Halloween Weekend Game: Zombicide

For the Halloween weekend game I suggested we play a themed game, and fg suggested Zombicide, which he got as their Kickstarter offer.

The rules were pretty simple, so we set the boards up and played the first scenario...

Game - check. Drinks and chips - check. Halloween decoration and candy - check.

We were not even one quarter through the objectives before our characters got surrounded by zombies and massacred.

The end for our unfortunate 'survivors'.

Despite a poor initial showing, we decided to replay the scenario, this time with more caution, taking care to spend some time searching for good equipment to make sure all the characters were properly armed, and that as far as possible characters did not level up before all the other characters were also close to levelling up (as the number of zombies raised is pegged to the level of the highest-level character in the game).

This time round we did better, managing to get to all the objectives before the numbers began to pile up and make it look hopeless... and then El Cholo (the Danny Trejo lookalike) sacrificed himself to allow the others to escape with the items required to win the scenario.

'Go! Get to the exit!' El Cholo lays his life down, that others may live.

We made it! Amazingly, Doug, the figure in blue, ultimately made it too.

We had a lot of fun. The game has a rather well-designed algorithm for zombie movement, which means no referee was needed. It is however very tactical, and running around without forward planning would mean a quick end (as we learnt in our first attempt).

The only thing I found lacking was a sense of urgency built into the game; however, this is something easily remedied by the employment of a clock, or the appropriate frame of mind.

I can see us playing this game again, which frankly is about as high a praise as you can give for a boardgame?