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In the various Zombicide games, my understanding is that if zombies can take two or more valid paths, they split. E.g. if there are 8 walkers in one square, and they can go one of 2 ways, you get 8 walkers go one way and another 8, previously non-existent walkers go the other way(!)
So:
Actually, if you have 8 walkers in one zone and there are 2 valid paths to get to the most noisy zone, you literally split them : you get 2 groups of 4 walkers.
There can only be one zombie added when splitting: in the case you have an even number of zombies. Eg: If you have 9 zombies in one zone, 5 go one way (A), 4 go the other way (B) + an additional one (B)
You apply that rule for each type of zombies (except Abominations that never split).
The idea is for the zombie turn to be as simple as possible to get it over with as quickly as possible. It is not the interesting part of the game, the players' turn are. Deciding randomly where each zombie goes would slow down the game without adding much. Adding the extra zombie when splitting even groups, makes things straight forward. I think it is a purely mechanical (opposed to themed) driven rule.
To add to @leochab's answer, here is the quote from the Zombicide: Black Plague! game:
If there is more than one route of the same length, the Zombies split into groups of equal numbers to follow all possible routes. They also split up if different target Zones contain the same number of Noise tokens. If necessary, add Zombies so that all new groups resulting from a splitting group contain the same number of each Zombie type!
Splitting special cases:
- Abominations and Necromancers never split; decide which direction they go.
- If there aren’t enough Zombie miniatures to add for an even split, decide which Zombie group gets the final reinforcement, and which direction the uneven split groups go. It doesn’t generate extra Activations (see P . 26).
EXAMPLE: A group of four Walkers, one Fatty, and three Runners move toward a group of Survivors. The Zombies can take two routes of the same length, so they split into two groups.
- Two Walkers go one way, the other two take the other route.
- The Fatty joins one group of Walkers, and a second Fatty is added to the other group.
- The three Runners also split, two joining the first group, and the other joining the second group. Another Runner is added to the latter group so that the groups remain even. Things just got a lot harder for the Survivors.
Well, I guess it always pays to read the rules!
+1 & accepted answer to @leochab
