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Board games for disaster lovers: The end of the world is just the beginning

2021-03-07T11:34:24.265Z


Whether zombie apocalypse, eco-disaster, atomic fallout or the extinction of humanity: the gaming table continues cheerfully after the end of the world. A small selection for disaster lovers.


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Five post-apocalypse: "Fallout", "Aftermath", "Cloud Age", "Dawn of the Zeds" and "Flottila"

Photo: Maren Hoffmann / DER SPIEGEL

You can make yourself really comfortable at the gaming table while desperately fighting for survival.

Humanity at the end, the planet is irradiated, nothing to feed and zombies on the heels - this is what a successful evening looks like.

The post-apocalypse is one of the most popular game themes, both online and offline.

Here are five board games for corona compliant small circles and great fun.

»Aftermath«: End times with mice

Two to four people, one to two hours, ages 14 and up, approx. 75 euros

Icon: enlarge Photo: Maren Hoffmann / DER SPIEGEL

Adventure games make it possible to slip into completely new roles, such as that of a graceful elf or a powerful barbarian.

I'm Grummel now: a fat guinea pig.

I have a mission - and a steak knife for hand-to-hand combat.

In "Aftermath" everyone fell victim to a mysterious catastrophe.

Bad luck.

What remained are we rodents.

My gang also includes a hamster and two mice, and we make our way from adventure book page to adventure book page.

Each one has its own game plan: sometimes it goes into the sewer system, sometimes into abandoned houses.

Finding food and defending our colony is the main thing, but everyone still has a dream of their own.

I want a vegetable garden, the hamster dreams of a toy truck, and the mice want to become even more mice.

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Together we fight against nasty geckos and mutated rats with the luck of the dice and tactics, collect stuff, arm ourselves and educate ourselves.

The game mechanics are simple, the story imaginative, sometimes even poetic.

The games build on each other.

Detailed rodent miniatures make it easy for families to access this cooperative adventure too.

Because you can help each other, age differences are not so important - the publisher specifies the age of play from 14 years, but it is possible to start earlier.

Author Jerry Hawthorne had already reinvented the rodent genre with his "Mouse and Mystic" series (of course, a dangerous cat also survived in "Aftermath").

The only annoying thing is that there is no glossary;

if there are any uncertainties you have to google again and again, the instructions are simply too short.

"Cloud Age": Zeppelins over wasteland

One to four people, one to one and a half hours, from ten years of age, approx. 47 euros

Icon: enlarge Photo: Maren Hoffmann / DER SPIEGEL

Dry land lies below us.

Once again, humanity has managed to destroy nature: the anti-ecological group "Cloud" has burned down forests and refineries, it is barren and empty on earth.

But we are floating above the clouds in airships, looking for new hope, planting seedlings and fighting the cloud militias.

You can do it alone.

Each of the competing players has an airship board to upgrade and a wealth of options.

"Cloud Age" by Alexander Pfister and Arno Steinwender is a fun optimization game that gives hope to the end times.

It can be played as one of three possible scenarios or as a campaign with seven chapters.

This has the charm that you don't have to learn all the rules at once, but can start right away with manageable knowledge and learn everything you need for the later rounds at the same time.

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Cloud Age

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Cloud Age is not overly complicated, but it packs a lot of play into the topic: You have to manage cards, improve your deck of cards, find clever routes on the game board and manage the precious resources.

Gross motorists unfortunately despair of the set-up with fiddly stickers, but the effort is worth it.

The game is a great material battle with several plans and lots of cards and pawns.

The whole time you fine-tune your strategy, tune your own zeppelin and enjoy the multitude of new possibilities that each round offers - nobody goes away empty-handed on the trains of the others either.

Story cards ensure that the whole thing does not become too abstract, but always finds its way back into a stringent narrative.

The luck factor is manageable, the tactical possibilities versatile.

"Dawn of the Zeds": Help, the zombies are coming!

One to four people, one and a half to two hours, from the age of twelve, approx. 85 euros


Icon: enlarge Photo: Maren Hoffmann / DER SPIEGEL

Blockbuster series like "The Walking Dead" have anchored the topic so deeply in the collective consciousness that a well-made zombie game has it easy to cast a spell over everyone at the table - the associated images are stored in the working memory of one's own brain, ready for use .

Captivating theme, dense atmosphere, finely crafted characters with their own stories - a gaming experience like a film in which you play a part.

In the past ten years dozens of zombie games have appeared, from the hit series »Zombicide« to children's games such as »Zombie Kids«.

Hermann Luttmann's “Dawn of the Zeds” stands out because it is so versatile: It can be played very well solo, but it is also a great communal experience in which you compete against hordes of the undead together.

And at the higher levels you can even play it hard against each other.

We compete with heroes from wrestlers to snipers to preppers and try to prevent hordes of zombies from invading the small town of Farmingdale.

Concerned citizens, refugees and heroic civilians also get in the way of them and us.

You shouldn't be put off by the five rulebooks, because the material is structured in an exemplary manner: At the beginning you only need the instructions for the basic game.

You can look up questions in the glossary and the rulebook, and after the game you don't just count your points, but read a thematically appropriate solution in the credits book.

Later you can use the advanced rule and the more difficult side of the plan.

»Flottila«

: The last bastion of mankind

Three to five people aged 14 and over, one and a half to two and a half hours, approx. 65 euros

Icon: enlarge Photo: Maren Hoffmann / DER SPIEGEL

Well, playing around with nuclear weapons wasn't such a good idea.

The climate has tilted, the planet largely irradiated, the polar ice caps melted.

The last remnant of humanity seeks salvation in the ocean.

Each of us commands a hopeful, small fleet that explores the seas, holds useful things, develops our own crew and influence and then - perhaps - joins the large artificial island of Flotilla, in which the focus is more on trade.

JB Howells and Michael Mihealsick's “Flottila” is two games in one: each player can decide at any time to switch from the “Sinkside” to the “Skyside” - then she simply turns over her cards and her tableau and plays along in the future new material according to new rules, while the others continue to use the original ones.

That can make tactical sense, but it can also be foolish (depending on whether you are me or smarter, for example).

»Flotilla« mixes a lot of things that are fun to play with into a huge board game area: You draw ocean tiles from a bag and place them tactically, you roll artifacts and other loot.

What you can do depends on your own deck of cards, which you should expand as much as possible, because every action is triggered by a crew member who has been played.

Opulent material and secondary mechanisms on their own game boards ensure that a lot happens in every round, it remains exciting until the end.

There is no fixed number of laps;

is played until the victory points are used up.

Before the counting, you shouldn't bet on who will be the winner.

"Fallout": a contaminated future

One to four people aged 14 and over, around one hour per person, approx. 49 euros

Icon: enlarge Photo: Maren Hoffmann / DER SPIEGEL

Welcome to the wasteland.

Everything is contaminated here, there are nasty opponents who want us to the leather, the terrain is difficult, every movement is risky.

But do we have a choice?

After all, there are quests to be completed - and for that we have to go on a journey.

"Fallout" by Andrew Fischer and Nathan Hajek is the board game adaptation of the classic video game.

On the way through the wasteland you have to make decisions again and again: Do I help the dealer or do I rob him?

Do I want to help the mysterious institute or its opponents?

Do I take the drug to increase my combat value, even if it makes me addicted?

All actions have consequences that go beyond one's own train.

The story is driven by intertwined narrative threads on cards.

In your turn you can travel, explore, resolve encounters or battles, complete a quest or rest.

You develop your character skills, collect (as always in the post-apocalypse) helpful items and hope for lucky coincidences.

But luck alone is not enough, you have to be able to shoot properly and not allow yourself to be radiated too much.

The game board is partly put together randomly from hidden hexagonal tiles, so the replay appeal of the four scenarios, between which one can choose, remains high.

In the basic game you compete, but you don't fight each other directly.

With an expansion module ("Atomic Alliance", around 15 euros), "Fallout" can also be played cooperatively.

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Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-03-07

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