Everything you need to know about Zombies!

Zombies are the most predictable AI in the game. Understanding the pattern they follow can be used to minimize the damage they do to you and maximize the damage they do to your enemies.

The first mistake people make when playing zombies mode is thinking that it is cooperative. This is not the case. You cannot eliminate the zombies from the game permanently and if you were to accomplish this goal temporarily, they will just respawn! The only way to truly defeat the zombies is after you have defeated every other player.

Another misconception about zombies is their deployment rules. They do not get bonus troops for territory count nor for owning continents. You never have to worry about attacking zombies for the same reasons you would attack other players. The main reasons to attack zombies is either to unlock their stack on a fellow player or to reduce a stack that would attack you if you can't get out of its way. I will circle back to what this means and how to take advantage in a later section.

## **The first rule of Zombie Apocalypse mode is: Cardio.**

I don't mean that you need to be in shape, but that zombies run around in a predefined path that is unique to each map and zombie difficulty. There are many resources out there for zombie pathing. Zombies have priorities and will attack along their primary path if they can (see Figure 1), and if not, they will attack along their secondary path, etc. For the same map but different AI difficulty, the pathing will be different. Expert zombies will move all of their troops to the next territory when attacking allowing them to take over the map faster than lower difficulty zombies which split off their stack each time they take a territory.

## **The second rule of zombies mode is: Double Tap.**

I don't mean you have to attack them twice to kill them, but that zombies need double your troop count to attack you. If you have troops in the primary path of a zombie stack they will not attack you until their stack size is at least double your troops in that adjacent territory. If they do not have double they will attack their secondary target assuming it is double of that one, if not then third, then fourth, etc. until it meets the doubling criteria. See Figure 2 for an example of zombie attacks in the battle log.

## **The third rule of zombies mode is: Beware of Bathrooms.**

I don't mean that you can't use the restroom while you play, but when your troops are sitting around in between turns, probably eating, drinking, sleeping, and using the bathroom; the zombies are huddled around those same bathrooms ready to infect your stack of troops when you least expect it. There are a few key things to be aware of regarding infections. Zombies will only outbreak once they get weak, see Figure 3. If you are trying to clear them while other players are still in the game, the zombies will come back with a vengeance and deploy large amounts and infect a player's troops in a single territory.

1. Zombies will only infect one player at a time other than their very first turn of the game when they infect all players at once. They never infect the same player twice unless every remaining player has already been infected once since turn 1.
2. They like to infect stacks. If your stack is located "upstream" from the majority of your territory, then once they infect that stack, it will follow the primary path rampaging through your territory killing you with what used to be your own troops.

There are also mini-infections when the zombies are attacking. Every territory they conquer, they infect half of the player's defending troops, rounded up. This is why when they are attacking a string of 1s, the stack size doesn't deplete unless they lose any in the battle itself. For every one zombie it leaves behind in the previous territory, it gains one from the defending player's one troop infections.

## **The final rule of zombies mode is: Check the Back Seat.**

    I don't mean there are zombies behind you right now trying to kill you, but that on each turn you take, you need to be aware if the zombies can kill you on their next turn. To know if they will be able to attack and kill you, it is imperative that you understand their deployment method. They start the game deploying 60% rounded up on every territory they infect, one from each player. On the following turn, they deploy 75% of the zombies on each territory rounded up and increase by 15% each turn until it maxes out at +150% or stabilizes.

Stabilization occurs once the zombies reach 40% of total troop count on the board. Beyond that they deploy only 3 troops on every territory they own. Once they reach 50% of total troop count, they deploy 2 troops on each territory. Beyond 55% of total troop count the zombies only deploy 1 troop on every territory. If they drop below 40% total troop count, the deployment switches back to percentage and there is a chance for infection. If it is round 8 or beyond, they deploy +150% on each territory, see an extreme example in Figure 4. Any subsequent consecutive turn below the 40% total troop threshold they progress from the +60% back up to the +150% deployment.

## The later section I am circling back to for those who have survived this long

Strategically, it can be beneficial to thin out the zombies by taking a lot of their troops/territory to drop them below the 40% of total troop count. This will force a huge deployment and your opponents may not be prepared. You do risk an infection, but you can prepare by splitting your army up and lowering the zombie troops in adjacent territories to you but not taking the territory. If you leave zombies next to you at 2 or 3, when it gets +150%, they only gain a few troops next to you, but not enough to kill you.

Another advanced zombie tactic is to let zombies pass thru your continent and unleash them on your opponents. If you see one border with the zombies that are double the opponent on your other border that they would reach by following their primary path, then you attack outward from the territory you want to unleash, and then reinforce away from the border with the opponent. This works best in fog of war (FOW) when your opponent can't see your border with zombies and then they wont see it coming. If you are not playing in FOW, then this tactic only works against players earlier than you in turn order because they wont have the ability to react to your movements before the zombies' turn.

For tips on how to eliminate zombies once you have eliminated all other players, the first thing is to not let zombies double your border. This includes the troops they will deploy on their turn. After that, keep your troops in a connected line of territories that does not allow them to go around your defenses. Keep all of your troops on the front line with zombies, and take 1 territory at a time if you have to and reinforce to the newly taken territory to make sure it won't be doubled by the zombies. As you slowly take territory, the zombies will get relatively smaller compared to you and eventually they will start getting +2 for deployment instead of +1. Once they get small enough to deploy +3, that is your que to blitzkrieg the zombies. You must use all of your troops to attack as much territory as possible as fast as possible as efficiently as possible. You must be fast enough to capture all remaining zombie territories, and then the game is over. If you are not fast enough, or have bad pathing to lock troops so they can no longer be used to kill zombies, then you have triggered a large deployment and you will have to try again by getting them contained, and whittling them down.