Hit Z Road

A game of survival for 1 to 4 players
Rulebook

Hey, my name’s Martin. Me, my parents, and my sister had quite the adventure last year. We lost some good people, but we also made new friends along the way.

The world’s falling apart, but at least now we live in the sun. No more school. Also, I have a new job: I make ammo so Dad can pop zombies.

I have tons of free time, and one day when I was bored I made this game about last year’s trip. Hope you like it. ☺

Setting

Hit Z Road is a horror road trip that takes you from Chicago to L.A. in the midst of a zombie apocalypse in America. You’ll need to be resourceful to prevail over your opponents and survive the trip!

Aim of the Game

To have a shot at victory, at least 1 of your survivors must reach the West Coast. Among the players who make it to L.A., the 1 with the most points wins!

Game Components

• 76 adventure cards:
  • 20 Level 1
  • 28 Level 2
  • 28 Level 3
• 4 Epilogue cards
• 7 Dice (black)
• 3 Horde dice (red)
• 4 Lead Survivors (in 4 different colors)
• 4 Bidding markers (in 4 different colors)
• 18 Survivors
• 10 Zombies
• 1 Auction board
• 4 Initiative tiles
• 30 Ammo tokens
• 30 Gas tokens
• 30 Adrenaline tokens
• 9 Special tokens
• 2 Contaminated area tiles (in the shape of a key)

Resource tokens are unlimited in the game. If you run out, use a replacement of your choice.

Card Anatomy

• Resources: Resources you get during the scavenging phase (top-left corner).
• Points: Shown in the blue star in the top-right corner.
• Zombies: Number of zombies you must fight (inside the scrawny hand in the bottom-right corner).
• Event: Event you must resolve during the event phase (text box at the bottom).

Design: Martin Wallace
Artwork: Cover: Pascal Quidault; Cards: Cari, Pascal Quidault, Coimbra Miguel, Émile Denis, JB Casasola, Cyril Nouvel, Olly
Published by JD Éditions – SPACE Cowboys, 238 rue des frères Farman, 78530 BUC – France
© 2016 SPACE Cowboys. All rights reserved.

General Setup

1. Each player chooses a color and takes the lead survivor and bidding marker of that color.
2. Each player then takes 4 survivors, 4 Ammo tokens, 4 Gas tokens, and 4 Adrenaline tokens. Randomly distribute an initiative tile to each player.
3. Place the auction board, the dice, the remaining survivors, the 10 zombies, the 2 contaminated area tiles, and all tokens within reach of all players. They might (or not) randomly come into play as the game unfolds.
4. Each player places his bidding marker on the “0” space of the auction board.

To play with 1, 2, or 3 players, see the rule changes on page 11.

Adventure Deck Preparation

To build the adventure deck, follow these steps:

1. Shuffle the level 3 cards, take out 4 cards at random (put them back into the game box), and place the remaining cards in a facedown stack on the table.
2. Follow the previous step, but with the level 2 cards, and place the level 2 stack on top of the level 3 stack.
3. Again follow the previous step, but with the level 1 cards, and place the level 1 stack on top of the level 2 stack.

You now have a deck of 64 cards consisting of (from top-to-bottom) 16 level 1 cards, 24 level 2 cards, and 24 level 3 cards.

BEWARE, that deck cannot ever be shuffled!

We survived Route 66 and made it to the West Coast. As we traveled west, each encounter got creepier, so players need to manage their resources and choose their path as carefully as possible.

A game of Hit Z Road is played over 8 rounds. At the end of the game, the player who has survived the trip to L.A. and has the most points wins.

Each round consists of 3 phases:

1. PLANNING
2. AUCTION
3. ENCOUNTER

1. Planning Phase

Along the way, we scavenged anything that seemed useful, regardless of the cost.

The player with the #1 initiative tile draws the first 8 cards from the deck and places them faceup on the table in 4 paths, arranging them in 4 rows of 2 as shown below. (Note: the cards are paired up randomly).

2. Auction Phase

Players see options for the next leg of their journey. You choose 1 of the 4 paths, but only the most assertive player can take the least dangerous (and sometimes most lucrative) path. We always made the right choice…well, almost always.

During this phase, players take turns according to the initiative tiles (starting with #1).

1. On a player’s turn, he can move his bidding marker by following these rules:
   • If he chooses to bid, he must move his marker to a space higher than its current space.
   • He may pass and leave his marker where it is. If he passes, he can bid later on during this auction (provided that all the other players have not also passed).
   • Except for the “0” space, only 1 bidding marker can occupy a single space at a time.
   • When the auction ends, the player spends any combination of his resources (Ammo, Gas, or Adrenaline) equal to his bid. A player cannot bid higher than he has resources to spend.
   • The highest possible bid is 10.
2. As soon as all players pass in a row, the auction ends immediately.
3. Each player spends resources equal to his bid (players can use any combination of resources).
4. Each player gets an initiative tile depending on his bid (whoever had the highest bid gets the #1 tile, then the second-highest bid gets #2, and so on).
   • If several players bid 0, they stay in the same turn order relative to each other during the previous round.
5. At the end of this phase, put all markers back on the “0” space.

Auction Example

Turn order before the auction: Green (#1) → Yellow (#2) → Blue (#3) → Red (#4).

Resources are spent and new turn order is determined:

• Green spends 7 and gets the #1 initiative tile (he had the highest bid).
• Yellow spends 4 and gets the #2 tile (she made the second-highest bid).
• Blue and Red don’t spend any resources, but they are at the bottom of the turn order. To break this tie, check the turn order from the previous round. As Blue came before Red, he now gets the #3 tile and therefore Red is left with #4.

3. Encounter Phase

Now players travel 1 of the paths that lie before them… come what may.

During this phase players take turns according to their initiative tiles. On a player’s turn, he must choose 1 of the remaining paths and resolve all events on both cards along that path. A path consists of exactly 2 cards. Both cards are resolved in order from left to right, and after resolving the cards, the player keeps them facedown in front of him.

Each card is resolved following these 3 steps:

Step 1: Scavenge

The player takes all the resources shown in the top-left corner.

Step 2: Event

Read the text on the card (if there is any):

• If the text is black on a white background, it is an event, and the player must resolve it immediately.
• If the text is red on a white background, it is a special rule that will affect the ensuing fight (see step 3).

Clarification:

• When a card instructs the player to roll a die, it’s always a black die.
• If a dice icon is shown in event text, count each matching icon rolled regardless of icons.

Step 3: Fight

During a fight, the player must defeat all the zombies shown on the card (the number in the scrawny hand in the bottom-right corner). Place zombies equal to this number in front of you to track your kills against the living dead.

Ranged Roll

Each fight can have 1 ranged roll, when the player can fight the zombies from a safer distance. The ranged roll is optional and, if the player chooses to do it, the ranged roll must occur as the first roll of the fight.

• For each ammo spent, the player rolls 2 black dice.
• For each or , kill 1 zombie.

Important Note: During a ranged roll, all other results are ignored.

Brace Yourselves… and Flee!

Before any melee round, a player may flee to skip the fight altogether.

• To flee, a player spends 2 gas tokens.
• The card is returned to the game box, and obviously you don’t get any points for avoiding it.

Melee Combat (Close Quarters)

If you choose to skip the ranged roll, or if there are zombies left standing after the ranged roll, things get ugly and you must now fight in close quarters (melee) until 1 group (yours or the zombies) entirely eliminates the other.

During each melee roll, you roll black dice equal to your meeples (survivors plus lead survivor). Each result is resolved as follows:

• Casualty: 1 of your survivors has been bitten and will die a horrible death unless you act quickly. You must either spend 1 Adrenaline token or lose 1 of your survivors.
• Blank: You dodged; nothing happens.
• Opportunity Kill: A zombie is within reach; you may spend 1 Adrenaline token to kill 1 zombie.
• Kill: You killed 1 zombie.
• Bonus Kill: Kill 1 zombie and you may spend 1 Adrenaline token to kill 1 more zombie.

If the player manages to kill all the zombies, he wins the fight. He takes the adventure card and places it facedown in front of him. The points that players collect (shown in the blue star in the top-right corner) are totaled at the end of the game (if they survive that long).

The Horde

If the scrawny hand showing the number of zombies is red, you are attacked by a horde of zombies. The ranged roll and fleeing (should you choose to) remain the same, but melee rolls are slightly more dangerous, as you may have guessed. The horde’s strength is indicated by the number of small red skulls (1, 2, or 3) above the hand.

• For a melee roll against a strength-1 horde, you must swap 1 of your dice for 1 horde die (red).
• For a melee roll against a strength-2 horde, you must swap 2 of your dice for 2 horde dice, and so on.
• However, you never roll more dice than the number of meeples you currently have in your group.

Examples:

• A group with 4 meeples that is attacked by a strength-2 horde rolls 2 black dice and 2 red dice.
• A group with 2 meeples that is attacked by a strength-3 horde rolls only 2 red dice.

A horde die has an additional result:

• Horrible Death: 1 of your survivors is instantly killed. Not very fair, but then again life isn’t fair (and in the end, you die anyways).

If all of your survivors have been killed, you are eliminated from the game. You don’t take part in auctions anymore, and you can return your collected cards to the game box as well as your tokens to the reserve, and go get some coffee.

Starting with the next round, the following changes are made:

• During the planning phase, place the “+2” key pointing at the 4th (bottom) path of cards.
• The player who takes that path must spend an additional 2 resources of his choice before even beginning to resolve the first card. If he doesn’t have enough resources to spend, he cannot choose that path.

If a second player is eliminated, the following changes are made:

• During the planning phase, place the “+2” key pointing at the 3rd path of cards.
• The player who takes that path must spend an additional 2 resources of his choice before even beginning to resolve the first card. If he doesn’t have enough resources to spend, he cannot choose that path.
• Place the “+4” key pointing at the 4th (bottom) path of cards.
• The player who chooses that path must spend an additional 4 resources of his choice before even beginning to resolve the first card. If he doesn’t have enough resources to spend, he cannot choose that path.

Winning the Game

• If only 1 player has at least 1 survivor at the end of an encounter phase, he immediately wins the game.
• If all players have no survivors at the end of an encounter phase, there is no winner!
• If 2 or more players have at least 1 survivor at the end of the game, each of these players adds up his points from facedown cards.
• Each epilogue card is worth 3 points and is given to the player with the most resources specified on the card. If there is a tie for an epilogue card, then it is not given to any player.
• The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most remaining survivors wins.
• If there is still a tie, all tied players share the victory and take up residence in the letter “D” of the “HOLLYWOOD” sign to wait out the zombie apocalypse.

Token Clarifications

• Executor: When you get this token, your group travels in a school bus from then on. This has no immediate impact on the game. However, if you also get the Executor card later in the game, your bus becomes the Executor, a real fortress on wheels that allows you to fight all hordes as if they were regular zombies (roll black dice instead of horde dice). Keep the Executor card faceup in front of you as a reminder.
• Molotov Cocktails: You may discard this token at any time on your turn—even before a fight begins—to kill the entire group or horde of zombies (ignore the red text on the card). Take that card and place it facedown in front of you as you would normally do after winning a fight.

Rule Changes for 1, 2, or 3 Players

Before starting the game, remove all cards showing poker card symbols (J-Q-K-A) in the bottom-left corner and return them to the game box.

During the planning phase, the player with the #1 initiative tile draws only 6 cards and places them as usual on the table, creating 3 paths of random pairs.

Rule Changes for 2 Players Only

• Place the “+2” key pointing at the 3rd (bottom) path of cards.
• The player who takes that path must spend an additional 2 resources of his choice before even beginning to resolve the first card. If he doesn’t have enough resources to spend, he cannot choose that path.

Rule Changes for 1 Player Only

During the planning phase, draw 6 cards and place them on the table, creating 3 paths of random pairs, but BEWARE, they won’t all be placed faceup!

• Place both cards in the 1st pair facedown. This is the 1st possible path.
• Place the 2nd pair with the left card faceup and the right card facedown. This is the 2nd possible path.
• The 3rd pair is placed faceup. This is the 3rd possible path.

Path Options

• If the player chooses the 1st path, he may take any 2 resources from the reserve before flipping the cards faceup!
• If the player chooses the 2nd path, he resolves it as usual.
• If the player chooses the 3rd path, he must spend 2 additional resources of his choice before beginning the encounter phase. (Note: If he doesn’t have at least 2 resources to spend, he cannot choose that path.)

After resolving the chosen path, discard the other 2 paths and continue on to the next planning phase. The aim of the solo game is to survive 8 rounds and finish with as many points as possible:

• Add up all the points from cards won;
• Receive 1 additional point for each complete set of 1 survivor – 1 Gas – 1 Ammo – 1 Adrenaline left.

Solo Rank Thresholds

• 0–5 points: Father Gabriel
• 6–10 points: Cool
• 11–15 points: Good
• 16–18 points: Very Good
• 19–21 points: Call Me Daryl
• 22+ points: Lucky or Genius