Is the center zone a deployment zone? Specifically can you come back from the bench onto it when it is not a scoring zone? Do you flip tokens when a character finishes an activation on the bench or infirmary?
Yes, there are seven Deployment Zones including the middle one. Models in the Infirmary don't have any tokens on them, while models on the Bench come back into the Hexadome during their activation, so flipping state tokens doesn't apply to either.
Quoting from the Reference Guide concerning the bench: • Characters in the Bench must go back into the HexaDome at the end of the Preparation Step of their Activation. To do this, Place your benched model on a Free space in any of the Deployment Zones other than the Scoring Zone, and continue its Activation normally. • Benched Characters are not in Range or Line of Sight of any of the HexaDome’s spaces. Paragraph deleted after V's correct answer
Would either of you mind including citations? And do players lose all their tokens when they go to the infirmary? Must have missed that...
Hmm, that took longer to find than expected. :-( Reference Guide, Scoring Zones: 'SCORING ZONES 'The Scoring Zone is a specific Deployment Zone where players can score Victory Points. The rules governing the Scoring Zone depend on the scenario being played.' Reference Guide, Deployment Zones: 'DEPLOYMENT ZONES Certain clusters of spaces around the HexaDome are colored differently; these are the Deployment Zones. The rules of each scenario indicate how to use these areas.' My emphasis in both cases. The Central Zone is intentionally coloured the same as the six numbered Deployment Zones.
And yes, a Character going to the Infirmary loses all states and Damage tokens. From the Infirmary entry: 'When you move a Character to the In rmary, remove all tokens (State tokens, 4 tokens, Markers...) from their Character card.'.
Central zone is a Deployment Zone. About Infirmary: as @ijw has posted, every character loose all State tokens when entering Infirmary.
This ruling by -V- is going to make the King of the Hill scenario a total mash up when characters return from the bench in any free space directly into the central scoring zone.
You can not enter from the bench to the scoring zone, only deployment zones but not the scoring zone at that time. So you never can enter in the central scoring zone in the King of the Hill scenario. "• Characters in the Bench must go back into the HexaDome at the end of the Preparation Step of their Activation. To do this, Place your benched model on a Free space in any of the Deployment Zones other than the Scoring Zone, and continue its Activation normally"
Sorry for the error. But now I will never forget that benched characters can never re-enter the Hexadome in a Scoring Zone.