A Look at Existing 28mm Zombie Rules

There are a number of existing zombie and post apocalyptic rule sets. I will list them here. I have the rules for about half of these, the others I have read reviews or watched gameplay videos. They all sound great in their own way. 

My Rules

Dead Wars!; My rules differ from other rules in that I want to have dozens or hundreds of zombies (80 to 200 are typical for us). Also, I am not an RPG guy, so have very few RPG elements. My game focusses on large numbers of weak dumb zombies vs several or many survivors. It balances the number of zombies because the number of zombies is directly related to the number of survivors. It is a simple system in which zombies spawn with cards each player draws each turn or from noise. Surprise events and game controlled groups can also appear. There is loot in buildings and cars. Zombies move with movement priority, automatically and simply. Characters have 4 action points each turn for each character. Melee and shooting is also simple. Groups move based on their highest initiative plus a D6, with the possibility of interrupting groups trying to shoot at you. 

Zombie RPG and Table Top Rules

Project Z; Warlord Games

http://www.warlordgames.com/project-z-complete-offer-one-week-left/

-skirmish style zombie games from Warlord Games. The rules are out for free. Players compete in a skirmish setting for loot markers. Out next month. 

The Walking Dead: All Out War by Mantic Games

http://www.manticgames.com/the-walking-dead.html

-looks like a small scale skirmish game with Walking Dead characters. Out Soon. 

All Things Zombie by Two Hour Wargames

http://www.twohourwargames.com/all-things-zombie.html

-This seems to be the most popular current set of rules. It has three books, which have a lot of RPG elements and includes scenarios. It is the most well developed current rule set. To be honest though, I found the shooting and combat very complicated. It does have a lot of good points though. 

Skirmish Outbreak: Skirmish Wargames Rules for the Zombie Apocalypse

http://www.skirmishsangin.com/?book=Skirmish_Outbreak

-Another well developed set of rules in rule book form or PDF. It is very RPG, with stats and abilities for characters. It is small in scale and focuses a lot on line of sight for zombies to see the characters. 

Dead Meat: Quarantine Zone America

https://m.facebook.com/PlayDeadMeat

-2 players form squads and battle it out. 

-Around 20 zombies with several survivors each. 

Total AR:SE; Akula's Rules: Skirmish Edition

https://web.archive.org/web/20140530051703/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roweller/ARSE/akulasrules.pdf

-A two page, simple but popular free skirmish rule set. 

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

http://www.edenstudios.net/images/afmbedemokit.pdf

-A small scale RPG set at a university.

-Looks pretty well developed but specific. 

Bio Syndrome RPG Modern

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/142737/Bio-Syndrome-RPG-Modern-Edition--Fight-the-Zombie-Hordes

-A new set of rules. It seems to focus on infected Resident Evil types. This one looks small and skirmish sized as well. 

Dead Walk Again; Zombie Action Shooter

http://lesitedenikko.free.fr/pages/ressources/regles/zombies_games/non_traduits/dead%20walk%20again/dead_walk_again_2.05.pdf

-Zombies vs Swat skirmish game.

-A homemade set of rules for a specific purpose. 

Ambush Z

http://www.ambushalleygames.net/ambush-z/ambush-z-pdf-version

-15mm zombie rules. Covers infected and dead type. Units have a shooting and defence value. These look the most similar to my rules though I have individuals shoot and melee. The most "wargame" type rule set. 

Dead Reign

http://palladium-store.com/1001/category/Dead-Reign.html

-I don't know much about this one. Reviews say it's very RPG like with supernatural elements. 

Outbreak Undead

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/88762/Outbreak-Undead

-An RPG game where you make an avatar of yourself and see if you survive.  

-There are mixed reviews of this one. 

Combat Zone

http://www.combatzonechronicles.net/cozo4/xzombi4.htm

-A subset of the Combat Zone Rules. Includes combat rules for buildings. 

Board Games

Last Night on Earth

A fantastic movie style board game. 

Zombicide

A video game style zombie game. I've never played it, but it looks great. 

Zombies!

Map tiles generate randomly. Good game. 

Xtreme Zombie Hunter

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20901/xtreme-zombie-hunter

-Like "Running Man" with zombies. 

New Zombie Rules Coming

I am almost ready to publish my rules for zombie war gaming. I am going to have a rule book but also have PDF rules for free on this website. 

The Warlord Games rules and the Walking Dead game are coming out soon. I am looking forward to trying them both out, and the miniatures for both look fantastic.  My rules are for larger scale battles. 

As I mentioned in my first post, I'm also going to have other zombie variant rules; Nazi Zombies, Rage Zombies, Napoleonic Zombies and Medieval Zombies. 

Start the Apocalypse! Zombie Scenario

Here is my newest scenario. The rules have not changed in two games now. A new player tried it with us today and found it simple to pick up. 

For this scenario my 4 characters were in the hospital. They had been hiding out in the 3rd floor staff room. The police officer of my group heard over his radio that a survivor was in one of the other rooms. They have to find the survivor. 

Another player has his 4 characters in the campground and has 4D6 zombies overrun their campsite. They have to find another working car and escape the board. 

The third player starts the game in the upper floor staff room at WalMart. All of the groups are to leave the board to the military "safe zone". That always works out in the movies!

A view of the whole map. 

I drew a card for four more survivors. They enter the parking lot. We roll

a friendly roll and they join the canping group. He now has 8 characters, though one has been bitten by a zombie. 

My police officer gets killed by two surprise zombies and my nurse is also wounded. She will slowly turn into a zombie as well. 

We find the other survivor and escape the hospital. 3 of my 5 characters are unscathed. 

Here you can see the camping group escaping in the white and black coup at centre. He has piled 8 people in there. 

The car gets too damaged trying to escape so his 8 survivors must bail out. 

I find a police car with the keys in it. I try and draw zombies away from the WalMart but there are just too many. 

Too many zombies!

We draw another group of survivors in a truck. They are uninterested in us but they do help clear some zombies off the road!

The situation in the WalMart remains the same. They spend the game shooting the zombies at the bottom of the stairs. They can either live in the WalMart or try and leave afterwards. The constant gunfire has drawn dozens of zombies to the outside front doors as well. 

Escape the Farm! Zombie Scenario Battle Report

Here is our first Walking Dead scenario, the escape from Hershel's farm. The last episode of season 2. Beth and Carol die in our scenario. This was a test run of the All Things Zombies rules. The figures are from Wargames Factory mainly.

Starting positions for the scenario. Carl and Rick are almost cut off. To win the survivors have to get over half their players down the road and off the map.

Andrea and Beth try and break through the zombies on the road but their car flips and Beth is pulled out and eaten. This also creates a bottleneck in the main escape route.

The zombies stop and devour Beth for 3 turns.

Daryl and Carol try to stem the tide of zombies but Carol is knocked down and bitten. This means that each turn there s a chance she will turn into a zombie!

Carol and Daryl jump in the car with Glenn and Maggie. 

The red truck breaks through the fence and runs over the last zombies in the way. Carol turns into a zombie in the car and Daryl has to put her down. Michonne and Andrea jump in the truck on the way by.

Rescue the Civilians! Zombie Scenario Battle Report

This was an earlier scenario we played. The rules and scenery were less developed, but it worked out well!

Two groups of soldiers are sent to rescue several groups of survivors. A zombie horde is heading for the area. When the soldiers discover the horde, they can have a tank arrive on the roll of a 6; they got the tank first try! The tank squished zombies like crazy, but also generated almost as many.  

For this scenario 5 players have groups of civilians and two have groups of soldiers. The soldiers are to rescue the civilians before the horde if zombies descends upon them. As part of the scenario, if the soldiers roll a 6 at the start of a turn they get a tank. 

The horde ambles forward. 

The soldiers clear the scattered zombies. 

A couple of survivors get bitten at this point. 

The tank kills dozens of zombies, and then generates a bunch more from all of its noise. 

Three groups of civilians and a group of soldiers escapes through the rubble in the distraction made by the tank.

The zombies try and pursue the survivors but it's too late. Besides three bitten characters that will have to be put down later the rest escape. 

Hospital Rescue! Zombie Scenario Battle Report

In this scenario one squad of 4 starts off in the hospital. They had to find some medical supplies. They have barred the door but they are hemmed in by almost 100 zombies. The zombies have a chance to break down the door each turn. 

The other squad is to get construction vehicles from the local construction company to try and break the undead Seige.

The roads and buildings are all Stoelzel's Structures. The vehicles are 1:43 and 1:55 diecast with a few card stock ones thrown in. 

A view in front of the hospital. 

Here you can see the police barricades and some zombies in the park.

An inner view of the hospital. This is a card stock and foam core model from Stoelzel's Structures. I still have to add furniture. It has three floors that lift out and doors that open. 

Rick and Morgan clearing the construction company parking lot.

A view of the WalMart parking lot. Zombies!

Abraham rolls a fluke vs some zombies and gets devoured!

My squad takes the 4 construction vehicles to rescue the besieged squad in the hospital. 

Help has arrived! The construction vehicles smash zombies. One of them loses its roll to see if it is hung up. It is broken. 

The construction vehicles continue to run over and bash zombies while the group in the hospital breaks out of a window and await a ride on top of the a balance.

We drew a card which brought a helicopter and two survivors onto the roof of the WalMart. We could have tried to get them to join us, but we decided to leave since we had escaped the hospital and knew the WalMart would undoubtedly be full of zombies. The hospital survivors jump in the back of the dump truck to make their escape.

Captured by Hostile Bikers! Zombie Scenario Battle Report

In this scenario, two game controlled groups of post apocalyptic bikers have captured one of our group. Our two squads will have to take on their two squads. 

The two players (me and Cliff) roll a 6 every time we enter a building to see if the second squad has the female hostage in that building. The first squad is visible parked on their bikes on the street clearing zombies. We are to try and sneakily investigate the board. Since this is late in the apocalypse we decided to have "light zombie spawning" in this scenario. 

The 4 bikers clear zombies as we enter the board in the Wal Mart parking lot behind the helicopter. 

The other squad and hostage are not in the Wal Mart. 

All of the zombie clearing being done by the bikers has attracted all the zombies on the table and spawned more zombies. Though there are less zombies on the board the bikers are surrounded so leave the area. 

My squad opens fire on the first group of bikers killing two of the 4. Over the next couple of turns the second group of bikers also starts shooting at me from out of the warehouse. I kill another biker on the steet and one in the warehouse but two of my characters are seriously wounded, and one is lightly wounded. The last biker in the street attempts to join the bikers in the warehouse but is feasted upon by zombies. Luckily I draw a "keys in the nearest car" card so get ready to leave the area in the tow truck. Cliff sneaks up on the chaos with his fresh squad and enters the warehouse through the back door. 

Cliff wins the initiative roll after climbing the stairs and shoots the last 3 bikers. One of his survivors is wounded in return. We roll to see if our wounded survived the encounter and they all did.  

Dead Wars! A Tabletop Tactical Zombie Wargame

Dead Wars!

I have looked for a tactical zombie wargame where multiple survivors (or dozens of survivors) battle each other and zombies. I wanted dozens if not hundreds of zombies on the table. I purchased every set of zombie rules I could find; All Things Zombie, Skirmish Oubreak, Dead Meat and Ambush Z. ALL of them I could find. All of them did what they were supposed to do well enough, but did not do what I wanted. 

This is my squad based wargame sized system. My plan is to eventually have rules for multiple Dead Wars! Subsets;

1. Regular Zombies; this is the main rule set 

2. Rage/ Rabid Zombies

3. Nazi Zombies

4. Musket Era Zombies

5. Medieval Zombies

6. Pulp Zombies; Gaming with Movie Characters

In my system each player will have 1 to 4 characters (usually 3 or 4) with 1 to 6 players. Players will be on the same side or opposite sides. Zombies are game controlled.  The main rules are done. I am just playtesting and tweeking. Characters have action points. Each player draws a card a turn which can bring in game controlled groups of characters, or have surprise groups of zombies come spilling out of unexplored buildings, or more often give a minor boost or penalty. Buildings have interiors when possible (though it's not necessary).

Recommended Zombie / Survivor Miniatures

1. Warlord Games / Wargames Factory

2. Studio Miniatures

3. Cold War Miniatures (only available on eBay)

4. Hasslefree Miniatures

Recommended Terrain

1. Stoelzel's Structures (Printable Terrain)

2. World Works Games (Printable Terrain)

3. 1:55 scale diecast vehicles, or 1:43 in a pinch. Though the two printable options above also have printable vehicles.