The Walking Dead Board Game-The Best Defense

[Old Dwarf]

Don't panic ! although it's a Cryptozoic Game IT"S NOT THAT WALKING DEAD BOARD GAME (one of the suckiest
piece of Crap roll & move Games EVER).

The Walking Dead Board Game-The Best Defense is a light Game that is IMO the best treatment of the Walking Dead
TV Series. It's a CO-OP that can handle 1- 4 Players (yes it has Solo Rules) but it also has an option for player characters
to have Ulterior Motives so they can win even if the Survivors loses. You can choose from 6 Survivors from the TV Series.

The Components are top notch photo realistic & consist of 100 Resource Cards (divided between Food,Ammo,Ally,Equipment)
& 48 Event Cards plus Pawns for the Survivors & Tokens for the Resources & Zombies.The Board is created from 4 LARGE
Location Tiles (Prison,The Town,The Farm & The Highway) .Note the Board Tiles are big enough that miniatures could
be used for the Survivors & Zombies.

The Object of the Game is for the Survivors to get through 12 Turns without depleting any of the 4 Resource Decks.
Resource Cards are collected & used by Survivors to help them survive but they can also be lost to Events or to Zombies.
Delete any of the 4 Resource decks & you lose so you have a difficult choice between using up a resource that will help
your characters but which lower your chances of winning.

Basically Survivors handle Events( which can generate Zombies) & move to Board Locations to discover Resources.
Zombies that aren't dealt with during the Combat Phase can cause wounds to the Survivors who are on the same Board
Location at the end of a Turn, if no Survivors are at Zombie Locations then they destroy Resource Cards so you
just can't ignore them . So the Game requires you to manage both available resources & Zombie Hordes which provides
tension between avoiding Zombies & fighting them & between using Resources to help with the danger of depleting them
or not using them to avoid losing the Game.

The Game features Trading among Survivors ,healing, ranged weapons,2 difficulty Levels & a Leadership Mechanic which
rotates Leadership of the Survivors each turn . The Leadership Mechanic is rather neat as the Leader can move the other
Survivors but they also have a chance to deny him/her & do their own thing.

Replay ability is probably so so, You randomly place the 4 Board tiles (which does change things as you can't move
diagonally) & the Resource Deck Cards so they can be at different Locations but your still going to the same Locations
each Game. You also have only 6 Survivors so eventually they will get old.

But Wait they Have a Woodbury Expansion that adds a Woodbury Location & a Woodbury Resource Deck
& the Governor. The Governor can be a random menace to both Survivors & Zombies or he can be a
Player Character against the Survivors.

The Woodbury Resource Deck adds helpful things like weapons but you can also be sent to the Arena or
be seduced so its a mixed bag of helpful or harmful stuff. It provides a new Victory Condition. If the
Survivors deplete the Woodbury Resource Deck they Win.

What's best is that it the Base Game be had from on line Discounters for under $30 & the Expansion for under $10.

These Games should satisfy my Zombie itch until District-Z is released.

OD

[soundguy]

hmm.. i may have to get that. my game group was disgusted by the less than monopoly style play of the other one.

[BigDumbYak]

"The Walking Dead: The Board Game" by Z-Man games is also great game as well.

Much better than that abomination that Cryptozoic Entertainment put out in 2011
This one is based on the comic and all of the artwork fits beautifully.

This new one from Cryptozoic Entertainment looks like a much better game than their first one though, thanks for the rundown OD!

[MoonSylver]

Had considered this one. I have the 1st one from Cryptozoic. I enjoyed it as light, solo, quick play "filler", but nothing more. This one sounded better & reviews were a bit more positive, so I'm on the fence...

[soundguy]

OD, have you played it yet?

[Old Dwarf]

(07-17-2014 01:25 PM)soundguy Wrote:  OD, have you played it yet?

Just played a Solo Test Game using Andrea as the Leader
& Michonne as the Follower.I also used the Woodbury Expansion.
The Game has a Solo Rule but it's for only 1 Survivor & I wanted
to play 2 so I try out The Ulterior Motive Cards. So I did a
couple of home rules to AI some actions of the Follower but
nothing that really effects the Game.

I liked it, Set up is quick & play is fast, the Mechanics work
well the Governor is AI driven & a danger to both Zombies &
Survivors. He combats both & can use up Resources Cards.

The Survivors Options in the Game allow for some planning
but it is Luck driven which can derail you fairly quickly.
A run of "bad" dice & "bad" cards can do you in quickly.

The Object is for the Survivors to survive for 12 Turns
without getting killed or having any of the 4 Resource
Decks being depleted-well if you are playing with Woodbury
if you deplete that deck you win.

I lasted 4 Turns Mainly because the Event Cards
kept adding Zombies to the Highway & I was never able to
deal with them so each Turn they destroyed some the Ammo
Resource Cards located there.(until they were al gone)

Andrea could never get a weapon, (well she got a pistol but with out Ammo
it wasn't any use)Michonne got hung up on trying to achieve her Ulterior Motive
conditions & the Governor just avoided the Highway.

I also chose Hardcore Mode & Expert Difficulty so things
might have gone better if I had used Standard Mode &
Beginner Difficulty.

But overall it was fun & well worth the purchase if you like
light quick Games that have a good portion of Luck.

OD

[soundguy]

I tend to shy away from games that have too much luck factor, sure luck always plays a part , even a big part, played too many games that a bad shuffle out ALL weapons on the bottom of the deck, giving hero no chance,... After all.. There are always weapons if you look, chair, stick, shovel.. Almost impossible to be away from everything that could be used as a weapon

[Old Dwarf]

This Game doesn't allow combat without weapons some Survivors start with them & if Michonne is the Leader her
special ability allows all Survivors to make a no weapon attack.

If you get a Ranged weapon by going to the Equipment location & drawling one you still can't use
it until you get Ammo which Resource deck is at another location although you could Trade another
Survivor for any Ammo they have. Survivors who start with ranged weapons do get some Ammo for them.
Also the Woodbury Deck has some mean weapons that come with Ammo.

The Game has some interesting balances like Combat is more effective if Survivors are at
the Same Location & to share wounds to keep the Zombies from eating into the Resource Decks.
But spreading out the Survivors will often lessen the effect of a 'bad"Card if you have a Survivor
at different Locations.

So there are things you can gear up for in the Game to balance the Luck Factor so perhaps it
was a bit unfair of me to say the Games Luck Factor was that big. After a few more plays I may
have a different opinion.

OD

[Old Dwarf]

Well I tried a 3 Survivor game last night & lost on the first Turn, talk about Luck.
The Hardcore mode is very unforgiving in that if a Survivor is killed Game over.
My Lead Survivor had an event that did 1-3 points of Damage to the 2 Followers
& of course I rolled 3!(they only can take 5).One did have a motorcycle &
escaped but the other was down to 2 damage. The Governor then happened
to come into that Survivor Location but didn't take out any Zombies (a snake eyes
roll & you need at least 5 to kill) but did cause another damage on the Survivor.
Then as Daryl could not attack the Zombies due to not having a weapon the
2 Zombies at his Location killed him.

The Expert Difficulty Level does not help either as the Event Cards are played blind,
In beginner Mode all Event Cards are dealt Face Up so you can see what's coming.
That's a big deal as the Leader must draw & play 2 Events (in an order he/she chooses)
& each Follower must draw 2 & play one discarding the other.

I decided to keep the Game going by just using the 2 remaining Survivors which is
a compromise between the Hardcore Game ends when a Survivor dies & the Standard
Mode you start another Survivor.

OD

PS-Well I just went back to my Game room to continue (gotta do this early as once the
wife gets up leisure time vanishes ) & realized I misread an equipment card Daryl had
(Bandages) so he had a chance to heal 1-3 damage. So with this 2nd chance I roll
& got a 1!!! So Daryl had 3 damage left but as the Gov, did 1 & the 2 Zombies
did 1 each it didn't save him.

[soundguy]

Here are my opinions on both the game and an apocalypse in general. Seems odd that weapons are stored in different geographic locations, one needs the other. Look at gun stores, both, look at police and Nat guard armories, both, that said, that brings us to survivors in the Middle of an apocalypse... Why starting out with no real gear? If it is week or month .25+ and I am still alive during a zed apic, you can guarantee I am armed in some way, probably a gun and hand wraps.. Some games start survivors off with initial gear, some don't. Dan version has a zed card game that starts the Herod in a safe house heading to escape, and they have lived long enough that the world is going down yet they basically start buck nekid..really. Howd u live that long?? When we play, each hero gets a random item from the deck to show that the group had Something going in...

I have seen some game formats start the heros at 0 hour, explaining u have nothing prepared, but that is bunk too.. Look around u right now, most people can walk 10)15 feet and procure an improvised weapon, yard tool, tire iron, heck, kitchen knife if nothing else, let alone the real stuff like guns and bows a hunter may have. That's my biggest beef with many games, artificial detachment from how reality would have you if that situation started...

soap box mode off.