Asmodee HZR01 HZR01ASM Hit Z Road

Product Information

Player markers: The player markers are different sizes and vary from a driver’s license that was found to a reward’s coupon from a fast food burger joint. The auction mechanic presents the difficult balance of spending supplies to win an auction vs. saving supplies. Despite the scary artwork (my daughters are too frightened of it to play this game), the whole game takes a slightly amusing and ironic look at the situation with most of the location cards containing humorous comments scribbled onto the pictures. Dawn of the Zeds: Manage multiple lanes of zombie invaders and heroic townsfolk in this solo-friendly survival game.

The game is played over eight rounds. To win, you need to have at least one survivor make it all the way to the West Coast by lasting all eight rounds; among those players that do, the player with the most points wins. The game gets progressively more challenging each round: the first two rounds are with the relatively easy Level I card, then there are three rounds with the moderately-challenging Level II cards, and the final three rounds are with the difficult Level III cards. Zombie Dice Roll to eat more brains than shotgun blasts Become the zombie and try to keep your head in this fast and furious dice game.So, when I was made aware of Hit Z Road at Gen Con, I initially laughed it off as yet ANOTHER zombie game. But I was told by my Euro obsessed friend, Walt, that it was really fun. He also made me aware that it was designed by none other than Martin Wallace. Yes. THE Martin Wallace, known for Age of Steam, Brass and Runebound. The game ends after eight rounds of Auctions and Encounters. If there is ever only one player remaining at any point in the game, then they win immediately. However, if two or more players survive all of their encounters, then they’ll receive bonus points based most resources and most remaining survivors. Players then add the VPs from their encounter cards and the most points among the living wins the game. A Slice of Fried Gold or Brainless Distraction? In addition, resources become less plentiful in later rounds of the game when the zombie count increases. So getting a lot of resources early can really pay off. The winner is the player who has the last living survivor(s) at the end of any round or the player who collects the most points when multiple players make it through all eight rounds. Points are earned on cards that were encountered as well as by being awarded the bonus cards at the end of the trip. Encounter cards will be somewhat easy at the start, but will get more deadly as the game progresses. Game Experience: Hit Z Road: The genre takes a sharp left turn where players bid for the most optimal route while driving cross-country across a zombified USA.

Most zombie stories end with the survivors escaping their current predicament into a hopefully brighter future somewhere else. Hit Z Road dares to continue the story on the road - specifically a cross-country road trip across the undead-infested Route 66 in the United States. Road trip! I liked Hit Z Road. I was originally concerned about the theme; however, this game, while dripping with theme in terms of the components, it is really an auction game with dice rolling used to resolve encounters. This brings me to the last resource, adrenaline, which can be used to save a survivor from a killing blow or to turn a miss into a zombie kill or, potentially, a hit into a second kill. This will only work, of course, if you have the opportunity to utilize adrenaline. Remember hordes? They use a special red die that automatically kill one of your survivors with no way of mitigating it via adrenaline. Hordes are scary. Each card will provide some sort of encounter, be it resources, events or even zombies to fight. Last Night on Earth: Embrace the silly tropes and ridiculous characters of the cheesy horror genre in this very self-aware zombie adventure.Points – After resolving the fight, assuming the player did not lose all of their survivors, the player takes the card. Any points on the card will be counted at the end of the game. If you’re a zombie fan, Hit Z Road may be right up your alley (or in this case; right along your route). Martin Wallace came out with two games at Gen Con 2016: Via Nebula and Hit Z Road. Both are excellent, and they show of the breadth of Wallace’s game-design genius. I didn’t expect to like Hit Z Road more than Via Nebula, but I think I do. Hit Z Road is a simple-but-effective resource management game with a clever and unique use of the Zombie theme. I enjoy solo variants of board games so it was nice having an official solo game included in the rule book. Although the solo version doesn’t capture the tension of the Auction Phase, it does retain the flavor of the Encounter phase as you make your way through the game before ranking your performance based on a scoring chart. It’s a good way to get your zombie on when your time and available opponents are limited.

The cards used in the game look like pictures were taken during his journey, along with notes on what happened when each picture was taken. Finally, all of the resources are represented by different colored bottle caps. Last Night on Earth's tactical combat, multiple scenarios and hero survival has been replicated many times over the decade-plus since its release (including by some of the games on this list), but what keeps it shelf-worthy is its endearingly self-aware theme that focuses on cheesy fun over brains. Because if a player loses all of their survivors, they’re eliminated from the game. And in subsequent rounds, the path options available to the remaining players will change slightly. Despite its small size, the fun components really help sell the theme. Equipping a little plastic chainsaw on your meeple before heading out to hunt some zeds is always fun, and who can resist placing their meeple in the little wooden police car before crashing into the hardware store? Tiny Epic Zombies isn't only one of the best Tiny Epic games, it also keeps up with its bigger siblings on this list.Players start with 1 colored lead survivor as well as 4 grey survivors and place the bidding marker of their color on the auction board. They also get 4 of each resource token: ammo, gas, and adrenaline. To fight zombies, players take the required amount of zombie meeples and place them in front of their group of survivor meeples. They may first spend ammo tokens to perform a Ranged Roll. During the Ranged Roll, each Kill icon (a target) rolled kills one zombie. Players ignore any other results on the dice. Without the game insert, there is tons of dead space in the box. The components don’t take up much room at all. So getting them organized with the insert is very helpful. A lot of dead space in the Hit Z Road without a game insert. I enjoy playing board games of varying lengths. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a more strategic, long game. And at other times, it’s a lot of fun to just pull out a light game to play.