About ZBall, from BoardGameGeek:
Z-Ball is set in the world of Dunion, an Animal Kingdom that was hit by a comet which gave them elemental powers. They took this gift and created the Z-Ball games, a tournament that shows the world of Dunion who the greatest team and winning glory and also retaining the cosmic Z-Ball until the next games.
Z-Ball is a 1 to 4 Player lightweight super fast-paced, competitive, deck constructor game with a quick dice chucking mechanic.
Captain your an Animal team in 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2 Co-op and 3 player games. Racing to win the best of 3 games, with each game decided by scoring 5 Strikes before the opposing team.
Z-Ball also includes intelligent mechanical solo decks that provide a formidible challenge to the solo player. Each AI Deck having its own flavour and built-in strategy. AI Decks can also be used as a fellow player to create dynamic 3 player games.
The Season 1 Z-Ball boxed game contains 4 playable teams, the Blue Coast Raiders, Jade Forest Swayers, Goldskin Chargers and the Grey Lake Predators, as well as 3 AI Deck teams.
Players can construct their 25 card team decks from adding 5 characters from any of the Z-Ball teams or keeping the pre-set Z-Ball teams. Each team is constructed from 5 Z-Ball characters, each elemental animal character brings 5 action cards each containing / showcasing elemental moves and tactics, some common and other more special action cards considered rare.
On your turn you simply draw 1 action card to your hand and play 1 action card onto the table / field. Each action card could bring some Earthy Defence, slowing and stopping your opponent's Strikes, or it could Strategically be like Water allowing you to draw from your team deck - adding more avaiable actions to your team.
To win a Z-Ball game you need to Strike 5 times before your opponent or if one player runs out of cards the game ends, the one with the highest Strikes wins the game. Each match of Z-Ball is played over the best of three games, with the potential of the Golden Strike game (if both players end on a draw after three games).
Striking is made by playing an action card that showcases the Strike / Fire icon symbol. This allows the player to throw the Strike Dice into the custom Z-Ball Stadium (the beautifully illustrated inside of the top lid of the core game) and rolling a total result of a 6+. To reinforce and increase the chances of Striking the player can add Electrical Focus by stacking it on the table before Striking - each icon adding +1 to the result, the your opponent could of been stacking a large amount of Defence which reduces the result by -1 for each icon. So are you feeling lucky rolling a 'Cheeky Six' or play it cool and have +5 Focus (roll a 1, I think I can do that!!).
One of the most unique aspects to Z-Ball is the 2 vs 2 co-op team games. Playing and creating a flow with your team partner, adding Focus and passing through the Air to your team partner to smash in a powerful Strike! With the AI decks you can even add in a 'quieter' partner allowing Z-Ball to be played even with 3 human players.
-description from the designer
