BitF: Spawn Cost for Champions?

[Sappington]

We have a debate going on at BGG about the actual spawn cost for champions. Take the Feral Dead as an example.

*Assume auto-spawn zombies, so phase 3 is skipped
*Assume zombie player has infinite XP points, so ignore XP restrictions

1. I roll a 6 (for 6 spawn points), which normally means I can spawn 6 zombies.

2. I choose to put 2 points toward a Feral Dead, so I now have 4 spawn points left.

Now, do I *spawn* that Feral Dead, or *place* it??

I play that I spawn the Feral Dead, which takes another spawn point from my remaining 4 points, leaving me with only 3 spawn points.

Others disagree and say that you get to place the Feral Dead, and that you're not actually spawning it instead of another zombie, so you would still have 4 spawn points left to work with.

A side effect of the first stance is that it is impossible to spawn a Behemoth with no warning. The Zombie player will have had to save at least 1 spawn point on the Behemoth card from a previous turn, which puts the Hero player on notice. The second stance allows a Behemoth to spawn any time the Zombie player rolls a 6 (other restrictions aside).

Thoughts?