My original title was "Zombicide: Black Plague with Julian and John" but then I thought of this one and imagine how many extra "views" I will get with this phrase!
Here is an AI generated image I got using the terms female fantasy adventurer nun!
Now - on to the games!
Zombicide: Black Plague is a standalone cooperative board game for 1 to 6 players that brings the relentless zombie-killing action of Zombicide into a brand-new fantasy setting, featuring different Survivors from all walks of medieval life and even some fantasy races like dwarves and elves!
Box Artwork
Some of the 70 odd plastic figures that come with the game - Julian has painted them all up, using the speed paints method again.
One of the survivor characters
I arrived quite early at Julians, having sloped off from work after a midafternoon meeting with a customer, so I was able to get THREE games in. The first two were practice/training exercises, just to get us used to the rules.
Julian, of course, in pre-game emailing, had already type cast me - here are my two character figures!
And as painted up by Julian below.
The various character cards for the game character card
Each character has different abilities - Nelly the barmaid gets an extra move action right from the off. You get experience by killing zombies and retrieving articles during room searches and you keep track of those along the bottom of the character tracker - when you go from blue to yellow, you go up a level and get some extra ability.
The "training area"
There are various types of Zombies - Brute (I think) on the left and standard Walker on the right.
This is a Runner and can move two squares per turn rather than the standard one.
Every time a character enters a room for the first time, they may generate Zombies. This is done by taking a card from the Zombie generation pile. Zombies also have Spawn positions where they are generated at the end of each turn - the Zombie phase - this is when Zombies move too.
Here is a card - note the coloured flames to the left, as characters gain more experience, Zombie generation changes to match the highest experience level of any character on the board. (also note, amusingly, that Brutes used to be called Fatty, but as about 70% of prospective players of the game are probably fatties themselves, the producers changed the name in later editions - LOL!)
If Zombies are in the same square as any character at the end of the Zombie turn, they automatically inflict one "bite" - it takes three bites to kill a character.
Searching rooms can reveal all sorts of items that may assist your characters - there is a "Search" card pile and after entering a room for the first time, the player simply draws a card - there is no test to see if the search was successful - you find something in every room - but it can be something lame like apples - which add one strength point - or worse, a Zombie Ambush!
Here are a few images of the first practice game - Nelly the barmaid and Julians dwarf whose name I think was Samson, take on a bunch of zombies.
Zombies pursuing our heroic band through the small house.
An Abomination was generated at the exit point - these are a problem as they take three hits to kill and almost no one can do that - and hits are NOT cumulative..... we managed to escape however by sprinting past the lumbering beast - mission accomplished and Endex!
John arrived about 5pm and we played the same training mission again but with six characters - I did not take any images of that game.
The main event - here are the six figures (above) we had. John, the Actoooaar, took to calling his figures (the two on the right) after the Hemsworth brothers, Liam and Luke (or possibly Chris, I can't recall!)
A Hemsworth!
All the character cards for the game we played.
The game area expanded from three to six boards. Our mission was to search for a Necromancer, kill him, and also kill the Abomination he had summoned from the Underworld, as well as searching every room that had a red X marker in it - no doubt generating a horde of Zombies in doing so!
The Hemsworth's got lucky and accidentally stumbled upon the Necromancer in a room search early in the game. Against the expectations of the game play design, the Necromancer was caught cold and unable to summon up an army of Zombies to protect him - and without them, he was just a standard figure who could be killed with a 4+ on a D6 sword cut - easy!
Despite the death of the Necromancer, the Zombies were multiplying all over the board.
We had originally planned to split into three groups of two and search one row of rooms each, but that plan was quickly abandoned as we realised we would be wiped out that way. Nelly the sword wielding barmaid covered our left flank.
While Julian and the Hemsworth's tried to move down the right-hand side of the board.
The Abomination moved at one square per turn towards John and Julians crews. Fortunately, Julians wizard (Baldric perhaps?) found a "push back" spell in one of the room searches, so he was able to constantly hold the abomination off, as the rest of us searched high and low for something to take out the monster!
Both Julian and I had discovered Dragon Bile in earlier searches. This could potentially take out the Abomination - BUT, we needed to also find an ignition source, namely a torch - the hunt was on!
Nelly had located this little beauty in a search of the basement - very useful in dealing with the ever-increasing numbers of Zombies our frantic room searching was generating! It meant she had to get close to the enemy, but once she did, her "napalm" was deadly!
A Hemsworth used his enormous weapon to smash down the door to the main block of rooms, causing a swarm of Zombies to appear. Being a true gentleman, (he is Australian, you see) he then stepped aside....
..... and let Nelly with her four actions plus one extra movement action, rush in and destroy the first batch with her napalm grenade spell!
Oh dear - there are A LOT of Zombies between us and our objectives!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, the Dwarf Samson was scything through the Zombies, keeping the Wizard safe to carry on containing the Abomination and a large group of other Zombies with his Push Back spell.
After keeping out of the way for most of the game (well, Nelly didn't really need a lot of help before) Ann the Blue Nun (like the wine we all remember from the Seventies!) moved from the cellar via a tunnel and appeared behind some of the Zombies. Her special attribute was "Bloodlust melee", which allowed her a free move into any area occupied by a Zombie, then an extra turn of combat!
Girl Power - Nelly and Ann united after taking out half the Zombies! Now, all they have to do is find a torch!
Meanwhile, back at the front door, the Hemsworth had three attempts with two dice to score a four or better to kill off a few Zombies.....bloody men, sigh!
However ..... the two girls quickly dispatched the rest of the Zombies and searched every remaining room - to no avail! The number of extra bloody crossbows and long bows they found was getting a bit annoying .......
Julian as GM had to fudge the rules, and let characters research a room, because we had no options available to get three kills on the Abomination as things stood - and one of the bloody Hemsworth's found a torch, didn't they?!
A quick RV with Nelly and her Dragon Bile, then the door leading to the passage behind the Abomination and his mates was breached, Nelly ran up behind the Zombies, still held in check by Julians Wizards Push Back spell and hurled the vile of Dragon Bile and the flaming torch into the adjacent square - job done, game over!
Great fun was had by all - John got a bit upset when my girls took the piss out of the Hemsworth's poor fighting skills - but it has to be said, in addition to their rugged good looks, they did in fact kill the Necromancer and find the torch that enabled Nelly to kill the Abomination - so if they had not been there, things might have ended quite differently - and what was that you said about "having a boy look", ladies - you searched that room too and didn't find the torch!
