22 Dec 09
Many a gamer has nurtured the dream of creating his or her own game and getting it published, but it’s very few who actually follow through. Why? Because it takes years, is bloody hard, and is horrendously expensive, that’s why.
However one crazy and committed soul who has gone all the way is Jim Bailey of Grindhouse Games. His boardgame Incursion is an incredibly fun combat game set in the kind of alternative WWII-with-zombies familiar to readers of Hellboy, with a bit of a grungy Tarantino feel thrown in for good measure. The game has often been compared to Space Hulk because they both use an action point system, but it really is a very different game with a different feel. In Incursion the power-armour US grunts go toe-to-toe with Nazi zombies, the vicious Blitzhund, and the bizarre results of secret experiments gone wrong. Throw in a deck of Battle cards and you have a fast-moving, tactical, thematic gaming experience.
Jim has been making his game available as ‘print-and-play’ for a while now, and selling a range of absolutely gorgeous metal miniatures that really make the game look spectacular. But his real dream has been to have the game published, and after months of work the game is just about to be released. From the outset Jim has been determined to make the best quality product possible, and it’s probably because of this that he’s gathered around him a group of like-minded designers and developers. Go have a look at the final game here.
I’m proud to have contributed in a small way to the game by creating the reference sheet you can see there in the photo.
There’s only about 300 left of this first print run, so what are you waiting for? Not only will you be getting a fantastic game, but you’ll be supporting a dedicated self-publisher of a quality game—and I for one am eager to see what he comes up with next. Head off to the Incursion website and order a copy now.
Board & Miniatures Games zombies
05 Nov 04
I’ve become obsessed by zombies! This great little game is for all you zombie movie fans out there… not only is a lot of fun, but it’s a free download. There’s also a little community of zombie game fans adding new rules to it all the time here.
I downloaded the game, mounted the boards and cards on foamcard and card, and found some some old painted zombie and human miniatures which made a huge difference to the game atmosphere (told you I’m a game geek). If you happen not to have some painted zombie miniatures lying around (what’s wrong with you?) you can buy some via the game download page. The rules are simple to learn—the map is of a house and garage; the humans have to search all the search squares available for weapons, and the occasional nasty surprise, and the zombies have to kill all the humans. A simple action point system keeps the zombies slow, but since they keep coming until there’s four times the number of zombies as humans… the game captures the feeling of a slow but relentless zombie assault really well.
I played the zombies and my friend played three humans, two guys and a girl. Things got off to a big start when one of the guys ran straight for the car boot, discovered a ‘power drink’ and headed for the garage, only to be crash tackled by my first reinforcement zombie that appeared next to him on that side of the board and zombified him. Suitably chastened, the other guy and the girl, who had gone for the front door of the house, headed straight for the search squares. The zombies started piling in.
Eventually armed with the pistol and the rifle the two humans started dishing it out, but by this time the house was filling up with zombies. The girl was getting hemmed in the bedroom when she searched the cupboard and got a Surprise! card—an extra zombie—to add to her woes.
A few house rules on the spot always help when there’s a bit of confusion, so in our game we decided humans couldn’t make it out windows, used the extra Outta My Way! rules for dodging zombies, and decided that after an Oops! roll (a 1 on a dice) with a firearm, which usually means no more ammo and throwing the gun away, a human could keep it until finding an Ammo card and reload.
In the meantime the other human was being chased around the living room, occasionally stopping to use his ammo-less rifle as a baseball bat… he soon discovered a new tactic however, which was to back out of a door and then barricade the door from the outside… a pack of zombies lined up on the other side then proceeded to smash through the barricade to get at him.
The two humans met up near the garage and as luck would have the guy found the car keys in the boot and headed for the tyre-screeching escape… we then ruled he couldn’t escape without his girlfriend so, dodging a pack of zombies on the lawn and taking a couple out with her recently-reloaded pistol, she made it to the other side of the car and the two of them made a hasty getaway, no doubt glancing briefly at their zombified friend reaching after them in the rear view mirror as they escaped…
See how much fun board-gaming can be? Four double-barrelled shotguns out of five.
More: You can download my own re-work of the cards (with colour backs) here.
Board & Miniatures Games zombies
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