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