catching up with zombies and leprechauns

A couple diverse catch-ups today.

After trying out Tomorrow's War in November, I sat down with the gents to play Zombicide. Mostly letting the other guys explain how things work, and suggest what my dude should do, as it's one of those cooperative games. For instance, Maurice suggested I tack along with his guy, and try to strike out on our own to collect a couple of the far objectives.

And then Maurice got me killed. I was the orange guy.

The game is pretty fun. The survivors have a lot of character, and as they gain experience they play quite differently. That combined with different scenarios means a lot of replay value in my book, although I fear there's a bit too much fiddly-ness to have the game catch on with non-minis gamers. Time will tell. Formally, I regret that I didn't cough in for the kickstarter deal, because those are some pretty models. 

(I did see that it definitely won't supplant my desire to play a nice sturdy zombie miniatures game, however. Currently looking into rules I'd like to try out. Logically, either 7ombieTV or No Room Left In Hell, since I, you know, own both.)
 
Last week, we started playing around with the Mercs campaign rules (PDF free to download here,) just rolling through a few turns to see how it works. Definitely a good start, but some kinks that will need to be worked out. I'm OK with building up forces to viable strength, but it's missing a sense of... competitiveness? Something.

While the other guys played their campaign game, Aaron taught me how to play Smash Up. As you may have ascertained by now, I am a man who enjoys board games, and I have a sordid CCG past. So the current trend in deckbuilding games is OK by me. Smash Up is straightforward and fun. The cards are very clear, and the trick of combining two forces (Faerie-Dinosaurs vs. Pirate-Robots!) is a great hook, and allows some interesting strategies. Definitely looking forward to trying out some more games in the future.

We were also going to try out Matakishi's fantasy rules CROM, but didn't get around to it. Soon! I even painted up figs and all. 15mm fantasy has arrived.

And finally, for the five of you still reading, if you haven't coughed in for the AE-WWII Kickstarter, now is the time. The game is a personal fave, and I would love to see it get a new roll-out. Yes, December is a rough month for everyone financially, but good games is good games.