I got the chance to play two games and thought I'd write a bit about my first impression of the game and the changes between this and standard Zombicide. I haven't played enough for a full review but I can let you know what I think and what happened during our games.
Introduction
We started with the introduction quest. We were playing 4 player and had one character each. We had Baldric, Clovis, Nelly and Silas trying to escape our village via a magic portal, but first we had to get there. We started slow, opening the first rooms door early and trying to stock up on as much gear as possible. We had control of our side of the board, mostly clear and set up with ranged weapons at one end of the road holding back the few zombies trying to get down towards us.
Our problem was the next door we had to open. We could get it open, that wasn't an issue. The issue was what was standing on the other side. A Runner and a Fatty had moved and were waiting for us on the other side. Our problem was none of our weapons could hurt and Fatty and we couldn't target the Runner at range because of the new target priority rules. We had to keep searching for better weapons before we could open that door and fast, before a Fatty came from the other direction and we were trapped.
We got lucky. One of the guys found a ranged spell that could do 2 damage and handed it to my spellcaster. The door was opened for me and I let fly with my spells killing both the Runner and Fatty. We started to move the party forward looking for the key to get into room with the magic circle.
We found it fast but that opened the second spawn point for zombies right next to the door we needed to get though. Our plan was simple we had the whole party hold up a couple of squares from the door, We would use range to clear the spawn point then send someone to run and open the door and run back to the group. We would then use range to clear a route again and as a group make a run for the end zone. It might not have been the best plan but it was safe and gave us a good shot at keeping the whole group alive.
It didn't work quite as planned, we got the door opened OK but we ended up taking too many actions cleaning the spawn point the second time so could only get half the party in the room. We handed off the ranged weapons and they ran. Next turn they shoot from the doorway, clearing the path for the remaining party members to escape. The spell was activated and we escaped our village.
Quest 1: Big Game Hunting
So we tried the first quest straight after. We used the same characters each and then the other two, Anna and Samson, as group characters.
We started on the street we had to kill a Necromancer and an Abomination plus pick up all the quest markers to win. It was going to be tough, we couldn't let the Necromancer escape so we decided that splitting up might be the best bet. We didn't want to risk getting caught too far away to catch the Necromancer and thought two groups might give us the best chance to cover everywhere.The map had one massive building on it, taking up almost the whole map with a road going around it and some smaller buildings around the outside. There were also two vaults leading between the opposite corners of the map. We decided opening the door to the big building would be best early on since we would get the smallest zombie spawn if we did it before anyone reached yellow XP. It didn't work out to well for us, we got some really bad cards and a lot of Fatty's and Runners spawned. Worse still we spawned a Necromancer.
We stuck with the two groups plan, one used the vault to get into the main building on the opposite side of the map. We then used noise to manipulate the zombies between our two groups and force them into smaller more manageable groups that we could take out.
We managed to kill the Necromancer and had found one part of the ingredients for Dragon Fire (the item we needed to kill an Abomination). If we picked up quest markers it could spawn the Abomination but we only had half of what we needed to kill it so didn't want to. We decided to risk picking up a couple in the main building just to avoid going back again later. It paid off and they weren't the Abomination.
Things were getting worse for us. We had spawned a lot of Necromancers each with a new zombie spawn point so we were getting huge waves of incoming zombies. We were using ranged fighters to hold the road running around the map, our Elf had a vault artifact crossbow that we shredding through zombies in street and was being helped by our spell caster. The dwarf that was backing them up found the other half of our dragon fire. We decided to move the group that had gone into the building back, get them to meet up with Samson the Dwarf and move as a group around the map, collecting quest tokens. When they found the Abomination they had what they needed to kill it. We were going to keep our two ranged fighters in the street, they could hold their own and if need be escape via one of the vaults. Having them there meant they could stop a Necromancer escaping if one spawned since we had left enough doors closed that the shortest route to an exit still meant travelling down the street.
We still had a huge number of zombies spawning, our group of four was getting overrun trying to get around the map. Worse an Abomination spawned from one of our spawn point by the ranged fighters...who didn't have Dragon Fire.
A bad spawn meant that walkers all got 4 extra actions. This put them on top of our main group with another pack right behind them. They managed to kill Samson, who had luckily already handed over the touch already. We still had more zombies on the same square as the survivors than they could kill in one turn. We had also overlooked a small detail out on the street. We needed to use the escape route through the vault to bring the Abomination towards the main group and because in the next few turns they would be over run by a creature they couldn't kill. Unfortunately when Samson left to take a touch to the others he took the only weapon they had that could open the door to the building so they were trapped between an Abomination and wave of zombies.
This as the end of our little party, one group overrun by zombies, getting dragged down while still hacking away at them, the other backed into a corner by an Abomination without a weapon to hurt it.
Thoughts
I like Zombicide, but I think this is a better version. The updated rules feel smoother. I really like that you don't automatically kill your friends if you shoot a ranged weapon at a square they are in. You can still have a friendly fire accident, but only if you miss the zombies.
I think the fantasy theme is refreshing for a zombie game. I think it feels different from most zombie games out there. Having magic in this game is really cool. I am glad that when we picked character I got Baldrick the wizard so had a great chance to try them out. They add something to the game helping you heal team members and manipulate the movement of zombies.
The miniatures are great, as with all Cool Mini or Not miniatures. The upgraded player aids are much better than ones in Zombicide, they are plastic and cards sit in them rather than lay on top. We did have some problems moving the experience track along, they were a little stiff on a few of the boards, some were easier than others.I think the Necromancers are a nice addition. Unlike the other zombies they try to escape the board instead of going for the players. When they spawn they also add another spawn point to the board. They can be hard though, there are 7 Necromancer cards in the deck and if they are spawning faster than you can kill them you might find yourself, like we did, overrun very very quickly with two or three times as many spawn points on the board as when you started.
Anyway, I like this game. It is fun and once you get the hang of it simple to play. It is a great update for the original board game.
Our two plays are here Tutorial & Big Game Hunting
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