Here’s Negan is a semi-cooperative board game set in the universe of The Walking Dead comics. I will assume that the reader is aware of the background.
The game is set when the Saviours initially arrive at The Sanctuary. Their cooperative mission is to secure the site for their leader (Negan) while also individually gaining some degree of respect from their fiery and unpredictable leader (not getting him killed also helps).
Rules overview
If you are a player of The Walking Dead: All Out War game, a lot of the rules and components will be familiar. There is a Threat Tracker (slightly different from the AOW one), Event Cards, Supply Cards and the special dice (black, red, white and blue with different values on the faces).
The first difference is that this is a board game, so there are sixteen double sided tiles that will make up the playing area.
The tiles are about six inches square with a five by five grid overlaid. The grid is used for movement and range purposes. These tiles represent the rooms and corridors that the characters have to clear and secure. The scenarios have the layout of the tiles and where to place the various features (also on thick die cut counters) that need to be positioned for that scenario.
There are twelve Walkers to harass the characters and the five characters, plus their boss Negan.
To add to their woes, there are a set of “Walker Tokens” which are used to denote the unseen but heard threats. The flip side has nothing or one of the coloured dice symbols to denote the number of Walkers that appear when a character gains line of sight on the token).
One important item is “Lucille”, Negan’s beloved baseball bat. This is a larger token that is held by the “First Player”.
The “First Player” gets to make some of the decisions in the game, at the end of each turn “Lucille” is handed on to the next player. The initial “First Player” can be chosen by the players or by each rolling a Blue die with the highest becoming the “First Player”.
The game can be played solo, but they recommend having at least two characters. Increasing the number of characters increases the difficulty (more walkers, more difficult to secure rooms etc.).
Negan is controlled by a set of Action Cards, plus in each scenario he knows where he is going, get in his way at your peril.
Turn Structure
Each turn is split into four phases:
- Survivor Phase
- Walker Phase
- Here’s Negan!
- End Phase
In the Survivors Phase, each player (oddly starting with the “First Player”) can perform two different actions (similar to TWD:AOW). This has the usual move, fight, shoot, search, hold your nerve actions plus others such as “Clear The Way!” and “Call Negan” which affect Negan’s actions.
Shooting and Fighting use the “skill” dice plus weapon dice system used in TWD:AOW versus the opponents Defence dice. Unlike in TWD:AOW, the target should be Walkers only.
The objective is to clear and secure rooms, a room can be secured by clearing a room of Walkers and then rolling a White die (plus an additional White die per other Survivor in the room) to beat the Secure target for that Threat Level on the Threat Tracker.
In the Walkers Phase, the First Player draws an Event Card and follows the instructions on it. This may include increasing the Threat Level (which happens before any other effect of the card).
Once the events have completed, the Walker tokens are moved towards the nearest survivor (including Negan).
Once the tokens are moved, the Walkers follow suit.
Any Walkers adjacent to a survivor attack. Player characters can defend using their Defence plus any additional equipment that can be used. Rules for being Bitten can cause a character to be eliminated from the game (an unbitten character who is reduced to zero stamina is just out of play).
Negan has his own rules (moral, keep the Walkers away from the Boss).
In the Here’s Negan Phase an Action card is drawn which determines his actions for the turn. Make sure you are not in his way and are keeping up to his schedule, other wise there will be Words (and a kiss from Lucille).
The End Phase has all the housekeeping. This includes increasing the Threat Level due to Fire or having too many unsecured rooms. Lucille is then passed onto the next player.
Next: Playing the game.
