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The Gory so far.....
Since time immemorial in the Zombicide world, survivors/heroes have battled against the Zombie hordes. From its inception in 2012 as a ground-breaking, in retrospect, slightly clunky cooperative slugfest, it has metomorphasised into a sleek, streamlined, energetic, cooperative, slugfest. Through various expansions, standalones such as the Medieval Black Plague and the Undead or Alive Wild West iteration, we have arrived at Marvel Zombies and my excitement runneth over.
What’s in the box.
Opening Marvel Zombies is, like most CMON productions, a tense Jack-In-The-Box moment. As expected a plethora of Minis spring from that cardboard treasure chest and a myriad of cards wing themselves to freedom as if they had life of their own. WOW. A cornucopia of delight as always. Component quality is, as expected, up to a high standard. The miniatures, all 87 of them, are awesome, especially the 6 Zombie Heroes and the 6 Superheroes. There are also 12 bystanders from the world of marvel, ranging from Thunderbolt Ross to Agent Coulson. 63 shield agents are there to give you the utmost grief, 35 troopers, 14 guards and 14 specialists. The artwork, from the brilliantly riotous front of box, down through all the cards is mind blowing. Zombie Hero cards and Superhero cards definitely stand out. My only pet gripe is the size of the spawn cards, trait cards and bystander cards, a little bit bigger please. I’m not over the hill, but my nose is bent and my eyes are old and weak. The map tiles are detailed with easy iconography and look pretty cool. All in all a mighty production.
The set up...
Set up is pleasingly simple, pick a mission, starting with the tutorial and progressing through 10 further increasingly difficult levels. It’s best to play them in order as it shoehorns you gently into objectives and mechanisms and the flow of the game. It also helps you to learn the nuances of the different Zombie Heroes.
Slouching towards Zombiism...are you getting hungry?
The rules and gameplay of Marvel Zombies are very much akin to all ‘Zombicide’ games, but with an efficient streamlining and a delightful twist.....you ARE the Zombies! Yikes! Not as bad as it sounds, in fact, devilishly clever and exciting. Grab your mission and fire that baby up...bosh out the map tiles and fill them up with spawn points, mission objectives, locked doors and kitchen sinks (not literally) as per the mission instructions. Missions are recommended to be played using 4,5 or 6 Zombie Heroes. Dig in and choose your merry flesh-eating band. You can choose from, Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp, Hulk, Captain Marvel and Deadpool. They all have unique attacks, which level up as they gain experience, and a generic devour attack. Set up your dashboards with health points, hunger points and your zombie hero cards. Shuffle up any spawn cards, Superhero cards, trait cards and bystander cards needed and you are pretty much ready for the dice-chucking madness.
‘In a nutshell’ philosophy.
Player phase followed by enemy phase. Meet up in the middle, slap each other silly and then repose on the chaise-lounge with a cheeky schooner of Oloroso. Regale each other with tales of the epicness that just occurred and then.....slap each other silly again.
Marvel Zombies assembleeeee!
Player phase. Firstly increase all hunger tracks by 1, a very new and important mechanism. The hungrier you are the more dice you roll when you attack. But, if you max out your hunger, you can only move or use the generic devour attack. Devouring an enemy resets your hunger track to zero, thematically you have sated your hunger. It is important to manage this hunger, it can be your best friend. Next , all Zombie heroes activate in whichever order they choose. Generally you have 3 actions, this increases with experience, and you can do the following.
Move – 1 action for every zone moved. Extra actions would be needed if leaving zones that contain enemies.
Open Door – 1 action opens a door, none of that frustrating dice rolling nonsense from previous iterations. Beware, enemies will spawn when first opening a door to a building.
Gain trait – Once per turn you can draw the top card from the Zombie trait deck. These are powerful one-time use effects.
Interact – With objects or mission specifics.
Attack – Use a melee or ranged attack. Either the Zombie hero special attack or the generic devour attack. Combat is resolved by rolling various dice, which is mitigated by the specific attack and how strong your hunger is. You hit on 3+, 4+ and sometimes 5+, which can be mitigated. All hits equal 1 wound each and are dealt out as per the target priority. Superhero, guard, trooper, specialist and finally bystander (devour only).
Shield agents, go, go, go...
Enemy phase. All shield agents and Superheroes activate, moving towards the nearest Zombie Heroes or attacking them if they occupy the same zone . Attacks are automatic wounds. Bystanders also activate. Combat bystanders trying to attack Zombie Heroes and normal bystanders trying to exit the board. Then spawn enemies. Draw 1 spawn card for each spawn zone, 1 at a time. This starts off slowly, but as your Zombie Heroes gain experience, more and more enemies flood the board and you have some truly ‘what the glockenspiel is going on?!’ moments.
Win some.....lose mostly?
The game is won as soon as all mission objectives have been met. The game is lost as soon as any Zombie Hero is eliminated or any mission losing specifics are met.
Glorious dice-chucking, knees bent running around madness.
I love this game, it’s just pure fun.
Positives:- The streamlined rules set is so natural to use and, after a couple of plays, becomes second-nature. The hunger mechanic is genius. Its’ management is key to a smooth arse-kicking ride. Bring on the Marvel world. The IP is brilliant and sings thematically. You can weave magnificent stories, as well-loved characters appear. The artwork pops furiously, firing off like a hyperactive Catherine wheel. Miniatures – just look at them, just look at THEM, just....
Negatives:- Randomness. I can see people being frustrated by bad dice rolls. As a child of the 70s, this was normality, so doesn’t bother me at all. 2 or 3 badly drawn spawn cards can lead to deflating ‘we’ve been cheated’ moments. You can’t plan against it, embrace it and dust yourself off, go again, you mad Zombie Hero you. Marvel! Marvel? If you’re not into Marvel then the characters are just that, characters, no story weaving. Not everyone likes Marvel, I guess.
As the dust settles.....
I highly recommend Marvel Zombies to anyone and everyone. Zombicide stalwarts will pick it up and run with it, foaming at the mouth with rabid anticipation. ‘Oy! You! Come back with my Marvel Zombies Core Box!’. Newbies will dive straight in, it’s so approachable, so playable, no hard edges, entreating softness. As I stand at the window, sipping my cup of coffee, relaxing after that last, gruelling, edge of the seat rollercoaster ride. I watch the people passing by. I get an urge. Do their legs look like chicken drumsticks? Am I getting hungry? Oh no! Oh yes! Rahrrrrrrrrrrrr...
