House rule - Surviving Zombies

[lerchey]

Hi Folks,

I haven't tried this yet, so tone down the flame throwers until someone does.

One of the problems my group has run into is that the zombies auto-hit. It's fine (mostly) as is, but it's completely predictable. Some others have stated that once you start to run out of zombie figs (heaven forbid!!!!) that the zombie free turns become instant death.

Here is an idea for making the zombie hordes (maybe) more survivable, but certainly with no guarantees.

Alternate Zombie Attack Rules

During the Zombie Attack Phase any Zombie in the same Zone as one or more Survivors will attack. Attacks are resolved in much the same way as Survivor Melee Attacks, except that Zombies never take damage from Zombie Attacks. Zombie attack values are listed here:

Zombie Type Dice Accuracy Damage
Walker 1 6 1
Fatty 1 6 1
Abomination 2 4,5,6 1
Runner 2 6 1

As you can see, *most* zombies only hit on a 6. Fighting one or two of them will result only in lucky hits, but being a space with 6 or (yipe!) 28 or whatever makes the Zone much more dangerous. The Runner essentially adds an extra die if they are in supporting Walkers. I purposely made most of the Zombies hit on a 6 only so that when you have mixed types, it's easier to bunch them together. The Abomination was made much nastier to further enhance the fear factor.

As an alternate to this, I toyed with giving the Fatties 2 Damage and making Runners hit on 5,6 for more variation. They would need to roll separately instead of just bunching-in, but I don't think that would be any real hardship.

Thoughts?

 

[Droganis]

Well, that's interesting. It looks like this would significantly reduce the game's difficulty, and make melee characters much more survivable even with some dice flubbing. I'm not sure that I would ever use it, but I'll get into that later. For now, just general thoughts:

Only hitting on a 6 seems like it would overly nerf the zombies. Making it a 4+ across the board would at least only drop their to hit from 100% to 50%, but that is just my thoughts.
Two dice for the runners may be overkill, as they normally can get two attacks, or at least an attack after a move.
Adding extra damage is going to be rather dangerous, and I would regulate that for the Abomination. 2 damage will kill most survivors instantly, and fatties can be hard enough to handle if you aren't pulling the 2 damage weapons you need.

Honestly, I prefer the idea of the game being difficult to win, which seems to be focused mostly on whether you can keep your 3 goals in sync (stay safe, proceed towards the objective, and keep the zombie population down to prevent free extra turns) with bit of dumb luck in terms of card draw and dice thrown in. Of course, I kind of think a video game comparison is apt, here. Sometimes you want that challenge, but sometimes you just want to drop the difficulty and mow down some baddies. If you're looking for the latter experience, that is certainly a way to help feel god-like without overtly cheating.

Regardless, thank you for the concept, I would not have thought of it!

 

[lerchey]

Droganis,

Thanks for the response. Based on that, *if* I was going to use it (and I likely won't either - it was just an idea) I think that I agree that hitting on 4-6 makes more sense, and as you stated it still reduces hits by 50%.

Good call.

 

[ozjohnd]

I too likek the idea that Zombicide is hard to win, and the more zombies around the more likely you are to die ... that is the zombie apocalypse scenario, death is close at all times.

 

[Derus]

What I did was made it so the extra turns become move only. I found it stupid when I was in situations where the square I was in and all of the adjacent squares were empty but someone opened a building and got two walker extra turns in a row causing me to be swarmed and killed without a chance to even take some of them out with me. (Not realistic that a person with a chainsaw wouldn't kill 1 of 20 zombies coming at them). This makes it so you still have a challenge of mass numbers building up on you, but still get a chance to get out alive.

It's true that it makes it a bit easier, but the randomness of extra turns really bothered me and the group I play with.

 

[FireGuy]

I don't know about altering the mechanics of the game. Its pretty tough and there are strategies that can make it easier or give you good chances of survival. I would advocate more on the side of making custom scenarios that have special rules. I have been learning that if something seems off either rules are not adhered to accurately or plain forgotten. My group has found we just missed things or made assumptions about rules. So if there is a question we jump into the book to verify. With a game this simple the rules offer the balance.

One scenario we are toying around with for next weekend is a linked campaign (unless the promised downloadable one comes out soon), called Beans, Bullets, and Band Aids. 3 scenarios around the story line of finding medical supplies. It uses a campaign mechanic of allowing survivors to keep ONE card from the previous scenario.....ONE card...unless the survivor starts with something (El Cholo or Phil or Troy), but they still get the ONE card (and Dave only can keep one Molotov). Additionally each scenario starts at one level lower then the first one ended. So if scenario one ends in orange scenario 2 starts at yellow. Survivor skills are adjusted accordingly. We wanted a character feel here. We like characters and developing them (RPGs and our first love Warhammer leaking through there).

So scenario one is pretty simple....survivors go about their day finding gear and supplies. The objective here is to find all six foodstuff cards in addition to all ammo cards (what good is surviving if you don't have ammo?) then get back to the bunker. But something isn't right. There are a lot of zombies around here.

Scenario two, things are heating up. AS they progress into the city zombie population is getting more dense. Why? They happen across a Red Cross worker in a car. She has been trapped for a month! 10 zombies surround the car at game start. There is also another objective in addition to rescuing the red cross worker.

Scenario three. The zombie swarms are dense. But why? the red cross worker tells the survivors there is a hospital nearby and that it is home to a nest of zombies. A morgue is deep inside and that is why the population here is so dense. That and it was a collection point for infected. The map is a large building in which the survivors only have two entrances. One is a half way on the other side of the board, and the other is right nearby. The nearest one is the quickest and most difficult. It is the rear security entrance. The door requires three hits with a strength 2 door opening weapon. Also being the rear of the morgue, there were bodies outside for overflow...but they came back so the backdoor is surrounded by 10 zombies.

So the setup on this one is important. I will admit upfront it is supposed to be difficult, nearing to impossible. I have the map set out but don't have time right now to post it. yet here are the tiles used: 1b 7b 6c 5d 4d 3c 4b 2c 2b 4e 4c 4c. There is a spawn point in the multi room hospital, plus three more around the map. There is also one objective on the opposite side of the building. The survivors must get the medicine AND shut down the spawn point. In playtesting I have gotten up to the very far end of yellow before making it to the hospital front doors. You do have to have the extra tile set to make the hospital big enough.

The red cross worker, while timid and afraid goes with them (she doesn't want to be alone). She has the medic skill but that is it. She counts as two noise counters, and follows a survivor around...NEVER alone. She cannot search nor use weapons. When zombies are in the same space she freaks and runs around screaming, as a result she is ALWAYS the first one to take a wound if zombies attack.

something I am toying with is to create a room to room clearing type effect. Where you don't spawn the whole building at once....you do it room by room or at least sections at a time. I don't know how that will effect things. too easy or hard. I do want to stop herding tactic my group has used where they herd swarms of zombies and nuke them with molotovs. It is not 100% effective; it works about 40% of the time. Still I don't want a lucky molotov to end the game quickly, that and I want tension and suspense.

Any case more then bargained for, but I think modifications are better suited to the scenarios rather game mechanics.