UMS - Undead nation - review

At Empoli Games 2022, we wanted to test the upcoming rules for the zombie scenarios of UMS: Modern Age, the game for "normal" modern encounters, but this "undead nation" army list adds the "nation" game mode with the walkers controlled by an evil mastermind, and the solio mode with the zombies wandering around the table doing what they do best: looking for brrrrains.

Testo italiano clicca qui

Scenario: the world is gone (pandemic, fungus, radiation, whatever...) and the zombies roam the planet. In solitary a base in an unspecified area on the Russian-Ukrainian border, a secret group of scientists defended only by reservist platoon has tested an effective antidote that keeps the fresh dead... dead, we don't want them back to life (life ... so to speak). The communication of the positive outcome of the tests was intercepted (perhaps a tip by one of the scientists?) also by the NATO intelligence who decides to send a couple of teams of seals (infiltrated by land into civilian SUVs in order not to attract attention) to precede/contrast the spetnaz of the Alpha group (embarked on a btr80) in the withdrawal of the formula and if possible one or more scientists.
The Spetnazs win if they enter the base and take one or more scientists away from their entry point, the Seals once they have recovered one/more scientists can call the black-hawk who will land nearby. The interest of the SEALs is to make as little noise as possible so as not to attract anyone's attention, the Russians must basically try not to aggregate too much walkers in one point, but they have more weapon power and an APC at their disposal to clear the way.

The scenario, very asymmetrical, played mainly to test the undead variant, so we took the liberty not to aggravate things with heavy vehicles that are there only as scenic elements, the helicopter... is not there, it should arrive only  in mid/late scenario to extract the Seals ... but it was too cool to leave it in the box and we deployed it from the start even if it's not there for game purposes.
All the miniatures/vehicles you see already are included in the rules written for skirmish actions at platton level, links and other useful info are at the bottom of the page.

 

Outcome: we have not finished the scenario till the end (about 3/4) unfortunately at the conventions the stands are a distraction as so to greet friends and see the other tables, just like the zombie we wander for new miniatures and stuff... so we will never know if the world can return to normal (?), but we think the rules also work well by inserting the zombies as III force in play and using it as an NPC making the zombies act towards the living in LOS and/or towards the noise, spawn points with randomize rules is a nice addition. Un/fortunately, no hordes came out so we cannot test it but sure it's a nasty thing.

Note: we won an unexpected "special prize" from the organization of the event, thank you.

   

Buildings were 3D printed (except fot the base), the civilian cars are all die-cast of various scales 1/43-1/50, Black Hawk is Italeri 1:48, the miniatures are mainly: White Dragon and Empress, the zombies are of many different brands and some 3d printed, military vehicles are in resin most from Empress miniatures; all from our personal collections ... from the right: Stefano, Simone and Filippo present at the event, Marco (missing yesterday playing AdlG in Rome) contributed to the preparation in the past months.

The rules and other infos

UMS: Modern Age Facebook group 

 UMS: Modern age at Wargames Vault

Minables.com UMS reviews ITA/ENG