Mad Zeppelin
2-6
10+
60
Undermine a Tyrant
1890. At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Empire is about to take delivery of many secret crates from its colonies. These crates contain all the Emperor needs to strengthen his rule on the Empire: steel, coal, ore, and above all: gold! For security reasons, the Emperor himself has hand-picked the crew of the Nostria, one of the armoured zeppelins of the imperial fleet. However, neighbouring nations are organizing the resistance, and traitors are secretly boarding the airship to thwart the Emperor's plans.All Aboard!
Mad Zeppelin, a card game of treason aboard the airship Nostria for two to six players, is now on sale at your local retailer and on our webstore! In Mad Zeppelin, players will take on the roles of spies plotting against a corrupt tyrant, and each other, racing to be the first to steal enough cargo from the hold to achieve their goal of undermining the Empire.
There are fourteen different traitor characters - each with an agenda and a unique special ability - and in each round players will choose two of them to execute their nefarious plans. The goal of the game is not only to steal the most from the hold, but to do so before any of the other players and before the zeppelin reaches its final destination.
Players must think on their feet, adjusting their strategies to suit the randomly flying direction of the ship, as well as to whichever spies are currently active. Each round is different so adjust your plans accordingly!
images © Fantasy Flight Games
User Reviews (2)
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Mad Zeppelin offers a reasonable game-play experience for the price. It is not anything groundbreaking, but the style, mechanics and unpredictable game-play make it a a good quick to learn, easy to play game. This is great for beginner gamers and families – not older avid gamers.
Style/Components: (That looks cool!)
It’s the first thing we see when we look at a game, before opening the directions and dive in. The artwork for this game is really appealing (specifically the traitor cards) and this is enough to get you to give the game a second look. The Cargo cards and Journey cards are pretty standard as are the dice.
Gameplay: (Meh… its ok.)
How does it play?
The mechanics are very similar to other games out there and nothing new, but they are streamlined enough and random enough to keep turns interesting. My major observation in this regard is the fact that it is a very poor two-player game. With only two players, the Traitor cards that are most effective become obvious, and with only one other person for the Traitor abilities to affect, the game reaches a point of play imbalance: (That is, if one player get ahead, the other will, most likely lose the game… not cool.) That said, play with 4-6 players is much better and increases the play experience and replay value. Other than that the mechanics as listed above provide a random element that may be a turn off to some who like less “chance” in their games. Let’s face it, if you have dice in a game, chance will be a part of the game elements. So, choose this if you like those game that provide an element of random success… and failure. Also, some of the traitors do have better powers than other, but they are situational. In other words, some abilities work well all the time, others only in specific circumstances.
Value: (Its costs what?!)
Is it worth it? The game is a bit expensive for the experience and the components. So not really. But, if you can find it for a good price, it could easily provide several good evenings entertainment for a family or group of beginning gamers.
Overall Review: (Hmmm… Maybe…)
Easy mechanics and random elements make this a good beginner or family game. It does have the feeling of “game mechanics that have had a theme attached to them.” It wont excite avid or older gamers who have a lot of experience under their belt. The artwork is great. But the price is a bit high for what you get. Definitely play with more than 3 players and try it for a family game night. But if you are an avid gamer like me, it receives a “eh.. it’s just ok.” rating.
Mad Zeppelin is a poorly executed game. I say this mainly because it is boring, and there are better choices in the genre. It is entertaining enough to pass the time but I doubt it will find its way on to anyone’s favorites list.
Game play in relatively simple. Players draft two characters from the available pool, then go around taking turns. On a turn the active player reveals one of their characters, draws a card and takes a gold, and plays cargo cards. Each character has game text that can effect their actions. Either it will restrict their drawing, gold or cargo playing, add to the one or the other in some way, or give them a separate action to take in addition to the others. Some of these action are defensive, others offensive.
Each turn begins with a set of three dice being rolled. Each side has a color. A given character can only play cargo card from their hand if one of the colors on the dice match the color associated with their character. Some characters have the ability to re-roll dice or change the facing to a color of their choice. These characters have an obvious leg up on meeting the victory condition of reaching X cargo points before all the journey cards are dawn from the deck. If a journey card is drawn, it is immediately revealed and replaced. When they are all gone, the game ends.
This game is almost identical to Citadels, which is probably a better executed game based solely on character design. Some of the characters in Mad Zeppelin are hamstringed by their own restrictions, others overwhelmingly better than the rest, and still others’ offensive abilities are infuriating annoyances that detract from the fun of the game. Cute, good art and theme, but poor design.