The Walking Dead is an American post-apocalyptic comic book series created by writer Robert Kirkman. Beginning in 2003 and published by Image Comics, the series ran for 193 issues, with Kirkman unexpectedly ending the series in 2019.

It was made into a TV series, staring Andrew Lincoln, with the 11th and final series just coming out this August.

The story focuses on Rick Grimes, a Kentucky deputy who is shot in the line of duty and awakens from a coma in a zombie apocalypse that has resulted in a state-wide quarantine. After joining with some other survivors, he gradually takes on the role of leader of a community as it struggles to survive the zombie apocalypse.

The Game itself is a tactical head-to-head game set in the walker-strewn Georgia countryside, a survival miniatures game from Mantic Games based on the characters from the pages of the bestselling The Walking Dead comic series.

“In more detail, each player controls their own group of survivors made up of popular characters from The Walking Dead storyline, such as Rick, Shane, Michonne and many more. Each survivor is represented by a finely-detailed plastic miniature, which can be painted in your color scheme of choice. It comes with a character card highlighting their game stats and unique abilities, and it can be upgraded with a selection of weapon and equipment cards.” The Games Capital

Two groups compete to retrieve the most supply markers by the time the included threat tracker reaches its maximum, rising as the result of the survivors’ actions or specific event cards drawn at the end of each turn. Of course, the other way to win is to dispatch the enemy team (or allow the zombies to do it for you), but at the moment there’s otherwise little variation in the objectives required to win or lose – something that will hopefully be rectified in future expansions and new scenarios.

Zombies automatically shamble a fixed distance in a straight line until they encounter a survivor or wander into an obstacle, such as a car or barricade, several of which come included in 2D card form with the core set. It’s a nice little touch that helps the undead seem truly brainless, and allows for tactical use of noise-making – you can run to lure walkers into combat with enemy survivors or away from your own team.

Despite not being my type of board game the rules are well written and would easily translate into a tabletop game without any modification.

The Walking Dead: All Out War is an excellent tabletop adaptation of the comic book series, making fantastic use of its source material’s bleak fight for survival and smartly incorporating the presence of the undead to highlight the focus on the fight between the living.

I picked my copy up, still in its shrink wrap in mint condition, on eBay, and if you can find a similar copy then it is worth the purchase, even if only for the figures.