
- BGG rating
- 6.5
Eaten By Zombies!: Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 2 players
- 20 min
- Complexity 2.3/5
- 2012

2011
Rules assistance for Eaten by Zombies!
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

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Eaten by Zombies! is a board game released in 2011 for 2–4 players, 30 minutes per game, and ages 8 and up. It was designed by Max Holliday and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Open Drafting, and Deck, Bag, and Pool Building.
Description In the new game Eaten By Zombies! players strive to survive as the horde of the living dead make it their goal in Death to force you to join the crowd. You must work with or against the other survivors to be the last one standing. No not standing, cowering in the corner crying for their mommy. In the spirit of AMC's "The Walking Dead" and "I Am Legend", Eaten By Zombies takes you into a dark world of eventual death. Every turn you must venture out from your safehouse and scavenge for Swag. But not so fast, the Undead have other plans for your brains. Every day a Horde of fresh zombies will be waiting for you, and over time the threat gets greater. Now it's time for your "Fight or Flight" instincts to help you to survive just one more day. Using the swag you've got on you (ie cards in you hand) you must survive any way you can. If you can get away or kill the Horde, you may scavenge the remains of the desolate suburbs for any Swag the neighbors may have left behind. With the right stuff and a few good friends to out run, you may just make it through this alive... well, no probably not. But being the last one to die a slow, painful death means you can claim sole victory! With a set of over thirty different cards to start with, no two games will ever be alike. This game is a combination of Card Drafting, Hand Management and Survival Horror with a few dirty tricks thrown in. Game Play/Mechanics You start with five heavy sticks (each worth +1 fight) and five hide cards (each +1 flee) as well as two sandwiches (+1 Flee & Draw one card). You shuffle these 12 cards and draw 6 into your hand. You then face one of the 25 zombies from the Zombie Deck with a fight value ranging from 1-8 and a flee value of 1-4. You must announce Fight or Flee and then proceed to play some/all of your 6 cards in your hand. If you successfully fight/flee you then take the total fight/flee value to the scavenging portion of your turn (think of it as a "buy") where you acquire items such as Shotguns, fists full of ammo, crowbar, binoculars, fire on a stick, grandma pantry, deadeye or other cards which you then put INTO YOUR HAND for use in the very next turn and draw back up to 6 cards from your draw deck. Played cards go to your discard pile, including any zombies you have succeeded in killing. If you flee then the zombie card goes to the zombie discard pile. As you draw zombies into your hand (from shuffling your discard pile) you are stuck with them in your hand forever unless you play them into the zombie horde attacking on another player's turn, so the zombie horde gets tougher over time. If you are unsuccessful in killing/fleeing then you must lose a number of cards equal to the flee value of the horde. These lost cards come from either your hand or as a blind draw off the top of your draw pile and go back to the scavenging area, weakening you. If you run out of cards you succumb to your wounds and become a zombie, now trying to kill the other players on each turn. If a player ever ends up with six zombie cards in his/her hand the zombie players win as the remaining players have gone insane. Each time the zombie deck is gone through and reshuffled you add one more zombie to the horde for the rest of the game, making perpetual survival impossible. It isn't a matter of if you're going to die but when. Be the last player standing and win. If at any time the entire zombie deck is depleted (because the players have killed all of them rather than using flee), all remaining players alive win together. This is a unique cooperative/competitive game where you really feel the tension and inevitability of doom. You spend the first few turns building up your deck only to see the zombies increase in power and slowly drain your will to live as the game progresses. Integrates with: Eaten By Zombies!: In Cahoots
Eaten by Zombies! supports 2–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Eaten by Zombies! is 30 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Eaten by Zombies! for ages 8 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Eaten by Zombies! has a complexity rating of 2.1 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Eaten by Zombies! belongs to these categories: Card Game, Horror, and Zombies. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Open Drafting, and Deck, Bag, and Pool Building. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Eaten by Zombies! are: Max Holliday. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Eaten by Zombies! as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.