Zombie Gunship Strategy

Joe, my magnificent friend, recommended Zombie Gunship to me via text.  I'm cheap, and paying for apps is something I seldom do.  But this game has thousands of ratings and maintains 4.5 stars in the iOS App Store, so I had to oblige.  $0.99?  Yes please!

The premise of the game is wonderfully simple: you're in an AC-130H Gunship and it's the End of Days.  You're providing cover fire for humans as they run for the safety of a bunker.  You must kill zombies before they enter the bunker.  If you kill three humans or if a zombie enters the bunker, game over, man.

I've put some time into this game in the last week, playing on the toilet until my legs go numb.  I'm doing pretty well.  I consistently kill over 1000 undead before some stupid human runs into a 105mm Howitzer shell.  Now I'm paying it forward.  Enjoy my meager strategy tips.

Tip 1: Touch and Go

"It bodes well for me that speed impresses you." -Chandler Bing

The first thing you need to know is these zombies NEVER stop.  They took that Chili Peppers song lit'rally.  And they spawn in half a dozen places.  So, you need to pepper the ground with shells when you see zombies, and then move your view to other areas.  If you try to be Johnny OCD and kill every zombie out of a group when you see him, you're going to let 30 more sneak up to the bunker.  My success comes from dropping some lead and moving on.  If a couple zombs don't drop from that, I can always swing around in a bit and finish the job.  The key here is speed and constant movement. 

The game warns you when zombies get close to the bunker with red warnings, so use that to your advantage.  Skim the outer rim early on, and shoot the junk out of groups of zombies, not worrying about 100% kills.  You only need to ensure the zombies die BEFORE they enter the bunker, so you have time.  Spending your effort on cleaning up a whole mob of these things on the outer edge of the map--only to have a group of 'em encroach on your bunker elsewhere--is akin to throwing out the baby with the irradiated bathwater.

Tip 2: Smart Upgrades

Careful reviewers will see I didn't follow my own advice.

The beauty of this game is the upgrades system.  Every zombie you kill (and human who finds himself in your bunker) earns you points which you spend on upgrades.  You can upgrade your three weapon systems, increase the points you earn from killing zombies, invest in a last-resort bunker defender bomb, and increase your radar range.  A huge key to your success is in how you prioritize these upgrades.

First and foremost, I recommend pumping up your Zombie Bounty (points per kill).  Doing this early in your career is like recognizing the value of compounding interest.  Get in on the ground floor with this so that every round you play is more fruitful (and thus easier to get the other upgrades).  

The next tip I have is to always prioritize the reload (and cooling) rate of your weapons.  Powerful weapons are no good if you're waiting for them to come back online.  

And you should be careful not to upgrade the damage radius of your 25mm Gatling Gun.  This gun is best served for sniping zombies grappling with humans (if you're into that kinda thing...see below).  And each time you upgrade it's damage radius you have to recalibrate yourself to get comfortable with sniping so close to warm bloods.

To recap: upgrade zombie bounty, then reload, and scale back the damage radius of the 25mm.  Everything else is up to you.  

Tip 3: Humans Are Expendable...

"How can you shoot women and children?!"
"Easy, you just don't lead 'em as much."

...at least two are.

So far as I know, there is no penalty for killing the first two civilians in a round.  It's just that pesky third that jumps in front of your hail of bullets that causes Sarge to pull you out of the hot zone.  Use that to your advantage!  If a helpless soccer mom running for safety is the only thing stopping you from thrusting a 105mm round down the throats of a score of zombies, and you've killed less than two already, don't hesitate (provided you need those undead deader than dead on the quick.  Remember Tip 1 and consider coming back later.)

While on the topic of coming back later, you need to be willing NOT to snipe zombies just because they're snacking on a human.  Humans eaten by undead out there on the battlefield don't count against you.  So, if you can stomach it, and you don't want to risk having that human die by your trigger finger, just let the zombie eat him/her and blast that zombie after.  Remember: Touch and Go.

There you have it.  That's all you need to be the most efficient zombie killer.

Oops...one undead slipped past.  Game over!

UPDATE! Yeah, he game(d).

So, the chap from the aforementioned post is totally a gamer.  Well, he used to play tabletop.  Now he's a WoW gamer (I'll take it).  Yay GAMEDAR!

He's into steampunk a lot, too.  He drooled at my steampunk RPG concept as I pitched it to him.  w00t!

My Foray into Steampunk

I am but an infant standing before an ocean when it comes to the genre of Steampunk, but I am quite excited about the gaming opportunities it extends. A gnome escaping from a train heist by sealing the dining car's door with a glue bomb would be amazing. Or a group of half-orc tribesmen that take down the zeppelin of the local oppressive duke with bows and arrows, yeah, that's the ticket!

I'm a long way from making this a true sustained campaign reality, but so far here's what I know.

The world will be my own (sort of).
The geography will match that of our Earth, but history shall be quite different.
The 'civilized' world at this point currently reside on the continent we call North America.
There are approximately 36 nation-states. The two most powerful of which are the Federated States of Ullera and the Sovereign Kingdom of Rausch, currently allies which share borders.

Ullera sits between what we know as the Mississippi River and the East Coast, going north to the shores of the Great Lakes and south to the Everglades. It is a technologically driven state which in many ways mirrors the U.S. in the 1860s. Magecraft has long been outlawed here, but it is rumored to exist.

West of the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean spans the vast, sparsely populated Kingdom of Rausch. It's king rose from despondent orphanhood to a high position in the state church, eventually securing royal status by marrying ALL THREE of the prior king's daughters. He is highly respected and quite just.

Ulleran settlers, sick of coalsmoke-clogged cities, set east decades ago on all manner of craft (from dirigible to clipper to ship), but the harsh conditions and violent natives in the continents to the east have prevented Ullera from establishing meaningful colonies.

Gameplay will likely be limited to three player characters at a time. Pathfinder RPG rules will be used, augmented by third party steampunk expansions (mainly 3.0 books, actually). Players will all run gestalt characters (taking the best of any two classes).

Gameplay in the first campaign will include limited options. Greater options will be 'unlocked' as the world is explored (Example: once players encounter Knights of Rausch, the paladin class will become available.)

Players will start in Ullera (in game one), and race/class options will be limited to:

Races: Human, Half-elf, Elf, Gnome, Dwarf, Halfling.
Classes: Barbarian, Bard, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer.

Magic knowledge available to players will be limited to 3rd level spells until higher knowledge is unlocked.

Equipment: Modified black powder weapons exist. Reloading will take something like two full rounds (anything more will make it little fun for an RPG), which can be reduced by feats and class features.

There's plenty to flesh out here. Hit me up with questions. I'm sure there are aspects I haven't considered yet!

A Gradual Approach to Herodom

Granted, when you're playing a fantasy RPG:
1) You want to be able to do extraordinary things
2) You're able to TRY to do anything

But beyond that, it's all up to the DM. My interpretation may be the minority; I'm not sure. I think my heroes should be able to do a lot less amazing things at levels 1-5 than 6-10 and so on. I believe it's a logical thought process, supported by most gamers and even the rules of the game. You don't even think about sucker punching a great wyrm Red until at least level 20, right? (If even then!)

But where's the line? I talked to a DM years ago about how he runs his Star Wars RPG crew, and they can't expect to be 'heroes' for a while. The biggest reward he gives his players is the ability to modify a bowcaster at level 5 for a +1 attack. Their job until level 10 or so, in this guys mind, is to simply survive the environment. Everything else is flourish!

I'm not that bad, I have to say. But I definitely am not liberal with my distribution of power and wealth. My heroes can expect to do good things, but there's a limit. I once had a DM that pitted my level 5 or 6 crew against a young adult green dragon. Um...ok? Let's see where this goes. As the skinny bard with little combat prowess, you can guess what I did. That's right! I lassoed it around the neck with my grappling hook. I mean, isn't that a no-brainer? My DM and I rolled it out, and it stuck, a perfect shot that wrapped around the beastie's neck five times. Then the DM just threw his papers in the air in a lighthearted "you win" gesture.

Really? Is that all it takes to best a dragon? It's silk rope at best, and my bard weighs about a buck-o-five. I should have been used as a Swiffer to dust the undergrowth of that forest. Sadly, I cemented a five-round knock out of that beast. Come on, dragon! I mean, your breath is corrosive! You can polymorph, I saw you do it before the battle. Sure, my bard can now sing a song throughout the Realms about himself for a change, but... I feel like I was robbed a bit.

I always try to find that perfect balance between allowing my heroes to do amazing, bard-worthy things, and making sure there's something to look forward to. If my bard can do that at level 5, I'm going to hogtie a Tarrasque at 10!

Again I ponder...where is that line? This is all brought about by a play by e-mail game I'm running while I sit in Baghdad. (http://groups.google.com/group/saga-of-the-realms) It shouldn't be a big deal, but somehow it eats at me: Did I make the right call, or should it have been a simple success? Here's the story:

A group of PCs are in a rowboat on the waves, stranded. Three humans, an elf, and a halfling, plus gear. Suffice to say it's barely floating at best. The waves crash here and there and it's taking on water. The paladin summons his mount: a hippogriff. His plan is to ride off on it in the air so that some of the weight is gone. He summons her, and she has to appear adjacent to him. He's on a rowboat in the ocean. She can't hover according to her stat block, so she appears in the boat. That's right...its taking on water and we've just added a winged horse with barding. Hardly the ideal situation. So the pally has her take off immediately, as the ship is about 1/3 full of water. Off she flies, and he wants her to wheel about and fly by, and he'll just mount up as she returns.

What's the issue to me? At level 6, should a fully armored guy in a sinking boat on the seas be able to just mount up on a passing mount? I figure, let the Ride check decide. Not a good roll, but he's holding on. So now he's hanging onto the saddle as she flies. He tries to climb up her, and I make some more rolls. Nat 1. Nat 1. He grabs and pulls her reins and down they go into the ocean. Sucks, right? I could have just said, "Yeah, you're all good. Let's press on." But if they can do that in those circumstances, what is there to look forward to?

At low levels, I want my players to remember how they struggled to navigate the traps of the mummy's pyramid, narrowly escaped (not defeated) the deadly maw of a kraken, and had to pull out all the stops to drop the ogre mage. Because they'll be less cocky, less sure that everything they encounter is a battle to win. Drizzt, Kelemvor, and Han Solo all ran. They were all crafty in overcoming situations. And overcoming seldom meant bludgeoning to death in three rounds.

I want low level players to look forward to the times when they'll be able to do battle those epic baddies, not battle them right away. So they'll savor the tough tasks now, and not think that the DM fudged some rolls in order for them to do the impossible. And when the time comes, they'll sail back out to sea ready to slay the kraken that took their left hand.

I guess at the end of the day I want my guys to accomplish the improbable, not the impossible.

What are your thoughts?