CMON Rock Kickstarter With Zombicide 2nd Edition Campaign
October 18, 2019 by brennon
CMON has returned to Kickstarter with Zombicide although this time it's not another expansion but a whole new edition of the game. Zombicide 2nd Edition is now live and is already streaking its way through stretch goals and the like.
This game is a proper big zombiefest where between one-to-six players can get stuck into a fast-paced and (by this point) quite refined game filled with undead slaying and objective-based gameplay. As with everything from CMON there is quite a lot of plastic goodies included in just the core set. Here is what you get in the base game...
...and one of the cool additions to this is the inclusion of a full expansion already. I have to say, CMON really has pushed the boat out when it comes to their sculpts this time around and both the characters and zombies are looking superb. They are full of action and perfect for a quick and dirty zombie-slaying affair.
Here is the expansion for Zombicide 2nd Edition which is subtitled Washington Z.C.
Here you have a whole host of new characters and companions and of course a whole load of scenarios and campaign elements for you to enjoy as well. Again, this might be a bit much for someone who has already dived into a lot of Kickstarters before but for someone coming to Zombicide for the first time, this is a wealth of content.
What's New?
Rather than me explaining to you what's new, I thought I'd share the videos from CMON where they talk about what's new for Zombicide 2nd Edition. Check out the videos below concerning the main game...
...and the expansion from this Kickstarter.
So, has this got you interested in checking out this new edition of Zombicide? It would be neat to hear what you think about CMON's revamped venture.
Let us know in the comments below...
"So, has this got you interested in checking out this new edition of Zombicide?"
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I’d expect in true CMON fashion that there’s another 100 “KS Exclusive) plastic minis hidden behind stretch goals (gotta keep that hype going). But I wonder if the changes for 2nd edition are going to be enough to make gamers who have already heavily invested in the 1st edition (plus all the expansions) pledge again. My main gripe with the previous KS was the sheer amount of KS “exclusives” and “limited Releases” for the first one (although that’s me just being a completionist, if I can get it ALL I’m not interested). But I wonder if CMON are going to… Read more »
My experience of cmon is that it’s ‘beta tested’ by backers.
I wonder if they’re going to make it fun this time… instead of just throwing plastic zombies on the table and rolling lots of dice.
Pretty much every kickstarter is ‘beta tested by backers’, because that’s what you sign up for. If you want a ‘perfect’ game then you’d better wait for retail … and wait for reviews to see if any fixes are published post launch. @phaidknott It looks like it is a strictly by the numbers campaign for CMON. There are lots of ‘exclusive’ survivors already. I wished they had focused on providing the new rules and an upgrade pacakage instead. OTOH … I’m sure people would have complained that there’s not enough stuff … 🙁 As is I don’t feel tempted to… Read more »
Yup just checked the KS page and it’s a wall of “KS Exclusive” (19 of them so far) on the Stretch Goals (CMON really use that FOMO thing to it’s upmost). After watching the “What New in V2.0” there doesn’t seem to be any major changes (just tweaks here and there), the only thing to note was the Zombies now spawn in dark areas (and en mass). So I don’t think there’s much of a draw there. But the “upgrade” for V1.0 to V2.0 at $40 was less than I was expecting (although you still need to pledge $100 to… Read more »
I think it’s because all of the ‘major’ changes have been done in every Zombicide version to date. Add to this ‘massive darkness’ and the idea of stuff ‘spawning in dark zones’ isn’t exactly new either.
When you consider that SoIaF is an IP that they don’t own it’s not that strange.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they are forced to do it like that …
OTOH … Zombicide never had a long-term release plan, so anything that does is going to stand out.
Well, this is the forth time they’ve rewritten the Zombicide rules, and we can all see how they’ve fine tuned things.
But if you’ve hated the previous three settings for Zombicide, I doubt that you’d care for the newest one.
Yet again another pre order thing From a big company.
This is not what the intention of Kickstarter was meant to be. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Zombicide games but I feel a company the size of C’mon can afford to release this without Kickstarter being their pre order system.
To be fair, revenue of ~30 million doesn’t make you a big company. Generally it wouldnt even qualify as medium sized. They are only big relative to people operating out of garages. It is a tiny industry and I don’t begrudge anyone in it using any channel to sell or create cash flow that they can.
@jamesedwards to be fair I think you’ve answered your own statement mate. Kickstarter was setup to allow small Fred in his shed to compete with the big boys in getting their product out there. This I always supported, but a company that can have a revenue of £30 million is not a Fred in the shed company mate and hence my statement. I’ve been in this hobby over 35 years and have seen some very good small Fred in his shed companies go under as they couldn’t compete. The issue I have with kickstarter from these bigger companies is they… Read more »
Long live the FLGS! Mine is being ruined lore by Magic the gathering than Kickstarter but I guess it differs everywhere. Sounds like your issue is more with the distribution channels that the Internet offer rather than Kickstarters by anything other than a hobbyist business. I hear you — and not everyone wins — but without the Internet my options would be GW or video games. It might be nice if Kickstarter added a code to highlight the size of the business so people could support smaller guys if they want, but that’s up to them I guess. Also, I’m… Read more »
It was never intended to allow small companies to compete with anyone. It’s a means of getting any product created and nothing more. Whether someone competes is nothing to do with Kickstarter.
If ‘big’ companies don’t use Kickstarter, then the legitimacy of Kickstarter goes down.
Fred in his garage can’t compete on Kickstarter with the big dogs if the big dogs are all elsewhere. Big companies doing KS projects brings a LOT more people to Kickstarter, who then go on to back other projects.
Look at the “new backer” numbers on various projects. The big companies bring in the new backers, existing backers support smaller projects.
Yep. By OP’s logic, garage projects would all be on IGG, not KS.
I’ll also add that, if a company is “big”, why use KS in the first place? After all, KS takes 10% of the funds if the campaign funds.
The reason to use Kickstarter if your company is ‘big’ is that Kickstarter only takes 10%, while retail takes more like 70%. In addition, retail sales are not guaranteed for most companies- you could make 5k copies of your game and then not be stocked anywhere anyway, and maybe have to lower your prices to the point where you’re not making enough profit outside of Kickstarter (which is what happened to Monolith with Conan, and why their Batman games aren’t getting a retail release). CMON have been releasing games outside of Kickstarter. I’m guessing these haven’t done so well that… Read more »
Yeah, that matters if you’ve got an FLGS that you game at regularly. But if that’s your concern, CMON aren’t the problem.
CMON has a program for game stores to order in their Kickstarter games with all the exclusives in a way that makes sense to LGS finances (they don’t pay the full amount during the Kickstarter). My local shops have stocked things like HATE this way.
I have heard that there are even some exclusives that you can only get by pre-ordering CMON games via your LGS.
> This is not what the intention of Kickstarter was meant to be.
Better let Kickstarter know that a company is not using their site as it was meant to be, then.
At the very least, I think I’ll have to get the ‘Nostalgic Pledge’ so I can get the update cards and dashboards for the first edition of the game.
That being said, I do love the art in this one. The ‘Daily Zombie Spawn’ models have so much character. I’d be tempted to go all in on this one, especially after passing on ‘Zombicide Invaders’, but I need to see some more gameplay to see just how different it is.
Now’s the time to campaign for a BoW add-on. You know with Warzan the Terrible, Lloyd in his pedal train, John in a pedal Sherman, Sam, Ben as a head in a TV with legs, Lance, Ryan and all the other behind-the-scenes guys (and gals).
Ooh the new revamped game is looking fabulous as it the figures.
With X-Wing FFG managed to introduce an upgrade kit for the 2nd edition. In Zombicide v1 I miss the dash boards and the improved system of track-keeping character stats of the later Zombicide-games. But I don’t miss this enough to buy a new complete edition. However, an upgrade kit for Zombicide v1 to v2 would be an option for me.
Not sure you can “upgrade” to V 2.0 without having to buy the core game again. Although you get the dashboards and cards, you don’t seem to get the rules and the new terrain tiles (with the dark zone bits). So the upgrade kit seems to be there only to allow you to use your V 1.0 components with the new Core box (and not allow you to simply just upgrade the rules)
Well you can buy the tiles from the core set for 20$ and the rules are free to download.
So it seems to upgrade 1.0 to 2.0 you need the Upgrade set and the tile set which would cots 60$ and you would have to downlaod the rules.
Oh yes! The (WIP-)rules can (already) be downloaded. I didn’t relaize that. Thanks for that, @iceeagle85!!!
So with the Nostalgic pledge (no access to pledge levels) + Washington Z.C. (eventually access to pledge levels) + Tiles set + Zombies and Companions upgrade kit a ZCv1.0 should become a v2.0.
The rest of upgraded ID cards come with pledge levels. Took me a moment to figure it out but all in all (IMHO!) CMON did a fair job on their longtime fans.
I thought they had an “upgrade my existing set” option.
You’ll probably need to buy into the whole thing if you want all of the new extras though.