Q&A with Axis & Allies & Zombies Game Designer, Scott Van Essen Part 1

@jamesl1391 Hello James,

Fortunately @Krieghund already answered all of your questions. Just some remarks from me.

If you attack a zombie in you own territory, do they bite on an A or a D? ie are you defending your territory, or attacking the zombies?

The way I see this: The Zs are just conducting their battle phase, their throwing of the dice. And then the ‘D’ results can not be assigned. Just see this as a regular battle.
(@Krieghund , if I am wrong please correct me)

Can you hold a territory just with a plane in it, if it has a zombie - or do you also need a land unit there as well?

Very good question. Good you asked this so this could be clarified. Please mind that Zs can hit your - expensive! - plane in their next ‘Zs Attack’ phase.

If a single plane attacks a single zombie within a group of zombies (in a friendly territory held with other units), do all the zombies bite or just the one that the plane is attacking?

As far as I know in standard Axis and Allies games you never attack a specific unit…

Thanks for the feedback!

ve found that I often lose Egypt to Germany. As they have the battle ship and transport to build up a force in Africa.
https://getappvalley.com/ https://tutuappx.com/ https://tweakbox.mobi/
So if I bought a factory for Egypt I’m not able to build troops fast enough to protect it.

How to people feel about South Africa? It’s far enough away to build up some troops in Africa before Germany comes. Assuming they don’t take Egypt turn 1 (with a tank surviving). Or if Germany builds a second transport, they will be able to quickly build up more African troops then the UK.

Say I group up my navy in the Indian Ocean turn 1, so it’s big enough for Japan not to attack it turn 1.

I then have enough navy to protect South Africa from Japan’s navy for a couple turns till I can build up more forces. Also with the two transports from this navy, you can ferry units to India and Egypt areas quickly.

One positives of this factory are able to build navy in South Africa, without using any of India’s production (on land based units). Also some games if I don’t build a factory, I find that I’m forced to start building in England. And if the UK navy has been sunk already this can be a problem if Germany has a large air force

What results have people been getting with this?

Larry Harris recently wrote to us about his new game: War Room. It will be available on Kickstarter on October 30, 2017.

Click here to see the full blog post

Axis & Allies Zombies was recently announced so we got a ton of questions about the game answered by Wizards of the Coast and the lead game designer, Scott Van Essen.

Click here to see the full blog post

On Sep. 27, Wizards of the Coast hosting an AAZ launch party with the Puget Sound A&A Players Meetup group. Attendees played the game, met the design, and left with good first impressions of the game.

Click here to see the full blog post

@Midnight_Reaper:

@Caesar:

So in order for me to explain the situation, you have to already understand how to play zombies and this didn’t cross my mind to ask the developers because I just encountered it now.

So here is the situation: Zombies are co existing with Japanese troops, Germany wants to attack the Zombies in Japanese territories. So when Zombies roll for their attack, Germany being the attacker can only be attacked if the Zombie rolls an “A”. What in this situation makes Japanese troopers? I don’t have an answer for this. What I told my buddy and we agreed with is that because Japan is not the aggressor, that technically makes them the defender so Zombies would have to roll a “D” to attack them. However, officially by rule, I am not sure how to actually treat this. I am 99% sure Japanese soldiers can’t attack the zombies with Germany so this is the only way I can see this working.

How would this work if the Germans were attacking into a British-held territory with Zombies in it? It would work like that, only you obviously restrict your hits to the Zombies instead of your fellow-Axis-power Japanese troops. So, from what I understand, the Zombies would roll A to hit the Germans and D to hit the Japanese. Since it’s the German turn, the Japanese troops just kind of hang out until their turn. At which point, if the Japanese attacked the Zombies in their territory with the Germans present, when the Zombies make their roll an A would hit the Japanese (who are doing the attacking at this point) and a D would hit the Germans (who are likewise hanging out while the Japanese troops do their thing).

Make sense?

-Midnight_Reaper

If you engage a territory owned by your enemy, you have to attack the territory. Fortunately because of the dice, you are also attacking zombies.

That is the one sir!