I am a big fan of Zombicide Black Plague. I think it has great simple mechanics and a built in AI system that keeps the game flowing seamlessly.
Now I know that the older Zombicide seasons have the dreaded targeting priority issue (survivors in a zone take damage first from ranged attacks), but the modern theme and similar mechanics drew me in. So besides the obvious rule, can it provide the same experience as Black Plague? I was eager to find out.
First off, I did a bit of research and felt season 2 Prison Outbreak had more bang for the buck then season one.
First off, its a stand alone, so no need for any other sets. It introduces the zombivor (survivors resurrect as a zombie survivor) so you do not just take 2 wounds and are out. It has vehicles unlike season 3 (it has a helicopter) and finally the game comes with two zombie types (regular and the bereserker). And if that’s not enough, it costs less than season one or three.
So how does it play? It comes with a number of scenarios to play; simply set up the tiles, tokens and any specific elements needed for that mission. Next, select the survivors you want to use.
Shuffle the zombie deck. Take the equipment deck and remove the three nightsticks, one fire axe, pistol and claw hammer. Shuffle these items and randomly deal one to each player as their starting equipment.
Shuffle the remaining items back into the equipment deck. This is the search deck.
The game is played in a series of turns, with the survivors going first. On a survivors turn they may take three of the following actions; move, search, interact, fight, switch/trade equipment or do nothing.
To move, a survivor can move to an adjacent zone for one action. The tiles are divided into zones. Each survivor can move up to 3 zones (but not diagonally).
A survivor may search any tile inside a room or inner hallway. To perform a search, first off, there must be no zombies in the zone. If the zone is clear, simply draw the top card from the search deck and place it on your character sheet. Each sheet has 5 slots, two for active items and three for storage. Some items can be combined to make another item; (gasoline and a glass bottle make a molotov cocktail or nails and a bat make a nail bat)
To interact with a token (door, switch, objectives) the zone, like in a search, must have no zombies. Simply spend an action to use or pick up the token. Opening doors require an item that has the open door ability. Some items will make noise and some will be silent. If you use an item that makes noise, place a noise token in that zone.
Fighting is done either melee or ranged, depending on the weapon used. Any item that has the fight symbol can be used as a weapon. Each weapon card shows it’s range, number of dice rolled, the to hit number, and how much damage it does.
To make an attack, roll the number of dice and every roll equal to or higher than the hit number, is a success and deals that level of damage.
Having the right weapon is crucial in Zombicide as there are 4 different types of zombies; walkers, fatties, runners and abominations. Each type has their own strength and abilities. A standard walker is killed with any strength one weapon. A fatty requires a weapon of 2 strength, runners also have a strength of one, and an abomination needs a 3 strength weapon!
Also the game has a specific targeting priority for a zone and that also can impact the damage dealt. A damage one weapon will have no effect on a strength 2 or 3 zombie, no matter how many hits.
The last action allows a survivor to trade equipment with another survivor in the same zone, or move an item from the backpack to their ready slot
After each survivor has performed their 3 actions, it’s the zombies turn. Each zombie turn consists of two phases; take actions, and spawn. A zombie takes one action; fight or move. If a zombie is in the same zone as a survivor it attacks. If a zombie attacks, it deals one wound automatically. When a survivor is wounded, they lose an equipment card and replace it with a wound card. Two wounds and you are dead. If using the resurrection rules, the player is now a zombivor. A zombivor keeps their equipment and level and now takes 5 hits to kill.
If there are no survivors to attack, a zombie moves one zone, either to the closest survivor or the zone with the most noise tokens. A zombie will always take the shortest route to a survivor.
One exception is the runner, who can take two actions per turn. In addition certain abominations can pull a survivor into their zone and attack.
The berserker zombies are very tough and can only be killed in a melee attack or zone attack (molotov cocktail).
After all zombies have taken their actions, it’s time to spawn. For each spawn zone, draw one zombie card. The number of zombies that spawn is based on the survivor with the highest experience. As zombies are killed, survivors gain experience. But more experience means more zombies. After the new zombies have spawned, it’s back to the survivors. The game continues until the survivors have completed the mission objectives or are killed.
Zombicide is a fully cooperative game; the zombies are controlled by the zombie deck and a simple set of rules. The game feels like being in a zombie movie as players race to complete the mission while fighting off an ever increasing horde of zombies. The game delivers a great deal of choices and requires a lot of player interaction.
Components wise, the miniatures, maps and cards are fantastic quality. The player sheets can be a bit frustrating especially with sliding cards and the tokens used to signify skills. This was greatly improved with Black Plague when the game introduced the character trays. Sadly, CMON has not reprinted the survivor cards from the earlier seasons to fit the tray.
In addition using the updated targeting priority from Black Plague improves the game tremendously.
I am overall very pleased with season 2 and would recommend it for a simple yet challenging game experience of zombies in a modern setting.
Board game noobs give a very good overview of season 2 and the basic mechanics used in Zombicide.
Written by Ed Carter
