move towards the nearest non-zombie model if there is one within 12”. If not, roll a scatter dice – this is the direction they will move in.

Bile Zombie: The influence of Chaos has caused some of the Plague’s victims to mutate even after their demise; their bodies swelling with noxious, corrosive bile, which they vomit forth over their victims, so that the packs of zombies can consume them more easily. Their corrosive bile is also unstable – acorrectly placed shot can cause the entire zombie to explode in a shower of bile and rotting flesh.

When generating Zombies, if a ‘6’ is rolled, and there is a model available, one Zombie in the generated mob can be replaced with a Bile Zombie. Bile Zombies obey the same rules as normal Zombies, however they can make a shooting attack as follows:

Str / AP / Type
Zombie Bile / 1 / 3 / Template, Poisoned (4+)

Additionally, Bile Zombies may explode when shot! If a Bile Zombie takes an unsaved wound from any shooting attack, place the Small Blast Marker with the centre over the Bile Zombie model. Any other models under the template take a hit equal to the model’s toughness and with an AP value of 4.

Growing Horde: Zombies lack the intellect to discern anything other than their next potential meal, and will tend to mill around aimlessly in groups until they find it. It is not uncommon for lone straggler Zombies simply to join another group just because they happen to be shuffling in the same direction!

For the purposes of simplicity, if two or more Zombie mobs move in to coherency e.g. one model from each within 2” of each other, the mob will ‘merge’ and be treated as one mob. Note that there is no limit to the size which Zombie mobs can reach!