Dead of Winter: The Long Night

2016

Experience the thrilling standalone expansion, Dead of Winter: The Long Night. Uncover secrets of Raxxon, defend your colony from raids, and survive new challenges amidst the undead horde.

120
minutes

2 - 5
player(s)

14+

Medium Heavy

About the game

Welcome to the thrilling world of Dead of Winter: The Long Night, a stand-alone expansion game that plunges you into an immersive, post-apocalyptic winter landscape. This game is designed for 2-5 players and is set in a bleak world where survivors must band together to fight off the chilling cold, the scarcity of resources, and the ever-looming threat of the undead.

In Dead of Winter: The Long Night, you and your fellow players are leaders of a colony of survivors in a world where civilization has been overrun by hungry, flesh-seeking zombies. The game takes place in the frozen wastes of the post-apocalypse, with the colony being your main base of operations. However, you are not confined to the colony. The game also includes a variety of other locations you can venture to, each with unique resources and dangers.

Game components Unboxing the fun!

Dead of Winter: The Long Night is a standalone expansion for Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game that introduces the Raxxon location where horrible experiments will spill out into the town unless players can contain them. Here’s a detailed rundown of all the components included in the game:

1. Game Board: The central area where players place their survivors, zombies, and items. It also tracks the round progress and colony morale.

2. Survivor Standees and Standee Stands: Each player controls one or more survivors represented by these standees. Survivor Standees show the characters that players control in the game.

3. Dice: Used to determine the outcomes of various actions within the game, such as combat or searching.

4. Survivor Identity Cards: These cards represent the survivors that players control. Each card contains a character’s abilities and influence value.

5. Crossroad Cards: These cards introduce narrative elements and challenges to the game, sparking player decisions that can alter the course of the game.

6. Crisis Cards: These cards represent the various crises that the colony must face each round, requiring players to contribute specific resources to avert disaster.

7. Item Cards: These cards represent various resources and equipment that survivors can find while searching. They range from food and medicine to weapons and tools.

8. Zombie Standees: These represent the zombies that players must contend with. Zombies spawn at different locations and can attack survivors.

9. Location Cards: These cards represent the different locations that players can explore outside the colony. Each location has a deck of item cards associated with it.

10. Objective Cards: Each player has a secret objective card that outlines their personal win conditions. There’s also a main objective card that represents the group’s shared goal.

11. Raxxon Experiment Cards: These new cards represent the dangerous experiments spilling out from Raxxon. They introduce new threats but also potential benefits if players can control them.

12. Bandit Standees: These are new threats introduced in The Long Night. Bandits take items from locations and can be fought off by players.

13. Helpless Survivor Tokens: These tokens represent additional survivors that players must care for. They consume food but do not contribute to colony actions.

14. Barricade Tokens: Players can build barricades to slow down the advance of zombies into the colony.

15. Noise Tokens: These tokens are placed when players make noise while searching. More noise means more zombies.

16. Wound Tokens: These tokens represent injuries to survivors. Three wounds and a survivor is eliminated.

17. Starvation Tokens: If the colony doesn’t have enough food, starvation tokens are added, reducing colony morale.

18. Despair Tokens: These are new to The Long Night. They represent the emotional toll on survivors and can lead to their death if not managed.

19. Improvement Tokens: These tokens represent upgrades to the colony that provide ongoing benefits.

20. Food Tokens: These tokens represent food resources used to feed the colony and avert starvation.

21. Sample Tokens: These are new to The Long Night and allow players to take samples from defeated zombies as a part of some objectives.

22. Action Tokens: These tokens are used to track which survivors have taken actions during a round.

23. Round Tracker: This token moves along the round track on the game board to show the current round.

24. Morale Tracker: This token moves along the morale track to indicate the current morale of the colony. If morale reaches zero, the game ends immediately.

Game setup Lay it out, line it up, let’s go

Dead of Winter: The Long Night is a stand-alone expansion for Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game that introduces the Raxxon location where horrible experiments will spill out into the town unless players can contain them.

The game setup is easy and can be done in the following steps:

Place the Game Board: Place the game board in the center of the table, within reach of all players. Make sure the colony side is facing upwards.
Player Selection: Each player selects a color and takes the matching player mat, standees, and dice. The number of dice each player starts with is indicated on their player mat.
Choose Characters: Shuffle the character cards and deal 4 to each player. Each player chooses 2 to be their starting characters and places the corresponding standees in the colony. The remaining character cards form a draw pile.
Initial Resources: Place a number of starting item cards equal to the number of players plus three in a face-down pile in the colony. Each player draws one card from this pile as their starting hand.
Set Up Locations: Shuffle the location cards and place them face down in their corresponding spaces on the board. Draw and reveal the top card of each location deck.
Random Elements: Shuffle the crisis cards and form a draw pile. Draw the top card of the crisis deck and place it face up in the crisis area of the board.
Place Zombies: Place zombies on each location according to the number of players. The colony should also have zombies equal to the number of players.
Objective Card: Choose an objective card. This card sets the goal of the game and determines the initial setup, including the starting round tracker value and first player.

Once the setup is complete, players can begin taking turns, starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise around the table. Remember to follow the instructions on the current crisis card during the colony phase and to resolve the crisis at the end of the round.

Players'turn One turn to rule them all

In the game Dead of Winter: The Long Night, a player’s turn consists of several potential actions and strategic choices. The choices made during a player’s turn can significantly affect the gameplay, and understanding these choices is key to mastering the game.

Player Actions:

Move a Survivor: The player can choose to move any of their survivors to a different location. However, moving exposes the survivor to potential danger, such as attracting zombies. If the player chooses to move their survivor, they must roll for exposure which can result in injury, frostbite, or even death.
Search a Location: If a survivor is at a location other than the colony, the player can choose to search that location. The player draws a card from the location deck and can choose to keep it or make noise to draw another. Making noise increases the likelihood of attracting zombies.
Build a Barricade: The player can choose to use an action die to build a barricade at their current location. Barricades can fend off zombies and provide a level of safety for the survivors.
Clean Waste: The player can choose to clean waste from the colony. If the waste pile reaches 10 cards, morale decreases. Therefore, it’s important to clean waste regularly.
Attract Zombies: The player can choose to attract zombies to their location. This is a risky move, but can be helpful if the player wants to distract zombies from another location.
Play a Card: The player can choose to play a card from their hand. These cards can have various effects, such as providing resources, killing zombies, or assisting other survivors.

Strategic Choices:

During a player’s turn, they must also make strategic decisions that can affect the game’s outcome. Some of these choices include:

Choosing the Right Time to Move: Moving a survivor can be risky, but it can also provide necessary resources. The player must strategically decide when it’s worth the risk to move a survivor.
Managing Resources: The player must manage their resources wisely in order to survive. This includes deciding when to search for more resources, when to play cards, and when to clean waste.
Cooperating with Other Players: Cooperation with other players can greatly increase the chances of survival. However, the player must also be careful, as not all players are necessarily on the same team.
Handling Crisis: Each turn, a crisis occurs that requires certain resources to resolve. The player must decide whether to contribute to resolving the crisis or to save their resources for other uses.

The actions and strategic choices made during a player’s turn in Dead of Winter: The Long Night can significantly affect gameplay, making each turn a crucial part of the game.

End of the game All good games must come to an end

Dead of Winter: The Long Night is a game that can end in a multitude of ways, depending on the main objective and individual secret objectives of the players. It is a cooperative game with a potential traitor element, meaning that players are working together towards a common goal but may also have individual goals to achieve. When the game ends, victory conditions are determined based on these objectives.

The game can end in three main ways:

Successful Completion of the Main Objective: If the players manage to fulfill the conditions of the main objective, the game ends and the players check if they have fulfilled their personal secret objective. If they have, they win. Otherwise, they lose.
Round Tracker Reaches Zero: If the round tracker reaches zero, the game ends immediately. The players then check if they have met their personal secret objectives. If they have, they win. If they haven’t, they lose.
Morale Reaches Zero: If the colony’s morale reaches zero, the game ends immediately. If there is a betrayer, and they have completed their betrayal secret objective, they win. All other players lose. If there’s no betrayer, all players lose.

Before final scoring, players must take the following actions:

Complete Main Objective: Players must ensure that they have met the main objective of the game. This could involve collecting certain items, surviving a certain number of rounds, or killing a set number of zombies.
Check Secret Objectives: Each player must verify if they have fulfilled their secret objectives. These objectives can range from hoarding certain items, ensuring specific survivors are alive, or sabotaging the main objective (if the player is the betrayer).
Verify Betrayer Status: If the morale has reached zero, and there is a betrayer among the players, that player must have fulfilled their betrayal secret objective to win.

In Dead of Winter: The Long Night, victory is not assured simply by the survival of the colony. Each player must ensure they have met their individual objectives, making it a challenging and engaging game of strategy and deception.

Scoring Did you outsmart your rivals?

‘Dead of Winter: The Long Night’ is an immersive board game that does not use a traditional point-scoring system. Instead, players work together towards common objectives, while also pursuing individual secret objectives. The game ends in victory for a player or a group of players when they have completed the main objective and their individual secret objectives.

Main Objective: The main objective is a common goal that all players need to work towards. It could range from killing a certain number of zombies, gathering specific items, or surviving a set amount of rounds. Completing the main objective is crucial to ending the game but doesn’t guarantee a win for all players.

If the main objective is completed, the game ends, and players who have also completed their secret objectives are considered winners.
If the main objective is not completed before the round tracker runs out or if the morale tracker reaches zero, all players lose the game.

Secret Objective: Each player has a secret objective that they need to achieve by the end of the game. These objectives usually involve collecting specific items or achieving certain conditions. A player is only considered a winner if they complete the main objective and their secret objective.

If a player completes their secret objective but the main objective is not completed, they still lose along with everyone else.
If the main objective is completed but a player has not completed their secret objective, they are not considered a winner.

Tie-Breaking Rules: As ‘Dead of Winter: The Long Night’ is a semi-cooperative game, it doesn’t have traditional tie-breaking rules. However, in the rare case where players need to decide between multiple options to fulfill the main objective, the player with the most followers in the colony decides the outcome.

Exiled Players: If a player is exiled, their secret objective changes. An exiled player can still win the game if they fulfill their new secret objective, even if the main objective is not completed.

Particular Cases and Exceptions Wait… is that legal?

Dead of Winter: The Long Night is a standalone game that can also be combined with the original Dead of Winter. This game introduces various new elements such as the bandit module, the Raxxon location, and improvements module. Here are some rare or special rules, exceptions, and clarifications that might be important:

Raxxon Location: Raxxon is a new location that players can explore. However, the Raxxon cards can be harmful to players, making this a riskier location. Here are some specific rules:

When a survivor performs a search at Raxxon, they draw and resolve a Raxxon card instead of a location card.
Some Raxxon cards have an immediate effect, while others have a persistent effect. Immediate effects are resolved and then the card is removed from the game. Persistent effects stay in play until a specific condition is met.

Bandit Module: The bandit module introduces new bandit characters that take resources and fill up spaces in the colony. Here are the special rules for bandits:

Bandits do not count towards the total number of survivors when calculating food demand or the colony’s moral.
Bandits are not moved by the players. They only move when a “Move Bandits” crossroad card is drawn.
Players can attack bandits in the same way they attack zombies. When a bandit is killed, it is removed from the game and does not return.

Improvements module: The improvements module allows players to build useful tools that can aid in their survival. Here are the special rules for improvements:

Improvements are built in the colony and provide ongoing benefits for all players.
Each improvement requires a specific amount of resources to build. Once built, the improvement card is placed in the colony and its effect is active for all players.

Rule clarifications:

When a player draws a card that requires an immediate effect, they must resolve the effect immediately before continuing their turn.
If a player draws a card with a persistent effect, the effect remains in play even if the card is discarded or removed from the game.
When a player attacks a bandit, they do not roll for exposure unless the bandit counterattacks.
Improvements that are built in the colony are available for use by all players, not just the player who built the improvement.

Tips and tricks Play smarter, not harder!

Advanced Strategies for ‘Dead of Winter: The Long Night’

Optimize your actions: Always try to make the most out of every action. This includes searching for necessary items, killing zombies, and moving characters strategically.
Manage the crisis deck effectively: Keep an eye on the crisis deck and try to manage it efficiently. This will help prevent any unexpected surprises and keep your colony safe.
Use character abilities wisely: Each character has unique abilities. Use these abilities to gain an edge in the game and to complement your overall strategy.

Beginner Tips for ‘Dead of Winter: The Long Night’

Learn the game mechanics: Understanding how the game works is crucial. Spend time reading the rulebook and playing a few practice rounds before starting a full game.
Cooperate with other players: ‘Dead of Winter: The Long Night’ is a cooperative game. Working together with other players can increase your chances of survival.
Keep an eye on morale: Maintaining high morale is key to survival. Make decisions that will keep your group’s morale high.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in ‘Dead of Winter: The Long Night’

Ignoring the crisis deck: Failing to manage the crisis deck can lead to unexpected problems and make the game more difficult.
Not utilizing character abilities: Each character’s abilities can significantly influence the game. Neglecting to use these abilities can put you at a disadvantage.
Not cooperating with other players: This game requires teamwork. Failing to cooperate with other players can lead to a quick loss.

Ways to Optimize Gameplay in ‘Dead of Winter: The Long Night’

Plan ahead: Try to predict what challenges may arise and plan your actions accordingly. This will help you be better prepared for any situation.
Communicate effectively: Clear and efficient communication with other players can greatly improve your gameplay. Discuss strategies and work together to overcome challenges.
Manage resources wisely: Resources are limited. Use them wisely to ensure your group’s survival.