Mantic Walking Dead, A Call to Arms

Pulled this little gem out of storage, to let Greg get a look at how the Mantic Walking Dead game system works. “A Call to Arms” is a later, slightly cut down version of “All Out War”, aimed more at a skirmish game, rather than the more fleshed-out quasi RPG/Campaign system of “All Out War”. Maybe we might see some changes in the re-release of All Out War?

Anyway, Greg took the bad guys (Derek, Wes, Reggie, Patrick, Sandra & Albert) and Phil took the good guys (Andrea, Rosita, Otis, Tyreese, Julie & Lori). We played scenario 1, where the aim is for both gangs to pass by each other, to exit the opposite end of the table, while simultaneously attempting to sweep-up 6 supply tokens, dotted around the table.

Both sides crept cautiously onto the table, more concerned with thinning out the Walkers, than dealing the other gang. Eventually both sides had thinned out the Walkers near their home areas, so that they were confident to move further into the table.

From here on in, Derek & his gang of rogues got their act together faster, making better use of “Follow Me” moves, while trapping / distracting the remaining Walkers, although Reggie did almost spoil things by wandering back & forth, blasting his shotgun aimlessly at passing Walkers!

Andrea’s team were struggling with some well placed zombie reinforcements (thanks Greg!), as well as some unfortunate zombie ‘recoveries’. This left Andrea & the good guys, unable to fire at the bad guys, without attracting zombies into contact. Derek’s men exploited this, with Wes dashing forward, to gun-down Andrea with his trusty M4 carbine.

This really left the good guys struggling, unable to make effective progress, or return fire, without getting entangled with the undead. In the meantime, Greg had remembered the game objective. Sandra led the way, dashing forward, to the exit zone. Then Derek rounded up the rest of the gang and pushed down the right side of the parking lot, discharging some parting shots at the survivors of Andrea’s gang, before slipping out of to the exit zone.

I think “A Call to Arms” is a nice little skirmish game, with a decent feel for the Walking Dead genre. It also poses quite a few little tactical choices, while trying to make best use of disparate skills in your team & avoiding the undead. OK, getting your head around all the various attributes can be a struggle and the tokens can be a bit of a fiddle, but well worth a dusting off these rules.