Golden Anvil

So, I do very much enjoy the Descent board game that MrsKheldar got me for Christmas, but it IS a long game, so our play times will be less frequent than desired. Plus, I'd allocated some of my Christmas money for another board game. So, this week I went out and picked up another game called: Last Night on Earth.

This is a game about zombies, presented in a fairly light style intended to bring about the feel of a horror B-movie. We didn't take any pictures this time, but you can see one here.

The basic gist of the game is that (at least in a 2 player game) one person plays the zombies, and the other plays the 4 heroes. The zombie player gets to move their zombies and draw and play cards that give bonuses in combat, or other special events. Zombies can respawn at the end of the turn, leading to a never-ending-horde effect. The hero player gets to move the characters around, search the buildings for equipment cards or special event cards, try to avoid getting caught up in large groups of zombies, and try to pick off zombies when possible.

The map is randomly assembled each game from a fixed center piece and 4 out of the six angular pieces that fit at each corner of the center piece. There are a number of scenarios to randomly pick from, and 8 heroes with different abilities from which 4 are randomly chosen.

For our first game we played the starting scenario in which the zombie player (MrsKheldar) can win by killing two heroes or drawing the game out through 15 turns. The hero player (me) can win by killing 15 zombies. This is a really simple scenario. Most involve something more complex, like fueling a truck, finding the keys, and escaping, or something like that.

The game was pretty fast paced and frantic. I had a number of scary moments that I just managed to escape from. For a while it looked like I wasn't going to even get close to killing the required number of zombies in time. But then Father Joseph (who happened to be armed with a cleaver) hopelessly engaged 3 zombies. A single hit would have killed him, but instead, he single handedly took out all 3. This seemed to turn the tide for a bit, and it looked like I'd win without problems.

Still, a general lack of weapons and poor luck led to a distinct lack of zombie killing, and the end of the game turn limit was fast approaching. One of my heroes got isolated and swarmed, and went down under a wave of undead. MrsKheldar only needed to take out one more hero to win. Fortunately for me, most of the zombies were on the other half of the board, slowly shuffling my way. Unfortunately, I just couldn't kill either of the last 2 zombies that I needed in order to win.

Finally, on MrsKheldar's last turn of the game (then I'd get one more turn, then I'd lose), while ganging up on Father Joseph (who was one hit away from death), I was able to take advantage of an event card I had in my hand to finish off the very last zombie I needed. Victory!

It was an amazingly close game! We both had a lot of fun, and the game only took 2 hours. Not bad for a first time playing. Next time will be even shorter. We're definitely looking forward to playing again. I was pleased to note that despite the game pitting us against each other, it didn't feel overly competitive. I think that's because of a pretty heavy luck factor with the dice, where the zombies have to wear down the heroes over time, and the zombies have a never-ended horde.

Oh, the game also included a CD with mood music. We played it. It was entertaining. Definitely added to the B-movie experience.