Plaid Hat Games PH1001 Dead of Winter: The Long Night

Dead of Winter is a semi-cooperative game detailing the trials and tribulations of a colony of survivors in their first winter following the zombie apocalypse. There are lots of zombie games about at present but what first caught my eye about this one was the stunning artwork on the box and components. The production values are high throughout with clear and flavourful graphics. I won't go into detail about rules etc; suffice it to say that each player controls two colonists at the beginning of the game, all with their own special abilities and influence level and the group, as a whole has an overall objective to complete to win the game. Each turn consists of a new crisis afflicting the colony which the players have to deal with by spending the actions available to them. For example you might send one if your colonists out to the nearby town to search for supplies and food or you may use them to build barricades or try to clear zombies from particular locations etc. all the while that players are dealing with crises, the players need to work toward the group objective but also their own private agenda that they draw at the beginning of the game. They may need to amass the most food or medicine for example. However, it's also possible that one of the group is a traitor, working entirely towards their own ends which are at odds with the rest of the colony! Game play is very simple but also very tactical and the best laid plans can go astray due to the random element in the game: the Exposure Dice. Whenever a colonist moves through the winter cold to a new location or battles a zombie they must roll the dice. They may suffer exposure, take a wound or, worse still, be bitten! Colonists bitten in places crowded with other colonists can see the zombie plague rip quickly through the other survivors unless someone takes drastic action ( you know what that involves!!) Another fun element are the Crossroads Cards, randomly drawn, each card brings in interesting plot points which require players to make a choice, some of them drastic, between moral dilemmas. They don't apply all the time, the character the card is keyed to May not be in play for example, but they do add a sense of story to the game. All in all I love this game. It looks great, is easy to play but is different each time, giving it lots of replayability. Player interaction is also very good, especially when the group suspects a traitor is present! It's also fairly quick to play, even with a new group of players. Definitley worth a try!

\\\\\SHORT REVIEW///// Highly recommend it! Great for every type of person, smart or dumb it’s intuitive to learn and play. This standalone expansion has a similar number of components found in the original game however it also includes 3 extra modules that are all unique and exciting to play. This is odd as this is cheaper than the original game even though it surpasses it greatly with variety and substance. Unique and thought-provoking narrative is provided by each game and you can keep replaying this game knowing it will never get stale. Be warned that a decent sized space is needed. I do not recommend this game to people who have NO intention of learning the game as you won’t be able to pick it up easily if you are new to board games. I also don’t recommend this game to people who are going to only play a single game with new board game players, this is because warm up games are needed to get past the learning period and get to the good stuff (proper storytelling, tension, surprising twists etc). The game is so intuitive to learn that my family has mastered it only after a few games (trust me, that’s saying something)! REPLAYABILITY [⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆] STORY TELLING [⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆] COST [⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆] LOOKS [⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆] FUN FACTOR [⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆] STRATEGY [⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆] NEW MODULES [⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆] PICK UP AND PLAY [⋆⋆⋆] (long time to set up, preparation games are needed for new players) BUY THIS GAME and have fun! \\\\\IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO BUY THIS GAME///// I recommend that if you buy this game to have at least one person look at the rules and teach themselves how to play, after taking charge after a few rounds everyone should know how to play the game. The modules will be confusing to new board game players so if you are playing with them I would only introduce at most the improvement module to not over confuse them and yourself. If on the other hand, you are playing with board game pros the game handles this by allowing hardcore play for example. This allows for all walks of life to enjoy this game to its full potential. I’m trying to get my family addicted to board games and this is the second game I bought. I found it easier to teach them the game initially by referring to the information card that each player is given. I really recommend referring to this card as frequently as possible to increase the independence of each player and their overall knowledge of the game. \\\\\LONG REVIEW///// I was motivated to write a review as there isn't that much information on “The Long Night” standalone expansion compared to the original (When I posted this there are over a hundred reviews for the original game however only around 5 reviews on this standalone expansion). Something that is not made as blatantly obvious as I would like is that you get near the same number of components sold in the original game, they don’t skimp out on anything. When you buy this game, you are also given 3 extra modules that you can add at your discretion which are each unique and can cater to everyone’s interest and knowledge of how the game works. The artwork is beautiful, the pieces are made of strong card so that it will survive years of abuse, the number of flat figurines is immense. Because of the number of tokens, location pieces, cards etc you will need a decent sized table to fit everything on, especially if you include the modules. The story elements are amazing. When you take a break from the game you will be thinking about how to play the next move, strategists will love this. This game can be played fully cooperatively or a traitor can be added, this adds tension to the entire game and can add a shocking end to your game. Prepare yourself for the possibility of losing loving/strong relationships after backstabbing begins. The replay value is astounding, as someone who is extremely stingy when it comes to money this game is definitely worth every penny, it costs less than most other board games so that's a bonus. This game is a STEAL at < £30 when the original game has less substance and is more expensive. If you are not worried about owning the original game and purely want the better game you need to buy the “The Long Night” game. Buying the original game is up to you, I personally haven’t, however, the increase in characters and special events can sway the richer of us to pay extra. Like said previously, the only time I do not recommend this game is where you know that the people you will play with will not budge when it comes to learning the game initially or when you are in a situation where you could only play this game once with a group and that’s it (warm up games are needed to know how to play). There’s still so much more to mention, special scenarios, adult themed cards etc. These are either explanatory or are detailed very well in the rulebook that comes with the game. I can't recommend this game enough! I’ve bonded with my family over my nerdy passion so I can’t be happier :) \\\\\BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH MODULE///// IMPROVEMENTS MODULE: This module is extremely easy to pick up and I personally added it to my first game without a problem. It’s all about upgrading your colony to give you an advantage in certain situations. This again adds more story to the game that is being played (my family burst out into laughter after I tried to punch a zombie from a tower we just built, oddly enough you needed a ranged weapon to be able to do that). BANDITS MODULE: Now you must fight another force other than zombies, sneaking into their base is very much a risk-reward situation. The game can lead to someone being the leader of the bandits which is always entertaining. RAXXON MODULE: This module is my favourite as it includes the special zombies and the pills. You get excited whenever a special zombie attacks you however you then remember that this zombie could cost you the entire game. They are varied and if you enjoy zombies you’ll just be entertained by their premise. Pills are another risk-reward situation that is to do with indefinitely provided enhances or downgrades.

Our objective to win the game was to deplete two non-colony locations of their resources. So far, so good: no casualties, morale still safe, and zombies at bay. The Hospital was nearly empty, with the School not far behind – we felt close to success on our first playthrough. Then crisis struck: Overpopulation! Too many useless mouths to feed. This crisis required that we submit food cards directly, as well as feed the colony normally for the turn. We were struggling to do either, unable to find enough food in any of the locations we tried. We reached the last player’s turn, knowing that we couldn’t fulfil the crisis’s requirements, nor feed the colony. The penalty for not completing the crisis would be the death of two survivors. We accepted this, came to terms with it, and sent the two ill-fated souls out on their last desperate mission to find more food. No such luck. With our possible moves for that turn exhausted, we proceeded to the next phase, already knowing the fate of our tragic survivors. We resolved the various stages as per normal, failing to feed the colony, resulting in starvation for that turn and the deduction of one morale point – no problem, still two remaining. We moved on to the crisis, which we hadn’t completed, and selected the two survivors to meet their doom, removing them from the board. Then we remembered a minor detail in the rulebook – the death of a survivor results in the loss of one morale point. Overpopulation claimed two of our survivors, and to our horror, we realised it also reduced us to 0 morale, ending the game. So close, yet so far! None of us had completed our secret objectives, so we were all losers. But, to our consternation, one of us revealed that they had a betrayal objective all along, but had perfectly concealed their motives in faux ignorance, this being our first time playing the game! All along they had been discarding and withholding food and tools. This ended a 5-year relationship, but began a new one with an absolutely fantastic board game! Tl;dr: a really outstanding board game, with huge re-playability. It’s difficult but fair, challenging us to plan every move ahead and work together (on the surface); victory will be all the sweeter for all of the problems you must overcome to attain it. It is complicated, and for our first game we kept the rulebook constantly on hand, just to ensure that we were playing the game correctly. But once you get to grips with it, the game is designed to run very smoothly, with all cards providing helpful prompts and details. The characterisation and storylines are genius, and there’s a real emotional investment in your survivors and their struggle – particularly if you draw Sparky the faithful stunt dog. If the genre appeals to you, then buy it, it feels like real value for money. It's playable for two to five people, but I think you could include more in some form if you wished - playing in pairs would still be fun, I think. 10/10 Would starve and be betrayed again.

GAMEPLAY This game involves you controlling a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland in the harshest of winters, hunting for supplies and killing the undead (and sometimes each other) in a fight to survive. You are housed in a makeshift colony and spend each turn either going to one of six locations (Garage, Police Station, Hospital, School, Grocery Store, Library) to look for items, or staying put, fighting the endless hordes of zombies that come your way wanting to ruin your home. Doing this is often a fine balance; players have to send the survivors they control out to look for enough supplies to meet the food requirements of the colony but can't do this too often as they also have to make sure they kill enough zombies every turn; if a location receives more zombies than there are places for it becomes "overrun", meaning it can no longer be accessed and anyone there at the time instantly dies. And if this wasn't hard enough, players also have to deal with "crises", which are certain themed events which require players to stockpile a stated number of a certain resource (tools, medicine or possibly additional food) in that round or otherwise face a cruel punishment which can be as severe as two survivors dying! Whilst doing this, players have to work together to complete a common goal (such as "collect 20 zombie samples" or "survive 10 rounds") as well as their own secret objective (such as "all your survivors must have one item equipped"). However this is not as straight forward as you may first think, as there is a small chance there is a traitor in your midst, which has a secret objective that the common goal must fail... They must go about this subtly though as to avoid getting "evicted" from the colony, forcing their survivors to be confined to the six other locations and fend for themselves... REVIEW I only played this game a couple of times before I wanted to buy it for myself: It's so much fun due to its in-depth gameplay mechanics: As there are so many decisions you have to make every turn, often quite difficult ones, it makes it quite challenging and fun, unlike some board games which follow a very linear decision process every time. This tied in with it's immersive design, with all the items following the zombie/post apocalyptic theme along with loads of narrative listed on the cards (a prime example being the crossroad cards, which are cards read out to each player before their turn, which poses you with a difficult decision with unknown consequences based on a short zombie/apostolic setting/scenario), gives the game a lot of character and your decisions more meaning. The game is also very well balanced; there are dozens of items and characters and combinations of the two to play with, and yet none seems ridiculously overpowered. Furthermore, players which may appear to be losing and have a lot of bad luck go their way can actually still do really well: Just the other day I had someone who was down to their last survivor and last bit of health, only to reveal that they had completed their secret objective regardless, whereas the rest of us with three survivors each and much better items had not! This makes such a refreshing change as some other complex games I've played, where if you don't get off to a good start it's very hard to get going, making it feel like you've lost the game before it's even begun. Due to the fact that you can have a different objectives, both common and secret every game you play (with the objectives being quite varied in nature, from killing certain amounts of zombies, to collecting items of a certain type and so on) the game has a lot of re-playability: I've played several games now and each has been rather different! Admittedly the game is more expensive than most, but it is well worth it. Not only are you getting an awful awful lot of cards, tokens and items for the price (see photos attached) but the game in general is of very high quality. None of the pieces feel flimsy or like they're going to break, with all the cards and tokens being made out of thick durable card: You even get given several plastic resealable bags to sort everything into! My only downside to this game is it can be quite confusing at first, especially to newcomers who haven't played this sort of game before. Having said this however, there is a very informative (albeit long) rule book, and even a video tutorial on the makers website for you to look at if you get stuck along the way. And believe me, taking the time to learn this game is most definitely worth it: Would highly recommend! Pros: # High amounts of re-playability. # Well polished, balanced and thought out gameplay mechanics. # No items or characters are ridiculously overpowered. # High quality board, characters and cards. Cons: # Quite complex for beginners # Can be slightly on the long side, especially if you have several players playing.

This is a really brilliant game. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a serious board game that might normally be put off by their perceived complexity. Whilst the rule book is relatively "thick" it is very well written and it takes no time at all to get the hang of the game mechanics. We bought it for our son this Xmas and by the end of the holidays we had played 5 times are were still enjoying it. The balance of the game has clearly been very well thought out. Each of our games ended on a real cliff hanger with the possibility that either the survivors or the "zombies/winter" won. The idea of having individual objectives as well as group objectives worked very well as did the outside chance of having a betrayer in the midst who could be exiled if identified. I won't try to describe the game setting as this is covered very well by others. Again: if you are looking to "move up" from the standard fare have a go at this beautifully produced and very clever strategy game. Our 12 year old daughter loved it and was well able to cope with the rules and probably was keener than the rest to keep on playing.

I bought this game after watching the NRB playthrough on YT as it looked like good fun. Unboxed and played it for the first time with my wife last night so this is my first impression. Warning - contains spoilers. On unboxing, the first thing I noticed was that the locations are made of flimsy card. My copy had obviously been stored somewhere fairly humid as these were warped and don't sit flat on the table. This is a problem as the standees are very lightweight and so don't stand up very easily. All in all, the player cards are great quality and the artwork is great but I can't help feeling that if the locations had been made out of sturdy cardboard, it would look a lot better quality. My other disappointment on unboxing was that I was missing 4 of the little plastic standee stands. A minor annoyance I know, but I can't ever remember having missing pieces in any of my other games. Anyway, to the review. What did we like? The theme - Obviously heavily influenced by the walking dead, it captures the zombie survival experience well. The exposure die - The trepidation when rolling for exposure is unreal. We were very fortuitous with our rolling last night but I'm sure that will change. The idea that a bite can just kill one of your characters with no way of reversing it is brutal but fits perfectly into the zombie survival theme. The action dice - I'm not usually a fan of rolling for actions but this game does it well as players roll all their dice together and then get to choose what actions the rolls apply to on their turn giving you time to plan what you want to do. You can also spend food tokens to increase your results, which is a great way of helping out the traitor without giving the game away. Even without that though, there are enough actions that can be taken with any die roll so you're never feeling completely useless. The survivors - each survivor has their own skills and special ability which brings the gaming experience to life and I'm sure will help with the replayability of the game. The artwork and vocation of each character is just enough flavour to get you attached to the characters and provides scope for the players to really use their imaginations creating back stories for their survivors as they go along. Secret objectives - the idea that there could be a traitor in the midst is just fantastic. It's great winning together as a cooperative but the seeds of distrust are sown every time somebody makes a blunder or doesn't play as optimally as you would expect. We didn't actually pull the betrayal objective, so nobody got exiled in our game but we are looking forward to that coming about in future games. Even without it though, the indignation from my wife at the end of the game when I revealed that I'd been hoarding food cards after she'd kept us from starvation the entire game was something else. I'm sure she'll forgive me one day! What didn't we like? The build quality - as mentioned above, most of the components are well designed and good quality but the player reference cards and locations are made of this stiff but thin card and in our case came warped. The player references might as well be made of paper as they don't really come into the game but I feel the locations would have been much better made from thicker cardboard or even just incorporated into a larger game board. The fact that they don't sit flush on the table is just so annoying. I'll be getting them in a press asap to sort this. The zombies/helpless survivors - whilst the survivors have all been lovingly designed, the zombies appear to be a bit of an afterthought, with just 3 designs repeated 10 times each. As such, they don't really feature into the story. I feel that if each zombie had it's own unique artwork, players are more likely to develop their own stories around these, picking zombies to kill based on their own prejudices but instead killing zombies just feels like part of the game mechanics rather than being essential to the narrative of the game. It would also be good to see zombie versions of each of the survivors to replace them after they are bitten. The helpless survivors are just shadowy figures and so again don't really add to the narrative. The crisis deck - this was probably the most underwhelming part of the gameplay. The crisis never really felt like something that was unachievable. It might have been because we were playing a shorter game but it didn't really add to the drama and it was also a little bit unimaginative in that it was always about collecting a number of cards with a particular icon. I'm sure in games with higher players counts this might be more difficult to achieve but it never felt out of reach with just two players. I suppose this really comes into its own when there is a traitor but falls flat when there isn't. It would be better if the crisis deck gave you other tasks to complete like clearing zombies or moving survivors to the colony as this would interact with other elements of the game and make for interesting choices (and provide other ways for the traitor to play his hand a little more inconspicuously). The rulebook: it's not the worst rulebook in the world but it isn't completely intuitive and without having watched a group play on YT, we would have struggled to pick it up easily. The single worst part of the rules is how it treats the crossroads cards. Whilst there is a reminder at the bottom of your reference card, it would be so much better if these were just dealt out to all players at the beginning of the round (we will be doing this from now on). The amount of times we forgot to deal them and had to go back over the turn to see whether they applied was ridiculous. I'm sure this will improve with more playthroughs but it definitely gets treated as an afterthought in the rules, despite being one of the best parts of the game and is an additional bit of complexity that can easily be overlooked. Overall rating: we're giving this game a strong 4 out of 5 as it plays well enough at 2 players but expect that it really comes into its own at higher player counts. We will be testing this at our next games night so will provide an update afterwards. Update: So we played a 5-player game of Dead of Winter at our last games night and it was great fun. The crisis deck became slightly more interesting at a higher player count as it was much more difficult to acquire the required number of items, so our morale suffered greatly as a result (and would have led to a loss if I hadn't have been exiled and got a clutch victory that way). As such, the game was a lot harder with more players and presented different challenges - just trying to keep on top of the food supply was hard enough.

Played this game a few times before I bought my very own copy. If you love strategy board games (and zombie related films etc) then you would enjoy this. You can choose how long the game is going to be which is bonus as a lot of these type of games can go for ages. Usually a short game takes about 45 minutes depending on obviously the speed of the players. It does take a while to pick up all the different aspects of the game and very easy to forget some steps - especially the crossroad cards which is a very important part of the game really (being a crossroads game after all). Only down side is you roll a die to determine if you get killed whilst moving or when attacking. You can use item cards to avoid doing this but you can easily eat up all the cards that you might need at a later stage. Basically the object of the game is to complete a group objective that everyone is working towards (unless you are a betrayer who wants the group to fail). Also each player will have their own secret objective such as collecting certain items which can hinder the group as a whole. You can play the game without a betrayer which I would recommend if starting out with this game as it gets everyone used to the dynamics. Each player starts with 2 survivors each and on their turn either move to a location to search/kill zombies or stay at the colony to protect it. The survivors have their own abilities which usually dictates what they will be doing in the game. On each turn there is a separate crisis to avoid by the group collecting a number of certain cards. A betrayer can add cards of another type which acts as a -1 when the total count is done. Adding to the crisis cards is secret so you won't know who put in what. You need to remember to contribute to the crisis when you can, supply the survivors staying at the colony with food, keeping the colony clean (if you use a food or medicine card for instance this is added to the waste at the colony and mustn't go to 10 otherwise the group loses 1 morale). Morale usually starts around 6 or 5 on a short game and if it goes down to zero it is game over. Morale is also lost in other ways like a survivor dying. A short game usually consists of 5 to 6 rounds so can go quite quick if you are playing with people who don't ponder over their turn for 2 hours. Overall I would recommend this game. It is a bit pricey but it does come with a lot of components and is very well made.

I've been looking for a game in this genre for a while, something that not only covers the theme, but incorporates the survival element, the relationships between survivors and the inevitable escalation - DoW doesn't disappoint. The rules seem complicated to start with, but as soon as you play a turn, you realise that they are not, also included is a handy crib sheet for all players to have. When you play, at first things seem easy to manage, gather supplies, food, fuel weapons, even the number of zombies on the board seem manageable, everyone working together for the good of the colony...then something happens, someone makes a questionable move, leading to paranoia, food gets scarce, zombies start adding up... And... Then there are the, quite frankly, brilliant crossroads cards, which add to the narrative, through some real curve balls and morale dilemmas. I've played it four times already, and each time has been varied and interesting. The number of variations the game has, from the sheer number of survivors, scenarios, game modes, hard core mode, it has replayability in spades. And did I mention hard? I've yet to 'win' a game, and it doesn't really matter, I keep coming back for the experience it gives for anywhere between 45 mins to 2 hours. Its funny, devastating, it will question your morales, it will give you tense fist biting, eye covering moments and it will destroy you in equal measure, but you will have fun doing it!