Dead of Winter - Too easy with no betrayer/co-op?

Question

Co-op variant (hardcore) or games where the betrayer is obviously absent seems easy after playing the game a couple of times. Even with the betrayer, we find we can keep the morale 7+ consistently.

We usually start off getting weapons from the police station then arming the the few colony guys (e.g janitor/bev), while sending the rest to search at locations depending on objective/crisis, leaving them there and using the colony guys to attract the zombies back and kill them; playing outsiders sparingly.

The problem is we are never really moving after the initial first/second rounds, and we rarely need too much food (unless playing the food objective). And the guys in the colony get armed with like double sniper switchblades as we keep searching the police station without penalty.

Are we doing anything wrong?

Answer 1

Yes, Dead of Winter without a betrayer (especially without hardcore objectives) is easy, even extremely easy with 4 or 5 players. Even so, hardcore versions of objectives can be difficult if you play them with 3 players (and some are impossible with 2 players, literally impossible).

While it might not be the case for your group, I'd argue that Dead of Winter can be very easy if there is no betrayer but there is an alpha player. Without a betrayer the alpha player can easily convince the group what to do and essentially win the game solo. This is a problem that most co-ops have, and this is exactly why I always play with the betrayer.

You also might want to reread the rules, or at least watch a "Watch it played" video to make sure you aren't skipping any vital rules by mistake.