Brains!

The name of the game is Zombicide, and it delivers what the title promises. You kill a lot of zombies in this game -- the base set comes with sixty-five plastic zombie minis, for cryin' out loud! -- and no matter how much firepower you're packing, there are always more brain-eaters than you can possibly defeat. You can't win the game by fighting alone, so you need to choose your battles carefully and keep moving toward your mission objectives.

The game plays fast, too. A typical Mansions of Madness adventure would take us at least two sessions, but in one afternoon today we played Zombicide's tutorial game twice and then a custom scenario that Matthew created. In all three games, I played grizzled cop Phil (very similar to the grizzled cop from a certain zombie-themed TV show you might have heard about), Matthew played young punk Josh, Nathaniel played Wanda the waitress, and Amy played...Amy, a feisty goth gal. Here's a pic from Matthew's custom scenario: Wanda (the light blue mini in the foreground) is looking up the street at the advancing horde while the others (in the upper right) hustle to the map's exit zone.

Wanda was far and away the most memorable character from the adventures. It's hard to see in the photo, but the Wanda mini depicts a waitress on roller skates, carrying a chainsaw. The character never begins the game with that weapon, but in two out of the three scenarios, Nathaniel managed to draw the chainsaw as an equipment card while searching buildings. The roller skates give this character incredible movement capabilities, so Wanda was zipping all around the map, churning her way through multiple zombies with every attack.

This game was definitely a hit in our household. I don't foresee Amy clamoring to play it regularly -- she's decided that she's more of a Eurogamer -- but the boys and I, at least, will probably dig into the vast online library of free scenarios and come up with more of our own, as well.