Gentlemen, start your zombies.

I had a bit of spare time this afternoon after we finished our Blore Heath refight, which I have reported on the Towton blog, so I dug out Dead Heat from TwoHourWargames for a little light entertainment. A little zombie racing never really goes amiss, as long as PETZ* doesn't catch you. So, I dug out the board I had resized to suit my 15mm figures and those self-same 15mm figures, set them up and then we were off.

*People for the Ethical Treatment of Zombies

The rules are really simple and use the reaction system that THW has made their own. Basically, zombies react to the presence of humans (the Zombie Baiters) and that determines how fast they will move down the track. It is possible for them to get confused or distracted if they roll badly for their movement, and it is also possible that they can catch their baiter and eat them. Nice. In addition to the race game, the rules include a system for betting on the races. This includes a means of calculating the odds as well as a handy table that shows how much you win for a win, place or show. This means that you can play the game on a couple of levels. You can just race, or you can bet, with the winner being the one that has the most money at the end of the day's racing.

Another nice touch is the idea that you can combine this game with your All Things Zombie games. First catch your zombie, then take it down to the track and race it. Most excellent.

So, how did my game go? Well, here is the track part way through the race (click for a larger image):

On the left, the rookie is getting eaten by two zombies, while the baiter in the yellow top tries to persuade her zombie to turn around and race to the finish. The zombie in the bikini being baited by the girl in the yellow jumpsuit was not very enthusiastic at all (second from the left). It took forever to get moving and then did not really want to do much after that. The favourite in the race is third from the left. His baiter in the natty purple outfit just forged ahead and led his zombie to the finish line miles ahead of the others. He is clearly a master baiter. The other two made a better showing than most but still struggled, despite using dirty tricks to try to get the favourite eaten.

The game featured a lot of zombie on baiter action as the zombies blundered into their baiters and tried to eat them, so I was surprised that only one of them actually did go down. Perhaps I have not sussed out the tactics properly yet, but it was certainly fun. I shall be forcing my buddy Steve to play this one next week. Let's see how he does.