All Things Zombie...Game report

[PJON]

Hi well Samuria Trev asked so here it goes

I picked up All Things Zombie and Zombie Survival at a recent game con.

Game Report All Things Zombie

So, i busted out the rules and started reading. I was excited and eager to play a hero based zombie game that is also player versus player.

So im reading the rules, they seem pretty kewl. Pick a Hero, pick your favorite weapon. You can start with a baseball bat, crossbow, shot gun, ozi, fun stuff. Pick a tag along buddy ( in the game their are only 2 base heroes, all the other characters are more or less secondary heroes - depending on your iniative roll, the secondary heroes may not do anything at all) You also get to arm your buddy so far so good right

It is also a hex/grid map, if any of you have played war games before. so each character has a rep (their over all fighting skill) movement (base amount) and number of fight dice for melee combat.

What i did find extremely interesting is that Zombie are game driven. Meaning no one really controll the Zombie. Zombies are generated by the actions of the heroes. Meaning lets say a hero shoots a gun, it makes noise. guess what a zombie heard it, and will be there soon. so its kinda of an interesting mechanic.

lets say the game is set up. ( the game does start with a random number of zombies) you start on an outside edge and start making your way to a building, so far so good. a zombie comes around the corner of the building. You must now roll dice to determine your reaction ( this is based of your iniative and rep roll. You roll All heroes who can shoot will athers will make a Charge Test. So you roll a bunch of dice to shoot. If you didnt shoot you might still charge the zombies. make a Charge Test roll. and depending on that you might roll more dice and do other actions. Have i mentioned before how much i dislike dice based games ? Well, i do. So for me. basically once the game starts I will just roll dice, and then roll more dice, then maybe some more dice. Then i can roll dice to see if im going to do anything.

So for me. This is not my type of game. i do not like dice driven games. seems totally kewl and interesting. Ohhhh It is based of of a Zombie Miniture Game. which some of you might really enjoy. It is not for me.

Game Report Zombie Survival.

So basically it seems kinda interesting. You start in your house, you get to stock pile it. You might run out of supplies or be invaded by zombies. You could send zombies over to your neighbors ( other players ) house. seems kinda kewl

How to kill a zombie. You need to roll the dice in the game's box top. Printed inside is a picture of a Zombie with a circle around its head. if you rolled a sucsess on the die, and its in the circle, its a hit. Sorry, not my type of game either.

Just a disclosure. Yup I like games and i like zombies. If they made a Power Grid or Egizia or a Homestead Zombie game that would be awesome. Can i get a Zombie Chess set ? Could i use Zombies as meeples ? I need me some Zombie Meeples

[mqstout]

Nothing wrong with dice. However, your description of Zombie Survival makes me cringe... Almost as bad as Catacombs, mentioned just the other day.

[samuraitrev]

Thanks very much for doing this princess of death. I gotta say I love some of the ideas thematically the Zombies reacting to gun shots and michaevalian 'Heroes' sending Zombies to surviving neighbours to save their own hides (dark stuff really).

I HATE the rolling on the Zed head in the box. What were they thinking? Where's the skill? In fact unscrupulous players will probably just kinda drop their die on it. Yuk! It leaves a rotten taste in my dead mouth.

I would have a game of it if 1 of my group brought it but I won't be buying it. Would you play it again princess or are you going to feed it to one of your many foul pets? Have you played it yet? Was it balanced? I've been interested in this game for a while I'm disappointed it sounds kinda lame.

[deadrabbit]

some one needs to make a zombie game that plays kinda like pandemic.

[Wade]

Yeah, I've got ATZ too. Only played it a couple of times.
Didn't hold my interest.
I'd like to check out the minis version, but that one is impossible to find.

[PJON]

I have to agree with Samurai Trev. Many of the game aspects really appeal to me. i do enjoy a bit of player versus player attitude. or a way to "mess" with your opponent. Its fun.

Yes, a friend and I sat down with the intent of playing both of the games.

In ATZ i think its a kewl game mechanic, that it develops the game through reaction. I just......grrrr I really dislike dice games. I understand the randomization concept, and variables. I consider Settlers of Catan a dice game, because it has a die. Im really not into rolling a handful of dice all night. Maybe thats why im sorta ok with LNOE, because i normally roll 1 die.

We set the game up. I picked Tonya and drew Bank, I picked a Hunting Rifle for me and a Double Pistol for Bank, because he has a shooting bonus. Then it was roll for this, roll for that, roll for this then that. Im just not into all the dice rolling.

With Zombie Survival, when i read in the rules about the dice landing in the circle of the printed box top. I was just done.

The squares on the Zombie survival game board are about the same as LNOE, just saying. The hex board from ATZ is about the same size as LNOE, just saying.

Please do not let my dislike of dice rolling games influence anyones opinion of these games. They are just not my style of game i prefer.

[Brentis]

Sorry to rez this thread....but I loved the fact you have to roll dice into the head to kill it. Most weapons used two dice, 3 for the shotgun and 4 for the rifle and sword. You send people out to scavenge for supplies, everytime you make noise another zombie shows up. You have to keep your hand above the box lid...this is the rule.....it is not as easy as it sounds.....you miss just as much as you hit. Also...if your dice land on the body of the zombie and the total of the pips on the dice are 6 or more you also get a kill.

I actually used the box lid concept to make a varient of the game using Zombies!! tiles. Play testing stopped when we found LNOE.