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!

This is the long awaited followup to the first part of our interview with Axis & Allies & Zombies game designer, Scott Van Essen. Scott…

Click here to see the full blog post

Larry Harris, creator of Axis & Allies, and Thomas Gale have teamed up to release a new wargame called War Room. The game has been in development for over 4 years and the Kickstarter, to fund the game, is scheduled for October 30, 2017.

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

2023 UPDATE

As we finally played AAZ again we were wondering:

Did more people interprete this rule wrongly?
Namely that you had to destroy ALL Zs that were present in an Z-controlled area?

If I introduce players to AAZ it seems all of them expect this to be the case: that you only get the bonus if ALL Z-units are destroyed.

Just wondering…

Rule book: see pages 4 and 23…

@Flashman said in Where WOTC got the idea for this game…:

Surely Axis and Allies and Aliens would have been more interesting, with the humans gradually adapting alien tech and reluctantly co-operating against them but with a view to ultimate victory.

And I’ve got zombies already; I want little green aliens with ray guns.

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&channel=iphone_bm&q=Worldwar:+In+the+Balance&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLQz9U3SDIoSFPiBLHSjEwN87SkspOt9JPy87P1E0tLMvKLrEDsYoX8vJxKAOnTGj4zAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwje7dWnqvfeAhUIKnwKHXqzClsQgOQBMBR6BAgMEH4&biw=320&bih=523

Harry Turtledove is an author who writes alternative history books. I enjoyed this one. You may already know about him though.

@djensen:

I have another opportunity to interview the game designer of Axis  & Allies & Zombies. So I’d like to extend that to the community and find out, what new questions do you have about the game?

We’re getting close to GenCon and I’m scheduled to play on Saturday morning (Sorry I’m busy all day Thursday with Catan and Friday with A&A) so hopefully we can ask anything at this point. But feel free to ask soft ball and specific questions. Of course, I’ll reserve the right to not include any questions and let’s keep it positive.

I wish I could be there with you djensen.  8-)