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Aftermath

by H Kevin Long

Aftermath is a variant for 6 to 12 players in 2 teams...

Alone and Unafraid

As a mercenary you parachute alone into the terrain by drawing a map tile from that pile. Check to make sure this exact identical tile has not already been drawn and placed. If it is a repeat tile, then place at the bottom of the pile and the drawer chooses where to join the area explored with the other area that had the same tile. Place mercenary in the center of tile when parachuting in.

The tile that each mercenary parachutes into is empty of zombies.

Until the first terrain is combined by opposing mercenaries, all 12 players move at once, one turn at a time.

Object of the Game

The operation ends when the last zombie falls. The winning team has the highest Zombie kills and the least mercenary deaths. Score by deducting 5 zombies from your total Zombie count for every lost mercenary.

Game Setup

Use 2 or 3 Zombies sets. Remove the helicopters from the game. Place map decks in separate sets for drawing piles. Each team draws 6 cards for collective use in the game. Each team divides up the mercenaries so they are equally distributed to the different terrain sets for parachuting into the infestation. Meaning "these 3 players will be drawing city tiles and these 3 will be drawing mall tiles", etc.

Turn Sequence Overview

• Offensive Team
  Turns are taken simultaneously by the whole team at once and perform the following steps.
  1. Each player moves their Mercenary up to a number of spaces equal to the number of teammates in the "local Squad". Ex. a chain of 4 team mates, where each has one of the other mercenaries within 2 spaces, can move as a "Squad" up to 4 spaces for each mercenary. If only a solo mercenary then you move 1 space.
  2. "Take the Streets" - When a mercenary is at the edge of a street that doesn't have a map tile attached then draw from the appropriate tile
  3. "Make like a Zombie" - AKA Zombie Herding: For every step that a member of a Squad takes, any zombie that falls within 3 spaces must be moved out of those 3 spaces unless cornered. ZOMBIES CAN OCCUPY THE SAME SPACE IN THIS SCENARIO!!!!!
  4. "Mindless Panic" - pushing Zombies before you is not fully controlled - if they hit a "T" intersection and can't flee directly from the active mercenaries then they are split in half to go each way equally. Zombies can not take detours! Meaning they can't go into a shop from the street!
  5. "Stickin It To Um" - all players on the team must end their movement before taking target practice. "Military Hardware" - THE MERCENARY CAN SHOOT AT EACH ZOMBIE IN AN ADJACENT SQUARE, IF ABLE.
  6. Any Zombies pushed into opponents spaces do battle. Offensive team rolls for the zombies.
• Defensive Team
  Meanwhile on the other side of the fence: the other team.
  1. The Other Team defends it self against any Zombies herded into their space by the other team.
  2. "Play Your Cards Right": Cards are used, drawn (up to 6) and discarded during a teams defensive mode (discard up to 2 cards before becoming the Offensive team). Any card that can only be played when the team is on offensive maneuvers (such as a movement enhancing card) is laid face up before starting.

Additional Rules and Clarifications

1. When your mercenary dies, throw a heart chip in with the Zombies your team has slayed to track the number of mercenaries that die under your command.
2. When a mercenary dies a replacement is parachuted back into play on the team's next turn according to "Alone and Unafraid"
3. If the entrance to a terrain type such as the entrance to the mall or army base is drawn then connect the 2 terrains. The team that drew the tile chooses where to connect to the other terrain.

Design Notes

• Objective of this design is FUN, fast, simple, change the basic rules as little as possible! Changing basic rules is a variant killer. Only rules changed is zombie concentration in one space and ability to shoot zombies from an adjacent square as the active team and the trigger for drawing of tiles - the rest of these rules are only additions to the basic rules
• Eliminate dice use for movement, to increase strategy of teaming up and speed up play
• Speed play by having 2 teams and all in a team move at once - this also gives the other team something to do, monitor the other teams movement and strategy
• Game play has phases: parachute into the scenario alone, all 12 players move at once until first contact - this gets all 12 players into the game quickly and focused
• Zombie herding is the dynamic to encourage teams to link up
• Card use is normally used when combating zombies - for speed and for something for the other team to do when the other team is moving, defensive team only uses cards - limit to number of cards to avoid analysis paralysis with so many on a team, yet keep them in play for the entertainment value
• The 2 team arrangement kills a common party game malady. People start making allies since they don't know the rules and king make. 2 teams helps avoid hurt feelings
• Zombie herding is not a simple tug of war between the teams - since zombies can't enter shops, the defensive team has hopefully stationed them selves safely before the stampede
• Note the end game condition is when the last zombie falls. This will produce situations where the last zombies are being cornered and the team that is behind on kills will need to make sure they can get to the edge of the placed tiles to produce more tiles and zombies. Ideally all tiles get placed instead of one team being able to close out the game while ahead
• Sample Strategy decisions: Coordinating movement to join and dominate the greatest concentration of Zombies - where to corner zombies - how many mercenaries to commit to groups of zombies, when to split and rejoin for fastest slaughtering
• Parachuting in alone allows the casual gamer to ease into play and be in charge of their own mercenary - increases the chances that a dominant player can't start running the show from zero hour onward
• The worth of a dead mercenary equal to 5 zombies for end scoring is not thoroughly tested
• Dying is fun and an event, as you are now on a solo adventure until you can parachute in and join up your explored terrain to the rest
• Suggest a box lid as a graveyard for scoring team alpha and team zulu/zombie scoring of zombie kills