Last Night On Earth

[Severus Snape]

I know that this should probably go in the "Other Games" forum, but based on the subject matter I thought it appropriate to put this in the DR forum.

Last night I went nerding (a term my father-in-law coined and my wife uses to describe when I go to hang with my friends and game), and one of my buddies pulled out a game called "Last Night on Earth". It's a board game that I'd never heard of before, and considering I collect out of print/old/unique board games, I was rather interested. And let me tell you that this game RULES.

The premise: A group of "heroes" (read: normal folk) go up against a group of zombies to complete one of any number of different scenarios in a town. The board consists of a large, central section that is just a large field, in a 9x9 grid. The remainder of the board is 6 different L-shaped pieces that attach to/get connected to the central piece. Each of the L-shaped pieces has different buildings and areas in it that have different functions (I'll describe them in a bit). The L-shaped pieces also have zombie spawning pits.

4 people can play (more with expansion packs). 2 people control a total of 4 heroes, and each hero has different abilities that they can play at times. For example, the sherriff starts with a gun, while the farmer's daughter gets to roll additional attack dice when in the barn or the cornfield (these are areas on the L-Shaped pieces). 2 people then play against the heroes and control the zombies. Yes, 2 people get to control the zombies.

The basic premise is to complete the chosen scenario in a set number of turns before the sun comes up. If the sun comes up before the objectives are complete, the zombies win. In fact, the game is heavily tilted in the favor of the zombies, but it's fun anyways. I mean, who doesn't like munching on hapless heroes?

The game starts with the heroes spawning in the building as depicted on the hero plaque for that hero. Some start in the hospital, some in the high school, others in the dead center of town. Then the players who control the zombies determine how many zombies they control at the start (d6 for each zombie controller), and you place them in the spawn pits. Yes, Virginia, there are spawn pits inside buildings where heroes can start.

The zombies go first. During all zombie turns EXCEPT the first zombie turn the sun counter is moved. You only have so many turns to complete the objectives, and using the sun counter helps determine how many turns you have left. The first player controlling the zombies draws 2 cards from the zombie deck. The zombie deck cards are all events that the zombie player may play at any time during the game, unless the card says you have to play them at a certain point (immediately, start of the zombie turn, or start of the hero turn). Some events include preventing players form moving through doors, cancelling hero cards that are in play, creating conditions that make it hard on the players, taking over a building, or spawning new zombies. The zombies all move 1 space on the board, and if any zombies end up in a space with a hero a fight ensues (more on that in a bit).

After the zombie turn, the heroes get to go. They can either move (by rolling a d6 and moving that many spaces), or, if they are in a building, they can search and draw a hero card. Hero cards are a lot like zombie cards, except that they help the heroes. Hero cards also contain items (such as keys or a lighter) and weapons (dynamite, pump shotgun, revolver). You can also draw combat bonus cards that do certain things (for example, the chainsaw, which kills any zombie beaten in a fight no matter what). After searching and/or moving, if the hero is in a space with a zombie, a fight ensues. If the hero has a ranged weapon and a zombie is in range (line of sight), the hero may attempt to use that weapon to kill the zombie.

Fights occur when at least 1 zombie and at least 1 hero occupy the same space on the game board. Heroes get to roll 2d6 (more or less if hero or zombie cards are played), while zombies only get to roll 1d6 (more or less if hero or zombie cards are played). A hero needs to have at least 1 of the dice come up higher than the roll of the zombie fight dice to fend off the zombie. If the hero rolls doubles and the result would be higher than the zombie fight dice, the zombie is dead (ie, the zombie rolls a 4 and the hero rolls double 5s). If the roll is a tie or the zombie fight dice is higher than the hero fight dice, the zombie wins and the hero is wounded. Heroes can only take so many wounds before they die.

If the players complete the scenario before time expires, the players win. If time expires, the zombies win. In the basic game (there are basic and advanced rules), if 2 heroes die the zombies win. In the advanced game, if both of your heroes die, you spawn a new hero. If all heroes die, the zombies win. Again, it's heavily tilted in favor of zed.

This is a simplified version of the full rules, but you get the idea. The game is outstanding. We played for 6 hours last night, and we were able to get in 6 games, so about an hour for each game. The different scenarios we played were "Die, Zombie, Die" (kill a total of 15 zombies in 15 turns), "Escape in the Truck" (get a can of gas, fill the truck up in the center of the town, get a set of keys, and get 2 heroes to the truck in 15 turns), "Going Back In" (I think that's what it's called - you start on the outskirts of the town and have to go in, fight off the zombies, and through searching find 2 cannisters of bio-agent and get them both back to the truck in 17 turns). There are many more scenarios that can be played, and there are some on the internet that you can view/print for free.

We had an absolute blast playing this game. I highly recommend it for anyone into either killing zombies or munching on hapless civilians.

Last Night On Earth

[mrloucifer]

I dig it a lot as well... so much that I purchased all the expansions and the special edition "radio active zombies" that were offered for a limited time on the website.

BTW... I love goin' nerdin'!