Zombiegeddon

This could be a post about the lesson of never blowing something off based on appearances.

Imagine this: a hobby shop, there are comics and manga and board games and action figures and character busts. Enter me. Looking for zombie books or board games. Looking through the board games I see a big box with the title Zombiegeddon. Looks lame. $25 (it's cheap) probably lame. I get something else. Repeat this scene a couple of times over a few weeks. Finally the scene changes, the game is now $10 and I have bought almost everything else is the store zombie related. So I buy the game.

In a new scene we see my home. My shelves of zombie games, books, films, weapons, survival guides etc. I am having some friends over, I go to the shelf and look at my pile of board games. I see Zombiegeddon, I shake my head and pick something else. Finally the scene changes, someone else goes to the pile and picks out Zombiegeddon. So the game finally makes it's way into my experiences and I wish I had not waited so long.

First off it's an entertaining, QUICK game. In a world of three hour complex games which might as well be RPGs and weekend long RISK tournaments, a nice 45-minute board game is a rare find.

Now I will get into the training that can be taken out of this game. The biggest thing of note is without weapons you basically have to let enemies walk all over you. Now obviously in real life this is not completely the case but if you are not a trained, experienced fighter when raiders or even aggressive looters come to take things from you and you are unarmed there isn't much you can do. So either train up or make sure you aren't without the proper gear. It can also be noted that there are a lot of barricades and this, while annoying, makes complete sense. Everyone who isn't dead is going to be putting up barricades every where they sleep. That means every night there will be almost as many new barricades as there are people living. Meaning after a while many areas will be literally covered in barricades to try to navigate through.

The main point of the game is to gather supplies which is also a very important lesson to be instilled in any survivor. Gathering supplies has become the goal of life and without food and water, you're "kill count" won't mean any more your empty canteen. The best way to win the game is actually not to focus on gathering supplies yourself but on cutting other people off from doing so. This reflects real life in how raiders, looters and even survivors will have to contend for supplies and be prepared that as things get worse that fight will become more and more brutal.

And I suppose I should talk a little about the strategy of the game. The first half of the game talks place after the zombies but before the nuclear bombs get dropped. The main thing here, get your supplies into the barricades while collecting new supplies and provisions. Having weapons and kills is the quickest way to get big points but the provisions multiply in the end so they are worth more. After the bombs drop the zombies aren't gone! They just mutated! So there are more enemies and less weapons but the main goal is still to get supplies, or more specifically to stop your fellow players from getting supplies. Try to cut off their markers while they are focusing on other areas and narrowing the options they have. Remember though, it's just a game, don't ruin any friendships over it.

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.