At this year’s Gen Con another Martin Wallace game, Via Nebula, received a lot of praise and hype. Although Hit Z Road bears no resemblance to Via Nebula, the two games share one similarity: they both begin to shine as the game enters its later rounds. Decisions become more interesting and the tension is ratcheted up a notch or two as the end game nears. Via Nebula is all about connecting the right paths to deliver goods while Hit Z Road is concerned with having enough resources to fight off or run away from those last hordes of zombies. Name a popular gaming theme, and chances are there's a Tiny Epic version of it. Tiny Epic Zombies recreate the classic mall survival scenario, with locations, weapons, heroes and meeples squeezed into the series’ signature tiny box.

The game ends after eight rounds of Auctions and Encounters. If there is ever only one player remaining at any point in the game, then they win immediately. However, if two or more players survive all of their encounters, then they’ll receive bonus points based most resources and most remaining survivors. Players then add the VPs from their encounter cards and the most points among the living wins the game. A Slice of Fried Gold or Brainless Distraction?Skull with lightning: 1 of the player’s survivors has been bitten and will die unless the player spends 1 adrenaline token to save the survivor. If they choose not to (or can’t) spend an adrenaline token, they must lose one of their survivors.

Hit Z Road, though, could be the Wallace game that flies under the radar. Besides the uninspiring name, gamers might take one look at the zombie theme and immediately pass. At first glance the bidding mechanism seems out of place in a zombie-themed game, but it drives the tension in Hit Z Road. All of the paths are laid out in front of the players, so you’ll know which path offers the most reward for the least amount of risk. For example, a card may have 3 ammo tokens as its resource reward and it may offer 1 VP, but you must fight 3 zombies to gain that VP. Since each ammo token is worth 2 dice, you could spend two of your newly gained ammo tokens on 4 dice to blast through the 3 zombies during your Ranged Roll. However, if you roll miserably, then you’ve wasted your ammo and you’re looking at a Melee Roll with multiple zombies. If you’re low on adrenaline tokens, you may lose a survivor if you suffer another bad roll. Of course, you could spend your fuel tokens to flee, but then you’d lose the VP. Don’t call me Daryl.Because if a player loses all of their survivors, they’re eliminated from the game. And in subsequent rounds, the path options available to the remaining players will change slightly. I know our youngest child is now a teenager, but I can’t imagine pulling this out to play with younger kids. Our neighbors and friends still have kids in the younger age range and I can’t imagine playing it with them. For starters, I wouldn’t want them to be disturbed seeing some of the card images. Dead of Winter features a number of cooperative scenarios, along with an optional secret traitor. Each survivor must work together to keep their fledgling colony alive by scavenging for resources in the surrounding buildings, saving survivors and building barricades, while secretly furthering their personal ambitions, whether they align with the rest of the group or not. Yet, I don’t find myself with the urge to play it over and over. I can see myself pulling it out as a fun game around Halloween time, but probably not getting to the table more often.

Zombies remain one of the big icons of horror - especially action horror - but that doesn't mean they have to be limited to just films and TV. In fact, there's plenty of zombie board games out there to bring the ravenous horde to your tabletop, either with you trying to survive, escape, bring down or even control the undead themselves. With that in mind, we've outlined the best zombie board games below, to bring a little more mortality to your games night. Best zombie board games Hit Z Road: The genre takes a sharp left turn where players bid for the most optimal route while driving cross-country across a zombified USA. City of Horror knows it's not enough just to survive during the zombie apocalypse - we also need to establish a society. We won't be passing civic policies or nominating representatives, however; we'll be voting on who gets fed to the zeds. If more than one player survives 8 rounds, these players total up their points from the adventure cards they’ve collected. They can also score bonus points. There are 4 bonus categories and the player with the most in each category will score 3 bonus points in that category. For example, the surviving player with the most ammo will get 3 points. If there is a tie in a category, no one gets the bonus points. Each player takes the lead survivor of their color, four additional survivors, and four each of the three resources: Adrenaline, Ammo, and Gas.

The Walking Dead: All Out War: The infamous characters of Robert Kirkman's comic book series wage miniature war across an undead-filled battlefield. That being said, I know the people I’ve played it with have loved it more than I. And it seems they also tend to like the zombie theme more than I do as well. Last Night on Earth Self-aware tactical zombie romp with a B-movie theme Last Night on Earth is as cheesy and goofy as B-movie zombie movies - and it's all the better for it. Knowing that, I’ll let you make the call about Hit Z Road for your family. Hit Z Road had a great setting for demo games at Gen Con 2016.