So obviously, since Last Night on Earth was our first game, and the one we’ve owned the longest, we have accrued a bunch of expansions. Like, a ton. Like almost all of them. And because we’ve been gathering new components over time, and adding more scenarios, and integrating new characters and weapons and tokens and decks on decks of CARDS… The game no longer fits in one box, and the game becomes daunting to bring in new players. Recently, Justine and I decided to play a basic, simplified game using only the pieces from the original base game that we purchased in 2009. It took some doing, and a bit of unlearning newer rules and expansions, but we managed! Here is what I’ve decided.
The first thing Justine said when I handed the stack of hero cards to her, to randomly select her team of four characters, was “Is that all I get?” The base game only had 8 heroes to choose from, and as the expansions become more ambitious, the characters become more complex and fun to play. Between the very limited set of character options and the fact that the Hero Deck and Zombie Deck only consist of 40 cards, the game felt more like a struggle to survive. Both of us had fewer resources than we were used to, and we couldn’t hope to draw a particular card to circumvent the other’s strategies.
Once the game began though, it started to move much quicker than our usual playthroughs. We didn’t need to consider additional options, such as what did a hero roll for movement? Should they search from the main Hero deck of cards, or should they try the Unique decks? Or maybe build a barricade? Which of the five scenario paragraphs of rules needs considering? All of this is fun, but can definitely bog a game down with Analysis Paralysis. If you have too many options, it can make it that much more complicated to choose. Justine, playing as the heroes, as usual, had one simple objective: Kill 15 zombies before the turn counter reaches zero. So, she searched the Police Station and the Church until she found enough weapons from the hero deck, and partnered the characters up to defend one another. On the flip side, I like having the options available to me. It’s tough to predict if I am going to play a card that spawns a bunch of new zombies right into the heroes’ defenses, or if I am going to prevent them from trading items, or if my zombies might accidentally carry a weapon of their own… Without some of the added expansions, my team felt pretty straightforward, and like my decisions were almost streamlined enough to be made for me. Nearly all of the cards drawn were to alter a fight in some way, but I can only use one card per fight, and I needed to get my zombies within range of the heroes to start biting. If Justine had collected enough cards to be better suited for combat, then I don’t have a lot of ways to swing things in my favor. Cards to prevent her heroes from searching, or cards I can play to reduce their chances at survival… Almost all of my favorites are in expansions. There may be at least a few in the Zombies “advanced cards,” a set of 20 additional cards which come with the base game to use once you’re ready to move on from the initial scenario. However, we had removed these as part of this simplification experiment. Even with these limitations, there was a hero casualty. Some of my zombies devoured Jake the Drifter, may he rest in peace, putting me halfway through my alternate victory condition.
The game was simple, and quick, but still very enjoyable! With a lot of the “distractions” gone, we could focus more on the individual moments for the characters, just like I did when we first adopted the game. The battles were hard fought, with cards being played and then countered with a much higher frequency than I was used to! As the turn counter slowly wound down, a lucky hit from one of Justine’s characters sealed the victory for her. And if she hadn’t rolled exactly that six, with the character that had the weapon that needed sixes, I would have survived to the following turn and overwhelmed the heroes myself! A very close game.
While this was a fun experiment, I wouldn’t want to play without as many of the additional components as I can again. Some scenarios require additional sets of cards held off to the side or have randomized victory conditions that are revealed partway through the game, and I enjoy these additions! But without the right balance of players and cards, one team could end up with a much better opening hand, and a game could end in three turns or less. That being said, we will probably play another Back to Basics game, this time including the advanced cards and rules from the base game, and see if it changes the feel of the game.
-Alex