Blaaaaaaaarrrrggggggggghhhh......

Who doesn't love zombies? It's a wonderful little subgenre of fiction that gets a lot of attention (maybe more than it deserves, but that's speculation...) for what it is. The idea of zombies tends to fluctuate in popularity (much like most fads...), going from a mere glimmer on the pop culture radar to society wide obsession level. Currently, zombies are still going strong, but we definitely are waning away from the 'obsession' level (over exposure will do that...). However, we're going to talk a little about a game spawning from this undead obsession and it's called simply 'Zombies!!!'...

Game play is pretty straightforward: The game is governed by a series of die rolls and tile placement. The players are trying to make their way out of a zombie infested city to a helipad and, subsequently, safety (a la Romero-esque zombies...). The city is a tile based board that grows each turn. Each player flips up a new tile and lines up the road squares so that no road dead ends at a building. Each player is a 'shotgun guy' and must mow their way through an army of zombies, picking up equipment along the way (with die rolls, action cards and equipment cards...). Beyond moving their own piece, they must also move the zombies at the end of their turn (per another die roll...), which effective allows the player to impede (read: screw with...) the other players' progress. Each player starts with 3 health and 3 bullets; bullets aid combat rolls, health gets you out of unwinnable scraps. When your health is gone, you go back to start and halve your zombie kill collection. You can also win by having 25 zombie kills in your collection...

In contrast to the last board game I reviewed, this game is almost completely driven by luck. It has die rolls, a deck, and a random game board each time it's played; there is little in the way of classic strategy. The best you can do is try to facilitate your zombie kills and block off the other players with the new tiles and hope for cards that mess up your opponents. However, this game just drips with flavor. A mad dash to escape an undead ridden city is fantastic and is simple enough to get into. There is very little in the way of complicated rules, so once the game gets rolling after the first few turns, the kinks (if any...) are all smoothed out. Having your friends all do their best zombie impression, however, is probably the best part of the game. My favorite moment while playing Zombies!!! has to be reading from the Zombie Haiku book (find a copy, it's delightful...) with Tyson & Vicki. Awesome...

My one complaint: Zombies!!! can turn into a very long experience. If you have poor die rollers (we have a few...), killing zombies becomes problematic, which means moving towards the goal is even more problematic. Further, if you die, you often have an even bigger zombie army in your way, slowing you down further. It's definitely not Monopoly level of length, but it can get moderately tiresome if you die a lot and have trouble moving through the zombie horde. The cards are supposed to facilitate an easier time of it, but it never ends up being that way (at least not for my group...). This, in turn, makes me nervous for the multiple expansions that have been released. As fun as they look (they even released a version where you play as the zombies and try to eat all the humans [awesome...]...), I would be afraid that it would add too much length, offsetting the fun level. I could be wrong, and I certainly wouldn't pass an opportunity to try the expansions, so I would approach the other versions with subdued excitement...

Final thoughts: This is a very fun game, if a bit mindless (not a bad thing; just a label...). It won't stress your brain muscle much, but very, very enjoyable, especially with the right people. Zombies!!! is a must have for any hardcore zombie fanatic and would be a great gift for the casual gamer. If you ever want to blow holes through the undead, this'd be the way to go...

Grade: Solid B+...

We prere'd the crap out of that day...

Seems I missed a day again. This will have to count for last Friday (problematic at the very least...), which is kind of odd since what I will go over today happened on Sunday, so it wouldn't have been an issue then. Cop out? Perhaps, but it is a good topic none the less. So, Big Brian (yeah, I said it...) and I decided that, after such a long hiatus, it was time for us to blow some cash and have some geektacular fun, just the two of us. And we're off to Glen Burnie for the Mirrodin Besieged M:tG prerelease...

A little prere explanation: Before the official release of any Magic: the Gathering set, Wizards of the Coasts sends out a set number of booster pack boxes to locations across the country for the use of having a Limited tournament (a type of event where only the very most recent cards are allowed...). Each player is given six boosters with which to make a 40 card deck (lands are comp...) and then the players are paired off, standard elimination style. If you do well enough, you could win additional boosters as prizes. Usually, those who do the best are those who randomly receive the biggest bombs (REALLY good cards...) as well as factoring in proficiency at deck building. If the deck building skills are comparable between two players, the game is often decided which player pulled the better cards from the outset. Further, larger locations may also run booster drafts, which allow X players to pull-and-pass packs, taking a card one by one and then making a deck with their choices. At the end of the day, each player walks home with a promo card and (at least...) six booster packs worth of the current block sets, all for the cool price of 30 bucks for one sealed flight (drafts and additional flights cost extra...)...

This then brings us up to Mirrodin Besieged, the second set in the Scars of Mirrodin block (this block being a sequel block to the original Mirrodin block back in 2003...). When last we left Mirrodin (a metallic world where life is infused with metal [the trees, the people, everything...]...), the elf Glissa had saved the day, the green sun had been created, and the turmoil within that set had been (to one degree or another...) appropriately resolved. Fast forward 7ish years (real world time...) and enter Scars of Mirrodin/Mirrodin Besieged. Life progressed as normal on Mirrodin (whatever normal happens to be for metalish beings...). However, the once defeated Phyrexians (M:tG's overarching baddies...) have returned and insidiously invaded Mirrodin, right under the noses of the (un...)natural inhabitants. The Phyrexian forces have finagled their way into every aspect of Mirrodin life, which brings us to the end of Scars. Within Mirrodin Besieged, the Mirrans have noticed their planet being overtaken by the Phyrexians and fight back finally, splitting the planet into two warring factions (Mirrans vs. Phyrexians, if you hadn't guessed by now...). Mirrans favor the red/white philosophy (Mountains/Plains, attacking bonuses, cheap fast creatures, lots of removal spells, etc...) while green/black is the purview of the Phyrexians (Forest/Swamps, poison counters, regeneration, big stompy creatures, wither away forces and resources, etc...). Blue, then, is split in twain between the two factions, subtlely supporting both sides of the war(Islands, card drawing, charge counters, evasions, temporary removal, etc...)...

This prerelease was different than the others I have been to, specifically because the players had to pick which warring faction to play as. This affected the cards you would get (Mirrans got more red/white cards, Phyrexians got more green/black...) in each Besieged pack. Rather than getting a standard booster with a standard assortment, players received three Scars packs and three Besieged packs of their faction. I chose Phyrexian and Brian went with Mirran (we wanted to see how each side fared...). Brian did not pull cards that were so great, but I pulled decently. I built a very solid green/black/artifact deck and it played fairly well each game. My problem: no real bombs to speak of. Many solid cards, but nothing that was really game changing/ending (see: Blightsteel Colossus, Massacre Wurm, Creeping Corruption, etc...) so I had to rely on my deck building skills over just 'getting lucky'. I would be remiss if I did not mention that Brian is very integral to my continued deck building skills. He is great for bouncing ideas off of, though sometimes I feel I may use him as a crutch (though one of the few times he wasn't there, I won packs...)...

My first match was against a Mirran deck, but the guy didn't really seem to know what he was doing (at the very least, he was not a good deck builder...). I smoked him 2-0; he played very little cards and my efficient deck just ran him over (like a boss...). Second game, I got a beat down quite a bit (I went 1-2...). This guy played a Phyrexian deck like mine, but ended up pulling better cards from the get go. He was faster and his bombs were very bomb-y (the above Massacre Wurm made multiple appearances...). I was able to poison him out one game, but it was for naught. My last game (1-2 again...) was a beast to play. This guy was running multiple awesome cards (Venser, Black Sun Zenith, Sunblast Angel, etc...) in a strange (but effective...) black/white/blue combination, but my 'Little-Deck-That-Almost-Could' pushed through enough poison to end the game. That guy was pissed. However, game two I got mana screwed (not enough resources to cast my spells...) and then he just beat the crap out of me in game three. Good matches, even if I won no prizes...

Final thoughts regarding the prere: I have missed it and it was a lot of fun. However, I will say the overall match ups were a little dull(ish...) as you could almost guess what you would see once you figure which faction the opponent was playing. The variable of deck types were reduced a bit (I was very pleasantly surprised to see black/white/blue in round three...), but the game play itself was a delight. Brian and I hadn't played a prere since Lorwyn in 2007, so it was nice to get out and do it up right. This time, it was a local store rather than a big convention hall so it was a bit of a different experience (less of an event and more like a Friday Night Magic...). I am highly looking forward to the next prere tournament, but will satisfy my cravings with the occasional one on one draft that Brian and I do so well. Until next time, enjoy gaming folks, however you find it...