Skirmish Outbreak - review during game play

I am in the middle of a game of Skirmish Outbreak and an AAR will follow.

But I thought I would pass on some thoughts about the game having played about four very intense turns.

Creating a Survivor band is very straight forward. If you are like me and want your survivors to actually use what the figure is carrying, then you may need to create a few items that aren't in the book.

If you post your ideas on the Skirmish Outbreak forum you are sure to get a reply to let you know if you are on the right track or not.

At first game play was slow due to looking up a few items in the rule book, but the game started to speed up quickly enough and I only had to check my Survivor's stats or the QRS at the back of the book after a turn or so.

Combat: as I mentioned in my big review, combat is fairly easy.  What isn't easy is keeping noise levels down and being able to get rid of zombies.

 Relying on good dice rolls to kill a zombie in Hand to Hand combat isn't a great idea as more often than not I didn't kill a zombie.

 Using the rule that allows you to make a head shot for the cost of two Action Points is really a good idea if you have the action points to spare.

By the end of four turns I knew that relying on high dice rolls during melee to kill a zombie isn't the best option, thus if you can afford the APs I would go for a head shot every time.

At the end of the fourth turn I had one player out of the game, and only two zombies dead. The game is still in progress and the tension is building.

There are a few rules that need clarifying, and I am waiting on a reply for one rather important question about noise levels in a building and spawning zombies.

So far I am really enjoying the rules - they are simple enough to learn quickly, but mastering them and being able to survive the game are different things.

The best bit of advice is to create your Survivor band very carefully and never go out alone.

Skirmish Outbreak - new wargame rules

I have been very tempted to order a copy of "Skirmish Outbreak" as it looks interesting and a review I read on a blog piqued my curiosity.

I thought I would purchase the actual printed book rather than just the PDF, but after adding it to my cart I was amazed to find this book made in New Zealand is selling in $USD.

By the time I added postage and then worked out the exchange rate from $USD to $AUD I decided the $68AUD price tag was a bit steep at the moment, especially as I have medical costs to fork out for at the moment.

I would have thought a book made in EnZed would have been in kiwi dollars, but it is not the case.

 I am sure there is a perfectly good reason for this, such as aiming the product at American gamers, but it doesn't help us Aussie gamers on a tight budget, especially as the Chinese currency caused the Aussie dollar to drop even lower today ( australian-dollar-falls-sharply-on-yuan-devaluation ).

I could buy the PDF which is much cheaper, but I really want a physical copy of the rules.

 I might have to save my money for a bit and see if the Aussie dollar can go up a bit more before investing in a copy.

For those with a larger budget, you can check out the rules and order a copy here:  http://www.skirmishoutbreak.com/

Of course I am open to doing a review on my blog and on forums if a copy was sent to me as part of a publicity drive.....  (yep, I am shameless it seems)