Post by Todd Tjersland on Jun 13, 2006 22:44:31 GMT -8
Anybody else playing Zombies!!! from Twilight Creations?
The plot of Zombies!!! is simple: You and your fellow survivors are trapped in a city of flesh-eating ghouls. You collect cards and play them on yourself or your opponents (the cards are full color, gory and fun). You get to move yourself and some zombies every turn, racing around the city, breaking into and looting stores for Life tokens and Bullets. You must kill 25 zombies or escape to the helicopter, stranding everyone else to a certain doom.
The thing I've noticed is even when you lose, you still feel like you acomplished something, because you killed a truckload of zombies and screwed your opponents over many times in memorable ways.
Every game is different, because you build the city one section (full color tile) at a time and the order of each section's appearance is randomized by shuffling the city tile deck.
ZOMBIES!!! official website
twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/
I finally caved in and bought Zombies!!!, Zombies 3.5, Zombies 4 and Zombies 3: Mall Walkers (Dawn of the Dead mall expansion) and loved them! The Zombies!!! box set comes with 100 zombie minis! I've played 9 games in two days over 18 hours, LOL. I think I'm addicted. I'm gonna buy Zombies!!! 2 Zombie Corps(e) next to get the military base expansion and the 6 glow-in-the-dark uber-zombies. You can mix and match the various cards and rules from the sets to create the game you want. Only two pages of rules makes the game easy to house rule on the fly and just generally tinker with to make it the game you want. Each game is about 2 hours of beer-n-pretzels fun. If you only use the shopping mall or military base, instead of the city, it cuts down to maybe 1 hour or 90 minutes depending on the number of players because those locations use about 10 less tiles than the city. If you want to include the city, you'll need to buy more zombie minis (suitable for RPG use too), which they sell in bags of 100 for $9.95 in either (standard) rotten gray or glow in the dark varieties. The minis have a disgusting, wobbly, rubbery (but still sturdy) texture to them, which makes them more fun to pick up and move around, like you're actually touching clammy, dead flesh!
The official site has a bunch of different house rules and options, such as team play, different character powers for the players, new weapons, scenarios, campaigns, an alternate ending, and of course, FAQs --- check the links page for a link to an RPG based on the game. However, I've found the best house rules for me are not on the official site but rather are Rich Stoke's Quickplay Rules that you can download from BoardGameGeek.Com here:
www.boardgamegeek.com/viewfile.php3?fileid=3063
The game is simple yet satisfying enough that it can be played "as is", or can quickly be made more complex to suit the taste of the players. It can even be "dumbed down" further for kids who can't read yet. With only 2-3 pages of rules, it can be whatever you want, and the designer tells you to do whatever you want with the rules while still providing a solid game to build on. I'm impressed with the people who made this game series!
After trying the default rules and the standard Quickplay rules in two games, I'm using a combination of my own house rules and the Quickplay rules from the game's website. Basically, you always move a number of spaces equal to your current life tokens (or better if you roll higher on movement). Instead of only moving zombies one square each, you can split up the d6 roll and move less zombies faster, or more zombies slowly. If you are down to your last Life token, you don't die, but start losing kills for every failed combat roll. If you run out of kills, you just keep fighting until you defeat the zombie.
We also created a "death match" game where you start with 5 life and 5 bullets (and can trade in 15 kills for a "recharge" to put you back to 3 life and 3 bullets if you're lower). A variant "death match" allows each player three lives, so if they die, they lose all their kills, tokens and cards and start over in the town square with 5 Life and 5 bullets.
We also added in uber-zombies (currently represented by skeleton and zombie RPG minis)! Here's how they come into play: Everytime the movie theater tile comes up (and there are 4 of them, each playing the movie "Evil Dad", LOL), an "Evil Dad" uber-zombie appears on that tile in lieu of the two regular zombies. The "Evil Dad" can only be killed on a six (instead of 4-6 like normal zombies) and moves twice as fast as regular zombies. If you are killed by an "Evil Dad" your character becomes an "Evil Dad" too (place on any legal space on a movie theater tile). First one to the helicopter wins, regardless of the number of kills! Not respawning when you die and having the "Evil Dads" chase you around so fast really makes a dramatic, scary impact on your resource management and play style... everyone is much more conservative and nervous, at least until the helicopter tile is drawn and then it's a mad dash to screw over your opponents and jack the old whirly-bird. If not using the city tiles, the "Evil Dads" only appear when a player dies (on that spot).
ZOMBIES!!! GAME SERIES
Zombies 1 ($24.95) gives you the largest map tile selection (city location), 50 event cards, black heart and bullet tokens, two dice, six shotgun guy player minis and 100 gray human zombie minis.
Because the bullet and heart tokens aren't double-sided, it can be a real pain to pick the right one when you need right out of the box. Here's what I did: I superglued two bullet tokens back to back to make them double-sided and chunkier so they feel good in your hand and are easier to pick up off the board or out of the box.
Here's what the expansion packs offer:
Zombies 2 ($14.95) adds a set of military base/top secret lab tiles you can use as a stand-alone location or as an add-on to any other expansion pack, red heart tokens, six glow-in-the-dark super zombie miniatures (tougher to kill and faster movement), and 32 new event cards.
Zombies 3 ($14.95) adds a set of shoping mall tiles you can use as a stand-alone location or as an add-on to any other expansion pack, two new scenarios (rescue survivors or catch the guy with the helicopter keys), and 32 new event cards.
Zombies 3.5 ($9.95) adds 50 new event cards and rules for building custom card decks.
Zombies 4 ($24.95) adds a set of forest and rural tiles you can use as a complete stand-alone game or as an add-on to any other expansion pack, 100 zombie dog miniatures (tougher to kill and faster movement), two dice, six shotgun guy player minis (different colored than the ones in Zombies 1), a new scenario (collct the pages to the book of the dead, get tgo the cabin and cast the spell to destroy the zombies to win) and 50 new event cards.
Zombies 5 ($14.99) is the new 2006 expansion set, but I haven't picked it up yet. It looks good (new tiles, cards, etc.)!
Bag O' Zombies ($9.95) gives you your choice of 100 human zombie minis in either classic gray or new glow in the dark.
The manufacturer's website offers free downloads of fan submitted house rules, scenarios, campaigns and other misc. ideas on what to do with the game and pieces (not necessarily even using them in a traditional Zombies board game).
I've found that the expansion packs, combined with house rules, really make this game horribly addictive and always a complete challenge, even with just two players. By adding in super zombies, zombie dogs, tougher victory conditions, nearly all the new event cards, and "death match" rules, you get a much scarier, more interesting game.
Had some experience with Zombies 4 recently and found it too deadly and also boring as is. Too many "plain woods" map tiles for my taste... most of the 30 tile deck! I cut the map deck down to 16 cards (as big as the mall, keeping all but the extra cave named locations and 3-4 plain woods tiles). This made the woods more exciting... lots more tokens to pick up in smaller area, but still too deadly with all those zombie dogs (5-6 to kill, move twice as fast as regular zombies). Thinking of making huma zombies only on the plain woods tiles to "mix things up" a bit. Just fighting zombie dogs is boring (and too deadly). I'm using the cut down woods map deck with my city/mall game; no desire to play plain woods as written. Not a waste of money, as dogs mixed in with regular zombies is fun, plus cool event cards and red heart tokens. Just not as good as other Zombies expansions.
The plot of Zombies!!! is simple: You and your fellow survivors are trapped in a city of flesh-eating ghouls. You collect cards and play them on yourself or your opponents (the cards are full color, gory and fun). You get to move yourself and some zombies every turn, racing around the city, breaking into and looting stores for Life tokens and Bullets. You must kill 25 zombies or escape to the helicopter, stranding everyone else to a certain doom.
The thing I've noticed is even when you lose, you still feel like you acomplished something, because you killed a truckload of zombies and screwed your opponents over many times in memorable ways.
Every game is different, because you build the city one section (full color tile) at a time and the order of each section's appearance is randomized by shuffling the city tile deck.
ZOMBIES!!! official website
twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/
I finally caved in and bought Zombies!!!, Zombies 3.5, Zombies 4 and Zombies 3: Mall Walkers (Dawn of the Dead mall expansion) and loved them! The Zombies!!! box set comes with 100 zombie minis! I've played 9 games in two days over 18 hours, LOL. I think I'm addicted. I'm gonna buy Zombies!!! 2 Zombie Corps(e) next to get the military base expansion and the 6 glow-in-the-dark uber-zombies. You can mix and match the various cards and rules from the sets to create the game you want. Only two pages of rules makes the game easy to house rule on the fly and just generally tinker with to make it the game you want. Each game is about 2 hours of beer-n-pretzels fun. If you only use the shopping mall or military base, instead of the city, it cuts down to maybe 1 hour or 90 minutes depending on the number of players because those locations use about 10 less tiles than the city. If you want to include the city, you'll need to buy more zombie minis (suitable for RPG use too), which they sell in bags of 100 for $9.95 in either (standard) rotten gray or glow in the dark varieties. The minis have a disgusting, wobbly, rubbery (but still sturdy) texture to them, which makes them more fun to pick up and move around, like you're actually touching clammy, dead flesh!
The official site has a bunch of different house rules and options, such as team play, different character powers for the players, new weapons, scenarios, campaigns, an alternate ending, and of course, FAQs --- check the links page for a link to an RPG based on the game. However, I've found the best house rules for me are not on the official site but rather are Rich Stoke's Quickplay Rules that you can download from BoardGameGeek.Com here:
www.boardgamegeek.com/viewfile.php3?fileid=3063
The game is simple yet satisfying enough that it can be played "as is", or can quickly be made more complex to suit the taste of the players. It can even be "dumbed down" further for kids who can't read yet. With only 2-3 pages of rules, it can be whatever you want, and the designer tells you to do whatever you want with the rules while still providing a solid game to build on. I'm impressed with the people who made this game series!
After trying the default rules and the standard Quickplay rules in two games, I'm using a combination of my own house rules and the Quickplay rules from the game's website. Basically, you always move a number of spaces equal to your current life tokens (or better if you roll higher on movement). Instead of only moving zombies one square each, you can split up the d6 roll and move less zombies faster, or more zombies slowly. If you are down to your last Life token, you don't die, but start losing kills for every failed combat roll. If you run out of kills, you just keep fighting until you defeat the zombie.
We also created a "death match" game where you start with 5 life and 5 bullets (and can trade in 15 kills for a "recharge" to put you back to 3 life and 3 bullets if you're lower). A variant "death match" allows each player three lives, so if they die, they lose all their kills, tokens and cards and start over in the town square with 5 Life and 5 bullets.
We also added in uber-zombies (currently represented by skeleton and zombie RPG minis)! Here's how they come into play: Everytime the movie theater tile comes up (and there are 4 of them, each playing the movie "Evil Dad", LOL), an "Evil Dad" uber-zombie appears on that tile in lieu of the two regular zombies. The "Evil Dad" can only be killed on a six (instead of 4-6 like normal zombies) and moves twice as fast as regular zombies. If you are killed by an "Evil Dad" your character becomes an "Evil Dad" too (place on any legal space on a movie theater tile). First one to the helicopter wins, regardless of the number of kills! Not respawning when you die and having the "Evil Dads" chase you around so fast really makes a dramatic, scary impact on your resource management and play style... everyone is much more conservative and nervous, at least until the helicopter tile is drawn and then it's a mad dash to screw over your opponents and jack the old whirly-bird. If not using the city tiles, the "Evil Dads" only appear when a player dies (on that spot).
ZOMBIES!!! GAME SERIES
Zombies 1 ($24.95) gives you the largest map tile selection (city location), 50 event cards, black heart and bullet tokens, two dice, six shotgun guy player minis and 100 gray human zombie minis.
Because the bullet and heart tokens aren't double-sided, it can be a real pain to pick the right one when you need right out of the box. Here's what I did: I superglued two bullet tokens back to back to make them double-sided and chunkier so they feel good in your hand and are easier to pick up off the board or out of the box.
Here's what the expansion packs offer:
Zombies 2 ($14.95) adds a set of military base/top secret lab tiles you can use as a stand-alone location or as an add-on to any other expansion pack, red heart tokens, six glow-in-the-dark super zombie miniatures (tougher to kill and faster movement), and 32 new event cards.
Zombies 3 ($14.95) adds a set of shoping mall tiles you can use as a stand-alone location or as an add-on to any other expansion pack, two new scenarios (rescue survivors or catch the guy with the helicopter keys), and 32 new event cards.
Zombies 3.5 ($9.95) adds 50 new event cards and rules for building custom card decks.
Zombies 4 ($24.95) adds a set of forest and rural tiles you can use as a complete stand-alone game or as an add-on to any other expansion pack, 100 zombie dog miniatures (tougher to kill and faster movement), two dice, six shotgun guy player minis (different colored than the ones in Zombies 1), a new scenario (collct the pages to the book of the dead, get tgo the cabin and cast the spell to destroy the zombies to win) and 50 new event cards.
Zombies 5 ($14.99) is the new 2006 expansion set, but I haven't picked it up yet. It looks good (new tiles, cards, etc.)!
Bag O' Zombies ($9.95) gives you your choice of 100 human zombie minis in either classic gray or new glow in the dark.
The manufacturer's website offers free downloads of fan submitted house rules, scenarios, campaigns and other misc. ideas on what to do with the game and pieces (not necessarily even using them in a traditional Zombies board game).
I've found that the expansion packs, combined with house rules, really make this game horribly addictive and always a complete challenge, even with just two players. By adding in super zombies, zombie dogs, tougher victory conditions, nearly all the new event cards, and "death match" rules, you get a much scarier, more interesting game.
Had some experience with Zombies 4 recently and found it too deadly and also boring as is. Too many "plain woods" map tiles for my taste... most of the 30 tile deck! I cut the map deck down to 16 cards (as big as the mall, keeping all but the extra cave named locations and 3-4 plain woods tiles). This made the woods more exciting... lots more tokens to pick up in smaller area, but still too deadly with all those zombie dogs (5-6 to kill, move twice as fast as regular zombies). Thinking of making huma zombies only on the plain woods tiles to "mix things up" a bit. Just fighting zombie dogs is boring (and too deadly). I'm using the cut down woods map deck with my city/mall game; no desire to play plain woods as written. Not a waste of money, as dogs mixed in with regular zombies is fun, plus cool event cards and red heart tokens. Just not as good as other Zombies expansions.
