Zombicide Scenario C19 A Little Setback Part 2

TURN 5.
CHUCK. First Action. Move North one Zone. This brings him in contact with the Walker who was threatening Fred.

Second Action. Melee Combat with his Crowbar. A Crowbar uses 1 die to hit, hits on a 4+ and does 1 Wound. Chuck only scored a 3, so he misses with his first attack. A Crowbar does not generate a Noise token when used in combat.

Third Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. This time Chuck succeeds by rolling a 5. The 1 Wound he causes is enough to kill the Walker.

Fourth Action. Ranged Combat with Shotgun. Chuck rolls 2 dice looking for results of 4+. He scores 1 hit, a 6, as represented by the Molotov Cocktail symbol, and a miss with the 3. He kills one of the three Walkers in the adjacent Zone and generates a Noise token.

FRED. First Action. Ranged Fire with Rifle. A Rifle only uses 1 die to hit but hits on a 3+. It has a range of 1-3 Zones and it causes 1 Wound. Fred rolls a 4, which is a hit and causes 2 kills. HUH?! How can that be? Two kills with one shot? Surely not? Read on and all will be explained. Fred has the Skill, Reaper: Combat. He uses this Skill when assigning hits while resolving a Combat Action (Melee or Ranged). One of these hits can freely kill an additional Zombie in the same Zone. Only a single additional Zombie can be killed per Action when using this Skill. How cool is that? By the way, if you're looking for this Skill in the Season 1 rulebook, don't. It isn't there. It appears in the Season 2 book, Prison Breakout and the Season 3 book, Rue Morgue.

Second Action. Move North one Zone.
Third Action. Ranged Fire with Rifle. He rolls a 3, which is just enough to hit the female Walker shambling towards him. She drops down dead with a bullet to the head.

ZOMBIES. The three Walkers move one Zone towards Fred, whilst the two Runners move two Zones towards Fred. Remember that Runners get two Actions per Turn, so they were able to move twice this Turn.

 Spawn Zone 1. Three Walkers spawn.

Spawn Zone 2. I draw the top card from the Zombies deck and my heart sinks as I see I have just spawned four Walkers in the same Zone as Fred. What a time to draw that card!

This is very bad news for our heroes! Can they possibly survive with so many Zombies closing in on them?
TURN 6.
CHUCK. First Action. Move North one Zone into Zombie Spawn Zone 2. If you're wondering why he didn't just stay put and shoot the Zombies next to Fred there is a nasty little rule that Zombicide uses, called Target Priority. The shooting Survivor does not choose freely the targets he hits with successful Ranged Combat rolls. Hits are assigned in this order -
1. to Survivors (except for the shooter)
2. to Walkers
3. to Fatties or Abominations (player's choice)
4. to Runners
The hits are assigned until all targets of the lower degree of priority have been eliminated. I know that some players hate this rule and ignore it but I'm okay with it because it forces players to think tactically. If Chuck had fired he would have had to kill Fred before he could kill the Walkers and there was no way that I'd do that. So, Melee Combat it is then.

CHUCK. Second Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. Needing a 4+ to hit, Chuck rolls a 4 and kills a Walker. He's off to a good start.

Third Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. Sadly, this time he rolls a 2 and misses.

Fourth Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. He redeems himself by rolling a 5 and killing one of the two female Walkers in the Zombie Spawn Zone.

FRED. First Action. Melee Combat with Fire Axe. The Fire Axe uses 1 die, requiring a roll of 4+ to hit and each hit causes 2 Wounds. Fred rolls well with a 6 and kills the two remaining Walkers in this Zone with his one hit thanks to his Reaper: Combat Skill.

Second Action. Ranged Combat with Rifle. He rolls a 1, which is a clear miss. He generates one Noise token.
Third Action. Ranged Combat with Rifle. This time he scores a hit with his roll of 5. I really wanted to kill the two Runners first but because of the Target Priority rule, Fred must eliminate the Walkers first. Still, he does kill two of them because of his Reaper: Combat Skill. He generates a second Noise token, which is just out of shot.

ZOMBIES. The Walker and two Runners move into Zombie Spawn Zone 2 alongside Chuck and Fred. For the Runners' second Action, they attack and cause 2 Wounds. Note that Zombies do not roll to hit - they automatically hit with each attack they make. However, I can allocate their Wounds as I see fit.

The logical and sensible thing to do is to apply one Wound to each Survivor otherwise it'd be game over, so this is what I do. Whenever a Zombie causes a Wound, it also grabs one Item from the Survivor and replaces it with a Wound card. I get to choose which Item Chuck loses, and I pick his Pistol. Now Chuck can only carry four Items instead of five because his Wound card takes up one space on his ID Card.

Fred loses his Canned Food and replaces it with a Wound card. In Zombicide, all Survivors start with two Wounds. Once they receive their second Wound they are killed and removed from the game, unless you decide to bring them back as a Zombivor. I won't be doing that in this game if the worst comes to the worst. As it stands, our two heroes are in a very perilous situation. If either of them receives a second Wound the mission ends in failure.

The remaining three Walkers close in on Chuck and Fred.

Spawn Zone 1. Another four Walkers spawn.

Spawn Zone 2. Two Walkers spawn. Thank goodness the Walkers spawned in that order!
TURN 7.

CHUCK. First Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. In Melee Combat, Survivors can freely choose which targets they attack, so Chuck takes a swing at one of the two Runners. He misses with his roll of 3.

Second Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. Better luck this time! Chuck hits with a roll of 5 and kills the Runner. Runners only have 1 Wound and so are relatively easy to kill.

Third Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar and another wild swing that misses.

Fourth Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. Chuck scores a lethal blow to the head of the second Runner with a roll of 6. That should make life a lot easier for our heroes.

FRED. First Action. Melee Combat with Fire Axe. Fred also rolls a 6 and once again, thanks to his Reaper: Combat Skill, he kills two Walkers.

These two kills earn Fred two more Experience Points, taking him into the Yellow Level. He immediately gains the +1 Action Skill, giving him 4 Actions per Turn.

Second Action. Melee Combat with Fire Axe. He rolls very badly with a score of 1, as indicated by the Zombie head symbol shown on the dice. It's an obvious miss.

Third Action. Melee Combat with Fire Axe. Bloody hell! Another miss! Come on, Fred! Get your act together!

Fourth Action. Melee Combat with Fire Axe. Yes! He rolls a 6 and kills the plucky Walker. Thank God he gained that fourth Action!

ZOMBIES. Seven Walkers advance one Zone as they have Chuck and Fred in their sights.

Spawn Zone 1. One female Walker spawns.

Spawn Zone 2. One Runner spawns. Not bad! That could have been a lot worse.
TURN 8.

CHUCK. First Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. He rolls a 2 and misses.
Second Action. Melee Combat with Crowbar. Chuck rolls a 5 and kills the newly arrived Runner.

Third Action. Ranged Combat with Shotgun. Chuck fires into the adjacent Zone, containing three Walkers, hoping to whittle them down. He rolls a 3 and a 4, meaning one miss and one kill. He generates a Noise token.

Fourth Action. Moves West one Zone. At first glance this seems like a foolhardy Action but trust me, it is a brilliant play. Firstly, it gets him out of that dangerous Zombie Spawn Zone and secondly... well, read on.

FRED. First Action. Ranged Combat with Rifle. Hang on, I hear you say. Won't this mean he'll have to shoot Chuck first because of the Target Priority rule? Ordinarily, yes, he would. But here's the clever part of Chuck's Move. Chuck has the Skill, Low Profile, meaning he can't be targeted by allied Ranged Attacks and he can't be hit by car attacks. He is ignored when shooting in or driving through a Zone he is standing in. However, weapons that kill everything in the targeted Zone, like the Molotov Cocktail, will still kill him. So Fred rolls a 6 with his shot and kills both Walkers courtesy of his Reaper: Combat Skill. You can see now why these two Survivors complement each other so well. Fred generates a Noise token. Please note, the Low Profile Skill does not appear in the Season 1 rulebook. It appears in the Season 2 book, Prison Breakout and the Season 3 book, Rue Morgue.

Second Action. Moves West one Zone to stand alongside Chuck.
Third Action. Ranged Combat with Rifle. A roll of 5 hits and kills two more Walkers. He generates a Noise token.

Fourth Action. Ranged Combat with Rifle. Fred ends a brilliant Turn with another hit and two more kills. My God, I love that Reaper: Combat Skill! He generates another Noise token.

ZOMBIES. Incredibly, there is now just one Walker left on the board! She moves one Zone East to stand in the Zone adjacent to Chuck and Fred.

Spawn Zone 1. Just a single Walker spawns. Cool!

Spawn Zone 2. Three Walkers spawn but it doesn't really matter. They are behind Chuck and Fred and are unlikely to catch them.
TURN 9.

CHUCK. First Action. Ranged Combat with Shotgun. Chuck scores one miss with his roll of 2 but a hit with his roll of 4 and he kills the female Walker standing in his way. He generates a Noise token.

Second Action. Moves West one Zone.
Third Action. Moves South one Zone, bringing him outside the generator room.
Fourth Action. Opens door to the generator room with his key. Only Chuck could open this door because he holds the key for it. Whenever a door to a building is opened for the first time, Zombies are spawned inside in the same manner as their Spawn Zones. You must draw a Zombies card for each room in the building. As the generator room is only a one room building I only draw one card for it and it turns out to be two Runners.

FRED. First Action. Moves West one Zone.
Second Action. Moves South one Zone to stand outside the generator room.
Third Action. Ranged Combat with Rifle. Fred fires through the open door and kills both Runners with his excellent roll of 6 and of course, his awesome Reaper: Combat Skill. He generates a Noise token.

Fourth Action. Moves East one Zone, placing him inside the generator room.

ZOMBIES. Four Walkers shuffle a bit closer to Chuck. One of them can see him and the others can hear him.

Spawn Zone 1. Four Walkers spawn.

Spawn Zone 2. A solitary Walker spawns.
TURN 10.

CHUCK. First Action. Moves South one Zone.
Second Action. Moves West one Zone.
Third Action. Moves West one Zone.
Fourth Action. Moves North Zone and reaches the Exit Zone.

FRED. First Action. Takes the Red Objective and gains 5 Experience Points. This is enough to advance him to the Orange Danger Level on his ID Card. At the Orange level he can chose one of two Skills. I decide upon +1 Free Combat Action. Of course, this also means that Zombies will now spawn at the Orange Level. Yikes!

Second Action. Moves East one Zone to just outside the generator room.
Third Action. Moves South one Zone.
Fourth Action. Moves West one Zone.

ZOMBIES. Five Walkers move towards Chuck. Although they couldn't see him they could hear him. Survivors make Noise even if they do nothing. Chuck is closer to them than Fred so they are drawn towards him. Note that I don't place Noise tokens for the Survivors but I am always aware of this rule.

Another four Walkers close in on Chuck but they are far too far away to be able to do anything.

Spawn Zone 1. Three Runners spawn. At this point in the game it's no big deal.

Spawn Zone 2. Two Fatties spawn. Each Fatty comes into play accompanied by two Walkers, making them quite a threat. It was great to see the Fatties make an appearance in the game but they have arrived too late to do anything.
TURN 11.

CHUCK. First Action. Exit board.
FRED. First Action. Moves East one Zone.
Second Action. Moves North one Zone into the Exit Zone.
Third Action. Exit board. Game over. Mission accomplished.
CONCLUSION.
That was just so much fun to play. What an incredibly exciting and tense game it was! I absolutely loved it! I was so pleased it ended well for Chuck and Fred because I honestly did not think they would make it. When the two Runners wounded them and they were stuck on Zombie Spawn Point 2, I really did fear the worst. The fact that they survived was truly epic and made for some great story telling. I must admit that starting off with Low Profile and Reaper: Combat Skills greatly aided them and was an awesome combination for the pair.
I hope this batrep gives you a good insight into how Zombicide plays, as well as a flavour of how much fun it can be. Trust me, I plan on posting lots more Zombicide batreps. Thanks for reading.

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.