Board Game Research - Last Night On Earth

Last Night On Earth
Last night on earth is a zombie based scenario game. It has no basis of books but does seem to follow a very "zombie apocalypse" movie theme but makes fun of it in a lot of ways by being very stereotypical.

The board for Last Night on Earth is by far the most interesting I have ever seen. The board has a center piece with two sides, one is the normal town center and the other is a mansion for use in the "Defend the Manor House" scenario. The board also has 6 different L shaped boards, which 4 are chosen at random and placed around the center piece making the board different each time you play. The board uses squares but you are still able to move in whichever direction you want giving the game a strategic feel and not limiting you to moving along a single line.

There are two separate teams in Last Night on Earth. One side plays as the heroes and the other side plays as the zombies. Each of which contain their own set of rules. Before the game can begin, the scenario must be selected for a total of 5 different games and the board is set up accordingly.

Heroes

Depending on how many people are playing, everyone gets a set amount of heroes with a maximum of 4 being on the field at once. For example, if 3 people were playing, 1 person would play as the zombies and 2 people would get 2 heroes each. The heroes choose out of 8 available heroes at random and then place their character cards next to the table and take the appropriate model from the pile. They then place their model on their starting location but if that is not available then they place their model in the center of the board and gain a free hero card. 

Heroes must follow a list of things they can do and in a certain order. During the game they get to first either move (using a D6) or search the building they are in for a hero card. Next they can choose to exchange items with any other hero in the same space as them, then they can choose to choose any ranged weapons that they have (gained through hero cards) and finally fight any zombies that occupy the same space as them.

Zombies

 

Again the amount of players determine the amount of zombie players on the board but there can only be a maximum of 2 zombies players at any given time (each player gets 7 zombie models or 14 if there is only 1 zombie player) The zombie models do not have any character cards (unless they get a zombie hero) and do not lose their zombies permanantely but instead just keep bringing them back onto the board indefinitely (just like a real zombie horde). At the beginning of the game, the zombies must roll 2D6 and that is how many zombies they get on the board at the start. Zombies are brought onto the board through zombie spawning pits marked with red crosses on the board and each of the zombies must be places on these spaces evenly (if you have 8 zombies, 2 must be placed on each of the 4 zombies spawning pits)

The zombies have a lot more things to do during each turn. First they must move the sun tracker down one (each scenario has different amount of turns to complete and use a sun tracker to keep track of what turn it is) The zombies must then roll to see if they can bring in more zombies (they must roll 2D6 and get a higher number that the amount of zombies on the board, they can then choose zombie cards (maximum of 4 in their hand at any time), then they can move (only 1 space per zombie) but they are able to move through walls (they also have other restrictions where they must move into a hero space if they are next to them and cannot move away from heroes if they are in the same space as them. Then they must fight any heroes that they are in the same space as them and finally must roll a D6 to bring in more zombies if they suceeded at getting a higher number than the number of zombies on their previous roll.

Fighting

The fighting in Last Night on Earth is quite simple and takes place in the majority of turns. The zombies get to roll a single D6 whilst the heroes get to roll 2xD6. The players must try and get the highest number (heroes do not add their D6 rolls together) For example if the zombie player rolled a 5 and the hero rolled a 2 and a 4 then the zombie would win as he/she has the highest number. Also, all zombies win on a tie and if a hero rolls a double (and has the highest number) the zombie is instantly killed. After the rolls have been made, the players can use any cards to try and alter the outcome of the dice roll.

Conclusion

Last Night on Earth is by far my favourite of all the board games that I have talked about in my research. The style of the game is very geeky and all of the graphics used in the game are real-life pictures of the characters or the items on each of the cards. The numerous scenarios and also the changeable board gives the game a lot of replayability as well as being able to play a very different game depending on what team you are on. The zombie team is a lot different to play that the heroes so that also lets you play a totally different game each time. The style of the game is also very good, it uses real pictures for the items and characters which gives it a very movie-like feel to that game. Each of the hero and zombie cards have "quotes" at the top of them, they are not from any movie but are stereotypical, which again adds to the theme of the game. 

Last Night on Earth also have expansions that you can buy which allows you to further the game experience. These expansions can give you more scenarios or new heroes for you to play with. With the main game, you also get extra tokens that are not needed in the provided scenarios which allow you to make new scenarios to play, which is very popular amongst geeks.