Last month at Gen Con, we at Geeks A Gogo had a chance to try out a great board game called “Zombicide”. Zombicide is a game set in a post-apocalyptic world infested with zombies. In this game, players coopertate (rather than compete) to fulfill the goal of a pre-determined scenario, such as rescuing a comrade, or finding shelter from the zombie hoards.
The basic game comes with a flat board and 72 unpainted plastic miniatures representing zombies and survivors. Here's a taste of how the basic game looks:
At Gen Con this year, we had the privilege of playing on a custom 3-D board with painted miniatures—and it was a blast! Here's the guy who put together the 3-D version of the game--which he may someday make into a product (let's hope):
We had Nicole from "The Legion" running the game and guiding us through the basic rules:
We were playing with a couple of expert zombie hunters, Adam and Jackson Tabb. Believe me. If the zombie apocalypse ever happens for real--you want these two guys on your side:
So, I want to note that Vincent went through great pains to make his version of Zombicide special. He painted each figurine by hand.
He even laminated all of the game cards.
But, most importantly, all of the 3D scenery that you see below was Vincent's creation. And it is really awesome.
Now, onto the game. I have to say that this was one of the most fun games that I have played, and one of my most enjoyable experiences at Gen Con--which is basically an entire weekend of non-stop fun, as it is. Nicole explained the game to us. We were to each play 1 or 2 characters, and work together to make our way through the streets and buildings of a city that had been ravaged by the zombie apocalypse. We would come across abandoned cars and buildings, which we could search for weapons--but we risked finding zombies along the way. Not to mention the new zombie hordes that would appear each turn as we made our way through the city.
Our goal was to work as a team to search an abandoned town and find the controls to open a bunker, where we could safely hide from the zombies. All we had to do to win the game was to get one of our team members into the bunker alive and safe.
So, to keep things simple, I figured I would only play one character. I chose to play as "El Cholo", which for copyright purposes is not in any way affiliated with Danny Trejo or his character "Machete", but just in case you were wondering what he looks like, here's a pic:
We were all fairly new to the game, but got off to a pretty good start. Luckily, El Cholo starts with 2 machetes, and he can make 2 strong attacks against zombies for each action he takes. This allowed me to move and to make some devestating attacks against the zombies. The game mechanics are pretty simple, with combat being based on D6 roles. It was easy to pick up the rules as we moved toward our goal. We started out on a zombie-infested street.
Our movement actions in this game let us move between "zones", which are the areas between crosswalks on the streets, or the rooms inside buildings. We moved out into the streets, searching cars as we moved along for weapons as we made our way toward our goal:
We made it into the first of our goals, the building on the bottom right, where we activated the first control to open another building that had the controls to the bunker:
But in this game, more zombies constantly are coming at you from the side of the board--so you have to hurry, and fight your way through after you reach your goal. We had a brutal fight waiting for us by the time we got out of that building, as you can see from the zombies aproaching.
Thankfully our group split up so that the others went to the second building, which held the controls to the bunker--our final goal of the game.
The rest of our team managed to get into the building to the left--next to the police car, just as the rest of us came up to help fight off the zombie hordes. My party members had found some guns after searching the police car--and they ended up using them to hold off the zombies. That's why you see several sound markers all around our team in the picture. Zombies are, of course, attracted to sound.
After our team got through the last building and found the control switch for the bunker, we moved one of our team members out of the melee and into the bunker--and won the game! It was amazing. We hadn't suffered a single casualty! Teamwork and cooperation had won the day.
So, if you want to play a game that inspires teamwork and collaborative strategy, I highly recommend Zombicide. This game forces strategic thinking and cooperation within a group. We went into the game, playing with a couple of perfect strangers, and came out with a solid victory built on teamwork. And we learned the rules along the way.
And of course, the Geeks A Gogo team was so impressed, we bought a copy to take home with us...
Zombicide is published by Guillotime Games.
Check them out here for more details:http://zombicide.com/en/
