Purchased this one recently.
Fun game if you enjoy manipulation/deal making/pissing your friends off...with a zombie theme.
I enjoyed that each of the characters was unique and had a special power...but never felt attached to them the way that I do my LNOE characters. I don't think any of our other plays (my LNOE group) did either. The gameplay is much less about the characters than the player. That did make it MUCH more personal, though, and I can see the potential for digruntled/annoyed people at endgame.
Still - a good purchase for a different kind of Zombie game!
I will go and look this up. Thanks for posting!
I looked at this game last week but didn't like the cardboard figures, they make it look cheap, and also the fact it has a 3 player minimum, not always useful
Sometimes these are the best games for a fun crowd. I'd be interesting in watching a gameplay video.
The 3 person thing would be a problem though.
Sorry for being so vague in my original post, folks. I know I appreciate good descriptions and I failed!
The basic premise of the game is that it is our standard Zombie Apocalypse in the big city. Zombies invade, Survivors hide, Zombies try to eat Survivors.
20-ish characters have currently survived. They include folks like The Blonde, The Punk, The Priest, The Little Girl, The Grandpa, The Businesswoman, The Thief, The Pregnant Lady, etc. The Survivors are randomly divided up among the players.
Each player is also given a specified number of "Action" cards, which can include weapons, food, the ability to heal, etc.
There are 40-ish Zombies waiting in the Zombie Pool to invade town.
There are only 6 "buildings" on the board: Hospital, Bank, Armory, Church, Water Tower & Parking Lot. There is a limited amount of space in most buildings. In some buildings you can pick up items (like antidotes or food), discard "Action" cards to get better ones, or you can heal a Survivor, etc. The Parking Lot is the one area that is considered "wide open" and the Survivors in that area will be subject to attack every turn. A few of the buildings can be blown up, resulting in less buildings to hide in...leaving more Survivors vulnerable to being stuck in the Parking Lot.
At the beginning of the game, an order is determined and the players place their Survivors in buildings. After characters are placed, the first mystery INVASION card is played and the Zombies are placed outside buildings according to the instructions on the card.
And that's the set up. There are only four full turns in the game, and they begin now. Each turn is set up with 6 or so phases. The key aspects of each turn:
*Secret placement of your character: Every turn you secretly decide what building you would most like to move 1 character to by selecting a building card. All players reveal at the same time. Because there are a limited number of spaces in each building, some people might not end up "fitting" into their chosen building and end up in the dreaded Parking Lot, where attack is imminent.
*Zombie movement: The Invasion card is revealed after the character movement is settled, and more zombies show up at the locations specified on the card. In addition, there are sometimes drops of Action Cards or Antidotes at buildings. It is a total mystery each turn as to what will happen.
*Attack: Once all humans and zombies are placed, the conditions of each building are investigated...if the building requires 3+ zombies for attack, and there are 5 zombies outside the building - the building will be under attack.
*Resolution: The characters in a location where the Zombies have successfully met the attack conditions are in trouble. They can work together and try to kill the zombies with their action cards, or they might use a special skill (for example the Little Girl and the Little Boy are small enough to hide.) But, regardless - if the Zombie population is not somehow minimized at that location - someone WILL be eaten. And that's where the game gets VERY interesting, and VERY different from LNOE.
Say we have three familiar characters in the building: Becky the Nurse, Sam the Cook, Amanda the Beauty Queen and the Sheriff. They have been unable to significantly diminish the zombie numbers and now...one of them is going to get eaten. Negotiation is key at this point. Becky may flat out offer some action cards to Amanda and Sam to sway them to vote with her. The Sherriff may promise to give some of his antidote and food cards if anyone is willing to help him vote Sam out, who rubbed the Sherriff the wrong way on turn 1. And Amanda may be irritated that everyone has lost 1 of their characters in a previous round to the undead...except the Sherriff: so maybe they should all turn on him and equalize the game again.
Anyway, you can lie, plead, reason, manipulate, offer your cards - whatever you can to further your goal. And of course, since this is the apocalypse - people can break promises...with no fallout aside from people opting not to trust them on future turns. But the bottom line is that there will be a very simple, very brutal vote and one person in that particular building will be sent off to there death.
Similarly, if Antidotes and Action Cards have appeared at the location on this particular turn, the players must come to a majority rules decision of who is in charge of giving the Action Cards/Antidotes out. The person is not even required to give them to players in the specific building (but can only keep one for their characters). So, again - arguing, negotiation, manipulation and threats can figure into the gameplay.
The Parking Lot is slightly different - each turn there is a Zombie Master, who will decide which character gets eaten in the Parking Lot. It's as simple as that. Again, you can plead and beg and threaten the Zombie Master.
Winning is determined by Victory Points. Each Survivor is worth a set number of points, and if they survive you will earn them. BUT a Survivor can only be airlifted out at endgame if they have an antidote (which is worth an additional Victory Point). So another aspect of the game is trying to obtain an antidote for each of your Survivors. Food also adds Victory Points. You do lose some points if you use your Survivors special power (and haven't been able to restore it).
And that's the basic gameplay...turning on each other each round and throwing your enemies out into the crowd of hungry undead. Negotiating, manipulating, convincing, trading, and just generally getting people to do what you want.
We've had fun on our few forays into the game so far. The board itself is large and attractive. The characters are well illustrated, although I can understand some may be disappointed that they are not sculpted, and are rather cardboard. Some of the cards are fun, and the discussion and negotiation aspect is VERY engaging...and can piss some folks off.