The game and the expansions...

[SovTech]

Hi all!

This thread is a small strategy/guideline thraed for the game and the expansions... Here goes:

Initial thoughts.
My first thoughts about the game is that it is incredibly thematic in a kind of zombie bmovie theme. That said, the base game introduces you to hours of game play, with different scenarios and heros and boards every time, each variation is game altering, and then of course you have the random elements of dice and cards. We played the base game, untill GH came out. As most posters say the Zombies won the game about 70% of the time, and then it turned. All of a sydden the heroes (and that is a very liberal use of the word hero) won the game 70% of the time. What the basic game taught us was that as a hero you have a steep learning curve, and then later as the zombies, you have to learn not just to shamble forward and attack with each and every zombie. At the end of our gaming spree with the base game the win was about 50/50.

Growing Hunger.
Growing hunger changed a lot of our strategies and the game itself dramatically. The zombie swarm rules made some of the scenarios incredibly hard for the heroes, while the hero starting cards rules made some scenarios too easy. We more or less agreed that you cannot choose more than 2 dots in hero starting cards, and that the zombies always chose which "extra" rules they would like to play with before the players get to chose, thereby enabling them to limit the players choices if they should feel like it. The cards from growing hunger did not, in our view, change the feel or effects of the game. Sure, garden shears are handy but so is bitten. As before GH, every third game or so, the heroes are able to create a Zombie Hunter, with the right cards such as bat, meat cleaver and Heroes rage, and as usual the zombies seems to be able to counter them after a few turns. All in all, GH made strategy a larger part of LNoE, and expanded the possibilities of the game.

The Expanded Soundtrack.
I got this from my gaming store on sale, I would have bought it regardlessly. The two cards are in my opinion, very, very necessary. First of all a guitar for Billy, making him a little more useful and a good weapon by any standard. Secondly a much welcomed movement card for the Zombies. This is the only thing that might hinder the zombies in the future expansions: Their limited movement cards. Every time we draw night that never ends it is used on Shamble for the zombies part. There is simply no better card for the zombies (combined with the multitude of fighting cards against the heroes).

Revenge of the Dead and Stock Up.
Well, Ive just ordered these, so no real analysis from me on these two. A nice thing though is the versatility of these cards, it seems that there are a few survival cards for the zombies (unstoppable and feels no pain), which I think is quite nice, and the run cards for the heroes, which can be game changing (I am actually one of the few who believes Billy to be a good character). Another thing I like is that only 1 out of ten Hero cards from the 2 expansions are a weapon (The hedgetrimmer).

That is it right now I think...

By the way, most of our games lasts about 2 hours plus... But we are normally a bunch of hardcore gamers, who like to plan and execute these plans perfectly...

And a question I forgot in my "Hi!" thread:
Do you prefer to play the Heroes or the Zombies? (I guess that people here prefer the Zombies...)

Cheerio,
A