Ba Boom

Mizar was nervous. They had come a long way and were getting close to the exit. The day had started badly with the death of Lord Falstaff. Yes, yes a lack of concentration and a wayward Inferno Blast, but these things happen. Mizar steadied the group. He sensed danger behind the closed door.

"Now can we be clear - who has the Dragon Bile and who has the Torch? We will only get one shot at this"

The gathering menace

"One, two, three". Boom, and the door shattered. The Dragon Bile was tossed forward and Mizar lit it up with his Flaming Great Sword before diving for cover. Whoosh, and the very air seemed to burn.

Clearance

Mizar peeked his head around the corner. It had worked. The way was clear and the exit in sight.

Ultrared

Mizar has become my first Ultrared Survivor. He levelled into he orange twice, thereby picking up the second upgrade. That is 43 + 20 kills in one game!

Wulfsburg - the beginning

Yes, I finally got myself into a position to play. I didn't want to use unpainted Survivor models so I set myself the task of researching and painting a survivor crew.

First Wulfsburg Crew

As I have been discussing earlier in this blog, my first choices were Mizar, Redcap Rodney, Genevieve, Nelly and Lord Arnaud. This left me with one spot to fill. In the end I went for Lord Falstaff. He is very much Melee oriented and I liked the movement benefit granted by Bloodlust: Melee in that he can charge up to two zones to end up in a zone with zombies. He then has a free combat action.

My group had a free Search thanks to Arnaud, additional Movement through Nelly, heavy hitting with Redcap Rodney and Genevieve both of whom have +1 damage, a free +1 magic action with Mizar and a crazed charging zombie killer in Falstaff.

The opening quest is Welcome to Wulfsburgh. A six tile encounter that also uses the new Tower tile. Survivors on this tile have additional visibility. Good to give cover fire to other Survivors. Its like a bit of sniper overwatch.

The new weapons look cool and do a lot more damage. I was looking forward to trying them out.

Welcome to Wulfsburg

It had been a while and I really enjoyed getting back into Zombicide. My crew proved to be very effective indeed. The first Necromancer spawned and was trapped behind a closed door. He was therefore one of the last models to be dealt with and so took the Necromancer rule out of game 1. The Fatties were no match for my Survivors. Even with basic weapons I was able to handle them with the +1 damage benefit from Redcap Rodney and Genevieve. I just love Redcap Rodney. Looks cool on the board and dishes out serious amounts of damage.

The new Wolfz are a menace. They have three Actions and as such they can be awkward when coming at you through a crowd. They also tend to arrive in packs of 3-4.

The new weapons are amazing and it wasn't long before I felt properly 'tooled up' and invincible.

I didn't use the Tower at all, I just blasted my way through the board. High death rates had me in the Orange level and heading quickly towards Red. It was fine though. I felt able to handle the pressure.

The game feels very different. Lots more weapons and much higher levels of damage.

This is the introductory game and is probably giving me a false sense of security. I intend to run it a few more times just so that I become familiar with all the new weapons and stuff. Very enjoyable though.

Looking forward to meeting some of the new big bad boys. But that will be further down the line.

Search options for Zombicide Black Plague

As any who play Zombicide will know, the Survivors start the game with a low amount of pretty poor gear. It is imperative to improve this situation as soon as possible. The way this is done is to perform a Search action in rooms. This provides you with random equipment. The main issue is that in order to get inside a building you have to open a door. When this is done it activates all the zombies in the building who then start to move in your direction. You can only Search an empty room. So the first Survivors need to clear an area so that the remaining Survivors can enter the room and Search.

Its a dilemma alright. At the very point in the game when are poorly equipped you just have to open a door. This makes early searching very important indeed. It is good to have at least one character with the Search ability. This is a free Search action. This Survivor can help with the killing and still Search.

Also if you are lucky enough to find a Torch the Survivor can take two cards instead of one for each search thereby improving the likelihood of finding decent weapons. The issue is that the Torch takes up one of your two equipment options when you really want to have a weapon in each hand.

There are two Survivors that seem to be tailored for Searching. Both start with a free Search action and have the option to hold a torch as their third piece of equipment. So ideal for what is needed. I give you James and Lord Arnaud.

James

Lord Arnaud

A quick comparison reveals distinctly different characters for later in the game.

James has the option of +1 max Range or Spellcaster for his orange upgrade and then has two combat abilities or Spellbook for the Red upgrade. I suppose that this makes him a Magician as the Range and Combat upgrades are not exactly complimentary. But not particularly potent.

Arnaud on the other hand has +1 die Melee or +1 free Move Action and this is supported by +1 free Combat Action, Iron Hide or Reaper Combat. I think this gives a good range of choices depending on what the game needs. It is easy to see his Melee potential but if the game requires a little more movement then that option is present. When in the red phase you might also need Iron Hide just to survive another turn. I like the balance of options so Arnaud is in!

Slippery examined

We have played a few games and Nelly has been an important character because of her Slippery ability. This allows her to move out of squares occupied by zombies with no penalty. Very handy when the board is crowded.

She also starts with a +1 free Move Action meaning she is quick from the start and she can really get out of trouble when needs must. She is also good in Melee even packing a dagger as third hand held item.

Nelly

I had a look through the various Survivors to see who else offers this option and the results are: -

Hitch - who starts with Slippery and picks up +1 free Move or +1 free Melee at orange level. I am not sure about the Slippery at the start. In my experience this version of Zombicide is much more forgiving during the early stages. I do love the Bowie inspired model though. I think that the +1 free Move Action would be more advantageous to have in the first slot.  The effect is that Nelly is probably a better choice.

Inspired Hitch

Milo - he is an interesting choice as he starts with +1 Damage: Magic and has Slippery or Spellcaster for the orange upgrade. He has the option for Hit & Run, a +1 free Move Action or +1 die: Magic as his red upgrade. He can also carry a speed scroll as his additional hand held item.

This gives two clear options.  He starts as a heavy hitting Mage and this can be supported with Spellcaster and +1 die: Magic or Slippery with +1 free Move Action to increase mobility.

Apprentice Milo

I really like this little guy. He would be a great addition to the team. If I did choose him then I would need to get initial movement benefit from elsewhere.

Beauregard - He has Slippery as a choice but only at the Red upgrade, so probably too late.

Beauregard

Summary - I am liking both Nelly and Milo.  I might even take them as a combo and drop Lady Faye. Emmmmm much to contemplate.

Building my Survivor group

I have been building a group of Survivors to take on the Zombicide, Black Plague, Wulfsburg challenge. My first three have been Lady Faye for her +1 free Move action, Mizar for his +1 free Magic Action and Redcap Rodney for his +1 Damage: Melee.

Starting Wulfsburg Survivor group

My next addition needs to be able to deal some damage  from Range. There are not a lot of options really and I think that Genevieve is the stand out candidate. She starts with +1 Damage: Ranged and has good options for orange and red upgrades. I am liking +1 free Ranged Action and +1 to dice roll: Ranged.

Genevieve joins the party

So I feel that this has a nice balance to it and also can dish out proper damage from the start. Two of the guys have +1 damage.

Now I need to compliment these four.  I am thinking that a Search benefit would be good, maybe someone starting with a good weapon or maybe some more mobility. Born Leader has also been a great benefit in the past.There are lots of options to consider.

Of course, it would also be nice to include  one or two of the more magnificent survivor models.

A little magic - Mizar

Having had a good look at the models I really like the look of Inquisitor Mizar. I am loving the scythe and that tall 'dead pan' look. I plan to play him as my spell casting Magician.

Mizar

There are lots of interesting details to him. He is wearing plate armour and has the skull and bones hanging from his wait and there are lots of other nic-nacs. I even like his hair but  the scythe is the over-arching thing to like.

Statistics

He has a free Magic action to start with and then has Spellbook, all spells in the inventory are considered to be in the hand. This is cool because it saves actions swapping spells in and out of the inventory. And the final upgrade is Spellcaster which gives another free Action for Magic. Yip he is pretty cool. He can even have a Death Stike spell as his extra bit of equipment.

Can't wait to get him on the board.

Zombicide Black Plague - Redcap

I had a good look at the many new characters and some of the models are just sweet. I know from the games played so far that some of the weaponry favours the magician's and marksmen. There are some good spells and bows that really do allow damage to be handed out.

I thought that it would be nice to have some other options so I have selected a melee monster in Redcap Rodney and Lady Faye for her movement and Luck.

Lady Faye & Redcar Rodney

Lady Faye starts with a +1 free Move Action in the blue, the first upgrade is +1 Action and this is followed in the orange by +1 free Melee Action or Lucky (re-roll all the dice for an action) and then in red +1 Damage: Melee, Iron Hide or Reaper Combat (Can allocate an additional hit to a zombie in an adjacent square)

Redcap Rodney on the other hand starts with +1 damage: Melee, first upgrade is +1 Action. The orange upgrade is +1 free Melee Action or Reaper: Melee (Can allocate an additional hit to a zombie in the same square) then the red upgrade is +1 free Combat Action, +1 to dice roll: Melee or Zombie link.

I really like the Redcap Rodney model so he is first up to the painting table. He will be unique on the playing surface and he should really stand out. Got to love that axe!

Redcap Rodney

I think he will be great to have because of the +1 Damage: Melee. This will be good to handle some of the Fatties early in the game.