(Photo credits to Gameslore)
In the review for Zombicide Black Plague, many references were made to updated rules in the newer versions. It seems only fitting that you are introduced to one of those, with the updated rules. This time, it’s in space, on a remote mining colony, where the docile Alien natives, have become deadly and violent for reasons unknown. The only survivors in the underground mines are a crack team of elite soldiers; the Green Squad. They are the last line between the invading aliens and the colony on the planet’s surface.
Zombicide Dark Side is a stand-alone expansion in the Zombicide Invader space series for 1-6 players. Players start the game, like every other Zombicide, by selecting a mission, placing the tiles and tokens, and giving each player a character, dashboard, and pegs for tracking health and experience. In this version, each player starts with the same two weapons; a pistol and a cattleprod. No pans or nightsticks in here, these guys are armed and ready. In addition to the characters, are two machines to help the team; a sentry gun and a bot. Players who either have the remote skill or have the control token for the machine may spend their actions using the machine instead.
After players have set up their characters, shuffle the basic equipment and spawn decks and place them face down. Dark side also comes with some powerful prototype weapons that can be picked up at specific locations, so keep these cards separate from the standard equipment. These can deal massive amounts of damage and will aid at the task ahead. Give a player the first player token and the game begins.
The game consists of a player phase and a Xeno phase. Players may take 3 actions on their turn; move, melee, ranged, search, interact, trade, or rearrange their equipment. Players have space for two ready weapons, armor, and a backpack to store 5 additional items; for a total of 7 items. Each character has a special starting skill and health of three. Make sure each player has their adrenaline, formerly experience, counter set to one. In addition, to the starting weapons, there are two search drones that can be given to two of the players. Dark Side limits soldiers to search only in security zones, zones, zones shaded red, but a player with a search drone can search in any area. Spawn points are placed on the board and indicated by a token, but Dark Side, also has pits; areas, where the Xenos have drilled into the complex, and certain cards, will spawn them there as well.
Movement is made by spending one action to move one zone in an orthogonal direction. Line of sight, however, is extremely limited in Dark Side giving the Xeno’s a tremendous advantage. Xenos can trace lines of sight through the darkness; players cannot unless they have a specific skill, prototype weapon, or light source such as a spotlight. A player in a dark zone, without one of these, cannot see enemies and can only fight enemies in their zone. Lines of sight are not hindered for the machines, so both the sentry gun and the bot operate in the darkness.
To perform a combat action; select a ready weapon, checking the range, number of dice, to hit value, and weapon strength, (how much damage it gives) indicated on the weapon’s card. Roll the dice, and each success is one hit. Dark Side has a special attack, called concentrated fire. This allows a focused attack on one target in a zone, where all of the damage is assigned to one target only. A player that has either one weapon or combined weapons that only deal 1 strength, but can roll enough dice to defeat a stronger enemy, may focus that attack on that one enemy; if they score enough hits, they defeat it. A player earns adrenaline for every defeated Xeno and tracks that on their dashboard adrenaline tracker. As players gain more adrenaline, they can increase their skills and abilities becoming more efficient and deadlier. The game matches this skill increase, by increasing the difficulty, by spawning increasing numbers of Xeno’s and even stronger ones. There are 4 classes of Xeno’s in Dark Side; workers, tanks, hunters, and the driller abomination.
The Xeno’s also gain defenses when in a zone with a pit; increasing their strength by one, requiring more powerful weapons to defeat. Thank goodness for those prototype weapons!
A player who wants to search, spends an action and draws the top card of the standard equipment deck and can place it as either a ready weapon or can store it in their backpack, A player interacts by using an action to pick up a token. Some tokens give experience and allow players to control one of the machines, or allow a player to gain a prototype weapon. While these weapons are far more powerful, they require an energy cell to operate, so searching for them is vital.
Players in the same zone can trade equipment and a player can also rearrange their gear for one action as well. After all of the players have taken their actions, it’s the Xeno’s turn!
First, any Xeno’s on the board will activate and take one action; attack a survivor in their zone or move towards the zone that they have a direct line of sight to a survivor or the zone with the most noise. Certain weapons make noise, and noise tokens are placed in those zones to indicate this. Each attack scores one hit to a survivor and unlike the past versions when a single player is killed the game ends and all the players lose.
After each Xeno activates, Xeno’s are spawned at every spawn location. The number of Xeno’s is based on the player with the highest adrenaline level. One good strategy is to attempt to all level up as close as possible, else a player who is weaker most likely will not survive with the ever-increasing horde. If no survivor is dead, the game continues with another round.
Dark Side, in addition to the updated rules, is definitely a step up in difficulty. The limited line of sight requires the proper gear to compensate; so some characters without them, are forced to remain in lighted areas. The machines offer a great balance to the players, but one point of damage will destroy them.
Zombicide Dark Side has a more streamlined setup; fewer tokens to place, especially doors, as all doors are open by default. Closing doors cost an action but can mean the difference between a powerful Xeno and certain death. The Xeno will spend an action destroying the door before attacking.
Zombicide is incredibly easy to introduce new players to. The dashboards, equipment cards and simple, yet challenging AI, make it a rewarding game experience. While some other games in this genre are more complex with a steeper learning curve, Zombicide is great for a more streamlined game.
Written by Ed Carter
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