Category Archives: zombicide

zombicide

A New Survivor and Another Bites The Dust

zombicide

Bill arrived today. He is the character you get in the third game night kit for Zombicide. I got Bill from a trade on the Facebook selling and trading page I follow. Luckily I had something to trade. I traded Kyoko from the first game night kit. Which leaves me with one more Kyoko to trade at a future date.

At some point in the near future I will hold another Zombicide game night. For that I will use the game night two kit that I have. The game night kits are cool. They have scenarios specific to that kit, although you could use any scenario you want. Plus you get figures that you can give away to those who participate. For my game nights it means that my fellow gamers have a rather cool momento of the evening.

So even now that I have Bill. I know that I will be trying to source my own copy of the full game night three kit at some point in the future.

The replacement figures for Mitch and Elsa arrived this weeke also. Just in time to witness the demise of Raoul. How could this be? Well this morning when I was just about to leave the house I noticed the chewed remains of the zombivore version of Raoul.

During the night a little silent assassin had scrambled onto the table, by passed the decoy figures (the chewed models of Mitch and Elsa) and helped himself to yet another figure.

My cunning decoy plan failed. So once more I have to source replacements because a monster can't tell that Zombicide figures have no nutritional value and are not snacks.

It's that or I petition Cool Mini or Not to stop making their figures out of dog treats.

 

Doesn’t feel like a lucky escape

zombicide

So you have seen the earlier post for today where I talk about the John Kovalic Special Guest box for Zombicide. Well to get to that box I needed to move a box with some of my Zombicide stuff out of the cupboard first to get to it. So I left the open box on my bed.

That box basically had the game tiles in it plus some (clean) plastic take away boxes full of Zombicide plastic figures and a dice bag of Zombicide dice.

I came down stairs thinking nothing of it. A couple of hours later I had to go back upstairs.

I was horrified by the scene of carnage that greeted me. Loki had struck, he had chewed, nay destroyed two of the character figures, threw some zombies on the floor, been in the dice bag.

Above Loki looking all innocent.

Who had Loki killed? It was Mitch and Elsa who had been mauled by the young apex predator. Survivors of countless struggles against zombie hordes. Yet unable to defend themselves against a yet not fully grown attack chihuahua.

Above the remains of Mitch (left) and Elsa (right) after being recovered from the crime scene.

Zombicide characters are not cheap to replace, especially rare ones (which these two luckily aren't). A visit to eBay has Mitch now traveling his way from the US of A, while Elsa has a road trip on these shores ahead of her.

So they have been replaced, but that's an expense I could do without. I'm lucky that the ball of chaos called Loki didn't do even more damage than he did. Maybe he was sending me a message.

It's hard to stay mad at such a cutie, especially when he's snuggled up next to me under a small pile of pillows.

I just need to remember what destructive force of nature he is.

 

Zombicide: Special Guest John Kovalic

zombicide

Back when the Zombicide Season 3 kickstarted was running Cool Mini Or Not (CMON) gave me (ok not just me but everyone backing the game) the opportunity to add on various bits and pieces to our pledge. One of the ones I took them up on was getting the Special Guest box by John Kovalic.

I know John mainly (and I would imagine this may be the case for many) for his amazing work on what can be described as the “popular” game Munchkin, where he does the art work.

His cartoony humorous style could be credited for making the Munchkin games. I don't think they would be the same game without it.

So for me when they said John had been asked to design some characters to be used in the game Zombicide, my excitement level went through the roof. And clicking that add button to my pledge was instinctive, no thought process at all.

When you open up the box, inside you are greeted by four characters from John's comic strip Dork Tower (http://dorktower.com) Matt (blue), Cilly (pink), Igor (red) and Carson (orange), a small bag containing the obligatory little black skull level indicators, and the character cards in multiple languages. There are no zombivore versions of these characters. So once ya dead, ya dead! No coming back…

As the pictures show below the sculpts (that's the technical pretentious term for plastic figures) really are beautifully done, and have really bought Johns designs to life. A better person than I could really make these pop with some paint.

So let's look at the character cards for John's four creations.

As you can see they have 'Helicoptor pilot' and 'Fast roping' abilities split between them. Which is new for Season 3 (we have a helicoptor in Season 3 ^_^).

Just from looking at the characters Carson is my favourite. Apart from being a dog lover (not obvious is it having the wolf pack and all), Carson has that whole Snoopy thing going for him. Plus that little armoured personal carrier (world war two-ish I think, I seem to remember seeing something similar in my old British comics Battle and Warlord in the WWII stories from time to time), bren gun and helmet. All stuff you definitely want when taking on the zombie hordes.

UPDATE: it's been pointed out by John himself that Carson is in fact a muskrat. Who looking dog like apparently is an on going joke in the comic strip. But even as a muskrat Carson can still have that snoopy thing going for him! In the meantime I'm going to go clean the egg off my face. And apologise to Carson for the slight to him, and also to John.

If you are a fan of Zombicide and John Kovalic then this guest pack is a no brainer.

 

Zombicide Season 3 Arrives

tabletop, zombicide

Dear Future Darren,

I hope you liked the late Christmas/early Easter/early Birthday present that arrived for you yesterday. When I saw it I just couldn't help myself I knew you would love it. We've had some great solo games, and also some great group games in the past. So this seemed a no brainer.

I also got a couple of extra items for you, but this is what you got in the box (it was easier to give you the image from the kickstarter).
I know what a big fan of John Kovalic the artist behind the Munchkin art work, so I got you the Special Guest pack of characters designed by him. Plus thought you would like some extra murder of crows.
It is so nice to buy gifts for some-one with such impecible taste, enjoy playing with this new stuff next time you see Nathan.
Past Darren
 

 

Father and Son Games This Christmas

Space Hulk, tabletop, X-Wing Miniatures, zombicide

Below you will find a list of the games I will be playing with Nath this Christmas when we spend some quality father and son time together over the holiday period.

I'd been after Space Hulk for a couple of years. It's a game I played once or twice while I was studying in Brighton many many moons ago. Which I had fond memories of, and now I wanted to play with Nath. Space Hulk is basically aliens the boardgame but set in the warhammer universe with space marines and gene stealers (the aliens). Nath would love playing this. Sadly the game was out of print and going for rediculous prices on eBay. But fate stepped in or more to the point Games Workshop did by doing a one off limited run of the game a couple of months back. Luckily I was able to get a copy at a lot more affordable price than the eBay ones from my local game store The Rift in Peterborough.
One of the hot games of this year, and rightly so. A japanese city building card game, which is great fun to play. Not sure how Nath will get on with this one, I think once he gets the idea he'll like it. I love the game.
We have played this once not long after I first got the game. Several ships later, and hopefully a star field playing mat arriving in time, Nath and I will be recreating skirmishes between the Empire and the Rebellion.
Marvel Legendary I'd been thinking about getting this for awhile. Researching it over the Summer. Then I saw the planned list of games for season three of Table Top. Marvel Legendary was on that list. If I didn't buy it soon, there would be little chance of getting it once the episode aired with it in. So I picked up this collaborative deck building game based on the Marvel universe. Since getting it I have got the Dark City expansion, and waiting on a couple of others to arrive. Nath will enjoy this I think. Nice thing is this has solo play rules, so once again I can learn the game before we play. Which always makes teaching Nath easier.
Staying with the collaborative deck building based on the same system as Marvel Legendary, is the game Legendary Encounters Alien. I think this is going to be Uber fun playing the movie scenarios with characters from the movie. But more importantly we will answer the question Wolverine vs Alien. Yes the games are interchangeable, so you can bet we will be dropping Wolverine into the Alien universe. It kind of reminds me of the crossover comics Dark Horse did in the late 80's early 90's where the alien/predators took on the likes of Batman and Superman. Ripley and Wolverine taking on the ultimate predator!
 

Another deck building card game, definitely one of the contenders for game of the year. This two player sci fi space battle themed game is great fun. I've been playing the iOS version to learn the rules so I can teach it to Nath. With a second deck it's possible to have more than two players. However this a quickish game to play, quick setup, and a blast. It lives up to the hype. I'm hoping Nath likes this one.

If this game wasn't one of the hot games of this year it will be now after being on TableTop. It started off the new season as the game played in the first episode. Not sure about how Nath will get on with this game. I won't explain the game here, go watch the episode of Table Top it does a far better job than I could. It's been hard finding an english version that is affordable. Amazon are selling a French edition! The U.S. editions on eBay are working out over £60. Well I suppose that's due to the Table Top effect. Luckily a Belguim company had an English language version at a much more reasonable price, and it will cross fingers be here before Christmas.

Finally coming out the week before Christmas Star Wars Imperial Assault. Descent the game set in the Star Wars universe. Another one of the hot games of this year and next (considering the time it's coming out). Nath and I will be playing this in skirmish mode if just the two of us. It's Star Wars of course Nath and I will love it.

So there you have it the list of games Nath and I will be playing this Christmas. I know considering how big a Zombicide fan I am, and Nath enjoys playing the game, why isn't that going? Well I do have a collection of games I've bought to play with Nath, a lot we haven't even gotten round to playing. So we have to make our way through those at some point too. My next Zombicide session with Nath will most likely be when season three comes out (I backed it on Kickstarter – so touch wood will get it in March). No DiceMasters either this time despite it being the game I'm playing the most at the moment. Well that's the plan but I may give in to temptation and include it.

I'm looking forward to my visit with Nath. Gaming whether cardboard or video gives me some quality time with my son. How we will squeeze everything in I don't know. We will give it a heroic effort to do so. But as long as we are having fun who cares if we don't play everything?

I hope the above list has given you some ideas of games to consider. I can assure you these are way way more fun than the “mainstream” stalwarts like monopoly and cluedo (to shame a couple).

 

New Tabletop arrivals

Munchkin, Space Hulk, tabletop, X-Wing Miniatures, zombicide

The last month has seen some tabletop arrivals and I thought I just do a “quick” post to tell you about what has come in, with more in depth looks later on (possibly).

First arrival is The expansion Toxic City Mall for one of my favourite tabletops Zombicide. Decided to go for this over Prison Outbreak because … well you will have to wait and read why.

Next in was Box of Zombies – Set #1: Walk of the Dead an expansion for the game Zombicide. So at the basic level this is me just buying some more walkers and fatties to use in the game putting off that moment when you run out of zombies and and have to give all the zombies on the board an extra activation phase because you can't spawn any more zombies! But when I look at this in more depth I'll cover the main reason I bought this expansion.

Continuing with Zombicide Expansions I also got the Zombicide Compendium #1, a collection in one place of sceneries and campaigns for season 1 of Zombicide (that's the original game). Bought mainly for the designer notes in it. But that's for a later post on another blog.

I ended up with these Munchkin Boxes of Holding unexpectedly because the retailer I ordered the Zombicide compendium from on Amazon screwed up my order and sent me these instead that were meant to have been sent to a person in Paris! So I can only assume my order went to Paris. I do hope they enjoyed the compendium. Anyway I got a refund and they never asked for these to be sent back despite me asking them to send a prepaid envelope to send them back in.

To celebrate I think 35 years since the original release of the game Ogre, Steve Jackson games have reprinted that edition and released it at its original price! So had to get just for that reason alone let alone I'm interested in trying the game anyway before buying one of the bigger editions.

Managed to get one of the current hot games to play the collectable Marvel Dice Masters Avengers vs X-Men, plus some of the boosters for it and an official play mat. This game is ridiculously cheap to get into, and the boosters are mega cheap.

Ok this was an impulse buy while purchasing the last item on this list. My latest addition to my Imperial fleet for the X-Wing Miniatures game a Lambda class shuttle. It's beautiful.

Finally out today a game I've been after for ages (it is out of print) that I wasn't expecting to be able to buy, and a total surprise that I have, but Games Workshop have just done a limited run reprinting (which sold out on the official GW website within a couple of days – eBay the game it goes for silly money hence why I hadn't bought it). Anyway my friendly local game store The Rift in Peterborough (great store – the owner Trevor is a really great guy, very friendly and helpful) got some in, and I was able to get my mitts on a copy. Oh the game? Space Hulk.

 

 

Zombicide: Special Guest – Kevin Walker

tabletop, zombicide

So the day started off with me thinking I'll find out if my local (local as Peterborough gets) game store The Rift have the Marvel Avengers vs. X-Men starter pack or the boosters. Well they didn't have the starter pack but they did have the boosters (at a very reasonable £1 a pack) so a quick visit to snap some up was made. However when their I did manage to resist buying Battlelore (that's next months treat) but caved in buying a Zombicide expansion. Guillotine Games and Cool Mini or Not have produced a series of special guest designed survivors. The pack they had at The Rift was the Kevin Walker designed ones. I didn't know who Kevin Walker was but I had been eyeing up this set because I wanted the clown survivor (star of the packaging). Having seen the artwork on the official website I have kind of been reminded of the movie Killer Clowns from Outspace in the 80's, and thought how cool would that be to play as a killer clown slaughtering zombies?

So on top of the boosters I was after this Zombicide expansion was in my basket and leaving the shop with me (paid for naturally).

Ok as the photo shows you get a survivor sculpt for each of the two characters, and a zombivor sculpt for each character, 2 character experience trackers, and 2 survivor identity cards in English (and another 4 that have been translated into 2 different languages).

Below a close up of the sculpts that you get. Top is Uncle honk and bottom is Mitch.

But there was one thing I noticed when I saw Uncle Honk sideways on. From the front he looks mean and tough standing there holding his machete. From the side however it kind of looks a bit rude. All of a sudden we get to see a perverted side of the clown.

Other than the rather amazing clown stiffy! The sculpts for this special guest set are upto the usual high standard from Guillotine Games/Cool Mini or Not. Below I have included photos of the survivor identity cards so you can see what the special skills are that each survivor starts with and then can choose from as they level up.

The experience trackers in this guest set are slightly different to the ones I got with Zombicide Season 1 since then they have added a rather nice little skull to them!

So who is Kevin Walker? According to the blurb on the back of the box he has worked on 2000 A.D., done stuff for Games Workshop, Magic the Gathering, worked at Marvel and DC. So a quick look at Wikipedia and I'm ashamed I didn't recognise the name. Kevin has worked on some of my favourite comic book characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, ABC Warriors, Hellblazer to name a few. Plus he worked on Marvel Zombies – which is a pretty cool zombie version of the Marvel universe.

Overall I like this expansion, it adds to the survivors you can choose from to make up your team of survivors. The quality of everything is up to the same high standards that you would expect from Guillotine Games/Cool Mini or Not. I like the change to the experience tracker, a nice little tough. It's not a must have expansion. But one of the things I do like a lot from Guillotine Games/Cool Mini or Not is that they do keep introducing new survivors. It allows for variety in building teams, and a bit of fun.

This kind of wraps up my initial impressions of this Zombicide Special Guest expansion.