Army of Darkness the board game (1993)

Not the actual game box image

Army Of Darkness (1993)
Designer: David McKenzie, Barry Nakazono
Publisher: Leading Edge Games

I'll admit this right up front. The film ARMY OF DARKNESS is my least favourite Evil Dead film out of the three that Sam Raimi helmed. The first film in the trilogy was all about the horror. The second was a mind bending blend of horror and comedy. And the third dropped the horror and went all in on the comedy. It was a spoof or send up and didn't bother with nail biting tension or creepiness as the two films before it had. To me that was a detriment. I missed the horror but it didn't stop me from laughing at the macho posturing of the blundering hero or the frantic screams of animated skeletons a moment away from being blown to smithereens. ARMY OF DARKNESS was a fun film with a smattering of quotable lines.

As I had missed out on Leading Edge Games' release of the ARMY OF DARKNESS board game I decided to give a homemade version a try while on a camping trip. After one play I packed it up and forgot about it. Years later after watching the film yet again I gave the game another go.

The game is for one to eight players taking the role of one of the major characters from the film (Ash, Arthur and the others) who cooperatively defend Arthur's castle from the Deadite onslaught as depicted in the climax of the film.

Components

For my print and play version I printed out four sections on printer paper that make up the playing board and laminated them. The image on the board is a screen capture from the film. Equipment cards were printed out and glued to old playing cards. They don't look good as the art work is poor but the cards add thickness making them easier to handle. I didn't bother printing out the characters and Deadite standees (paper figures held up with a plastic base). Instead I used miniatures from other games as proxies. EVIL DEAD 2: THE BOARD GAME may not get much play but the miniatures from it work well here.

Rules

There's nothing special about the rules. For the most part they are easy to follow; it's mostly following the sequence of play.

Sequence of play

Gate and gasoline: Check if the Deadites are able to open the gate to the castle and if any fires are extinguished.

Deadites move: simple enough with rules for checking who the Deadites move towards.

Deadites appear: Damn Deadites are always climbing over the castle walls!

Mortal soldiers attack: The good guys in a square with Deadites can attack.

Mortal heroes move, attack and play cards: Players can perform their turn consisting of moving, attacking, and playing a card from their hand in any order. Such as move first then attack or attack then move. The cards allow for ranged attacks, extra moves and the like.

Deadites attack: The bad guys have their chance to strike back.

The turn sequence is repeated until one of the victory conditions is fulfilled. The good guys win if they kill all the Deadite Champions. The bad guys win if Evil Ash escapes the castle with the book of the dead or all 24 Deadite warriors are on the map.

Is it fun?

Short answer, not much. Die hard fans of the film who enjoy Amerithrash style board games will find entertainment with all the dice chuckin', quote spewing, and choruses of 'groovy' or 'that's gotta hurt'. Non fans of the film aren't going to find much in a print and play copy of a cheaply made game meant to cash in on the hoped for popularity of a film. Game play is mostly move a piece on the board and roll a die. There's little in the way of strategy or tactics required. Set up your warriors on the Deadite spawn locations and have them hack away until the heroes reveal the Deadite Champions in the equipment deck. It is a really simple game.

I'll keep my copy of the game and every few years break it out, look at the poorly done artwork and low res screen captures on cards, play a game and put it away for another few years.