The Walking Dead: All Out War

I wasn't planning on doing a post today, but then the postman arrived with a rather splendid box of plastic goodness!  Mantic's, The Walking Dead: All Out War was yet another Kickstarter and one that proved too irritable to resist.  As huge fan of the television programme, I have recently been enjoying the comics and when it was announced that antic had secured the rights to the comic book franchise, I knew this was going to a 'must have'.

Having backed Mantic's Mars Attacks, I was more than a little worried about the miniatures themselves and what they would be made of.  These worries soon evaporated when I exposed the first tier of the special Kickstarter edition box to reveal really good, hard plastic sculpts - phew! 

The second tier contained the cards, dice, some rather lovely vehicles and useful terrain pieces.  There was a handy, almost idiot proof, tutorial which I have run through this afternoon and I am confident that I should be able to get the hang of it.  There would appear to be plenty of scope for using it as a solo play venture, but I imagine the real fun would be playing one faction off against another in a two or more player game.  I like the threat level indicator that slowly rises through each turn making life that little be more difficult for the survivors, not unlike the experience bar in Zombicide.  Another thing to take into account is the outnumbering mechanic for the Walkers, which sees the dice they use for melee multiple alarmingly as their numbers rise - avoid being  swamped at all costs!

The sculpts themselves are pretty good and those who have enjoyed the comic books will really get a kick out of seeing the characters transferred from the page to the table.  So my first thoughts are positive, I'm not sure that it will replace the playability of Zombicide, but it seems to want to bridge a gap between wargame and boardgame and as such could be really enjoyable.  I have no doubt that those who play 7ombieTV or ATZ, will probably not see the need for another such game, but it might just be just what I need to get my zombie hoard on to the table top.

I suppose I should briefly mention the other Kickstarter that arrived before the half term break, Conan!  After backing this back in February 2015, this massive game finally arrived and I have to be honest that I was completely stunned by it.  The sheer scale of the game and the amazing amount of stretch goals meant that there was a little more than the usual raised eyebrow when the 'Saintly Mrs. Awdry' spied me trying to sneak this into the house!  Having had a good look, I have decided to pack this up and have a look after Christmas when I hopefully have a little more time.

A quick comparison shot with some Zombicide miniatures.

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