Zombie outbreaks are a popular apocalyptic scenario in all entertainment mediums. The crisis spreads exponentially; law enforcement and the military are overwhelmed by the hordes of undead. Society collapses, with small bands of survivors spread across desolate land.
Ordinary life grinds to a halt. Power outages, water shortages, food scarcity. The loss of technology and civilization as we know it. Priorities shift to scavenging for food and weapons. Always staying one step ahead of the zombies that have overrun the world. To say that the stories of the survivors are grim would be an understatement. That brutal atmosphere makes a perfect setting for tabletop games, though! So here are the rankings for our ten favorite zombie board games.
10 Zombie Dice
The dice-rolling game from Steve Jackson is the simplest one of the bunch, but it's a fun game to play in a group when you want to chat and don't want to worry about learning complex rules and strategies.
The 13 custom dice display footsteps, brains, and shotgun blasts. Players roll three dice at a time and whoever collects thirteen brains first will win, but it's not as easy as it sounds. If a player rolls three shotgun blasts while trying to collect brains, the turn is over and no points are accrued. It's super easy to learn and each game will take less than twenty minutes.
9 Tiny Epic Zombies
Echo Ridge Mall has a zombie outbreak, so watch your back! Tiny Epic Zombies has five different game modes for players to try out. So the little game packs a punch. There are cooperative modes with either game-controlled or player-controlled zombies.
There are competitive modes with the same mechanics and a solo mode is available as well. As a survivor, you'll have to stay alive while on the run. Get weapons, kill zombies, and try to complete objectives. When a player completes three objectives, they win, but all players have to make sure the zombies don't overrun the place.
8 Maximum Apocalypse
A roguelike adventure game where one to six play cooperatively, Maximum Apocalypse asks players to survive. That will be hard, though, because the world is unforgiving and monsters roam the land. Civilization has fallen. It's up to the strong and the smart to face the dangers left behind.
A randomly-generated map diversifies the play, and players choose four of the following actions each turn: drawing cards, playing cards, exploring the map, searching for resources, equipping weapons, and fighting off monsters. A cohesive strategy is important, so figuring out survivors' strengths and weaknesses will be essential. No one ever said the apocalypse was easy.
7 Last Night on Earth
A survival horror board game in which small-town heroes go head-to-head against a horde of zombies. Last Night on Earth makes the players face off, too. One group of players will choose their heroes to control. Each hero has special abilities. One or two other players will control the zombies. You'll be able to play this game again and again with different combinations of heroes, scenarios, and board configurations.
Two to six players can join in the fun, and the game takes less than two hours so it can be a good party game. The game art makes it feel like a movie and a soundtrack of original thematic music draws in listeners to the scary world of flesh-eating zombies.
6 City of Horror
It's not a Mall of Horror anymore! The outbreak has escalated and now were in a City of Horror humanity faces extinction at the undead hands of a zombie invasion. Players must consider their own survival, so the best strategy will involve balancing alliances with other players and betrayal when it's advantageous.
Survivors are waiting for reinforcements, but zombies aren't waiting around. Players will need to navigate the dangerous world devoid of law and order. Make sure your characters are vaccinated or you won't be able to escape on the helicopter at the end of the game.
5 Until Daylight
Until Daylight is a new adventure from Flyos Games that maximizes tension and doesn't hold back from the players. Frantically searching for useful items in the rubble and fighting the waves of infected and raiders will be very hard. Survivors will die. And players will lose.
A companion app helps to guide players through the game, but it will be a challenging test of nerves and skill. Play a lot, lose a lot, and maybe eventually you'll be able to claim victory in this exciting card game.
4 Dawn of the Zeds
This zombie classic is on its third edition, and Dawn of the Zeds is just as fun as ever. Farmingdale is in danger! You must protect the citizens and the villages around Farmingdale before the zombies overwhelm the people.
One to five players can band together to save Farmingdale and the desperate citizens trying to survive the apocalypse. It's uncertain if a virus or something else caused the epidemic, but the Zed incursion must be stopped! If it reaches an unstoppable level, then Farmingdale cannot recover and you lose. Be a hero and save the town.
3 The Walking Dead: All Out War
Go head-to-head in this tactical zombie outbreak game set in the world of The Walking Dead. Hungry walkers are everywhere in Georgia, but this survival adventure from Mantic Games reminds you that anything can kill you.
The Walking Dead: All Out War forces players to fight as opposing bands of survivors. Essential supplies are precious, and popular characters from the graphic novel and television series will face off in a deadly struggle. The walkers are controlled by the game, and they will react to everything that players do, so don't narrow your focus too much! Mistakes mean death.
2 Zombicide
Which version of Zombicide you play is up to you. There have been enough successful iterations of the game that many gamers have their favorite. A collaborative game for one to six players, Zombicide emphasizes teamwork.
Use your cunning, and the abilities of your chosen survivor, to push back the waves of zombies that threaten to overwhelm you and the unfortunate band of survivors. Zombies will kill you, so kill them first. Find whatever weapons you can. The more zombies you kill, the better you get at killing zombies. Make sense?
1 Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game
Zombicide may be fully cooperative, but Dead of Winter laughs in the face of such teamwork. Players may pursue a common objective in Dead of Winter, but individual victory conditions also mean that players have secret objectives that influence their actions. As if a post-apocalyptic world full of zombies in the middle of the winter wasn't challenging enough.
Dead of Winter will break you psychologically. It will rebuff your strategic efforts to combat the many dangers around the colony. And it will shatter any illusion that you had of leaving the game unscathed. Who knows? Maybe you'll eventually win as well. Something about the engaging gameplay keeps us coming back, though.