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So basically I've been thinking that Chaos Plague Zombies are really horrible game wise. They lose their guns, extra CC weapon, no marks, no upgrades, etc; all for FNP and Fearless. Plus WYSIWYG so lots of conversion needed. Other than a fluffy Typhus army they are pretty rubbish.

I was thinking how conventionally, Zombies only go down when you blow them limb from limb or destroy the brain, and to represent this I was thinking introducing a "Headshot only" rule for Plague Zombies.

Essentially, this means that you can only hit a Zombie unit on a To Hit roll of 6, because otherwise the bullet just hits the body and does nothing. This is different from Snap Fire. Blast Weapons, Template Weapons, Area of Effect, "Draw a Line" and do not require LoS weapons and ones that cause automatic hits are exempt. Weapons with Instant Death or cause ID through having a high enough strength.


Eg:

Space Marine Tactical Squad fires 7 Bolters at Zombies. Only 4 roll a 6 and achieve the necessary headshot. The Flamer, Combi-Flamer and Plasma Cannon fire and score 9 hits between them. Roll to wound as normal.

Imotehk calls down his Lightning and fries 6 Zombies, the headshot rule ignored as bolts of Lightning course through and vapourise them. Shotly after a Tesla Destructor scythes down others and causes 4 additional wounds due to Arcing.

Land Raider Redeemer opens fire with its Assault Cannon, the heavy rate of fire ripping Zombies apart. The Stormbolter on top has a harder time and must aim for the head.

You realize a Bolter isn't firing a bullet, but a miniature missiles, right? If a Bolt hits you, zombie or no, you won't have much of a Torso left, so even if it's not dead the zombie then becomes a non-threat. Ork guns would do the same, you can imagine Eldar have the accuracy to aim for the head and Flash Lights aren't that effective against them anyhow.

Plague Zombies, fluffwise, are not a combat unit. Fluff wise the zombies are meant to prey on unprotected civilians (Imagine Ws 2, Str 2), a task plague zombies are up to, but against a genetically modified super soldier they shouldn't stand a chance. If you wanted to make them more resilient to small arms fire, you could make the FNP a 4+ vs Ap 6/- to show these weapons not having enough caliber to blow them up. Would that work for you?

 Deadshot wrote:
So basically I've been thinking that Chaos Plague Zombies are really horrible game wise. They lose their guns, extra CC weapon, no marks, no upgrades, etc; all for FNP and Fearless.

I probably miss something but you've just stated that Fearless and FNP is not worth a laz pistol and +1 attack?..

 Deadshot wrote:
Zombies only go down when you blow them limb from limb or destroy the brain, and to represent this

To represent this, they have FNP.

 koooaei wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
So basically I've been thinking that Chaos Plague Zombies are really horrible game wise. They lose their guns, extra CC weapon, no marks, no upgrades, etc; all for FNP and Fearless.

I probably miss something but you've just stated that Fearless and FNP is not worth a laz pistol and +1 attack?..

Definitely not. FNP is good if the unit is durable already, like Paladins or Hammernators. On T3 models with a 6+ save its basically useless and I'd rather have the option to camp them on an objective with Autoguns, Heavy Stubbers and MoN, or charge 35 forward with an AoBF Juggerlord, equipping them with a MoK and some Flamers.


@ALEX

I would think the Bolter would blow them apart too, and that's usually how its depicted. However, a few weeks of playing Space Marine has shown that in that continuum at least, the bolter needs two or three shots. It got me wondering if Bolters are really capable of blowing a human in two or is that just the "Propaganda" stuff coming into play again. And if they really are capable of blowing a man in half, why are they not Str 6? Or humans T2? Same for Orks, even Tau pulse rifles. Plus for the Eldar and Tau, when you have that many Zombies running at you, do you really have time to just focus on headshots?

On the point you made about FNP 4+ vs AP6/- : It would still be pretty useless, as the most common weapons in the game are still AP5. Bolters being the obvious, by also Shootas, Pulse Rifles, Shuriken Catapults, Gauss Flayers, Fleshborers, Splinter Rifles. All the basic weapons of every race are Str4 AP5. The only thing it would help against are Lasguns and Frag Missiles/Grenades.

If you want to make them better - add to their cost. You can't just get benefits without drawbacks unless you play eldar.

Hitting on 6 will just create an unmovable cheap reliable scoring. Just count:

As it's now: Marines shoot at zombies in a ruin - 2/3 to hit, 2/3 to wound, 1/2 to pass cover, 2/3 to pass fnp - 0.148 casualties with each shot, thus you need 6.76 bolter shots to kill 1 zombie that costs 5 pts.
As you propose: 1/6 to hit instead of 2/3 - 0.037 casualties with each shot, ending up as 27.02 shots to kill a single zombie.

And what for? Bolters are allready ineffective vs zombies in cover.

Shootas are ap6 btw. And probably fleshborers, but i'm not sure bout this.

Your forgetting most close combat attacks, Mortars, A fair few large blasts, auto-guns, Hammer of Wrath and a fair few others i've missed. But aren't these the kind of attacks that, fluffwise, wouldn't have much effect on a Zombie? Mortars rely on trauma as much as shrapnel, neither are effective. A knife to the gut won't be effective but a swing of a power sword would be.

Your trying to give an already good unit a slight power increase for no points cost whatsoever, it shouldn't be game breaking. But getting a better FNP Vs these kind of attacks makes sense fluffwise, while getting a 50% chance to survive having your torso exploded from the inside (Yes, they can do this. Almost any Black Library book will tell you this) is ridiculous. AP 5 shows they have enough caliber or chopping power to rip through bullet proof vests like nothing, anything that powerful should have a good chance of putting a zombie down for good.

Zombies were considered quite good some time ago, not sure about maelstrom given how scoring may or may not be everything, but they kind of do what they are advertized for.

I'd just drop a fluffy bit here since you're talking about it anyways: how comes an ork boy, space marine and vindicare have the same (or almost the same if you count in BS 6+ shenanigans) chance to hit the head? Reminds me of 6th ed ork character "snipers".

Anyways, math provided by koooaei should speak louder than fluffy bits.

Well, i get that you want to create a zombie apocalypse thing. But that's not how zombies are currently used on tabletop.

HOWEVER, you can make them just like you want.

Zombies get BRAAAAAINS! special rule.

BRAAAAAINS! - provides 4+ Feel no Pain, Slow and Purposeful. Units with at least one model with BRAAAAAINS! special rule can't get objective secured.
In the movement phase the unit must declare a move towards the closest enemy model that is not a vehicle, or swooping fmc. If in assault phase there is such unit within their charge range, Zombies must declare charge, if not - they do nothing.
When an enemy model that is not a vehicle is slain by a zombie, it looses all it's special rules and wargear and changes it's unit type to Infantry, gets BRAAAAAINS! special rule, restores 1 wound and joins the unit that has slain him.