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While at GAMA Expo back in March, I did some speed networking with different designers and publishers, many of whom I had the chance to meet for the first time. One of those people was Bernie Lin, the co-designer of a game called Omicron Protocol (2022, Dead Alive Games); the prototype for Omicron Protocol was available to view during the expo.

Omicron Protocol had miniatures, “atmosphere”, and a squad-based system for combat that could be played solo, co-op, or competitively. Then my mind went down memory lane to Core Space, a release I picked up during COVID from Battle Systems. Core Space has a sci-fi theme, minis, an excellent action point and ability system, and some of the best 3-D terrain I have ever seen in a skirmish game.

Omicron Protocol swaps out 3-D terrain for flat tiles to serve as cover, objectives, dumpsters, medical tents, and the like. I got excited for the game to arrive, but it took me a few weeks to work through a review copy backlog to get it to the table.

Stepping back from the overall experience, Omicron Protocol does just a bit more right than wrong. The…

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“Once upon a time, she was looking for love…Now she’s looking for lunch!”

It’s a funny pitch, right? That’s the text front and center on the box cover of the new game Zombie Princess and the Enchanted Maze, designed by Andrew Beardsley and published by WizKids. The intro in the rulebook is even funnier, so kudos to Beardsley and the writing team at WizKids for coming up with a funny premise, setting the stage with such gusto.

Unfortunately, the good times end there. This is not for lack of a quality production or a smooth rulebook. The reasons for my sadness go a little deeper than that, which is interesting because Zombie Princess and the Enchanted Maze is not that deep at all.

Lay Those Tiles!

In Zombie Princess (let’s go with this shorter title for the rest of the article), players take on the roles of knights from a nearby kingdom who hear the loud, distant scream of a princess. What happened? Is she in trouble? It’s a game, so she must need rescuing!

Each of the 2-4 players in the game will then enter a corner of the Enchanted Maze, where they make another discovery: the princess is now a ZOMBIE princess, so instead of saving her,…

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The treads on Brock’s wheelchair crunched softly over the grit and debris as the four teenagers slowly crept through the alleyway behind the Arcade. They heard low moans coming from Main Street just a dozen feet away. Prisha cautiously crept to the mouth of the alleyway to scout, her scarf wrapped around her face to hide her silhouette. She spent a moment peering into the dim light before making her way back to the group. “There’s zombies all over the streets, but I saw a clear path to the building in the middle of the square. If we make a run for it, I think we can collect supplies from other buildings as we go.”

Cosmo nodded his head in agreement, the tails of his headband wrapping around his neck. June spoke up, “When the cemetery and the school were cleared out, we thought that we’d be done. The other teams did a great job, but now it’s up to us to take care of this area.” Cosmo added, “We still aren’t sure how the zombies made it here without being seen. How can this a horde this large have made it here without our noti…?”

Just then the four teenagers heard the shrill squeal of metal and watched…

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Money gets you into places you normally couldn’t get into. Money buys you influence and power. Money can pay for other people to do all the thinking for you. There’s nothing money cannot accomplish.

Well…there’s one thing. Money can’t stop you from turning into a zombie. Once you’re infected there is no cure; you might as well throw in the towel. The trappings of being alive will quickly fade into your rearview and zombie life will be the only life you know. And you know what that means.

Who needs money when you’ve got brains?

Overview

Zombielife Insurance puts the players in the roles of citizens taking out insurance policies covering the various stages of zombification. The longer you can stay alive, the more money you can make over time. However, becoming one of the undead doesn’t have to be an impediment.

During each player’s turn they will have the opportunity to make investments or purchase different insurance policies as well as play Action cards from their hand. These Action cards have many varied effects, but most of them involve some sort of deck manipulation or card drawing. And this is important because the Action card deck is riddled with Infection cards. Draw one of these and you’re that much closer to becoming…

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Much like Magic the Gathering, Epic the Card Game is about two powerful entities who want to murder each other. This will involve you casting spells, executing events, and summoning champions to do your bidding. You win the game once your opponent loses all of their life points or they cannot draw any more cards from their deck.

Following the Same Footsteps

While the concept sounds very similar to other card brawlers, there are distinguishing features that give Epic its own identity. Instead of mana or an escalating resource, players get a single gold coin to spend each turn to play a powerful card. This gold coin does not accumulate if you don't…

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Buy The Quick and the Undead on Amazon

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Have you ever wanted to throw a party but just could not get enough friends to fill your crypt?  Yes, it’s a common problem we all have. Dead Man’s Cabal allows you to play out the logical solution to this problem, which is to simply resurrect corpses to fill out your guest roster.  Of course, seeing as how everyone is raising the dead these days you will be competing with your fellow necromaalncers to see who can throw the best undead bash of them all.  Let’s get summoning!

The How-To of a Taboo

So how do we go about our ritual party planning? Dead Man’s Cabal plays over a series of rounds where the active player takes an action that then allows all players to take another action.   This ingenious system of “I do a thing, we do a thing” is great and keeps downtime to a minimum.

One of my favorite mechanisms in Dead Man’s Cabal is the action selection system, which, as the name and theme implies, is pretty dark (and awesome!).  On a player’s turn, they will go to the ossuary to determine their actions. There, they will slide a row of skulls…

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No Headshots Needed

Welcome back space cowboys.  Let me paint the picture for you.  You were dispatched to planet PKL7, a sleepy planet, with a pretty cushy job.  Your mission: monitor the mining equipment and make sure it, well…mined stuff. Pretty simple task, the native inhabitants are super docile and all you do is sit around all day and collect your pay.  Life could not be easier on the frontier, but all that changed when the Fire Nation attacked *Avatar reference*...I mean, all that changed one day out of the blue. The native lifeforms, the Xenos, became violent and began to attack.  Some even started to…change. Things are looking to get far worse before they get better and you sure are grateful you brought your shotgun with you.

Zombicide Invader drops you right into the thick of the action, fighting aliens that seem to have taken inspiration from the zombie ants that popped up in the news a while ago. Just like with penicillin and good cheese, mold is a big deal.  Players control various characters, working together to overcome the obstacles set before them and emerge victorious in the varying scenarios that Invader has to offer. The Zombicide franchise has a legacy of being incredibly difficult and challenging, rewarding teamwork and strong tactical decision making, and Invader…

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Choose which of The Walking Dead characters to play each round to collect the best stash while protecting yourself and your team from the zombie mob that forms as you play.

Buy The Walking Dead: Something to Fear on Amazon.

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eletal branches of the trees swayed as Karina crept through the dark streets with Ralph, Felix, and Walter behind her. Just as they were about to round the corner a low moan stopped Karina in her tracks, causing her to throw her hand up in caution. “Zombie,” she whispered. Felix made a face and said in a quiet voice, “We’re so close now! Billie, Simon, Leo, and Lara already finished the job at Cedar Grove, the rest is up to us.”

All four paused for a moment to give mental thanks for the success of their friends just days ago. The closing of Cedar Grove Cemetery had almost completely removed the undead presence in the town of Briar Glen. There was only one nest of infected left, and the responsibility for defeating it fell on their shoulders. Unfortunately rumors indicated that some of the remaining creatures were…different than the others, more dangerous. 

After a long pause, Karina indicated that it was safe to continue and the four of them left the safety of the building and stopped to examine a scene they knew all too well: the playground of Mountain Oak Elementary School.

The see-saws stood at attention like ranks of soldiers waiting to charge into battle, the swings moved lazily in the breeze, and the merry-go-round creaked softly.…

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Pandemic is one of the first games I experienced with a ticking time bomb. In Pandemic, players must draw from an infection deck each turn. This causes infections to spread slowly, but interspersed among the deck are 5-6 epidemic cards which cause the infections to ramp up. Players must balance dealing with the infection directly and researching cures in order to win. Another more complicated game of this nature is Dawn of Peacemakers.

In Good Dog, Bad Zombie, the ticking mechanism is the spread of zombies on the board. The game ends in defeat when zombies have successfully attacked 10 times, which causes the dogs to go feral. In other words, the dogs forget what it’s like to be pets. The dogs win when they rescue enough hoomans to take to a new town to preserve their domesticated way of life.

…

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Mobile apps for board games have become more prevalent in the past years and Asmodee Digital has dug up CMON’s first game in the wildly successful franchise Zombicide to your mobile device.  On the app you are able to play through a single player campaign as a group of survivors seeking to escape a city overrun with the undead. In this review I will be laying out the similarities, differences and my overall impression of how a large and miniature-heavy board game like Zombicide has been digitized for your active gaming lifestyle.

How Does One Zombicide?

Zombicide sets you in the role of a group of survivors trying to flee an overrun city.  Each mission is comprised of a set of turns between survivors and zombies as you attempt to achieve a certain set of objectives.  These objectives can be as simple as killing some zombies or as complicated as searching for specific keys to open set doors so you can loot items for your team.

Each survivor has a set number of actions they can take per turn and you can switch between survivors action by action to make the most out of your turn. Clever…

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