The Walking Dead No Sanctuary - Rivals rules

[Andyb80]

Hi

I had a few questions regarding Outlaw Rivals in mission 3 and 4 of the core box.
First half of mission 3 felt weird as Rivals eradicated all zombies very quickly making objective 1 very easy. That might be all fine.

But then when 10 rivals suddenly show up I started to lose very quickly.
I mean if Rivals use red color, three of them entering same one survivors space means 9 stress tokens added on the others straight away. Crazy!

I also didn’t get how rivals behave if they want to move away from space with walker. Exert and get knocked down?

And do I throw stress dice or not when in same space as a rival? And do I have to exert when leaving their space?

Can I use resource action ammo on a rival? Text says ”Walker” specifically.

Many questions...

[MattyTheSquid]

Hi there. It's nice to see another new face here at these forums. As usual, I'll just take these in order.

Hi

I had a few questions regarding Outlaw Rivals in mission 3 and 4 of the core box.
First half of mission 3 felt weird as Rivals eradicated all zombies very quickly making objective 1 very easy. That might be all fine.

But then when 10 rivals suddenly show up I started to lose very quickly.
I mean if Rivals use red color, three of them entering same one survivors space means 9 stress tokens added on the others straight away. Crazy!

Rivals can definitely be dangerous. Generally speaking, if all 10 are on the board, things are probably looking pretty dire, as you've clearly already experienced. With regards to Scenario 4 (Outlaws), spending as little time as possible on the 2nd stage of the objective track can help to avoid becoming overwhelmed by the flood of Rivals. Also, assuming you stick with using the Outlaws as your rivals, maintaining a Cautious approach can also be very useful, which will keep the Outlaws distracted with the Walkers, and therefore out of your hair (again, it seems like you got to see that in action with Scenario 3 already).

But yes, you may find as you play through the game that the Rivals you encounter are actually much more threatening than the Walkers. Which, when you think about it, you could argue is one of the recurring themes of the series.

I also didn’t get how rivals behave if they want to move away from space with walker. Exert and get knocked down?

Rivals can move away from Walkers with no ill effects. Exerting due to leaving a ready Walker's Space is just a rule for Survivors.

And do I throw stress dice or not when in same space as a rival? And do I have to exert when leaving their space?

Rivals do not cause you to add a Stress die to your Action Pool when you perform an action in their Space, and they do not cause you to Exert when you leave their Space. Both those things only apply to Walkers.

Can I use resource action ammo on a rival? Text says ”Walker” specifically.

The rules do specify Walkers only for the Ammo maneuver, so strictly speaking, defeating a Rival this way is not an option. Although, to be honest, I believe it's perfectly reasonable to allow ammo to hit any enemy if that feels right for your table. Note that that may require a few additional rules tweaks to interact with some of the more unusual Scenarios (off the top of my head, Better Angels and Woodbury Arena would probably want a rule about Ammo causing a targeted Survivor to Exert), but by and large it seems like a fine way to play.

I hope that helped to clear up any questions you had. Best of luck with your gaming!

[Andyb80]

This is great, thanks for your help.
Yes being Cautious is the best way then.