The Walking Dead Board Game: The Best Defense
is a cooperative board game in which players take on the roles of Rick,
Glenn, Daryl, Michonne, and other characters. The Survivors must defend
four key locations from Walkers – the Farm, the Prison, the Town and
the Highway – in order to stay alive. The game board is assembled at
random for each game, providing for variability in the locations; a
25-card resource deck – containing either Equipment, Allies, Food or
Ammunition – is placed at random on one of the locations.
Walkers and other calamities are triggered in different locations by a
48-card Event deck (every card is unique!), which players draw from
each round. They must then figure out how to minimize the effects of
these Events, using dice to resolve combat and determine the outcome of
some events. Survivors can work together to combine their combat
abilities or split up to cover more ground. If the Survivors don't clear
the Walkers out of a location, they'll lose resources – and if any
resource deck runs out, the players lose the game. Thus, players need to
keep the Walkers at bay while not using up too many resources
themselves.
Unlike most cooperative games, The Walking Dead Board Game: The Best Defense
includes a leadership role that a player can take for one or more
rounds. Each player character has a unique leadership ability that
provides a bonus while that character is in charge.
The Walking Dead Board Game: The Best Defense includes two
gameplay modes. In the "Beginner" mode, players share all information on
their Event cards so that the leader and others can take everything
happening in the game into consideration. In "Expert" mode, players may not
share their Event cards, which means that leaders might make decisions
that are detrimental to other players – but those players can defy the
leader (for a cost) and make their own moves. Why would they do this?
In addition to just trying to stay alive, each player has a secret
"Ulterior Motive" card that specifies a mission for that player. If he
completes that mission, then he earns a partial victory, even if the
Survivors as a group would otherwise lose. The Ulterior Motive cards are
recommended only for advanced players who like a bit of conflict in
their co-operative games.
