= Zombie incursion
:doctype: article
Seth Kenlon
2025-04-26

== Introduction

This is a short wargame adventure set in the Macharian Sector from the **Imperium Maledictum** RPG source book by Cubicle 7.
Although I use the Macharian Sector as the setting, these scenarios are meant for a wargame, not an RPG.

Between each scenario, your army can gather reinforcements and upgrades as defined in the https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/downloads/warhammer-40000[Crusade rules].
There may also be faction-specific boosts available in your army's codex.

Terrain types and enemy factions are flexible.
Adapt everything here for what you and your friends own.
As a way of making each battlefield feel unique, I recommend adding environmental hazards and other surprises.

A Game Master is not necessary, but consider notes to the Game Master in this document when setting up your game.

Designate one army as the Hero Army.
This campaign is the story of the Hero Army, so it's the one army that's constant throughout every scenario.
The Hero Army may not always win, but the campaign does not end unless a lose condition specifically says so.
Often, there is a failsafe scenario to get the Hero Army back in action.

== Overview

I used miniatures from the *Zombicide* game, but you can use any zombie or zombie-like set of miniatures.
The important thing is that there are 4 distinct monster types.
Here's a summary, based on the official *Zombicide* names:

* *Shamblers*: Slow moving, weak cannon fodder. Unit size of 10.
* *Runners*: Fast and strong. Unit size of 10.
* *Fatty*: Strong leader zombie. Unit size of 1.
* *Abomination*: Nearly-invincible warlord zombie. Unit size of 1.

Full detachment rules and custom datasheets are provided in the file `zombie-detachment.adoc` in this directory.

There are 3 scenarios, plus a failsafe scenario in the event that either of the first 2 scenarios end in defeat for the Hero Army.

* Scenario 0: Get through the outer ruins and enter the city centre.
* Scenario 1: Search the city for the antidote.
* Scenario 2: [Failsafe] Escape the compromised quarantine facility.
* Scenario 3: Reach the atmosphere distribution intake valve in the top floor of a building.

== Scenario 000

Frantic reports are coming in from Omyr.
The dead have risen, and Omyr has been marked as a quarantined world.
It's a major inconvenience for local law enforcement, but more importantly it's robbing the city's foundries of the vital corpse starch that helps feed the [living] population.

There is hope, however.
Magos Biologis Thalion, a priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus, has formulated an antidote that returns the undead to an unanimated state.
However, Magos Biologis Thalion has been declared a heretic by the Cult for this unsanctioned research, and has seemingly disappeared.
Your regiment has been sent to the forbidden surface to recover Magos Biologis Thalion's antidote, and to arrest the Magos herself should you encounter her.

* Terrain: City ruins
* Mission: Get as many soldiers as possible to the city centre entrance.
* Opponent: Shamblers and a Fatty, Runners
* Success: Get to the objective marker on the opposite end of the battlefield, and hold it for 1 full Round.
* Failure: Should the Hero Army be entirely defeated by the zombie horde, 1 soldier is rescued by Medicae officers and taken to quarantine for observation. Go directly to Sceranio 002.

=== Special rule

For the Hero Army, only soldiers that survive this scenario may be used in the next scenario.

== Scenario 001

When you arrive in the city centre, you find that most of it remains intact.
The local military did well to keep the fighting relegated to the perimeter, but nevertheless some soldiers died on duty and are starting to rise again as zombies.
Too scattered to form concentrated hordes of undead, these urban zombies meander through streets in search of living flesh.

It was from the city centre that Magos Biologis Thalion broadcasted her discovery of an antidote.
It's your job to determine whether she left a sample of the antidote in the city, and to find the magos and either arrest or protect her.

* Terrain: City centre
* Mission: Find the antidote and the Adeptus Mechanicus heretic.
* Opponent: Shamblers, Fatty, Abomination
* Success: Obtain the antidote.
* Failure: Should the Hero Army be entirely defeated by the zombie horde, 1 soldier is rescued by Medicae officers and taken to quarantine for observation. Go directly to Sceranio 002.

=== Special rules

After the first zombie dies during this scenario, the Abomination arrives, as close as possible to the Lone Operative as possible, during the Zombie Army's next Reinforcement phase.

==== Hero Army

1. Place up to 10 Markers around the battlefield. Place a Shambler at each Marker. Each Shambler by a Marker gains the **Lone Operative** keyword.
2. While in base contact with any Marker, roll a d6. On the first 6 rolled, Magos Biologis Thalion instantly emerges from hiding. The Hero unit may choose to arrest her or to offer sanctuary. Either way, she joins that Hero unit. She cannot fight while under arrest.

===== Lone Operative

Deploy a Lone Operative on street level.
Deploy additional units that survived the previous scenario on the rooftops to provide cover.
Only the Lone Operative is permitted on street level during this scenario (aside from zombies).

===== Magos Biologis Thalion

Magos Biologis Thalion uses the profile of either a Tech-Priest Manipulus or Tech-Priest Dominus, but has +1 OC.

==== Zombie Army

Each round, all Shamblers move toward a Hero unit, using its Movement and Advance action.
During this scenario, a Shambler's maximum Charge distance is always equal to its Movement value of 4.

1. Place a Fatty at a single objective marker of your choosing.
2. The Fatty does not move away from the objective, but defends it no matter the cost.
3. When a Hero unit controls this objective, roll a d6. On 2+, that Hero unit gains the antidote.

== Scenario 002

_Play this if Scenario 000 or Scenario 001 ended in failure._
_You may use 1 model from the Hero Army in this scenario._

You have been quarantined in a Medicae complex.
You quickly realise that something's gone wrong.
There are zombies on the loose within the facility!

* Terrain: Medicae quarantine facility (Boarding action)
* Mission: Escape without killing Allies, and before all Allies are removed from the board.
* Opponent: Zombies, and either Astra Militarum, Adepta Sororitas, or Adeptus Arbites
* Success: Reach the exit.
* Failure: The planet falls to infection! Your campaign ends here.

If Magos Biologis Thalion was rescued in a previous scenario and was not arrested, then she is waiting for the Hero outside the quarantine facility.
If she was arrested, then she has gone back into hiding after deliving the Hero to the quarantine facility, and is no longer part of this campaign.

=== Special rules

In the centre of the board, create a small holding cell.
Around the holding cell, create the facility walls.
You now have 3 distinct regions of the board: the central cell, the hallway of the facility, and the exteriour of the facility.

At the start of each Round, each faction (Zombies, Allies, and the Hero miniature) rolls for initiative.

==== Hero

Deploy the Hero miniature in the central cell.
The Hero miniature gains the Lone Operative and Stealth trait, as needed.

When the Hero successfully Charges an Ally or Zombie unit, the Hero joins that unit and is considered its Leader.

If a Zombie unit with the Hero as Leader attacks an Ally unit and successfully destroys any Ally model, then the Hero has failed this mission.

Any time a Hero or a Hero's unit (Allied or Zombie) takes a Wound, the Hero gains 1 point of Impurity, to a maximum of 7 Impurity points.

==== Zombies

Deploy a zombie horde of Runners in the hallways of the facility.

They roam the halls of the facility in a clockwise direction, and always Charges and then Fights the Hero and any Ally unit it can see.
If they must choose between the 2, then the prefer Allies to the Hero (because the Hero is infected.)

Zombies cannot open or close doors.

==== Allies

Deploy the Ally unit outside the facility.
Allies roam the exteriour of the facility in an anti-clockwise direction.
Their primary objective is to kill all Zombies.
Their secondary objective is to capture the Hero.

When an Ally unit successfully Charges the Hero, the Hero is captured and returned to the cell.

== Scenario 003

Get to the atmospheric purification intake on the top floor to distribute the antidote.
If you don't own building terrain, you can use hallways from Boarding Action terrain.
Alternately, just use 4 segments of paper or gaming mats (A5 size) to represent 4 distinct areas of a building.

Roll 2d6 if the Hero army has any Impurity points from the optional Scenario 002.
If the result is equal to or greater than the Army's Impurity:

* No zombies attack the Lone Operative
* If Magos Biologis Thalion has not been arrested, she recognises that the Lone Operative is becoming a zombie, and attacks the Lone Operative each round.
* If Magos Biologis Thalion has been arrested, she may not accompany the Lone Operative and must guard the building from oncoming zombies.

* Terrain: City, and building interiour
* Mission: Get the antidote to the atmospheric distribution unit.
* Opponent: Shamblers, Runners, Fatty, Abomination (Typhus)
* Success: Reach the objective on the top floor.
* Failure: The planet falls to infection! Your campaign ends here.

=== Special rules

The Lone Operative (and Magos Biologis Thalion, as long as she has not been placed under arrest) start on the ground level of a building.
At the start of each Round, they move up 1 level (making Desperate Escape checks as needed.)

Before the game, populate the ground level of the building with 4 Shamblers, and each other level with 2 Shamblers.

* During their Movement phase, a zombie in the building make move up or down 1 level.
* On a 4+, a zombie may use an Advance action to move up an additional level.
* A zombie may Charge up or down any number of levels, treating each level as 5" of Movement. In other words, a Charge of 5" grants 1 level of movement, and a Charge of 10" grants 2 levels of movement.

At the start of each Round, roll a d6.
Each effect lasts 1 Round:

1. Zombies have +1 Hit
2. Zombies have +1 Wound
3. Zombies have +1 Toughness
4. Hero has +1 Hit
5. Hero has +1 Wound
6. Hero has +1 Toughness

Outside the building, deploy 1 unit of Runners and an Abomination  no closer than 9" from the building entrance.
The Hero Army may deploy 2 units (drawing from reinforcement if necessary) outside of the building.

EOF
