Another good Battlequest Evening

Last night was another good night at Andys - I was a little late again but a game of Last Night on Earth was just about to start and I was invited into the table as the 2nd zombie player alongside Nigel Heathers. Also on the table were Andy, Matt Green and the guy who owns the game, but I didn't know his name. Must find it out. Anyhow, my arrival possibly proved to be the downfall of the humans as no matter how hard they tried, I kept seeming to throw a high percentage of winning zombie attack dice to the point I'd killed off Andys Elvis-a-like vicar lol. There was also a point when I picked up two zombie cards, they were both Play Instantly cards - one of which was a Pick up three more cards. Of which two were instant plays, including another Pick up three! 

After a desperate battle by the humans, they ended up loosing after the Vicar went down. I love this game, especially with lots of players - in my eyes Zombies!!! doesn't compare. 

Zombies on the march!

"I'll save ya Reverend!"

Next up was Panic Station - a super tense thriller of a game where a group of individuals with clones set out to destroy an alien infestation - the twist being that one person is infected from the start with a virus who tries to pass it on to other people in the game in an attempt to kill off the human players. As each player moves into a room with another player, they have to swap a card from their hand. At the start, everyone has three "Infection" cards which are not passed on until they are infected (or are the host from the start). If a player receives one of these marks, a bit like the Black Spot of pirates gone by, then they are infected. Like Galactica Cylons, the infected are not to pass on they are infected - people have to guess and if they do, try to kill them off. Paranoia sets in - people accuse each other and infighting starts.  

In our game, I was the original Host and a few turns in I attempted to take over one of the players. Now I was under the impression that if I passed on an infection card, the player will only block me if they passed a petrol can at the same time (these are used to destroy the hive nest) - remembering the cards are passed face down. I made a pass of the card and I had a petrol can in return. Ok, I was blocked. Except the receiver looked up a rule that says they can state that a failed infection has taken place!! Ahgahga! If I'd known that I'd have never have tried....oh well. I tried another infection at Dale which failed too. 

Then I tried another tactic and passed a med kit to Matt which threw them for a while and suspicions moved  about. Then I tried Dale again and again I was blocked. Then I was stumped. I had used all three of my infection cards! With no success. Later I tried different things to attack people, moving creatures that can appear in their way, by which time everyone was certain I was the Host. In the end Dale destroyed the Hive and the humans won. But everyone was in agreement that after I had been blocked 3 times, I was pretty much stuck - the rules weren't up to the fact that someone would try to infect a few turns in or would fail 3 times. 

That said, the rules had been amended 3 times since release at Essen! And a release came out the day after at Andys! Yikes! Still a good thing that its getting a lot of amends and fixes to get it just right and definately worth another go.

Zombies drag their feet....literally!!

Yesterday evening to the early minutes of the following day, we played a game of Zombies!!! - yes literally a game. Four of us, Brian, Nigel Wood and Nigel Heathers got together around Nigel W's house for a zombie evening of Zombies!!! and Last Night on Earth. After a quick natter after my late arrival, we set about playing Zombies - everyone was new to the game so we had to go through the rules. Even I hadn't really played the game with all aspects of the rules.

We started a game but we found that we were about half way through the stack of cards and not many shots were fired. In fact, Nigel H pointed out, the zombies were turning out not to be much of a threat as they only moved one space whilst we could move up to 6 using a single D6.

Then Nigel W noticed in the rules the paragraph that if we get a tile with no shops/buildings on, ie just cross roads or L shape, you place two or three zombies on it. Ah. That changed things a bit. So we lived and learned and started again.

This time it was more tough, blasting through zombies and finding a way through to the helicopter. Which appeared but covered in zombies. Then the game went from a semi- co-op game with everyone being nice with their event cards to all out war on the zombies and each other! And this is when things fell apart. We would either be killed by zombies (end up back at the start) or be stopped by the other players from reaching the helicopter with an Event card.

This happened over. And over. And over. We started at 9pm. We finished just after midnight!! 3 hours?! The box said no more that 1hr. Hmm. Something was going wrong. We were knee deep in zombies (we needed the Bag o'Zombies that I bought extra) and each others event cards. The game became something of a slog and we missed out playing a game of Last Night on Earth! I was very disappointed in bringing such a game to the table - disappointed also for the others in that they didn't get much, I felt out of the evening.

I stated the next day I'd be selling the game - Brian had suggested he'd be interested in getting it, so I'll sell it to him - good to start a clear out I think of unused/unplayed games before Christmas!