Zombie Mode

[Shadow757]

Fascinating. Is it possible to put the zombies you resurrected with the twins into a zombie army? And, why do you think your map is overrun with zombies but my maps so far the zombies haven't done much? There's been plenty of conflict.

I'm killing anywhere from 2 to 10 Zombies a turn, that's not counting other civ's and city-states. So I think we hit critical mass when their power became greater than the power of the most powerful troop. So they eventually began wearing down everyone. I only stayed alive because my Zombies were even tougher than the spawning ones. I'm in the industrial era and the spawning zombies are at 90 strength. Also, because I was having zombies kill zombies for a while, if I killed 5 zombies, 5 more appeared the next round. That's not including the random one's that spring up due to other violence. There's been a lot of zombies killed.

I'm putting together a group to find the other continent and hunt down the last remaining cities to win. There's just a lot of barbarian and zombie infested wilderness to search through to find them.

Two changes I'd like:

• Zombies killing zombies don't make more zombies. Everyone was dead, no more reanimating the animated dead.
• Zombies can wipe out a civ. It makes just turtling and killing as many zombies as possible a strategy.

 

[walkerjks]

View attachment 592208
...And then there were none... Turn 255, right before Portugal's Culture victory against 13 civ who could not expand because of relentless zombies. 1300+ zombies on Prince. Color me annoyed.

As someone who goes for culture victories pretty much every game, I think zombie mode is going to be enabled every game. It does have some downsides - maybe need an extra military unit or two around. Eleanor is less able to do her thing if the AIs can't expand at all... Still working out the iplications of zombie mode with cultural wins.

 

[Jkchart]

Played some games with them on King and Emperor and the AI seems to be doing fine. Really there are some scary moments but i haven't seen the AI unable to handle it.

That being said i hope they make it more difficult on higher levels...I want to be forced to retreat to my islands, overwhelmed by the hordes!

 

[blackbutterfly]

• Zombies don't attack any civilian units. I was able to surround my capital with settlers and workers and they couldn't attack it.

While this might sound like a clever exploit, Zombies will every now and again take your workers. IDK what the rule is for this.
It's a bit like the aliens in Civ: Beyond Earth. Depending on their aggression levels they may or may not attack your civilian units.

 

[Socrates99]

Do you have an idea why zombies spawn in some areas? I liberated two enemy cities on my "big" island and after some time I settled on small ice/tundra one, just for resources. This small piece of land was separated by me and ice and I am 100% sure no one fought there. I do understand that liberated citizens and soldiers would like to come back and discuss it, but as I said, small island was very peacful, was even free of barbs. And zombies appear only on this almost useless land.

Clearing Barb camps can create spawn points. They keep popping near a spot close to my capital where I was farming exp and raiding while buying cheap warriors at the beginning of the game. If I'd just cleared it I probably would have forgotten the camp and wondered why zombies kept popping there but I really abused that camp so I remember it well.

 

[Shadow757]

Clearing Barb camps can create spawn points. They keep popping near a spot close to my capital where I was farming exp and raiding while buying cheap warriors at the beginning of the game. If I'd just cleared it I probably would have forgotten the camp and wondered why zombies kept popping there but I really abused that camp so I remember it well.

They can appear wherever any unit has died, at any time throughout the game. So if your isolated tundra island is full of zombies, odd's are one of the other Civ's or city-states killed some barb's there.

The zombie's I control in my current game have a strength of over 100 now and wild zombie's are around 92. That's why the AI can't handle them. They are for stronger than any unit they can currently build (the biggest is cavalry).

 

[tsf4]

How in the hell, excuse my words, am I supposed to play this mode?

I cannot get them away from me. I am just lucky they don't get builders. I cannot! expand... pictured are state of my empire early on and then further in. as you can see, insane amount of battling lol.

Ideas? Advice? I don't want to always be turning off a mode, so I need to know how to play this darn thing...

 

[IsabelBraganca]

How in the hell, excuse my words, am I supposed to play this mode?

I cannot get them away from me. I am just lucky they don't get builders. I cannot! expand... pictured are state of my empire early on and then further in. as you can see, insane amount of battling lol.

Ideas? Advice? I don't want to always be turning off a mode, so I need to know how to play this darn thing...

View attachment 592309 View attachment 592310 View attachment 592311

What level are you playing? If the AI or city states fails to defend themselves, I guess more zombies will be generated. There are mods that adds walls to city states even on lower levels. They will survive longer and lose fewer units. You can also use the hero mode and grab the twins, that way you will have some zombies under your control and they will be able to battle the other zombies. Just avoid killing zombies with zombies, they will come back to life next turn. You can soften them up and finish with other units.

 

[Shadow757]

This is what I saw when I took China's last city (snuck through the lake).

 

[Andrew Johnson [FXS]]

How in the hell, excuse my words, am I supposed to play this mode?

I cannot get them away from me. I am just lucky they don't get builders. I cannot! expand... pictured are state of my empire early on and then further in. as you can see, insane amount of battling lol.

Ideas? Advice? I don't want to always be turning off a mode, so I need to know how to play this darn thing...

View attachment 592309 View attachment 592310 View attachment 592311

For me, this mode is a unique kind of game. I don't put it on all the time because it radically changes (most of the time) my strategy. I'd suggest turning it off for a "regular" civ game, and on for a "AAA TRY TO SURVIVE" kind of game.

 

[robal1991]

In my first game with zombie mode (4-leaf map, online speed, no other modes, no mods, prince difficulty) the AI got his 3 capitals surrounded by zombies and could not get rid of them. All 3 AI capitals where at min health all the time, and the zombies were everywhere. I just took his capitals with an ironclad. I've killed a LOT of zombies in the early game and zombies got a massive mutation strength bonus and the AI was behind in techs that is probably why he could not kill them. 3 out of 4 city states were yeeted by zombies too...

Some screenshots:

1. After I took Hungarian capital

2. When I'm watching how Trajan is dealing with zombies

Gandhi somehow managed to settle a 2nd city on a island without zombies after 200 turns. Good for him.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

@Shadow757 .. well, this offers perfect conditions to try for *THE* Re-Animator Steam Achievement -- related to 20 Zombies "control" trick!

EDIT.. make that two more special situations!

 

[Rotomagus]

why does none of this ever happen to me!? What are your settings?

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

There's no option "Ambivalent" in the poll. The thing is I played on Deity as Portugal (tiny Wetlands map) and the Zombies were more of a nuisance than a threat after early game. I had no need to build traps and barricades (not that I really wanted to) or complete Zombie-specific city projects. I did a few Zombie Outbreak spy missions against an enemy, but the newly created Zombies were quickly dealt with. I guess walls make cities really impregnable to zombies.

 

[Deadly Dog]

Ok my second go at this mode and it is very much living up to its name. I think I mostly lucked into some settings that work because out of 4 neighbours who started near me all of them have lost cities to Zombies, and Ottomans have a capital permanently redlined and not growing so I imagine they are just doing nothing but spawn zombies. I can't get close enough to see the actual hordes though! International trade routes are a no-go, as is exploring by land.

I've put factors I think are making the Zombies powerful in bold.

Emperor difficulty - CS have no walls so AI will attack them and units die. Also fewer settlers at the start gives time for barbs to get a foothold.

Large fractal map on Epic speed, I have Heroes and Legends on as well as Monopolies, and Zombies.

No Barbs mode enabled. So camps keep respawning, map stays empty.
No Dramatic Ages. No place where Zombies will just hang with the locals and only attack outsiders. Also I wanted nothing else messing with the Barb/Free cities factions.

But maybe its also the luck of having Seondeok, Montezuma, Chandragupta and Suleiman as neighbors. Yeah at first I thought I was effed but reminded myself "it's only emperor level, how bad can it be?" But Monty took out 2 CS very early and then I saw his military strength rating just plummet. I liberated Chinguetti after he lost it to loyalty but I couldn't save Kandy or Texcoco from being destroyed, I assume by Zombies,

I'm playing Vietnam this time, and very very glad I am. Whole new way of moving units with that bonus too its cool. If my units see a zombie they just duck into the woods. Even a swamp is good cover! I haven't used the traps and barricades much because I have Thanh and City walls or a mountain every other tile. But just beyond my borders there is a lot of empty land, marked by some ancient roads. Still don't know where Monty came from but he's doing better than Sully, whose sole city I'm pretty sure is just a zombie factory.

Anyway the verdict is out on whether I will survive. I just used heathen conversion to get some Zombies of my own and they seem to be keeping their + Mutation strength, I have not taken them to combat yet. And I have xbows on elephants and 3 Great Generals, so that's something.

Zombies don't attack my builders or settlers but they like Apostle brains just fine! Traders too, of course.

 

[Deadly Dog]

There's no option "Ambivalent" in the poll. The thing is I played on Deity as Portugal (tiny Wetlands map) and the Zombies were more of a nuisance than a threat after early game. I had no need to build traps and barricades (not that I really wanted to) or complete Zombie-specific city projects. I did a few Zombie Outbreak spy missions against an enemy, but the newly created Zombies were quickly dealt with. I guess walls make cities really impregnable to zombies.

Matches my first experience closely.

My 2nd Run (posted above) is much different, and I have to upgrade my walls very soon or they'll be useless.

 

[Starwars]

While this might sound like a clever exploit, Zombies will every now and again take your workers. IDK what the rule is for this.
It's a bit like the aliens in Civ: Beyond Earth. Depending on their aggression levels they may or may not attack your civilian units.

Could it be that the civilian units have no inherent "pull" for the zombies to take them, but they might get taken if they're in the way of a zombie that's on a path towards another target?

 

[Shadow757]

By the time I reach death robots, my zombies will be far stronger than they are (unless the zombie bonus has a cap). As for how to expand, do it in increments, with guards. It's slower, but realize the computer is having the same issues. The problem I have is even when I have my barricades and traps up to stop the oncoming hordes I keep having outbreaks behind my front lines.

If you want your game to go like this, to get lots of zombies, kill lots of stuff. To get strong zombies, kill lots of zombies.

 

[Tech Osen]

Matches my first experience closely.

My 2nd Run (posted above) is much different, and I have to upgrade my walls very soon or they'll be useless.

On my 2nd run I got pressured early on but once I got through that I had no more issues. But unlike my first run the AI now definently had trouble. It was an archipelago map and they had a hard time settling on overrun islands.
Next game I'm gonna try a map with more land than I usually do. (I like to mimic the 70% sea of planet earth).

 

[tsf4]

For me, this mode is a unique kind of game. I don't put it on all the time because it radically changes (most of the time) my strategy. I'd suggest turning it off for a "regular" civ game, and on for a "AAA TRY TO SURVIVE" kind of game.

Yeah, I am figuring this out more lol. It helped when I put quick turns on too

It is fun that it changes gameplay. I am liking it more and more.