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I do apologize if this issue has been addressed already but I couldn't seem to find a post related to it.

Hero Pack 1 arrived in the mail for me today, and we ran a 3 player game, as usual we chose to play Plague Carriers.

I didn't snag the hunting rifle until the the last 5 rounds and there was only 1 plague carrier left, but by the time it was drawn out of the supermarket, and in range, it seemed like all but guaranteed that we would hit it--which I did, and we won. And I didn't even have range bonuses (Laying Down the Law, for instance).

With a range of 5 and the ability to skip your move/search action to shoot twice, does anybody else think the hunting rifle is too over-powered? Christ you can have a hero sit in some building while a bait hero (Billy with his +1 movement, and Sam with his 3 health boxes work well for this) draws a bunch of zombies to the center of the board.

Two shots per round and 2/3 chance to hit???

We (the 2 people I usually play with and I) tried to decide on house rules to balance the rifle and couldn't agree on anything. I'm not exactly sure how many Resilient cards are in the deck, but I rarely see them when I get to be zombies.

I am imagining a scenario like Defend the Manner House or something similar and having the Sheriff or Rachelle standing in the mansion, gun trained on a spawning pit, having the Laying Down the Law card, essentially having a 5/6 chance to hit--and shoot twice, making it virtually impossible for zombies to win.

Looking at the zombie cards in that expansion was a bit disappointing too. Zombies didn't get anything comparable.

Any thoughts?
Just checking but
Did you make sure that the Plagure Carriers have 2 Health boxes each?
Remember that each hit from the Hunting Rifle only causes 1 wound.
Any Heroes the Plague Carriers kill are automatically turned into Zombie Heroes.
Plague Carriers don't count when Rolling To Spawn. (So you can have up to 14 Zombies on the board + Plague Carriers

Yes the Hunting Rifle is powerful. If I were you I would enjoy it while you can. In our games it's mostly the Zombies who win. There's 2 tactics the Zombie Players can do with a Hero with a Rifle.
Try to limit the Heroes line of sight by keeping your Zombies out of the way. This means the Hero will have to move and get 1 shot. Or just pressure the Hero so they have to move (losing their 2nd shot). Besides they're bound to run out of ammo sooner or later. (discarded on a 1 or 2) or a Resilient will come up. You used good Hero tactics getting the Plague Carriers out of cover and blowing them away!

Hope this helps and happy gaming.
Wise words from Samuraitrev....also I have found although a great thing for the heroes it did distract them from doing other things whilst they played turkey shoot with the undead...and as said eventually your out of ammo!
nothing can help the heroes... they are almost always doomed... (in my games)
Thanks guys! Hadn't factored in LOS, and you're right they will run out of ammo eventually.
Oh and yes, the plague carrier was injured. We sacrificed one of the students to both shoot it and draw it out. We started the game with The Sheriff, Johnny (my hero partner who never plays zombies picks those two), I normally select my characters at random, but I wanted to play one of the new heroes I had just gotten that day so I selected Victor and randomly selected Jenny who is my 2nd least favorite hero next to Billy. We haven't experimented with custom characters yet since we are still so new to game and haven't figured out how to balance (hero team usually wins 80% of the time regardless of who controls zombies). I have parused through some of the custom characters on this site though, and I think they look intriguing, especially the Resident Evil heroes.
Well, Jenny managed to draw a flare gun (from the gym of all places) and since I don't like her anyway, I ran her into the corner building where the last plague carrier was hiding, and I shot it, drew it out, got swarmed, and died. Victor finished the zombie off with the rifle....from clear across the board. <sighs>
How do you give up your move/search step to shoot your hunting rifle a second time, if your "move or search" step comes before the "fire a range weapon" step? Do you just announce at the start of the heroes turn, that you are going to give up your move and search step this turn, to shoot your hunting rifle twice."?


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(09-19-2015 02:35 AM)spaz_cookie Wrote: [ -> ]How do you give up your move/search step to shoot your hunting rifle a second time, if your "move or search" step comes before the "fire a range weapon" step? Do you just announce at the start of the heroes turn, that you are going to give up your move and search step this turn, to shoot your hunting rifle twice."?


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Just announce that you're skipping your Move/Search action. When you activate your figure with the Hunting Rifle. Than happily fire twice during the Shooting phase.
I also feel that the hunting rifle is overpowered. Already a gun with range 5 and hit on 3+ sound good enough to me (better than the previous guns).
The rest of the rules make this card a zombie nightmare (especially if there is the gun shop around...). Besides, I don't really get why these effects are considered adequate for this gun. I mean, why shooting twice if normal guns do not? the hunting rifle shoots a longer distance and easily hits due to preparation... why will it shoot faster? not much sense to me.
Moreover, the special bullets this kind of gun uses could be better represented with a greater chance of running out of ammo... the way it is right now is not the case (you can shoot twice, and run out of ammo on a 1 or 2... which is slightly more probable(0.333) than shooting twice with a revolver (obtaining at least a 1 on two rolls = 0.30).

I could imagine this rifle more like: range 5, hit on 5+ (or 4+ being cool), on a roll of 1, rifle is out of ammo. The hero can skip the movement phase to prepare the shot. On 2+ kill the target (no wound, kill, to represent an accurate shot right in the head).
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