Zombicide: Black Plague

Package arrived faster than I expected and boy was I excited when I saw it sitting on my porch. I opened it as soon as I could get it inside and was immediately impressed by the amount of content you get with this game and how well it is packaged. The tiles are thick and have a good weight. The punch out pieces are made of the same material and feel very durable. All of the figures are high quality and have amazing detail. They are packaged tightly so they arrived with no damage. Each piece has its own place in the plastic inserts that come with the box and makes for some what easy and organized clean-up. At least until you buy something better, such as a foam case made specifically for miniatures. My only complaint is with the size of the cards that come with it. The inventory cards and zombie spawn cards are TINY. They look like they are made for a child's hands, and even then they could still be considered small. The inventory cards I understand a little bit, as each character has a plastic tray that helps you organize your equipment and inventory, but the zombie spawning cards could have been a little bigger. As far as the game play goes I have not had the time to get through all ten quests included with the game, but the few I played were fun, interesting and lasted long enough that I was satisfied with the extremely long setup time involved to get a game started. I highly recommend playing with 6 characters on each campaign, regardless of how many actual players you have. It was just my girlfriend and I playing for our first few games, and on the first one we only played with 4 characters (2 each) and died very quickly. We tried again with 6 and the game ran much smoother and we were able to come out victorious! The over all gameplay is fairly easy to learn, but there are a lot of rules you need to remember. However, repetition makes them easier to comprehend and after a few games everything with run smoothly. That being said, this game can be very difficult. If you don't work together or plan out your moves you can very easily be overwhelmed by the oncoming zombie hoards. In one scenario we played an 'extra activation' card was turned, giving all basic zombies an extra turn. This led to one of our heroes being killed immediately, with nothing we could do to prevent it. There will be times the game seems unfair, but it is all part of the challenge. Don't misunderstand me though, this game is extremely well balanced, it was just designed to be difficult, so if that isn't your thing or you are looking for just a casual game I would find something else. Each game lasts anywhere from 30 mins to over an hour depending on what spawns you draw and how you play the game, with setup taking anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, and tear down taking about the same. All in all the quality of this game, the sheer amount of content included, and the option to expand the game with expansion packs make this a must buy for anyone who enjoys zombie games, miniature games or (if you are like me) Dungeons & Dragons style adventures.

The basic premise of Zombicide is pretty simple: Navigate your heroes through a set of objectives while carving through zombies of various flavors. What seems like a dreadfully simple concept is complicated by particular rules both you and the zombies must follow (the zombies basically 'play themselves' by using rules with precedence -- e.g. "attack someone in your square before moving to another square, etc.") Your band of heroes (6) all have special abilities to help with the fight, and there is a degree of customization as you level up and decide what future skills you get. However, as your party levels, so do the zombies (typically by increasing their numbers, but sometimes through extra moves, etc.). You don't just attack or search for items - you can also cast spells (when found), make noise to distract zombies, etc. You also have to plan out your actions with your co-players, because bad strategies end games very quickly! The materials are all good quality -- the variable 'game board' is really up to 9 large, thick, dual-sided cardboard tiles, with lots of other tokens used to represent doors, objectives, spawn points, etc. Games typically go from about 1 hour to 2 or more, depending on how you approach each quest (there are 10) -- but it's a HECK OF A LOT better than a repetitive Monopoly game (my son's former favorite). I'm not a huge board game buyer, but I've already began painting my figurines (my photo shows my first foot soldier zombie) and we bought the Bosses expansion pack (WOW, talk about awesome!) There are a few cons that are worth mentioning, though they are definitely minor: 1) The 9 board tiles may be slightly warped when you open the box. This isn't horrible, but you notice it since you have to line up these tiles on your table to make a particular scenario. The Fix -- Either *gently* counter-bend them or just set them 'upside down' for a while with a flat weight on them all and they'll straighten up perfectly. 2) The equipment and zombie cards are tiny. This is a bummer because A) I'd love to see the cards larger to enjoy the artwork more and B) shuffling them is a major PITA because they're not big enough to really riffle / waterfall (I mean, it can be done and I've done it, but 50% of the time it's not worth the hassle). 3) Not really a 'con' but a note- these zombies are 1.5" tall (the foot solders), so they're not huge, but they're pretty darn detailed. There are larger figures (the necromancer and abomination and fatty) and the bosses expansion (sold separately) are massive. Highly recommended game -- it's awesome.

My family is new to the Zombicide franchise, but we have experience playing Mansions of Madness, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, Castle Panic, and many others. We picked up Zombicide Black Plague because we wanted a new game that didn't require as much time to play through and had fast gameplay. The base game comes with 10 quests of varying difficulty and additional quests can be found on the Zombicide website. I think it is fairly easy to make your own quests as well. Pros: -Lots of combat, yet still requires strategy -characters can be leveled up and acquire new skills -Plenty of detailed enemies -Instructions are easy to follow (occasionally had to go on the internet for clarification) -A lot of the quests require 6 players, but it is easy to control multiple characters -Generally fast gameplay, but some quests can be lengthy (due to strategizing- it can get hectic with the amount of enemies on the board :-)) Cons: -We changed one rule when it came to ranged combat. We didn't like that you could still hit a friendly in your own space if you failed on a dice roll. It makes more sense if you are targeting an enemy in a space further away that you could possibly hit your teammate if they occupy the same space as an enemy. -We would have liked to see more base quests included, but like I said above, you can find more on the Zombicide website. -Would have been nice if more tiles were included to further increase variability (not a game breaker though). -It can be a little frustrating when it comes to killing an abomination in the base game because it requires you to have dragon bile and a torch or Samson has to have the +1 damage skill (if you have the Wulfsburg expansion, you have more tools at your disposal to kill harder enemies). All in all, I highly recommend this game and it has been very fun. We definitely have our share of "epic" moments when we for sure thought we were done for.

Zombicide Black Plague is a great board game, with simple rules that can be learned in half an hour, fast moving play, tension-filled in-game situations, tactical and strategic challenges, and a true cooperative play experience. For those with experience with the original Zombicide, note that Black Plague is a different experience in that your characters are less victims trying to survive a zombie apocalypse than skilled and equipped heroes who are fighting back against the zombie horde. Everyone starts out with a viable weapon, and the equipment just gets better from there after a few searches. There is plenty of zombie hack and slash in this game. In the course of a single quest, high dozens to hundreds of zombies will be slaughtered as these heroes valiantly strive to push back the undead tide. And yet that might not enough for most of the scenarios. The character's abilities will have to be used to the utmost in combination with a well-thought out plan of attack for the particular challenge of each quest if the characters are to overcome both the unrelenting horde and fickle fate (i.e. die rolls and card draws). The game materials are of very good quality. The game board tiles beautifully evoke a medieval setting, and there are multiple varieties of miniatures for each zombie type. Set up and tear down is not too bad, averaging 10-15 minutes each for one to two people, and probably less with more help. All in all this game provides a fun, challenging, and immersive experience for those who enjoy fantasy/medieval themes, the zombie apocalypse genre, or both. If there's a downside, it is that there's no character progression from scenario to scenario. The characters go through the full power progression each and every quest, just like regular Zombicide. Oh well, there's always Massive Darkness to look forward to.

I've played this game enough now so I think I have a pretty good grasp on how it's played and have a pretty good opinion for someone who has not played Zombicide before this game. First off, I have not played the original Zombicide so I will make no comparisons to that game other than what I've been told by other people. The original I guess had vehicles, this does not. The original had one less health which made it harder, I'd imagine a lot harder given how hard I feel this game is. Setup time when I first played it took a bit. I have a good friend who has no problem spending an hour or two to help punch out everything and read through the rules carefully before setup which I feel is important for this game if you have not played it. The scenarios maps are specific so you will have to find all the tiles you need and place them as such with specific items in specific spots. This is not a big deal for me and if you've played other dungeon crawl co-ops you'll probably be fine. The tiles themselves are large and numbered and lettered to make it pretty easy. I did feel though that being their size and thickness I did notice some bend to them which was a little annoying, but not to where you're knocking everything over every time you move pieces. The player dashboards are one of the nicest things in this game. I think other dungeon crawls could benefit from these. They have a place for your health markers, character cards, a spot for your weapons, a place for your backpack, a meter for you experience to level up. it's essentially like having an inventory in an rpg videogame and it works great at keep all your stuff organized on the table. A big plus for that. Teamwork is vital in this game, if you and your friends can not get along and work as a team you will fail horribly and you should at all costs not play this game. Dice rolls at times can be brutal and frustrating, but I like some dice rolling personally, if you hate RNG and dice rolling do not get this game!. When you die with any character the game won't end right away, but the game will be harder so try to not die. You also do not have much in the way of healing. The difficulty scales within the game scenario, you need to kill zombies left and right to level up your character and unlock better abilities, at the same time the game will get much harder as that happens. The game is definitely survival based which is perfect for a zombie apocalypse. The miniatures are pretty good, they're not as good as some other games like Arcadia Quest, but you also get a ton of them which you'll need because the zombie's spawn every round by the handfuls as the game progresses. The monster sculpts are better than the hero sculpts we felt, but none of them are bad. Me and my friend are looking forward to painting these eventually. I see a lot of longevity in this game for me, the scenarios take quite a while to finish and will require multiple plays to actually beat them because they are hard. Most taking 1-2+ hours. It is a game you're going to be sitting down and playing for a while each session. If your group doesn't have this time or are easy frustrated by defeat it may not be the best game to have. As far as the theme goes, I like it. There's zombies in this medieval type fantasy setting. I like that style, though I am marking it down somewhat because even though it's visually cool, there really isn't a lot of lore to it. In other games you may get a blurb about the character on a card that's cool or a nice backstory in the manual or a detailed story on the scenario. Here you really don't get that, there's immersion in the game-play with it high tension and strategy between you and your friends deciding the best way to tackle the never ending onslaught of enemies but I feel like they could have made some interesting character backstories that would give you a better experience. This game can also be played solo or with other players manning multiple characters, which you'll have to do unless you have 6 players. In the rules it states you can play up to 12 if you get the expansion or hero box sets that add more characters, but I wouldn't play it with 12 actual people with a single character each, that would be chaos. There are quite a few character add-ons to this already which have some really nice figures from what I've seen and I may purchase them down the road if this becomes a regular played game among friends. The rulebook is pretty good quality, nice artwork, pretty easy to follow. I will say though I wish they had some nice quick reference cards to pass out to players rather than just the back of the booklet quick reference. It would help for people who aren't veteran players of the game and just be nice to have. Bottom Line: If you want a challenging co-op game, like miniatures and zombies and have a lot of time to invest into playing it and want something that gets lots of playtime in a single box this is a great game. If you don't want something so hard or want something with a more fleshed out story, or more of an rpg feel, you may look into other dungeon crawls.There's a huge assortment in that genre nowadays with the Dungeons & Dragons games which are basically a D&D-light and I highly recommend them if you like D&D. There's also Descent and it's siblings/clones, Super Dungeon Explore, Mice and Mystics etc. This game as I mentioned is hard, but it does not feel near impossible. After you get defeated you'll sit down and be talking for a good 10-20 minutes about what you could have done differently and be ready to tackle it the next time you've got a couple hours to kill. There's a fair amount of add-on components and an expansion as well as the option of creating your own scenarios so there's lots of replay here.

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.

Games super fun, wish it had more weapon options as they are pretty limited. But it feels like dnd meets classic zombicide.