Gas bottles

I was watching "Day of the Dead" last night and they used natural gas bottles to cause explosions to clear their buses of zombies.



As mentioned in an earlier post you can buy model gas bottles from Black Cat Bases and Fenris Games.

This started me thinking... can you actually shoot them to make an explosion?

I did a search on youtube to see if any idiots have tried it... I should never have doubted the posters on youtube:




All of those shows a fire around the bottles before the shot is made.

Mythbusters did it with a mini gun and incendiary rounds:


as did this guy with a 50 cal rifle and incendiary rounds:


Handguns against a big tank:



So - from what I have learnt is that small calibre weapons wont penetrate a gas bottle... but 5.56 rifle can, so I am guessing 5.56, .45, .50 and 10mm rounds will do so against a small or medium bottle, but only the 50 cal will work on the big ones.

Also, you need a fire or a flare going when you shoot the bottle, or use incendiary rounds, and the more gas in the tank, and thus the higher the pressure, the bigger the explosion.

What does this mean for our zombie games?

If survivors had gas bottle with road flares taped to them, and they set the flare off then bolted, that it could be used as a anti zombie device.

According to what I found on the internet (and it must be true, as it was on the net! :-P  ) says: "Another type of flare is the fusee, which burns for 10–60 minutes with a bright red light. Fusees are commonly used to indicate obstacles or advise caution on roadways at night; in this usage they are also called highway flaresroad flares, or ground flares. They are commonly found in roadside emergency kits."

This would give plenty of time for setting the gas bottle up and waiting for the right time to shoot it to make it go boom.

Game terms (for "No More Room In Hell"):

Gas Bottles are Blast Weapons and follow the rules for such weapons as listed on p.25 of the rule book.

 When it explodes, a gas bottle has:  AP 6 and AZ 3, GM -2, Special: Blast, Zombie Torches.
 Range is equal to the weapon being fired to hit the bottle.

 Points: rather than give points, I would consider allowing surivors to find gas bottles by including them on the "Survive! Locations Generator" tables or even letting them be part of the 'Let's go shopping: the trading phase" and treating "fuel" as "full gas bottle".  Flares would be needed too, so maybe a first aid kit could be swapped for a road flare in this case.

To hit mods:
                Small bottle -2 to GUNS
                Medium bottle -1 to Guns
                Large bottle no mod

Wounding - as per the Blast weapons rule (as mentioned above), but add 1d10 for a medium bottle and 2 d10 for a large bottle.

New rule: knock down.  when things explode usually other things fall over.  I propose any figure in a group affected by a blast weapon that isn't killed is knocked down and must spend half of it's next movement standing up. I will need to play test this and modify it as needed though.

I hope someone finds this post useful and even give it a try. Comments and suggestions to make this idea even better are most welcome.

8 comments:

shintokamikaze said...

nice idea, gas bottles and flares would be easy to find in the game, but how to model them??, i was thinking of cuting up the little plastic cool pop packets,they have a little dome and nipple on the end, ill go to the shop later and get some, but scale might be a problem

The Extraordinarii said...

Hey shelldrake this is good research, I have implemented something similar in my zombie rule set, good work.

Your based in Australia aren't you? do you go to the Berwick wargames association (P.Rosetti's House), I do, have I met you before ?

Zombie Ad said...

BOOM! Sure you can model some up or find someone who makes some.

Shelldrake said...

G'day Extraordinarii - thanks for the comments.

Yep, I am in Australia, and I am in Langwarrrin - I was n touch with Peter a few months back - he was trying to organise transport for me to get to a game, but not with much luck... it really suck not having a car in our area.

The Extraordinarii said...

Oh ok, well i'm based in Carrum Downs, so if you ever need a lift just let me know mate.

I have also managed to get some resin gas bottles and have many spares if you are after any (no charge)

Check this post out on my Gaming blog:
http://leadwarriors.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-street-accessories.html

Shelldrake said...

Extraorhinarrii - did you by any chance recently move to Carrum Downs and communicate with a bloke in regards to wargaming, expecially a gladiator game? If so, that person was me.

The Extraordinarii said...

Ah, Yes I did on the TMP forum, thought I recognised the name from somewhere, Now there are two projects that we both game, at the BWA the guys mostly play historical based army vs army, and I havent seen them try anything along the lines of a skirmish game, anyway, I am following your blog, so it will be good to see what else you come up with.

Shelldrake said...

I prefer skirmish games more than army against army games myself.

I do play a few army games - but they are few and far between. Usually 15mm Black Powder for Napoleonics, but I have some SYW and ACW as well.