Last Night on Earth ZAI rules

I posted a couple of weeks back about Last Night on Earth and how much I enjoyed the game. Things have been pretty busy at home this past week, so I haven't had much time to sit and paint for long periods of time, but I did snatch an hour or so last night to try out the Zombie AI rules available for LNoE on boardgamegeek.com. These rules basically mean that the zombie play automatically.

Well, I can report they are a blast and still do provide a challenge. I played just the basic card deck and the basic "Die Zombies, Die!" scenario, and managed to get a couple of games in. In this scenario, Heroes must kill 15 zombies, and Zombies must kill 2 Heroes. The game last 15 turns.

Game 1:
A punishing zombie victory. The heroes were converging on the gun store to get tooled up but just couldn't make it. Jenny the farmer's daughter found herself in unarmed in a building which had just been overrun and got eaten by 5 zombies. The remaining heroes converged on the diner (which has two exits to get out of) to get some gear together, only to find the lights going out in the building as a zombie had chewed through the cable. They made a run out to another building, but were slowed by heavy rain. Becky the nurse, who was already wounded from a surprise zombie attack in the hosptial was far too slow running from the advancing zombie horde, and a surprising turn of speed from a zombie meant she was caught and killed. Victory to the undead.

Game 2:
The heroes looked strong from the start on this one. Drawing two combat characters (Johnny the quarterback and the Sheriff who starts the game with a revolver), and two other decent characters (Jenny and Jake the drifter) was a good start. The gym wasn't on the board so Johnny started in the centre sqaure and promptly drew the pump shotgun which is the best gun in the game. The sheriff was holed up in the police station (which means the pump shotgun can be drawn from the discard pile if it runs out of ammo), so all the characters went there. Jake is excellent at finding decent items, so it quickly ended up with the heroes having 2 shotguns, 2 revolvers and a clutch of hand weapons. Eventually, the zombies were so decimated, the Heroes emerged from the police station to actively hunt them down resulting in a swift hero victory.