You start the game with all players on the town park tile. Each player has three brain (life) and three bullet (ammo) chits, which can be used when you're fighting the zombies. Each player adds a tile with a set number of zombies and, sometimes, brain and bullet chits. You also get cards which give you special abilities or bonus chits when you reach certain tiles. You roll a die to see how far you can move, and you have a 50/50 chance of killing any zombies you choose to fight. The brain and bullet chits give you a second chance or better your chance of killing the zombies. After you move, you roll the die again to see how many zombies you move one square. You can use this movement to clear your own path, or impede other players.
I actually think we were playing it wrong the first couple of times we played it. I had it in my mind that you had to play an ammo chit to attack the zombies, but rereading the rules you don't - you just attack, and if your die roll is low, you can add an ammo chit or two to adjust your die roll, or play a brain chit to reroll altogether. Next time I play, we'll play it correctly and I'm sure the game will go more smoothly and make more sense that way.
Anyway, the little rat kept pushing zombies my way to kill me off and force me back to start, but the plan ended up backfiring on him. See, there are two ways to win the game: the first is to collect 25 zombies, but when you get killed, you lose half of your zombies and start over at the beginning, and the second is to be the first player to get to the center square in the helicopter pad tile. Well, the boy was off on a wild goose chase of his own and killed me off, which actually put me closer to the helicopter tile. I was able to clear the way and make it to the tile in both games we played, winning, but the kid isn't such a bad gamer even at 7. If he got over the idea of having to use his cards, he could have played a little different strategy and given me a closer game.
It's a lot of fun and there are about a dozen expansion sets to add more variation, ways of winning, and more fun to the game. It's a very simple game, but strategy can become complicated with the ability to move zombies into your opponents path, and the multiple ways to win. I recommend it as a great beer and pretzel game, and it could easily become a classic within the niche.
