Zombie = doesn't go to warp

Wild Kamikaze = Send up to 4 ships to the Warp; for each ship you get +3 to your total. Don't have the exact wording on hand.

Can Zombie use this? We ruled against, but I really just went by my gut there. Logically, I would think that Zombie would send 4 ships, and his power would activate to save them. But the Wild Kamikaze isn't like Negotiate; it doesn't say, "For each ship lost to warp," or anything like that, so I'm not sure he actually needs to lose the ships. Zombie complicates a lot of flares, aliens, and of course the eternal Negotiate debate -- despite being a very simple and memorable alien. I am not a good rule lawyer, so help me out. Someone please say this can't be done, giving Zombie essentially an infinite +12 card.

If it were me, I would rule that Zombie would send the ships, get the cards, but NOT be able to use his power to get the ships back. Why? Because Zombie can only retrieve ships that were "lost" to the warp. To me, that implies that said ships were destroyed by enemies. If Zombie sacrifices his own ships for something like Wild Kamikaze or Wild Void, he should lose the right to pull them right back.

Of course, this is probably just a willful interpretation. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone else agrees Zombie sends the ships, gets the stuff, and then gets the ships back.

I think that is too willful, actually. I think the idea of "lost" is just the game's family friendly way of saying "died" or "destroyed." Ships are not defeated in combat but retreat and become lost in the Warp because they don't know how to operate the Precursors' hyperspace gate. That's how I read "lost."

Adam said:

Technically Zombie doesn't lose ships to the warp. As opposed to never goes to the warp.

If you voluntarily send ships to the warp by sacrificing them for a bonus Zombie's power does not apply.

I see what you guys are trying to say, but I just don't think that's what "lose" means. Leave it to Cosmic to cause a debate on the simplest of words.

If a ship goes to Warp, it is lost to you. Lost does not necessarily imply involuntary or due to opposition. For instance, if Zombie plagues himself, do you think those ships go to Warp? I know online that they don't, but that is willful. It would be odd for a card to have a different effect whether you play it or someone else plays it on you.

I guess those are the only two ways of looking at it, so maybe I was just looking for confirmation of my decision so I wouldn't feel like I screwed over another player's chance to win last night, haha.

I would use it as your zombies kill themself off to get the bonus, then the other zombies revive their friend (as always) and they just go to new planets.

Oh how reminiscint of the long and soulsucking discussions about Sting and voluntary loss of ships. This is another reason why I changed Zombie in my set.

As for does Zombie have to lose ths ships and do they "never go to the Warp"... the short description on the card reads "Never goes to Warp". Put that in your left tentacle and shake it.

The Warp said:

I forgot to read the upside down text

So I guess in order for this to work, Zombie would have to Zap his power to use the flare to send his ships to the warp for the bonus.

My thinking is simply that Zombie never dies. This is a powerful combination, but certainly not a game-breaking one, since it relies on first getting the card and even then it's at most +12 each turn, the use of which will deprive Zombie of using potentially more useful Flares.