Troublez (2022)

Overview

Instead of smashing zombies heedlessly think about collecting them and sorting them into hordes. Your goal is to build the strongest zombie army possible. You need to take some risks in order to win. Don’t be afraid to purposely mess with other players!

In Troublez players flip cards from one huge shared deck and sort zombies into three rows on the table. Every card must follow several placement rules. First, numbers can go only up and second, no two cards of the same color can be next to each other. When you successfully play a card onto the table, you can decide to stop and collect all the cards from a row of your choice, or you can push your luck and flip another card. If you cannot legally play a card, that is a bad luck and you are getting nothing!

The deck consists of zombies in three colors, but cards with special abilities can be also found there. A Net allows you to steal a zombie card from another player. With A Shotgun you can discard some zombies others are holding and if you get An Axe, you must discard a card yourself. You can be clever with your cards, since after a players turn each other player gets to grab a card from the table. Will you leave them something good? Or will you maneuver so only The Axe is waiting there?

To assemble a horde you must turn in a set of cards – four cards of the same number, or five cards of different numbers. At the end whoever has the strongest army wins.

—description from the designer