Dawn of the Zeds: Designer's Edition

Mechanics (from transcript analysis)

• Action Points — Heroes have action points that can be used for movement, combat, building barricades, research, foraging, etc.
• Area Control — Protecting the town center and specific named spaces from zombie incursions is crucial.
• Combat (Melee/Ranged) — Combat occurs when zombies enter occupied spaces, involving melee and ranged attacks with custom dice.
• Dice Rolling — Custom dice (blue and yellow) are used for combat and other game effects.
• event cards — Event cards drive the variety and gameplay, with positive and negative events influencing the turn.
• fate deck — A fate deck adds further variety and diversity to gameplay, with cards that can be played immediately or held.
• Research — Players can research in a laboratory to unlock super weapons and other advancements.
• scenario play — The game includes six scenarios of varying difficulty and length.
• Track management — The game involves managing tracks for forest, suburbs, mountains, and highways, where zombies advance.
• Unit Management — Players manage heroes, civilian defense units, and can recruit other survivors or guard units.

Video topics + discussion points

No key topics recorded for this video.

Quotes (from this video)

• If you like chaos in your games and if you like games that tell great stories and if you like zombies, then Dawn of the Zed's Designer Edition might be something you want to check out.
• This is a game that is truly fun to lose, and I think it's designed that way.
• The experience here is what matters somewhat more, I think, than the final end state.
• This is a game because of that foundational complexity and all the variety of things that can happen with the event cards and the fate cards. I think you can just play this game 20 times and it's just not going to get boring.
• So, yeah, a super thumbs up on Don Zed's designer edition.
• One of the trademark features I think of Herman Litman games are these chaos and emergent narrative elements.

References (from this video)

No references stored for this video.

Mechanics (from transcript analysis)

• Combat System Revamp — It's going to be a totally revamped combat system.
• Multiplayer Mode — new dedicated multiplayer mode for up to four players
• Refugee Saving — saving refugees
• Scenario Generation — scenario generation
• special abilities — special ability mechanism
• Victory Points — new victory point system

Video topics + discussion points

No key topics recorded for this video.

Quotes (from this video)

• This looks like it could be a fastplaying, light, fun game about flying B7 flying fortresses in World War II.
• This looks like it takes a game that is incredibly highly regarded in its earlier editions, rethinks it, reimagines it, adds a lot of gameplay, redesigns it, and publishes as publishes it as a designer edition.
• It is so creative and since the last time I've looked at it, I've noticed they've added bot logic cards and its soliter rating is a full high.
• I think what is almost an ideal balance between
• This could be the greatest game ever if it works, right? Who knows? But I can't wait to try it. Lightning Strikes from Compass Games.
• I think this could be one of the best war games of all time.
• My number one most anticipated game for 2026. specific chase.
• Pacific Chase air naval combat in World War II.
• My number one game for 2026, Pacific Chase from GMT Games.
• So, there we have it. my top 30 most anticipated war games for 2026.

References (from this video)

No references stored for this video.