Third phase is the melee phase. That's where everyone fights. Combats with multiple participants are broken up as far as you can into one-on-one fights. But everyone must fight, you can't divide fights so someone ends up without an opponent. Players decides if their survivors are attacking or defending, totals up the dice (there are red, white and blue dice, progressingly better) from the character card and any equipment the survivors are carrying, and rolls them. Whoever rolls most hit symbols wins and inflict the difference in damage on their opponent. In two-to-one situations just roll all the dice on the most numerous side together.
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The rule I had to look up. Clear as sausage broth, as we say in Sweden. |
The exclamation marks on some results is a crit. If a survivor rolled the dice, it means a headshot, the only way of putting down walkers permanently. In case of a firearm it also means it might have jammed so you have to roll to see if it still is working -- melee weapons are much more reliable but of course you need to get close to use them. If a walker rolled the dice it means the survivor was bitten. You can use handguns in melee if you want to, but it can attract more walkers and potentially lead to another fight. Survivors can only attack once -- they have to defend if they get involved in melee again -- but walkers can attack several times if new "meals" appear.
Last is the end phase. Here you roll for any downed walkers or killed survivors to see if they stand up again. Yes, survivors that were not taken out by a headshot can come back as zombies! Then you check for victory conditions. In the core scenario one side wins if they hold seven out of nine supply counters, or if they kill the other survivors of course. Also, if threat has reached max level the game ends as it's too dangerous to stick around and each band of survivors retreat to their safe place -- whoever holds most supply counters win in this case.
So all in all it's a good game. It runs smoothly, is a good fun with some nailbiting and laugh-inducing moments. There are different tactics involved, do I try to grab the supplies fast, or do I try to take out the other gang first. The starter is quite cheap at £35, but I feel it isn't really the good value it seems. There are some detractors.
My main gripe is the lack of replayability. You get six survivors, with some equipment, giving you two gangs of around 100-120 points depending on how you kit them out. You can't swap the survivors around a lot because the cost varies too much (Rick costs 50 points while Liam costs 10 for example). You could swap the middle cost ones between the gangs to give you some variation and yes, you could see how Rick fares without his gun, but that's not much if you want to have two equal sides. Mantic is releasing Booster packs with a couple of survivors and some equipment which I think is is not that big a hit on your wallet for £13.49 . Even having just one or two more options when building your groups will be very useful.
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Shane booster pack, with Shane, Reggie and (spoiler?) a walker version of Shane. |
Another detractor is that there's only one scenario included -- "The Walking Dead", where you search for supplies. I know Mantic has planned a bunch of scenarios following the comic storyline introducing new characters, locations and equipment in various expansions, so I guess you are meant to buy those too. Which is fine by me, but it would have been nice to have at least one other scenario in there. It's like that staple pitched battle in mass battle miniatures games where two armies happen to meet on a field, line up opposite eachother, and have a go.
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The first expansion, "Days gone bye" with more characters and presumably other scenarios and rules. |
My next point is solo play. Zombie games lend themselves to solo play very nice, since you can try to survive against just the zombies. The event deck though is geared very much towards competetive groups of survivors, so small tips for solo play is included. And indeed I played my first game against myself, controlling both groups, but that's not the same. Also the basic scenario gets old very fast when playing solo.
Proper solo rules are instead included in another expansion called "Prelude to Woodbury". This is a "Solo starter" that includes one survivor, five zombies, a solo rulebook and all game components necessary, so more dice, more card templates, another threat tracker, and a solo event deck. For 25 pounds it's a bit steep to get if you already have the core set, as the only thing you need is the scenarios and the event deck. The extra survivor is nice -- it's the "The Governor" Blake before he became governor, for those of you who have read the comic -- but the rest is just filler. £15 for the rules, deck, and The Governor had been a more fair price.
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Prelude to Woodbury expansion with Solo rules. Unnecessary components though... and why more cars? |
Furthermore, while there are some brief rules on how to assemble your survivor group, there are no character creation rules or campaign rules. As I was a backer on kickstarter I received a PDF rulebook when the kickstarter ended which contain those rules, but the printed rulebook does not. That means that Mantic has decided to move them to an expansion instead. Which means that you probably need to shell out 25 bucks more to get them, bringing the game up to around £50-60 cost. I think it would still be worth it though, I'm just thinking it would have been nice to have them from the start.
I know Mantic is a business and have to earn money, that's not what I mean. But it would have been nice to have say, seven survivors and a few more equipment cards in the box and provide a second scenario to ensure better replayability, Even if this raised the cost to £40 I think it would be a better deal. (I'm trying to be objective and look at it from the perspective of someone who has just bought the core game here.) I also think they should have included the 3D terrain car models and supply counters in the core game as they really do enhance the look, but maybe pure boardgamers are not that bothered by cardboard terrain, and at least Mantic sells them separately so you can chose if you want them or not.
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The terrain booster. The cars are hollow but quite nice. Everything is repeated twice. |
So what's my final verdict?
If you like zombie games and would like a nice little beer and pretzels (or shits and giggles) game to play with a mate for about an hour, this is the game for you. Especially if you have read and like the Walking Dead comic, but it's not required to enjoy the game. This game is well worth the £35 retail price. Be prepared to shell out a little bit more though if you want to play around with different survivor groups. Buy a survivor booster for more options.
If you just want to play solo you could pick up the solo starter for just £25, but that would only give you one single survivor to play with. It's supposed to have more scenarios though, so might last a while if you add a survivor booster.
If, however, you want a game that you can play solo, develop your character, or perhaps run a campaign against a mate, then this game could still be that game, just be prepared to buy a lot more than just the core set and a few boosters. You would be looking at at least £60, assuming the campaign rules are in the first expansion, then you will have to add the terrain booster for added prettybility (yes I just made that word up), solo starter and other boosters. I suspect this is what Mantic is aiming for though, hooking the fans of the comic for the long run. And they may just have the game to do just that.
All in all I give The Walking Dead: All Out War
4 out of 5 headshot
s.
Interesting. I am looking forward to having a go with my set.
SvaraRaderaInteresting. I am looking forward to having a go with either of your sets :-)
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