Zombicide Fast paced, action packed board game with a lust for blood will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Crazed zombies, vicious weapons and chance all lead to a blood splatteringly good time, whether you achieve all objects or just die all guns blazing.
The Characters: Each character has different strengths and perks to help you through the game. Traits such as slippery (can exit a square which has zombies easily) and lock pick (can open doors silently without a weapon) can help you progress through the game easily. Traits can also be earned and chosen as you gain experience by killing zombies and picking up objective markers. Each character has different traits so pick according to your playing style. Do you want to go in all guns blazing? Then pick + 1 to weapon range. Do you want to attack with a chainsaw? + 1 dice roll to melee weapons. It's all about tactics, and everyone plays differently.
The Zombies: There are two expansion packs for this game, however I will be focusing on the original kickstarter to keep it simple for this review. There are three main types of zombie - the walkers, the runners and the fattys. The walkers: only move one space at a time and only need 1 damage to kill. The runners: move two spaces each turn but need 1 damage to kill. The fattys: only move one space each time but need 2damage to kill. Then there is the abomination. It may only move one space each time but it takes 3 damage to kill and for that there is only 1 weapon -The Molotov Cocktail. After each player takes their turn it is the zombies turn, for each spawn point you turn over one zombie card (yellow) to see what types of zombie and how many you will get. They will always move towards noise and visuals if they can see you.
The Weapons: There are a variety of weapons. Some awful (cue frying pan) and some fantastic (chainsaw!) but each are found by chance. Every character is given a weapon at random to start to game (normally rubbish ones) and others can be found by searching in empty rooms. You have 3 actions to complete each round (until you unlock more) and one of these can be a search. You must be either inside a building or car and there must be no zombies. You simply turn over a card (red) to see what you have found. The more dice it instructs you to use the better your chances, and the lower you need to score shows how easy it is to use. One dice and only 6+ (frying pan) is more difficult than 3 dice with 4+ (sub machine gun).
The rules may be complex and make take time to understand, but once understood they are quick to implement and is great fun to play. Though I would recommend a full afternoon or evening to play...it often lasts for hours -especially if you play with the Blast Process gang who love to talk tactics! All in all a fantastic game for a Sunday afternoon! (Or any other day of the week!)
Figures painted by James Brewerton
Mel
