Hold the Line ~Single Player Mission

[spiritusXmachina]

(07-03-2013 07:06 PM)ZombieDad Wrote:  Spirit, Thanks so much for your continued support of the scenario.

It's a pleasure really.

I had another testgame with my Zombie Card Variant. It was a bit harder, the heroes still won in turn 10.

In very short. Had the Super Market again which lead to going down to the Hero's very last card (the Zombies drained the deck with their cards too).
Of course the Heroes can adjust a bit to the Zombie Cards as they should be played at the first possible occasion. So the two locked doors were not too much of a trouble and the Zombie fight cards can be avoided too. But it was funny to still see "This could be our last night on earth" coming to effect. So sometimes the heroes can be slowed down a bit. But not enough (maybe I should have left Shamble in?).

[aldrichgreg]

I ran a new test of this scenario for a zombie win, though I felt it was more balanced play: it came down to the wire in the type of way that LNOE is best known for delivering. things ended in hour 9.

so, I played TP and HP1. I decided to leave the deck's alone, but I played with a variation on the mechanic of giving cards that ZombieDad suggested. on the zombie turn I drew a card for each Hero Character. if a zombie was in a space with that Hero on the Hero turn I revealed it. if not, I didn't reveal the card until the Hero had (in my mind) announced their plan of action (search or move). then I revealed the zombie card. if the zombie card could be played that turn, I played it, unless it had only (or primarily) zombie spawning or removing text. then I discarded it and drew again. I always had the zombie in most direct line of sight of the hero be affected by the card and if it affected multiple zombies I did the closest ones to the heroes line of sight, erring towards Zombie advantage always. I carried similar mechanics for fires bursting out.

my character draws were: Nikki, Stacy, Sheriff Anderson, and Victor.

in the initial play, zombies advanced steadily while the heroes fanned out. Nikki went to the Train Station (L) and dug through the discard pile as the zombies had trashed some supplies in the first round. Stacy moved into the Refinery (also L) and camped out on the Spawn Pit (I wonder a bit about the ruling on the legitimacy of this tactic, but I had read it before and decided to go with it.) the Victor and the Sheriff moved into the Radio Station (L and R respectively) and begun searching.

Nikki found a Pistol, Pick Axe and ultimately a Fire Extinguisher (however she never had the need to use it and only held onto it.) unfortunately she had to discard her Flare Gun before firing it, to hold the load, because she wasn't in line of sight for anyone in the initial turns. she hung out at the Train Station for the entire game picking of the zombies on the left as they advanced and shooting through the window. she killed one zombie in hand-to-hand.

Stacy found the Pump Shotgun and some ammo and then joined the left and center fight, despite feeling the misgivings of an Outsider. several zombies shambled towards her, but they were no match for her. taking refuge in the Tavern ® in the final turns the zombies managed to pull away her Pump Shotgun, but she managed to scrape out a decent hand-to-hand fight despite not having any hand weapons.

Victor found a Crate of Dynamite and a Hunting Rifle. fires burst out in the Radio Tower scorching one zombie before the became Smoldering Dead. Victor aided Stacy in picking off the middle targets.

Sheriff Anderson forgot to load the Police Shotgun when he went out into battle (I find her often does this...) and lost it immediately. luckily he found a Chainsaw and managed to cut one or two down to size. but then that too failed him and he had to rely on his Will to Survive.

the heroes managed to slap all the advancing zombies to dust with 3 turns left, however there was one lone zombie on the right side of the board (mostly unaffected by card plays) and who had escaped the Sheriff's initial reach by advancing into the Office Trailer of the Lumber Yard early in the game. the Sheriff, figuring it would be best to head the zombie off behind the trailer, decided to go around getting entangled in a variety of fights. Victor's last zombie draw allowed this remaining zombie to Shamble into the camp with one advancement.

overall, I really thought we had this, but the randomization allowed for the zombies to get the upperhand. I had considered adding grave weapons, and I think I will still try that (I am glutton for punishment.) I found this game much more satisfying than my previous one. though I am curious about also trying the mechanic to start with one hero and then find the others (I don't think I would run that with zombie cards though.)

[ZombieDad]

Awesome test! Now that i'm done with school, I'll have to revisit this variant.

[ATOEtalGeek]

One mechanic you could try is to use a third color zombie (red, purple, black or radioactive) and have them spawn after each zombie turn. Roll a D6 and spawn that many zombies. Place them evenly on pits starting with the pits on the hero side of the board, closest to the hero edge of the board. These zombies move each round 1 space laterally (horizontally) in a continuing direction until they bounce on the edge of the board and come back. Unlike the horde though, these ARE subject to zombie hunger. Their particular directional facing should be maintained though so if a hero leaves their space they still continue in their asigned direction, although they may be in a different row now.

You could say that the portion of the board that is behind the trailing horde zombie is inactive for spawning...zombies can only be spawned into active pits. Those are pits on the forward side of the traveling horde. Also any spawned zombie that is left behind the trailing horde zombie is removed from the board.

These zombies might even allow the zombie cards to work well, for zombie movement and such.

[August700212]

Great idea. Thank you for sharing. This is a fun way of playing solo. I have difficulty managing multiples hands when playing solo and it is great not having to worry about how to play the zombie cards.

I gave this scenario several tries and came up with a question; did you intend to use Always Zombie Heroes and if so do they still move D3?

I have always played with Heroes Replenish and Always Zombie Heroes since I first got Last Night on Earth. I am glad they made that the officially ruling in TP although I did not use Heroes Replenish when I played your scenario.

My results after 4 plays are 3 wins and one depends. I forgot to play a fast recovery cards and Amanda took a second wound and died. This happened 2 spaces from the edge and if she got the D3 move as a zombie hero the zombies won. The heroes would win if zombie heroes only move one space per turn or if they need to stop on the last board space and then exit to board during the next turn for the zombie win.

OK, I guess I am just trying to find a way for the heroes to win so I do not have to report that I am the first player to lose at this scenario.

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Scenario summaries:
Played with all cards except TP and BiF

Game 1:
Father Joseph found a revolver early in the game and gave it to Billy. Apparently he knows nothing about firearms because it had no ammo so Billy discarded it.
Two zombies made it to the last row but were killed in turn 11 for a hero victory.
Sally killed 4 zombies with an ax
Becky killed 4 zombies with the pump shotgun
Billy killed 3 with a meat cleaver
Father Joseph had faith and killed one zombie

Game 2:
Won on round 9
Kenny - 2 kills
Sam - useless with 0 kills
Johnny dominated with 7 kills
Sheriff Anderson had 3 kills

Game 3:
Heroes lose
Amanda died on round 10 because I forgot to play a fast recovery card on her. She turned into a Zombie Hero and rolled a D3 to move off the board and give the zombies a win. I continued to player with Zombie Hero Amanda on the edge space for an extra turn before exiting for the zombie win. Under this condition, the heroes would have one but Zombie Amanda did a lot of damage before she went down.
Victor - 5 zombie kills
Rachelle - 2 zombie kills
Amanda - 1 zombie kill before becoming a zombie herself
Stacy - 5 zombie kills including zombie Amanda

Game 4:
Heroes won on turn 11
Started slow because the heroes could not find any weapons. This is a common issue but the zombies move slow so the heroes keep searching until they find something useful.
Jenny - 4 kills with a chainsaw
Jake - 3 kills with Dynamite, broom and meat cleaver
Goddard - 1 kill with hands
Jade - 4 kills, she got a machete and the next to fights the zombie rolled a 6. She then found a pump shotgun and killed 2 more.

[samuraitrev]

Hi August700212,

Great to hear some feedback on a fan made scenario. Especially playing it several times. Maybe you could try other custom scenarios and let us know your feedback?

+1 Rep