Zombicide Black Plague: First Game

   One of the things I received for Christmas this year was a copy of Zombicide Black Plague, the fantasy/medieval version of the hit boardgame Zombicide. I'd played it once before, last May I think it was, and had enjoyed it a lot, so it went on the list for this year.

   Today we broke it out and played for the first time. The players were myself, my son Dane, his girlfriend Elysia, my friend Zach, and his son. Setup was pretty quick. I ran through the rules with everyone (it took about ten minutes to explain the basics to everyone), and then we set off on the Tutorial Quest.

Not us playing - but it is the tutorial quest

   It took a bit longer than anticipated - about an hour, as opposed to the projected 45 minutes - but we made it through the quest, all hale and whole. We moved on to the first 'real' quest (there are ten in the rules). 

The 'dashboard' - one of the things I like about Black Plague

   We had two objectives, either of which would win the game for us: activate all the objectives, thus finding the laboratory, or killing one of each Necromancer and Abomination. We started with the objectives. Things started off well for us in the quest to destroy the laboratory of the foul Necromancer. We cleared a couple of objectives, and then... Dane (playing Ann the Battle Nun) went off by himself and pulled an objective - the laboratory! Which caused a Necromancer to spawn there. And his zombie protectors. Down went Ann. The Necromancer then proceeded to attempt to escape from the board, as they are supposed to do.

   Luckily, we had one player running two characters, so we just put that character (Samson) under Dane's control. Lesson learned, we did our best to stay in a fairly tight group, especially when an Abomination spawned. In our tight group, we ran away from it, because we had nothing that could stop such a terrible monster. At least not until we found a vial of Dragon Bile! Luckily, we moved faster than the Abomination, so we kept out ahead of it. In the meantime, the wizard, played by Elysia, cut down a Necromancer, meeting one half of our objective. Change of plan! Now we wanted to find that Dragon Bile, kill the Abomination, and win!

   Two turns later, we found some. I already had a torch to light the stuff, so off we went, through the subterranean vault to get near the monster. Elysia gave me the Bile, and we lured the Abomination closer. Just as it got close, I threw the bile and touched it off with the flaming brand in my hand! With a roar, the intense flames flashed up, instantly burning the Abomination to ash, and ending the game.

   At this point we called it a day. The game is lots of fun, and I have already been given three expansions to it, including the Deadeye Walkers (zombie archers!) and two of the Guest Star packs of heroes (Joven Nerd and Paolo Somethingorother). Maybe we will try to work some of those into the next Quest.