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Zombie Town
- Genre: Zombie
- Game Style: Board Game
- Published: 2007
- Publisher: Twilight Creations, Inc.
- Average Playtime: 1 hr
- # of Players: 2 - 6
- Reviewed by: EndOfTheWorldFor.us Staff on Thu 13 Dec 07
Official Blurb:
The dead are rising from the graveyard which is conveniently located in the middle of your residential neighborhood. There is no way out of the neighborhood, so you must scrounge as much stuff (weapons, barricades, survivors, etc.) from your neighbors to survive until help arrives. The game lasts for 10 days, and by the 10th day the neighborhood is filled with zombies to say the least and your neighbors are no longer your friends.
The board and pieces:
The game comes with 1 board, 100 plastic zombies, 6 player pieces, 24 player tokens (used for marking what houses you control), a single twelve sided die, alot of cards, and 12 plastic stands (that remind me of the old Battletech paper standup stands).
The mechanics of the game are handled by 2 main card decks, an Event/Action deck and a Combat deck. You also have a set of cards for the Houses, and another set for the player cards (your avatar).
The die is only used to keep track of the day. Why they choose to use a d12 instead of a d10 for this purpose, I couldn't tell you.
In order to play the game comfortable, I recommend something larger then a 3'x3' playing surface, a 4x4 would be more ideal. although it is a board game, you end up playing alot of cards in this game: the house, stuff in the house, your player, your guns, survivors, etc..
The board is a 3-fold butter-fly style and appears to be decently constructed.
All the pieces fit back into the box without to much hassle, but you will probably end up mixing two of the decks of cards together to do it.
Playing the game:
One of the basic mechanics behind this game is a limited time to score points. You can score points either by keeping survivors alive, keeping control of houses and barricading them, having guns with ammo, and of course by a zombie head-count.
Each player selects a 'home base', and the rest of the houses are stacked with loot (in the form of Action/Event cards). You get things like Survivors and additional guns by searching the houses. Sometimes you'll bump into zombies, sometimes you'll find materials to make barricades, sometimes you'll find some guy cowering in the corner (aka a Survivor) . Got a zombie horde shambling towards your well barricaded fortress coming to eat your survivors? Pop off some fireworks and the zombies will stay away... for a day..
Each player gets a set list of things they can do and is pretty much an assortment of moving, building, searching, or managing your inventory (playing guns or survivors).
At the end of a players turn, they get to move One zombie one space..... for each day that has passed.
For example:
- During day one, at the end of each player's turn, they move 1 zombie 1 space on the board.
- On day 8, each player movies 8 zombies 1 space.
So you can quickly see how the game ramps up as the days get going.
Much like "Zombies!!!" you will be primarily using the zombies to prevent your opponents from getting points, but you can also get in there and do it yourself.
Combat is quickly resolved using a deck of cards.
After a round of each player taking their turns, the day increments.
Towards the end if you're playing for 4+ players, the houses will be pretty low on loot, so that's when the ransacking of the other players begins.
The game is recommended for 3-6 players, however, the supplied rules do provide a variant that allows play for 2 persons.
If you want to check out the entire rule set for the game, Twilight Creations has them posted online here .
What I liked:
- Once you learn the basics of the game, it's pretty easy to play.
- Using cards for everything means you don't have to worry about loosing dice or bowling over figures, but does mean you need alittle extra 'off board' space.
- You get to use a zombie horde to crush your enemies.. maybe... just make sure they are out of ammo first.
- The game has pretty good replay-ability.
What I didn't like:
- We quickly ran into some questions that weren't covered in the base rules. So be prepared to make a couple house rules, or you can just read the post-production FAQ at: http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/zombietown/faq.php. . Most of these are pretty minor in scope and there isn't anything that makes you wonder how you play the game.
- There are not any melee weapons.. it's done for game purposes, but personally, it's a gripe and doesn't make a whole of sense to me. Don't run out of ammo!
- The backs of the card decks would be more handy if they were different colors. Each of the card decks has the same card back, so you can confuse some of the decks.
- The list of things you can do as actions is pretty long, and is the one thing that takes a while to get used to, but it's pretty easy to learn in the span of one game.
Rating:
Final Scoring:
4.0 Zombie Heads of a possible
5 Zombie Heads
Personal Recommendation: If you already like 'Zombies!!!' or 'Urban Undead' then you will like this. If you haven't played either of those, then I suggest you try it.
Availablity:
Local Game stores will also probably carry this one.
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