zombicide!! the board game

[phantomninja]

Got this tidbit from BBG...looks interesting...I mean 71 Miniatures!! wow thats a lot of painting!


Nicolas Raoult is one of the 3 designers behind Zombicide.

He took the time to write this article giving details on our first board game. We hope you will enjoy the reading.

Zombicide

• Zombicide is a collaborative game for 1 to 6 players, for 10 years old and up. A game lasts for 20mn (beginner board) to 3 hours (expert board).

• Each player control from one (for 6 players) to four (solo playing) “survivors”, human beings in a zombie-infested town. In fact, “survivors” hastily change to “hunters” to smash zombies through and through. However, the team have to constantly keep the balance between survival and slaughter: as the zombicide’s going on, the “Danger level” is going up and undeads are growing in numbers. Any misstep can turn to disaster.

• The “Danger level” defines the game rhythm. A survivor gains experience for each zombie eliminated and gains new skills as he reaches “Danger levels” defined by colors: blue, yellow, orange and, finally, red. On the other hand, the most experienced survivor fixes the “Danger level” for zombie spawns. The more experienced he is, the more zombies spawns. And the more dangerous they are.

• Every game turn begins with “player’s turn” then “zombies’ turn”. The first player changes at the beginning of each turn. Zombicide is not just for violence, it’s also for strategy and planification.

• The game is scenario-oriented and victory is achieved through completion of various objectives from finding food to rescuing fellow survivors, including cleaning an infested area and running a car-race through the city. A 20mn tutorial is enough to learn the mechanisms and give way to ten scenarios of growing difficulty and intensity. The modular material easily allows players to create their own scenario.

• Game designers’ wish was to create a fun and easy game with cool minis in an archetypical, popular and comics-inspired environment. Ambiance is constantly kept between “beat’em up” and “survival horror” as characters keep on turning from preys to predators. Second-degree humor and gloom happily marry in a zombie-fest.

Zombicide Box Content

• 71 miniatures. Special effort was given to detail and diversity: several models are available for most zombies of the same type.

• 9 recto-verso gaming tiles. Scenarios take place on boards from two to nine tiles in a riot-devasted urban area. Characters move from zones to zones defined by walls and crosswalks. Designers were careful about the overall quality and playability of tiles’ illustrations.

• Recto-verso tokens. Objectives tokens. Doors tokens. Cars tokens. Noise tokens. Zombie spawn zones tokens. More tokens than required indeed. In fact, enough of them are planned to create your craziest scenarios.

• 110 cards, including Equipment cards and Zombies cards.

Zombies gameplay

• 4 zombies types: Walkers, Runners, Fatties and Abomination.
- Walkers are rank-and-file zombies, numerous, stupid and slow walking. The average zombie.
- Runners are really fast and really smart. As they play twice per zombie’s turn, they’re your worst nightmare in close quarters.
- Fatties are hard to kill and come with two “walker” escort.
- The Abomination looks like an inexorable and overwhelming fattie. There’s only one way to kill it and you need to combine Equipment cards to build the required weapon.

• Zombies are played by the game itself.
- They move according to the survivors they see and hear. Vision and noise are crucial to confront, avoid or possibly control the zombie horde.
- Zombies enter the board through “zombies spawn zones” defined by the scenario and manholes sketched over the game tiles. Opening the first door of a building also triggers a zombie spawn in each building’s zone.
- The way they spawn is defined by Zombie cards randomly picked over the Zombie pile. Pick one card per Zombie spawn zone. Each zombie card figures four combinations of zombies to put in play, read the according line, put the zombie minis in play, it’s as simple as that.
- Survivors don’t choose their targets among zombies. The wounding priorities in any targeted zone are: Walkers first, then Fatties (including the Abomination) and, finally, Runners. Yes, runners indirectly benefit from the Fatties “meat shield” effect and consequently are the last to be eliminated. They’re smart, we said. You were warned.
Moreover, survivors are priority targets for ranged combat. Never shoot in a zone including a fellow survivor AND zombies, you would kill your friend first. Going in hand-to-hand combat is the only way to help him/her. Will you take the risk?

Survivor tales – Playing heroes

• Each Survivor is unique and customizable.
- The six Survivors are inspired by everyday people and progress to near-demigod status as they gain Danger levels.
- Each Survivor begins with a special skill and progress through an arborescence of new skills as he/she gains Danger levels. According to your strategy the same survivor could choose different paths.

• Actions! Each survivor begins with three actions per turn, to spend among some of the following actions choices.
- Moving from one zone to the next.
- Opening a door (door-breaking equipment is required)
- Fighting zombies though hand-to-hand or ranged combat (may produce noise)
- Searching for Equipment (draw a random Equipment card)
- Make some noise
- Getting in or out a car.
- Etc.
Every survivor may gain more actions with Danger levels, to spend among specific actions choices.

• Equipment. Survivor may loot very cool stuff while searching into secluded spaces or into wrecked cars.
- Weapons, hand-to-hand or ranged, including revolver, shotgun, rifle, SMG, axe, machete, katana, chainsaw, etc.
- Some weapons may be used as dual: both are activated in the same action. We KNOW you’ll love to play a dual-SMG or dual-machete wielding survivor.
- Extra stuff like goalie mask (ignore one wound), scope (+rifle = sniper rifle), extra ammo (rerolls), bottles and gasoline (Molotov cocktail), etc.
- Food equipment may be a mission objective.
- Some Equipment cards are trapped and give way to a minor zombie spawn. Digging in the dirt may be such a thrill.

• Surviving. A survivor take a wound and loses a chosen Equipment for each zombie in the same zone as his at the beginning of zombie turn. Two wounds and the survivor is dead. Sad but true.

Players soon learn that a collaborative team is an efficient but somewhat fragile killing machine.

And this is it for now...