Dave Reviews: The Zombie Promise That Doesn't Follow Through

AuZtralia

Australia with a 'Z'. Boy, that couldn't mean zombies or anything, could it?

Actually...

AuZtralia is a game with everything it shows on the front: blimps, old-timey gun trucks, soldiers, and the dusty hell that is the Outback. Does it look old-school? It should, because it takes place in late-19th century Australia. The 'Z' is, indeed, a reference to zombies, but they only play a bit role in this game, because it's really about Cthulhu!

Are you wondering what the hell is going on yet? Don't worry, everyone who opens this game not knowing what it is beforehand goes through the same thing. What you get here is a semi-cooperative strategy game between players working together to stop the hordes of Cthulhu from swarming through this overblown penal colony, and working to do it better than everyone else because when it comes to saving the world, you've gotta keep score.

Everyone starts by setting up a port along the coast. From there you spread into the Outback, mostly via railroads you build, ferrying troops to clear out nests of zombies, cultists, and otherworldly monsters, collecting resources to keep creating railroads and troops, and building farms to feed the citizens of this... fine land. Farms are important; there are three types, and there's a benefit to having at least one of each type, but each one requires different land to be built. Some of that land runs a little close to the nasty things, and eventually the nasty things wake up and start walking around.

What makes AuZtralia work is the time mechanic. Although you can be limited by a lack of resources, it's usually possible to collect what you need; the question is how much time it takes. Each action takes a set amount of time, and turn order is determined by who's furthest back on the time track (ie. who's used the least time so far in acting). Furthermore, time ties (which are common—nothing takes more than three time to do) are broken by whoever's token is on top of the stack, and you go on top of the stack if you get there last. So, spending three time to build that railroad you so desperately means another player might get three turns before your next one. Is that worth it? Quite possibly! But you need to make a decision about using a resource that everyone has in exactly equal quantities.

Cthulhu's forces are locked into the time mechanic as well. Whenever it's Cthulhu's turn, his token goes forward one time space, and on every other time space from the moment he starts (about halfway along) until the end of the game, he acts according to a pre-determined list of rules. At the start of the game, his forces start face down; his actions affect those which are face up, and those most frequently turn up because players investigate the spaces. If you don't remove any threat which is present, now Cthulhu's going to start running over you harder. You always have some semblance of control over what you do before he acts, but you can only do so much, even amongst all of you.

Then he eats your food! And your cattle. And your farmers.

If you stay on top of things and keep winning your battles—dice are involved, so this is never quite a given—the game can almost seem like a walkover. But it has the capacity to snowball out of control fast if you get the wrong event with the wrong monsters walking around at the wrong time. If there's something that might seem unsatisfying, it's if you end up playing a game and it feels too easy or too hard. There's some chance involved, but you have a lot of control over the outcome. For a game that used Z for Zombie messaging to get attention, then barely even followed through with the zombies, it's surprisingly good.

Score: Nine shattered fnarglflaghns out of twelve.