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And when the person has a rifle?

Exactly!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And when the person has a rifle?

That's why I said many (basically all but the rifle)

but the idea works for the other weapons and Zombicide went for simplicity in many ways, so this could be one of them.

The friendly fire rules act as a balancing factor in the game. We left them out a few times and the game is much too easy without having to make the choices of putting ranged and melee together while you search for gear. I would guess that you can easily win most missions with the friendly fire out, played by the book the game is very challenging... even tiny tweaks can make it too easy imho. Looking forward to some 18 tile custom missions tomorrow during football.

The friendly fire thing is the only thing we dropped, other than that we stuck to the rules as much as possible, even going as far as using the third tray to really flood the board with zeds, leading to several great moments of hectic rolling and thinking to survive just a wee bit longer.

I do like the option of allowing players to make extra noise, which was most useful once the players started working together. Now if only it wasn't the character with "ninja" that made attempts at being noisy..

I think my group will modify the FF rule, making it a random chance to hit based on group size, etc.

Ok, so I feel like my group and I are doing the cars wrong, or they are super powered killing machines. Driving doesn't count as a move, so the penalty for being in a sector with zombies is ignored. What do you guys do for fattys? Can't go into that square, or just can't hurt them, or what? Seems to turn into drive, drive, move seat. Next is move to driver seat, drive, drive, ending in an empty zone. Rinse and repeat.

The friendly fire rule as it currently stands is not "you shoot your friends first", it's "you can't shoot into melee" with an asterisk. If you're in a position to start complaining about target priority when trying to make called shots on the zombies in grabbing range of your friend, it's only because you are already doing it wrong.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
Ok, so I feel like my group and I are doing the cars wrong, or they are super powered killing machines. Driving doesn't count as a move, so the penalty for being in a sector with zombies is ignored. What do you guys do for fattys? Can't go into that square, or just can't hurt them, or what? Seems to turn into drive, drive, move seat. Next is move to driver seat, drive, drive, ending in an empty zone. Rinse and repeat.

Fatties and Abominations can't be hurt IIRC. Plus zombies only get killed on a 4+, again IIRC.

Correct on both parts. But do they block me from driving through?

 BrookM wrote:

 whalemusic360 wrote:
Ok, so I feel like my group and I are doing the cars wrong, or they are super powered killing machines. Driving doesn't count as a move, so the penalty for being in a sector with zombies is ignored. What do you guys do for fattys? Can't go into that square, or just can't hurt them, or what? Seems to turn into drive, drive, move seat. Next is move to driver seat, drive, drive, ending in an empty zone. Rinse and repeat.

Fatties and Abominations can't be hurt IIRC. Plus zombies only get killed on a 4+, again IIRC.

And if someone is in the way, they may get run down. (While I find logic in the friendly fire rules for most cases, this one I find stupid. The zombies would be swarming the car as it comes at them, but a person would do what they could to get out of the way)

Yup, we do that too. Easy enough to avoid if you're not a bunch of gits.

 Kroothawk wrote:
My game is in the customs, will have it next week.

Mine too. And as I am not at home until the 14th, it will be interesting how much I have to pay. I hope this 30$ declaration is working for the German customs.

It somehow worked for me, customs went through everything and even stamped it with that rare red stamp of theirs declaring it free of any further charge.

In The Walking Dead, Carl will tell you all about how great that Frendly Fire rule goes.

I see it as a good balencing act to keep you from getting into a comfort zone and getting cocky. Thereby, making it a balence between the characters and the zombies.

Sure, the zombies are dangerous, but the characters, your so called "Pals" can be just as dangerous, and equate to an additional hazard.

I see it as a good mechanic to make you pay attention to what your shooting at and not run through just blasting everything in the place.

They want an extra £12 to deliver on a Saturday as well, the cheecky gits.

Ah well, they can deliver it during the week and then I can just go pick it up from the depot for free

Braaaaaaaaaiiinnnnnssss...
Braaaaaiiiiinsss.....
Brian... wait? Brian? Who's he?

*ahem*

It arrived today. 2 Abomination-sized kits in one massive huge heavy box that was a pain to carry to my car (mostly because I forgot where I parked!!!). And they weren't kidding about shipping eating into the money. This package cost US$95 to ship!!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Braaaaaaaaaiiinnnnnssss...
Braaaaaiiiiinsss.....
Brian... wait? Brian? Who's he?

*ahem*

It arrived today. 2 Abomination-sized kits in one massive huge heavy box that was a pain to carry to my car (mostly because I forgot where I parked!!!). And they weren't kidding about shipping eating into the money. This package cost US$95 to ship!!

BRAINS!!!!

You can get your copy on Saturday.

We played through all the missions a couple of times already, so we started doing the campaign version:

Experience and equipment carries over to the next, although we do allow the survivors to exchange equipment between each mission.

MIssion #1: 4 out of 6 survivors got into the yellow, Wanda got a wound.

Mission #2: Wound healed thanks to mission special rule, and everybody got to orange.

Mission #3: 1 got to red, 2 more are within 8 points of red.

Going to play #4 today or tomorrow, will be interesting.

Just had a response from Guillotene about the removal of Eve/Marvin art from the KS page and elsewhere

"Guillotine Games commented on their Wall post.

Guillotine Games wrote: "Eva and Marvin are getting revamped. "

so it looks like a restyle is coming through. Hope they don't go to far from the 'homages' they started as

Probably meaning they got in trouble over them, otherwise they would've mentioned it a while ago now that the art was pulled.

We'll see I guess.

Tarantino fighting homage versions? That is odd!

If it is that it doen't have to be Tarantino himself

there are movie companies and actors 'staff' involved too, plenty of scope for cease and desist letters going out without any of the main players knowing about it

 Grot 6 wrote:
In The Walking Dead, Carl will tell you all about how great that Frendly Fire rule goes.

I see it as a good balencing act to keep you from getting into a comfort zone and getting cocky. Thereby, making it a balence between the characters and the zombies.

Sure, the zombies are dangerous, but the characters, your so called "Pals" can be just as dangerous, and equate to an additional hazard.

I see it as a good mechanic to make you pay attention to what your shooting at and not run through just blasting everything in the place.

Friendly Fire doesn't count for Carl. He wasn't hit by a bullet shot into a crowd, he got hit by a bullet that went through it's target.

I don't have an opinion on it either way, though. I haven't had the chance to play.
My initial reaction is the middle-road. I can see why my friends should be in danger, but not to the point that they jump in front of bullets aimed at Zeds.
I think Last Night on Earth handled it simplistically (you just don't shoot your friends), and it works just fine. Due to game mechanics, it's still a challenging game for the humans.

Eric

Looks like Marvin and Eva are now completely new characters as new descriptions have been added to the official site -

Anyone able to work out who they are?

Old Eva -
She's got a sword, and she knows how to use it! This Kickass Survivor is something we'll start sculpting now and ship to you at the same time the Zombie Promo Survivors go out! Just add $10 to your Abomination and above pledge!

New Eva -
Inspired and gifted, Eva was unsatisfied with her humble life as an accountant. Being part of the rank and file was like being a zombie to her. So, in her spare time, Eva danced, drew, sculpted and even took Japanese fencing lessons. Like everyone else, the zombie invasion changed Eva’s life: acting normal is now a nonsense and she feels more alive than ever. Extroverted and hyperactive, Eva is a messenger between survivors groups. No way she’s going to give up on her old activities: her notebook is full of sketches and that sword sure comes in handy.

Old Marvin -
Marvin Redfield. Marvin is a bodyguard, shuttling the rich and famous around. Always a professional, he's used to gently deflecting the advances of neglected wives or wealthy widows.... until one of his clients got a little too aggressive and had to be put down! Now he's up to his eyeballs in mother-f***** Zombies! Get him for $10 added to any Abomination level or above pledge! Ships the same time as the Zombie Promo Survivors!

New Marvin -
"Trust me and you’ll live."
Nowadays, Marvin scouts the city trying to save as much people as possible. His legendary luck hasn’t left him and gives him an aura of “redemption angel”: some people pray to him and beg him to find their lost ones amidst the death vortex. Marvin’s still cool: no way he’s going to become some kind of messiah. His dearest wish hasn’t changed since his childhood: all he wants is be left in peace.

Marvin could be inspired by that Book of Eli protagonist, don't know about the new Eva.

An official heads up from Guillotine through the KS announcement system telling everybody of this would've been nice though.

Yeah, CoolMini have been silent on the subject even though I first noticed the art was missing around the end of July (and they still took orders for those characters on the CKPM until end August).

To be honest, I'm not really caring etiher way. I got those figures as add ons because I wanted more survivors. The fact they resembled celebs, and would probably sell for more on Ebay than I payed for them, was just icing on the cake.

As for game play, I'm finding the targeting priority, hitting survivors first, is pretty much needed to slow the players down. We were actually contemplating house rules to require movement to turn cars around, since players were driving over zombies forwards and backwards for 3-4 actions and wiping out entire spawns of 8 zombies in thre process. Probably won't, but we discussed if surviors could just jump out of the way it would be worse.

How are they planning on packaging the single-survivor releases from now on? Looking at the three that came with the Abomination release, their boxes are tiny and their stat-cards came loose in the box with everything else. If the idea is to sell these things separately, how are they going to include the stat-cards (which are much bigger than the little box each one comes in?).


Anyway I read over the rulebook before going to bed. The friendly fire rules just don't make sense. You fire any gun at a zone and you always hit your own guy first. The examples they give - firing a pair of Uzi's into a crowd - certainly make it seem reasonable that hitting your own guys can happen (and should in that situation), but not everyone is firing machine guns into large groups of people. A rifle or pistol should not zero in on your friends before hitting the 50 Zombies nearby. Driving a car is worse, as you'll always run over your own guys first. It's daft.