The zombies are coming.
As if Deadzone wasn’t a dangerous enough place already, it looks like there’s a zombie infestation too. That’s really going to drop the property values.
Don’t worry though, they’re not at all smart and can easily be killed by ranged weapons. Assuming, of course, that you have enough time to get them all before they arrive at your position and start eating you. Still, it could be worse. There could be dozens of them. Oh, wait…
Dead in Deadzone
Zombies in Deadzone aren’t your traditional animated corpses. Really they should be called “zombies” because that’s just a nickname. However, they behave so similarly to the monsters from the old fashioned horror vids that most Corporation citizens wouldn’t argue about the niceties of the details. They shamble about in the tattered remains of their clothing, drooling, raving and attacking people (then eating them). Zombies seems pretty fair.
What they really are is the in-betweenies of the Plague infections. When Stage 2 Plague beasts fail to kill their victims outright then the survivors are usually infected anyway. Many more of them will die from this mutagen – the transformation is not kind. The “lucky” ones will survive the change to become Stage 3 Plague creatures and will romp off to join the merry band of mutants, ransacking the burning remnants of the civilisation they helped to build. Those that do not die, but fail to entirely survive the transformation, are left with pain, fury and mush for brains. These are the “zombies”.
They are far too stupid to be commanded in battle in any normal fashion and will merrily attack anyone from any faction. For this reason they are just as much trouble for the Plague that spawned them as for the Enforcers or Forge Fathers.
I’ve not finalised the rules yet, but the general idea is to have them bimble about the battlefield in large numbers, causing trouble for both sides. It’s an AI system, but given that the zombies have only the barest minimum of “I” in the first place the simplified version in the game won’t be terribly smart. And that suits them just perfectly 🙂
Dead Good
What is particularly good news about these zombies (apart from the cool rules and campaign) is the new models being planned. The concepts at the top of this page are what Mantic are aiming for, and I think they look pretty good. They will be moulded in hard plastic rather than resin-plastic, which is also good (it’s my favourite modelling medium), and the plan is to make them so that they are interchangeable with the existing Mantic zombies and ghouls from the Kings of War range. By mixing and matching between these sprues you’ll be able to build a great mix of poses and gear for a really shambolic and random zombie horde.
Quirkworthy 
I’ve been eagerly awaiting these guys since it was leaked some time back. I’ve already got in mind some house scenario’s in mind where the Enforcers have to go in and clean up the neighborhood for the citizens. I’m planning on about 40 to make a horde for Target Practice for newly recruited Enforcers 🙂 Also with the plans of having a Solo ruleset, I’m sure these could be fit in for a Romero Style Shootem up.
Solo zombie hunting is definitely on the cards.
Bestill my heart..Is there a female version of you ?
Not that I’m aware of.
That’s going to be cool! 😀
Now the question is would there be any truth to the rumor that the first of these ‘Plague’ infestations happened in a major city on a shared Corporation world – Ra Koon City if memory serves me – that was administered by the Regenschirm Corporation?
I can neither confirm nor deny any such statement.
Just have to say, ‘Love it Simon’. 🙂
I have had a decent sized collection of zombies since my Necromunda days and I have added to it periodically since. The Mantic ghoul and zombie sprues are right up there withe best additions (shown here painted as hospital zombies with a couple of figures from other sources added http://sho3box.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/p3050188.jpg ).
Even if official zombie rules were not planned for Deadzone I would have added them anyway, so hearing that dedicated sci-fi plastic zombies are coming up is fantastic. I AM the target demographic 🙂
I think a lot of people will find uses for them outside DZ.
Hello Jake not sure if you are taking suggestions but I was hoping that zombies would work as an overlay to the gameplay in that they would have the option of some sort of populating mechanic.
ie: I start a game with normal rules and victory conditions, but with zombie rules “on”. During the course of play after each turn a die is rolled if the proper result comes up (say 8 two times) then the zombies now are populated on the board. They are then either populated in each teams starting zone OR around every item drop area.
This would make it possible that they never appear at all and if they do it still allows for them to appear in 2 different areas to throw a wrench in the works.
Anyway thanks for listening perhaps you were already considering this but I loved the idea of the tension of being so close to victory and hoping zombies don’t muck it up so much I had to throw this out there.
Also perhaps when the zombies populate in this version they reshuffle all discarded cards back into the players decks, and add the victory condition “game ends when all zombies have been eliminated”. Now you can end the game by killing the other faction, killing the zombies or working all the way back through your (now full) deck.
This way you could be a victory point or two ahead beating a fighting retreat trying to burn through the last of your cards when “OH NO” zombies, and they populated in your the two starting areas! (Where you were retreating towards to kill off the game).
Once again sorry if this is in any way overzealous or out of order for me to suggest but, what can I say I am excited.
Enthusiasm is always welcome 🙂
As with many of the other elements In Deadzone, I’ll be aiming for something that isn’t entirely predictable and will certainly get in the way lots. Not so sure about their appearance changing a military unit’s mission. I was thinking of them more as something you’d have to fight through to complete the job you’ve been given. Imagine a unit of Enforcers being tasked with a mission only to return saying “we ignored our objective but we killed lots of zombies” – don’t think their boss would be pleased 😉
I’m hoping that with a bit of conversion work these zombies will make better stage 3s that the existing sculpts. Not saying that the stage 3s are bad, they just look a bit like GW rejects with the head pushed forward fro the enlarged shoulders.
For the 3s, the head is basically where it should be, it’s just the shoulders that have built up around it and displaced it. I initially thought they looked a bit odd myself, and then I had a second look and worked out what would have had to happen to mutate them to this point and I think the sculptor’s done a pretty convincing job.
Of course, if you want to convert zombies then they should work well too. You’ll just have to add guns.
Perhaps when I see them in the plastic as it were, they will look better. I reserve judgement. Thanks.
When the med center scenery pack was first shown, I instantly wanted to model a board based on the inside of a large med installation with Reb forces fighting off tons of the Plague. Now I want to do the same thing but with hordes of zombies. I’m really excited about the fact that they should be interchangeable with the KoW zombies and ghouls. I still have 60 of those I haven’t assembled yet so they may get mixed in. My wallet is already screaming at me after switching my pledge to Assault Team, but I managed to squeeze in two boxes at least. I’d really like to pick up three more. Maybe some overtime is needed… Can’t wait to see the rules for these (and the solo play rules). Keep up the good work!
Thanks Craig. Sounds like you might have to call in the exterminator with that many undead lying about.
are we going to get non human zombies – ideal way to introduce new races without rules for them – zombie teraton, zombie vyr-meen etc go mad – zombie unknown races – the odd zombie forge father (but they are meant to be immune i hear you say)
I’ve asked about it.
the zombies sound very similar to the zombies from the resident evil games
RE has quite a few zombie variants. Both are created by a plague/disease/toxin, but the process and evolution is different.
What about zombies actions based on LOS? They move towards the nearest visible miniature attacking if within range, if they can’t see anything, they do nothing or amble randomly. This might actually let you herd zombies towards your opponent, if you’re clever enough, and create havoc in an opponents seemingly well defended area.
Zombies are fun to have as a sort of weapon against your opponent once you work out how they can be led about like this. Of course, both players can play that game…