Zombie Guide Preview

Anatomy of the Basic Zombie

First, I will display the basic Zombie unit as written and then I will elaborate on its individual components.

Zombie
Fringe, 15 Points
Hit Points: 30
Defense: 14
Attack: 5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities
Undead (This character is considered non-living and is not subject to commander effects, is still subject to critical hits, cannot switch squads, cannot receive healing of any form, is not subject to certain special abilities and Force powers (see Glossary) and cannot use or benefit from Force powers. This character can only move if it cannot make a Melee Attack from its space and must end its turn adjacent to a living enemy if it can.)
Speed 4 (Can move only 4 squares and attack, or 8 squares without attacking)
Melee Attack (Can attack only adjacent enemies)
The Sickness (+10 Damage on melee attacks against a living enemy; save 11. Whenever this character defeats a living enemy that does not have Self-Destruct with a melee attack, that character is immediately restored to half health and joins your squad, suffers -2 Attack, -2 Defense and gains the following special abilities: The Undead, Speed 4, Melee Attack, The Sickness, Bloodthirsty, Consume, Horde +2, Outbreak, Re-Animate and Recollection. The enemy loses its commander effect, any unspent Force points and cannot use any of its prior special abilities or Force powers. If the enemy had Speed 8, it loses Speed 8 and does not gain Speed 4. A Huge enemy gains Swallow Whole instead of Consume and Horde +3 instead of Horde +2. A Small enemy gains Horde +1 instead of Horde +2. This new character sets up in the square that the enemy formerly occupied.)
Bloodthirsty (+10 Damage on melee attacks against enemies at half Hit Points or less)
Consume (When a living enemy is defeated by this character with a melee attack, remove 10 damage from this character)
Horde +2 (+2 Attack on melee attacks against a target for each allied character with Horde adjacent to that target. This character gains +1 Defense for every adjacent allied Undead character.)
Outbreak (This character considers all living characters, enemy or allied, to be enemies and can attack them regardless of squad)
Re-Animate (Whenever this character would be defeated by an attack, make a save of 6 if the attacker is nonadjacent or 11 if the attacker is adjacent. On a success, this character has 10 Hit Points instead of being defeated. Whenever this character would be defeated by an ability that replaces attacks or an attack with a lightsaber, make 2 saves, each needing 11; if both succeed, this character has 10 Hit Points instead of being defeated. If this character is considered to be burning and is defeated by taking burning damage, this character is defeated.)
Base: Medium

All Zombies are variants and deviations from this basic form. Each Zombie is a self-contained unit, capable of spreading the Sickness and working with other Undead to overwhelm superior foes. On their own, they are formidable, but together, they are truly powerful.

We will now examine the unit on a deeper level. Firstly, the stats:

Zombie
15 Points
Hit Points: 30
Defense: 14
Attack: 5
Damage: 10

I settled on 15 points early on because it seemed like a decent number; you can get a few of them in a 100-point squad and any other Zombie units with more special abilities cost more. Each other type of standard Zombie, from Defel Zombie to Rancor Zombie, uses a higher point cost than the normal Zombie and adds in a few special abilities. 30 HP gives it some survivability, but most units can achieve about 30 points of damage on average with special abilities and commander effects, so the standard Zombie isn’t too invulnerable, but that’s where Re-Animate comes in. The Defense and Attack are not very high either, but that’s where Horde comes in. 10 Damage isn’t much either, the game’s minimum, but with additional damage from The Sickness and Bloodthirsty, they can hit for 20 Damage if an enemy fails the save, 20 Damage if an enemy succeeds the save but is at half or lower health, and 30 Damage if an enemy at half or lower health fails the save, every single hit.

Undead

The Undead special ability is what I use to signify the basic Zombies. Since I didn’t want to make the text on every Zombie unit’s page too long, I wanted to condense several special abilities into one entry rather than have them be individual entries. Hence, the glossary entry is rather long, but it is a bit of a necessity.

Card Text:

This character is considered non-living and is not subject to commander effects, is still subject to critical hits, cannot switch squads, cannot receive healing of any form, is not subject to certain special abilities and Force powers (see Glossary) and cannot use or benefit from Force powers. This character can only move if it cannot make a melee attack against a living enemy and must end its turn adjacent to one if it can.

Glossary Text:

This character is the re-animated corpse of a once-living being. It is considered non-living and thus not subject to commander effects. Undead are still subject to critical hits. An Undead character cannot switch squads for any reason. Undead characters cannot receive healing from any source other than the Consume or Swallow Whole special abilities. Undead characters are not subject to effects that specifically target nonliving characters, such as Droids. Undead characters cannot use or benefit from any Force powers of any form. Undead characters, upon activation, can only move from their starting square if they cannot make a melee attack against an adjacent living character. An Undead character must end its turn adjacent to a living enemy if it is able to do so.

Undead Characters are subject to the following special abilities:
Corrosive Acid

Undead Characters are not subject to the following special abilities:
Atlatl 20, Atlatl 30, Cesta 20, Droid Fanaticism, Electrostaff +10, Electrostaff +20, EMP Grenades, Impostor Protocol, Ion Gun +20, Malfunctioning 10, Saber Dart, Saboteur, Shielding Upgrades, Shockstaff +10

Undead Characters are not subject to the following Force powers:
Drain Energy, Ionize 1, Ionize 2

Note that the Undead are still subject to the damage of Atlatl 20 and Atlatl 30, but they ignore the non-damaging effect, as with Huge and larger characters.

The Undead are not subject to any commander effects outside of those that specifically target the Undead. This is to represent the uncontrollable nature of the Zombies, who hold loyalty only to their own insatiable hunger. Darth Vader, Imperial Commander would not, for example, be able to give his commander effect, a +6 Defense to Trooper followers, to a squad of Death Troopers. I have made plenty of commander effects that target the Undead, and each of them only belongs on characters who were leaders of Undead in the lore. The only exception to this is Dathka Graush, Dark Force Spirit, but I will get into that later.

Unlike droids, the Undead are still subject to critical hits. This is specifically done to allow for the “headshot” effect so popular to Zombie pop culture. The Undead can still be killed by a lucky shot; I am not one to deny anyone a good roll on the d20.

The Undead are unable to switch squads for any reason.  This is important, as it negates any special ability or Force power that would cause it to suddenly shift loyalties and have a Zombie fight its Undead comrades. The Undead cannot be controlled by anyone except an Undead commander; this coincides with the Outbreak special ability, detailed later on.

The Undead cannot receive healing outside of their own special abilities that allow them to remove damage. As they are meant to be rotting corpses, they cannot be bandaged or slathered in bacta or healed by medkits. Consume and Swallow Whole is the only way for an Undead character to heal itself, as this represents the consumption of living persons.

Up until the introduction of the Undead, droids were the only non-living characters in the game. As such, many special abilities and commander effects specified non-living targets. As an important distinction early on, the Undead are considered non-living, but not subject to any special abilities or commander effects that target droids. As there is little in the rules of the game to specify which, I listed every special ability I could find (in the official ruleset) that would not target the Undead. This includes things like Ion Gun and EMP Grenades, which are obviously meant only to target droids and would have no effect on a re-animated corpse.

The Undead cannot use Force powers or gain Force points for any reason; they are dead and not connected to the Force. While the virus in the lore has been hinted at having a connection to the Force or originating from a Force-sensitive plant, the Undead show no form of Force ability or prowess. As such, their tabletop representatives do not either. They cannot benefit from Force powers, such as any form of healing or shielding, used by other living characters, allied or enemy.

The Undead, upon activation, cannot move from their starting space if they can attack a living enemy with a melee attack. Due to the rules of Outbreak, allied living characters are also considered enemies and thus cause the Undead to be subject to this rule. This is because logically, a Zombie would try to attack the nearest living creature in order to feed.

The Undead must end their turn adjacent to a living enemy if they are able to do so. This represents coincides with the previous point that dictates that a Zombie would try to attack the nearest living creature. This also is similar to the wording on the Savage special ability, which has led to the question on some of my units:

“Why not just give them Savage?”

The reason for this is that the Undead units, while savage in nature, are not meant to represent the kinds of characters that the Savage special ability designates on the tabletop. Characters with Savage tend to be wild beasts, such as Wampas and Rancors, who are monstrous, but still have some degree of self-awareness and preservation. Zombies have neither. There are characters in the game with special abilities and commander effects that specifically target Savage characters, and none of them are meant to control Undead. Malakili, Rancor Keeper for example causes Savage characters to lose Savage (meant to represent a “taming of the beast” as it were) but it would make no sense for him to be able to affect the Undead in this manner.

Furthermore, Savage means they must end their turn adjacent to an enemy—living or non-living, and it need not be the same enemy. The Undead do not care about droids; they will destroy them if they present a threat, but they cannot feed on them or transform them. Hence, a Zombie, if in a room with a living enemy and a droid enemy, would logically attack the living enemy and disregard the metal droid. This also intentionally coincides with the previous entry about them not being to move if they can attack a living enemy; a Savage character does not have this limit. It is limiting, yes—but that’s the point. The Undead must have specific limitations and this is one of them.

Speed 4

The average speed of a Zombie is 4 squares of movement; 8 without attacking. This is meant to reflect their awkward, shuffling nature. Some more advanced Zombie units have Speed 5 or a normal speed of 6, and this is to represent units with multiple legs or longer-than-standard legs compared to the average humanoid.

The Sickness

This is the big one, the one that really gets to the core of what the Undead are all about. The Sickness is how the Zombies spread the infection and convert enemy living characters to their side.

Card Text:

+10 Damage on melee attacks against a living enemy; save 11. Whenever this character defeats a living enemy that does not have Self-Destruct with a melee attack, that character is immediately restored to half health and joins your squad, suffers -2 Attack, -2 Defense and gains the following special abilities: The Undead, Speed 4, Melee Attack, The Sickness, Bloodthirsty, Consume, Horde +2, Outbreak, Re-Animate and Recollection. The enemy loses its commander effect, any unspent Force points and cannot use any of its prior special abilities or Force powers. If the enemy had Speed 8, it loses Speed 8 and does not gain Speed 4. A Huge enemy gains Swallow Whole instead of Consume and Horde +3 instead of Horde +2. A Small enemy gains Horde +1 instead of Horde +2. This new character sets up in the square that the enemy formerly occupied and enters the battlefield activated.

Glossary Text:

The Undead are capable of spreading the Sickness to other living beings. They receive +10 Damage on melee attacks against living enemies; save 11. When an Undead character defeats a living enemy character with a melee attack, certain effects happen: the original character is removed from play, and replaced with an Undead copy of itself that sets up in the same square the enemy formerly occupied. The Attack and Defense of the original character are both lowered by 2 and its damage remains the same. The Undead copy starts out with an HP value equal to half of the original character's HP value, rounded up. The Undead copy immediately joins the squad of the Undead character that created it. The Undead copy gains the following special abilities: Undead, Speed 4, Melee Attack, The Sickness, Bloodthirsty, Consume, Horde +2, Outbreak, Re-Animate and Recollection. The Undead copy loses its commander effect if it had one. The Undead copy loses any Force points that the original character possessed at the time of defeat or started out the Skirmish with. The Undead copy does not retain any prior special abilities or Force powers that the original character possessed, though it may be able to re-learn some of them with Recollection. If the original character had Speed 8, it loses Speed 8 but does not gain Speed 4, instead having a normal speed. A Huge enemy turned Undead gains Swallow Whole instead of Consume and Horde +3 instead of Horde +2. A Small enemy turned Undead gains Horde +1 instead of Horde +2. The Undead copy enters the battlefield activated. A living enemy with the Self-Destruct special ability is still susceptible to the additional damage granted by this special ability, but does not return as an Undead copy of itself and is defeated normally, with the effects of Self-Destruct being resolved normally.

The entry is fairly comprehensive, but let me delve into the finer points to represent my intentions for this special ability:

Against living characters, the Undead deal an additional 10 Damage, save 11. This is to represent biting or scratching that partially transfers the virus into the host, a classic archetype of the Undead. Some other custom units built by other players cause characters to become Infected on one successful attack, causing them to progressively take 10 Damage if they fail a saving throw; some other special abilities in the game mimic this effect, like some poisonous ones. While in the lore, a single bite or scratch or directly fluidly contact would invariably infect an individual and cause them to turn, I felt this was a bit too powerful for a standard Undead unit to have, especially since they have a tendency to swarm. I considered a few options, but since I did not want to design the Undead around only having a very few squad types to be effective against them (namely those that would be immune or have some kind of Anti-Virus or healing capability), I decided against giving them any form of progressive ongoing damage.

Now, to the real meat of it: what happens when an Undead defeats a living enemy character.

Early on, I decided against simply replacing a target enemy with another Zombie unit; this led to a number of immediate problems, like turning General Grievous into a normal Zombie or a rancor into a Zombie. So, I decided to make enemies into Undead versions of themselves which would join the attacking Zombie’s squad and replace their living counterpart on the battlefield. This is the most spectacular portion of The Sickness and represents, in my opinion, the true threat to living enemies.

NOTE: A living enemy with Self-Destruct does not turn into an Undead copy of itself when defeated. While living enemies are still subject to the extra damage of The Sickness, they are not subject to the latter portions of the special ability if they have Self-Destruct. If they are defeated, Self-Destruct resolves normally, damaging any characters adjacent. This distinction is to represent the character blowing up and thus its inability to be turned into a walking corpse; a logical distinction.

The Undead copy suffers a negative value of 2 to its Attack and Defense scores, in order to reflect its loss of finer motor skills and reflexes, but this is not so severe as to make a powerful enemy lose too much of its offensive or defensive capabilities. Its health is reduced in half and rounded up. The reasons for this are twofold: firstly, it is a fresh corpse and has not eaten anything, so it would not be as strong as it was in life, and secondly to avoid having units that are too powerful health-wise, given that they are now gaining a number of special abilities and other qualities that are quite nasty to enemies.

The Undead copy gains a number of special abilities and loses most of what it originally had. It gains Undead, Speed 4, Melee Attack, The Sickness, Bloodthirsty, Consume, Horde +2, Outbreak and Re-Animate, all special abilities possessed by the template Zombie. It also gains Recollection, which will allow it to remember some, but not all, of its past special abilities. In the lore, the Undead were able to retain some basic knowledge and could operate machinery and weaponry, among other things. This is more like remembered knowledge rather than active learning, hence the Recollection special ability which will be described in detail below this entry.

The Undead copy loses its commander effect, special abilities and Force powers. If it already had either Melee Attack or any of the others, it does not gain any special ability twice, obviously. Without exception, it loses all special abilities, but might be able to regain them through Recollection. The Undead copy loses all of its unspent Force points and cannot gain more, in accordance with the Undead special ability.

The average rule of thumb I had is that any character who turns Undead loses 2 squares of movement. Hence, a character with a normal movement speed of 6 gains Speed 4. If a character had Speed 8, it does not gain Speed 4 and instead has a normal speed value of 6, which is not represented with a special ability entry, since it is the standard movement speed of the game. Much like what I said for Speed 4, this represents the impaired mobility of the Undead, another limitation on their effectiveness but a necessary one.

Slightly different things happen when a Huge or Small living character is turned Undead. A Huge living character does not gain Consume or Horde +2; instead, it gains Swallow Whole and Horde +3. A Small enemy turned Undead gains Horde +1 instead of Horde +2. This section here is meant to keep continuity between later Small and Huge Zombie characters; greater elaboration on them and the Swallow Whole special ability will be included in the latter portions of this document under the Undead Horde section.

Finally, an Undead copy enters the battlefield activated; this represents the fact that it takes a moment for the infection to re-animate the corpse before it becomes combat-capable.

Overall, I feel very confident this special ability, its wording and the gameplay mechanics it incorporates. I feel that everyone can get down with The Sickness.

…Alright, no more puns for the duration of this guide, I promise.

Recollection

Recollection is meant to represent the ability of an Undead copy being able to remember past portions of its life; in mechanical sense, past special abilities.

Card Text:

When this character activates, make a save of 16; on a success, they permanently regain the ability to use their non-melee attack or the use of a prior special ability that replaces attacks or allows the character to make multiple attacks.

Glossary Text:

Enemy characters turned into Undead allied units are able to remember certain special abilities from their past lives. When an Undead character with Recollection activates, make a save of 16; on a success, they can regain either the original character's non-melee attack (only if the original character possessed a non-melee attack, with the modified Attack value granted from The Sickness) or the use of a prior special ability the original character it is descended from possesses until the end of the skirmish. The player controlling the Undead character chooses which quality the character regains. An Undead character can only recollect the following: their prior non-melee attack (which causes the Undead character to lose Melee Attack), a special ability that replaces attacks, such as Missiles 10, or a special ability that allows a character to make multiple attacks per turn, such as Double Attack, Triple Attack or Double Claw Attack. Recollection cannot be used to regain abilities related to movement, such as Greater Mobile Attack or Flight, unless it is an ability that replaces attacks. An Undead character can only recollect one such quality per activation, and once it has no qualities that fit the criteria for Recollection, does not need to save to recollect any longer. Recollection cannot be used to regain Force powers of any kind. Undead characters who lose Melee Attack are still considered to make melee attacks against adjacent targets for the purposes of special abilities that relate to them, such as Bloodthirsty, Horde and The Sickness.

Recollection is a special ability with simple card text and a complicated glossary entry. There isn’t much I can say here that isn’t explained above, but I can detail more of my intentions with it. There are too many special abilities that replace attacks to list, but some are not really meant for Recollection, if you catch my drift. A Zombie would not recollect Heal 10 or any other ability that would help a living character regain health (rather counter-intuitive to a Zombie’s base instincts, in my opinion). Other non-damaging abilities such as Satchel Charge or Repair 10 seem fine; it’s a bit of a stretch imagining Zombies repairing machinery or droids, but not outside the realm of possibility. I leave it up to the individuals playing the game to decide which special abilities are covered by these effects.

On the note of regaining ranged attacks: As specified above, an Undead copy that regains its ranged attack, in effect, loses Melee Attack. However, any attack that it makes to an adjacent living enemy is still considered a melee attack in order to trigger the effects of The Sickness and Bloodthirsty. Losing Melee Attack does not mean that it no longer has to end its turn adjacent to a living enemy if they can; the Undead are always meant to be moving towards their next meal.

Bloodthirsty

Bloodthirsty is one of the few non-custom abilities the Undead possess.

+10 Damage on melee attacks against enemies at half Hit Points or less

I would have preferred the additional damage be done only to living enemies at half health or less, but I don’t mind them being able to do a bit more damage to droids as well. All Zombie units have Bloodthirsty, representative of them “catching the scent” of fresh blood and being driven to a more crazed state because of it.

Consume

A simple custom ability, and one that does not need a glossary entry to elaborate on it.

When a living enemy is defeated by this character with a melee attack, remove 10 Damage

When an Undead character defeats a living enemy, it removes 10 Damage from itself. This, as previously stated, represents the Undead eating the flesh of their new kill and getting a small buff from it. I considered giving them a Defense and Attack boost as well, but that was instead given to Horde.

Horde

Horde comes in three versions, each capable of affecting each other but only benefiting the individual character based on what version it has (+1, +2 and +3).

+X Attack on melee attacks against a target for each allied character with Horde adjacent to that target. This character gains +1 Defense for every adjacent allied Undead character.

With X being the value after each Horde entry on the individual unit. Each Horde entry has the same value for Defense, but a differing value for Attack. A Zombie with Horde +2, if it attacks an enemy with two of its Undead allies adjacent to that same enemy, gets a +4 to his attack, but if the Zombie himself is only adjacent to one of the allied Undead units, gets only a +1 to Defense.

Horde represents the Undead’s ability to swarm and have strength in numbers. It also represents the “wall of Zombies” effect in pop culture in which it always seems that the proportional strength or defense of a Zombie directly increases with the number of Zombies around it, and that firing into a wall of Undead seems to have no effect due to the panicking nature of those doing the shooting (they can never seem to get headshots, can they?).

As a rule of thumb in designing the Zombies, a Medium or Large character has Horde +2, a Small character has Horde +1 and Huge characters have Horde +3.

Outbreak

Early in the design process, I discovered a problem with the Undead as they were currently written: there was no consequence to fielding a team of Zombies with living allies, but that I would have to design allied commander units who were living. I also ran into the problem of having too much wording on the units and decided that there would be more than enough commanders to justify having the effect of Outbreak be a separate special ability instead of having it be part of the Undead special ability.

This character considers all living characters, enemy or allied, to be enemies and can attack them regardless of squad

Outbreak means that the effects of the Undead special ability that deal with making a melee attack from its starting space and having to end its turn adjacent to a living enemy applies to allied living characters as well. An Undead would treat them as enemies, with all the standard rules that apply with it: they cannot move through an allied living character’s space, allied living characters provoke attacks of opportunity and they can attack allied living characters in order to convert them to Undead.

Does this mean that you can make a squad with one Zombie or a small number of them and a bunch of cheaper living units and turn them Undead? Technically yes, but it would take a while in-game to convert all of them (at least a few turns) and the stats on the converted characters wouldn’t be too impressive. While that is not what Outbreak is meant for, it’s something you can do if that’s your strategy.

No, what Outbreak is really meant for is that almost every single living unit whose commander effect specifically targets Undead characters has them lose Outbreak, and often causes them to lose the need to end their turns adjacent to living enemies. All of these commanders will be detailed later in this guide, but the purpose of them losing Outbreak is specifically so that you can field the Undead and living characters alongside each other, provided that one or more units on your team is “controlling” the Undead and “aiming” them at the enemies. If these commanders are defeated, the Undead regain Outbreak and can turn on their allies.

Re-Animate

The very first idea I had for the Undead was to give them Avoid Defeat. This made sense in concept but in practice did not have the results I desired. Avoid Defeat did not give the Undead the semi-unstoppable nature that I had intended, as one of my players quickly found a way around it in order to defeat the Zombies. Hence, Re-Animate was created (and a reference to a favorite story and film of mine, Re-Animator).

Whenever this character would be defeated by an attack, make a save of 6 if the attacker is nonadjacent or 11 if the attacker is adjacent. On a success, this character has 10 Hit Points instead of being defeated. Whenever this character would be defeated by an ability that replaces attacks or an attack with a lightsaber, make 2 saves, each needing 11; if both succeed, this character has 10 Hit Points instead of being defeated. If this character is considered to be burning and is defeated by taking burning damage, this character is defeated.

Taking inspiration from Avoid Defeat, I modified it in a number of key ways. Firstly, against a normal attack, it is only one save. If the attacker is non-adjacent to the Undead, the Undead must save 6, but if the attacker is adjacent, the Undead must save 11. The distinction between the attacker being adjacent or non-adjacent comes from the idea that if one is closer to a Zombie, a headshot is easier. This was added after some playtesting, during which one session had an Antarian Ranger unable to kill an adjacent Zombie (who had once been an Antarian Ranger itself) due to the constant rolling of 6 or higher on the Zombie’s part. This also makes it so that the Zombie is most dangerous when it is adjacent, but is also at its most vulnerable, an irony that I appreciate from both fluff and crunch perspectives.

Unless, of course, the attacker is using an ability which replaces attacks, such as Flamethrower, Grenades and Missiles, or if the attacker is using a lightsaber. This portion of Re-Animate is the exact same as Avoid Defeat; two saves of 11 are needed. This gives some advantage to well-equipped units and Jedi/Sith/Force-users when facing the Undead and is supported by the basic logic of being able to blow up Zombies with grenade launchers or rockets or something similar to that effect as well as cutting them down with a lightsaber, which is the most iconic weapon of the franchise and deserves to have its natural advantages remain intact.

The final portion of Re-Animate exclusively deals with the special ability Burning Attacks. Many Undead customs have the Undead be vulnerable to flame-based abilities or take double damage from them, which I didn’t really like. I did, however, like the idea of burning Zombies to death. Hence, this distinction with Burning Attacks, the card text of which is:

Characters (including this character) damaged by this character are considered to be burning. Each time a burning character activates, it must attempt a save of 11. On a failure, that character takes 10 damage. On a success, that character is no longer burning.

If an Undead unit is taking this damage and fails to save 11 against it when it activates and this damage is enough to defeat it, the character does not Re-Animate and makes no save, instead burning to death. This does a fine job of representing the Undead’s aversion to fire while at the same time not being too vulnerable to it. Note that the Flamethrower itself is not considered to cause burning, only Burning Attacks.

The Zombie

That is the basic stats, premise and theme of the Zombie all summed up and explained. Every Undead unit from this point on is a variation or spin on the basic concept and template.