Today, we’re going to be exploring the Zayken’s unique faction special rules which gives them a distinctive edge on the battlefield and reflects their strange nature as essentially an escaped lab experiment gone wrong!
The hive mind wills the Zayken hordes forward with little care or concern of individual entities, as long as new biomass is accrued and the virus continues its spread. Consequently, Zayken units ignore blast markers, and can even ‘eat’ other friendly units in base contact if needed, representing biomass being redistributed to keep the more powerful units alive. This even works if in base contact with Mind Slaves – perfect for a quick Verse Dominion snack! However, the hive mind is not foolish in its behaviors, but rather acts in accordance to a grand plan very much beyond the understanding of even the wisest in the Damnya Sector. When a Zayken unit falls back or retreats, it instead moves towards terrain, where it can skulk and hide to fight another day.
The Zayken is driven by a hive mind – a gestalt will born from knowledge accumulated from the minds of its many victims, well at least that is what is thought by outside viewers anyway. Zayken armies rely upon this hive mind to command and coordinate its forces, rather than a distinctive hierarchy of leaders and officers. At the start of each turn, the Zayken force generates a number of Hive Mind tokens, proportional to the number of units that it currently has – the more brains your zombies munch, greater the hive mind’s presence! Each Hive Mind token is assigned to a Squad at the start of the turn, which can later be used to Order it as a separate activation. This can be useful for exhausting enemy activations early, or used to push-home an assault which has broken through the enemy’s lines. Not only that, but they do not need a Discipline test to work – none of that ‘Raven-Command-Vehicle-jammer-shenanigans’ here!
Propagate is an end-of-turn ability, and is unlike anything else seen in the other factions. As more and more Zayken are drawn together, generally from victims who have fallen to the virus, their presence can result in strange and exotic effects. In the Sitrep phase, there’s a chance that each Zayken Squad will be enraptured by the hive mind and undergo a change. If they do so, the Zayken player rolls on a table to see which effect comes into play. The first, called Paroxysm, is where the Squad suddenly strikes out at a nearby enemy, either making a single Strike roll, or an Acid Belch attack, or lurches forward as their ravenous hunger gets the better of them. The second result on the table is to simply heal one of the damaged Units – zombie rules wouldn’t be zombie rules without them getting back up at least occasionally! Lastly, and certainly the weirdest feature of this rule, is called Mutate. Simply put, some of the infected individuals can merge together to make new creatures and bio constructs, and what they become is based on which commands they carried out this turn, reflecting the hive mind’s desire to adapt and evolve to the challenges it faces out in the Damnya Sector!
Well, there we have it. The end of our previews of what to expect next Monday December 1st (that’s NEXT MONDAY) when the Zayken are unleashed upon your From Ashes battlefields!
Like all good zombie tropes, it’s probably a good time to build the barricades, load up that shotgun, and wait for the inevitable…
The Zayken…are coming…
…(*whispers* next Monday).
Void Scar Barn
One last thing – we have our next From Ashes Gaming Day a couple of weeks after this release on Saturday December 13th in Nottingham, held at 7th City Collectibles, so make sure you get those zombies and other gribblies ready for battle! Be sure to register your place to join in the fun.