I lost on turn 6 playing Defend the Manor..?

[ensabahnur]

I'm new to this game and played it with my gf last night it was our 2nd game against each other. I played as the heroes and she was the zombies, we played Defend the Manor. We play board games every once in a while against each other or with a few friends and I usually win - in games like Agricola I'll win about 90% of the time. I pretty much get the rules but can't help feeling that I'm not playing this game right or maybe I just have horrible luck.

I ended up losing during my turn on turn 6 (the sundial was on 11), I killed a total of 4 zombies and managed to lose 3 of my heroes (the drifter, Billy, and Becky) in this single turn leaving me with father Joe and her with enough zombies to enter the house and win next turn so we called it. I didn't feel that I had a chance or the advantage the entire time.

Does anyone have any thoughts or tips?

[mqstout]

Defend the Manor's my (and many others') favorite scenario. It almost always comes down to the line at the end and gets to be quite tense.

Did the heroes utilize zombie hunger to draw them out of the mansion? To group them up for shotgun or explosive blasts? This is a vital tactic in this scenario.

You also might want to try bringing in more people so heroes (according to normal rules) respawn better, or at least adding the "Always Zombie Heroes/Heroes Respawn" rules. (I don't think that scenario includes them by default.)

[munkymuddface]

I too have struggled with this scenario playing 1v1 and have lost during the early turns. The loss of even one Hero seems to have a much greater impact on the Heroes success than the other scenarios. And when you are down to two, trying to balance corralling zombies, searching, and just surviving gets overwhelming.

Without any additional rules, this one definitely seems geared more towards a multiplayer Hero team rather than a solo. Like mqstout said, either adding more players or the additional rules should help to make it more balanced and competitive.

[ensabahnur]

I tried to use zombie hunger to keep them out of the house and draw them to the gasoline markers that I placed but failed to ignite them on my rolls.

[Musketeer]

I have only just started playing this game but have found the heroes need to fight the urge to hunker down and get out to find something. RUN to those outlying buildings and find stuff FAST because by the end of the game you will be in big trouble if you haven't. That end could also come much sooner as it is really hard to dependably kill zombies without a weapon.

[gavindowning]

Also, I do have to note, doublecheck the combat rules. That is one of the most misunderstood rules, in my experience. Depending on the nature of the misunderstanding, it can give either the heroes or the zombies a huge advantage until corrected.

If you've got combat down right, then, yeah, the other pieces of advice given are great for that scenario.

[vikinglad]

The heroes have never one this scenario at our house using the standard rules. Heroes always replenish helps quite a bit with this one, even when balanced out with zed dots.

[avpan]

probably came down to crappy rolls of the die

[ensabahnur]

That was a large part of it I think, I seemed to roll a 1 or 2 every other throw.

[thegamelord]

Defend the manor is a tough one on the heroes. Cards like Gas, Dynamite, Fire Extinguisher, and shot gun and invaluable in this one. Anything that lets you take out large numbers of zombies at once is great. Place gas around the manor and arm your heroes with gun, this will either take out a bunch of zombies or buy you time because the zombie player will try to go around them.
Don't forget zombie hunger either, if zombies are near or in the house the HAVE to move to attack a hero in an adjacent space.