Zombicide: Black Plague

I absolutely adore Zombicide: Black Plague! This is my first entrance into board games in general - although I have sculpted and painted miniatures for years. For the money, I don't think you can do much better than this! Key points I've observed: Easy to understand and play. My 8 year old daughter figured out the core mechanics within a few minutes and was blazing a path through the encroaching horde on the 2nd turn. She has a much easier time staying engaged with this thanks to all the visuals - a miniature representing her character, cards (with excellent artwork), a leveling system -- all of this kept her attention far better than Pathfinder or other games where you're reliant more on the story than the visual. Outstanding figure quality. The miniatures are extremely impressive for a board game. Each character has excellent detail, and easily distinguished on the board (even without paint). The zombies do have limited poses, but each of their core sculpts was executed very well. While they may not be up to the same level of detail as say something from Games Workshop -- I wouldn't expect them to. At the price point, and their intended purpose, they're an absolute bargain. Modular system with expansion. We're already eyeing some of the upcoming character releases, and the guest artists boxes. There is even a crossover planned for their other game: Massive Dark (which just finished kickstarter), so there should be plenty of repeat play-ability. Overall, this is a fantastic game. Highly recommend picking it up, whether if you're a fan of the genera, like painting miniatures, or are just looking for a good game to play with family and friends :)

I have played all of the other editions of Zombicide and this one has quickly become my favorite. While the core rules are pretty much the same as the modern versions, there are several differences that set this version, and it's companion Wulfsburg, apart. First, the card holders with the peg system is outstanding. It is so much easier to organize the cards and keep track of levels with the trays in this version. They are made of a thin plastic. I feel like they would be easy to break if you were hard on them (such as dropping them from the table onto a hard floor) but over the three games we've played since it arrived, they've held up well. Second, the necromancer makes the game much more interesting, especially if you are not able to kill it before it escapes. For those that haven't read the rules, when a necromancer spawns, a new spawn point is added to the board. If you can kill the necromancer before it escapes the board, then you can remove a spawn point of your choice, if not, then all spawn points, including the new one, remain. There are rules for necromancer cabals as well if you buy the necromancer expansions (I have not purchased these yet but intend to at some point in the future). Third, there are color disks to attach to the bottom of the player characters. This is a little thing, but it makes identifying whose character is who so much easier, especially when you are not familiar with how the characters look. In the other versions, we often had problems where one person would move the wrong character, so this solves that up very nicely. Also, the color pegs you use on your plastic card holders match the color disk, making it even easier to identify player characters. Finally, the vaults are a unique touch. On the missions we have played, there are two secret doors, both of the same color. When you open these secret doors, they lead to a vault that often has special vault equipment in them and is separate from the gameplay board. These are great for getting special items and for navigating across distances on the board. For example, in one mission the purple vault door is positioned in the top left of the board and the other purple vault door is positioned in the bottom right. This allows the player to traverse the board in one or two turns, which can be very handy. While I still enjoy the other versions of Zombicide, Black Plague has quickly become my favorite version. If you have never played any of the Zombicide versions, this would be a great one to start with. If you are a Zombicide regular, I encourage you to add this to your collection. We've had a lot of fun with this and I can safely say that with this version, you don't always win!

This was my first foray into the Zombicide world, after following a recommendation from Geek & Sundry. I had only played two other miniature-based RPG-lite-style boardgames prior to this one (Mansions of Madness, Mice & Mystics) and, upon seeing the sheer amount of pieces and minis Zombicide had inside the box, I was worried it would be overly-complicated and rule-heavy (a la Mansions of Madness). However, I was pleasantly surprised as Zombicide: Black Plague has a comfortable ease-of-play while maintaining re-playability even with the 10 base maps just because your Zombie draw will always be different. Don't mistake ease-of-play with easy-to-beat, though. I have only gotten to play a handful of times, but we've struggled with conquering the first quest. That said, we've also not yet tried it with a full complement of team members. That is one thing that I enjoy about this game -- you can play as many characters as you want. At first, when I read that rule, I thought that would be overwhelming, but seeing as each character only has 3 hit points, you're going to want to be playing multiple characters (if less than 6 players at the table). All in all, a great game with an extensive and informative rulebook (with a peppering of humorous quips from the protagonists), protective in-box miniature organization, handy player "dashboards" to keep your items and equipment organized in-game (something Lovecraft-based games like Eldritch Horror or Arkham Horror would do well to consider), high replayability, and the opportunity to create custom quests/maps using the 9 double-sided map tiles. If you're looking for a fun zombie-survival game, I would highly recommend picking up Zombicide: Black Plague.