Zombie Movement No Open Paths and Doors.

[BKThomson]

I'm playing Quest Zero and I noticed something based on a reading in the instructions.


I'll preface the rule first


In the Zombie Movement Section

2: Zombies move 1 Zone toward their destination Zone by taking the shortest available path. In case there are no open paths to the noisiest Zone, Zombies move toward it as if all doors were open, though locked doors still stop them.
Ok, so when I set up the Quest Zero there is a Fattie who is in one room with two doors leading in different directions but one does lead towards the players.

As my players move in the direction towards the room where the fattie is located they are guaranteed to make noise along the way.


Based on the rules I provided would the Fattie be able to leave the room towards the players since there are no open paths through one of the doors or is it trapped in the room? My assumption is No because all the doors are 'locked' but when does the rule above ever applied what would be a valid scenario.


Also, I understand that the players 'bash' the doors down since they are not free to be open but that 'lock' term is throwing me because only the one mention of that word is the skill "Lock It Down" that would lock a door after it is been bashed open.


So understanding terminology what is the difference between Open, Locked when it comes to doors?


This PDF of the rules has the rule as well as the map of quest zero that I am referring to.
https://www.zombicide.com/dl/rulebook-black-plague.pdf

 

[Wyrmypops]

Locked doors are the closed ones the survivors haven't busted down yet. Though in that scenario, and a few others, the game starts with an open door. Normally an open door is one the survivors have used a melee weapon to break down.
It might be worth noting some weapons are better than others at that. Instead of the weapon profile the little icon in the middle showing a door has a number attached the weapon requires to roll to break it down, the axe has no number as it automatically breaks the door without a roll. Still takes an action to do it though. And those scenarios that do the "blue objective allows the blue door to be opened" thing, just allow the blue door to then be opened, they don't swing open upon yoinking the blue objective.

The Open/Locked terminology is a bit imperfect considering an open door can't be closed by spending another action, it's not merely open but completely smashed. That "Lock it down" skill, I guess would describe a person jamming the remains into the semblance of part door part barricade, but, I don't think I've seen any character with that skill so no need to worry about the questionable narrative. In the older incarnation of the game set in modern times there was one character that had a "break in" skill, no rolling to destroy a door, but I don't recall any black plague character doing that either. Although in the Green Horde expansion there is a new spell, Telekinetic Blast, that blasts doors open without a dice roll.

That scenario has the fatty behind locked doors. As does the runner in the room behind him. They can't move at all until the door is violently opened by the survivors. Better not open it until you have a damage2 weapon to deal with the fatty.
And as you mention the survivors are likely to make noise on the way, it's worth noting that they themselves count as a noise token. Al that breathing, knocking stuff over as they walk and the swearing that follows.
If there were no doors inside the building the fatty would walk to the next room, but be stopped by the closed blue door. As would the runner.

 

[BKThomson]

Locked doors are the closed ones the survivors haven't busted down yet. Though in that scenario, and a few others, the game starts with an open door. Normally an open door is one the survivors have used a melee weapon to break down.
It might be worth noting some weapons are better than others at that. Instead of the weapon profile the little icon in the middle showing a door has a number attached the weapon requires to roll to break it down, the axe has no number as it automatically breaks the door without a roll. Still takes an action to do it though. And those scenarios that do the "blue objective allows the blue door to be opened" thing, just allow the blue door to then be opened, they don't swing open upon yoinking the blue objective.

The Open/Locked terminology is a bit imperfect considering an open door can't be closed by spending another action, it's not merely open but completely smashed. That "Lock it down" skill, I guess would describe a person jamming the remains into the semblance of part door part barricade, but, I don't think I've seen any character with that skill so no need to worry about the questionable narrative. In the older incarnation of the game set in modern times there was one character that had a "break in" skill, no rolling to destroy a door, but I don't recall any black plague character doing that either. Although in the Green Horde expansion there is a new spell, Telekinetic Blast, that blasts doors open without a dice roll.

That scenario has the fatty behind locked doors. As does the runner in the room behind him. They can't move at all until the door is violently opened by the survivors. Better not open it until you have a damage2 weapon to deal with the fatty.
And as you mention the survivors are likely to make noise on the way, it's worth noting that they themselves count as a noise token. Al that breathing, knocking stuff over as they walk and the swearing that follows.
If there were no doors inside the building the fatty would walk to the next room, but be stopped by the closed blue door. As would the runner.

Wow. Again, thank you for the time to respond and give all that detail I really appreciate it. It's been nice to have a sounding board even though the rules seem pretty cut and dry its good to confirm or be corrected what I think I understand.

 

[Wyrmypops]

I've been playing the various incarnations and expansions since the 1st one came out, and the game still surprises me. Not just with things like how wrong I was running the Zombie Link skill for ages, until a new player pointed out where I went wrong, it still amazes me how with a little variance on how the tiles and objectives are laid, each game still feels sufficiently different.

 

[BKThomson]

I've been playing the various incarnations and expansions since the 1st one came out, and the game still surprises me. Not just with things like how wrong I was running the Zombie Link skill for ages, until a new player pointed out where I went wrong, it still amazes me how with a little variance on how the tiles and objectives are laid, each game still feels sufficiently different.

I'm having a lot of fun with it so far. I've been playing the zero quest a few times with different characters and 'load outs' but mostly to get the proper gaming and basic rules rhythm. I'll hit Quest 1 shortly because I need to work on the Necromancer rules.

 

[Wyrmypops]

Necromancers were the biggest change from the modern setting version, and effect the game so much. An unlucky streak where you get a few Necro's spawning in a row can be lethal. With the extra spawn token they drop down adding heaps of zombies that need culling. Especially bad when they spawn in a zone far from the survivors, so that extra spawnage keeps occurring from an inability to reach the Necromancer and give them a slap and remove a spawn token.

It can be quite taxing to remember all the fiddly details of necromancers. The different way they move, towards another spawn zone rather than towards survivors. the way existing necromancers get an extra activation when a new necromancer is spawned, and depending on whether they're same or different character necromancers.
One nice aspect is in destroying a necromancer and getting to remove a spawn zone, it doesn't have to be the one they spawned from. You can choose to leave that one active and instead remove a regular one that may be in the area the survivors are heading towards, or is in the middle of the board giving new necromancers a long walk from one side of the board to the other.

 

[BKThomson]

Necromancers were the biggest change from the modern setting version, and effect the game so much. An unlucky streak where you get a few Necro's spawning in a row can be lethal. With the extra spawn token they drop down adding heaps of zombies that need culling. Especially bad when they spawn in a zone far from the survivors, so that extra spawnage keeps occurring from an inability to reach the Necromancer and give them a slap and remove a spawn token.

It can be quite taxing to remember all the fiddly details of necromancers. The different way they move, towards another spawn zone rather than towards survivors. the way existing necromancers get an extra activation when a new necromancer is spawned, and depending on whether they're same or different character necromancers.
One nice aspect is in destroying a necromancer and getting to remove a spawn zone, it doesn't have to be the one they spawned from. You can choose to leave that one active and instead remove a regular one that may be in the area the survivors are heading towards, or is in the middle of the board giving new necromancers a long walk from one side of the board to the other.

I moved up to Quest 1 this morning and shuffled back in the Necromancer cards. I played Quest 0 three times with Clovis and Silas and only lost once to Silias getting ahead in Exp and we just got swarmed with Yellow Walkers and Fatties. That quest, as I assumed it would be, was good enough to get those basics and now with Quest 1 I should get some more practice with Necro's. All this is for a gaming weekend at the end of the month and since this is my first time playing I want to have enough background to be able to explain it to people who do not know how to play so I really do appreciate the time you've taken with your replies.

 

[Wyrmypops]

Silas is quite lethal with that +1 to ranged attacks, he became the go-to-character for one of my players. He can instill a complacency that could be damaging at crucial moments - hitting on a 2+ it can easily feel trivial to shoot at zombies swarming a friend, thinking you'll never miss and hurt the swarmed friend. Do it often enough and it's bound to happen though. Is pretty much guaranteed when he starts rolling loads of dice, like from the Iron Rain skill. That Clovis can be a behemoth too. His +1 dice would apply to both weapons if dual wielding, so even a pair of crappy short swords would give him 4 dice.
One character bounding ahead in exp is something to be mindful of, because of as you say, the exp bracket coming with greater numbers on the spawn cards. Our lot try to spread around the exp, leaving an objective to be grabbed by a character that's lagging behind in exp, or passing on a vault weapon to one that need something special to raise them up, even giving them to torch/dragonbile combo to destroy an abomination and any unlucky mook standing in that zone. One thing that helps with that is the "trade" action. You can initiate a trade with one character, which gives both the opportunity to shuffle their inventory, so the other can put the torch/bile in hand without losing an doing so themselves. Feels part sneaky, part supportive. A bit like when one character finds a torch early on, can use it to search with then pass it on to another character so they get the benefit when they search, and pass it on further down the line. Is a good idea to bear in mind the rotating turn order when you have multiple players doing that, looking a turn ahead to have the torch left with whoever goes first next turn.
That rotating turn order could feel peculiar when you start playing with more folk. Passing on the 1st player token each turn isn't something we do in other games so takes some getting used to. It's a great mechanic though. It ensures the same person isn't always going last, and possibly having nothing left to kill. Can help you feel like a cunning gamer when you factor it in, like manouvering one survivor to a door but not opening it just yet because they're going last that turn and wouldn't leave anyone else the chance to deal with whatever spawns inside the building, but are ready action next turn.

Sounds like your putting in a good amount of time to get familiar with it all to explain it well to your players. These days I get to play it weekly at a club and is heartening to see regulars coming back for more, learning as they go, then surprising you with moves you hadn't seen.

 

[BKThomson]

Silas is quite lethal with that +1 to ranged attacks, he became the go-to-character for one of my players. He can instill a complacency that could be damaging at crucial moments - hitting on a 2+ it can easily feel trivial to shoot at zombies swarming a friend, thinking you'll never miss and hurt the swarmed friend. Do it often enough and it's bound to happen though. Is pretty much guaranteed when he starts rolling loads of dice, like from the Iron Rain skill. That Clovis can be a behemoth too. His +1 dice would apply to both weapons if dual wielding, so even a pair of crappy short swords would give him 4 dice.
One character bounding ahead in exp is something to be mindful of, because of as you say, the exp bracket coming with greater numbers on the spawn cards. Our lot try to spread around the exp, leaving an objective to be grabbed by a character that's lagging behind in exp, or passing on a vault weapon to one that need something special to raise them up, even giving them to torch/dragonbile combo to destroy an abomination and any unlucky mook standing in that zone. One thing that helps with that is the "trade" action. You can initiate a trade with one character, which gives both the opportunity to shuffle their inventory, so the other can put the torch/bile in hand without losing an doing so themselves. Feels part sneaky, part supportive. A bit like when one character finds a torch early on, can use it to search with then pass it on to another character so they get the benefit when they search, and pass it on further down the line. Is a good idea to bear in mind the rotating turn order when you have multiple players doing that, looking a turn ahead to have the torch left with whoever goes first next turn.
That rotating turn order could feel peculiar when you start playing with more folk. Passing on the 1st player token each turn isn't something we do in other games so takes some getting used to. It's a great mechanic though. It ensures the same person isn't always going last, and possibly having nothing left to kill. Can help you feel like a cunning gamer when you factor it in, like manouvering one survivor to a door but not opening it just yet because they're going last that turn and wouldn't leave anyone else the chance to deal with whatever spawns inside the building, but are ready action next turn.

Sounds like your putting in a good amount of time to get familiar with it all to explain it well to your players. These days I get to play it weekly at a club and is heartening to see regulars coming back for more, learning as they go, then surprising you with moves you hadn't seen.

Thanks! I'm trying to get a game in a day or over a course of a few days. Looking over the rules as I try to answer my own questions before looking for assistance. I think I have a solid grasp on most of the game play, call it 90% of BP only.

Now Quest 1 adds in Necromancers and Abomination to the mix that created two new questions. So Ironic enough starting with Quest 1 on my second game turn the Necro card was pulled from my spawn deck. (Not from the blue objective but a natural draw) As you pointed out before about the Necro rules I spent some time going over them and one stood out for me.

Opening Paragraph

A Necromancer comes with his own infected army. When a Necromancer appears, put an additional Zombie Spawn token (on its “Necromancer” side) on his entry Zone. Then, immediately resolve a regular Zombie Spawn for it. From now on, the Necromancer Spawn Zone is active: it spawns Zombies in the same way a standard Spawn Zone would. Each subsequent drawing of additional Necromancer Zombie cards, no matter the type, gives an Extra Activation to every Necromancer on the board until they flee or die.

1) When I read "Necromancer Zombie" cards, I assume this is referring from the spawn deck Necromancer card and not the zombies that come from the Necromancer Spawn Zone, correct? So anytime another Necromancer is pulled from the spawn deck I'll add that Necromancer to the table and follow its placement rules and if there are already any Necromancers on the board to give those an extra activation? Also am I understanding this correctly that the Necromancer Spawn Token can be in any room spawn or street spawn depending on where the card drawn was targeting for? The example shows the Necromancer Spawn Token next to one of the standard Spawn Token but I would assume that in a room spawn situation could also trigger it?

2) Unfortunately for me on the third game round I found the blue objective signifying the lab and since the Necromancer was already in play I had to add the Abomination to the lab discovery. I was slightly bothered by this since I have only had one search draw and obviously yet to find the Bile/Torch combo. So not it's mostly just going to my characters running away from the Abomination and search where I can before something finally catches up. With Quest 1 this was just bad luck on my part due to how quickly I found the correct objective and already have a Necromancer on the table. My guess is with a few chances of searching I may stumble upon it, but since I'm only using two characters at the moment I'll be pressing my luck to find it in time before swarming.

3) Is there a list of items which qualify for the Reload rule. I assume its just bows and crossbows that I need to spend an action reload after using it to allow for a second attack.

 

[Wyrmypops]

1) Correct. The spawn that generates a Necromancer, rather than a spawn card generated from a Necromancer spawn zone.
Yep, any Necromancers already on the board get an extra activation when you generate a new Necromancer. I think there might be a sidebar on that page referring to other Necromancer types, like To-Me-Kupah. Those special character Necromancers should get an activation, but, necromancers of the same type, like the standard human necromancer with his staff held aloft, if there's one of those on the table and another of those cards is drawn he should get two activation instead of just one.
Correct again. Those Necromancers can be lurking inside a building waiting to the discovered, or sidle in from the spawn zones around the table. It can make for trouble when a street zone spawns a necromancer, then another in a turn or two - makes for a great weight of zombies in one area. I think the book does say how the necromancer objective of legging it off another spawn zone can't be in the same zone as they started, so they can't appear and just turn around, they'd have to venture out across the table to escape. Though if a large building spawns a necromancer in one room and another necromancer in another room, they will head to each others zones to escape so upon opening a door to a large building has best be backed by survivors ready to go in on a kill spree.

2) That's some grim luck the abomination turning up so early with no means to destroy them. At least they only count as one zombie so you can leave their zone for 2actions and keep running away. Certainly impairs your options, with that threat looming over you.

3) It is just crossbows that require reloading, and not all of them at that. Their weapon card lists in tiny text whether they require reloading between shots. If my memory serves, the regular crossbow and repeating crossbows don't, but the hand crossbows and orcish crossbow vault weapon do.

 

[AlxRaven]

For as much randomness as this game has, the number of times we’ve drawn the abom as the first spawn card of the game is astounding. Always plan as if the spawn will be something you can’t handle, then be pleasantly surprised when it’s something “easy”. Lol

”Kiting” is also a good skill to learn when playing Black Plague. It basically means learning how to stay a step or two ahead of the zombies tailing you, to lead them about the board until you can deal with them. It can take practice, so you don’t end up boxing yourself in, but is very useful in early stages. Especially if you get some bad spawns.

 

[BKThomson]

Thanks for the clarification on the Room Spawn. Funny enough my game today, Quest 1, did have a situation where the room spawn was a Necromancer so I could apply it rather quickly but it then gets ugly. All that follows is the truth on the draws.

So Nelly Kicks down the door (Sorry, I'm also a Munchkin player)


Room Spawn - first room draw Necromancer
I place the Necromancer Spawn Zone Token in the room
I add the Necromancer miniature to the room.
Draw Zombie card for Necromancer Spawn Zone and add a Walker
Next Room Spawn -- No zombie spawns.
After two movements Clovis enters the same zone/room as the Necromancer and rolls a 1 and 5.
Walker dies due to Targeting Priority
Necromancer has one zone to escape, room is right next to the spawn zone


Round Ends

New Round


Zombie Move.


Necromancer damages Clovis


Spawn Phase:


Draw Zombie Card at different Spawn Zone-- Necromancer
I place the Necromancer Spawn Zone Token in the room
I add the Necromancer miniature to the room.
Draw Zombie card for Necromancer Spawn Zone receive Double Spawn
Necromancer in Room gets extra action and kills Clovis with final damage.


Next zone is the Room with the Necromancer Spawn Zone
Draw Zombie Card -- Necromancer
I place the Necromancer Spawn Zone Token in the room
I add the Necromancer miniature to the room.
Draw Zombie card for Necromancer Spawn Zone receive Runner
Necromancer already in Room gets extra action moves out of room and enters zone with Spawn Token.
Necromancer fees


Draw Zombie Card at different Spawn Zone-- Necromancer
I place the Necromancer Spawn Zone Token in the street
I add the Necromancer miniature to the street.Draw Zombie card for Necromancer Spawn Zone receive Necromancer
Necromancer left in Room gets extra action moves out of room and enters zone with Spawn Token.

Necromancer fees

I place the Necromancer Spawn Zone Token in the street
I add the Necromancer miniature to the street.
Draw Zombie card for Necromancer Spawn Zone receive Fattie


Needless to say before all the cards and miniature were put in place I had seven Spawn Zone Tokens on the board. Game over.


Here is the funny part. I did shuffle my zombie deck. I created six piles of cards randomly placing the cards down. Then I randomly stacked the piles up to make the final deck. Because I had the cards sleeved I created two stacks that I would draw from one after the other. So by all accounts this deck was as randomly generated but I was still able to pull FIVE of the six Necromancer cards.

Maybe just bad draws but two games in a row I have been destroyed by Necromancers and within three game turns. I cannot imagine this is a normal occurrence that Necromancers just swarm up like this at least I did not get the Abomination this time around.

As for your comment on the reloading yeah, the rules mention Hand and Orc Crossbows, so I think I was just over thinking the concept and since Bow do not specify a reload I could get multiple actions using it.

Again thanks for the information.

 

[Wyrmypops]

That really is an awful string of luck with the spawns. One thing to note, the target priority thing applies to ranged/magic only, when Clovis went in the melee with the necromancer and walker he could freely choose his target, and misses don't get allocated to any other survivor in that zone. It's a great way to cull the game changing necromancers, and also when a character has a damage2 weapon and they go to a mix of zombies they can choose to ignore the walkers and take out the fatties, leaving other survivors to mop up the walker with their damage1 weapons, or just in to a group of walkers and runners and target the runners first.

There's a thing I've found useful that I don't think the rules has a view on one way or the other. When busting into a building and generating a spawn for each zone, our lot start spawning from the back to the front. This is really only useful when you've reach the yellow exp' increment and the spawns can start to be "X zombie type gets an extra activation." By starting from near the door there's a danger that something that spawns there could get an extra activation from a card from the back of the building, having the zombies burst out and possibly even wound the survivor that just opened the door.

 

[BKThomson]

For as much randomness as this game has, the number of times we’ve drawn the abom as the first spawn card of the game is astounding. Always plan as if the spawn will be something you can’t handle, then be pleasantly surprised when it’s something “easy”. Lol

”Kiting” is also a good skill to learn when playing Black Plague. It basically means learning how to stay a step or two ahead of the zombies tailing you, to lead them about the board until you can deal with them. It can take practice, so you don’t end up boxing yourself in, but is very useful in early stages. Especially if you get some bad spawns.

For a deck of 54 cards I still find it amazing how many times I've had the Necromancer pull up(5) in my last game I know the Zombie deck has a 11% pull rate but wow even with a heavy shuffle it was almost a joking matter. I had Clovis with the hammer so pretty much all my characters at the beginning (all three game-turns).

 

[BKThomson]

That really is an awful string of luck with the spawns. One thing to note, the target priority thing applies to ranged/magic only, when Clovis went in the melee with the necromancer and walker he could freely choose his target, and misses don't get allocated to any other survivor in that zone. It's a great way to cull the game changing necromancers, and also when a character has a damage2 weapon and they go to a mix of zombies they can choose to ignore the walkers and take out the fatties, leaving other survivors to mop up the walker with their damage1 weapons, or just in to a group of walkers and runners and target the runners first.

There's a thing I've found useful that I don't think the rules has a view on one way or the other. When busting into a building and generating a spawn for each zone, our lot start spawning from the back to the front. This is really only useful when you've reach the yellow exp' increment and the spawns can start to be "X zombie type gets an extra activation." By starting from near the door there's a danger that something that spawns there could get an extra activation from a card from the back of the building, having the zombies burst out and possibly even wound the survivor that just opened the door.

Honestly, I have been playing my game with melee having Target Priority maybe that would have helped me along especially with the Bow not needing to be reloaded (previous learning moment, thank you.)

I'm tackling quest 1 again today so once again thank you for the advice and 'checking' my mistakes and questions.

 

[AlxRaven]

Honestly, I have been playing my game with melee having Target Priority maybe that would have helped me along especially with the Bow not needing to be reloaded (previous learning moment, thank you.)

I'm tackling quest 1 again today so once again thank you for the advice and 'checking' my mistakes and questions.

Its bound to happen with a new game, but that’s what’s great about the gaming community. Our willingness to help each other out so we can share the joy. Even when that joy is almost certain pain, agony and death of our characters. Lol

A couple others I’ve seen missed often are:

Necromancer’s don’t leave when reaching their target zone. They leave if they activate in their target zone

rerolls from “Plenty of ...” cards are all or nothing, you can’t save successes

there is no line of sight into or out of a Vault. And nothing spawns there when you open it.

for the longest time I thought you only rolled one die when trying to bash a door, you actually use the weapon’s number of attack dice.


Good luck!!

 

[BKThomson]

Its bound to happen with a new game, but that’s what’s great about the gaming community. Our willingness to help each other out so we can share the joy. Even when that joy is almost certain pain, agony and death of our characters. Lol

A couple others I’ve seen missed often are:

Necromancer’s don’t leave when reaching their target zone. They leave if they activate in their target zone

rerolls from “Plenty of ...” cards are all or nothing, you can’t save successes

there is no line of sight into or out of a Vault. And nothing spawns there when you open it.

for the longest time I thought you only rolled one die when trying to bash a door, you actually use the weapon’s number of attack dice.


Good luck!!

Maybe I just have not found the weapon yet but you mean by 'attack dice' you mean what is on the card since door opening does not allow any type of bonus (melee for example) applied to it. Or that is how I understood it.

 

[Wyrmypops]

A greatsword with 5dice on it's card allows those to be rolled for door bashing, but as you say skills that give bonus dice or a +1 to hit for melee/combat don't get to apply for doors.

Though, I forgot to impart that to my current group of players and them considering a door a melee/combat target hasn't upset the game.

 

[BKThomson]

Remember how I was stating that the Necromancers seem to be appearing at a very fast rate, well I think I figured out the problem.

Backstory. As the problem with the core box of BP, there is only one Necromancer figure. So I found from the Green Horde one of the artist sets that contained another Necromancer. So I took the figure and what I thought I did was break up the two sets of Necromancer cards into the six-card set. Yeah, that's not what I did.


Gameplay. So for whatever reason, I started laying out the zombie cards as I drew them and not stacking them up. Once again I was besieged by Necromancers and eventually just getting swarmed by zombies because I had five Zombie Spawns tokens in one zone of a building. Then I started counting the number of Necromancers cards I had played. Five standard and two of the artist editions were on the table. So the game ends because one room I could not get out in time that eventually spawned out 20+ zombies. (No action point spending is going to get me out of that room.) I did a count of my necromancers both in play and still in the deck. 12. I had not broken out the two sets as a single six-card set and put it into the zombie deck. I put in all 12. Good learning experience.


Two questions:


Mostly rules confirmation.


1) Necromancers, do you lose the game when there are six spawn tokens of any type on the board of I'm playing a six survivor game?


2) Dealing Damage, Using my situation above of the 20+ zombies in the zone. The room with the zombies is Clovis, Nelly, Anna, and Baldric. On the zombies' actions, they all attack and deal out 20+ points of damage. So I pushed all that damage on to Samson for him to try his Iron Will. (odds completely against him surviving.) and leave the rest unharmed. So I could repeat this pattern for the next three rounds until all the rest of the character have been killed off (No strategy here but just seeing if I'm understanding the rules correctly.)

 

[Wyrmypops]

If it's any consolation you aren't the only one to have done that. I prepped a game for a friend to run at our club. The weapon and zombie decks were ready to go, but for some reason he chose to open the pack with all the extra cards and shuffle them in. I've many necromancers from getting the game via kickstarter and the stretch goals were lots of extra characters, abominations and necromancers. I checked after the game, they had 27 necromancer cards in the deck. I was too busy laughing to count how many different abomination cards there were.

1) I think it's 6 permanent spawn zones, as in the starting spawns plus any from successful necromancers fleeing. It would be a bit much to wipe just from an unlucky spike in necro' spawns.

2) The way I go with those particular tough situations is one wound at time. Folk with armour, or that Iron Will skill, can keep soaking up hits until they fail enough to be overwhelmed. Any remaining wounds have to be shared out amongst the rest of the survivors.

Rough as a crushing defeat can be, are also some memorable experiences.