My recurring problem with LNoE

[StayPuft]

(09-15-2014 05:50 PM)soundguy Wrote:  

(09-15-2014 05:36 PM)StayPuft Wrote:  (After all, were you really facing zombies, it wouldn't be a good idea to just rush around like a madman with no plan unless you are hoping to die quickly.)

on the other hand. haveing some sort of time limit other than 'forever' does add realism.

in a turn based game if a zombie is approaching a party that is also moving.... well.. that is what constitutes a 'chase'

so inthe rear world, while it might be nice to stop midway down a hallway while a zombie is chasing you.. look at the entire city block you are on. dig in your backpack and check inventory, then look at the two oposing rooms at the end of the hallway and decide which one will be better for you 5 moves later... that's just not gonna happen. and you WILL get chow'd down upon.

you pays your money and takes your chances.

Oh, absolutely agreed. Hence why I said that I sometimes do over-think my moves, but not to an unreasonable degree. For example, I don't tend to try to plan several moves in advance. To me, if you are sitting there trying to figure out what you are going to do 5 moves from now, you are taking the game WAY too seriously. LOL! I mean, sometimes it can be good to have a general plan and just know you are going to execute that somehow.

For example, when my group plays Zombicide, we often have a general plan and general idea of how to get there. Like, if we have to collect all the objectives, we'll break up in smaller groups and say "Okay, this group will get the objectives on that side of the board, the other will do the other side." That way we have the general plan (get the damn objectives, LOL), we have an overall idea of how to do so (one team gets them from one side, the other team gets the other) but beyond that, we just let the game happen.

A lot of scenarios in Last Night On Earth are even simpler. You are just trying to find certain items that you could possibly find in any building. So, your strategy, really, is just to avoid zombies and search. But, you still sometimes want to think ahead a little. Otherwise you may move when you didn't need to, wasting an opportunity to find something you needed, or you may stick around when you perhaps should not have and get surrounded.

[Jeffx2]

LNoE is one of my favorite three player games. Having each player control two heroes seems to speed things up. When we play with 5 there's a lot more discussion that goes into a turn. With three, the players will frequent use the two characters under their control together to achieve their goals, rather than having to coordinate with the other player.

We have no problems getting someone to play zombies. There's always at least one person would rather screw with other players than work together. The current reigning zombie champ is the 15 year old daughter on one of my friends. She has really gotten the hang of area-control and churning her hand of zombie cards. She also holds the record for "Best Use of a Locked Door Card".

[DrkBlueXG]

I've always been concerned about this as well.
I normally play the Zombies unless someone requests it just for this fact alone. I feel it gets my friends more engaged and it tends to keep the boredom level to a minimum since I expect the long lag between the Zombie Turn vs the Hero Turns.

The expansions really cut this down though, especially BitF, since the Feral Dead and Zombie Champions really add a hostile spice to the game that the Zombies really needed. And to combine those with Grave Weapons? Oh, you do not want to mess with the Zombies at that point.

But the main focus of the Zombies is to basically choke the Heroes and to position them into spots that they are most likely to run into the Heroes. Like positioning the Zombies directly inside a building's doorway. The Zombie cannot be shot from a distance and if they are, you are within Zombie Hunger range anyways.

A lot of my games tend to boil down to the last couple rounds when everybody is scurrying to a particular point. It's about the big payoff and final epic battle at the end.
But I totally feel ya, just mix in BitF and Grave Dead/Grave Weapons into your game and you will find it more balanced in terms of time between turns since there is so much the Zombie Player has to take into account for their moves. Moving every model and knowing what zombies have what abilities and so on.

I'm glad you gave it another go with BitF.
Maybe add an update on this after you've played it a couple times?

[Raynor]

Thanks for the response DrkBlueXG. Your experience sounds exactly like mine and I'm glad to hear more confirmation that the BitF expansion helps in this matter.

I printed out the Supernatural hero characters from the Downloads here for the upcoming game and have organized a game with my wife and 2 friends who are into supernatural as well, but we haven't had a chance to play it yet. I gave the whole box to one of these friends and he's in the process of moving so it's packed away right now. We've got the BitF expansion ready to go as soon as he's got it unpacked in the next week or so though. I'm looking forward to it, to be honest. Sometimes just talking about an issue is enough to remind you of all the good things you enjoy about a particular thing and restore the enjoyment you used to have.

I'll post an update as soon as we get a good night of gaming in.

Btw, Jeffx2. Do share this tale of the best use of "Locked Door". Sounds like a fun story. I've seen a couple really good uses of it as well.