It is the distant future and rampant overpopulation of Earth is having disastrous effects. Ancient texts foretell of 8 constellations that - when charted - will reveal a path to a system containing a verdant planet with abundant water, landmasses, and natural resources. The nations on the space council have agreed to a tenuous treaty to halt hostilities and cooperate in exploring the systems within reach of Earth. Take to the stars with hope - but beware - the reaches of space contains a threat unbeknownst to humanity...
Cooperatively explore unknown space - flipping over hexes to reveal what each system contains as you move. When you reveal a Zombie system - it will start generating zombies each turn to swarm out across the galaxy. Buy new ships and unlock upgrades to fight off the zombie swarm. Race to discover all of the constellations before the zombies overrun Earth!
Downloads
Rulebook -
defconzombies-rulebook-2025-01.pdf
System Hexes -
defconzombies-system-hexes-2025-01.pdf
Constellation and Event Cards -
defconzombies-cards-2025-01.pdf
You will need to provide:
- 16 colored pieces per player to represent ships.
- 32 red (or, differently colored pieces) to represent Zombies.
- 24 pieces to represent outposts.
Basic Rules
Refer to the Rulebook pdf document above for the full rules, including setup and variant rules.
Setup
1. Build The Galaxy
- Place the Earth system in the center of the table.
- Randomly place 36 additional hexes face-down around Earth in 3 rings.
2. Prepare To Launch
- Each player places a cube on Earth to represent a ship.
- Shuffle the Constellation cards to form the Constellation Deck.
- Shuffle the Event cards to form the Event Deck.
Turn Details
1. Move
- Move any number of your ships from one system to one adjacent destination system.
- If you move to an unexplored system - flip it over to discover what it is!
2. Buy
- You may buy one new ship or outpost.
- Ships must be placed on Earth, Outposts may be placed on any planet (other than Earth) where you have a ship.
3. Zombies
- Skip this step until a Zombies planet has been discovered.
- Place a red cube on each Zombie system. If any human ships are present, they immediately fight.
- Move the new zombie to the closest planet system with the highest resource number.
- If that planet now has more zombies on it than the resource number, it overflows: Move one zombie from that
planet to the next closest planet system with the highest resource number.
Winning the Game
- You win if all of the constellations are discovered before the zombies overrun Earth!
Variants
Variants that Increase the Difficulty
Fourth Ring
- During setup - place the “0” planet system tile back in the box, then proceed with all of the remaining tiles to make a galaxy with four rings around Earth. Consider what measures you wish to take to ensure (or not?) where the Zombies systems may end up!
Experimental Jump Drives
- When you want to move into an unexplored system, declare which ships are moving together - then roll a die to randomly select between all unexplored systems that are valid destinations.
Outer Ring Scouts
- At the end of each player’s turn, add one zombie on an unexplored system in the outermost ring that doesn’t already have a zombie. As defined, this would cease once each unexplored system in the outermost ring has a zombie on it. If you are really looking for a challenge, keep going - moving in a ring until every unexplored system has a zombie on it.
Overrun Planets Become Zombies Systems
- Warning - this was brutal - use this only if you want the most extreme challenge! When the number of zombies on a planet system matches the resource number of that planet - remove all of the zombies from it and that planet system transforms into a Zombies system. This system is no longer considered a “planet system” and doesn’t have a resource number. Treat this system as a Zombies system for all successive turns - generating a new zombie each turn that moves out from here.
Variants that Decrease the Difficulty
Collect from Explored Planets Early
- When you move to a planet system that has already been revealed, collect the number of resources shown even if a Zombies system has not yet been discovered.
Industrious Manufacturing
- You may buy as many ships and outposts each turn that you can afford.
Flagships
- During setup - each player stacks a second cube on-top of their starting ships. This indicates this ship as their “flagship”. When buying a new ship, you may place the new ship either at Earth or in the same system as your flagship.