Tutorial & Solo Playthrough of The Plum Island Horror - Part One

[@tabletopforone]

Corrections and Clarifications: Emphasis: After each close combat with a Horrors unit, add one Biohazard cube to the bag. Correction: A Shield roll during a ranged attack only does damage if the target is in a Field. If the target is in a building or forest, a Shield roll is considered a Miss. Clarification: A unit that survives a last stand moves one space from that location, but cannot move north. If it cannot move, it cannot perform a last stand. Correction: I had mentioned that the Exhausted Location markers get removed at the end of the round. They get removed at the end of the day (end of each night round). Correction: When using the medi-vac helicopter, it must be not be disabled and must be in the hospital area (uncompromised). The unit you want to heal must be in an area with a heli-pad that is not compromised. Clarification: Healing always heals one hit cube, unless an ability says otherwise. Correction: When an enemy spawns in a location with a faction/npc/civilian unit and unless otherwise noted, that enemy unit immediately conducts a close combat attack. Clarification: The Horror +1/+2 tokens only get removed when their effects are applied on a Horror unit. If a lane that has one of these tokens gets activated, but there are no horrors on that lane, the token remains in that lane's spawn zone. Correction: I forgot and will keep forgetting that the Orange compound makes my ranged attacks for the golfer and tennis players free of supply cost.

[@jumpmaster82nd.]

Easy but a good deal to remember! Demands you to have a well balanced plan thats for sure! Its a keeper IMO!

[@hermannluttmann1637]

Thanks so much, Daniel! This is a really well done and entertaining video - and thank you for the very kind comments!

[@idjester]

I was going to send you this link incase you didn't see it....

[@andygrant5894]

Great video, thank you. Reading the rulebook will be so much easier now, as will be playing my first game soon. Cheers 🍻

[@tabletopforone]

Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do.

[@ChadHensley]

Before you even get part two of your video out the expansion has hit the P500! As if I didn't already love this game the informational page on GMT makes me even more excited for future plays!

[@tabletopforone]

Oh, awesome! I'm actually editing that video right now, but I'll take a quick break to back that p500.

[@killernil99]

Great video! I just got this game recently. I'm super excited to play through it, and this video helped tremendously.

[@tabletopforone]

Thank you! Just make sure to check my corrections in the pinned comment, as I made some mistakes.

[@gordonpueschner3175]

Well done, thank you for the rundown. I'm just starting my first game.

[@tabletopforone]

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the game!

[@ChadHensley]

I appreciate that you encouraged players to start with a two faction game. It really does help for your first game at least. I played with the Greenport Township and PIRL in my first playthrough. Definitely wanted to watch your video to make sure I got the rules correct. Turns out I missed one. I was not adding cubes when the horrors had a close combat with a civilian, only when they had a close combat with one of my player pawns. It will definitely make the Biohazard track a bit more difficult to control but should not be too crazy. Appreciate your enthusiasm for this game because I feel the exact same way. I keep having to remind myself to take care of other responsibilities first because all I want to do is play it again. I know you turned the board sideways for the video to keep everything on screen but is that how you normally set the game up? Do you feel it is better or worse with a horizontal over vertical board set up? Just curious because I've been debating on rather or not to try it this way next playthrough.

[@tabletopforone]

Thanks, Chad, I'm so glad you enjoy the game! First game I missed that same rule, even though I read it multiple times. Watch out for that biohazard track, as it can prove problematic later on (as it did in the next video 😉) Yes, I always play with it sideways and actually with the units laying down. My eyesight isn't what it used to be. So, having everything closer is helpful.

[@obi807]

Excellent video. When explaining overrun, you should add a tile prior to murder of horrors elimination because you have defeated a civilian unit. One more tile out of the game...

[@tabletopforone]

Indeed, thank you for that added clarification. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

[@gamby85]

Great video ... As always !! Was this game crowd funded ... couldnt find it on kickstarter or gamefound?

[@tabletopforone]

Thanks! It was published through GMT's preorder system called p500. GMT lets you preorder their new games without paying until right before they ship.

[@SunnyNeuroshima]

The tokens look small and flimsy. I wish they were slightly bigger and stronger, especially the ones that get placed in the bag for drawing out. I wonder how long they will last before showing signs of wear from being constantly mixed and drawn from a bag. Game looks great, though. It's on my list. Thanks for the tutorial.

[@tabletopforone]

In general, I've had little issue with GMT token durability. That said, I might put the draw tokens in coin capsules. Thanks for watching!

[@AlessioBeatrice]

Hi. Sorry but before the activation phase, in the gameplay, shouldn't there be the "First contact!" phase? Thanks for the video!

[@asellers98]

Love it too!!!

[@jumpmaster82nd.]

Civilian chits look nice number up but when you draw a card where you need to identity who is on the board or not you'll wish you hadn't!

[@tabletopforone]

Yes, this is probably my one major negative for the game. It helps to look at the dead civilians and the ones not placed at setup, but still kind of a chore and hard to read the names. I wish this was handled differently.

[@jumpmaster82nd.]

@@tabletopforone As I recall there are a few cards that ask if certain civilians are in a certain area do this or that. I also didn't want to know who was worth what and therefore only rescue high value targets. Although, you do know families are at the top and eventually you'll get to.know who's worth what! Like most games your second play through you get in a groove with all the phases and what needs done! Look forward to the next vid!

[@tabletopforone]

@jumpmaster82nd. Yes, I actually play normally with the numbers side down. I think it's better not knowing the number. I think I chose to do it numbers side up in the video because it looked better on camera 😆. Thanks, and hope you enjoy part 2!

[@andreagrp9048]

Fantastic tutorial!

[@tabletopforone]

Thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful.

[@idjester]

this is a great overview.... you beat me to the punch as I was going to do something like this but I am still waiting on my game to show up... should be here this week but GMT always ships out P500 stuff slow and by last name... so I am assuming you have a last name letter to have your game so quickly...

[@tabletopforone]

Thank you so much! I hope my video doesn't discourage you from making your own. Mine is far from perfect too. You are right about my last name 😆. I do wish they shipped them by order date, rather than last name.

[@idjester]

@@tabletopforone yeah I agree... I have many P500 orders from years ago and yet I get my games a month after some people... Should arrive here on the 18th of Jan when they starting shipping them Dec 14th...

[@jumpmaster82nd.]

Im in the T's and in Ohio and have had it exactly a week

[@idjester]

@@jumpmaster82nd. that shows that GMT does whatever they want... because I am in P and live in Florida and still don't have it... coming maybe the 18th which is 34 days past when they started shipping games out...

[@jumpmaster82nd.]

@@idjester I wasn't thrilled either. They'd charged my card (11/24) and I'd even been billed and my purchase hadn't shipped. Got it on 1/9...a bit long IMO. It's a pretty fun, frustrating, brain straining, maddening and whatever else you want to throw in there game! It works pretty darn well! Good luck!!

[@Johnnyslaw]

I wanna try one of them. But don't know which one to chose. Dawn of the Zeds 3rd or this game. I like randomness, Dice mechanics less strategy and more adventure and wanna play it only solo. Which one in your opinion is funnier to play?

[@tabletopforone]

I'm sorry, but I haven't ever played Dawn of the Zeds. Maybe someone else will comment to give you a good answer 🙂

[@realdealastrology9]

It's really important to heed this BGG comment, and it's why I won't be buying this game until the design is corrected: Initial impressions after one full game: I found the first four rounds quite good. I like the idea of the factions and the balancing game in the early game, which problem (as in any threat management game) to take care of, which resources to get, etc., since you can't yet estimate the speed of the engine (it's the first game). I also like the events, because they explain something thematically and then also work appropriately on the game board, also with their contextual references: If XY is on the board, the monster is still being shot at etc. / if there is damage on building Z, horrors break through. Quite nice. I don't think the game is unthematic anyway - they've managed that quite well. But: After the first game, you know most of it - which means that the explorative aspect is much less in the next round. The main problem, however, is the reliability of the engine and the level of difficulty: the game collapses in the middle of the difficulty level. The game obviously cannot escalate reliably. The ranged combat with the athletes is extremely strong once your compound has been built and you no longer need supplies. From round 5 onwards, it was no longer a question of balancing. Shoot what comes. There was no more preparation and/or securing. And then it just ripples along completely irrelevantly. It doesn't matter at all. You could tell that at the table. "Yeah, it doesn't matter now". Because there's nothing left to lose anyway. Other games have better escalation systems that deliver reliably. Defenders of the realm via war status - the game is getting faster and faster. Alien Uprising about gestation cards - more and more hard effects are coming into play. Planet about the increase in spawns and the sure-to-occur next spawn of 4th Circle Minions on top, swirling through more. B-Sieged changes the spawn cards through the seasons - the playing field gets more and more crowded. Plum Island Horror lacks that - and the rules are largely focused on the "cut down the players" aspect. For me, this is the least cool approach. Also the spawns of all the mutations at the start - you're already fighting far too much against the normal horrors. There's also too little variety. You have more different Minions in the other representatives. And once all the cool mutations are on the board at the start, they never come back - so you won't see the exciting opponents for most of the game. It's not exciting either. I thought the approach in Zeds was much better - the idea there was to impose more and more trouble spots on the players. And I would take the same approach here. So more Biohazard, making the Biohazard cycle worse (i.e. removing more and more cubes so that only safe red ones appear, etc.). These are not rocket science rules - but I have to say that I find the official versions so far a bit half-baked. They've only been talked about in theory so far, but the reasons are understandable. And then comes the well-known question: Why should you buy and play Plum Island Horror now? Overall: The Plum Island Horror shares a lot of similarities with Richard Launius´ Alien Uprising, but Alien Uprising is (despite its flaws) a much tighter, better designed game. At least for now. Hermann Luttmann needs to pimp up this game and its engine quite a bit. The second half of the overall game is just lame. So implement more possibilities for the game engine to accelerate: Remove cubes from the bag after certain key moments of the game. Increase the amount of cubes that have to be put into the bag. The official nightmare rules mostly decrease the amount of actions the players can take. Not a good approach for tweaking difficulty. Ramp up the engine instead!

[@tabletopforone]

What I'm about to say is not to sway you into buying the game. I very much disagree with that review. After 10 plays now, I find the ramp up in mid to late game very well-designed and hinged on what you do in the rounds leading up to it. I see no need for such correction as mentioned above. The game is one of the best I've ever played, and still holds true 10 plays in.

[@Traumtheater0]

I think at 52:00 you didnt need to pay the supply for the ranged attack with the tennis players since you already had that faction's special compound built .(Tennis balls and golf balls for free,).

[@tabletopforone]

Thanks for catching that! I'll add it to the pinned comment. I actually rarely remember that ability. It sure is helpful!

[@hermannluttmann1637]

Nice pickup - very well done!

[@Traumtheater0]

@@tabletopforone One more thing: The civs that were in the area of the compound go under it, not on faction board, they are safe ther but not evactuated yet. Great start of a playthrough. I like that you try to do really speedy turns so one can get a sense of how the game plays. No worries if there are som oversights. I will keep watching how you do the next rounds :-)

[@tabletopforone]

@Traumtheater0 Yeah, I don't think I explained. I choose to put them there for ease of reference. I should have clarified that when I mentioned it. I hope you enjoy the rest of the playthrough when I finish editing it! 🙂