AAR: Zombicide Missions The Break-In & The Blueprints: Success!

Hello all,

We enjoyed a nice evening/night playing Zombicide and as usual it was a blast - the game is so well designed that it simply amazes me. And it is dawning on me just how great the reply value is; the random combination of survivors, zombie draws and weapons available makes each mission very unique.

So the first mission was M00, Tutorial: Break-in from the Prison Outbreak rulebook. In short our heroes (Goth Amy, Troy the Traveller, and Ralph the Cowboy) had to secure a violet keyto the prison (why violet?!?). The prison - in true Walking Death-style - had been deemed a secure place.

So we went hunting for the key - unfortunately in the very first room Amy searched, she discovered an Abomination. Now, a bit panicked, but on the other we have gotten quite good at "managing" zombies, so the abomination was herded to and fro, posing little danger, but always a potential threat.

While Amy was busy, Ralph and Troy managed the rest of the zombies and before we knew it the mission was in the bag - an automatic shot gun made short work of the zombies inside the barbed wire squares of the prison while a police car kept running down zombies on the streets.

All in all the mission seemed quite easy (not that we would complain about that :-)) and we managed to stay in the yellow-zone, avoiding too many zombies. It turned out finding the abomination early and the key late was a blessing. The abomination meant that no such being would spawn inside the prison and thus break the barbed wire (we actually drew one the turn after Amy ahd found 'her' abomination) meaning half the zombies were herded into one square were they were easy to kill. Also, the choice of postponing searching for the key until we were in position meant the purple spawn zone didn't activate until we were geared up and ready.

All in all, a great game and a well thought out introduction-mission. Amy is (with her great skills) a brilliant starting character, Ralph and Troy seemed capable but were never really tested.

The second mission we played was M01: the Blueprints. Having secured the entrance to the prison, a new set of heroes were sent out to secure the area and attain some blueprints to make sure each entrance to the prison was nailed shut. This game had Amy (again), Chuck (Momma's Boy), and good ol' Though Nick in it and once the quite difficult rules for the mission had been read, and re-read, we began.

One curious aspect of the mission was the central security gate - not sure if we played it entirely correct (although I think so) but it was possible (through some clever manoeuvring) to capture the starting abomination and several 'innocent' zombies within the room. This meant we could take the long way around. We did have a few close calls due to massive amounts of runners but a combination of Amy's speed, Nicks incredible toughness (coupled with a Police Riot Shield), and Ralph's low profile meant we had the game under control. Well almost, each hero was wounded, but that was only due to a couple of unfortunate extra activation-cards. 

We also, to my surprise, managed the game with quite poor equipment - Amy (the winner on points, who passed red) only had dual pistols and Nick had dual shot guns. both were augmented with re-rolls and similar, but still interesting.

A great mission, interesting possibilities of the security gate and plenty of fun with the sniper towers, cars etc. 

Amy was great as always (that extra speed is a blessing), Ralph's "low Profile" was a game winner, as was the old dependable though Nick.

Two brilliant games, plenty of beer and good laughs - Zombicide rocks!

All the best,
Kasper