Zombicide Scenario C19 A Little Setback Part 1

It is no secret that Zombicide is my favourite board-game and for a long time now I have wanted to post a batrep for the game. With the recent release of Zombicide Season 3, my passion for this game has been greatly rekindled. The scenario I have chosen to play comes from the Zombicide Compendium volume 1 and is C19 A Little Setback. If you don't have this book you can download the scenario from the Guillotine Games website here - http://zombicide.com/dl/Mission_C19.pdf
This is described as an Easy Mission for two Survivors and can be played solo (as I did) or with two players. As such, this is an ideal scenario to play first and is more of a challenge than the introductory tutorial scenario in the Season 1 rulebook. The two Survivors I chose were Chuck and Fred, both Season 2 promo figures. I deliberately chose these two because they complement each other very well and because of their likenesses to Ed (Nick Frost) and Shaun (Simon Pegg) from the classic zombie film, Shaun of the Dead. For me, they were obvious partners. Fred/Shaun would be far too sensible to get trapped in the toilets but it is just the kind of mishap that would befall Chuck/Ed.
INTRODUCTION
"We had the key. We were close to the generator. Why did I have to use the damn toilet? Splitting up is rarely a good choice, especially when there are only two of you, but it is a relatively safe part of town. Now I am trapped and cornered with the only key to the generator room, which was the whole point of coming out here. We need that generator. Better solve this quickly before the others learn about our stupid mistake, or they are going to laugh at us for years!"

The photo above shows the initial set up of the board. I have numbered the two Zombie Spawn Zones 1 and 2 to remind myself which one spawns first in each turn. To help aid my notes on movement I designate the top of the board where the two Zombie Spawn Zones are as North. At the far left of the three game boards are my three card decks, which from top to bottom are Wounded cards, Equipment cards and Zombie cards. My two Survivor ID Cards sit directly in front of me. The Skull token on Chuck's ID Card indicates that he will act first when I start playing. At the top of the photo are my two boxes of fully painted Season 1 Zombie figures.

OBJECTIVES

1 - Reunion. Have both Survivors stand together in the same Zone. You can't take the red Objective until it's done. 

2 - Reactivate the Generator. The generator room is marked with a red "X". Take the red objective.

3 - Reach the Exit Zone. Reach the Exit Zone at the far left of the board with both Survivors. If one of them dies, the mission fails.

SPECIAL RULES

1 - The Generator. The objective marked with the red "X" gives 5 experience points to the Survivor who takes it. 

2 - It's quiet, for the moment at least. Use only Zombie Cards #1 to #24 from Zombicide Season 1. This means that no Abominations will spawn nor will there be any nasty surprises like Zombies getting an extra Activation or emerging from the sewers.

3 - Wandering threat. At the beginning of the game, place 3 Walkers in the diner on board 6B.

4 - Split without enough weapons. Survivors start in different locations and with specific Equipment. The one in the toilets of the diner on 6B (Chuck) starts with a Crowbar. The one on the street of 7B (Fred) starts with a Fire Axe.

5 - Where's the key? Only the Survivor on 6B (Chuck) can open the door to the generator room. He has already taken the key, so he starts with 5 experience points.

TURN 1

In each Turn, there are three Phases. In Phase 1 the Survivors act. In Phase 2 the Zombies act and Phase 3 is the End Phase, in which all the Noise tokens are removed from the board and the First player token is passed to the next player in line. If playing with multiple players the First Player token is passed clockwise to the next player at the end of the Turn. If a player is controlling more than one Survivor (as I was), he gets to chose in which order they will act per Turn. For the sake of simplicity I had Chuck act first each Turn, followed by Fred. Survivors start the game with three Actions per Turn, whilst most Zombies have only one Action per Turn (Attack or Move). Zombie Runners get two Actions per Turn.

CHUCK. First Action. Search. Searches may only be performed indoors. Only one Search per Survivor per Turn is allowed and then only if there are no Zombies in the room. I draw the top card from the Equipment card deck and reveal it to be a Shotgun. This is a good start as Chuck now has a melee weapon (his Crowbar) and a ranged weapon in his hands. 

Second Action. Make noise. I do this to let Fred know where he is. Of course, making noise will also attract Zombies but Chuck is not the sharpest tool in the box and he thinks this is a relatively safe area of town.

Third Action. Make noise. This is indicated by the black and yellow Noise tokens. Zombies will move towards any visible Survivors but if none are in sight they'll move to where the most noise is coming from.

FRED. First Action. Move North one Zone. A Move Action is limited to one Zone at a time.
Second Action. Move North one Zone.
Third Action. Move East one Zone.

ZOMBIES. The Zombie Turn is split into three Phases - Attack, Move and Spawn. There are no Zombies in either of the Zones that the Survivors occupy so I ignore the Attack phase. The three Walkers in the diner can hear Chuck but can't reach him because the door to the toilets is locked. In Zombicide, all closed doors are considered to be locked, and Zombies cannot open a locked door. So they are unable to Move this Turn.
Spawn Zone 1. I turn over the top card from the Zombies deck. Each card is divided into four coloured sections which correspond to the Danger Levels found on the Survivor ID Cards (Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red). The Danger Level chosen on the Zombie card equals the most elevated Danger Level among any active Survivors. Chuck and Fred are both in the Blue Danger Level, so this is the choice I must make. As a result I spawn one Walker.

Spawn Zone 2. This also results in one Walker spawning.
TURN 2.

CHUCK. First Action. Make noise.
Second Action. Make noise.
Third action. Search. This time Chuck finds Glass Bottles. He stows them away in reserve.

This is Chuck's ID Card and shows he has a Crowbar and a Shotgun in his hands and the Glass Bottles are held in reserve. Glass Bottles are useful to find because if he also finds Gasoline he can combine the two Items to make a Molotov Cocktail, the best Zombie killing weapon in the game.

FRED. First Action. Move East one Zone. This brings him into the Zone with the female Walker.
Second Action. Melee Combat with his Fire Axe, which uses 1 die to hit and which wounds on a roll of 4+. He rolls a 6, as represented by the Molotov Cocktail symbol on the Zombicide dice. A Fire Axe causes 2 Wounds, which is more than enough to kill a Walker who only has 1 Wound. The Fire Axe is silent when used in melee so he does not generate a Noise token.

Third Action. Move South one Zone.

ZOMBIES. The Walker from Spawn Point 1 moves East one Zone.  Although he can't see or hear Fred, he is attracted by the Noise made by Chuck and so moves towards it.

Spawn Zone 1. One Walker is spawned.

Spawn Zone 2. Once again, one Walker is spawned.
TURN 3.

CHUCK. First Action. Opens door. Chuck uses his Crowbar to unlock and open the door. A crowbar does not generate a Noise token when used to open a door.
Second Action. Ranged Combat with his Shotgun. A Shotgun has two dice to hit and an accuracy rating of 4+. Unfortunately for Chuck I rolled double 1 and so both shots missed. Bummer! No matter how many dice you roll to fire a weapon you only ever generate one Noise token per Action.
Third Action. Ranged Combat with Shotgun. This time Chuck rolls a 4 and a 6, resulting in two hits and two kills. A Shotgun causes 2 Wounds per hit, which will kill any Walker, Runner or Fatty. He generates a second Noise token.

Fourth Action. Ranged Combat with Shotgun. Chuck fires at the female Walker and scores a miss with the 1 (as represented by the zombie head symbol on the die) and a hit with the 4. The Walker dies in a spray of blood and gore. He now generates his third Noise token.

If you were wondering how come Chuck suddenly got a fourth Action check out his ID Card above. A survivor gains 1 Experience Point for every Walker, Runner or Fatty killed. Chuck started the game with 5 Experience Points. When he killed those two walkers in his third Action he gained two Experience Points which moved his Danger Level tracker into the Yellow Level. As soon as a Survivor advances to the next highest Level he automatically gains a new Skill, which in this case (and every other case for Survivors' Yellow Levels) is a +1 Action. This meant that Chuck could use this extra Action to fire again. Cool, huh? The downside to advancing to a new level is that when Zombies spawn they now spawn on the Yellow Level instead of the Blue Level. This means more Zombies can spawn per Turn.

FRED. First Action. Move South one Zone.
Second Action. Move East one Zone, bringing him inside the diner.

 Third Action. Search. Fred finds a Rifle. This is a good weapon to find. Although not as lethal as the Shotgun (only does 1 Wound) and only rolls 1 die to hit, it is more accurate (hits on 3+) and has much greater range (1-3 Zones).

 ZOMBIES. The three Walkers move one Zone each towards the Noise coming from the diner.

Spawn Zone 1. The effects of Chuck reaching Yellow Level are immediately felt as three Walkers spawn from this Zone.

Spawn Zone 2. Only one Walker is spawned.
TURN 4.

CHUCK. First Action. Search. Chuck finds a Pistol, which is nowhere near as good as his Shotgun, so he stows it in reserve.
Second Action. Moves South one Zone. This brings him into the diner along with Fred. As a consequence, the first objective, Reunion, has been achieved. I should have took a photo of their reunion but I forgot. Sorry.

Third Action. Moves West one Zone.
Fourth Action. Ranged Combat with Shotgun. He shoots at the Walker in the adjacent Zone and scores a 3 and a 6, which is a miss and a hit. The Walker is killed and a Noise token is generated.

CHUCK. First Action. Search. Fred finds a stash of Canned Food, which he places in reserve on his ID Card.

Second Action. Moves West one Zone.
Third Action. Moves North one Zone. He could have fired at the Walker standing on Spawn Zone 2 but I chose to move instead as I wanted my two heroes to reach the generator room as soon as possible. It was a calculated risk on my part but was it the right one?

ZOMBIES. The six Walkers close in on the two Survivors. The Walker from Spawn Zone 2 advances into the same Zone as Fred, eager to feast on him.

Spawn Zone 1. Uh, oh! Two Runners spawn. This is not good news.

Spawn Zone 2. Three Walkers spawn. Suddenly the board is filling with Zombies. With the game finely balanced on a knife edge I shall bring Part 1 of this batrep to a close.