Planet of the Boars (Zoon)

Earth: 2808
Humans have long since abandoned the planet, but their legacy lives on.  Now, we who were once mere creatures, have become something so much more.  We are the dominant species, Rhinogoths and Monkus, Warus and Boarix.  We have taken over, and we will fight until one of us is dominant on the entire planet.  We are the Zoon, more than beast, more than human!



BACKGROUND: Zoon is a strategy card game for two players.  It was created in 1999 by Migou Auteurs, Robert Cepo, Nicolas Pilartz, with art by Robert Cepo.  It was most recently published by West End Games.  Players each take a deck of cards and attempt to capture the others Emblem, marked with a flag.

GAMEPLAY:  The game starts with both players setting up their "Zoons", or cards face-down on an imaginary board of 6 by 6 in their first two rows, with 3 Trump Zoons in their hands.  Each card has a movement printed on it, and each player, on their turn, move any Zoon according to their movement.  Instead of moving, a player may instead play a Trump from their hand.



COMBAT:  Whenever a Zoon moves into a space with an enemy Zoon, combat happens.  Players rotate their cards, and pick a corner on the opponents Zoon.  Flip the card, and the player who has the higher number wins.  The losing Zoon is discarded, and either moves into the space to which it was advancing, or stays where it was.  In a tie, the Zoon that moved moves back to where it approached from.  If a Star is hit, apply the effect that is on the Tribes card.

TRUMP:  Some Trumps apply once when they are played and are discarded.  Others, like Weapon Trumps, return to their hand unless the player hits their X effect.  Most Trump cards, however, require a specific type of Zoon to be in a specific position.  If a battle is used with a Trump, use the Trump as the attack unless it states otherwise.

WINNING:  Each player has an Emblem somewhere on the board.  A player wins when they defeat the opponents Emblem.

CONCLUSION:  The first thought most people will have about this game is that it's a card game version of Stratego, and not unfairly.  On its own, Zoon has a fair amount of issues.  First off, the imaginary board: This is an aspect that gets frustrating, and while not hard to imagine or use tokens or even make a custom one on a blank mat, it can still be confusing where anything is.  You constantly have to check where your cards are, unless you have a superhuman memory, which can slow the game down.
Its biggest issue, however, lies in the combat.  The spinning is a neat trick, but once you see a Zoon, it tends to go from a 1/4 chance of hitting the big numbers to 1/2, once you know where they are.  I'd roll a D4 to keep things level, and mark the cards appropriately. The thing I can see a lot of players complaing about is the victory conditions, as it is easy to have almost nothing, be in a bad spot, and still win.  However, I thing that's the games strength, as it is so incredibly easy to bounce back that it never feels like you can't.  I did enjoy this game, but it's a shame that this is the game we got, when it could be a lot better.  Still, I'd rather play this than Stratego.