Z War One Video and Kickstarter

       

          

It has been a fair old while since I updated this blog, and some of you have been getting a little restless shall we say. I'd like to make it abundantly clear that neither I nor this blog is dead. However, I do think things are likely to remain 'sketchy' round here for some time yet I'm afraid. You see other things are still having to take precedence, and even my gaming time has taken a significant battering of late. So I figured I'd best keep my trap shut until I had something worth saying rather than force out articles that quite frankly would have been page filler at best.

Sunday Sermon: How to survive the zombie apocalypse!!!

This week has been about preparing you for the inevitable... Z Day!

Maybe this isn't a purely wargaming based article today, but lately I've been thinking about the apocalypse. Maybe it's the global economic crisis, perhaps it's my melancholy attitude of late, or I could just have watched way too many movies and sci-fi programs about the end of the world. I don't think anyone will ever truly know why I've been thinking about the human races inevitable doom... wait you what? What's this? Sorry readers my better half has just handed me a note. I should just read it?... hmm... it raises some good points. Ahem. Oh yeah right, of course! OK then perhaps the reason I've been thinking so long and hard about the coming apocalypse is because those bloody Mayans predicted the world was going to end on December 21st 2012, and I've been playing a lot of zombie games lately. Plus I had a marathon zombie film fest in preparation for my zombie week. Even though there's actually a lot of conjecture whether what the Mayans predicted was exactly the end of the world or not, I mean what they said could be interpreted in a number of ways. Why the hell are chuffing predictions like this always so vague?

Do not get trapped in Tesco's looking for cans of Spam!

But, I'm not taking any chances fellow gamers. Nope I'm going to prepare for the coming Zombie Apocalpse, and what oral history will refer to as 'Z Day'. It's OK though, a diet of computer games, comic books, horror films and boardgames have definitely prepared me for the coming horror and the end of days. Last weekend I asked whether our gaming skills are transferable, come Z Day we'll be able to say they most certainly are! For starters my pantry has a rather unhealthy amount of spam and corned beef in it, plus dried fruit. Although this is mainly down to a potentially senile old relative who insists on bringing me tinned food whenever he visits... hmmm... perhaps he too knows that Z Day is coming. Canny old bugger! So I've stock piled plenty of dried food and tinned food to last me for a seriously long time... although I don't like either spam, or corned beef, which could be a problem if the zombie apocalypse doesn't happen. No I'm not going to think negatively, Z Day will definitely happen! So part one of surviving the initial zombie apocalypse is sorted... I have an easy and readily available supply of food all ready for when the inevitable looting and chaos starts. I pity the fools who'll be fighting over the last can of Spam in Tesco's. Idiots.

So what will you need to do to survive Z Day? Well thankfully I've watched, and interacted with an awful lot of zombie related material over the last few months in preparation for my Zombie Week. So here's my guide to surviving Z Day:

Top ten Zombie computer games and franchises

Well earlier on today I gave you my own personal list of top ten zombie flicks. That was hard enough as it was, but this task was significantly harder. Lets be honest here the computer games industry has a tendency to churn out sequel after sequel of a game that just so happens to perform well. Take Resident Evil for instance, which one of those would you pick? Well obviously it'd be Resident Evil 2, but wouldn't you feel even slightly bad you'd left out the Original and Resident Evil 4? I know I would. So this is my list of favourite zombie games and franchise... yeah that's a cop out, but it's my Blog and I make the rules... what you thought this was a democracy? Well it isn't, so here's your dictators list:

My top ten Zombie Films

Well for a bit of fun to finish off my "Zombie Week" I thought I'd do something a little bit different, well different for me as you'll find millions of these articles on the Internet, and give you a list of my top ten Zombie films of all time, and my reasons why. So yeah, I've reviewed my favourite Zombie films and given them a brains out of 10 rating. I hope you enjoy...

The best (and worst ) of the rest

       
         

Well obviously zombie week is drawing to a close. We have Saturday, which will hopefully have some fun little articles I've been working on, and on Sunday we have a vitally important public announcement in sermon form. However, before then we have the issue of zombie games I missed out on reviewing. Obviously I've reviewed a lot of zombie 'themed' product this week, and even delivered an interview with Rob Butler who is producing his own zombie game, Z War One. So the question remains what was the king of zombie games this week? Well that's a difficult one you know. I have soft spots for both Last Night on Earth and Zombicide, but for very, very different reasons. However, there can be only one, and I have to narrowly give it to Last Night on Earth... but only just. Zombicide was chomping right at its heels all the way.

There are though plenty of Zombie based product out there that I haven't reviewed this week. So what is the best of the rest, what did I miss out on? Well here's a list:

Review: Zombicide

There are many regrets one can have in life. Not having the guts to punch a school bully in the nose, I did by the way, then his four friends jumped me and I got a bit of a kicking! Not talking to that smoking hot girl at the bar, because well, you know... look at me and then look at her!!! Plus not being able to get in on the Zombicide Kickstarter action, damn it! That's probably the worst one for a geek like me. I watched the first of Cool Mini or Not's Kickstarters religiously from the off. I probably checked back more often than those of you who had actually pledged. Unfortunately I was completely and utterly broke at the time of that campaign, and had been hit by so many unexpected one off bills that my meager funds were depleted even further. Life can sometimes be a really, really cruel experience you know, because literally two hours after the Kickstarter had finished somebody purchased a whole heap of painted mini's off of me and I was more than flush enough to have funded the Kickstarter... oh cruel fate why do you mock me so? So I guess I missed out on all the free stuff and special miniatures, but hey, at least I get to play the game now. Right? Any way here's the games video from the Kickstarter campaign.

Product Description

The Game comes with 71 plastic miniature, there are six handily colour coded Survivors, which leaves you with 65 zombies of varying types. These are 40 Walkers (normal zombies), 16 Runners (48 hours later zombies), 8 Fatties (erm... fat zombies) and 1 solitary Abomination (think the Tyrant out of the Resident Evil games). You also get 9 large double-sided map tiles, if you're familiar with Super Dungeon Explore you'll know what to expect. You also get 110 mini-gaming cards, the same sort of small card you get with Fantasy Flight Games stuff, there are 42 Zombie Cards, 62 Equipment cards and 6 Wounded cards. There are 6 Survivor identity cards, to help keep track of your survivors progress and 6 red D6. You also get a plethora of the usual chits and gaming tokens. There is quite a bit of 'stuff' in the box.

You get a hell of a lot.

Review: Last Night on Earth

       
         

When I was asking around about what zombie games I should get in to review for this zombie themed week, one game kept on cropping up. No not Zombicide, although that was a fairly popular request too it has to be said... no, I'm talking about Flying Frog Productions 'Last Night on Earth'. I've only really ever heard good things about this game, so when I was reminded of its existence it was bound to go down on my list of games to review. I'm quite glad it did.

Product Description

Right you get 1 large central board tile that is double sided for twice the fun, or something. There are 6 further L-shaped corner tiles, 4 of which will go around the edge of the board to make up the gaming space you'll play the games on. You'll get 22 plastic miniatures, 8 unique (read zombie film tropes) heroes, and 14 zombies, 7 green and 7 red. There are 120 playing cards, split between 40 Zombie Cards, 40 Hero cards and then 20 Advanced cards for both the Hero and Zombie decks. There are also 8 Character Profile cards, 5 Scenario Cards, 6 Reference Cards, the Sun Track, loads of card board chits and tokens and a CD. Don't ask. Did I also mention you get 16 D6's? No! Well you do, although God only knows why you'd need that many

There's a fair amount of stuff in the box.

Walking Dead apology

    
    

If you've never read the comics or watched the TV series, what the hell are you waiting for?

Right I owe you guys an apology I guess, why? Well I'd intended to review the Walking Dead Boardgame this week, but as I started writing the review I just felt I really hadn't played enough games of it to fully judge it. I would have been winging it and that's not fair to the product or you guys. So I'm putting the review back until I can actually review the product properly and give you a full verdict. However, there is a zombie review still to come later on today, as you have my review of Last Night on Earth to look forward to. Even though Will Wheaton has somewhat stolen my review thunder recently. Peace out!

Review: Zombies!!! Second Edition: Director's Cut

     
       

Arguably the quintessential zombie game.

When I first decided I'd be doing a week of articles on zombie games, the first product that went down on my list was 'Zombies!!!' simply because I don't know anyone who hasn't played it, or a version of it. Simply put it's one of those rare boardgames that appeals to diehard geeks like me, but doesn't put off 'normals'. It's mechanics are simplicity itself, and everyone can understand and enjoy it. Plus it's dirt heap. So why not review it this week I thought, so I am!

Product Description

The box actually comes packed with a lot of basic components. For starters you get 100 plastic zombies in two different poses. OK yeah sure they're small and not incredibly well detailed, but if you want a game about hordes of zombies this might be the place to start. There are 30 map tiles that are about 10cm by 10cm in size or 4" by 4" if you work in old money.You also get 50 cards for the event card deck, 6 human survivors and life and ammunition tokens, which I'm really not going to count, but you get way more than enough. Along with the rules that are printed on to an A4 sheet of paper and two D6's, one red and one blue that's your lot!

The contents of the box.

Industry talk: Rob Butler Ill Gotten Games (Z War One)

    
    

A few weeks back now I was treated to a one on one intro game of Z War One, a new zombie game, by the games creator Rob Butler. I first stumbled across this product at the UK Games Expo 2012 in Birmingham. There I had a brief chat with Rob about the game and what it was, he showed me some mock up board tiles and spoke about character progression and a narrative driven game, with the plot delivered by comics. I'll be honest I was interested at the premise and a bit wary given the fact that it is yet another zombie game. Since then of course we've had Zpocalypse and Zombicide to add to my current zombie stalwart's of Zombies!!! and Last Night on Earth. Once more the marketplace is looking rather crowded again, so I arranged for Rob to pop down from his Sheffield based fortified zombie resistant bunker, to visit me at Zmbie Defence HQ in Birmingham... trust me we're well prepared for Z-day round these parts.

Two of Rob's demo mini's. I'm sure he won't mind me saying they're not quite up to Golem Studio standards.

The first game I played was the common all garden this is how the game works and this is how you shoot zombies. It worked pretty well as an introduction to the Z War One universe and how the game plays. Honestly, there wasn't anything really remarkable about the mission, it's simply get to point A and them explore points B and C and get the hell out of there. It did though allow me to see exactly what the games primary influence was, and that's survival horror games. Primarily the Resident Evil games, with an emphasis placed on limited ammo and medpacks. Every turn you spawn more and more zombies as you go, and it's a question of avoiding them if you can, and shooting them if you can't. It's a tidy resource mechanic at the heart of the game, which is subtly different to many recent zombie games out there that place the emphasis on butchering vast swathes of the undead. The game still feels like it needs some more refinement and polish, but I'm glad to report that Rob confirmed he felt the same and was still working on perfecting his formula, but more importantly despite this the game was still fun to play and the underlying mechanics seem sound.

Review: Munchkin Zombies

      
        

While I was compiling a list of zombie games to review, it hit me that I hadn't actually spoken about Munchkin at all on my Blog. I hadn't even reviewed a single version of Steve Jackson's insanely popular game. Given how many drink fueled games of Munchkin I've played over the years that is incredibly remiss of me. So here I am trying to kill two birds with one stone... or should that be two zombies with one bullet? Either way I'm reviewing Zombie Munchkin.

Product Description

It comes in a box with a lot of cards, 168 full-colour cards in total. These are split between the Door Deck and the Treasure Deck, with there being 74 and 94 respectively. You also get a lovely looking dice with the Munchkin symbol on it, and the incredibly simple and easy to learn rules to Munchkin, in a full colour pamphlet form. Nothing fancy, just a card game in a box. As a warning, because I know a lot of people who buy Munchkin products are surprised by this, Zombie Munchkin does NOT come with a board or counter system to keep track of your levels in game as you progress, which I've always found an annoying oversight myself. So you'll need something to keep score for yourselves, that isn't open to easy abuse. You have been warned!!!

Here's what you get in the box.

Review: Zombie Fluxx

Gaaahhhhhh... braaaiiiinnsss!!!

I've never played any version of Fluxx before. I know plenty of people who have, but card games aren't necessarily my favourite sort of game in the world. Sure they can be simple, quick, easy fun, but I'm the sort of gamer who wants to sit down and play a full on game with little toy soldiers and counters. Whether that be a board game, wargame or indeed a card game. Fluxx doesn't really come onto my radar therefore, because it is so simple and so straight forward, and more importantly so quick to play. But, I figured that I can't really judge the product as not being for me if I'm not willing to at least give it a go, right? Besides many people have raved about Fluxx and I feel like I don't want to miss out, it is after-all an Origins Award Winner. So why not review Zombie Fluxx given I'm doing a week of zombie articles?

Product description

This is what you get in the box.

Zombie Fluxx isn't a complex product. It comes in a really small tight and compact box, it contains100 cards and some fold out rules to let you know just exactly what you've let yourself in for. However, I'll post a video from the games creator to give you

Welcome to Zombie week

          
  

I'm pretty sure it won't have escaped your attentions that my Blog has undergone a bit of a visual makeover. Alas for those of your who detest my usual pink and purple theme this will not be a permanent change. Oh no, this is for one week only, and is in celebration of Halloween, which despite the many pissed revelers I saw out on the town last night in really dodgy costumes is actually on the October 31st. Last year I'm not really sure I did anything special for this festive occasion Blog wise, so this year I'm going to be putting that right with a series of zombie themed articles... mainly reviews. Lets face it there are a plethora of zombie themed games out there for us all to waste our money on, so I'm going to pick through some of my favourites and some of the more popular ones and give you my thoughts. We all love zombies right? And we all know that one day the zombie apocalypse will happen, so these games provide us with essential preparation and skills development for dealing with the eventual appearance of the undead horde and the end of civilisation as we know it. I think the reason zombies are such a popular and enduring theme is because so many cultures around the world have their of form of zombie mythos... that and everyone is being lazy sods and just being uncreative!!! So for the next week welcome to Frontline Zombie, I hope you enjoy my articles. Braaaiiiiiiiiins!

Dark Age Story Competition Prizes Turn Up

    
     

Yay!!! Competition Swag.

Well it's exactly like the headline suggests. I've got those prizes I told you guys about in my Dark Age Story Competition Article... except I have more than I originally thought I would:

• Dark Age: Devastation (expansion rulebook)
• 1x CORE Pathfinders
• 2x CORE Rends
• 1x blister of CORE Menials
• 1x Skarrd Nightmare Juggernaught
• 1x Skarrd Abomination

 
Yep you read that right a Skarrd Abomination has been added to the pile of swag that I've got to give away for the story competition. So hopefully that will give you guys further incentive to get your entries in to me here, so far they've been a bit slow, but I'm hoping that's because you're all taking your time to perfect your stories! I hope.