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My friend bought and excitedly opened this game a few weeks ago. We were all looking foward to a good zombie game, since we were all fans of the original Zombies!!!, and this seemed to be an improvement. Once we started reading the rules, we became increasingly confused as they seemed to be poorly organized and written. The part on movement seemed particularly odd.
At any rate, we set up the game and got down to playing. We each seemed to quickly figure out that the best strategy was to barricade ourselves inside buildings and... wait. Each of us would move from one of a few buildings looking for barricades, and erecting new ones.
Zombie movement became rather stifled. The only time a person would get over run is when the two other players would team up on him with zombie movement; otherwise it is too easy to deflect zombies away from houses. I realize they can't walk backwards, but they can walk diagonally sort of away. Perhaps that was a weakness of only playing wth three players. I can't imagine how a two player game would go.
At the begining of the game zombie hunting seemed pointless, and at the end it was far too deadly. There was no motivation to go out fighting with other characters, since there were only three of us, resources were virtually limitless. The only time I would kill zombies was to make sure that there were just too few to break down a barricade. It almost seemed like maintenance, not a tense confrontation.
Eventually, I won because I had a huge number of barricades errected, and at the last second I ran out and killed a few zombies for points, knowing that there was no chance that they could kill me. All in all, it was an incredibly boring game. I almost felt like were prepareing for a hurricane, not zombies, considering all the windows I boarded up.
In the last couple of turns, one player decided to run outside and mow down zombies. He got swamped pretty quickly. It was too obvious of a choice to have him get swarmed by the other two players. Had there been more than just one person out hunting full time, it may have been more effective.
I've rated this game a 4. It seemed like a waste of time when I played it, and we havent touched it again. I guess if there was nothing else to play, I would play this.
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And you must definitely print and play Dead of Night
Unfortunately, DoN is no longer free to print. I believe this has gone into production.
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darth_rooster wrote: Unfortunately, DoN is no longer free to print. I believe this has gone into production. It's been available again for a couple of months now as the production deal fell through. Download it NOW!!
Last edited on 2007-11-05 21:29:00 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
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Zombietown is a damn good game. Although the rules are a little vague at times this game is a seriously sweet creation. However, this game only shines for 4+ players... 3 and 2 player games lack too many opposing players. With 4+ players the graveyard usually empties before the end of the game (in a 6 player game 60 zombies move in the last day!), there's never enough supplies for everybody, and there is always someone that starts attacking the other players- tearing down their barricades and shooting them...I would recommend you try playing a 5 or 6 player game, you will change your mind. 
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I played in a large game (5 or 6 players, I'm not sure exactly) and we all hated it. The rules are poorly written and the game takes FAR too long for what it is.
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agreed. i played in the game with latindog (its actually my game), and i thought it was pretty bad, which is sad considering im a HUGE zombie fan...
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I got the game about a month ago. The basic rules are not intuitive because they cover a bunch of player options in only a few pages. So, yes, if you expected to bust open the game on game night, and have your group jump right in, it could be a little frustrating. The expanded rules available on the TC websight help. So does the FAQ. So do the questions answered in the Zombie Town Yahoo Group. So does playing a few practice turns. Since I paid for the game, I did all that to get comfortable with the rules. On game night, I spent maybe ten minutes going over the rules and game play them with my group. That’s all they needed to get comfortable, and everything went well.
OK, I have all of one game under my belt, but since that seems to be enough play for folks here to condemn the game, let me counter that we really enjoyed it. We found it to be fun and challenging. We had 5 players. Just like Mall of Horror, I think 3 players is not enough for a good game. I don’t believe hunkering down in the houses will win the game. You must be more agile than that. You have to claim houses, but you have to expect others to try to take them from you. I also think being too aggressive is not going to win consistently. We had two players get into a shootout to the death, and the seriously wounded winner later died. Despite it being our first full game, we were done in 1 ½ hours. Once you know what you are doing (and what you should be doing), pace of play is swift. Towards the late middle of the game, all the goodies like guns and barricades start to get scarce. By then, you are eying your neighbor’s property, as they are eying yours. And, then those zombies start becoming a nuisance. You never seem to have enough actions available to do everything you want, or need to do. It get’s pretty tense.
Anyway, a little pre-game study and a couple of trial turns made all the difference. If for you, that means that a game is no good, so be it; buy Mall of Horror. MoH is also a great game, much more abstract, but lot’s of strategy. And, you can unwrap it on game night and jump right in. But, if you put in a little effort with Zombie Town, it is definitely a good experience that is surprisingly true to the “zombies at the front door” aspect of the zombie genre. We certainly plan on playing it again.
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latindog wrote: The rules are poorly written and the game takes FAR too long for what it is. The defining features of a game by Twilight Creations.
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cdwalkley wrote: latindog wrote: The rules are poorly written and the game takes FAR too long for what it is. The defining features of a game by Twilight Creations. (smirk) Gotta love those blanket statements. Exactly how many TCI games have you played? I must admit: i do find it amusing how LNOE fans will go out of their way to bash TCI.
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Richard If you check the list of games that Twilight Creations have published, you will be viewing a list very similar to one I would come up with if I listed which of their games I had played. I'll admit there are some exceptions to the statement in my previous post, but these are few and far between. I made a significant error in buying Zombies!!!, ZombieTown and When Darkness Comes, along with expansions for Zombies!!! and WDC. If I'd played someone else's copies I'd have known not to bother. Having played, but thankfully not bought, other TC games (Innsmouth Escape springs to mind as one I have recently tried), I find myself talking from personal experience. If it is not the same as yours, that's okay by me. Obviously I'd like to add the disclaimer that any opinions expressed are my own and I expect people to disagree. Unfortunately I feel no desire to play ZombieTown ever again. It wasn't just a bad game, but one of the worst I have ever bought. All I really ask for is for a great zombie game. At present, yes, for me that is Last Night on Earth. But the competition is limited. In no way would I suggest that TC publish games purely for my pleasure (I'm sure they have their own target audience), but if they want to keep on trying to produce a superior product, I'll be more than happy to give it a go. I'd like to finish by rewording my last post, just for the sake of clarity: "In *my* opinion, poorly written rules and an overlong playing time are characteristics held by several, but not all, games by Twilight Creations. Some people disagree with me and some agree with me. Although I offer this up as my point of view, I'd much rather you take the time to find out and formulate your own opinion." Chris
Last edited on 2008-04-24 09:58:43 CST (Total Number of Edits: 2)
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I think TC get a lot of bashing on BGG because people often use BGG to discuss rules misinterpretations - which all board games have - and certainly when it comes to Zombietown, this was one of it's weakest points I feel. Even after lurking the yahoo group and these forums, I am still unclear of exactly the rules.
Zombies!!! was much clearer - a few card FAQs / exceptions - but the basic rules were clear, AND it's the grandaddy of them all - without Zombies!!! we might not have Last Night of Earth / Dead of Night or the other zombie themed games with awesome zombie pawns. But yes, the game didn't often yield a suspenseful end, and playtime was a bit choppy on that one. Actually something that zombietown does better, although I still don't really enjoy it due to rule ambiguities.
There also seems to be an attitude of hostility around BGG / TC - for me this stemmed from really trying to lock down what were logically ambiguous rules in zombietown, which I eventually found myself being told I was nitpicking by the games creators. I felt the game developers had a lot of ego invested in there product, which whilst not a sin by any means (this passion comes across in Zombies!!! thematically strong cards and humour) it makes breaking the game down quite hard without offending the makers, who in turn appear to have ruffled a few feathers with there comments. The decision to disengage from BGG and only interoperate with fans who signed up to the yahoo group has probably served them well in this instance.
Above all, I have to echo Chris' sentiments about rules and playtimes though. Zombies!!! is fun for a little while, but those long protracted endings can drag, esp. with 5-6 players. But I regret to say Zombietown is possibly the biggest regret of my game collection as well - and the fact that I can't seem to shift my copy secondhand for any price worth the effort of posting it speaks volumes to me.
*** In the interest of disclosure, I DO own Last night on Earth and I do much prefer it to any other zombie games I've played, but it's not the saviour of zombie board gaming either ! I've heard Dead of Night is though ***
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Posted Mon Nov 5,2007 02:33 pm
