Boardgames

[deanb]

Another fair few this time around

 

Myth

So this is a kickstarter game housemates BF got in. It's sort of a DnD lite type game, you start with pre-defined characters and play out pre-defined scenarios (though can do random play, and the campaign itself, should you do one, isn't really pre-set). Apparently this game has had a mixed reception online, seemingly due to the cross breed of board game and DnD. Does have a few times the rules aren't super well explained but you can usually get to the thrust of what should be done.

Main aim is to complete the scenarios, there's several tiles in the game and a deck of scenarios to do. Picture above we must save Lucy from the Creepers (or whatever they were, they avoid using standard RPG names, e.g the goblins aren't goblins). You can move and take actions, though how much you move can dictate your actions, each of your actions has a "yes" "no" "+d10 +1fd" etc on them along the side where it shows your movement, so if you stand still you usually get boosts to your dice rolls, some you can carry out regardless of movement taken. Can add a fair bit cos you'll be like "well I can run up to them and whack them, or wait for them to come to be and whack a ton of them real hard". I quite like the turn order. There isn't one. You can take your goes in any order, usually I went first since I had buffs for other characters, but also there's no particular turns for the monsters either, there's an AP track, once you hit 6AP (each action has a varying 0-4 AP cost) then the "Darkness" take their turn, so if you play your cards right the bad guys might not move at all, or they might even move several times per round.

Taking attacks is kinda cool, you roll a d10 and a "fate dice" (the white ones) by default, then extra dice based on equipment, buffs, action taken etc. I was powered by "Faith" and the more cards with "Faith" attribute I had in play it usually meant more dice, so more likely I'd get a good fate roll and pull off special effects. Mainly removing my threat tokens.

If you're wanting to have like a "my first DnD" or a "we can't be arsed to go full hog with DnD" then this is quite good. It's a bit like the ....*scrolls through a few pages* game I played but never took note of the name or took any photos of. So well done me.

edit:

Felt it'd be a good idea to show off the action cards to better show the "how movement affects attacks" stuff

new moon = not moved, half moon = one space, full moon = full 2 squares, moving moon = you've used one of your "sprint/boost/haste" whatever cards for extra movement.. The "repeat track" arrows dictate if it's an action or reaction. You can do 1 Action, but as many Reactions as you want (Block n Pray are Reaction cards). The naming sucks cos there's actual reaction cards, played when enemies take an attack which have the bottom arrow filled in and a sort of saw blade around it. Better to have just called them "free action". The diamond shows the AP cost, so Pray is 0 AP and Cleave is 2 AP.

 

Mr Card Game

My housemates game she kickstartered 2 years ago. It's based on Kingdom of Loathing, a simplistic MMO with a cult following. Basically you're working your way through various areas to eventually attack the big bad at the end to win the game. You attack simple creatures, with them having equipment on the reverse, which you then equip increasing your attack, to then attack slightly stronger creatures, then so on so forth. You can buy skills, spells and songs which can provide boosts and such too, as well as buying energy cards (the green blue and purple things) which you trade in for stronger ones at end of each turn. Sort of levelling up basically.

It's not half bad, I imagine if you know the theme it works out even funnier but even then you can see the parody element of MMOs and such, and it does kind of work as a vague facsimilie of working your way through the stronger areas.

Only major complaint is limited pool of money which can mess up stuff later on in game, and also there's only like a dozen enemies per area and if you don't get the chance to defeat any you may find yourself to weak to fight the next set kinda putting yourself back a fair bit (though buying skills and spells can help give an edge).

 

 

Get Bit

Hot Heart has written a bit about this on the other page. One of the guys at the Saturday event had his two little girls over (I'd say 7 n 10 or around there). I joined in and we played Nuts (not a huge selection of games good for the wee ones), then we played Get Bit. As Hot Heart has described you are escaping for a shark by betting your lowest unique cards against other players, hoping to swim to the front. My only issue, though I feel it might be a case of mis-read rules, is if you get the lowest figure you could still end up at the back cos you move forward first, then the next and so on, pushing you back to the back again. Other than that it seems a great kids game. Solid metal tin, and little figurines that make it a more more tactile than others games might be for the wee ones, and simple rules. Also the figurines come with male n female sticker sets so you can decorate it how you like.

 

 

Two Rooms and A Boom

No pictures of this one cos you can't really play and take photos. It was super popular, but I feel would only work at events like our Saturday gamers since it scales to 30 and the lowest tier is 6. It's also a Print n Play game should any of you wish to try it out.

Basically you're on one of two teams, red or blue. Red have a Bomber and Blue have the President. You are split into two rooms and try to work out who is who, and over several rounds swap hostages between rooms and try and either get the bomber and president together (if you're red) or keep them apart (if you're blue). We played this is a shit ton of times on Saturday, probably about 4-5 hours worth over the day and it never got old cos of the greatest trick: there's about 50+ characters. Liars, Angels, Spy, Mistress & Wife, Snipers, Targets, Decoys, Victims, Mimes, Secret Police, Gamblers etc etc. Some are on a "grey" team, so kind of play on their own with their own victory conditions irrelevant of Red or Blue, and there's also some Greens which are kinda weird and we only had one (the Beholder who was out of the game, couldn't vote, could walk between rooms freely, and won if they saw anyone else's card). Main grey we used, as it helped with odd numbered teams, is the Gambler who at the end of the game before anyone else reveals, picks which team they are on.

To find out other people you can colour share and card share, so either show the top of your card (which states "Red" "Blue" "Grey", though Spy has the rival teams colour) or show your card fully (below 10 people you can't do either though).

It'll probably be a favourite for a while to come just cos it's a great starter to get everyone in the mood and for our event can include pretty much everyone in the game. Also due to timed rounds takes a set length (up to 15 minutes at largest game, 5 rounds in descending minute lengths, so 1st round = 5 minutes, 2nd is 4 minutes, etc. Smaller games only have 3 rounds). Oh yeah the particular P&P we had was a fan made version, since the original just states your role, but not any rules or your victory conditions, which given the amount of characters would require a lot of revision.

 

 

Firefly

Finally played Firefly. It was good, I'd say shorter than the expected 4 hours we had. A lot of "so is that the person that..."

 

 

 

As per usual extra photos and links to past write-ups in my Imgur album http://imgur.com/a/y50vJ#0

[Hot Heart]

Get Bit

My only issue, though I feel it might be a case of mis-read rules, is if you get the lowest figure you could still end up at the back cos you move forward first, then the next and so on, pushing you back to the back again.

 

I don't think it was mis-read rules. That's just part of the game. Really, you'll always want to play higher cards, but at the same time you don't want a tie and you'll need to find the right occasion to use your lower values as well. A 1 will always beat a tied value, so there's a case of trying to figure out what others have played and where you are in line.

[Hot Heart]

The rulebook for Blue Sun, the next expansion to Firefly: The Game is up, featuring Mr. Universe as well as locations from the film.

 

One big change is three Reavers instead of just the one, as well as alert tokens for the space they just left.

 

REAVERS.

 

Due out late September.

[TheMightyEthan]

Ooh, this is one I can actually get people to play with me occasionally!

 

*Edit* - Shit, that board is huge.  Gonna have to talk my wife into buying a bigger house...

Edited August 14, 2014 by TheMightyEthan

[Hot Heart]

So someone has gotten hold of the Blue Sun expansion and is sharing details, which I'll copy and paste:

 

Supplies:

 

There are 11 new Gear items, 7 Crew with only 4 being new EDIT: Unless I'm forgetting something, I think he means 6, and by 'new' that the Leaders (Atherton and Murphy), 6 new Ship Upgrades, and 1 new Drive Core.

Let's start with the Ship Upgrades.

Reaver-Flage x2
Ship may move into a Sector occupied by a Reaver Ship

Discard after losing any Crew to Reavers.
Cost= 800

Hull-Mounted Flak Gun x2
When in a Sector with a Reaver Cutter, discard to ignore Reaver Cutter's effects and move that Reaver Cutter 1 Sector within Rim or Border Space.
Cost= 400

Long-Range Scanner Array
During a Fly Action you may resolve Reaver of Alliance Alert Tokens in adjacent Sectors.
Cost= 800

Modded Fuel Catalyzer
When iniating a Full Burn, Spend 1 additional Fuel to add +2 to your Drive Core's Max Range this turn.
Cost= 600

Drive Core

Xunsu's Whisper X1
Range- 6
1 Fuel to initiate Full Burn.
Whenever a Reaver or Alliance Ship enters your current Sector, you may immediately roll a Dice:

1-2: No Effect.
3-6: Evade.

Cost= 1600

New Crew

Cortland
1 Fight, 1 Tech
Soldier, Mechanic

LAWS ARE FOR THE POOR
May pay Bribes before any Negotiate test.
Bribes may not be used in Showdowns.

Cost= 300

The Middleman
1 Fight, 1 Negotiate
Grifter

Wanted

FACILITATOR
Whenever you sell Contraband to a Contact, take an extra 100 per Contraband sold.

Cost= 200

Sheydra
2 Negotiate, 1 Tech

Companion, Moral, FANCY DUDS

COMPOSURE
Once per Job, she may treat a Fight Test as a Negotiate Test.

Cost= 300

The Salesman
1 Negotiate
Grifter

WHOLESALER
As a Buy Action, discard to purchase a Ship Upgrade or Drive Core from any discard pile, at half price. This may be done from any location.

Cost= 200

The rest of the Crew consist of 2 Gun Hands and 1 Head Goon.

Gear

Fruity Oaty Bar x2
Discard before rolling to add +1 to any test result.

OR

Discard to remove Disgruntled from the owner.
Cost= 100

Maque Tiles
GAMBLING
Discard to Use:
Choose Red or Black.
Draw 2 Misbehave Cards.
If both Suits match Choice, take 1200.

Cost= 200

Kaylee's Parasol
1 Negotiate

Does Not count towards Gear Limit.

Cost= 0

Mal's Brown Coat
Disgruntle Owner to their Fight Skill to a Negotiate Test. EDIT: I'm assuming 'to add their Fight Skill'

Does not count towards Gear Limit.

Cost= 800

Mal's Frontier Model B
FIREARM
2 Fight

Before each Fight Test, remove Disgruntled from the Owner.

Cost= 800

Love Bot
Counts as COMPANION
1 Negotiate

You may use an Action on your turn to Remove Disgruntled from a Crew.

Cost= 1200

MF-813 Flying Mule
TRANSPORT

After completing a Crime Job, Load 6 Good, minus 1 per Crew Working the Job.

Cost= 1400

Heist Intel
On your turn, discard to look at the top 3 cards of the Misbehave deck.
Return them to the top of the deck in any order, or discard all of them.

Cost= 500

The Operative's Sword
2 Fight

Counts as a Knife.

Discard to count as an "Ace" for any Misbehave Card: Proceed.

Cost= 1000

Simon's Sonic Stun Baton
FAKE ID

Discard, after a Fight Test, to count the roll as a 6 and add Thrillin' Heroics bonus roll.

Cost= 1000.

 

 

Rim Space Nav Cards plus some replacements for Border Space (so Reavers always move in either):

 

The 10 replacement Nav Cards for Border Space consist of 1 Reaver Cutter, 1 Reaver Bait, 5 Reavers on The Hunt, and 3 Reavers Dead Ahead!
Reavers on the Hunt and Reaver Bait are all the same.

Reaver Cutter

Player to your right moves a Reaver Cutter to your Sector.

The options are unchanged from the original.

Reavers Dead Ahead

The player to your right must move a Reaver Ship to a Sector adjacent to your current location not occupied by a Firefly. Keep Flying.

The Rim Space Nav Deck.

The new Nav Deck has only 30 cards instead of 40 like the other two. Plenty of room to expand in the future though.

The break-down is as follows

The Big Black x10

Keep Flying

Reavers on The Hunt x6

Player to your right must move a Reaver Ship 1 Sector within Border or Rim Space.

Keep Flying.

Reavers in Orbit x3

The player to your right must move a Reaver Ship to a Planetary Sector not occupied by a Firefly, in Border or Rim Space.

Keep Flying.

Fuel Coupling Failure

EVERYTHING'S SHINY CAP'N

Breakdown- Spend 1 Part,
Keep Flying

SHE'S HEMORRHAGING FUEL!

Keep Flying.
Discard 1 Fuel for each additional Sector you move into this turn.

Nav System on The Fritz

THOSE STARS LOOK RIGHT TO YOU?

The player to your right must move your ship two sectors.
Keep Flying

RECALIBRATE ON THE FLY

Requires Mechanic:
Tech 7 Breakdown
1-6 Full Stop.
7+ Keep Flying.

Abandoned Tanker

SMELLS LIKE REAVERS

Keep Flying.

FILL'ER UP!

Requires Mechanic:
Salvage Op: Load Fuel, no limit.
Full Stop.

Ravaged Transport

LEFT NOTHIN' BUT GHOSTS

Keep Flying

SURVEYORS OF WHAT'S LEFT

Requires Mechanic:
Salvage Op: Load 2 Goods.
Full Stop.

Blown Out Buffer Panel

NOT TO FRET

Spend 1 Part.
Keep Flying.

SHOULDA REPLACED THAT....

Tech 6 Breakdown
1-5 Full Stop.
6+ Keep Flying.

Reaver Booby Trap

HARD TO PORT!

Requires Pilot:
Place Reaver Token in Sector
Spend 1 Fuel.
Keep Flying.

REAVERS! WONG DAHN!

Place Reaver Token in Sector.
Full Stop.

Locking Horns Over Scraps

FINAGLE THE LION'S SHARE

Negotiate 6 Test
1-5 Load 1 Goods
6+ Salvage Op: Load3 Goods.
Full Stop.

WINNER TAKES ALL

Fight 10 Test
1-9 Load no Goods.
10+ Salvage Op: Load 4 Goods.
Full Stop.

Local Tariff Patrol

HEAVY HANDED ENFORCEMENT

Negotiate 9 Test w/ BRIBES
1-8 5 Good not in Stash are seized.
Full Stop.
9+ Keep Flying.

TURN AND BURN!

Spend 1 Fuel.
Warrant Issued.
Evade.

Objects in Space

FANCY MEETIN' YOU HERE!

If you have space in your Crew, take 1 Crew Card from any discard pile, for free.
Full Stop.

NOT ANOTHER MOUTH TO FEED

Keep Flying.

Grav Well Maneuver

SLINGSHOT ROUNDHOUSE

Requires Pilot:
If in a Planetary Sector, +3 to Ship's Range this turn.
Keep Flying.

STEADY AT THE HELM

Keep Flying.

 

 

And Story Cards:

 

PATIENCE'S WAR

Patience has gotten embroiled in an all Range War. She is paying hard cash to any crew smart enough to use a gun and dumb enough to put themselves in harm's way... and you know just the right crew for the job!

PROVING YOUR WORTH

You Must be Solid with both Patience and Mr. Universe to Work Goals. Warrant received while working Goals do not cause loss of Solid Rep with Patience or Mr. Universe.

GOAL 1: GUNFIGHT AT THE SILVERHOLD CORRAL
Silverhold, Heinlein

Three Misbehaves

Fight 8 Test

1-7: Kill 2 Crew. Attempt Botched & Warrant Issued.
8+ : Kill 1 Crew & Goal Complete.

GOAL 2: THE HILLS HAVE EYES... AND GUNS!
Three Hills, Georgia

Three Misbehaves

Fight 10 Test

1-9: Kill 3 Crew. Attempt Botched & Warrant Issued.
10: Kill 2 Crew & Goal Complete.

GOAL 3: THE QUICK AND THE DEADWOOD
Deadwood, Blue Sun

Three Misbehaves

Fight 12 Test
1-11: Kill 4 Crew. Attempt Botched & Warrant Issued.
12+ : Goal Complete. You Win!

ANY PORT IN A STORM

The Alliance has got a burr in their collective britches: patrols have been tripled and strict enforcement of penal codes is in effect. Times such as these can make for strange bedfellows and safe harbor is wherever you can find it. Any port in a storm...

THE SET UP

Choose Havens. Havens must be in Alliance Space. Londinium may not be chosen as a Haven.
Place an Alliance Alert Token on any Alliance Planet that is not a Haven.
All Players start with a Warrant Tokenn

STORY SPECIAL RULES

Increased Enforcement: Any time a player successfully completes an Illegal Job, they receive a Warrant Token.

Safe Harbor: The Alliance Cruiser may not be moved to a Haven, for any reason. If a Card would move the Alliance Cruiser directly to a Haven, the player to the right places it in an adjacent Sector.

Friends in Low Places: At any Haven, you may use a single Buy Action to BOTH Buy Fuel and give your Crew Shore Leave. At your own Haven, you may use a Buy Action to take Shore Leave for free, and load up to 4 free Fuel

WINNING THE GAME

The first player to reach their Haven with at least $12,000 wins the game.

THE GREAT RECESSION

Life on the raggedy edge can be a hard slog. Paying work is precious enough in the good times, but when things get lean the competition for jobs can get downright unsavory. Make hay while the sun shines or get left in the dust, beggin' for scraps.

THE SET UP: JOBS ARE SCARCE

No Starting Jobs are dealt.
This Story Card uses dramatically smaller Contact
Decks. Each Contact Deck start with a number of Job Cards equal to the number of players in the game.
For example, 3 players= 3 Jobs in each Contact Deck.
These cards form the entirety of the Contact Decks. Place the remainder of the Contact's Job Cards back in the box- they will not be used this game.

THE SUDDEN, INEVITABLE BETRAYAL

When four Contact Decks and their discard piles are empty, the game ends immediately. The last Job to be accepted is discarded.

SETTLE INCOMPLETE JOBS

At the end of the game, all players must pay the bank the Pay Value of all their Active and In-hand Jobs.

WINNING THE GAME

After all player settle incomplete Jobs, Credits are totaled. The player with the most Credits is the winner.

 

 

Really liking the sound of those last two story cards, just not the first one. Not after the 'Niska's Holiday' debacle... This one sounds even worse, like it'd take all day.

 

On the supply side, a browncoat, yay! Plus, a... uh... lovebot.

Edited August 17, 2014 by Hot Heart

[deanb]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/08/12/cardboard-children-jumanji/

 

Rab's Cardboard Children review of Jumanji

[Hot Heart]

Time for a proper update!

 

First, Anomia

 

Simple but neat concept. On their turn, players flip a card off the main stack and put it in front of them, if the symbol matches a card on someone else's stack, those matching players have to say/name something related to what it says on the other person's card (examples above), with the fastest person winning and claiming that card (and keeping it to the side); most claimed cards wins.The fun comes when a card disappears and a new match happens because of it, so you could end up with a quick succession of people yelling words or getting frustrated when their brain just completely locks up. Sometimes you'll get 'wild cards' that form matches between different symbols, which gives you even more to look out for.

 

The only potential problems I've found is that some of the deciders purely come down to card-flipping and revealing. Because time is so crucial, players are bound to be at a disadvantage with the card flipper's hands in the way of certain symbols from their perspective (probably better to play on a carpeted floor than a table, really). Or you might have 'bad-sport' players keeping their own cards closer to them. Also, speaking from an embarrassing experience, always, always make the winner fetch your card; don't be polite. Still, it's a party game so it's fun either way.

 

Dread Curse

A push-your-luck game that bears an uncanny thematic resemblance to the Pirates of the Caribbean film (the good one). Each round players draw and steal coins, except a couple are cursed Black Spots and will lose you the game if you're left holding them. Within that, you have different roles with different draw and steal rules, as well as 'cheats' so there's an element of bidding and timing for getting certain ones (e.g. Captain is great earlier on because he draws and steals more coins, but won't be so useful later if the Black Spots are around, you'll want roles that let you check what you're stealing or allow you to pass a coin to another player). And a further wrinkle is that you get 'Pirate's Code' coins, and can purchase more from Jacques the monkey, which can be used for their 'take that' abilities or kept for their coin value.

 

I liked it, and could see it being even more fun with 6-8 players. Won the first game comfortably despite holding both Black Spots at one point (even foregoing a chance to give one to the monkey, because I wanted to steal off him next) thanks to someone stealing one and getting to pass another. Main mistake the other players made was probably letting me be captain for two rounds near the beginning, but it was a first game, so that stuff comes with experience.

 

Hot Rod Creeps

 

A customisable racing game with some really neat Rat Fink-style artwork. You can build your own track how you see fit. Fortunately, the rulebook also provides examples for short, medium and long courses, as well as guidelines and tips.

 

Each player will pick a team, and all have unique characteristics thanks to their cards and abilities within their deck, referred to as your 'gas tank' for reasons I shall explain. On their turn, a player has a few options: they can draw 4 cards from their deck, they can play a card from their hand, they can flip a card from the top of their deck (i.e. blindly play a card) or they can flip a card from the 'Nitro' (provided they have at least one card in their hand). Each card has a move value and many will have extra abilities, though some will only activate if the card is played from the player's hand (labelled 'Hand Only') or if flipped off the top of the deck (Flip Only).

 

The tactical side of things come in when you have to consider corners or what spaces you might land on. Go too fast round corners and you'll take damage, which causes you to discard cards and potentially burn more off your tank. At the same time, players will have cards that move you a space, damage you, etc. or get upgrades from the Pit Stop that grant special abilities. And because you only have 20 cards in your deck, you have to be careful you don't run completely dry and are forced to go back to the previous Pit Stop (the only places you can 'refuel').

 

I was worried that it would be too much like an overelaborate Munchkin, and though that element does come in right towards the end of the race, there's a lot more decision-making and tactical play going on even before that. I enjoyed my first game, despite being screwed over royally by the other players. At one point, I pulled ahead by jumping the Flaming Ring of Fire and shark tank and drafting ahead of the other players because they were all lined up (if you ever land on the same space as another player, you 'draft' forward until their is a free one) only for them to use a card that sent me back the same way, onto the shark tank (damage, lose upgrades!) and then onto the Flaming Ring of Fire (more hurt!). You can probably guess I didn't win that one... Still enjoyed it though!

 

Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game

The actual components are soooo good.

 

This was the big one, the game my friend had been excited about for months, a game that topped the BoardGameGeek hotness for a while and completely sold out in a few hours at GenCon.

 

People familiar with video games would probably look at the zombie theme and think, "Really? Pretty sick of that by now." Exept this is not a mindless killathon; this is far closer to The Walking Dead in tone and approach. The zombies are ever-present, providing the clear danger only exacerbated by the wintry climate, but this is a game about player interaction, a heavy dose of emergent story-telling/roleplay and a fair amount of luck (or mitigation, thereof).

 

See, this is not a fully co-operative game, but it is not a fully competitive one either. Allow me to explain...

 

At the start of the game, players will be dealt a secret objective that has two parts; both of which need to be completed to win. A 'standard' one will always require that the main objective be completed (the game comes with 10 various scenarios) but will have an additional part that represents a frame of mind/personal demon. It might be that they are a Junkie, who wants to keep all the medicine to themselves, a Masochist who wants to see their survivors get hurt, or perhaps they want particular items to build a Zombie-Killing Robot (yes, really). The unique objectives tend to sit at odds with completing the main objective (people are going to get hurt and need medicine that the junkie might be withholding, the masochist might take life-threatening risks, or the robot requires weapons and parts that might be useful elsewhere) so players have to strike a delicate balance between helping the group and pursuing their own selfish agenda.

 

But sitting even more at odds with those objectives are those of a Betrayer. For them to win, the group's morale must drop to 0 (ends the game) while they have their own unique objective completed which could be something dastardly, or just to have more followers than everyone else (for building a cult)

 

When shuffling and dealing out the secret objectives, a Betrayer one is mixed in as well. If I recall correctly, it's two 'regular' objective cards per player, but replace one of those with a Betrayal card; which means there might not be a Betrayer in there at all. Because players still need to play selfishly to win, it can be tricky to detect a traitor in your midst or someone pursuing their own goal. And chances are, players will want to try and detect the betrayer and vote to exile them (kicking them from the colony and giving them a new special 'exiled' objective) without accusing the wrong person.

 

Gameplay itself proceeds in rounds. A crisis for the round is revealed, which will require players to contribute a certain number of cards (scales to number of players) of a certain type (fuel, medicine, etc.) to avoid suffering the negative consequences. This will force players out of the colony (their home) and into the surrounding areas (library, grocery store, police station, etc.) in order to search for supplies if not already doing so for their secret objectives. On top of that, anyone at the colony will need feeding at the end of each round (people outside scavenge for themselves), making food another requirement. So, already, players have an overarching main objective as well as round-to-round problems to overcome before they even get to the chaos of their turns. Also bearing in mind that a betrayer could pick the perfect moment to play the wrong type of card into a crisis (since all are put in face-down and shuffled before revealing) and cause it to fail.

 

After being dealt a pick of four, players choose two survivors to start with. All of them are somewhat fleshed-out, unique characters with varying special abilities related to their former profession/role, plus influence, search and attack values. The player has 'action dice' equal to the number of survivors they control plus one, which are rolled at the start of each round and will govern what actions a player can perform. If survivors need die values of 4+ for searching, they won't be any good if you roll 1s, 2s and 3s; though all is not lost as some cards allow you to reroll or you can eat some of the colony's food to raise your own die value (and earn the suspicion of other players).

 

The big threat comes that whenever you move or attack a zombie, you roll the exposure die. This is a d12 where 6 sides are blank, 3 sides are wounds (takes 3 to kill a survivor), 2 are frostbite (counts as a wound and generates a new one each new turn for that player) and one side... well, one side is marked with a tooth. That means zombie bite aka. instant death, with the added risk that if you share or moved to a location with other survivors, you might spread the infection and cause a massive chain of death. In a chain of 3 or more, a player can choose to die and stop the spread or roll the exposure die again: a blank means they're safe, but anything else means they die and the spread continues.

 

So, yes, unless you have special weapons for attacking, or spend a fuel when you move, there is a 1/12 chance that your survivor will die ("They don't call it a die for nothing!") and take others with them. It creates a great deal of tension and some horrifying moments when everything goes tits up. And as a 'regular' player, your big focus comes down to morale, since you can't let that reach zero. Morale can be raised by contributing extra cards for a crisis or via certain unique events (both rare occurences) but it takes a hit whenever someone dies, there's not enough food at the colony and usually when a crisis fails. It will usually start around 5-6, so there's not a great deal of room for error.

 

Finally, and there are other minor details I'm missing, the 'Crossroads' mechanic is a really cool feature. On a player's turn, the person to their right will draw a Crossroads card and check the trigger condition text on the top. It could be something as simple as 'If a survivor the player controls is at the colony...' or something more specific like 'If the active player moves without spending a fuel...' or even 'If a male and female survivor share the same non-colony location...' or regarding one survivor in particular. If the condition is met, gameplay is stopped and a bit of story/flavour text is read out, which then results in a choice for the active player or the group as a whole. Usually, it'll be take a risk/do nothing, but sometimes it's where something really bad has happened and the choice is between suffering the clear penalty or risking things so success means it's avoided (or lessened) and failure will make things much, much worse.

 

I had a game go completely wrong because one of my survivors, a former truck driver, suffered a heart attack, and trying to save him would have put two more lives at risk. It led to a ruined turn after he died and then a bad exposure die roll wiped out three more survivors (now known as 'the turn from hell').

 

I've really enjoyed the games I've played so far, even though I've won none of them. It's definitely more about theme, role-playing and storytelling over strategic and tactical gameplay (not to say the mechanics aren't solid enough to support that to a certain extent), simply because the big element of luck will drastically alter outcomes, so it takes a particular group and mindset to really get the most from the game.

[Hot Heart]

Got my new game that I'd been waiting ages for!

 

Heroes Wanted

 

 

I could go into a lengthy explanation (as I am wont to do) and blah blah blah, but you might be better served by watching this great video instead, so there's this first..

 

 

With a member of the Champions of Zeta City resigning, now's your chance to go out and prove you have what it takes to make the team.

 

A really neat superhero game where you create a hero from two halves (bottom half is an adjective with passive ability, top determines type of hero and superpower) and then use your set of cards -- 5 defaults, 2 appropriate to your class (Cosmic, Mutant, Tech, Vigilante) but with 1 needing to be unlocked -- to attack and defend in order to earn the most Fame (victory points) and maybe even KO the villain of the day. Each card has different abilities for attacks and movement and all have a stamina value which becomes important when you defend by 'paying off' the damage coming at you (based on villain attack and surrounding enemies).

 

There are all sorts of hero and villain combinations, as well as 4 scenarios (two double-sided boards) with varied mechanics, so no game will ever play the same. The introductory one is also highly amusing since you're going after the villain and his minions for the heinous crimes of... littering, loitering and jaywalking (villain moves around across road, heroes must use zebra crossings/crosswalks)

 

There is an optional (and very fun) element called 'Quirks' whereby your hero has a personal issue to overcome, which you roleplay out in the game every time it triggers. I played a game yesterday where I was Creepy (everytime someone becomes 1st in turn order, I had to touch them and introduce myself in a whisper, "Psst, hey, nice to meet you, I'm Heavy Metal Hawk") someone else Secretly Wanted To Be Evil (celebrate everytime the villain moves or KOs a hero) and another with a Convoluted Origin Story (had to explain a bit of his hero's origin everytime he took a rest action or used his superpower). The incentive comes from the fact that if you miss performing your quirk and someone catches you, you lose the bonus points it was giving (goes down in 2s from 10)

 

Funnily enough, despite the light appearance and easy-to-grasp nature, it's a very 'thinky' game. You have to work hard to be in just the right place at the right time in order to make the most of your cards, manage what cards to use and what to defend with, when to rest to avoid injury and also keep an eye on what other heroes are doing. Not only because you're competing for KOs and 'headlines' (bonus points for certain achievements, such as dealing damage to villain or KO'ing a certain number of minions, which also lets you get that extra card or some one-off abilities) but because you're free to attack other heroes as well.

 

All in all, it's a great game with a smart twist on existing mechanics, tight design and yet a ton of replayability and an optional 'party game' element.

[deanb]

So a few new games from the past few weeks.

 

Jamaica

So this is a relatively simple "get around the board first" game. Main tactics is that most of the spaces have a cost of sorts to them, you also all move at the exact same time, meaning you might land on the same space (meaning you fight each other) and also being first isn't always a guarantee of victory since your cargo counts towards total points.

Each round you take it in turns to roll two dice and pick which one goes for day and which one for night. These correspond to the cards that have a day and a night event, such as day maybe being food cargo and night being move forward. So if the dice rolled and placed was a 2 for Day and a 5 for night, you'll get two food cargo then move forwards 5 spaces. It's a relatively quick game, and at times it can seem like there's an obvious winner but we found with ours despite one player steam rolling ahead at the cost of picking up cargo it ended up quite a close game (And thankfully for myself I had two move forward actions on my card otherwise I'd have ended the game in the -5pts section).

 

 

 

Then last Saturday one of the guys came back from GenCon, so two new games from that:

 

Abyss

So our main observation is that the "45minutes" on the side of the box was likely talking about the instructions, certainly one of the most rule heavy games I've played in a while but it was more written as a "cover all corners" kind of way than it being particularly complex. In fact it had quite some elegance to it and we all rather enjoyed it.

The overall aim is to have the most points at the end of the game by acquiring Locations, which are acquired with Lords, which are acquired with Allys. There's a fair few stages to the gameplay. On each turn you have the option of doing one of the following:

 

Purchase Allies: You turn over from the deck of Allies, which are pretty simple cards from one of the factions that will be numbered from 1 through to 5 (with 1's being common and 5's being rare). As each card is drawn from the pile it goes around the board with the option to purchase (the person drawing being last), and carries on until either the drawer picks one to keep, or 5 cards are drawn out and the player takes the last card regardless and a pearl. So this stage is a great way to build up initial currency, but can help aid the other players more than you. Which is a consistent theme, a lot of the moves you can do tend to be either restrict yourself, or go with options that get most freedom but also means everyone else has better options than you.

Take from the Council: Any Allies not purchased are then put into the council, you may freely take one factions pile from the Council

Purchase Lords: Assuming you have enough alleys and the corresponding card count you can purchase Lords. Lords have advantages in several ways. Firstly they have high VP (well most do), which are obviously good to win the game, many also have different skills which may either be continuous or one off (and all nicely themed by faction). These skills might be a case of keeping a hand limit, discarding a faction from the Council, killing other Lords, making cheaper purchases and so on. And the final ability is some have Keys which when you have three keys in hand you then automatically buy a Location.

 

Locations is where I fucked up in winning the game. Since I was first to buy and we were experimenting with the game I chose to go through 3 in the pile instead of just accept the one on top. Turns out the exact points given by the one on top (which was a straight up "20 - however many Allies you have) would have been 14 points. Guess how much I lost by? Instead it turned out most Locations had VP based on how many of a certain faction you had in hand, or amount of Monsters defeated, and so on. Obviously built in a way that'd direct you towards trying to get certain Lords instead of whatever you could afford at the time.

 

It's certainly one I'll be keeping an eye out for in future (since my understanding is currently limited availability mainly purchasable at GenCon)

 

*The pearl stuff was also rather nice. It was faux pearls and you had a clam shaped pot to store them in. Overall I'd say this is one of the best presented games I've played. Great artwork and having some nice faux pearls to pay with just knocked it over the edge.

 

 

A Touch of Evil: Dark Gothic

A deck building game. Two of us had played Marvel Legendary and there was a lot of similarities with it except this time around it was supernatural themed. I'm kinda not sure how to really describe this once since it'd be along the lines of just saying "You get a Dark Secret, which is like Wounds in Legendary". It was pretty okay, I guess if you really like the theme then it'd be best. I guess part of my "eh"-ness on it is due to a bunch of friends turning up midway through which threw in a minor distraction.

 

 

 

And on Tuesday:

Dead of Winter

So first of all to say I beat everyone in this game in the bestest "Food-Food-Food-Food-Fue.....Fuck you Dean, Fuck you" way. I was the betrayer. During the game it was remarked that there's either no betrayer in this game (you put in more Secrets than their are players then hand out),  or the betrayer was very bad. The guy that made that remark spent post game just peeling at his face going "oh dean you bastard. I respect you..but you bastard. I've never won" (t'was his game).

 

Anywho Hot Heart has done a fair chunk of a write-up two posts above. The particular survivors I started with was a chemist (meant to be a Walter White type) and a Fortune Teller. My Chemist could kill three zombies with Medicine (I only ever had one except near the end where fuck using them to help people)but my Fortune Teller could look at the next two Crisis cards and pick what came next. Say maybe holding off a card that shuffles all discarded Food cards back into the Waste until we'd discarded loads of food cards, or maybe Crisis that calls for cards people have openly spoken of having few of.

I actually came very close to losing. Final round I went first, so was a bit precarious, but had lined it up so several areas would overrun with zombies, managed to convince people to opt for losing "just one" moral points from starvation and focus on the food crisis (lose 2 Morale if there's not enough food...I put in the fuel ). All was going well until the last round where I was at this point super confident, since no one had picked up on my triggers, except fucking Sparky the Sniper Rifle totting wonder dog managed to kill off a couple zombies, then head back to the colony without triggering extra zombies and making one area not trigger an overflow of zombies. So yeah, game ended and I thought I was fucked, everyone else had won (though only one would have gotten their Secret objective), except I'd not realised a trucker had moved and set off an area, that tied with my 2 morale loss from the fuel in the food pushed it down to exactly 0 and then every fucker else on the board fell apart. One of the best board gaming sessions I'd had in a long time.

 

 

 

As usual I've a bunch of extra images and such here in my Imgur Album.

[Hot Heart]

Sparky's great, especially when he triggers Crossroads cards where people are holding conversations with him.

 

I have him in a play-by-forum game at the moment and he's a zombie-torching machine with a switchblade and lighter (any die to attack, discard a fuel to kill 4 zombies). Though I feel a betrayer has tanked our game to no real benefit, by killing off 3 people at the police station (where some handy weapons are) when 2 of them were his. So he has no cards, and his new survivor is now stuck at the colony because we deliberately failed the last crisis (Blizzard) meaning non-exiled survivors can't move for two rounds.

 

...and of course now we want to exile him, which would give him free movement and a further chance to fudge up everything and/or still win the game by getting an 'Exiled' objective he could complete.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

I try to avoid new games hype in the board game world especially, but I'm very tempted by Dead of Winter.

[Hot Heart]

I try to avoid new games hype in the board game world especially, but I'm very tempted by Dead of Winter.

 

Is that a hardclaim?

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

 

I try to avoid new games hype in the board game world especially, but I'm very tempted by Dead of Winter.

 

Is that a hardclaim?

 

Ban him! BAN HIM!

[SomTervo]

Goddamn, you guys, making me want more BGs

 

We converted a couple on Saturday night. They came over. Brought Risk. I scoffed. We seshed Parade, Coup, Betrayal at House on the Hill and Once Upon A Time (whilst hammered on rum) until 1.30am. Received a neighbour noise complaint after blasting Tom Waits and Talking Heads all night from the PS4. It was amazing.

Edited September 9, 2014 by kenshi_ryden

[Hot Heart]

 

Had a go at Heroes Wanted solo. Actually a lot of fun. Not something that sounds like a glowing endorsement of a 'superhero combat game' but it feels a bit like solving a puzzle. You try and maximise your points based on which cards you play, relative to where it'll put you on the board, what strengths your hero has and achieving headlines and activating other abilities. Besides the setup, there's very little randomness. There was a die roll for an extra bit of my superpower, which worked in my favour both times (and once because of a reroll thanks to a particular card already being spent) and there's one for explosions when that central track reaches the yellow spaces. The red space adds more henchmen which did actually catch me out. D'oh.

 

Had this great chain where I managed to get next to the villain, play my Retaliate card while defending to do 4 damage, which pushed me over the headline for 'Dealt 10 villain damage', which allowed me to retrieve the same card and play it again, dealing another 4 DMG, which then took me over the 'Dealt 15 villain damage' headline and allowed me to KO a minion and lose an injury I'd earned earlier. Really neat stuff and makes you feel like a genius... a genius superhero (phew, saved it)!

 

Ultimately, though, I might have ended things a little too soon by KOing the villain with another 3 turns left. I just couldn't be sure that I could KO the villain before he escaped, which is worth another 4 points for the damage dealt and 3 points for the KO. He just dealt too much damage and I risked getting caught in the explosions, too. Wound up with 52 points, just 3 shy of the 55+ top ranking shown in the rulebook.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Hot Heart

[Hot Heart]

Got my review of A Study In Emerald done. It is not an easy game to explain.

[deanb]

Couple new games yesterday.

 

Timeline

Didn't get a picture of this one, so used someone elses. It's a stupidly simple "game", more of a warm up than much else. I imagine it's be great for kids. Basically you have 5 cards to start with that are front facing, which'll have some kind of invention, discovery, event, whatever (there's several sets, so different themes. I think the above is "Inventions", we had "General Interest", there's several starting dates laid out in the centre and on your turn you place one of your cards along the timeline. It gets harder as you go along since dates get closer (and you might be out by only a year) so there's no 9,000 year gap to place your invention of loo roll in. My trained archaeologist housemate won, much to everyone's surprise. It's like £13 a set, which isn't bad and as I said it strikes me as a great game for kids, learning shit and what not, but overall it's verging on the "not a board game" and in to "it's just competitive flash cards".

 

Fortune & Glory

I've a low opinion of this game, and we didn't actually finish, in fact amongst all of us we had 5 glory and that was all owned by one player selling his artefact and us deciding to call it packing up time. It takes an age to set up, there's multiple phases per round, there is a lot of dice rolls, a lot of down time. It's got a nice theme, I'll give it that. But there's a large amount of cards, rules, set-up, items, etc. Bluergh.

Basically your aim is to travel the globe as one of several Indiana Jones style characters to pick up artefacts and sell them for Fortune. First to 15 Fortune wins the game. You also acquire Glory, through going on Adventures to get the artefacts. Adventures are primarily rolling a number of dice based on your stats are scoring better than what's given on the card. If you succeed you can move on, though there's the risk of losing it all, or wait a round and "bank" your Glory. Each artefact has a required number of successful adventures to earn it. Oh and if you fail you not only lose the accrued glory but there's normally a fail state usually leading to wounds, death, dropping items etc.

It'd probably be fine if it just had a bit of refinement. And if Heroes Wanted wasn't been played on the other table.

[TheMightyEthan]

The Fortune & Glory adventure system sounds similar to the Misbehave system from Firefly, except I love that system in that game.

[deanb]

Yeah it plays a bit like Indiana Jones version of the Firefly game.

[Hot Heart]

Had a go at Assassin's Creed Arena the other night. It's a good game, but not a great one. Works well with solid mechanics and captures the video game elements quite nicely.

 

Funnily enough, it's based on the multiplayer mode. So... it's a board game based on a video game, in which a company is simulating history as part of development of a video game. So meta.

 

 

The idea is to either assassinate targets or carry treasure back to your 'base' (your corner of the board). You have a hand of cards, most of which should be dual-purpose; either daggers for playing to match the health values of your targets or for moving that number of spaces (values between 1-3). These cards might have extra conditional abilities such as drawing extra cards if you end your movement on a blue square. Other times you might have weapons or other tools like disguises to move undetected or concussion bombs to clear guards away. What makes it a little trickier is that your hand of cards is also your health, so you have to be careful not to run out at a bad time... or just figure the net value of killing a target versus losing 1VP (if you die during your turn) is worth it.

 

Further complicating things are the guards who patrol those routes depending on their colour. If one is 'nearby' a building with a target (at one of the corners) then the target cannot be assassinated. You can either wait, and hope they move away or try and kill them at the same time. In addition to that, every time you're spotted while moving, you discard a card; with a guard's line-of-sight being down each street to the next dot. On the plus side, you can jump over their heads with no ill effect.

 

The tougher guards and higher value targets are closer to the centre, and as you can see, the red guard will always be nearby so you'd need to kill him, too (and he has 4 health on his own, meaning at least 2 cards with daggers are required). Plus, if you decide not to move, you can 'hide' instead and draw cards but will receive fewer cards the closer you are to the centre.

 

To bring in a more random element, each turn starts with an 'event' card being drawn which might move guards based on a die roll, spawn outer city (white spaces) targets or introduce animus glitches. Just so happens that one guy nabbed a high value treasure and then the 'no PvP allowed' glitch came up on the next turn.

 

Oh, yes, you can attack each other. Though that can be risky if they have some counterattack measures (I did warn the other guy...)

 

Overall, it's a simple, easy to learn game that has a light mix of strategy and tactics. Though, as with any game with random elements, be prepared for that luck factor, both good and bad. For example, I managed to get onto a blue target right away but became stuck there as all the other guards congregated nearby and then other event cards meant a couple of occasions where I had to discard a card for each, so I spent a few turns having to hide and do nothing else. Or a friend needed to move but had a hand full of weapons, smoke and concussion bombs.

 

And that brings me to the cool thing in that it does a decent job of presenting the theme. You feel like an assassin negotiating the city, lying in wait for a target or just dashing in recklessly for that last push to the 15 VP winning total. There's a rhythm to its mechanics and some fun little moments tucked in there.

 

I enjoyed it and I think more casual players might like it and even play more often. Well worth what I paid for it at any rate.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Hot Heart

[SomTervo]

£35 for it seems a little steep, but the second hand £20-25 seems sound.

 

Btw – I don't buy boardgames enough to know offhand – but do they depreciate in value like video games? Ie does getting a boardgame a year or two after release knock a tenner off the price?

 

I'd be all over Assassin's Creed Arena if it cost £15.

[deanb]

From what I've seen a board game generally costs as much (if not more, since limited print runs, no infinite digital copies) years after release as it does the day it was first shipped out.

[Hot Heart]

Your best bet is to keep a saved search on eBay and find someone looking to sell their copy for cheap. That's how I got mine, and it just so happens they hadn't done anything besides remove the shrinkwrap. Dean's mostly right though. Unless it's a real popular game that gets loads of expansions, they tend to hold their value or increase.

 

[redacted] should stay pretty valuable, for example, and likewise, I know my copy of A Study In Emerald should be well sought after in Europe.

[Hot Heart]

Camel Up

 

Won a Spiel de Jahres award, I think. It won some award at least.

 

Not a bad little game, all told.

 

You have a six-sided die for each coloured camel, numbered 1-3 and two of each. Those dice go into the pyramid dice shaker and the little mechanism allows you to turn it upside down and plop one out at a time. The aim is to try and bet correctly on a variety of things. There's using a card to call first place as well as last place (more points to whoever's first, fewer for later correct bets and penalties for incorrect ones), there's claiming a tile for which camel will come 1st or second in each 'leg' (once all five die are revealed, leg ends), there's initiating the rolls themselves and then there are special tiles for +1/-1 movement.

 

The camel movement has a quirk to it because they can stack and then if a camel moves, any above it in the stack also move. Using the example above, there's a very good chance that green will come first in that leg (because of the +1/-1 tiles, whatever is rolled, the camel will go to blue's space). You can already see the white and blue dice out, meaning those have moved, so if either the yellow or orange camel move next, they'll take green with them, who will stay on top. Otherwise, if green happens to move first, yellow or orange might stack above it and claim first place. Which means there's a bit of tactical bidding and assessing the odds and what to do with your one action per turn.

 

Anyway, long story short, I WON WITH MY SKILL.

 

 

Also had a go at Heroes Wanted with all five of us and no 'rookie setup', doing the bootleg DVD/conveyor belt/explosions scenario and I'm not sure they like it even after becoming more familiar. I certainly dig it, because it's got these really deep, interesting tactical elements that most won't appreciate after just one play. It all comes down to not just your hero's powers and abilities and the villain's but also what other players do.

 

For example, one player took Master Hedgehog who is pretty fearsome for messing with other heroes by giving them injuries and generally throwing off their rhythm with poke attacks. Fortunately, I didn't suffer too much because I happened to have a hero (Ultimate Beard!) whose mutant power allowed him to lose injuries but also the Ultimate part meant I received an extra mutant power card. So even though Master Hedgehog did mess with me a bit and even KOed me (bastard!) for 4 points and 1st place on a headline (3 more points), I could recover and managed to fight back at one point.

 

Things didn't go so well for Leather Rocket, however, who was mercilessly picked on by the hedgehog and with no way to heal injuries. He wound up with five injuries which meant +5 damage he had to defend each time he was hit (typical card defence values are around 4 each and you start with six cards which also double as your attacks). Thing is, being unfamiliar with the game (it's really one you have to put in a good few games, I think), neither did too well out of it. Master Hedgehog was getting points for KOing a hero but missing out on damaging the villain and KOing minions, while Leather Rocket should've just got the hell away from him (you have a card that lets you move 4 spaces!) and avoided all those injuries which completely destroyed his game. I guess the real lesson is that PvP is good as an area control move but not sole point-scorer, because I thrived once the prickly bastard moved away and got to focus my efforts on damaging the villain and KOing more underlings, which eventually won me the game (and I really wasn't expecting to win!)

 

The hero powers really should shape your approach, but you've still got to diversify a little alongside that. Just another thing you learn with experience.

 

So, yeah, I really enjoyed it, but maybe that's because I've already had that moment of clarity when everything all clicks into place (I think the guy who came second had one near the end) whereas for most it takes a while to absorb it all and the games can take a good while because of it.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Hot Heart

[deanb]

So this is via my housemate:

http://www.orderofgamers.com/games/

They do a bunch of single sheet (well, some are single sheet but double sided) strip down of rules for a bunch of board games.

 

 

 

Oh I played Heroes Wanted. I lost, wasn't really "in the zone" (I left for home after that game). Was alright, but not much to say since wasn't wholly paying attention. I was a ...Master Viking iirc. My main issue was getting next to people to hit them. Also not sure if I was missing out on stuff since others were hitting two guys at once, which kinda helped them clear out people (making a pain for me to get next to people to hit) and getting "headlines".