[@PowerPaul:] Papa Prego!
I could not figure out the zombies, so I imagine I will keep drifting down the rankings.
How do you mean? You mean you couldn't bring them to appear or can't beat them? Tip: use two hammers. The axe in the tool box has nice movement and damage ;-)
will increase the benefits to players with greater skills
I would answer: can, but don't have to. Can be the opposite to, if you think you can swing your bat like crazy, the zombies will come faster. I played with just one hammer, too; and works. But it's not easy against zombies. So I would recommend picking two 2 weapons with different characteristics. These movement characteristics will become more important as I will include a new multiplier "how many pins you hit within one click/swipe".
Beside to have enough damage in hand against zombies, I would still assume that the champion will be the person with the most calm head and where knows the movement of his hammer best - this doesn't mean the side curves. Just the "how to prevent to hit two pins when I don't like to". And when you then have a weapon where you can swipe over the table from left or right (when you are sure that there is no BRO on the table...).
You are doing good!