A Cranky Grandma.

by Al Butler


Cranky Grandma with a lemon twist.

A few weeks ago while out and about with my wife I had a delightful libation at an Italian restaurant in Freeport Maine. The bar had a menu of specialty drinks which really caught my “Cocktilian” (new word) eye and I felt safe in trying something a bit different. From the various and somewhat unique ingredients listed beside each house cocktail I could tell right away that the bartenders took special care with their craft, so in my mind, it was time to try something new.

The drink I chose was what we at Booze & Board Games are calling “A Cranky Grandma”. We had to rename it because I was bit knackered at the restaurant and could not remember the original. Anyway, our friend and sometime player Brandon Keller came up with this name and I feel it fits pretty well with the ingredients and nature of the drink. Why Cranky Grandma? well I suppose because this is something your old granny might drink on a bad day, or maybe the lemon (sour) Elderflower (name is old) and none too sweet combination makes one think of  "Granny on a Rampage".

So, without much further ado we present “A Cranky Grandma”.

Ingredients:
1.5-2.0 oz. Quality Gin (Hendricks or Bombay Sapphire)
¼- ½ oz. Elderflower Liqueur (handpicked flowers are used to make this)
½ oz. of Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
Tonic water
Lemon wheel, wedge, or twist for Garnish

Method:
Fill a Collin’s glass with Ice, and then add your Gin. Now squeeze in your lemon juice, you can pre-squeeze a bunch of lemons ahead of time in preparation, or you can simply take a half of a medium lemon and squeeze it right into the glass. Top off with the Tonic water, and lastly add the Elderflower Liqueur. Give it a quick stir, attach your garnish and you are all set to go.

Elderflower Liqueur.

This is a simple and fast drink to mix up, but you should always add the Elderflower Liqueur last. The density of the Liqueur insures that it will drop to the bottom, in so doing the light herbal highlights of the Elderflower will blend better with the other components more so than simply stirring. Remember Tonic water flattens quickly when stirred so; gently with the bar spoon if you please.

Some of you are saying that this is nothing more than a fancy gin and tonic, or lemon Gin Rickey, and you are not far off. However the addition of Elderflower changes the dynamic of this drink in a subtle way. Elder flowers are handpicked by small French Peasant children who are beaten regularly if they do not meet their quotas. Their quick and delicate hands gently carry the flowers to their betters who in turn distill these wonderful herbs into liqueur. Only the best of the flowers are used, and woe betide any waif who dares bruise a single petal of the harvest. Child enslavement aside;  Elderflower liqueur adds a light floral flavor to the drink and enhances the botanicals in the spirit thus creating a nuanced experience.

How cute..now BACK TO WORK!

I for one really like this cocktail as it is quick, but tasteful. It reminds me of warm summer afternoons looking out over green fields neathe a blue sky. Of children joyfully singing a harvest song whilst they labor for my benefit, punctuated by a wee cry of fear every now and again as some urchin displeases the overseer. Hmmm the beauty of it all. 

Cheers
AL

DAY TWO:Total Con, Where the Geeky Things Are.

By Tuna Farrell 

 



 

This is the second installment in a series of posts dedicated to our adventure at Total Con. Tuna secretly kept a detailed journal of the events and items of interest and we have decided it is important for us to not only share these bits of geekery with other folks but also to save them for posterity here.

Feb. 21st The vendor room wasn’t ready to open yesterday so we take some time to wander around in there. We see a lot of games we’d love to try but they’re not available to demo in the convention hall. Bummer. Still, lots of cool things that tempt us with their shiny cellophane wrappings and brightly painted images.

Quarriors set up

It’s day two of the convention and it is starting to fill up; there are definitely more people here than yesterday; though open tables are still pretty easy to find. We manage to get a copy of Quarriors from the library (the game Marvel Dice Masters is sort of based on) so we give that a go. Being familiar with the game mechanics we picked it up really quickly and it was pretty fun. A random guy walks by the table and offers to sell us his copy of Quarriors for “cheap”. Of course he keeps raising the price, which sort of aggravates me. I decide that as long as a new copy isn’t outrageously expensive I’ll buy a new one rather than give this guy my money.

It’s the principle of the thing.

Takenoko Deluxe.

We spend some time relaxing and just wandering around looking at what people are playing seeing if something catches our eye. We see a deluxe version of Takenoko (a Japanese import game that involves a panda eating bamboo. Yeah I know but It’s cooler than you might think) being played. I really liked the preview I saw of this on “Table Top”, however, I find the deluxe version a bit of a put off because the pieces are so huge. It’s beautifully made, really good quality game pieces. But all the pieces are 4-5 times bigger than the regular set, and the die that comes with the game is bigger than a softball. Plus it costs $300. I might buy the regular set, but not this collector’s edition.

Can't Stop, no seriously you Can't!

Next we play a game called “Can’t Stop”, a game from Mike’s childhood. It involves dice, a slotted board, and colored traffic cones. Yup, traffic cones. You advance your traffic cones across the board in order to be the first to the end. Believe it or not, it was fun. Not complicated, there was some real strategy involved, it was over fairly quickly, but it was pretty fun.

ApocalypZe, eh we tried.

A bit later we decide to try one of the developer games (ApocalypZe), a zombie based card game, with various survivor factions. It was .. okay. It felt overly complicated and didn’t seem to flow very naturally from one play to the next. They had obviously put a lot of effort into it and the artwork on the cards was very well done, but we probably won’t be picking this one up.

Eric Summerer of Dice Tower, with Flip Florey and Cris M.

The people from Dice Tower were doing a live recording of their show here at the con, and Mike wanted to attend. I was going along just because it was something to do and Al figured he’d show up and leave after a few minutes. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the show, and Al was even more surprised that he stayed and liked it as well. They had guests from several different gaming pod casts (Flip the Table, Not Just Another Pod Cast, and Cardboard Jungle). The Flip the Table guys are actually from Bangor Maine. This is probably as close to celebrity that I will ever actually get, so of course I am getting star struck being in such proximity to “famous” people; especially as this is a small con and we keep running into these guys everywhere.

The Pod Cast hosts talk about new games that they have played (Marvel Dice Masters gets a mention), games that they hope to play, and just general board/card game stuff. One new game they discuss is called “Doom That Came to Atlantic City” sounds pretty cool. It’s a reverse version of Monopoly. You start with a full city and then you have to summon the Elder Gods to destroy it. I’m looking forward to that one let me tell you.

They record two episodes, and at the end, perform a short skit about syndicated radio host Dr. Judy who gives dating advice and advises a female caller that her instincts that her boyfriend is cheating on her are spot on. What adult man plays board games all day?

*e-hem*

We also got some swag at the pod cast. Mike got some official Dice Tower Dice, and Al and I got some throwaway card games. Yay! Free stuff!

What's he Building in There? A win for Al that's what.

Not knowing what else to do, we decided to take one of the games we brought with us down to the game floor to play. “What’s He Building In There?” is a game I haven’t tried yet, though Mike and Al both have. In this game you are a mad scientist building a doomsday device and an escape vehicle. You have to place workers and your scientist on the board each turn to gather the materials you need to build both your device and escape. Another awesome game, even though I didn’t complete my doomsday device (I forgot my refined glass!).

Side note: There was a woman there selling cupcakes and cookies. Cookies had written on it “Bribe” to bribe your GM, or Health or Mana; cupcakes had little frosting dragons or frosting hands reaching up from inside. She also had a great business model. Roll a twenty sided dice. On a twenty you got a free cupcake, on a 17-19 you got .50 off, on a roll of one you had to buy two cupcakes. I told her “You picked the right audience for this".

I rolled a 10, Mike rolled a 17. They were pretty good cupcakes.

After several hours at Total Con I have made an observation. A majority of the people here are men over 40, in excess of 220-240 lbs. bearded, and wearing glasses.

…..

This makes me distinctly uncomfortable.

Mike and I had signed up for a con run game of Zombicide. We play this a lot amongst ourselves but we wanted to try it with a different group. Al signed up for an old Avalon Hill strategy game called Panzer Blitz while we did this.

Eight Minute Empire.

Al goes off to his game, and we head to the assigned table … no Zombicide. There’s a mother/son there waiting also, but no one is there to run the game. Mike and I decide to try out a game from the open cabinet called “Eight Minute Empire” while we wait to see if anyone shows up. Turns out the game is somewhat miss named. It took longer to play than eight minutes; though the rules only took about eight minutes to learn so maybe not.

So, no one shows up; Al finishes his game. Nothing much going on so Al decides to head up to the room with a promise/threat that he’ll come back later to check on us. Mike and I decide to wander around for a bit just to stretch our legs and hopefully our imaginations. We see one of the guys from the pod cast with a bunch of Zombicide stuff sitting out and we go over and say hello. After talking with him for a few minutes he asks us if we want to play a game. Sure!

Mega Zombicide layout with all the boards.

While he’s setting up he mentions that he had a scheduled game that no one showed up to. Turns out he had changed the assigned table because the original table wasn’t big enough and nobody updated the change on any of the lists. We had even asked one of the guys at the desk earlier and they told us the wrong table! We could have started playing over an hour ago.

Stupid convention people.

Mike our new "Star" makes his move while Tuna looks on.

So, the game itself is a custom made scenario created by combining all three Zombicide sets into one gigantic map, with a few house rules thrown into the mix. It wasn’t bad, but aside from a few small things it was too easy and didn’t pace as well as a regular game would have. The only bad thing? One of the players was some teenaged kid who was a total spaz. It wasn’t too bad in the beginning but as the game wore on he began to get on almost everyone’s nerves. He was actually taking turns for other players at some point, because he was too much of a spaz to wait for them.

For me, he was the only bad part of the convention (the hotel I consider a separate problem).

The game also lasted until 12:30 in the morning and lack of sleep might have made me a bit grumpy.

 

Later

Tuna

DAY ONE: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Total Con.

By Tuna Farrell

This is a first instalment in a series of posts dedicated to our adventure at Total Con. Tuna secretly kept a detailed journal of the events and items of interest and we have decided it is important for us to not only share these bits of geekery with other folks but also to save them for posterity here.

Feb 20th Not just another Geek Day, but a whole long Geek Weekend! Mike and Al arrive to pick me up around 10:20, so we can drive towards our long planned trip to Total Con: New England’s largest gaming convention (according to them). This differs a bit from Temple Con last year in that this convention is only about board games, whereas last year we went to a con that had a mix of themes and events. Our hope is that this one will have more access to games we can try out and more developers promoting new games (also for us to try out).

The drive down only contained two things of interest. One, the prerequisite stop at the New Hampshire Liquor Store TAX FREE BOOZE!! … you may have noticed I typed that all in caps. Because it’s important.

Second, Mike played us a pod cast called “The Dice Tower”. They review games and they talked about a game called Marvel Dice Master that sounded pretty cool to us. Plus one of the guys, Eric Summerer, from the pod cast was going to be at the convention and after listening we were hoping we could talk to him about it.

We arrive at the hotel too early to check in, but not too early for lunch so we go to a local sports bar that you can see from the highway but can only actually find by sheer luck. No, really, we drove around for a while and couldn’t find it; we turned into a side road thinking to turn around and then we could see it at the far end of the street. Still, we all got a decent beer and I got a mountain of buffalo wings.

Mmmm. Beer.

So, back at the hotel we go to check in aaaaaand there are three of us, two rooms and according to the desk clerk only two beds total. When Mike specifically reserved the rooms with 2 beds in one and 1 in the other. The response? “All the rooms are taken up by the convention”. Yeah, that’s US. Mike reserved these rooms the first day they were available. Y’know, so we could attend the convention!

So, they offer to comp Mike breakfast and send up a roll out bed. Mike tells them to "Piss Off" with the breakfast, well not really, but he was extremely angry about the mix up and refused the gesture. I offer to sleep in the roll away because I’m shorter than Mike. Plus I’m not sharing a room with Al. No offense.

The Sanctuary.

And it wouldn’t be Booze and Boardgames if we didn't talk about booze. We set up the bar in Al’s room, because he has a fridge and brought all his mixing paraphernalia. Al experiments with a new drink involving Elderflower liqueur and gin, and a couple other things. It’s a fancy gin and tonic really, but people who like gin (i.e. people who are not me) seem to think it brings out some of the flavor in the standard gin/tonic thing. Me, I’m sticking with the old standby: the Dark and Stormy. For the record, Mike did not provide any extra stormy during this trip, though he did offer.

Drinks in hand we prepare to invade the Con floor.

Okay, stuff in room, drinks in hand (secretly because you’re not supposed to drink at this convention) we head on down to the convention floor.

The first thing we see? The guy from the Dice Tower, Eric Summerer, who we listened to on the drive down. And he’s setting up the game we wanted to ask him about: Marvel Dice Masters. This may be really, really, really geeky; but that’s totally awesome. We introduce ourselves and ask him about the game and he offers to walk us through it. More totally cool.

Eric Summerer was really cool and down to earth, not like Al.

The game is sort of a cross between Quarriors and Magic: the Gathering. If you have no idea what one or more of those are, Quarriors is a deck building game but with Dice, and Magic: the Gathering is a collectible card game. And if you still don’t know … why the hell are you reading this? Anyway, Marvel Dice Masters is an awesome game. If you like Magic: the Gathering, dice games, and deck building you’ll enjoy this game.

Midgard.

Our second game was Midgard, a game about Vikings taking control of the various realms of Nordic myth. It’s a simple strategy game, but I had a lot of fun playing it. Not enough to go and buy it outright, but fun enough that I’d play it again.

Ticket to Ride.

Surprisingly, Al agrees to a game of “Ticket to Ride”. Al not being fond of games where there is no fighting or killing I did not expect him to go for this. And even more surprising he didn’t hate the game either, and thinks it might be a game he could play with his wife. It is considered one of the “Gateway Games” that brings people around to the wonderful world of tabletop gaming. ;)

After gaming around for a bit, we discover that a late night dinner is in order so we find our way to the hotel restaurant and enjoy some nice beers and burgers. Well, Mike had a fruity girly drink from the menu called a Gandalf, of course we quickly renamed it to “Gandalf the Gay”, seriously look at the picture.

Yup mike getting his Con on, drinking a "Gandalf the Gay".

Back at the room Mike and I play a round or two of Magic: the Gathering. Al actually seems to take an interest and we think we might have convinced him to perhaps start playing, but it turns out he was just exhausted. So, we have finally figured out the secret to getting Al to start playing Magic: the Gathering, just wear him down to exhaustion and put some cards in his hand ;)

Later
Tuna

February 9th; a sober, but fun, Game day.

by Al Butler

Kurt gets the low down from Mike.

This past Sunday we had another game session which went on for several hours and included all of the usual highs and lows of our get-togethers, sans alcohol that is “yeah I know”. Anyway it was a pretty “epic” day as you’ll see further on, and if you missed it I can only encourage you to show up next time and join in the fun.

We arrived around noon at Dirigo Hobbies in Gray, and after the pleasantries of “hey how you been? and how you doing?” were completed we got down business and began setting up a game of Toxic City Mall. This game is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, what with zombies that splatter you with toxic blood upon dying, and you starting out with a frying pan as a weapon. It tends to get a bit intense, but after the board was down, markers and tokens placed and much discussion of the new rules we were ready to give it a go. Kurt and his son Therin had never played any of the Zombicide games before so we took some extra time to educate them on the basics of actions, how to shoot, move etc.

While thus engaged, the owner of the store, Doug, came over and asked if would try out a piece of plexi-glass over the board tiles to see how we liked it. He has a plan for this, but more on that another time. The glass didn’t work so well as we had pushed two 6 ft. long tables against each other and the board tiles were resting right in the middle where the tables came together. This caused tiles to shift every time one of us moved the table. I think if we had a solid playing surface to start from, the glass would work really well. Also my OCD is a bit strong at times so I may have just been over analyzing it.

Layout after a few moves.

The scenario chosen, tasked the survivors with finding some other lost humans on the map represented by tokens. They then had to exit the board by driving off in either one or two of the cars available. The tricky part was there were a lot of tokens to grab and we didn’t know which ones were going to be the ones needed until we got them. Also there were four toxic walkers just waiting for us which did not give us a lot of options right out of the gate.

Tuna got some nice pistols right at the beginning and as everyone else searched the rooms in the first section they all ended up with a decent ranged and melee weapon. All that is except myself who found bottled water, rice, and of course a few undead. But with frying pan in hand I was undaunted by the fearful odds before us. (Sorry that’s the kind of thing that runs through my mind when playing).

The first few spawns were rather tame and with a bit of teamwork our survivors managed to get out of the starting area relatively unscathed. But then due to Tuna’s rather terrible shuffling ability we all of a sudden had loads of toxic zombies marching our way. Kurt found a chainsaw and really went to town on clearing out all the regular zombie groups until they took him down. Coming back as a Zombivor (yeah that’s so cool) he tanked us through enough so we could pick up two more tokens one of which was a survivor. Sadly our maniacal husky wielding hero succumbed to a large party of toxics and he was eliminated from the game. As Kurt is a decent sort, generally, we gave him the rescued survivor to play so he could keep going. Therin got to drive a Pimpmobile and run over a whole slew of ugly Zombies as well as blast his fair share with a shotgun. How many 10 year olds can say they did that?

Yeah we need that car all the toxics are covering.

Anyway, the last few tokens were in a large building on the far side of the board. By now the spawns were coming out at red experience level and we had to try and get to a safe door and try to “funnel” the marching masses of zombies, and pray we picked up the last tokens quick. As it turns out at this point I was the only one who could open doors so our whole team lost a turn waiting for my slow ass to catch up to them. Finally I wander up and kick in the door. The building consisted of ten rooms, which meant we had to flip a zombie spawn card for each of those rooms. As all of the zombie minis were pretty much on the board already this would mean a lot of extra moves for the bad guys. Mike had done the math and though he thought we could die it was our only shot. Card after card the horde came closer and closer and just when we thought we were goners the spawning was over and we could breathe a sigh of relief. Just one though, because the very next turn everyone was crushed beneath a tidal wave of stinking rotten flesh. Four plus hours in and we all wiped.

Awesome Deck Building game!

Tired and worn out Kurt and his son went home, and Tuna begged off as well. Mike and I decided to stick around and play a game of Marvel Legendary, after a sandwich that is. Legendary is a deck building game set in the Marvel comic book universe where you try to defeat masterminds and their minions. I like the game overall, but the Mastermind and scheme we picked for this match was really tough. The Dark City expansion cards which I included in the set really changed the dynamic of play. Harder but more engaging overall. We ended up losing horribly, and decided to call it a night.

Though we lost both games, we still had a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to set these titles up again with my friends and guild mates hopefully this up coming Sunday.

Cheers
AL

the Half & Half

by Al Butler

A thing of beauty.

There are moments when I simply want to sit back with my friends and enjoy a beer or two. I find that the unpretentious nature of a pint, accompanied by loud boisterous laughter, draws me as a moth to flame. And as Beer is the world’s third most popular drink overall, behind water, and then tea, it’s no surprise that you can find thousands of different brands, made by hundreds of various breweries worldwide to choose from. Personally I am particular to Guinness, as I find “the black stuff” smooth and pleasing to consume, and as a bonus it comes from the finest island the world over, Ireland.

Now you can simply pour a pint and drink it to while away the hours or you can take a moment, and craft an eye catching beer drink called the “Half & Half.”

The Half & Half consists simply of half a pint of Harp lager (also made in Dublin) and half a pint of Guinness, and if the pour be done right the Guinness will sit on top of the Harp in the glass which is rather pretty indeed.

 Ingredients:
Guinness half a pint
Harp lager half a pint
A pouring spoon or Turtle

Method:
Tilt your glass and pour in your Harp lager gently so as to reduce “heading” on the ale. Stand the glass upright on the bar and place your turtle or spoon on the rim. Next, ever so softly, start pouring your Guinness over the back of the spoon. Keep a steady hand and go slow, and you should have a nice looking drink with all gold on the bottom and black on the top when finished.

Lovely.

 “Wait a Minute Al that’s a Black and Tan not a Half & Half or whatever you are calling it!”

No it is not! A Black and Tan is made with Bass Ale instead of Harp Lager, and though almost every drink with Guinness floating on top is called a Black and Tan these days the simple fact of the matter remains that each time you change the lager or ale to a different brand, the name changes too. Which for me is important, and if you find yourself in the Republic of Ireland someday it will be important to you too. Because if you order a Black and Tan in Eire, you just may find yourself out on your ass in the street wondering what the Christ just happened.

Black & Tans search a citizen, note the dead body in the background.

The term Black and Tan has a rather negative and offensive connotation to it in Ireland, as the Black and Tans was the nickname given to the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force, which became notorious for a brutal crackdown during the independence war. They murdered, tortured and looted their way across the countryside. They burned the city of Cork, and robbed the shops laughing; they assaulted women, and shot innocents indiscriminately. These “reserves” were so vicious and cruel to the Irish people that ninety two years after they were disbanded the mere mention of the Black and Tans riles people up.

So try to keep that in mind when you pop into any fine pub in the fair city of Cork.

Eejit Poser with a Pint.

The Half & Half is in no way snotty or uppity, no matter how hard Posers and Yuppies have tried to make it so, and its combination of smooth creamy stout and slightly light sharp lager make it a wonderfully delicious drink any time of the year.

Cheers
AL

Zombicide: Toxic City Mall

by Al Butler

One of my all-time favorite cooperative board games to play with my guild mates is Zombicide by Guillotine Games. We have run through countless sessions, all of which were entertaining, tense, but most of all fun. Seriously who could not enjoy the dark sociopathic vision of a roller skating waitress named Wanda, gliding up to a pack of zombies and hacking them to bits with a chainsaw? A bit ridiculous to be sure but that is just the kind of thing that happens in this game more often than not. The popularity of this title with our group brings it back to the table time and time again. Hell Zombicide was in all three of our top five lists of 2013, number one on mine.

So it is no surprise that one of the expansions for Zombicide, named; Toxic City Mall, made its way into my collection through a Kickstarter campaign. This add on game can be played with either the original Zombicide or with the other expansion which is also a standalone title Prison Outbreak. (Which as you all know has Berserker zombies). TCM introduces a bevy of new items, rules and of course the green toxic zombies themselves hence the title. There is a lot going on with this expansion, so I have to limit myself to pointing out those particular items that really make a difference in game play, and leave off copying all the rules down. You can download a copy of the Toxic City Mall rules *here* which will give you a better understanding of some of the mechanics.

Well the first big game changer is obviously the introduction of Toxic Zombies. These green monsters give off mucus like spray (my words) when killed and thus it is best to either shoot them at a distance with ranged weapons or, have a Gas Mask (yup new item) which makes you immune to the deadly effect. Some of the new survivors which were included in the set, have an immunity skill that can be chosen at the appropriate experience level. Toxic Abominations are particularly nasty in that they cause all regular zombies in their zone to become infected each turn.

 I already mentioned Gas masks as new equipment that the players can search for and use, but here are a couple more, Assault rifles “AR-15 pimped out”; .44 Mag pistols which do 2 damage and blasts Fatties; Laser pointers, when added to certain weapons increase accuracy i.e. +1 to die rolls, and Hollow Point bullets that increase damage +1. I can see a player wielding two .44 Mag pistols with hollow point rounds, and laser sights firing away at an Abomination right now. Oh yeah there is also a wee FLAMETHROWER you can pick up as well.

Having some of these in a survivor’s inventory is essential to your survival in TCM as this expansion can make a game go south really, really, fast. Don’t start thinking that because you have the flamethrower that you are simply going to waltz through a scenario like Arnold Swarzenegger in Terminator. No sir, the game is balanced enough that each play and every decision matters right to the end, you might have great gear, but this isn’t World of Warcraft, and the zombies just don’t stop coming.

 Another cool part of the expansion is the "Ultra Red" mode gameplay and its unique equipment.

This does everything.

 Ultra Red mode allows Survivors to gain experience beyond the red danger level and to get additional skills. They also get to use Ultra Red weapons which are so powerful only red level survivors can equip them. These cards are shuffled into the deck and must be searched for. Ultra Red play works like this:

“When your Survivor reaches the Red Level, put the experience tracker to “0” and add any experience points gained past the minimum required to hit the Red Level. Your Survivor is still on the Red Level and keeps his Skills. Count additional experience points as usual and gain unselected Skills upon reaching Danger Levels again. When all the Survivor’s Skills have been selected, choose a Skill among any Zombicide Skills (except those featuring brackets, such as Start with [Equipment], for example) upon reaching Orange and then Red Level.”

So your Survivor has the potential to be a “super survivor” which I daresay you may need on some of the larger scenarios.

 The last thing I would like to highlight is the introduction of what the game describes as Zombivors. These are Survivors who have fallen to the undead and have returned only to fight alongside their old human friends. Zombivors are much tougher than mere humans as such they take five full hits to kill rather than the two for their counterparts. When a player dies he/she can be resurrected as a Zombivor on the next player's turn. The new Zombie keeps all experience and equipment they had prior to becoming a pile of rotten flesh and get to choose new skills. Their miniature is replaced on the board with their Zombivor mini (which are all so much cooler looking) and the game moves on. Hmmm so in reality you could during a very long and epic game become an Ultra Red Zombivor!!!!

This past weekend I solo play tested scenario one from the rulebook which incorporated the original Zombicide and TCM. I wanted to get a feel of the mechanics before our next game day and see how they worked. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised. The Toxics ramped up the tension right out of the gate as I tried to find my way across the board. I spent a good amount of time searching rooms for gear trying to get decent ranged attack weapons. As it turns out I didn’t search long enough for, about a half hour later, my little band of four was completely over run and destroyed. Every flip of the card and roll of the dice kept me on edge wondering what was coming next, and I had so much fun I wanted to start all over again. Sadly my wife let me know I had big boy responsibilities and it was time to put my toys away.

Me getting my ass kicked.

 Overall TCM is an awesome expansion to an already epic game line. If you have not already added it to your list of "need to haves" I suggest strongly that you take a close look at this one. Hopefully come next game day we will get to go on a toxic zombie killing rampage as a group, I know the guild will love the twists that these green blighters bring to the game.

Cheers
AL

*note: We have not received nor do we anticipate receiving any compensation for our endorsement of the game mentioned in this post. The opinions and views expressed are our own and not influenced by outside parties in any way. If you wish for to send us money by all means we’ll take it, however we will fully disclose such in writing and then say and do what we want anyway. Thanks.