Played my first game tonight.

[n107]

Tonight was my first foray into the town of Woodinvale to experience my Last Night on Earth. In other words, I played my first game and had a blast. Kinda.

It took me a bit of time to set up and I was constantly referencing the rules, so it lasted much longer than I expected but that was my own fault. I played the "Die, Zombies, Die" scenario as it's the most basic (hence, the basic game). At first, the Nurse got jumped right in the first turn and I thought she would be the first goner, but by the end of the game, she still only had her one wound from the first attack and she was cleaning house with a pump shotgun (one of the only bright spots in the dark hell of the Heroes experience). The farm girl had a nice moment of chucking dynamite into a group of three zombies and killing two of them. The jock's claim to fame was breaking a bat over a zombie's head without killing him and then dying. Meanwhile, the sheriff showed everyone who the boss was by firing the only bullet in his revolver and missing. But he later got a pair of two handed garden sheers and chopped down two zombies before being brought down by the swarm.

All in all, it was pretty hopeless for the heroes. Wow. The zombies are not only strong, but their cards are so brutal. I never felt like the heroes had any chance at all with how rarely they got cards and with how difficult it is to take down a single zombie. I really need to think of new ways to get those heroes through the night, but card after card from the zombies just beat the living daylights out of the good guys' chances. It ended at turn 8 with the heroes taking down 8 zombies and two heroes dying. That also seems a bit harsh, losing two heroes ends the game. Man, it doesn't pay to be breathing in a zombie apocalypse.

After it was all said and done, I got to sit back and discover the staggering amount of mistakes I made while playing. Oops. I messed up tons of times during the game and then found a ton more afterward that I didn't catch. Live and learn, right? Or, in the heroes case, die and learn. I owe them all a hearty, "my bad", tomorrow when I go back for more.

Overall, it was fun. A lot of fun, in fact. Sure, I screwed up but that's part of the process. Tomorrow when I play I'll be on the lookout for the mistakes I made so I don't make them again.

Oh, and one more thing of note: I played the soundtrack in the background during the game and I really loved it. It really served its purpose and surprised me with how seamlessly it blended into the experience.

[Sarku]

Awesome. Glad you had a great experience.

The first time I played, I kept on going back to the rules and back to rules again. It probably took about 3 hours with trying to figure things out. Don't worry, eventually you'll have no trouble keeping those pesky humans alive. You'll get better with them. Everybody's had that happen.

[mqstout]

Great to hear you enjoyed it. You'll quickly find the rules sticking in your head and that you'll need to reference them almost never in the future (unlike so many other games).

[Tommy Brownell]

Another thing...the humans were screwed THIS TIME.

Last game I played, I had Det. Winters, Sam the Cook, Jake Cartwright and Father Joseph in Die, Zombies, Die...I lost Father Josepth, but a Garden Shears wielding Sam and a Meat Cleaver toting, Cigar smoking Jake TORE through the zombie hoards.

[btf032]

I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I'm still trying to figure it out. Any game that has a rule book that long in addition to a FAQ that's another 20 something pages better be a lot of fun. Good thing it is.

But...

Am I the only one on these boards who thinks the CD is just absolutely ridiculous? I don't know, it's just, not for me. It has techno in it at parts; not really sure where they're goin' with that. I'm glad you enjoyed it though. To each his own.

[n107]

I heard a lot of complaints about the CD and when I listened to some select tracks, they sounded decent enough but I didn't think they'd help the atmosphere while playing. Then I listened to the entire CD when I got it. Thought it was better when heard all together, so I decided to play it when I did my first game to get the "full effect". So that's what I did last night. Had it on low in the background and it never once distracted me from the moments. In fact, sometimes the feeling of the songs really matched the activity going on at the time. In the end, I think listening to the CD is the best thing for the game. My original thought was to just play a zombie movie in the background, but that would inevitably cause eyes to wander and attention to drift. The music on the CD keeps up the theme and is not intrusive, just as it should be.

[Emp]

Referencing to the rules is I think something that always happens when you play those type of games.
The Die Zombies Die is a good scenario to get a hang of the fighting system, wich at first sounds pretty complicated. But once you figured that out it's all good and ready to rock

Aren't the 2 handed garden sheers from the expansion set or advanced set? I don't think they are allowed in the first game setup. But hey, as long as you had fun, that is all that matters

As for the cd, we don't use it (sorry soundgirl!). We tend to put on soudntracks from other movies like Hellraiser, Predator, Alien, The Thing, Bellow, ...

[n107]

I know "Die Zombies, Die" was designed as the Basic scenario, but I didn't know it was against the rules to play it with the advanced rules. I'll check the rule book again.

Well, I just finished up my second game utilizing all the correct ways of playing I didn't use last night. I'm starting to think the game should be called "No Chance in Hell" instead. This time the game only made it to round 10 and the heroes only stopped three zombies before the inevitable happened. Seriously, I can't fathom how the heroes are ever supposed to win in this game. "Heroes"... ok, that's a bit of a misnomer. They should just be labeled "victims" and accept their fate. I know a lot of it has to do with the mind-numbingly bad rolls the heroes threw in comparison to the zombies. I am terribly unlucky, so that shouldn't come as a surprise but I can't help but feel there's some sort of divine intervention going on just to ruin every single thing I try to do. Hell, by the third turn, three buildings had been taken over and a fourth one soon followed. So much for shuffling. I think if the zombies drew one card every other turn and the heroes drew 4 every time, they'd still only have a 50/50 chance. But seriously, the zombie cards are brutal with a capital "you might as well quit because you're going to die, stupid hero".

I'm taking a bit of a breather now and will go back to try a different scenario to see if the heroes fare any better. I already know the answer, but ignorance is bliss.

[Tommy Brownell]

Emp Wrote:Aren't the 2 handed garden sheers from the expansion set or advanced set? I don't think they are allowed in the first game setup. But hey, as long as you had fun, that is all that matters

Nah, FFG themselves have explicitly stated that Die, Zombies, Die works just fine with the basic or advanced stuff, so I would assume then that the expansion is no problem. After all, if the decks are supposed to remain balanced, then the Zombies would have had something to counter it.

n107 Wrote:I know "Die Zombies, Die" was designed as the Basic scenario, but I didn't know it was against the rules to play it with the advanced rules. I'll check the rule book again.

Well, I just finished up my second game utilizing all the correct ways of playing I didn't use last night. I'm starting to think the game should be called "No Chance in Hell" instead. This time the game only made it to round 10 and the heroes only stopped three zombies before the inevitable happened. Seriously, I can't fathom how the heroes are ever supposed to win in this game. "Heroes"... ok, that's a bit of a misnomer. They should just be labeled "victims" and accept their fate. I know a lot of it has to do with the mind-numbingly bad rolls the heroes threw in comparison to the zombies. I am terribly unlucky, so that shouldn't come as a surprise but I can't help but feel there's some sort of divine intervention going on just to ruin every single thing I try to do. Hell, by the third turn, three buildings had been taken over and a fourth one soon followed. So much for shuffling. I think if the zombies drew one card every other turn and the heroes drew 4 every time, they'd still only have a 50/50 chance. But seriously, the zombie cards are brutal with a capital "you might as well quit because you're going to die, stupid hero".

I'm taking a bit of a breather now and will go back to try a different scenario to see if the heroes fare any better. I already know the answer, but ignorance is bliss.

Are you using random heroes, or picking them?

Sheriff Anderson and Det. Winters both start with guns, that tends to turn into killing right off the bat...Father Joseph with a Faith card (especially if he also gets a weapon he can use) is a beast. Jake Cartwright funneling through the deck to both get good cards and drop cards into the discard pile for the Pick-Ups is also helpful.

But, of course, if you repeatedly have incredibly bad rolls, none of that helps...=)

[n107]

Tommy Brownell Wrote:But, of course, if you repeatedly have incredibly bad rolls, none of that helps...=)

And there's my biggest problem. I played three games so far and in each game I've had a character start with a gun. I believe I scored one kill total (out of all three times) before each gun was discarded. And I am using random characters as that's what the rulebook said and I like the idea of not knowing who's going into battle (i.e. going to die). Another major problem is I roll doubles A LOT... on all rolls that don't beat the zombies. Only killed a zombie with a double once in all three games.

The last game I played was "Escape in the Truck" or, as I like to call it, "No Chance in Hell 2: Everyone Still Dies But Now There's a Truck in Town!" This time it was Det. Winters, Sam the Cook, and Kenny the Bag Boy (just like in game 2! Yay for shuffling doing absolutely nothing.). But this time they got the Priest on their side. First turn, Father Joseph channels the power of George Michael and gains Faith. The other heroes manage to get into buildings and start searching for gas and keys. Sam gets jumped and takes two wounds and, afterward, he's feeling a little strange. Fortunately he killed his attackers.

Detective Winters finds an old set of keys that look like they might work on that truck that's parked in the middle of town for no good reason and almost at the same time Father Joseph finds a gas can. Even though on opposite sides of town, they psychically realize that if they work together they can escape. Though the detective is a bit of Loner, so it will be hard for her to work with the priest, even to escape, she decides to try. Before Joseph can leave the building, he's mobbed by two thuggish zombies who, even though Joseph has the upper hand of 3 to 1, they both take a hit on him. Father Joseph makes it to the truck just in time to see God turn his back on him and he dies, dropping the delicate soap bubble filled with gas that evaporates as soon as it hits the ground.

Now Winters runs back to find a new can of gas while Sam and Kenny continue to search. Sam's no longer feeling Strange so things are looking up for him. But when Winters dies from a single zombie resistant to both bullets and hand weapons, the keys are gone too. Finally, with just 3 turns before the sun sets, Sam, on the brink of death, gets the gas can and Kenny simultaneously finds keys! Kenny mows down a crew of zombies with a chainsaw on his way to the car and Sam gets outside of the hospital just in time to see the young man get ripped to shreds against the truck.

Game over.

So... yeah. Until I actually see video proof of heroes winning (outside of a random fluke), I'm going to assume anyone that says it's possible is lying. The zombie cards are enormously powerful and the heroes just don't get what they need fast enough. Tomorrow I'll play "No Chance in Hell 3: Scenario Doesn't Matter; The Heroes Will Die!"

Still on the plus side, I'm loving the CD more and more.