Zombicide White Death Review - The Incessant March Continues

You should know the deal by now. We move. They follow. We barricade. They destroy. We regroup. They attack. We build walls. They bring them down. Their incessant march continues. It's true that they're predictable, and we can use that. But each one we lose becomes one of them, and they don't feel the cold. And in Wintergrad, it's more likely the cold that kills you than the zombies.

We've been fans of CMON's Zombicide franchise for a while, and along with the first Zombicide fantasy game Black Plague, we've also covered the modern 2nd Edition and the awesomely thematic movie tie-in, Night of the Living Dead version.

The Incessant March

Zombicide White Death is the third fantasy Zombicide by CMON and follows the core mechanics as all their Zombicide releases. A mission is set up, players get 3 actions to move, attack zombies, and complete objectives, then the zombies activate, usually either moving or attacking (some faster zombies can do both in a turn), then more zombies spawn and the players go again. This continues until a survivor dies (they can only take 3 wounds) or the objectives are complete.

It all may sound simple, and the zombies are handily predictable, but things are never easy, and the different types of zombies offer unique challenges, and when combined, can really cause issues. The larger zombies, brutes and abominations, can only be killed by dealing 2 or 3 damage in a single attack. Most starter weapons can't do that much, and even the better weapons you may find are usually only a bad dice roll away from spoiling your day, which forces the players to work together across their turn to maximize zombie removal and objective completion. 

Zombie Killing Winter Style

White Death has some changes to the core rules from other Zombicide games, mainly to simplify and streamline games, such as new AI controls for the zombies to make them more realistic and avoid ignoring obvious survivor targets. White Death also includes guards, who the players can activate using their actions, and the rules for the walls and ramparts of the city of Wintergard, which includes cauldrons that the survivors can position and drop on zombies (which is one of the only few ways some zombies they can be killed). But the zombies also come with new tricks of their own, and the Defiler Necromancers spread corruption, moving the spawn points that they come from into the map, and towards the beacon, ending the game if they touch it.

The New Cast

The White Death ascetic is fantastic, and definitely my favorite so far. Set in East Asia, the zombies are the remnants of the barbarian Khan's forces and the survivors are a mix of human and mythic creatures from East Asian history and folklore. White Death features Yasuke, most recently remembered through the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows, and Lorna, a fox-like Kitsune and a literal tiger warrior, Ogon.

Each of the 6 new survivors offer a slightly different play experience, whilst staying balanced between them. Yasuke is a focused melee fighter, starting with the ability to freeze a zone, Lorna gets a free move action each turn, Dragomir gets a bonus die to ranged attacks (he's the only one who can take out brutes in the early game). Ogon's massive size lets him move an entire zone of zombies, while Sarnai gets a free magic action each turn. Finally Jenia draws 2 cards when she searches, which is insanely helpful in the early game (drawing a single apple item makes me sad).

Each of the survivors also gets a unique bonus when they activate guards, Sarnai gives guards she activates the slippery skill, so they can leave zones with zombies in, while Yasuke boosts their melee damage to 2 when he activates them (useful for taking brutes out). There is also a small deck of guard skill cards that can be used to bring in survivors from other Zombicide fantasy games.

What Happens In Wintergrad

Zombicide White Death is part of the Zombicide fantasy line, and as such, can be used interchangeably with Black Death and Green Horde, taking the survivors and zombies from any, and using them with another. To help with this, White Death includes the rules for playing games with multiple abominations and necromancers, as well as larger games with more than 6 survivors.

Zombicide White Death Final Thoughts

Apart from the new rules for guards and walls, and the streamlining of the mechanics, White Death is more of the same Zombicide action. It's not a mentally challenging game, the zombies are predictable, and you don't have a lot of action options, even as you level up, but it is fun and the teamwork discussions and awful plans that you can come up with, which usually end up relying on a single dice roll is enjoyable.

But if the other Zombicides weren't your thing, there's not much new here, other than the East Asian aesthetic, which is what drew me back in. The fact that they work interchangeably with the other fantasy games is great, and I really want to try an insane game linking all 3 sets and playing with 18 survivors against a multitude of abominations and necromancers.

The copy of the Zombicide White Death used to produce this review was provided by Asmodee UK.