Fighting zombies in a cabin! Dead Center [Solo Card Game Playthrough]

In a cabin surrounded by zombies, I try my best to survive by planning careful attacks. In this solo playthrough of games you can play with a standard 52 card deck, I play Dead Center
0:00 Intro
0:31 Rules Overview
6:52 The game
17:14 Final Thoughts
18:15 Outro
Learn more about this game:
boardgamegeek.com/thread/2587...
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3...
Cards used in video: bicyclecards.com/shop/bicycle...
#solo #solitaire #cardgames

[@peri5552]

I had this weird habit back in college, I used to carry a standard deck and dice on me, to play and learn new games from other people, although we often ended up playing UNO that I also used to carry, or people only knew spades and rummy games. I have tons of board games now, considering that I still have stuff even from childhood, but they’re usually not so easy to carry around all the time, so I was looking for modern or interesting games that could be played with standard deck of cards, preferably solo ones because I knew no solo games other than patience/solitaire. I found geeklists on BGG, Isaludo and then your channel with a playlist of the games I was looking forward to learn. To be frank, I think you might be the only board game KZbinr that has gone (I follow plenty) deep into niche genre of solo, modern, standard deck card games, and to be honest I subscribed to your channel for this very reason. Thank you for your videos and your playlist. By the way, “the teach” of card games is something difficult to master, let alone standard deck games since they are abstract and lack theme visuals, but you’ve been very thorough in each game you played and did a great job explaining them. The camera angle is good too, often people hold their cameras or have a more POV angle, which is not optimal in these kind of videos.

[@boardgameswiththomas]

Oh wow, that's so nice of you to say and that genuinely put a smile on my face 🙂 I'm glad you enjoy these videos, they're something I really like making and will continue to do so as long as there's more games to cover 👍

[@ConstantChaosGames]

@peri55525 Same! I was looking specifically for this deep niche of solo, modern, standard deck games. I've been designing some on my channel and stumbled onto this great channel. Though my camera and mic setup are severely lacking in comparison, but I do my best and mostly do okay I think :)

[@dheyrdremachado6144]

You are great explaning. Thank you so much! BGG has some nice games on the contest this year. I've played a few and really enjoyed.

[@boardgameswiththomas]

Glad you enjoyed! I didn't realize that the contest for this year has already started. I'll definitely have to start checking out some of the entries

[@dheyrdremachado6144]

@@boardgameswiththomas D6 Starfighter and Guinevere are some that I really liked. The Lovers uses a tarot deck.

[@bernardokp]

This game is very nice, and you played great! The rules seem hard, but once you internalize them, they become trivial, almost natural. The replayability value is pretty high, and it is extremely well-calibrated as you said. Yeah, some plays are annoying, I have lost many times waiting for one low red card that never came... But then you just start all over and play just one more time...

[@boardgameswiththomas]

Thanks! Yeah, the rules are definitely tricky at first but are pretty easy after a few games. I also like that once you get the rules down, the game is actually fairly quick to setup and play which is a plus. I'm really glad I got around to playing this as it's probably one of my favorites of these card games that I've played recently

[@bernardokp]

I fully agree, play is smooth and the balance between strategy and luck is perfect. Having a decent memory also helps: when I see spades cards being wasted very early in the game and I still don't know where the king of spades is, I know I have to be extra careful if I want to win the game. It is one of my favorites too, together with many others you played on the channel. We have very similar tastes, so it is hard to give you suggestions on standard deck solo card games... Here are some (plus board sometimes): The Farmer and the Deal, Alice and the 3 keys, Portia Fortwright's ETC, Brambles solitaire and Clear the Dungeon. Bowling Solitaire is pretty nice too, but the full game is quite long. @@boardgameswiththomas

[@dheyrdremachado6144]

Hey Thomas, one question. It was a tense game, but I finished with the last card. Didn't need to draw another but the deck was empty. Did I win?

[@boardgameswiththomas]

If you killed the last zombie with the last card, that sounds like a win to me! An extremely close win, but still a win

[@taswaarhasan56]

hey Mr Thomas please can you give your rull book in the descriptions beacause l cannot understanding your explanation

[@boardgameswiththomas]

Sure! Here's the link to Isaludo which is the collection of games Dead Center is from: drive.google.com/file/d/1DB2YF46s0oVFUSIpR9vxoGIbhpTKz2jw/view

[@cuddlequeen3225]

So. It's gridcannon

[@boardgameswiththomas]

I haven't played Gridcannon but I imagine it's pretty similar since Dead Center is based on Gridcannon! From Isaludo: "Dead Center is based on Tom Francis’ Gridcannon, but replaces the core placement mechanism to provide tighter control and a gradually increasing decision tree to the player."

[@cuddlequeen3225]

@@boardgameswiththomas yeah gridcannon has inspired a lot of games and variants. The way you can increase and decrease the values of the piles in this version is interesting. In gridcannon you completely reset piles since you can only increase value.

[@cuddlequeen3225]

I do prefer the way the royals are revealed in gridcannon however. They are put out as they come up in the deck and are placed in spots next to the cards most similar to them (closest rank/suit). So you get a bit of a head start towards the cards you need to eliminate them. And there's no guessing what is placed where as you can see all placed royals at all times. I suppose in this zombie version you could just turn them all up to make it easier. 💁‍♀️

[@ConstantChaosGames]

@cuddlequeen3225 I thought there was something familiar.. Yes, makes total sense that this was inspired by Gridcannon. Though I think I like this game a bit more. Good eye!