"Hello laddy! Did'ya miss me? Huh? I sure missed you..."

The lights of the small room are flickering on and off, on and off, on and... They stopped.

"Didn't think I'd leave after what you did? Ho ho ho! How could I?! We're friends remember?"

Your hands are tied down to the chair on which your ass is resting, no way to move. The lights are hurting your eyes.

"See this scar? Do you like it? Marie liked it, she liked it a lot..."

Thoughts begin to form, your hands clench and you shake your head to clear the dizziness that fogs it. Your eyes are forced open as your mind processes the name spoken, anger building inside you.

"Waking up huh? The sedative lasted longer than I thought... It's good to see you..."

You process a pair of green eyes, a light beard and mustache, shaggy hair, and a nose that looks like it's been broken one too many times. But there's also the scar, long and deep, running down his brow and to his chin.

"Do you remember me? Huh? Do you remember me you little shit?"

You shake your head. The man before you is a clear annoyance, to say you hated his very sight would not be an understatement. But the only thing you recalled was the name he mentioned, and even that was very vague.

He frowns slightly, but a smirk crosses his face soon enough.

"No matter, 'commander'. There'll be plenty of catching up along the way..." He sneers as he mentions your supposed rank. "Now grab a rifle and get a move on. I don't fancy getting my ass chewed by these fuckers."

The man pulls out a dagger and cuts the binds on your hands. You soon find yourself holding a carbine and a swift look around reveals your body to be covered in armor.

"Call me Santa, you're Elf."

The man smirks and kicks a door open. Walking over to him, with a hundred and one questions in your head, you peer outside and realize that, whether you want it or not, you'll have to shoot first and ask later.

The door leads to a destroyed building, collapsed. The hallway that had once been behind the door is now gone and leaving an open view of the city streets in its place. The view is not too nice either.

You seem to be standing in a warehouse with its front destroyed, a supply room is on the bottom floor while the other three upper ones are offices. A single emergency staircase that leads from every floor to the street behind is the only way out as the backdoor is blocked by rubble. All windows are cracked and the rubble has made a slope that makes climbing to the second floor from the street a possibility, while making a makeshift wall for the first floor which makes it the only closed room in the building.

And from the street? A couple hundred undead.

Santa chuckles and places a hand on your shoulder, he is similarly armored to you.

"See the mess you got us in? Come on, Elf. You're the commander, aye? A little amnesia and a recent bullet extraction ain't gonna break you, right? The lads are counting on ya"

A quick nod, a swift check of your ammo, and swift rundown of the situation later, you ready your plan for defense...

Player: The Empire of Man

Units: 10 Imperial Assault Troopers (Counting you and Santa), 20 Imperial Riflemen, 2 Imperial Sharpshooters.

Enemy: Undead

Units: 50 Slicers, 10 Leapers, 20 Crawlers

Terrain: A wide street ending in front of a destroyed warehouse. The warehouse has lost the front wall and the rubble has made a slope which can be climbed to reach up to the second floor of the three story building. The roof caved in and the only way to move about the building is to use the emergency staircase on the back, all three floors have access to it but it is fragile and will no withstand a lot of running around. A backdoor has been covered with ruble, if you wish to retreat you'll need to use the staircase but break it and you are trapped.

Enemy Strategy: Leapers are jumping from rooftop to rooftop in two groups of five in an attempt to flank your position, they are carrying two crawlers each for throwing. Stop them before they manage to throw them or else the staircase may collapse. Slicers are charging headfirst from the front, large pieces of rubble are littering the front of the warehouse and may be used for cover and delaying the enemy while the rest of the street is clean.

Objectives:

1) You must not die.
2) Santa must not die.
3) Over half of your troops must remain.
4) Optional: Destroy the enemy entirely and hold the warehouse.

662973 Place the sharpshooters on the third floor to take out the leapers and crawlers. Place the rest of my units on the second floor, the riflemen on the base of the ramp and the assault troopers in the middle, that way, the riflemen can mow down slicers in volleys while the assault troopers can cut them down if they get to close and by the riflemen time to reload. The riflemen and also take out the leapers adn crawlers if they get too close as well.

663133

I shall grant thee victory! Though, admittedly, I've been getting rusty in this scenario thingies. My only concern would have been the leapers though, what with their speed I guess two snipers wouldn't be able to hold them back, with the help of the assault troops it wouldn't have been so hard but they were in the second floor.

Not much visibility from there, so I'd guess a few crawlers, one or two, would have been able to make it to your lines after being thrown. I'd say, minimal casualties make it one or two wounded from the explosion and one or another overrun by the slicers.

By my reasoning I say it was: 4 Riflemen death, 2 wounded from the crawlers. Fairly good if you consider just how ugly the monsters must look... Bloodpool must have been watching Silent Hill when coming up with those

663192 Umm.... The Contagion is modeled after the Necromorphs from Dead Space. On a side note, I think there was a little bit of miscommunication, the riflemen would be at the base of the ruble ramp while the assault troopers would be in the middle of the ramp... do I still earn victory?

663216

Ohhh... And the sharpshooters on the third floor I suppose? Lemme add up a few more casualties then...

Welp. This is how I picture the thing going:

Leapers would happily bounce around like pink party ponies till reaching the warehouse, several of them would be dead before getting there, but the Sharpshooters would not be able to hold em back. Assault Troops would be supplying aid to the Sharpshooters, thus neglecting the frontline. Single shot flintlock rifles are not very good for crowd control.

With the divided attention, the leapers would reach positions and throw the crawlers. Let's say only two leapers made it to the warehouse on each side, which is fairly good considering overall disadvantages. Anyways, a crawler per sharpshooter, that's two. In the meantime the slicers would have reached the slope with heavy casualties but still a few intact. Assault troops would still be divided in attention, riflemen would switch to melee after a final volley.

Let's say the leapers managed to incapacitate the sharpshooters, and they threw two crawlers at your frontline before being blasted away. That makes for a bad breach in your lines. But still, with most of the slicers dead by the time your riflemen have to face them in melee, and the leapers being gone...

I'd say; 6-7 dead riflemen, 2 wounded Sharpshooters, make it 0-1 wounded Assault Troops, depending on whom the leapers concentrated their remaining crawlers.

663256 Hmph... I guess just leaving both riflemen and assault troopers on the second floor together would be better. Or, better yet, put five troopers with the sharpshooters and leave the rest with the riflemen.

663272

Eeyup Leaving a few guards is always the best way to make sure of stuff.

663284 So... what's the final verdict for my strategy?

663300

For the revised one? Victory, always was, only with less casualties now.

Let's see, without having to watch their backs, the Troopers on the ground would be able to blast away along with the riflemen, the Sharpshooters and the backup would easily shoot off the leapers and crawlers wouldn't even show up, with the rooftops clear they'd be able to concentrate on the approaching Slicers... I'd say about no more than 1-2 dead riflemen, and the odd wounded man or two if any. Playing Mount and Blade has prepared me for this sort of verdicts!

663326
...Wait, is "santa" in this just some crazy guy, or is he actually santa? Because that just makes the entire scenario rather silly.

664442

Crazy guy otherwise it would be funny, but kinda incoherent. Also, the real santa is russian.