Our friends at Wizkids were kind enough to provide us with a copy of one of their upcoming games, Zombie Princess and the Enchanted Maze. We decided to pay back their generosity with giving the game a little write-up. Take a look below for a quick overview of Zombie Princess and the Enchanted Maze! If you are more inclined to a video format, you can find our overview on YouTube or at the bottom of this page.
Zombie Princess is a 1 to 5 player game where you will take the role of a brave knight, working their way through an enchanted maze to escape the clutches of the monstrous princess within. The official Board Game Geek listing for this game can be found here.
Overview
Zombie Princess is a tile laying game where you will be controlling both your Knight and the Princess. The goal of the game is to get your Knight to the other side of the maze to find your key. Once you have achieved this goal, you then need to sprint to the center of the board to escape through the castle. Easy… right? Did we mention that while you are doing this, you will need to avoid the zombified Princess who is stumbling through the maze attempting to eat your brains!!!!
The turns of the game are divided into two phases: The Zombie Princess Phase and the Knight Phase. At the start of each turn, you will have three map tiles to place on the board.
During the Zombie Princess Phase, you will do the following in order:
- Place A Maze Tile
- Choose one of the maze tiles from your hand and place it on the board on a space that is adjacent to where the Zombie Princess currently is.
- Rotate A Maze Tile
- Rotate any maze tile on the board that is not occupied by a Knight (including the castle space!).
- Move The Zombie Princess.
- Roll the Zombie Die and move the Princess according to the results.
- On a “X”, nothing happens and the Princess does not move.
- On a “I”, you can move the Princess to any connected space up to one tile away.
- On a “II”, you can move the Princess to any connected space up to two tiles away.
- On a “III”, you can move the Princess to any connected space up to three tiles away.
- One a “ZR”, the Princess is on the rampage and she can move to ANY connected space on her path.
- NOTE: Even thought you “can” move the Princess, you are not required to do so. Also, the Princess cannot enter the corner tiles or stop on the castle tile (although she can move through it if it is unoccupied).
Following the Zombie Princess Phase, you will enter the Knight Phase where you try to get your Knight through the maze to achieve your freedom. During the Knight Phase you will do the following in order:
- Place A Maze Tile
- Choose one of the maze tiles from your hand and place it on the board on a space that is adjacent to where your Knight currently is.
- Rotate A Maze Tile
- Rotate any maze tile on the board that is not occupied by another Knight (including the castle space!).
- Move your Knight.
- Unlike the Princess, your Knight is not limited as to how far they can move. Place your Knight on any connected space along your path.
- Draw Maze Tiles
- Draw back up to three maze tiles.
How Do I Get Out Of Here?
As the Knight your first goal of the game is to weave to the opposite side of the maze to find your matching key. When you land on your key, your movement immediately ends and you take possession of it.
Once you have your key, your goal has changed. Now, you will be racing to the castle to unlock the door to your freedom and escape the enchanted maze. The first Knight to reach the castle will escape, trapping the others in the maze to run from the Princess forever more.
What About The Princess?
While you try to escape, the Zombie Princess will be trying to catch you and turn you into a Zombie. When the Princess would move to a space adjacent to a Knight, that Knight is then transformed to a Zombie Knight.
NOTE: A Knight cannot be transformed when a tile is rotated and the Zombie Princess ends up adjacent to them. It can only happen when the Princess moves.
At this point, the Knight player is not out of the game… but their goal has changed again. Now, your goals are aligned with the Zombie Princess. You want to turn the other Knights into Zombies!
On your turn, the Zombie Princess Phase is the same as before. The only change occurs during the Knight Phase. During the movement part of the Knight Phase, your Zombie Knight is now limited to two tiles of movement.
The Zombie Princess wins when all of the Knights have been transformed into Zombie Knights.
There are Advanced Rules that will add some extra powers for the Knights, as well as changing up the Zombie Knight Phase of the game. You can check out those for yourself by reading the rule book on the Wizkids website.
Components
The cardboard tiles are a nice thickness and seem good quality, although a few on fine were scratched right out of the box. The rulebook is well laid out and makes the game easy to learn.
The standees are where this game shines. Instead of the standard cardboard standees for the characters, Wizkids sprung to make these out of the clear plastic. The art style is original and it works for me. I like the combination of classics Knights with modern technology. They look spectacular in person, but I have some concerns as to how the paint will hold up over time. That is hard to know how it will work at this time.
Final Thoughts
We will be playing this on our Twitch channel later this week to see how the game plays. From a “first impressions” stand point, this one looks pretty good. It is well put together and the gameplay looks interesting. Stay tuned for our gameplay opinions once we have a chance to take Zombie Princess and the Enchanted Maze for a spin.
Anyone is welcome to play board games with us. If you have a game you would like to see streams, please let us know. The only limitation (beyond actually owning the game) is that they must be stream friendly as we are playing it remotely. Contact us on any of the Socials or leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading!
– jourdo