Well, the year 12 students have moved on, studying for exams and their release from uniformed learning. I will miss them. They are an inspiring group of people, some have become genuine friends and as a whole, they were a pleasure to work with.

To help fill the void, I have decided to tentatively dip my toe into the world of Zombicide (no pics yet as I have nothing at hand).

The Black Plague edition calls. I like the minis (and have another use for them, with my horde of Warhammer Skaven) and I have covered WW2 (Shadows Over Normandie, Axis & Allies & Zombies, Achtung Cthulhu), modern (Tiny Epic Zombies and several RPG’s) and even Futuristic/Steam Punk after a fashion (Hordes/Warmachine). TEZ is a surprise, regularly coming in in the top 5 of all Zombie game lists. Little power packet.

Zombicide is one of those “big” games, like Gloomhaven, with an avalanche of glorious minis and tons of support, but I am more than confident after a ton of research, that the base game and the Huntsman kickstarter (available from Miniature Market at the moment on sale) will be enough to go on with.

This is based on the many threads I have read, all unanimous in saying that the base game is heaps and more is just more of the same but different with this one. Get more if you love it, but the need to is low and value can be a stretch if you are not careful. The Huntsman set has lots of character variety and some extra baddies.

The options available to me with just these two sets are;

• The base game scenarios and free down loads in the GG site (about ten more for BP only and plenty of others that can be adapted).

• 9 basic tiles (18 sides, multi layout, plenty of variety).

• 23 survivors (one can “go dark” see below). Lots of combos, the secret of a good co-op game.

• 4 Necromancers, 2 standard “acolyte” types, 1 stronger leader type and 1 survivor gone dark/traitor.

• 76 human Zombies over three types.

• 3 Abominations including the wolf-bomination that is tougher (no card but it just has 3 actions).

• 3 Wolfz, which again come with no card, but are simply runners with another action.

• 66 spawn cards. The lack of Wolvz cards is overcome on a scenario basis (third set spawned, first level up or escalation etc).

• 71 equipment cards. This is the only minor weakness, lacking much choice in vault or magic items, but this is a game of grass roots survival, so maybe it is for the best, especially considering the number of survivors available.

The main thing here are survivor options. This will add to the re-play value enormously and the Wolvz are a slight escalation if needed (replace normal abominations/runner spawning at set times). My intention is to randomly draw survivors and keep them dead as lost until run completely through.

I just added the Marc Simonetti guest pack;

• 4 slightly stronger survivors including Red Hood Rodney (name-sake!) with +1 damage and Cadence with Marksman skill at blue level. These may count as 2 characters each.

cancel that, I went with the No rest expansion instead for only $20 more.

I have looked at other options and read plenty of opinions, leaving me with the following thoughts.

Wulfzburg is just a lot more wolvz, a couple of tower tiles adding height as a variant (but they are also dead ends!), 4 new survivors and some items, including the maybe overpowered Magic items. This one may be skipped as a few wolvz are plenty for variety and some balance issues are known to show up. If I get it, I may have to house rule the magic items etc.

The special guest survivor packs are a complicated area, too complicated right now. I like the Bonner packs (#2 especially) with their OTT Nordic style Orc/Ogre look and the dwarf on an ogre mount is cool, but I will see, if they are ever available that is. The two Kopinski ones are also interesting. Both sets have Necromancer options also. These bring up the question of how you want to play the game. If you want the scrambling, frantic and fragile feel of a traditional zombie story, then stick to the base gamed its limits. The guest packs bring out a more heroic, zombie smashing play style, with more baddies needed for balance.

No interest in the optional super Zombies/Adominations etc even if I could find them. They are stronger, countering some survivor empowerment, but I am avoiding those pitfalls as well.

Friend or Foe is Green Horde biased (toxic Gobbos), so probably not. This is a shame as it has some useful bits, but I know I would not use the gobbo zombs outside of Green Horde and that is well down the list.

No Rest for the Wicked (purchased) is fully compatible with BP, but only adds more nasties and the Ballista, no heroes, tiles or items. The term “house rule” comes up a lot with this one. The Dragon is both underwhelming in itself and sudden game ending (nerf coming). The Ballista needs serious curtailing (no indoor use, one shot per turn maximum, limited to 6 ammo, or limited targets etc) and the “wraith” like zombies, act/look like ghosts, but are then technically not (poorly conceived I feel), so more “etherial” rules applied (like no killing with the Ballista!). This is a maybe, because of the rats (love rats), but with house rules applied to the other elements as above.

Like the idea of the Rat King and Troll box, but again, none around.

The Green Horde tile pack is tempting if I can find one, with 14 different tiles (rules for them downloaded from their site) could open up a lot of possibilities. The trick here is finding one cheaper than buying the whole Green Horde base game!

The BP tile pack less so, as it only gives you the option of using both sides of the same tile.

Green Horde adds the most, but goes in a direction I am not as keen on. This would make sense with the No Rest or Friends and Foes expansions, and there goes the escalation trigger!!!

Absolutely no interest in any other periods, as they play much the same and I have them covered other ways.

I have a plan for painting them also. I will base in a predominant colour (Zombie flesh, cloth brown etc), then highlight specific details like leather, metal, skin, then dip.

Things learned;

The game is fine in smaller doses, not much better when swamped by options. Variety is the spice of many games, but the variety added can come with inconsistency and too much repetition.

The game is open to (needs) house ruling. Rules I am looking at are;

• Abominations getting more hits (scaled to threat level) at 1:1 to XP and 1 armour or armour rolls, so they cannot be one shotted and are vulnerable to more characters, even if not by much). This makes them a longer term, but surmountable menace, rather than the all or nothing one they are now.

• The house rules cited for the No Rest expansion (my most likely future purchase).

• Character selection and item allocation.

I am tiring of the whole kick starter, rare figure chasing, fomo completist thing. Enough! FFG and HoN broke me here so my tolerance for this is waning, no matter how much I like a game. The MM special on the Huntsman pack was the trigger, but it would not have worked the other way around.