Rules - Phase 2 Zombies Attack

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

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Thanks Taamvan for the props…yes, I will be having a Zombie tournament at GEN CON. I am excited about it and really trying to nail down all the rules questions before then.

And yes, I have a tendency to lean towards the Axis as well and it will be interesting to see how much they are will to give up in a 3 hour game.

Right now, these are only preliminary but here is what I have come up with so far…

http://www.headlesshorseman2.com/uploads/3/4/0/0/34000156/aazrules19.pdf

Also, there will be some rule changes especially with the zombie cards and techs. I will keep you posted.

@Caesar-Seriona They will work with most versions of A&A.
The issue will be that Anniversary and Global have more territories on the map than1942 2ed.
Some have suggested using a die to decide. (if 1942 has one territory but the other has three, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 die roll to see who gets the zombies)
You might run short of zombies as well, but painting up some infantry from a parts game should work well.

I don’t think anything else is needed.

I’m loving this two part interview. It goes deep into the philosophy behind the design of the game. Thank you for sharing!

@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.

It’s a great idea, and you can do all sorts of goofy stuff in a 1962 setting including an alien invasion event that could force the US and USSR to work together. Plus why not cash in on the new Red Scare consuming the US’s news cycle?

For those interested, photos of our meetup are going up now. Wizards put on a phenomenal spread of food including a mountain of pizza, held a raffle for prizes, and gave us all copies of AAZ! Scott and other developers even signed boxes.

It was truly an amazing event and we’re so grateful to Wizards for their hospitality.

Marshmallow of War

@DessertFox599:

Ummm. is this game supposed to take place in 1941? If so why does …

If you come into A&A, of any variety, expecting perfect historical accuracy than you’re doing it wrong. Game play has always trumped historical accuracy / realism in this series of games.

-Midnight_Reaper