Does the Zombie get compensation?

Sorry, I don't know the answer to this. This, and how the Void and Zombie should interact are oft-debated cosmic issues. It would be useful to have an official ruling on these. A mechanistic reading of the current rules suggests that Zombie would not get compensation, but common sense suggests that this would be mentioned on the Zombie blurb if this were indeed the intention.

There are really two sides to the Zombie vs. compensation debate:

Side A (against compensation): Since Zombie loses no ships to the warp, the compensation he gets is always 0. (CE Online takes this road.)

Side B (in favour of compensation): The spirit of compensation is to console players who have played an N versus an attack. The number of ships lost is just a measuring stick. Zombie may not lose ships to the warp, but is still inconvenienced (losing a planet as defense, losing chance to get colony/second turn as offense).

A similar debate arises with Zombie vs. Void (and similar powers). The problem is that, in this case, it's a relatively arbitrary decision. On the road to the warp, does the Void detour or Zombie's escape route come first? CE Online gives Void the upper hand here, but that may have been just to simplify programming.

This is why I created a revised version of Zombie for my home set... there, he does go to the Warp when he loses, but at the start of every encounter all of his ships are freed to colonies. Thus, he would get compensation, since he does go to the Warp, and also he would fall prey to the Void. Thematically, it also makes more sense to me this way for how Zombie can free others' ships in a deal... he knows how to escape the place, so feeing others is a snap... hard to do when you never go there. But that's just me.

I say "no", I think compensation is according to the ships lost and since the Zombie does not lose any ships then no compensation is given. It can really suck, but also not lossing ships is a pretty decent power.

In my opinion Zombie takes compensation, because after playing a Negotiate card they *effectively* lose their ships to the Warp. The fact that their power at that time activates preventing the ship loss is not part of the compensation mechanic.

However an official response would be appreciated.

Zombie doesn't receive compensation according to the original rules, and there's no mention of a change on his card. Considering how easy it is for him to ally defense constantly with 4 and get cards, is it really hurting him not to get compensation?

The Void's text says to "remove losing ships from the game rather than sending them to the warp." Since you bypass the "send to warp" phase, Zombie's power doesn't activate. I seem to remember this being mentioned officially somewhere else, either in the rules or in a post elsewhere. Maybe I'm imagining things... I do that sometimes...

Raistlin said:

I've always felt that was really selective use of logic -- Zombie doesn't "effectively" lose anything.

Also, There already is an official ruling. Page 11 specifically includes the wording "take one card for for each ship he or she lost to the warp ."

(emphasis added)

Nevermind ... there used to be some text here. It's not important.

My GOD , this is just the worst forums software ever .

Vincent_V said:

No. Please see above.

(I wanted to put something useful here as a parting gift ... I'm about to give up on struggling with these user-unfriendly forums).

Triple-posting? Moderators, look out for this guy!

Adam said:

Actually, that "official" wording I seem to remember is Void Versus HEALER (Healer heals before ships go to void), not versus Zombie. My bad. I still think Void overrides Zombie, but that's just my interpretation.