Zombies!!!

Game Play

The game board is a Zombie-infested town built by the players as the game progresses. The game starts with the town square tile face up and 28 other town tiles shuffled into a pile, with the Helipad tile placed underneath. The players' pieces ("Shotgun guys") are placed on the town square, and they each receive three life tokens and three bullet tokens.

On each turn, the player places the topmost town tile adjacent to tiles that are already face up. The new tile must be placed in a way that matches, i.e. roads must connect to roads. Most tiles are roads and road junctions, but some contain locations within the town, such as the Fire Station or Hospital. When a tile is placed, the player must also place two or more Zombies on it; if it is a named location it may also hold additional life tokens or bullet tokens.

If the player shares a square with a zombie, they must try to destroy it (see below). Otherwise, they draw up to three Event cards which may be used to modify the game rules. They may use only one such card until the beginning of their next turn.

Next, the player rolls a six-sided die to determine how far their "Shotgun guy" can move. They may use some, all, or none of this movement at their discretion. If they move into a square containing a Zombie, they must attempt to kill it by rolling four or more on a six-sided die. If they fail to roll a four or greater, they have the option of improving their roll by using bullet tokens, or of losing a life token and attempting to kill the zombie again. This continues until either the player or zombie is dead. If the zombie is killed, the player keeps the zombie figure to show they have killed it; if the player is killed, they "respawn" at the town square with three life tokens and three bullets, but they may not move further. If a square is clear of zombies and contains a life token or bullet token, they may pick it up and add it to their own, though they may not have more than five life tokens at a time.

Once the player has finished their movement, they roll a six-sided die to determine the zombies' movement. Each zombie can move only one space per turn, but as many zombies move as are shown on the die.

Finally, the player may discard an Event Card. Since they may only discard one and use one per trun, this means the player should never have fewer than one such card in their hand.

The game is won by the first player to reach the center square of the Helipad tile and clear it of zombies, or the first player to kill 25 zombies, whichever comes first.

Game Interest

Zombies!!! is an affectionate parody of Zombies in fiction, particularly the Zombie films of George Romero and Sam Raimi. The shambling movement of the zombies as compared to the players and the relative ease with which they are dispatched makes them weak enemies individually, but (as in the films) they are strong in large numbers.

Perhaps unusually for a parody game, there is still a fair level of strategy involved. The player must decide whether to avoid combat and allow the other players to dispose of the zombies for them, or whether to strike out and collect the various items which the board and event cards provide. Once the Helipad tile is placed, the placers can choose between racing to the helicopter (which will often result in their death), holding back and hoping to rush in when another player dies, or ignoring the helipad entirely and trying to kill 25 zombies.

The event cards and the zombie movement phase also provide many opportunities to hinder the progress of other players, and there is scope for diplomacy. However, as there is ultimately only one winner, the player must be careful that any favours are repaid quickly.

The game has received criticism due to its length - in extreme cases, it can take up to three hours to finish a game. For shorter games, the publishers recommend that the helipad tile be shuffled in amongst the other town tiles.

Expansions

Zombies 2: Zombie Corps(e) - after escaping the town, the players must proceed through a secret military base to reach the helicopter. This expansion adds new tiles and event cards, as well as Government-enchanced super zombies (represented by glow-in-the-dark zombie figures) which move twice as fast and which require a five or six on the die to kill.

Zombies 3: Mall Walkers - adds a mall to the town. This expansion adds new tiles and event cards.

Zombies 3.5: Not Dead Yet - This expansion adds new event cards. As an optional variant, players can construct their own decks of event cards.

Spinoffs

Zombies 4: The End - A stand-alone game in which the players must battle zombie dogs through woodland while collecting pages from the Book of the Undead to undo the spell that is making the dead rise.

MidEvil - Another stand-alone game in which the players must battle zombies in medieval times. Due for release mid-2005.

External links

• Twilight Creations Main site for the game.
• Board Game Geek reviews and images of the game.