Game Tips: Zombies!!! expansions and accessories

One of the nicest things about Zombies!!! is the endless flow of extra material that you can add to it to enhance the playability. Here is a brief descriptive list of the official expansions and accessories available:

• Zombies!!! 2: Zombie Corps(e) adds tiles for a military base, which the fiction suggests might be where the living dead started out. Good old government conspiracies. It adds a good few cards which really flavour the game and add some interesting strategic options, and includes 6 glow-in-the-dark zombies which in terms of the games mechanics are a lot tougher to kill and move a lot faster. The military base also features it's own helicopter pad, adding an additional escape point. The additional rules and cards add a lot to the game but compared to later expansions, this one is fairly bland as it stands. If you do decide to purchase it, then you might want to add some optional rules or players will probably avoid the military base in favour of the mall or town.
• Zombie!!! 3: Mallwalkers is a fantastic expansion just for the extra cards and copious new weapons. The set also includes a deck of mall tiles that work like the town tiles. The mall seldom assembles itself in a logical or realistic way, but this is only a game and that can be forgiven, especially with a new mechanic that allows the players to move rapidly from tile to tile through the airducts in each shop. Naturally there is a helicopter pad to escape from and with the airduct rules, the mall is an attractive option. This expansion is definitely worth getting!
• Zombies!!! 3.5: Not Dead Yet adds extra cards and nothing else. That is just fine though because the cards are enough. The new strategic options are fantastic and can change the game play for the better by allowing more direct control and for the frist time give you the opportunity to directly attack opponents rather than just put them at a disadvantage against the swarms of zombies. If you only buy one expansion, it should be this one.
• Zombies!!! 4: The End, lies to you in its title because it wasn't the last one at all. It's easy to forgive it tho because this is a rather enjoyable expansion that takes an entirely different twist on the game. Rather than being in town, the players are now trapped in the woods. The human zombies are gone now, replaced with ravening zombie hounds that move faster, but do less damage. Instead of the helicopter, your mission is now to get to a cabin and find the Necronomicon and read the spell that lays the zombie hounds to rest once and for all. (Of course, as all fans of Evil Dead might have guessed, it doesn't do that at all and instead transports the players to the middle ages to battle an army of skeletons in the spin-off game Midevil, but that's another story.) This game is also less of an expansion than a sequel as you can play it on it's own without having any of the other sets.
• Zombies!!! 5: School's Out Forever: adds yet more tiles and more cards, this time with a university theme. There is also the new Guts rule, which affects the amount of cards that you are allowed in your hand.
• Zombies!!! 6: 6 Feet Under adds a subway stations to the town set from Zombies!!! and adds Sewer tokens that enable you to move around town more rapidly (though not more safely) There are also a few extra cards as you would expect.
• Zombies!!! 6.66 Fill in the _ isn't really an expansion at all. it's a deck of blank cards. Fantastic if you love making up your own rules and customising your games, but otherwise completely useless.
• Zombies!!! 7: Send In The Clowns takes advantage of the common phobia of clowns and carnival atmospheres and adds a carnival to the doomed city. It includes a bunch of plastic zombie clowns and some new interesting rules and mechanics.
• Zombies!!! 8: Humans! is in development, the title implies what it's all about.

One thing about the Zombies!!! game is that there never seem to be enough of the living dead to keep the city swarming with them. this is especially tru when you're playing with a few expansions and the game board is suddenly huge! Twilight Creations sells themed Bags o' Zombies, each containing 100 of the little plastic buggers. So far you can buy bags of standard zombies, female zombies, glow-in-the-dark zombies, glow-in-the dark female zombies and zombie hounds, tho it's likely that they will keep expanding this range in the future.

In my next post I'll talk about some simple things you can do to get the most out of Zombies!!!

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