A post about LNOE strategy, though y'all might enjoy

[Nachie]

Hey everybody this is my first real post here and I hate to make it simply a link to another site, but I think you folks might enjoy a post I made today on Reddit about LNOE.

Basically I'd recently been seeing a lot of people on various forums talking about how they thought LNOE was broken or not that fun, and I decided to stand up for this game I love and write a few things about strategy. It seems to have been well received over on /r/boardgames and someone there posted a link to this site, which is how I found out about this community

I'm not going to copy+paste my entire post because it was quite long, but since you're all LNOE fanatics like myself I think it will make an enjoyable read:

http://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comme..._on_earth/

I look forward to continuing the discussion on this site, so please let me know what you think about my impressions and I can't wait to talk some more LNOE with you guys!

[mqstout]

Quote:So please understand that my perspective on LNOE is coming from having mostly only played the game with every possible additional rule. ... If I ever went back to playing just the core set, I probably wouldn't find it to be nearly as entertaining.

Try it sometime! Sometimes I play with them all, sometimes I pick and choose. Just make sure to add them in their matched pairs for the two sides. (I almost never play with the barricade rules... But I always shuffle together all of the cards except those specific to any rules not being used and fence post.) I always revert to close to the base game (plus new heroes and zombie/hero decks cards) when playing with new players.

Quote:Since adding all the expansions, it is true that the heroes almost always win. But that has nothing to do with the game being unbalanced and everything to do with my gaming group(s) still figuring out the different play styles and strategies; I think that LNOE can offer extremely nuanced gameplay if you approach it correctly. Regardless of who wins at the end, we have always had a great time playing, marveled at the colorful situations that play themselves out on the board, and ultimately every single game for us has always come down to the last couple turns and is decided by one or two crucial dice rolls that might have spelled utter disaster. Love it.

Quoting the meat of your post to show agreement. I do dislike how it became skewed in the heroes flavor, but the hero players when we play (I'm usually Zombie) are usually less than optimal so it works out. I'm tempted to pull out a couple of the Hunting Rifles sometimes. I'd rather add more "Resilient" cards to the Zombie Deck, but that's not as easy to do.

Quote:#1

I generally agree with this block. Also point out that having the full complement of hero players with one ZP *nominally* slants it in favor of the zombies, particularly if you play without excessive strategic talk amongst them.

Quote:#2

I also agree with these points. In particular, pointing out that the ZP is basically a GM running the board rather than a competitive player goes far. There's the same thing in Mansions of Madness. Technically it's Keeper vs Heroes, but really we just see it as the keeper running the board rather than trying to win. AND usually the game's most fun for the hero players if the ZP/Keeper does play to win/optimally.

Quote:The other aspect of playing as a zombie is realizing that so much of your gameplay is based around action cards. Human players tend to obsess about items and don't pay enough attention to their action/reaction cards, many of which are mostly used to counter zombie cards, anyway. But as a zombie player, the cards are exactly what will let you win. You need to be aware enough of what's in your hand to not let a single opportunity to play a card slip, because it will literally cost you the game ten turns before it's over. This is challenging and frustrating and so much damn fun. Also remember that you can discard before drawing your hand each turn, so don't end up holding "good" cards the whole game just hoping that you'll find the perfect situation to use them; keep flushing out your hand and drawing new cards until you get some that will kick the humans' asses right then and there.

QFT. That's the top advice most of us always give to people who ask.


LNOE occupied my "Favorite board game" slot for a *long* time. It was only FFP's newest game, Fortune and Glory, that finally displaced it.

[Nachie]

(04-15-2013 12:38 AM)mqstout Wrote:  I almost never play with the barricade rules...

This is super interesting to me... how come? I'll admit that they rarely ever make a difference, but I've definitely had some games where pulling a barricade outta the ol' bag o tricks created some really interesting situations. To me they're like the sewers: definitely don't show up in every game, but add a lot of flavor when they do. And as I mentioned, I feel like they're actually pretty vital for the Defend the Manor House scenario, but that may just be my play style.

I think it's so awesome that there's a community of people here who have spent time thinking about and developing different strategies, I look forward to lurking old posts for a while and picking up some pearls. Do you or anyone else have some other "general" gameplay tips that I didn't cover in the aforementioned Reddit post?

[ZombieDad]

One of my friends called the Zombie player the ZM based off the old GM, Game Master role...Zombie Master. As the owner of the game, I'm usually the ZM. I realized its more about creating a fun experience than actually winning. Seeing the game come down to a tense last couple turns is worth it. I usually feel bad if I win as the zombies since it means 3 or 4 of my friends I invited over lost. But if they won every time, that wouldn't be fun either.

[aldrichgreg]

I completely agree. I don't have all the expansions and our games are not so skewed. when we have a lot nube heroes I sometimes dumb down my zombie strategies to give the heroes a fighting chance and keep the game memorable, the drama tight. I'm a playwright by trade and at the end of the day I'm always looking for a good story.

and I suppose that's what I like about your post. it shouldn't matter if things are unbalanced--I'd never complain about that!--I'd see challenge in the struggle.

and I'm totally stealing saying "ZM."

[friskers96]

I'm by no means a LNOE Guru like some here on the boards, and I've only been playing since Christmas. I have most everything except for the web stuff (which I will be getting shortly) and I think Timber Peak is what tipped the scale slightly towards the heros. A single player "ZM" is usually tougher to beat, since there is a more aggressive and decisive strategy. I run the game at a local shop a few times a month to introduce it to new players and I have seen most jump on the heros and like it was previously said, they turn into item junkies. They get trapped thinking the zombies will never be able to catch up and that camping out in a building and searching like a looter will give them a better chance overcoming the horde. In the end they usually get a set of keys, bundle of dynamite, and a first aid kit, then the mass of rotting flesh descends upon them in full force. I changed it up one weekend cause a group came through that had previously played through with heros. I modified the rules and we tried something different, three zombie players so 21 zeds total (had the red zeds as normal zombies) hand size was 2 cards for them and we had 2 hero players 2 hero characters a piece, and had starting pool of hero cards.. It was tough for the heros and had zombies auto spawn with a d3 per turn each. It was a fun time, use the open endedness of the game and mix it up a bit. Change your ZM to a HM and see what happens...

[benritter]

I was a little surprised to read this:
"The reason for this is that there are always 4 survivor characters (sometimes even more with the new scenarios), and expecting one person to play all four is ludicrous."

It's been my experience that with four Hero players, there's at least one that wants to do his or her own thing without regard for what the others think is best.

It's a problem I've seen in other cooperative games, too. In Flash Point, for example, I know one player who basically does nothing but cut through walls with an ax.

With one player controlling all four Heroes, at least the actions are coordinated.

[mspicer95]

Thanks! That was super helpful.

Cannot wait to see if I can use my learned knowledge to survive another day;D