GeekInsight
United States
La Mirada
California
Giant Fire Breathing Robot
gfbrobot.com
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Halloween may have passed, but we can make the spirit of the holiday last all year round. And there’s no better way to do it than to grab Dawn of the Zeds: the Battle for Farmingdale, a solitaire game from Victory Point Games. Zeds does an excellent job of replicating the inevitable zombie apocalypse. How do I know? Because it is ridiculously difficult to hang on long enough for rescue. Instead, it is all too easy to succumb to the zombie horde. You’ll need keen strategy and
a little luck to survive.
The Basics. Zeds is not a simple game. It’s not especially complex, either, but there are a lot of special rules and actions for your survivors to take. You get to control three types of units: Heroes, Civilians, and Refugees. The Refugees start out as stubborn villagers who refuse to come to the safety of the town center. During hurricanes, there are always those people on the news who refuse to leave their homes. I guess they all live in Farmingdale. But once their houses are burned down by the zombie horde, they become Refugees and start booking it for the safety of the town.
Civilians, on the other hand, are the weakling grunt soldiers who are fighting against the Zeds. They tend to be relatively weak, but they can fight, build barricades, and forage. Also, if they die, they can be healed up or equipped with new Refugees and brought back into the game.
Finally, you have Heroes. Heroes are offensively strong, and each has powerful special abilities that you will absolutely need to exploit in order to win. But they are also frail little things that can be killed in two hits. Unlike civilians, once killed there is no resurrecting Heroes; they are dead and out of the game, and you will weep tears of bitterness at their loss. Meanwhile, the Zeds march along four different tracks into the town. If they ever get to the city center, you lose.
Each turn you draw an Event card. The events dictate whether your supplies will be consumed, where the Zeds will move, how many actions you’ll get, and what event is taking place that round. Unlike many co-op or solitaire games, there are a healthy percentage (though certainly not a majority) of events that are helpful to the player. And sometimes you’ll be asked to draw a Fate card, which can also be a welcome boon.
The goal is to make it to the bottom of the deck where the National Guard card awaits. If you can, then you’ll survive and have a victory. If you fail, then you are dead - and probably now part of team zombie. And there are tons of events that occur in the game. You might see raiders attack your supplies, or VIP refugees show up, or a toxic spill at the nuclear plant which gives rise to Toxic zombies.
The Feel. Zeds is just about the most fun I’ve ever had while being completely stressed. The march of the zombies toward your vulnerable town center is extremely ominous. It provides a completely appropriate sense of foreboding, while the cards give you far fewer actions than you really feel you need to keep them at bay. Over the course of the game, you will be losing territory; your goal is just to not lose it all before help arrives.
The other thing that really helps with the tension is the extensive use of dice. Researching, Healing, Foraging, Fighting, its all done with dice rolls. This means that the outcome is uncertain for many of the actions you take during the game. That Forage roll might net you two needed supplies, or it might get you nothing and you just wasted a precious action point. The game feels like it hangs on the outcome of nearly every roll.
Even from the beginning, though, you are not entirely in control. For example, you start the game with four of eight available heroes, but you only get to choose one. The other three are selected at random. While die hard euro fans may have a problem with some of the randomness, it really serves to evoke the theme. Plus, as a solitaire game, randomness is necessary to avoid it becoming merely a puzzle to be solved and set aside.
One caveat, though, is that the game’s rules are not always super clear. Partly it is a layout problem, with similar aspects covered in very different areas of the rulebook. This can make it hard to jump to the section you need to reference. Another is that the game can be a little fiddly. There are lots of exceptions to memorize. And some items in the rulebook are left up for interpretation.
For instance, you lose when the Zeds enter the town square. But you might have several units stacked up there to provide a "last stand" against the Zed, and, if you repel them, they retreat out of that space. It seemed thematic and appropriate to play that way, and nothing in the rules is directly on point. However, a reference to a FAQ by the designer makes it clear that the Zeds win when they enter and no fight is actually conducted. So be sure to check out the FAQ before your first play.
Components: 2.5 of 5. Victory Point Games is known for giving you games at a lower price point (yay lower prices!) by having adequate, but not stellar, component quality. It’s a trade off, and I think it’s worth it for this game. You get tons of tokens, markers, cards, and sheets in this game. If all the bits were were wooden meeples or molded figures, this game would easily double in price. All of the components are serviceable and durable: exactly what you need for play. In fact, the cards are surprisingly sturdy; they’re better than a much more fancy pants game I played recently.
Strategy/Luck Balance: 4 of 5. Luck is prevalent in this game. I had one game where the dice were on the Zombie team and I just got annihilated. But most of the time, the dice serve to place you in an arena of uncertainty. They ensure that you think hard about every decision, because you’ll need to make tough choices at every turn. There is a lot of strategy to engage in, based on what heroes you have available and where your civilian units are. Not quite a perfect balance (as luck can really do a number on you sometimes), but it effectively replicates the thematic experience.
Mechanics: 4 of 5. There is definitely some fiddlyness involved. The prime culprit is the Infection track, which has to be moved for every hand-to-hand combat (as well as every time Refugees arrive or are eaten, and when order is restored to an area in chaos). It’s not always easy to remember. Plus, sometimes the Event and Fate card draws can throw things out of whack. You might be drawing an Event card, then have to cause an outbreak (which causes the infection track to move) then draw a Fate card, then do what the Fate card says, then go back to the Event card which might specifically instruct you to draw another Fate card, which then must be drawn and accomplished ... whew! You get the idea.
Putting that aside, though, the mechanics chosen for Dawn of the Zeds do an excellent job of reinforcing the theme. If you are looking for a euro-style game of efficiency, then this isn’t it. This falls very much in the ameritrash category. However, if you like thematic games, then the mechanics really serve to reinforce and play up the theme of a desperate survival.
Replayability: 5 of 5. This game does not get stale quickly. Part of the reason is its complexity. In every game you are given a wealth of choices and tactics to employ. Plus, the way the events are drawn, you literally never know what might happen next. Sometimes good, but often bad, the events will play in such a away that your struggle through the game will be a highly individual experience each time it hits the table.
Spite: 0 of 5. There are no other players to spite. Except for zombies. And zombies aren’t people. They have no constitutional rights. I looked it up.
Overall: 4 of 5. If you want a survivor experience, this is the way to go. It is very challenging, and you will find yourself pulled in all sorts of directions. One thing to note, though, is that the game says it lasts an hour. That estimate is for an experienced player. My first game, with constant references back to the rulebook, lasted over three hours. Now I’m down to about that sixty minute window, but I’m also rarely referring back to the rules. So be prepared that there is a lot to learn in the game. But once you’ve mastered the mechanics, you can put yourself in the middle of your favorite horror movie.
(A special thanks to Victory Point Games for providing a review copy of Dawn of the Zeds.)
(Originally posted, with pictures, at the Giant Fire Breathing Robot)
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HERMANN LUTTMANN
United States
New York
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Wonderfully insightful review! Thank you so much! I'm glad that you "get it" - the game is essentially about the experience, not the winning. As far as the rules go, yes - they can be a bit tough at the first go. I'm working on a "cheatsheet" at this time that will hopefully help new players along. Thanks again and good gaming! Hermann
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GeekInsight
United States
La Mirada
California
Giant Fire Breathing Robot
gfbrobot.com
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Thank you so much for the compliment! And while I'm at it, thank you for the great design. I've really enjoyed playing - even if the zombies kick my teeth in.
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