Drew

My friend got this for his birthday and we spent a decent amount of time playing the various scenarios.

Teams are divided between survivors and zombies where there can be up to 2 zombies and 4 survivors.

The various scenarios give you different starting places and objectives from the very basic tasks of killing zombies or defending the manor to the more complex tasks such as collecting items.

The length of the games will depend on the scenario and how familiar you are with the game. Starting out expect to spend about 2 hours just learning the rules, setting up the board and playing the first game. After that games seem to take 30-60 minutes, again depending on the scenario. The game is fairly open so expect to be checking the rule book at first fairly often for LoS rules and various mechanics.

The cards add a good amount of randomness and very few seem to be over powered. Zombie cards seem to be a bit weaker but this is probably by design as in most scenarios there are significantly more zombie lives.

The survivors seem to be much more strategy based than the zombies. They can use things such as the “hunger” mechanic to pull zombies around and must balance fighting the horde with collecting items to fight them with and finishing the scenario. Zombies are pretty much just driven to kill, which is fun but much less involved strategy wise.

Pros: Good mix of co-op and vs. Solid construction. Scenery is fun if you like zombie stuff. Good number of scenarios.

Cons: Cards can seem weak or you draw too much stuff that is non-pertinent to the scenario and a waste. Learning curve is rather steep and there are a lot of rules.

Fun game that is very easy to learn and has pretty good replay value.

Pros: Very easy to learn, quick turns, good chance to mess up other players without being too mean or ruining their game.

Cons: Cards are tiny. Pretty basic route building and not much else.

This game has been reviewed to death so I’ll keep it short.

Pros: tons of replayability because of the shifting tile pieces. Very competitive.

Cons: Flimsy cardboard pieces often warp. Not as fun with 2 people. It is still fun with 2 but it is way more offensive and less defensive.

This is one of my first games as a new board game player and I have really enjoyed it so far.

Pros: Very fun to play with my friends rather than against them. A good team that is willing to make sacrifices even if they have personal goals really helps. It is very challenging.

Cons: Can be a bit puzzley because of the epidemic cards reshuffling the discarded cards and putting them back on top. The game is much easier with 2 people than 4. I’m not sure exactly why but even with less roles and more area to cover it seems easier with 2 people.