(Credit to Guillotine Games)
There have been a lot of changes to Zombicide since Black Plague came out, (Green Horde, Invader, and most recently 2nd edition) but it is still a big favorite among fans of the Zombicide Games. To get people ready for the second Movin Meeples Live event, it seemed like a great time to revisit this classic of the Zombicide universe.
Zombicide Black Plague (ZBP), is a 1-6 cooperative player game where players are a group of survivors trying to complete various missions and stop the ever increasing hordes of the undead opposing them. ZBP takes place in a fantasy setting as opposed to a post apocalyptic time like so many others. If you have seen “Army of Darkness,” then you get the idea. It’s swords and sorcery as opposed to guns in this one. So grab your best weapons and armor and get prepared to defend the realm!
SETTING UP THE GAME
To start, select a scenario you wish to play, lay out the tiles, tokens, doors and follow the special instructions. Next give each player a survivor, dashboard and pegs for tracking health and experience. This was the first version to introduce the awesome dashboards that have been used in every version going forward and are an amazing tool for the game. Give each player a starting equipment card , some have a specific starting item(s) so follow the specific instructions. Shuffle the remaining equipment and spawn decks and place them face down, pick a first player and you are ready to go.
PLAYER ACTIONS
Each player can perform 3 actions on their turn; move, melee, ranged, search, interact, reorganize and trade. The tiles are divided into zones; players can move in a orthogonal direction from one zone to the next for one action each. Meaning, a movement of 2 zones, costs 2 actions.
Players fight zombies in a zone, and there is a targeting priority explained in the rulebook. There are two forms of combat; melee and ranged. Each weapon card details the range, number of dice, number needed to succeed and how much damage it does. Since ZBP is older, many players will now “house rule” some of the updated rules for combat that have been added to later versions but this review will explain the rules as indicated in the rulebook to avoid confusion.
To attack in a zone with a melee weapon, roll the number of dice indicated on the weapons equipment card. If the roll is equal or higher the required to-hit value, the zombie is hit and killed. Each zombie has different strengths to fend off attacks, so the player needs to have a weapon that is strong enough (does enough damage) to defeat that enemy. The player earns experience points for each zombie defeated as indicated in the rulebook. As players advance and kill more zombies, they increase in experience, opening more skills. This increased skill level will result in harder zombies and in increased amounts.
A player may search in any indoor zone, providing no zombies are in the zone, once per turn. To search, simply draw the top card of the equipment deck. A player, for a free action, may rearrange their equipment on their dashboard when performing a search action. Players in the same zone can freely trade equipment with each other. And a player may spend an action to rearrange their equipment as well and not search.
A player can spend one action to interact with an objective token or to open a door. Some weapons will make noise, which will attract zombies. Whenever a player makes noise, place a noise token in the zone to indicate it.
ZOMBIES ACTIVATE
After all players have taken three actions, the Zombies turn begins. First all Zombies in play will activate by performing one action. Any zombies in the same zone as a survivor will attack and give each player one wound. If a player takes three wounds, they die. Any zombies not in a zone with a survivor, will move one zone to the nearest survivor in their line-of-sight, or the zone with the most noise.
After all zombies have activated, spawn zombies at each spawn zone. Zombies are spawned by drawing a zombie spawn card and placing the number and type indicated based on the player with the highest experience level. Once zombies are spawned, a new round begins with players taking their three actions. The game ends when either the players complete the mission or all players are killed.
Zombicide is a great entry level dungeon-crawl type game because of its easy mechanics and AI system. No dungeon master is needed, all players are a survivor and the game controls the enemies with a simple system. All of the weapons and equipment are detailed on cards and experience is tracked on the players dashboard. As the players experience increases, the game increases the challenge by introducing stronger zombies.
ZBP also corrected one of the main issues that drove many early players away; the targeting priority. In its first edition, all ranged attacks in a zone would deal damage to the players first. Black Plague changed that by saying only misses in a zone with enemies and survivors combined, damage other players with friendly fire.
The other issue was dealing with tougher enemies; particularly the abomination. This zombie is only killed with three points of damage and the only way to defeat it in the base game is by luck. Players have to find a combination of dragon bile and a torch to take down this behemoth. The expansion to Black Plague, Wolfsburg, introduced a number of 3 strength weapons that can be searched for as well.
Zombicide Black Plague still holds up as a challenging game in addition to the later versions. If you enjoy fantasy games and are looking for something less complicated than other games; not everyone can commit to lengthy campaigns and may want something with the same feel, but a bit more streamlined, then Zombicide Black Plague, may just scratch that itch.
Written by Ed Carter
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