Convince me

[LabRat]

I'm a zombie fan. Not a hardcore fan, but enough of a fan to like Romero's movies.

I played LNOE once and I fell in love with the game. But couldn't get my own copy.

I settled for IFOS, and I discovered LNOE's underrated little sister.

I played LNOE (just the base game, no expansions) last weekend as a zombie player and honestly, I got bored. Why? Well, the Martian's offer more in terms of strategy. Zombies, all you can (and want to do) is to lurch forward and engage Heroes in Fights. But Martians? You can't just keep engaging the Carnies in Fights - you need to think about what would be more advantageous. Should you engage the Strongman in a Fight? Or position your troops so that you can get two-three full Martian packs to fire their Ray Guns at him?

The Martian Command Phase also gives you more control over what happens. Zombie gameplay is dictated by (1) the cards that you draw and (2) your respawn success. As the Martian player, you are given the following options every turn, before you move your Martians:

• draw more cards
• work on building Martian Tech
• work on summoning a Martian champion
• moving your flying saucers (spawn points)
• summoning immediate reinforcements
  

As for human players, the Carnival Heroes also offer more. In LNOE, the Humans usually don't stand a chance against Zombies unless they search a lot and get good weapons. But it's not the case in IFOS. Because of the Talents (abilities that can be used at the cost of Power Tokens) and the Martian vulnerability, the Carnival Heroes can actually hold their own even without cards.

I wouldn't say that IFOS is a better game than LNOE, it just has better mechanics. I'd say it's worth the purchase.