Agricola (kfritz's review)

Are you one of those players who is growing tired from the worn out theme of trading in the Mediterranean? How about role selection? Do you hate having lots of options, but only one being the best? Do you love lots of bits and cards like the present offerings that are usually seen in "Ameritrash" games but dislike the long setup and play time? Well, if you answered "yes" to the previous questions, Agricola (Latin for "farmer") is a game you should try.

The theme of this game is a bit out of the ordinary as it is described as a game about agriculture and development. So, you can loosely consider it to be an "empire building" game if you can consider a farm to be your empire. You start out the game with a field of 15 spaces, two start out occupied by your wood huts to house your two people. Your objective in the game is to make the best use of these spaces to earn victory points during the next 14 rounds of the game.

Agricola is chocked full of bits! I was surprised upon reading that the shipment for the game was six pounds! In addition to the 193 wooden bits and nine thick game boards, Agricola comes with a whopping 302 game-changing cards, split into three types of decks, "E" - basic game, "I" interactive game and "K" - Complex game. After choosing which deck to use (in my games, I chose the "I" deck as I prefer games that the players actions can interact with each other) each player receives nine "minor improvement" cards and nine "occupation" cards to which you can use to your benefit if you satisfy the prerequisites. In addition to these 302 cards, there are 10 "major improvement" cards available to all, 14 round cards determining what actions are available, 16 action cards of which a subset are used depending on the players. The combination of all these cards changes the game a fair amount to the point that a strategy that worked your last game may not work so well the next if you do not have similar cards. Simply put, the cards determine your possibilities in the game. You could get some great cards and you could get some worthless ones as well. Your first games will be spent getting to know the cards. With three decks consisting of 302 cards, it will take awhile to get some cards that are familiar to you. You may spend so much time reading the cards initially that it will be your turn to play quicker than you might expect!

As I stated earlier, the game consists of 14 rounds and these rounds are grouped into five stages. These rounds go pretty quickly as all you do on your turn is place one of your "family members" on one of the available action cards. As each new round starts, another possible action is added to the board. Once a player places a family member on an action space, no other player may use it (like role selection in Puerto Rico). At the end of each of the five stages, there is a harvest in which you have to feed your family. If you didn't plan well to generate food for your family, you need to take a "begging" card which subtracts three points from your VP total at the end of the game. Don't worry, once you know what you are doing, you will plan appropriately and it will not be likely that you will need a begging card. However, you will notice that gathering food to feed your family may be a setback for you in your quest to win the game.

At the time of this writing, I have only two games under my belt, but I am very familiar with how the game works as this is a very easy game to understand. The hardest part of the game is learning the cards, but because there is so many, it is likely that your fellow players will be on the same level as you. Both games I played used the "I" deck, so I cannot comment on the other two decks. In addition to a solitaire option (which again, I did not play), the game can also be played without the cards and is billed as the "family game". So, if the cards are intimidating to your non-gamer friends, start out with the family game.

The first printing of the game included a small deck listed as a "Z" deck which provides some interesting minor improvements and Occupations, but with all the ones available already, in my opinion, it's not a "must have" (no, you're not getting mine though..). In addition, to those willing to pony up the cash to pay retail price ($70) plus shipping last November, they were rewarded with what is called "animeeples". Animeeples are simply wooden animal shaped pieces rather than the wooden blocks that came with editions not pre-ordered in later 2007 from Z-Man. While they are available in Europe, they are difficult to get if you live in the US. There is a rumor that Z-Man will make them available in early 2009. While the animeeples add a nice touch to the game, they do break a card from the "K" deck in which a player is supposed to put the animals in a cup and draw one. Being that the animeeples are distinctively shaped, it is pretty easy to determine what is what. If they were wooden cubes, there would be no way to tell. So, there is some disadvantage to having the animeeples.

Because this game is easy to teach, has excellent components (check on boardgamegeek.com for downloadable graphics to make the game look even better), has lots of bits and has lots of cards to provide a fresh game for quite some time, I am very pleased with my purchase. My only gripe is that the stickers I downloaded from the Agricola entry at boardgamegeek.com weren't included in the game. One other small gripe is that the cards are a bit thinner than I would like (they are similar in thickness to the cards in Ticket To Ride: Switzerland). Being that the cards aren't handled much, this isn't really that big of a problem. I have no complaints with regard to gameplay at this time and give this game an 8 out of 10 rating.

Agricola Review: Hype or Buzz? (Schwade's review)

It seems like every so often, a board game arrives on the scene with a lot of fanfare. This year’s game to fit that description is Agricola. The name comes from the Latin for ‘farmer.’ Naturally, that is your role in this game. You play a farmer who is trying to develop the most successful farm, as judged by the player with the most victory points at the end.

So, how is success measured? At the end, each player scores points for:
• How many fields they’ve plowed
• How many animal pastures they have
• How much grain they’ve accumulated (sown and taken from supply)
• How many vegetables they’ve accumulated
• How many sheep they’ve raised
• How many wild boar they’ve raised
• How many cattle they’ve raised
• How many family members they’ve accumulated
• What their house is made of
• Some of their improvements (all major and some minor score points)
• Some bonus points (again, from major and some minor improvements)
• Perhaps most importantly, anything you’ve neglected or spaces that are unfilled score negative points.

This is a lot to pay attention to. Of course, it’s still not that easy; as you also have to make sure your family has enough food during the harvest phases. Any food you fail to produce on your own you have to beg for. Each time you beg you earn -3 points towards your final score. You do not ever, EVER, want to have to take one of these.

Enough about the final score. How you get there is all the fun anyhow. You start with 2 wooden hut rooms and 2 members of your family. Each round each family member can take one action. Once an action is chosen, no other player can take that action during a round, so one thing to think about is what your opponents might be trying to do, and what actions you want that no one else can do. If you’re the only one with the supplies to build a room on to your hut you don’t necessarily need to choose that as your first action. The game has cards to add on as additional action options for 3, 4, or 5 players. These are all different, so each game plays differently because of this. I’ve played 2-5 player games and I enjoy them all, I think you can have a good time with each one.

Furthermore, each round will bring a new action that is available to all players. The game is divided into stages (I-VI) and each stage always contains the same round actions, but which round each action will appear changes with each game. This also forces some strategy modification, as each game only one player will be able to choose one of the rounds actions before the harvest.
Speaking of the harvest, each player is responsible for feeding each family member 2 food during each harvest phase. The harvests happen at the ends of round 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14. The exception is that a family member ‘born’ that round only requires one food. If the family member was born the round before, meaning you got to take an action with that person during the round before the harvest, they eat 2 food. I can’t reiterate enough how much you do not want to take a begging card for not being able to feed your family. There are very few actions in your arsenal that can provide you with the 3 victory points you lost from begging. To make matters worse, you take one card for each food you don’t have, not for each family member. Just make sure you can feed everyone every time.

There are 2 different ways to play a multiplayer game, with and without occupations and minor improvements. The version without cards is known as the family game. This game is slightly less complex and is a good way to introduce people to the game and the ‘role-selection’ concept, plus the concepts of accumulation (some roles, if unchosen, will accumulate more resources each turn, making them more attractive options than they were the round before). This can pave the way for wanting some more options in the more advanced game.

The advanced game adds in two additional elements, minor improvements and occupations. Each player gets a hand of 7 of each, and there are variant rules for players to draw 10 and discard 3, or to draft the occupations (which would of course increase the total time to play). Also, there are 3 different decks from which to choose the cards players get, the E (easy), I (interactive) and K (complex) decks. You can mix the decks together or use just one. With so many card combinations the game is guaranteed to have significant replayability. Naturally, this also provides a ready place for expansions.

There are many different strategies in this game which are not really the focus of this review. Your hand of cards will often help direct your strategy in the early game. The first player will often choose an occupation to play to give themselves a slight edge or enhancement. Collecting resources is always a good thing to do, provided you have some plan for what you’ll be doing with them. Building rooms and adding to your family is the key to a successful mid-late game, since more actions will usually lead to more success. Sowing crops (I know, what a concept for a farmer) will lead to more after each harvest. Building fences to secure your animals (once you collect them) can lead them to reproduce as well, giving you either a food source (with an oven of some kind) or more victory points. You still have way more things to do than you’ll ever have time for, and then there are your pesky opponents, who always end up taking the actions you want just before you do. You get the idea. The decision on which role to take when is difficult, and that part of the discovery is a lot of the fun of the game for me.

Overall this game provides choices for everyone. There is the basic (family) game, a solo game with victory point goals, different options for different numbers of players. The novelty of the game helps because there isn’t necessarily a ‘best strategy’ like there is for some of the other high rated games. The game is one I really enjoy, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I’d rate the game a solid 9.5/10. I think its buzz, not hype, and the game delivers on all levels.

Alhambra

Alhambra (designer Dirk Henn, various publishers including uberplay) is a game about palace-building, although the thrust of the game has more in common with stock-holding games like Acquire. This is hardly a surprise, since Alhambra is a reincarnation of Stimmt So!, a stock-holding game. It has won various awards, including the 2003 Spiel des Jahres, and is appropriate for 3-6 players, although it can be played with 2 players plus a "dummy" (named Dirk).

The main components of this game are building tiles of 6 different types (drawn from a bag), and money cards (of various denominations, 1 through 9) of 4 distinct and non-exchangeable currencies (drawn from a deck). Unlike most games, if you ever pay more money than required, you do not receive change, making the role of banker much easier!

There are always 4 money cards available for drafting, and 4 building tiles available for purchase. The currency required to buy a building depends upon which of the 4 vacancies it fills, while the cost is printed on the tile itself.

On each turn, you decide whether to take money, purchase buildings, or renovate your alhambra. If you pay the exact price for a building, you can take a bonus action. Purchased buildings can be placed immediately in your alhambra, in accordance with 5 simple caveats, or placed in reserve for later placement. At the end of your turn, the available money cards and building tiles restored to 4 each.

There are three scoring rounds (the first two triggered by drawing a scoring card from the money deck, the third triggered by running short of building tiles). Players score points for holding a plurality of a building type. Points are also scored for having placed tiles so that your alhambra has an external wall.

Alhambra is simple and light - it is challenging to summarize this game without recapitulating the entire rulebook - but has enough weight for a decent gateway game. It plays fast with little downtime, and available options change so quickly that there is no point in planning your move before your turn comes. This allows the conversation (and/or the wine) to flow freely in between turns, until someone realizes to ask, "Oh, is it my turn?"

Rating: 8 out of 10 Dirks

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game (Siddy's review)

Note: The following was originally written for Fantasy Flight Games (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com).

In the scant time left before the release of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, we will be presenting a series of preview articles. The complete rulebook can be downloaded free of charge on the Support section of this website.

Today's article showcases the Rochester Gamers Community in their first game of Battlestar Galactica…

All but two of the six players were brand new to the game, and by way of explaining the game, the veteran players put some things in perspective. Cylons are bad! The humans must survive! Discover and uncover the Cylon threat, and make it home as soon as possible. The clock is ticking, resources are low, and death awaits in the cold darkness of space.

The Players

• Kyle Miller - playing Galen "Chief" Tyrol
• Ashley Hill - playing Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
• Charlie Covault - playing Lee "Apollo" Adama
• Brian Lucier - playing Gaius Baltar
• Wade Schwendemann - playing President Laura Roslin
• Cyrus Kirby - playing Admiral William Adama

The Story Begins

After 10 minutes of a quick rule rundown, the players take their place at the table and allegiances are dealt. Is there a Cylon among the humans, sabotaging efforts to make it to Earth safely? If so, the toaster is hiding well. It doesn't take long, however, until the first hint of a Cylon aboard the Galactica is revealed. A simple skill check indicates the possibility that at least one Cylon operative is on board and poking at the humans' defenses. Paranoia begins to take root in the hearts and minds of the crew, and accusations fly.

But that will have to wait. Outside drifts a Cylon Basestar with its Raiders zeroing in on the Galactica's position. Huddling close to Galactica are two defenseless civilian ships that must be protected at all costs!

Adama suggests that Apollo get in a Viper and take them out. Ready, willing, and able, Apollo takes the fight to the Cylons, obliterating any who get in his way.

Meanwhile, Adama orders the civilian ships to shift position away from the raiders while the rest of the crew works feverishly to get the FTL drives up and running so they can make the jump away from the Cylons and get that much closer to home.

Sadly, Apollo takes a hit, but thanks to some expert flying (and a lot of luck), he is recovered and sent to Sickbay to heal up. Shortly thereafter, Galactica jumps, leaving the Cylons alone in the void.

Galactica is safe for now…

A Play for Power

After a few more crises where it becomes clear that a Cylon in a position of power is working aganst the fleet, President Roslin declares that Admiral Adama is not capable of leading the Colonial Military. She uses the Quorum to assume the role of Admiral, and is now the President and Admiral of the fleet.

Being stripped of his authority and position, Adama campaigns hard to regain the trust of his crew, but to no avail. His actions are suspicious and he is thrown in the Brig. Cylon or not, the majority no longer trust their longtime leader. Such are the dark times the last of the human race find themselves in.

With Adama behind bars, President and Admiral Roslin takes the lead and the humans work even harder to get home. Aggressive decisions are made, and skill checks barely pass. A Cylon is still at large and remains hidden!

But wait! If Adama is behind bars, that means the Cylon is free! The crew have made a terrible mistake! Who else could be a Cylon? The only other likely candidate is Boomer, as her skills (Piloting) were used in the last few attempts to sabotage the skill checks.

Gaius, quiet and contemplative until now, points a steady finger at Boomer. She is a Cylon! Without a second thought, Boomer is sent to the Brig were she meets the fallen Admiral. But Adama has a plan and convinces the rest of the crew that Boomer is not a threat. She is allowed to go free, but there is still doubt about Adama. As such, he remains in the Brig, helpless to assist his ship and crew.

The Galactica jumps several more times, but resources are running low and the Cylon agent continues to be hidden and active. Desperate, Adama once again pleads to be released. The vote is cast. Adama, be he friend or foe, will remain in the Brig. Silently, the Cylon chuckles…

The Last Great Battle

The humans have made it past the halfway point, but the Cylons are not through with them yet. "Sleeper" agents, if any, have awoken. Long trusted allies could now be Cylon agents looking for an opportunity to destroy Galactica once and for all.

The Galactica, still led by President and Admiral Roslin, limps its way across space. They are almost home now, but at great cost. Fuel and Food are low. They are blessed however, as their Population is maintained and Morale, despite all their hardships, remains strong. Without warning, a Cylon Basestar appears with a vast number of Raiders. Galactica is fired upon and the ship takes damage, knocking out their FTL. Chief Tyrol does his best to put out the fire and repair the ship.

To their utter despair, the humans see yet another Basestar appear behind the Galactica. Both Basestars fire, almost tearing the ship in half. The humans scramble to fix the ship, pilots launch in Vipers for an all or nothing last stand.
The Final Blow

The Galactica is surrounded. Desperate for help, the crew turn to their fallen leader, Adama.

But no hope is to come.

Smiling evilly, William Adama reveals himself to be a Cylon agent! He orders the Raiders to attack! Hope crushed, morale all but destroyed, the tearful eyes of the last of the human race turn towards their President for guidance, leadership, hope…

And with cool eyes and a thin smile, their great leader who had taken them far and so close to home reveals herself to also be a Cylon agent!

The rest of the crew hardly has time to comprehend this final blow of treachery and deceit as the Cylons push their final attack.

A moment of quiet.

A final sigh.

And the Battlestar Galactica, the last hope for the human race, is destroyed in a giant ball of flame. All that remains is floating debris.

Like this review? Want to read another?

Check out Vree's review of Battlestar Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game (Vree's review)

BSG: TBG is a termed a semi-cooperative game, and it is true to form. The players depict the major characters from the television series and work together to save the human race from being exterminated by the Cylons. The "semi-cooperative" part of the game comes in when 1 or more of the players is secretly a Cylon and is working to sabotage the human effort. It will constantly be compared to SOC (Shadows Over Camelot) for this reason, although I think BSG: TBG does a much better job of employing this "traitor" aspect. The player(s) being the Cylon may not know it until half-way through the game, and the players at the table do not know when, or who is the Cylons. You could be a human, and then halfway through the game your programming kicks in and you realize you are a sleeper agent. This introduces paranoia and misdirection into the game at a much higher level than SOC ever did. The game ends in favor of the humans if they can complete a series of FTL jumps to reach Kobol. The Cylons can win the game if they deplete the humans of 1 of the 4 primary resources (food, fuel, morale, or population), if they can board Galactica and take over the ship, or if they destroy Galactica outright.

The game is very thematic and closely follows familiar things from the new BSG world. It mostly depicts the first season of the show, and is very true to character nuances as they affect the game play. It does a wonderful job of portraying the constant running the humans are doing from the Cylon hoard, and the way the human looking Cylons are tied into the mechanic is very well done. One of the strong points of the game is in how it depicts this theme, and blows SOC out of the water in this regard. As you would expect in a heavily themed game, some gaps in the mechanics arise--more on that later. Additionally each character is heavily themed toward the show. The all have three attributes that provide game adjustments. two are geared toward character strengths, and one portrays a weakness. For example, Starbuck has some bonuses in a Viper, but is also easier to throw into the brig due to her insubordination. Saul Tigh is a drunk, and so has some limitations on his hand of skill cards.

Where this game really shines is in how it handles the Cylon agents (the traitors). Every game will have at least one Cylon in it, and possibly up to three depending on the number of players and the conditions of the game. As a player, you may be a sleeper agent, and not realize you are a Cylon until the game is half done. Like SOC, once a player knows he is a Cylon, he can reveal himself and his gameplay drastically changes. The game handles this mechanically by dealing out every player a loyalty card at the beginning of the game from a draw deck that is seeded with at least 1 "You are a Cylon" card (depends on number of players). Half of these cards come out at the beginning of the game, and half at the midpoint. In such a way, there could be 0-2 active Cylons, but the players do now know. At the midpoint the rest of the cards are dealth out and you know all the active Cylons are present, but you do not know who they are. This is also what triggers your programming if you are a sleeper agent. This is the strength of this game. The Cylons are empowered to provide much deception, and paranoia, and can really change game play a whole lot more than the traitor can in SOC. In addition, a 4 or 6 player game employs a "You are a Sympathizer" card. This helps the Cylons, but it functions differently depending on who is winning at the midpoint (determined by specific game conditions). At best case for the humans, you end up throwing one of your apparent human players into the brig due to suspicion. At worst case, the sympathizer actually is a Cylon and reveals himself as such. Note, this is independent of your loyalty card where you may actually be a Cylon anyway, or may have been a human falsely accused.

Like all cooperative games, the players at the table are competing against a board mechanic, in this case represented by crises cards that are drawn at the end of every turn. The crises cards do a few different things, but a frequently used mechanic is that of a skill check. Some bad thing has happened to the humans, and the humans are collectively trying to overcome the crises. If you pay attention, these all depict plot elements from the first season of the show (maybe part of the 2nd season also). Mechanically, this is done by achieving a skill score that is listed on the crises card. To do this, the players must match the required skills and add up the values of all the skill cards that meet these restrictions. The game has 5 different base skills that you collect cards in, and the crises require anywhere from 2 to 4 of these skills. Where this gets interesting is that any skill cards that are played that do not match the required skill set have their values subtracted from the accumulated total. In such a way, the hidden Cylons can sabotage the skill check and cause bad things to happen.

This sabotage mechanic offers much more secrecy than SOC does, and is one of the strong points for the game. First, all cards are played face down and then shuffled at the end so you do not know who played what card. Second, two random skill cards are added in to represent fate. These may or may not match the skills needed and so could help or hurt you. Additionally, they cast doubt about whether a "bad" card was thrown in by a saboteur, or it was just fate. These are also shuffled in, so it becomes very hard to determine if there actually is a Cylon on the board, and if so, who it is. This mechanic is what makes the game. Cylons can be sneaky and pick the juicy targets to sabotage. They can sow paranoia, and cast doubt on human players. Humans can easily have false suspicions and end up throwing a non-Cylon in the brig. At the same time, the Cylons cannot just go crazy and sabotage everything, otherwise it becomes easier to deduce who they are.

Like SOC, the Cylon player can choose to reveal himself and start wreaking havoc. By doing so he is empowered by a "Super Crises Card" that is nasty when used correctly, and he can execute a set of actions that are reserved only for revealed Cylon players. In addition, the newly revealed Cylon player gets a one-time action that could prove to be devastating for the humans. However, when revealed you give up a lot of power in sabotaging the skill checks, and more importantly you give up the power to sow paranoia and discord among the rest of the human crew. Based on games I have played, if you are going to reveal yourself, it is best to do so somewhere around the midpoint of the game. Otherwise it becomes too late to setup your super crises card. Although, I am not convinced its best to ever reveal yourself unless it very nearly ends the game.

Other things that happen with crises cards other than the skill checks are: control of Cylon ships, hard decisions for the admiral or the president (choosing an outcome from 1 or 2 bad options), global board game effects, and the advancement of the FTL drive preparation for jumping away.

Game play flows by a human player picking up skill cards, optionally moving to another location, performing an action, then resolving a crises card. Actions are can be specific to a location, can be special actions that are detailed on the various cards, or can be used to move or attack with a viper (when piloting one). Some location actions are used to throw players in the brig, others help control the defense of Galactica, and others aid in exercising political power to change game play. Skill card actions are not very diverse, but are themed to the card type (i.e. piloting skill cards have an action to allow more attacks). Each skill only has two different cards, and so there was not a lot of variability in this aspect of game play. In addition, there are special actions for the president, as well as the ability for the admiral to launch a limited supply of nukes.

This game is great for getting people involved that do not want heavy strategy. There is not a lot of tactics involved, and most of the focus is placed on deduction (if you are human), and misdirection (if you are cylon). The game does an excellent job in this regard, and this is where the enjoyment lies. It is well suited for bringing along a fringe gamer and getting them involved, especially for those that are fans of the show. I like the game better than SOC, and it may appeal to a wider audience than your hardcore euro-strategy or wargame crowd. I would rate it about 7 out of 10, and would welcome playing it again.

Like this review? Want to read more?

Check out Siddy's review of this game, too!

Citadels

I had heard a lot of good things about this game and had thought about purchasing it many times, but had just never got around to it. Matt brought it over to one of my Monday Night Game Nights and we got a chance to play it two-player since no one else had shown up yet. After that, I knew that I wanted to purchase a copy for myself.

Gameplay – I know this game can spark quite a bit of controversy on the best way to play it, but I have found in my gaming circle that it scales very well. I have had very enjoyable games with two to eight players with the Dark City expansion. The game is a very different beast between two players and eight though.

The object of the game is to make the best city by building districts on each of your turns. Players start the game with four district cards in their hand and two gold.

Each turn a player selects a role from one of the eight roles numbered one to eight. The roles in the base game are 1 – The Assassin. This player can choose a character and if another player has chosen that character, they will lose their turn. 2 – The Theif, this character can select a character and if a player has chosen it, when they reveal that it, the thief can take their gold. 3 – The Magician, this character can discard as many district cards from hand and redraw the same number, or exchange hands with another player. 4 – The King, this character gets one gold income for each yellow district in the player’s city. The King also gets to take the crown token which will allow that player to choose first from the roles on subsequent turns. 5 – The Bishop, this character gets one gold for each blue district in a player’s city and makes that player immune from the Warlord. 6 – The Merchant, the player that selects the Merchant gains a gold for each green district in a player’s city, and gives the player a gold after they take an action. 7 – The Architect, this character allows a player two draw two district cards after taking an action and allows the player to build up to three district cards this turn. 8 – The Warlord, on the Warlord’s turn, that player can take one gold income for each red building and pay the cost of an opponent’s district minus one to discard it.

After everyone has selected a role, the King will call out the first role, the Assassin. The Assassin player will then take his/her turn. The player will start off by using the Assassin ability, then that player may take one of two actions. He or She may take two gold from the bank, or he or she may draw two districts from the district pile, but he or she must discard one. Then that player may build one district if he or she wishes. Play continues on with number the second role The Thief, the third role The Magician and so on, all the way to the eighth role, The Warlord. Players will then choose roles again and play out another round until at the end of the round someone has 8 districts out.

The game ends at the end of the round in which a player has build 8 districts. Players then score their cities. Each district is worth a point for each gold it cost. Four bonus points are awarded to the player that built 8 districts first and each player that also built 8 districts gets two bonus points. There are also three bonus points awarded to each player that has built a district of each of the 5 colors.

In a two or three player game, players will end up taking on two roles. I also feel that the Dark City expansion makes the two player experience a lot better by substituting the Witch for the Assassin.

I talked a little bit about the colors of the districts above. The red, yellow, green and blue all give income to their respective role, but there is one color that I haven’t talked about yet, and that is purple. The purple building each have their own special abilities that can be very helpful.

The game is basically a role choosing hand management game with some bluffing and deduction involved.

One’s seating position can have a positive or negative aspect on their ability to win, but overall I think that the King counter is easy enough to move around that eventually one will have an improved position if he or she wants.

I feel that the gameplay deserves 9 out of 10 gold.

Look and Feel - This game mostly shines in the look and feel department, but that also depends on which version one can get a hold of. I have the newer Fantasy Flight Games version that has the Dark City expansion included.

The art on the cards is great. I know there are a few cards that some people have mentioned are too risqué, or grotesque, but I personally don’t see any problems. I just see beautifully rendered artwork on each card. There is a negative to the cards though, they seem to wear really easily, especially the role cards. I know that they get handled a lot, but I think FFG would be aware of the amount of ware that at least the role cards would get, and could have produced better wearing role cards at least.

Gold pieces in the version I have are very nice plastic pieces that have kind of a gold yellow marbled look to them. They look and feel great, while performing their function very well. I know one of the other versions had cardboard punch out gold pieces, which would function fine, but would not be near as nice.

The only other item in the box is the crown counter, which is a nice painted wood piece. There is one thing that bothers me about it. Mine at least isn’t quite symmetrical, and it always just kind of sticks out at me like a sore thumb. I know it is really nit-picky, but I can’t help but notice it.

This box is also a pretty good one as far as boxes go. It is a little bit of an odd shape, but it has good solid construction and shouldn’t have trouble with warping. It has a little bit of extra space, but it is pretty much just a comfortable amount and not a waste like some games. The art on the box is also very nice to match the cards inside. It doesn’t give you a wrong impression; the quality of the art on the box is what you get inside.

The look and feel of this game earns Citadels 7 out of 10 gold.

Overall Score - 8 gold out of 10

Final Word - If you like role selection and or bluffing, this could be a good game for you. My wife and I like to play it just as a couple or with several other people and have fun both ways.

Cold War: CIA vs. KGB

Cold War: CIA vs. KGB is a card game for two players and produced by Fantasy Flight in late 2007. The theme of the game puts the players in a struggle for influence during the Cold War. Players are given an objective and through clever play of cards, the players battle back and forth to take the objective to gain victory points. Players can also tilt the scales in their favor by way of "Agent X" cards as well as Event cards obtained in previous battles. The game ends when one player accumulates 100 victory points.

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Gameplay
The core mechanic in this game is Blackjack. Players first turn over an Objective card which determines the value that the Group cards need to reach or come closest without going over. The objective card also shows how many cards can be in play and how many victory points will be awarded for winning the objective. After the Objective card is displayed, the players determine which "Agent X" card to have in play (Agent X cards can give a player a special action or even change the outcome of the turn.) Finally, the two players alternate doing one of three actions: (1) draw group cards, (2) activate (use special power) group card or (3) pass. When both players pass, the struggle is resolved and the player who came closest to the number on the objective card without going over puts their Domination token on the objective card. A player going over the value displayed on the Objective card causes Civil Disorder and their Agent X is removed from play (except for the Deputy Director). Agent X cards are revealed and effects are resolved. A player cannot use the same Agent X card (except for the Deputy Director, which gives no benefit or loss) twice in a row, so the Agent X card used last round is considered "on leave". The winner then claims the objective card and records the points. If neither player has reached 100 points, a new round begins.

Components
Other than the choice of black borders for the Group and Objective/Event cards (which show more wear over white borders), the quality of components is very good. The linen-finished card stock should hold up over several plays. The heavy plastic Domination and Balance tokens are impressive as I would have expected cardboard pieces. Red and blue glass beads are included to track score on the score cards. The Agent X cards are over-sized, but look nice and add a nice touch to the theme of the game. I tossed the insert that came with the game and put the cards and other components in plastic craft bags. The box is a decent size and fits well for travel. I had no problem playing the game on a plane with three tray tables accessible to me and my friend.

Strategy Tips
This game is chocked full of options to aid in the the bluffing to make it a "best case of the worst situation". The more I played, the more ways I learned to use the Agent X cards to my advantage. Being that Agent X cards are not revealed until the end of the conflict, you never know what is in store at the end of the round.

- When the "Master Spy" Agent X card is in play, the person who claims the objective (again, by equaling or coming closet to the number on the Objective card) has their fortune reversed as the person who lost the objective actually gets to claim the Objective card and points. A person skilled in deception will be able to cover up the fact that they are using this card. However, there are three other cards (Double Agent, Analyst, and Deputy Director) in which the player using the card gets the effect whether they win or lose (without going over into Civil Disorder). Therefore, a player can act like they have the Master Spy card and try to get the other player to lose the "Blackjack" part of the game in order to claim the objective AND make sure that their opponent's effect does not take place.

- The Assassin card can be a thorn in the receiving player's side. This card balances out an overuse of the Master Spy card as the user of the Assassin card takes their opponent's Agent X out of play. Try to gauge when your opponent will use the Master Spy and counter it with your Assassin to remove it from your opponents arsenal. Note, using the Assassin card can eliminate your opponent's Agent X (unless they use the Deputy Director card which cannot be taken out of play), but you do not gain the objective card if you win.

- The Analyst Agent X card can be very useful as it allows the player to look at the next round's top three group cards and arrange them in any order. This works really well if the next Objective card is an event card (one card max, five victory points plus a special action that can be performed at pretty much any time.) Be careful however if your opponent still has the Master Spy!

- Beware of the deceptively large amount of room available on the Objective cards with the five-card max for a 9-point Blackjack play. Getting the 9-points isn't the hard part. Rather, it's breaking the tie. You have to keep in mind that there are only 24 Group cards with four factions (Military, Political, Economic and Media) of value 1 to 6, so there is only one card of each. If you find yourself in a tie situation, make sure you can get a higher tie-breaker card. If you have confidence that you can draw a military card to eliminate your opponent's high card without putting yourself into Civil Disorder, go for it. If you have a Deputy Director Card in play, it may be worth it (Deputy Director cannot be removed from play or sent on leave), if not, make sure you can live without the Agent X you have selected in the possible case of Civil Disorder.

- "Play fakes" can also add some fun to the game. Acting like your are going to activating a Political Group card (which allows the player to move your card or the opponent's card to the other side of the table as long as it does not cause civil disorder) can make your opponent think twice as to whether or not you are trying to win or lose the "Blackjack" part of the game.

Summary
For the online price of about $14.00 it's hard to pass this game up. I'll admit, I am a sucker for the Cold War theme, but I would still approve of this game if it was about colonizing Puerto Rico or trading in the Mediterranean. If you like games that require the skill of bluffing and the clever use of card powers in conjunction with the luck of the draw, then this is a worthwhile game for you to buy.

Combat Commander: Europe (Meng's review)

Combat Commander: Europe is the first instalment in a series of card-driven tactical wargames, designed by Chad Jensen and published by GMT Games. Players re-create World War 2 infantry skirmishes between Germans and Soviets or USA. This extremely popular game has been compared favorably to other tactical WW2 titles such as Advanced Squad Leader, Up Front, and Conflict of Heroes.

Each nationality has a Fate Deck of 72 cards, with each card playable as an Order or an Action, and also serving to generate random dice rolls, random events or random hexes. On his turn, a player may play Orders (limit determined by the scenario) or discard unwanted cards (capacity determined by nationality). He then replenishes his hand to a number determined by his posture (i.e., attacking, defending, or other).

Orders, such as Move, Advance, Fire, are the means by which a player controls his troops. Other Orders include Artillery Request (to bombard enemy forces or lay down smoke), Artillery Denied (to prevent the opponent from calling on artillery), Recover (to rally broken troops) and Rout (to retreat broken troops, often played on the opponent). Actions, on the other hand, allow a player to enhance his own Orders, or respond to his opponent's Orders. Command Confusion Orders/Actions also exist: essentially useless cards that reduce a player's effective hand size until discarded. Because each player is limited to the cards in his hand, a desired Order or Action may not be available at the time it is most needed. This simulates the gap between a commander's intent and his troops' implementation. In terms of game mechanics, it emphasises and rewards judicious hand management.

The relative strengths of each nationality are reflected by their discard capacity and Fate Deck card mix, as well as the Firepower, Range, Movement and Morale statistics of their troops (naturally each nationality has several different types of troops) and leaders.

Like other card-driven games, CC:E uses a simple basic ruleset, on top of which the cards add variety without increasing complexity. In the process of "rolling dice" -- drawing cards to ascertain targeting accuracy, and attack and defense totals -- jammed weapons, sniper fire or other random events may occur. "Dice rolls" also determine how quickly the time marker advances along the time track, so that the pace of the game cannot be predicted in terms of number of turns. Some random events have the potential to alter the balance of play considerably, making the game slightly chaotic. For some purists, who may prefer games weighted towards skill, this chaos may be unacceptable; others (like me) would argue that the degree of chaos is tolerable, allowing the more skilled player to win most of the time, but allowing a less experienced player the occasional lucky win.

The game was designed around a Random Scenario Generator for so-called infinite replayability, but marketing considerations demanded that historical scenarios also be included (12 in CC:E). The "expansions" for this game include Combat Commander: Mediterranean (not so much an expansion as the "second half" of the game, including 3 more nationalities), and 2 Battle Packs of additional scenarios, Paratroopers and Stalingrad.

The map and counter artwork strikes a respectable balance between attractiveness and simplicity. The map hexes are much larger than the counters, so that multiple counters in the same hex need not be stacked, greatly improving playability (contrasting with Advanced Squad Leader, which is renowned for its gravity-defying counter stacks).

This game is not highly suitable for play-by-e-mail, because in a single turn there are many opportunities for the non-phasing player to interrupt. There is a very polished module for VASSAL (by Tim McCarron) that allows online live play, proceeding almost as quickly as face-to-face play, no mean achievement.

Overall, I recommend the Combat Commander series as an excellent entry-level wargame for those interested in WW2 tactical combat. 9/10

Combat Commander: Europe (kfritz's review)

Robert (uberslack) invited me over for a Saturday night game of Combat Commander: Europe at his place. We played the introductory scenario which was well-written and explained a large part of the game. We were both pretty stoked to try this game out, and while the introductory scenario had us basically shooting at each other for 2 hrs from two different buildings across a road, the game proved to be entertaining with a lot of potential. In this first pic, you can see the fire in Robert's eyes! :)

The game in itself is similar to ASL, but much easier to learn with a much smaller ruleset (21 pages compared to a binder!). To be fair, ASL starter kits have made ASL more accessible to squad level combat newbies like me.

This is a card-driven game (CDG) with a WWII theme. Depending on the scenario, you can hold and discard a specific number of cards. In addition, depending on the scenario you may only give a certain number of orders (but each unit may only be ordered once). So, like Memoir '44, you have to be careful with what you do. Extend yourself too far, and you will be screwed if you get a bad hand next turn. Unlike Memoir 44, there are no fancy minis, rather you get cardboard chits and a paper map (Plexiglas is a MUST).

The introductory scenario had the Russians as the attackers (attackers get a whopping six cards!), and the Germans as the Defenders(defenders get only four cards). We went through the motions described in the book to a point where the book instructed us to take over the choices in the game. I thought I was screwed (I played the Germans) as I didn't have much for troop numbers. There are were no reinforcements (although some scenarios have them, and some cards allow troops to come back ("walking wounded" card)), so I had to do the best with what I had! If I lost a squad, team, leader or machine gun, I would be even worse off Luckily, I had some good die rolls, which really helped the performance of my machine guns to thin out the Russians.

My luck ran out as I stormed a building that contained a single Russian leader with a German squad and a team for a melee battle. Ties eliminate both sides. That's exactly what happened... a raw deal for the Germans! :( This next photo shows the game as we began to reach the end. As I said, we battled for quite sometime from two buildings. The building that the Russian's now occupied was worth 10VP (a tidy sum).

Here is a closeup of the battle just before the Germans lost. The Germans (leader and a squad) moved to engage in a melee with the solitary Russian squad. We both had ambush cards causing both of us to break. I had a card that allowed me to sacrifice one unit to keep the other on strong. Bad move as the final casualty caused me to reach the "surrender" limit and therefore lost the game regardless of VPs (which I was kicking butt). The killer is that the die roll achieved by the Germans would have cleared the building of Russians regardless of whether or not I fought with a single unbroken unit, or two broken units. Dumb move on my part :(. Note, there was a large blaze going on as well. It never hindered either one of us, but it started as a single counter and spread fairly rapidly!

In any case, Robert still had two unbroken units left that I would have to deal with, so I might have lost either way.

I expect future games to be much more interesting as this was only an introductory scenario. If you are interested in ASL, but afraid of the rules, I would definitely recommending picking this up instead.

With regard to any similarities to Memoir '44:

This game is definitely more complex. In Memoir, there isn't much to know regarding how much can move and attack (move 1 and attack 1, move 2, etc..) The cards present some extra complexity, but not a whole heck of a lot.

In CCE, range, movement, leadership, LOS, troop morale, blah.. blah.. are all there. Smoke, blazes, etc. affect LOS and range. Cover, while implemented in M44 is still very simple compared to CCE.

There are many more rules to learn. This isn't a game you will breeze through in 1.5hrs your first play. The introductory scenario took Robert and I four hours, and we still got some things wrong! (although not much; however, there are many other details that weren't used). Robert and I have been discussing the rules today to clarify and reflect on how we played. Overall, the rules are very clear for a wargame and written in outline format. Therefore, the index is excellent for referencing rules.

The rules, by the way can be downloaded at http://www.gmtgames.com/living_rules/CC_Rulebook_final.pdf

We didn't get to use artillery fire (radios weren't used in our game, which are required), which in M44 is an automatic hit. In CCE, it can be off target depending on the power of your radio (we did a trial "what if" of it when we played. As a result, I learned that you shouldn't order an artillery bomardment to a place that is two two hexes away as you can be hit ;). There are many other types of weapons as well that just aren't provided or give the amount of detail present in CCE.

The bad part.. NO TANKS! :(. The argument was that the scale of hexes in CCE was lower than that of ASL, but they are working on a version that will have tanks.

Overall, this game is definitely more complex than M44, but I like it much better as it is not *too* complex that it sucks the fun right out of the game. It is no more complex than an RPG in my mind (well, as I remember it back in 5th grade ;) ). I think it could be taught to a 12-year old, maybe a 10-year old.

However, now that Conflict of Heroes has been released, I find there is yet another very strong option for those seeking a wargame that is more in depth than Memoir 44, but not as "complex" as Combat Commander: Europe/Mediterranean/Pacific (there have been two more sets and two expansions released since I originally received my copy of CC:E.)

Contagion

Contagion is a horror genre role-playing system available from Aegis Studios (www.aegisstudios.net). Or, as Travis Legge, Contagion developer, shared with us in an interview:

“Contagion is a game of Celestial horror in a modern world. On the surface it looks just like the real world, but in the shadows, the forces of Heaven and Hell fight a secret war for the souls of humanity. Demons use Hellspawn, their monstrous servants to torment mankind, while God relies on Slayers as warriors chosen from mankind and faithful Clergy to heal the wounds of battle. When normal folks find out about the War, they must either try to lay low and avoid the conflict, which is unlikely, or choose a side.”

Contagion uses the Open Game License from Wizards of the Coast. So anyone familiar with D20 is well on their way to knowing the Contagion system. The information I am presenting covers a combination of things from the core book and the Virulence sourcebook for the Contagion system. So let’s take a look at what makes Contagion tick.

The System

As I stated above, Contagion is a D20 based game. Like most Open Game License games, it does take the system and tweak it to fit the genre. Contagion is no different and the tweaks work. For those familiar with D20, the learning curve is going to be marginal. A lot of the feats, skills, and spells are imports from Dungeons & Dragons or Modern D20. This makes them instantly recognizable and if you know what they do in the other systems, you pretty much know what they do here.

The Races

Contagion offers players and gamemasters a fair amount of races to choose from; more than you might expect in a modern day setting. Angel, Demon, Dhampir, Drow, Elf, Goblin, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Human, Orc, Vampire, and Werewolf are all available races. One of the first questions I get asked is what do you get for being Human. Unlike in D&D there are no special bonuses assigned to the race of Human. Of course some of the more interesting classes are only available to a Human, so that is a potential bonus to playing a Human.

Do not expect to already understand what each of the races above are just by the name. For instance, the Elf has undergone a bit of a transformation being under a demonic curse to never die but to also never sleep. Most Elves wish they could end their eternal insomnia but have a deep aversion to death.

Personally, I leave most of the fantasy type races out of my game, but they are there to check out. I also recently noticed that the races presented in Virulence (besides Angels and Demons) did not get a decent write up as to why they are available (like the demonic curse background of the Elves) and that is too bad. I would like to know a bit more about the Contagion twist for these other races, even if I normally do not use them. (Edit: I have been informed that the History section in the front of the Virulence book gives details on the added races, a section I tend to gloss over and not use.)

The Classes

The class names have been changed (and are not necessarily direct imports either) but you can find a familiar niche if you look hard enough. The core classes are: Arcane Student, Bruiser, Bystander, Casanova, Clergy, Infernalist, Pagan, Rake, Scientist, Slayer, and Vagrant.

The Arcane Student is a student of magic. They are not necessarily spellcasters (but have the ability to learn spells, although it takes them a bit longer to do so) but they do thrive in the research of the arcane and eventually in ritual magic. Eventually Arcane Students also get the ability to create Wards, which makes them an invaluable part of any team.

The Bruiser is pretty much your warrior/street brawler. They are not necessarily the nicest people, but they get the job done – usually messily.

A Bystander is your average citizen that got caught up in the War and now has to figure out how to deal with the information. They may not be able to turn Undead, but when it comes time to put skills to use, this is the go to person. The Bystander is also a nice way to start a possible game. Make everyone start as a 1st level Bystander and once they know about the War they can choose which route to take.

The Casanova class gets the job done through seduction and trickery. The opposite sex is putty in their hands. Not a bad class to have on the team (as my players found out during the first session).

The Clergy are your Cleric equivalents. They do not have to be directly involved with the church (priest, etc…); they just have to have a lot of faith. Clergy can turn undead and receive divine spellcasting.

The Pagan are close to your Druid class; modern day Wiccans. They believe they get their powers from other deities and not God. The reality tends to be that they do get divine assistance (Why allow them to think otherwise? Who are you to judge God’s plan!) or demonic assistance trying to feed the idea that there are other deities to worship. Pagans have the ability to Rebuke or Control Undead and can cast spells.

The Infernalist cannot feign the same ignorance about where their powers come from. They have fully cast their lot with the demonic forces in order to gain the power they possess. In exchange for their supplication to demonic forces, the Infernalist is granted the ability to cast spells.

The Rake is your modern day Thief class. With the ability to detect traps and a sneak attack (which gets put to good use in our campaign) you will find the Rake a familiar class that you will enjoy.

The Slayer is a cross between a Paladin and a Ranger. While they do not get the ability to cast spells, Slayers do have the ability to detect the supernatural, some supernatural resistance, and eventually start picking favored enemies. The Slayer is the chosen warrior of Heaven; created in retaliation the increasing Hellspawn forces.

Finally we come to the Vagrant class. On the surface a lot of people gloss over the Vagrant. For the most part the Vagrant class represents the homeless or downtrodden individuals; or possibly a drifter. These are the people that have more than likely been directly affected by the Hellspawn. The castoffs of society made a nice playground for the Hellspawn while bringing little to no attention to themselves over the years. But now the Vagrants are banding together and fighting back.

Those are the core classes. Contagion also contains several Advanced and Prestige classes for use later in the game as well. All in all it is a good mix with some familiar ideas that should not take players too long to get use to.

Overall Impressions

I really enjoy Contagion and it is the RPG that brought me out of a 10+ year stint of GM retirement. The game flows really well and the source material is great. Plus Aegis Studios is working on some great material to come out in the near future. They also have put out a few free adventure seed scenarios to help the GM slide in to running a game.

As of right now, 9 RGC members (including myself as GM) are playing in a monthly Contagion game that takes place right after the monthly convention planning meeting. So instead of just hearing what I have to say about the game, I invited them to share their thoughts on the game system as well.

Contagion is an excellent game. Like all good RPG's it gives you mainly guidelines and the opportunity to tinker around with it. The imagination for the war of good vs. evil and the story you can make of it is quite intriguing. All in all I give it a 9.8 of 10. Micre - playing a Human Bruiser with no knowledge of the War prior to the first session.

My initial reaction to Contagion was, "great, another modern day gothic horror RPG. Just what gaming needs. At least this one is D20, so if I like something I can import it into a game I tend to like."

Well, I'm happy to report that was a shortsighted opinion to say the least. The game is thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining. There seems to be a balance between the classes and races, or where there isn't there is a reason (Humans who think they can take out vampires deserve what they get, unless they're particularly well trained and armed).

The game plays smoothly, and the D20 aspect makes combat much more streamlined, as many players are already familiar with the system. The classic good vs. evil struggles are fought over and over, although sometimes they are in the mind of the individual rather than angels vs. demons. It makes for an interesting foray into the world of horror.

In general, it’s a fun game that I'd gladly spend my time on, presuming I have more of it to spend. Schwade – About to join the monthly game, but played Contagion at an after hours event we had at Con of the North.

If you've ever wanted to play in a Buffy/Angel style universe, this is it. Demons, Vampires, and others live in a modern world where you can play the most CLUELESS human who has never heard a thing and you will fit right in to the universe. And since it is modern times, you can use MODERN jokes without leaving the role play. I frakking LOVE it! Medron Pryde – Playing a Human Arcane Student with limited knowledge of ‘real world’ supernatural practices.

Contagion: Virulence

Contagion uses the Open Game License from Wizards of the Coast. So anyone familiar with D20 is well on their way to knowing the Contagion system. This review will focus on Contagion: Virulence which is the latest sourcebook for the Contagion horror role-playing system.

The first chapter of the book deals with the history of the world as it pertains to the Contagion environment. You get to learn a bit about the start of the war between heaven and hell and how each era in our world was affected by the war. The history brings you all the way up to our own timeline. To be honest, if I had to choose one portion of the book that I do not care for, it would be this chapter. Do not get me wrong though, the writing is excellent and parts of it draw me back for a few glimpses. I am just not big on pre-made histories and like to fill a lot of that stuff in myself. That is just my personal GM style and there are plenty of people that will love having as much of the back story as possible.

The second chapter brings us a good sampling of existing agencies or schools for the arcane. You might think that this would be another area that I do not care for, but I actually enjoy looking at the different schools and their connection to the Contagion world. This is a great section for players that are looking to play a magic-oriented character for background information. It is also a great section for GMs to have that much needed seedy government organization.

The third chapter deals with the eight choirs (types) of angels. Each comes with a description, a brief history, the choir’s philosophy, and archangel for each choir. This is another great section, especially for GMs. Whatever you do, do not think that the angels are all soft and feathery and always on mankind’s side; because you may be in for a rude awakening on Judgment Day! This was definitely a great section to read and to get to know the different faces of angels.

The fourth chapter deals with the eight castes of demons. You get the same information as listed for the angels, including the archduke for each caste. Again, this is a great section for GMs to utilize. Who wouldn’t want to toss a few demons in the path of unsuspecting players? I love the Mastim’s archduchess, Ba’al. The fact that she oversees thousands of religions and cults and the reason she started doing it is simply poetic in my mind. Very cool chapter.

The fifth chapter takes a look at the core classes from the main book, and adds one or two, and gives a nice write up on how each class interacts with the Contagion environment. It is a nice primer for players trying to determine what class they should play. It might give a few GMs some fresh ideas for NPCs as well. I think this is especially true for the Vagrant class write up, because that has been my hardest sell to get people to give more than a casual glance at. Once the core classes are out of the way, we get a taste of some advance and prestige classes that players can strive for. These classes definitely add another layer to distinguish characters and make them less ‘cookie cutter.’ I look forward to more additions like this in future sourcebooks.

The sixth chapter gives us some new races for the players to choose from. I personally tend to leave the more fantasy-oriented races out of the picture, or make them extremely rare. Again, that is my personal GM style. I want my horror games to be horror and my fantasy games to be fantasy. I just have a hard time picturing a half-orc running around in the here and now. Although the TV series Angel did it well enough. The bottom line is that the information is presented here for you to decide how best to fit in into your campaign (or not). We also get a look at some of the new core classes, advanced classes, and prestige classes that players can choose from. There are some new feats to help customize characters a bit more. We are also introduced to the metamagic feats for spellcasters. This is a cool set of feats that allow spellcasters to customize their spells. Next we are introduced to some new occupations that players can choose for their characters. Next up is a nice addition to the Contagion mechanics and that is the advanced arcane spellcasting system. I am not sure how others will feel about it, but I love the addition of burn from arcane magic. Magic is a force that should be tampered with lightly, and burn represents what happens when that warning is not heeded.

We round out the book with new spells for the spellcasting classes. This was a much needed addition to Contagion and I hope to see more original spells in future sourcebooks. While not all of the spells listed are original, there is enough flavor mixed in to set them apart. Something things you just expect a spellcaster to be able to do and are a staple to include, but it was nice to see some of the newer stuff that did not come straight out of the norm for a D20 system.

My overall impression of the book is that it is a solid addition to the Contagion world. The schools, angels, and demons offer new areas for players and GMs to explore. The primer for core classes will give players a few choices to think about. There are very few areas within the sourcebook that I will personally ignore for my games, but nothing that is not worth taking a look at and deciding for yourself. The advanced arcane spellcasting system offers some new twists for arcane magic. The addition of new spells is a major bonus as well. Mix all of that with a personal shout out to RGC in the credits and how can you fail? ;-}

Cutthroat Caverns

From the publisher, Smirk & Dagger Games:

An artifact of untold power lies in your hands. To claim it, you must escape the caverns alive. No less than nine horrific beasts stand in your way - that, and the greed of the other Players.

Without teamwork, you'll never survive. Without betrayal, you'll never win.

Cutthroat Caverns is a 3-6 Player game, recommended for ages 12 and up, that takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to play. The game itself is completely card based with small stones to keep track of the Players Life Points, the Encounter number, and the Monster's Life Points.

Component wise, the game is comprised of the before mentioned stones to keep track of Life Points and Encounter numbers, the Encounter card that represents the Monster, Player cards with a Life Point track, and the playing cards. In addition, there are Prestige counters and various other little tokens that are used with some Encounters.

Player Card Types
There are three Player Card Types. These are Attack, Action, and Item cards. Attack cards represent tactics and direct damage. Action cards represent "gotchas", bonuses, and penalties in the game that must be played at certain times. Knowing when to play the Action card and who to play it on is vital to the Player's success. Items represent equipment that could help the Player. Most Items only last until they are used and all Items can be stolen. Unlike Attack and Action cards, however, Item cards are removed from the game once they are used. This means all of the Players have a very short supply of helpful Items. The longer they stay in the cavern, the less Items they will have that can help them.

Game Play
The game is played in encounters and rounds. There are nine encounters, one for each Monster, that measures the start and end of the game. The rounds are played within the encounter. There are no limits to the number of rounds per encounter. The encounter ends when either the Monster's Life Points are reduced to zero or there are no Players alive left to fight the Monster.

Each round, the Players are randomly dealt an Initiative card. This number indicates the turn sequence in which their playing cards will take effect for the round. It also determines who the Monster will attack. Each Monster has an "attack matrix" that determines who the Monster attacks, the amount of damage it deals to the Players, and how many Life Points the Monster has. Depending on the number of Players in the game, the Monster is either weaker or stronger.

After the Players are dealt their Initiative card, they select one Attack card from their hand to lay face down which represent the amount of damage they hope to do or represents a special tactic like slipping behind the Monster to do more damage the next round. Note that the card played and the Initiative card are still face down. This makes an element of bluffing and damage logistics necessary. Since only the Player who "kills" the Monster gets any points, you never want to make it easy for the other Players, or cheat yourself out of points.

Once all the Players have put a card face down next to their face down Initiative card, all of the Initiative cards are revealed, showing who goes first, second, and so on.

Here is where the game gets cutthroat. Now that all the Player know their turn order, they can use Action cards to disrupt the game play of others. For example, making another Player trip or do more or less damage. When it is the Players turn, any other Player can help or hinder. That is, as long as they have the cards.

At the end of the round, surviving Players receives one random card from the deck. The Initiative cards are shuffled and dealt, and the next round begins.

When the Monster or Encounter (because not all Encounters are Monsters) is dealt with, points are awarded to the Player who met the requirements to obtain the Prestige points, and the Players are dealt a number of cards to refill their hand to 7 cards. Players may opt to turn all of their unplayed cards for a fresh start. A new Encounter is revealed and the game continues.

Encounters
Encounters are either Monsters or something stranger. Monsters are straight forward. They do damage and attack random Players at the end of each round. Some Monsters get stronger as time goes on, making it important that the Players do not sit around. Some Encounters are riddles or mazes the Players must deal with before they can continue the game.

The Encounter is one of the most brilliant aspects of this game. Each Encounter comes with its own rules and design, making each Encounter different. The Players must continually shift their tactics to survive and win.

Combat
Combat is straight forward. Either the Player does or does not do damage to the Monster. If they do, the Monster's Life Points are reduce. Players have cards that allow them to redirect or ignore damage. Regardless, as long as the Player or Monster have any Life Points, they continue to play the game.

Victory Condition
Victory is given to the Player who is alive and has the most Prestige points after the ninth Encounter. The Prestige points were obtained when the Player gave the "killing blow" to the Monster. As you can see, it is not enough to simply survive.

Final Thoughts
Cutthroat Caverns is a personal favorite of mine for two reasons. First, it is fast and flexible. You can easily add your own Encounters and cards to the game without breaking the balance. Second, the game is always different. While the object is always the same, the Encounters are randomly selected from a big stack and randomly shuffled. This makes the game play differently each time.

Currently, Cutthroat Caverns has four future expansions (at the time this review was written) in plan. The core game and the future expansions are listed here.

• Cutthroat Caverns
• Cutthroat Caverns: Deeper & Darker
• Cutthroat Caverns: Relics and Ruin
• Cutthroat Caverns: Tombs and Tomes
• Cutthroat Caverns: Fresh Meat

If you would like to play this sometime, let me know. I am always up to go cavern exploring. I should also mention that Cutthroat Caverns will have a tournament at the 2009 Gamer's Reunion. If you plan on attending, signup!

D&D 3.5

It is the quintessential role playing game. There can be no other game being described by those words. Whether you love it, hate it, or are completely indifferent, Dungeons and Dragons is what most people think of when they think of role playing games. It wasn’t first, nor is it necessarily the best one for you, but there is no denying its staying power and sheer appeal. Countless video games, board games, miniature games, card games and even cartoons and movie adaptations bear the D&D brand, to say nothing of the mountain of sourcebooks available to the player who just can’t get enough.

The concept is simple enough, one player, the Dungeon Master, designs a world of fantasy and magic, or uses an individualized version of one of the published settings .to do so. He controls who does what, except for the other players. Each of them takes on the role of a character in that setting, each with their own morals, goals, ambitions and religious beliefs.

It is in the interaction of each player’s character with the world around them that the genius of this game lies. One session can involve a battle with dark creatures of myth and legend, and another can involve diplomacy and guile, convincing others that your path is the one to save the villagers lives. Most sessions will involve both elements, and balancing them is the job of the DM.

If you can think of a fantasy character or race, its available in some way in the D&D universe. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Dragons, races descended from the divine or the demonic, each plays a role in shaping the world. Naturally, there can be tensions betwixt and between these groups, often providing the stuff of adventure for the player characters.

Each player character assumes one race, sometimes a half breed between a human and a non-human race, and then chooses his or her profession. They too run the gamut of skills and talents. Some can fight better than others, some have skillful talents that can come in handy in sticky situations, still others have the ability to cast spells in service of their gods, and others seek arcane knowledge long forgotten by all but the most sage in the land. There are specialized versions of many of these, some which blur the line between two or even three of these.

Each profession, or class, has certain skills that it is typically better at than others, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t take the abilities that are usually reserved for someone else, it just means extra time spent specializing. If you want to be a hefty fighter who can pick locks, you can do that, but it will likely be one of the only abilities you have. Few are the skills that are reserved for only one or two classes, yet this restriction is what makes those classes so desired.

In addition to the skills each character has, they also have feats, abilities that represent either natural ability or trained talent that allows you to do things that even other members of your class can’t do.. These too can include nearly anything, from the ability to destroy someone’s weapon to the ability to take more damage or extend the power of your magical spells to levels previously unattainable.

Characters gain experience as they adventure through the land the DM creates, becoming even more powerful as they advance in level. This leads to advanced skills reserved for more powerful characters. They even can become the rulers of the land, though that typically means they have more mundane tasks to do than adventuring, also meaning they’re less likely to be played.

There are no winners or losers in this game. You play a role, you decide what it is you’d like to do with your character, you decide if you want to join the group, or why it is you want to do so. Characters can and do die in the game though, the cost of trying to defeat the forces of evil (or good, if you’d like) can be dear.

To play the game all you really need is a willing group of at least 3, one of whom is willing to be responsible for the majority of the preparation as the DM, and 3 sourcebooks. The game probably plays best with 5-7, including the DM, but any number higher than 1 can work. The players really only need a copy of the player’s handbook while the DM should also be familiar with this book as well as the dungeon master’s guide and the monster manual, as the players will eventually have to fight some enemies.

A knock against this game is the many rules that govern things like combat and spellcasting. Each action is one of 3 types, and differentiating these can be confusing for new players. Some players will have difficulty understanding when an action is risky and when it isn’t, and that can be frustrating as well. Once you’ve played a couple times you begin to understand the system more, and you know where to find the rules you’re interested in. Each spell has its own rules, and these too can take a moment to understand. The basic encounters at lower levels will prepare you for the more confusing, more challenging rules to come.

Why the 3.5 edition? Simply put, the rules introduced in the third edition needed more tweaking than could be done through errata and re-releases. There were classes that were flat-out more powerful than others, and that just isn’t good for the game. The third edition represented over 10 years of development from the 2nd, and there were bound to be imbalances that players could exploit. A game where one character can solve any challenge isn’t fun for anyone. Why would that character ever take someone else with him? They’d only slow him down.

While the game isn’t perfect, I’ve personally been playing it off and on, with different groups of people for over 20 years. I started with my uncles, moved on to friends throughout school, and now have found one of the greatest groups of people I’ve met through my desire to find a group in Rochester. If I weren’t a D&D player, I might never have walked into that comic shop that day, and wouldn’t have found great friends in RGC. This game is what you make it, and I can say without a doubt that I’ve made it something I’ll enjoy for a long time to come. If the idea of getting together with friends and playing the roles of fantastic heroes and diabolical villains appeals to you, I’d recommend you give the game a chance as well. You might just find something you love in something you never thought you’d even like.

D&D Minis

I have been semi-interested in this game for a while, but have now finally got the chance to give it a play thanks to Krydoza.

Gameplay - The gameplay is good. It kind of gave me the feeling of a more complex Heroscape mixed with a game of Warhammer where only heroes were used. I also liked the Dungeons and Dragons mechanics that take me back to my RPG roots.

Picking out an army from all the cool pieces is a lot of fun and heavily strategic. Getting figures that work together and provide bonuses for each other seems to help you a lot in the skirmish.

Gameplay is fast and lively. Alternating on activating two units allows for a lot of unit interaction and back and forth play. It also offers a lot of strategy to determine your unit movements and attacks by what units your opponent has already activated.

Their are tons of cool special abilities which makes the game very deep and fun, but can also be daunting to a new player. It also keeps you on your toes, because it is hard to remember to utilize all your special abilities.

Some other rules seem to be a bit cumbersome, but that is part of the balance of realism and good gameplay.

One other detractor to this game is the collectibility aspect. Buying a ton of miniatures I don't want; to get the one rare I do is not my idea of a good time.

I feel that the gameplay deserves 8 out of 10 D20s.

Look and Feel - The game board is a bit lacking. It is just a folded up double sided poster. It would be nice to see them make some type of special board(s) with three dimensional terrain or something, or at least a cardboard board. The art on the boards is nice though.

The actual miniatures range from beautiful to far from beautiful. It is kind of amazing how some of the miniatures have such great sculpts and paint jobs, while some are very much lacking.

The feel of actual leading your warband through the skirmish is really fun. I especially like the familiar characters like Drizzt. There is nothing quite like cutting your friends pieces apart with one of your all time favorite characters from the Dungeons & Dragons world.

The look and feel of this game earns Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures a 6 out of 10 D20s.

Overall Score - 7 D20s out of 10

Final word - If you are looking for a medium to heavy weight miniatures strategy game, and are cool with the Dungeons & Dragons/Fantasy feel, this game is for you.

Descent: Altar of Despair

Those keeping score at home might remember that Descent: Journeys in the Dark has been a game of the month in the past. Normally, we try to avoid repeating games too often or so close to when they were originally chosen, but this time I will be looking at the latest expansion for Descent, entitled The Altar of Despair.

Descent is a board game developed by Fantasy Flight Games that brings all the elements of a classic dungeon crawl to a board game. It is a combination of cooperative and competitive; as several players work together to defeat the dungeon scenario while one player acts as the overlord and tries to defeat the heroes.

Components

The expansion comes with some great stuff that you expect from a Fantasy Flight Games expansion (think lots of bits). There are 6 new heroes; complete with plastic figures and hero stat cards. It also comes with 5 new monster types (blood ape, troll, chaos beast, dark priest, and deep elf) along with the monster reference cards for the overlord to use. 49 new overlord cards, new skill cards, new item cards, and new treasure cards. There are also 8 new map pieces with a ‘corrupted’ theme. There are plenty of new markers/tokens as well; including invulnerability potions, fog effect tokens, and frost effect tokens. The Altar of Despair also introduces a new hero mechanic with new order tokens; the prolonged order. There are also tokens for good and evil altars; not to mention the crushing wall markers that should make any evil overlord happy. Let’s look at a couple of these new components a little closer.

One of the main additions is the corrupted map pieces. The corrupted terrain allows the overlord to gain threat every time a hero gets wounded or spends fatigue while they are on the corrupted terrain. Another nice add to the overlord arsenal are the dark glyphs. Dark glyphs can be purchased by the overlord to replace normal glyphs and have a negative effect each time a hero uses one. Crushing walls have also been added to the overlord arsenal as a nice visual trap to use on the unsuspecting heroes.

The heroes get some new things as well in this expansion. As stated above there are six new heroes to choose from. There are also new familiars for the heroes to use; including one that can heal wounds. I cannot forget the addition of the invulnerability potion; which allows the hero to gain a one time +10 armor bonus. There are also the normal item and treasure additions that the heroes can buy in town or find within the dungeon.

New Mechanics

Treachery – Treachery was actually introduced in The Well of Darkness expansion, but continues to be used in this expansion. Treachery is a nice way for the overlord to customize the overlord deck. Each scenario includes a certain amount of treachery for event, trap, and monster cards. The overlord gets to spend treachery to replace those types of cards in the normal overlord deck with the additional cards that come with the expansions. Any unspent treachery allows the overlord to draw additional cards at the cost of 1 card per 2 unused treachery points (up to a maximum of 8 cards). I have enjoyed being able to customize the overlord deck a bit and think this is a great addition. I would probably have the overlord customize the deck in advance though; since this can add a lot of setup time to an already long game.

Prolonged Actions – Prolonged actions are FFG’s way of bringing things like searching for traps or secret doors into a board game environment. A quest will dictate if a prolonged action will reveal something to the characters if successful. A prolonged action will look something like ‘make a prolonged Ranged (3) action to reveal the secret lever.” The number in the parenthesis are the number of successes needed to accomplish the task. Successes are cumulative from action to action and fatigue can be spent to increase the dice rolled like most other rolls. The few times I have used this mechanic have been ok and it there are some scenarios where it works in conjunction with stopping crushing walls. But for custom scenarios I would probably caution against using it too often, as it has the possibility of slowing the game down while heroes make multiple attempts to accrue the proper amount of successes.

Monsters

The new monsters included in this expansion are pretty nice. The master version Deep Elf is especially wicked; having the ability to cover a hero in a layer of thin frost that can destroy weapons and armor. I had one of these basically wipe out a heroes equipment; nasty. The Dark Priests are pretty nice as well and I prefer them over the original Sorcerers. The Blood Apes have a pretty wild Leap attack that can hit multiple targets. The Trolls are decent as well; I am still on the fence whether I like Trolls or Ogres better at this point. I have not used the Chaos Beast yet.

Quests

There are a total of 6 new quests included in the expansion. I have only played through a part of the first scenario included in the new expansion. It was a lot of fun (as the Overlord) to watch as the heroes tried to figure out why I was placing wound and threat tokens off to the side. The quest was a lot of fun for both me, as the overlord, and for the players trying to defeat it. I have heard a lot of complaints about the expansions being weighed heavily towards the overlord. At the moment I cannot confirm or deny that, but I know everyone had a blast and no one felt I was necessarily running through the heroes. One of the other nice things about Descent is that there is an online community that creates additional scenarios. This helps to increase the replayability of the game by offering new choices instead of running through the same scenarios included in the scenario book of the game. Even without the online scenarios the official quests in the game will take awhile to get through.

Overall Impressions

If it was not for the length of the overall game, Descent (and both expansions) would hit the table almost every Wednesday night I think. Everyone that has played it has thoroughly enjoyed it; one player even went as far as ordering the game and both expansions after playing it once. It is one of the games I have on my list to showcase some time on a themed game night for “board games that role-players would enjoy’ because of its dungeon crawl theme and rules and elements that Dungeons & Dragons players can directly relate to. Back to the time to play issue though, be prepared to spend a minimum of 4 hours, but up to 6+, to play this game through a single quest. This makes the game hard to get on the table and sometimes hard to finish an entire game. The time spent playing Descent is enjoyable though. As long as I have the time to play, I would not turn down a game of Descent.

I highly recommend giving Descent a try, especially if you like dungeon crawl type games.

Dominion (Schwade's Review)

Well, here it is, the hottest game out right now. Dominion captivates players by its simplicity and keeps them coming back because there are consistently new depths to the game to explore.

Dominion is a game that completely revolves around the cards in play. Each player starts with a deck of 10 cards, 7 copper (worth one treasure each) and 3 estates (worth 1 victory point each). Then they all draw 5 cards.

On each players turn, he or she may play one action card and may purchase one card to add to their deck. Following that, they discard their ENTIRE hand and draw 5 new cards. No waiting to establish your deadly combo here, your deck gives you what you get each turn and that’s it.

Those purchases are of course where the heart of the game truly lies. You have to be efficient with your purchases and add to your deck only those cards which will help you on the road to victory. Any chaff added only slows down the engine, grinding the machine to a screeching halt.

The end game is simple; whoever has the most victory point cards at the end wins. There are 3 (sometimes 4) cards that generate victory points. The estates you start with and can purchase for 2 treasure (1 point each), a duchy which costs 5 treasure (3 points) and the coveted province, which costs 8 treasure (worth 6 points). Then there is the garden card, potentially one of the 10 random cards available for purchase, costing 4 treasure and netting you one point for each 10 cards in your deck. This generates a different strategy whereby you might want a thicker deck in an effort to increase the value of your gardens. There is also the curse card, bestowed by the undefended witch of the opponent. This one generates -1 points. Not something you’re truly interested in.

How am I supposed to buy a card costing 8 when I only start with 7 treasure in my deck you ask? Well, it’s easy, as you can also spend your one purchase buying better treasure cards. Silver costs 3 treasure and in turn is worth 2 when it is in your hand. Gold costs 6 treasure and is worth 3 when you draw it. The more treasure in your hand, the better cards you can buy. You want to have more efficient treasure cards than your opponents in order to do well.

The action cards are what make one game different from the next. Each game can be setup according to a prescribed set of cards or drawn out randomly in order create a game that is different from the last. With 25 cards to draw from, and only 10 included, that makes a lot of possible permutations of the game. Of course, an expansion is coming, so there will soon be more.

While I’d love to go through my interpretations of each card, I’ll leave that to you to discover. The game plays quick enough that you can get several games completed in a session, and taking away the discovery is a little like cheating you out of a wonderful gift. Suffice it to say that everyone has an opinion on which cards are better than others, and no game can completely balance that. Each card breaks the rules in some way (drawing extra cards, taking extra actions, buying more cards, affecting the hands of your opponents, protecting your hand, etc). Finding the combinations of cards that work best is quite a bit of fun, and with the short game play time you can always experiment with a new strategy to see how well it works and go from there.

The cards that come with the game are high quality and look like they’d stand up for some time. This is important, because you shuffle them a LOT. I haven’t sleeved mine yet, but I plan too, I just need to get the right ones. Make sure you buy ones that fit the cards.

The game is also available for free play on BSW. I’m not on there, but I gather that there are quite a few people who are that have played several hundred games. Don’t expect to beat these guys anytime soon. Once you’ve played through that often, it becomes second nature to recognize patterns and combos, and take advantage of them.

I’m a fan of the game and I like to pick it up pretty frequently. It’s a great filler for times when you’re waiting for one or 2 people to arrive, or at the end of the night before time is up. If you finish fast, you can always play again. I’d rate it an 8.5 out of ten.

Dominion

Dominion (2008, Published by Rio Grande games in the US) is a 2-4 player card game. The game is easy to set up and can be played in just under an hour, making it a good choice for lunchtime gaming at work. At the risk of sounding trite, I will still say that like most good games, Dominion is easy to learn but can take time to master. In this case, unless you always select the same 10 out of the current 25 different action cards in your game, mastering will likely never happen. On your turn, you do the following three things:

A. Play an Action card (if you have one)
B. Buy on of the available cards on the table
C. Clean up by discarding your hand and drawing back up to five cards

On the table, there are three different types of cards:

1. Treasure (money) cards with values of 1, 2 and 3
2. Victory Point (VP) cards with values of -1 (curse), +1, +3, +6
3. 25 different types of actions cards

The object of the game is to collect the most victory point cards before the end game is triggered (through three supply decks running out or the 6-point VP cards are depleted). So, the standard flow of the game is to build your deck through the purchase of Action or Treasure cards until you reach the point where purchasing VP cards does not have a huge effect on your card draw. Because your starting hand is five cards (this may be modified by you and your opponent action cards), you want to make sure you have enough action cards which give you additional card draws, actions and buys to diminish the weight of VP cards which do nothing for you until the end of the game.

Strategies will vary depending on the card combinations. For example, the Thief Action (Attack) card allows the active player to steal Treasure cards from other players (provided they are one of the two cards on the top of their draw deck). When the Thief card is in the game, the players may purchase Action cards which provide additional purchasing power rather than purchasing higher value treasure cards. If the Thief card is not available, it is probably more likely for folks to hoard the "3" value treasure cards. What this means is that every game will be different. With 25 card types available to play with, that provides 25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16 = 1.2x10^13 possible combinations. Granted, not all combinations are very fun. Playing a game with all the attack cards and no Moat (defense) cards could make for a long, low scoring game. The end game caused by the depletion of three supply decks helps the game to end in a reasonable amount of time.

Dominion has been criticized by some as a "2-4 player solitaire game" and that comment is somewhat true. Sure, there are Attack cards which do bad things to your opponents, but when the Attack cards are played, they affect all of your opponents equally. There is no mechanism to target players so there is some interactivity lost. However, with future expansions, this is easily fixed. Being someone who has an affinity for conflict, I would much rather prefer my attacks to be directed rather than done to all as it adds a new dynamic to the game.

Score keeping has to be done in your head. During the game, you need to pay attention to who is taking the VP cards and also what action cards are being taken as well.

The fun part of the game is looking for effective combinations that may come up throughout the course of the game. Because when they do, it feels pretty rewarding. That said, there are times where many cards are played and the final result is a purchase that ends up being quite trivial and unrewarding. This game can also be played online for free at http://www.BrettSpielWelt.de. However, because each game is so different, there is no sense in playing online for the purpose of increasing your skills. I have had a much more enjoyable time playing Dominion with friends.

To close, if it is conflict or heavy interactivity you are looking for, you won't get that in Dominion's current form. But, if you are the type of gamer that enjoys the deck building aspect of a Collectible Card Game (CCG), this game will likely appeal to you. Two out of three friends of mine at work who are a bit above the rank of "casual" gamer ordered the game shortly after exposing them to a few games. I'd say that qualifies as a game worthy of purchasing in my opinion. I give the game 9 out of 10 and I think it is best with 3 or 4 players.

Also.. There is a print-and-play re-theme available on BGG now with a zombie (Left 4 Dead to be specific) theme. Check it out at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/361553

Doom: The Board Game

Doom is a board game developed by Fantasy Flight Games based on the popular first person shooter computer game. It is a combination of cooperative and competitive; as several players work together to defeat the scenario while one player acts as the invaders and tries to defeat the marines.

Anyone that has played Descent from Fantasy Flight Games will find Doom to be very easy to learn, because they both use mostly the same mechanics. In fact, Doom seems to be a bit more streamlined and the game play can go quicker because of that. I often refer to Doom as Descent-light.

Components

As with most products from Fantasy Flight Games you get a fair amount of stuff with the game. You get a rule book and a scenario book. The scenario book contains 5 pre-made scenarios. You get 4 reference sheets that the players get to use. These sheets show the various invaders that the marines can face and the weapons that a marine can use. The game also comes with 66 plastic miniatures, which include the 3 marine player figures and all of the invaders that the marines can face. There are 6 custom dice that are used in the game as well. There are 84 cards, 66 used by the Invader and 18 used by the marines. There are 58 interlocking map pieces that can be used to create custom maps, as well as the scenario maps included with the game. There is also a ton of different marine and Invader used prop pieces and tokens. As with most Fantasy Flight Games you are not hurting for bits.

Mechanics

Competitive/Cooperative: As mentioned in the introduction the game always has 1 Invader and up to 3 marines. This means that the 3 marines will work together to work against the Invader. The Invader wins by defeating the marines and the marines win by getting through the scenario without allowing the Invader to win. I personally find this mechanic very interesting and have enjoyed in multiple FFG games.

Variable Player Powers: The marine cards are actually skills that can be added to customize the marine players, giving each unique skills that assist in getting through the game. This mechanic helps to make the game different each time it is played.

Modular Board: This is another mechanic that helps make the game different with each play. As stated above, the game comes with 58 interlocking map pieces. This allows for custom boards to be created and new scenarios to be invented to keep the game fresh.

Dice Rolling: The game comes with custom dice that are used for invader and marine combat. The dice determine if ranged attacks are successful and how much damage is potentially dealt on a successful attack. The dice also determine if ammo is spent or not. It adds an element of randomness to the game but in this case I think it works.

Resource Cards: The Invader player has a resource deck that allows him to use special rules to stop the marines and spawn more invaders. There is less resource management in Doom than there is in Descent. In Descent you need to spend threat to play your resources. This adds to the length of the game because you have to determine whether to play the card or discard it for extra threat. In Doom, if the card is in your hand you can spend it. So there is less decision making about what to do with the card.

Scenarios

The 5 pre-made scenarios are a lot of fun, although they seem weighed in favor of the Invader player at times. There is also an expansion for the game that includes a few more scenarios. This is one area that Descent has over Doom. There is official software and an online database for user created scenarios in Descent. Doom only has one officially created scenario, but no official software to create scenarios and no online database either. In fact, there is a good chance that there will not be any more expansions for the game either; while Descent continues to get new expansions. There are a few user created tools for creating scenarios though, so at least the user base is trying to support themselves.

Overall Impressions

I enjoy playing Doom. It is a streamlined version of Descent and a game can be completed in 1-2 hours instead of 4-6 hours. There are several unofficial and official variants that can help fine tune the game if you do not like the game straight out of the box. If you know Descent, you pretty much know how to play Doom and you will just need to learn about some of the new special abilities. If you are a fan of Descent or the Doom computer game, give this one a shot.

I personally recommend the game and would have no problem breaking it out if asked to play a game.

Dread - The First Book of Pandemonium

I first came across Dread via RGC’s MySpace page. I believe it was actually from another independent RPG developer that was a friend to RGC’s MySpace page. So I started reading little blurbs and eventually visited the Dread site (http://www.dread-rpg.com). Most people know I am somewhat of a horror fan, so having another horror RPG to check out was worth some extra research. Before I knew it I was hooked and I had not even seen the book itself yet. I waited and waited (the new edition suffered a few delays) for Dread to be released so I could get my hands on it and see if my self-imposed hype was worth it. Dread was eventually released and I was right there pounding on the cyber doors to get my hands on it (from http://stores.lulu.com/pandemonium). And I can honestly say, the self-imposed hype was definitely worth it, in my opinion.

Dread was developed by Rafael Chandler, a man whose current day job has him writing storylines for some well known video game properties. So it is no surprise that one of the strengths of Dread is the story, or that role-playing is incorporated into the system mechanics. So what is Dread all about?

Dread takes a group (the players) of end of the world feeling, down on their luck, people and rescues them from the brink of self-destruction in the form of a mentor. This mentor not only saves the group, but removes them from their former lives and trains them in supernatural combat and “awakens” them as disciples. The disciples all learn the harsh reality of demons and their lot in life as demon hunters from that day forward. The disciples entire existence now surrounds the idea of hunting and killing demons in a kill or be killed lifestyle where teammates don’t even share real names anymore. Or as Dread sums up nicely in its self description, “This is a violent game of horror-action, set in a world of demons and black magic. It’s gruesome, profane, and intended for adults.”

As you can tell from the description above, Dread makes no apologies for being an adult-oriented horror RPG. So right off the bat, this one is not for the kids. Even reading through the source book is not for the kids. Dread does not pull punches in descriptions or artwork. It is pure, raw adult-oriented horror material; and personally I would not have it any other way. I have plenty of RPGs around the house that I can sit down and play with my son when he gets a little older (he’s 7 right now) but sometimes, especially in the horror genre, you want that game that smacks you in the gut as you are playing it. A game that has a darker, grittier feel that really tries to be the type of horror that makes you jump when watching your favorite slasher movie. Dread definitely has that potential.

Game Mechanics
The game system is based around the D12. It is the only die you will need, but you will need a lot of them. You roll a pre-determined amount of D12’s, adding any bonus dice you may have earned (more on that later) and you take the highest number rolled for your success. If it is a contest and you tie, then both sides step down to the next highest die until a winner is determined. Also, if you roll multiples of a number, you get to add that base number to the number of dice that matched the roll. So, for example, if I rolled a 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 11, and 11. My highest number is not 11, but actually 14 (11 + 3 (number of dice showing an 11). This core mechanic makes for very fast combat and test resolutions. This is a recurring theme in Dread; fast and simple!

Another nice mechanic in Dread is the use of Fury points. At the start of each case each player has 12 Fury points they can spend. You can never have more than 12 and you can earn more during the case, so you might as well use them. Fury points can be spent on stunts that allow your character to perform death defying stunts (some of which bring you to the brink of death), reroll failures, or add an additional D12 to your roll. In an effort to keep my review (and our publication) as family friendly as possible I will refrain from listing all the stunt names, but one example is the BOHICA (acronym for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again); which will drop the character to 1 Life point regardless of the outcome, but the creature being attacked is only allowed a single D12 to defend with, and if the player’s attack is successful, the damage is doubled. One of the cool things about the stunts is that almost all of them have a requirement that the player describe the act they are about to pull off in detail, including any harm that the stunt puts the character in.

I mentioned gaining bonus dice in my initial explanation above. There are three ways you can gain bonus dice for your rolls. The simplest way is to kill a Fury point to add one extra die to your roll. Another way is a mechanic known as the “Being Cool.” With this mechanic, the GM can reward you with an extra D12 on your roll if your description of what you are doing is in the realm of cool (as decided by the other players and the GM). So instead of just saying, “I’ll threaten him until he talks,” and then rolling your dice; you might try actually describing the tactics you will use, what you will say, props at hand, etc… Adding all of those factors into your description could net you an extra D12 to roll for success. The final way to earn an extra D12 is by tying your action into the character’s Drive. Drive is a one word description that basically boils down your character’s overwhelming driving force. It can be Pain, Redemption, Purification, etc… Then if you can describe how the action ties in to your Drive, you can earn another D12. And yes, all of these effects are cumulative.

Keeping with the fast and simple rule of thumb all characters have three attributes; Strength, Sense, and Soul. You distribute 9 points between the three attributes; each has to have at least1 point and one attribute must have 5 or 6 points assigned to it. And the attribute you make give the high points to will determine which of the three Disciplines your character follows: Combat, Lore, or Sorcery. Combat and Sorcery are pretty self-explanatory. A Lore character is the one that has the most potential to research the type of demon being fought. They also have more skills then the other two types, so they play are large part in the initial research/hunt for the demon. All characters also get some skills and at least a couple of spells they can cast.

All of the spells are not only uniquely named, but are unique in nature (don’t look for Magic Missile, you won’t find it). And the spells are insane enough that any “normal” stumbling in to the fight might not be able to tell the demon from the demon hunter.

All of the demons are well described and given plenty of detail from description to habits. The demons are just sick (as you would expect from demons) ranging from killing couples without children to make toys out of their body parts to stalking victims with a chemical dependency, killing them, and writing verse in the victims blood. To me the book is worth the demons alone.

What Works
The fast and flexible system works well overall. Combat is quick and the results can be fun to play out and describe. The system is tailored made for people that want to sit down, quickly make a character, and get playing.

The descriptive nature of the game lends itself well to those moments in gaming where everyone just stops and is in awe of what is happening. Or those moments that cause the entire room to bust out laughing. If your players (and the GM) can get in to it, this game is great for over-the-top action sequences.

The demons are just inspiring by themselves and reading through a description tends to give me two or three good ideas for scenarios.

What Doesn’t
I’d almost prefer to call this section “What Might Not” as I think a lot is based on play style. For instance, the system’s flexibility will not appeal to all players or GMs. A GM that likes everything completely structured might feel a bit out of place in Dread. Likewise, players that are use to just rolling dice and reporting numbers might not get in to the action description portion of Dread, and it could take awhile for other players to even warm up to it.

The over-the-top style I referred to earlier can also hinder the game if the entire group is not in to that style of play. Can it be toned down? Sure. But then I think you are taking away an extremely fun aspect of Dread if you do that. Keep this in mind and you will be fine.

Dread can suffer a little with a larger group. I think it hits a sweet spot around 3-4 players. I have run scenarios with 6 players and I worried about some of the lag. For instance, early investigation might have the Combat disciplines just sort of waiting for something to hit, while later in the game the Lore disciplines might feel they need to take a step back and let the others handle the fight. Some of this is mitigated with character contacts that can be called on, and the fact that regardless of discipline a character gets at least a couple of spells to use. Still larger groups with only three disciplines to choose from can make for the occasional awkward situation; a sort of too many cooks in the kitchen scenario.

There is some concern about longevity with Dread. It is great for one-shots, demos, convention runs, or a quick pick up game between campaign sessions. But can Dread hold up as a campaign setting itself? I think there is potential, but it is definitely not tailor made for campaign style play. Dread sort of plays like a “monster of the week” television show. So it can be a bit formulaic if just taken at face value. But a GM could delve in to the “why” of the disciples and their mentor and find some gems to work with. I think there is just more work to be done by both the players and the GM to make Dread into a campaign; as it is not completely laid out in front of them. This could always change in future source books as well.

Overall
It cannot be stressed enough, but this system and setting is not for kids. Put your children to bed and then break out some adult-oriented demon hunting.

I have enjoyed running sessions of Dread and the feedback I have received from each session has been positive. It is definitely a chance to let players blow off some steam and get a little nuts while hunting down some demons. I will definitely be running more sessions in the future and I am looking forward to the follow up source books in the Dread line. Grab it if you are a horror fan or if you are looking for a quick, flexible system. Definitely worth the purchase.

Games for Halloween

As Halloween grows closer, the weather colder, and the shadows grow longer and more menacing, it becomes an ideal time to be indoors. Lock your doors, bolt your windows, and sit down at the game table with these spooky games of choice for the Halloween season!

Last Night On Earth

• Published by Flying Frog Productions
• 2-6 Players
• 60 minute game play

Last Night On Earth pits the human survivors against the insurmountable odds of surviving a single night during a zombie feeding fest. What makes this game especially interesting is that there is an intelligence behind the zombies, namely, another player. The Human players must work together to survive or risk being munched on, while the Zombie player does all they can to munch on the remains of the living.

The game is scenario-based, meaning there is a defined objective for both the Human and Zombie players. Victory conditions are dependent on the scenario being played. Some scenarios are more difficult than others, but only in the sense of the time allocated to achieve the victory condition is lessened.

If you are a zombie lover and enjoy the thrill of having a house crash around you as zombie tear through the walls, then this is the game for you.

Betrayal at the House on the Hill

• Published by Avalon Hill
• 3-6 Players
• 90 minute game play

Now here is a game specifically designed to make you second guess. Throughout the entire first half of the story, all the players are working together towards a common goal. However, once a number of events occur, everything goes topsy-turvy and those who you trusted suddenly become monsters, Hell bent on your destruction.

This game comes with a large number of possible, random scenarios wherein a the object is always different. An interesting mechanic of a double-blind (wherein the "bad guy" doesn't know what the heroes need to do to win and vice versa) make the second portion of the game a made dash scramble to survive.

The different scenarios range from a murderer in the house to another dimension pushing its way into ours. Top that with a randomly built house and you have a game that is endlessly replayable and always challenging.

The Haunting House

• Published by Twilight Creations
• 2-6 Players
• 45 minutes

This game pits you against an ever-changing house, wherein the only object of the entire game is to leave. But that isn't nearly as easy as it sounds.

Each player gets to determine their move, but the house around them is constantly shifting, making their decision to go through the door to their right on their next turn, suddenly mean they are faced with not a door, but a bottomless pit. Add in the element of chaos created by the other players inserting random directly decisions for you, and you have a very difficult house to leave.

The door is always in front of you, just out of reach. Are you crafty (and lucky) enough to make it out of the house, alive?

Ghost Stories

• Published by Repos Productions
• 1-4 Players
• 60 minutes

Heavily inspired by Easter mythology and Taoist traditions, this cooperative game lets the players take on the role of Taoist Monk Ghost Hunters who fight to save a village from Wu-Feng, the lord of hell, and his ghostly minions.

Players must work together to determine their best strategy. Ease of play masquerades an almost endless possibility of different strategies. Add random elements of chance and the need to work together, and you have a family game that can hit the family game table again and again without ever getting old

What? No more?

Oh, there are more. Lots more. But, don't you have a favorite of your own? Let's hear about them! Leave a comment and educate us!

Heroscape

I had heard a lot of positives and some negatives about this game before I finally decided to invest in it. I was at Target and it was on sale for 35, and I had just got some birthday money. You know how it goes when you have those pretty little figures staring at you from the front of that beautiful box, I finally went for it.

Gameplay - I read through both the basic and advanced rules and decided that I wouldn't even try the basic rules. I figure someday when I have kids or with some other younger relatives they will come in handy, but for now the advanced rules seemed to be a lot more up my alley. I do give them kudos for making rules for both beginners and advanced players.

Gameplay proceeds at a good pace, and allows for a lot of interacivity among the players. There is also a fair amount of light strategy involved. The gameplay is nice for those nights when you want to roll some dice and not have to think about it too much.

I also really dig the different special abilities of each of the units. It is so much fun to try out new ones and see how they work and combo with other units. There is always a ton of anticipation for the next set.

The game also lends itself well to custom scenarios and modding which is really cool. Along with the release of expansions this game has unlimited replayability potential.

I feel that the gameplay deserves 10 out of 10 hex tiles.

Look and Feel - This is where the game really shines. The figures and terrain are super cool. Especially the terrain. The interlocking and stacking makes for such a great tactile experience. There is just something about little boys and building and you never do outgrow it. I like to put them together and then sit back and marvel at my new construction.

Some of the figures paint and sculpts can be a little lacking, but overall they are nice to look at and above par for most pre-painted minis.

The look and feel of this game earns Heroscape a 10 out of 10 hexes.

Overall Score - 10 hex tiles out of 10

Final word - If you are the type of gamer that is looking for a light miniatures game, this one is for you. If you are the type of gamer that likes to make tons of new maps and scenarios, this one is for you. If you are the type of gamer that has young ones you want to entice into gaming, this one is for you.

Heroscape: Swarm of the Marro Master Set

Well, Swarm of the Marro is a Heroscape product, so you know I had to purchase it and lucky enough for me I was able to pick up two of them at Gen Con and have had some time to give them some good playing.

Gameplay - I have already reviewed Heroscape, so in this review I will mostly stick to the things that are different in Swarm of the Marro.

The new rulebook appears to only have one game play change, and that is to allow double-spaced figures to flip for free anytime during their movement. The old rule had the flip costing one movement point. I like the simplification of allowing the free flip and in general most double-based figures have a hard enough time moving around the map as is, so in general I like this change. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it makes Major Q9 even a little better than he already was.

The new swamp terrain pieces do not have any new rules for them, and the swamp water tiles, although having water in their name do not hinder movement, but can be used for abilities that specify being on water.

The very cool new Marro Hive has its own clause in the rulebook stating that it can not be given any movement bonuses or summoned by anything, as well as stating that figures can not move through it even with abilities like Ghost Walk.

Swarm of the Marro also introduced new versions of two of the original master set figures: Sgt. Drake Alexander and Raelin. These two new releases prompted a new rule stating that only one of any unique named hero can be in an army, so no double Raelin or Drake.

There are several new scenarios that are included, but I haven’t gotten a chance to play them all yet. One new and interesting thing they did in this set of scenarios is to have a campaign style storyline that moves the heroes forward through several scenarios. I think that sounds like a bunch of fun, and I look forward to trying it out.

Another cool addition to the Swarm of the Marro set is some new glyphs. I was hoping we would get some in a wave again sometime, but since we haven’t seen any since Wave 1, I am glad to see them now.

Glyph of Ulvania – This glyph grants unique figures a +1 to their attack rolls, so depending on your army’s makeup, it is a weaker than Astrid, which I consider to be about the most powerful widely accepted tourney glyph.

Glyph of Crevcor – This glyph is the opposite of Ulvania and increases common figures attack by one. I think this one is slightly more powerful than Ulvania, as common squads will generally see more play than uniques.

Glyph of Wannok - This glyph is kind of interesting, but probably one of the least powerful in the game. At the end of the round the controlling player rolls a d20, on a one he or she is forced to wound one of his or her figures, but on any other number, his or her opponent must wound one of his or her figures. Considering it will only do one wound a round and it has a possibility of wounding its controller, I feel that it is hardly worth holding in most cases.

Glyph of Thorian – This one is one of the more powerful glyphs in the set and also a bane to range which I kind of like. The controller of it grants Thorian Speed to all of his or her units, so that his or her opponent must be adjacent to attack with a normal attack.

Glyph or Proftaka - This one is probably best used in scenarios. It is a pit trap that disallows a figure from moving off of it until there is a friendly figure occupying a friendly space. Presumably, this is to simulate helping to pull the other figure out of the pit.

Glyph of Brandar – This is just like the old Brandar and does nothing on its own, but some scenarios key off of it.

Glyph of Nilrend - This is one of the two temporary glyphs and is very powerful. When a character land on it the owner may choose one of his or her opponent’s unique figues and roll the d20. On a 1-4 nothing happens, on a 5-20, the opponent’s figure gets a negation marker and loses all its special powers for the rest of the game.

Glyph of Oreld – The other temporary glyph keys of the d20 as well. On a 1-9 nothing happens, but on a 10-20 the player gets to choose one of his or her opponent’s order markers at random and remove it from the army card it was on.

Swarm of the Marro also introduces a lot of new figures to us with seven unique heroes and two sets of three common squads.

Raelin the Kyrie Warrior – Swarm of the Marro gave us two updated versions of old heroes, and Raelin happens to be one of them, along with the other Jandar Unique Hero in this set, Sgt. Drake Alexander. Raelin kept her old statistics, but her point cost increased by 40 points to 120 points. She still has flying, but now instead of her Defensive Aura, she has Extended Defensive Aura that increases its range frout to six, but decreases its bonus to just one defense die. She also now has Whirlwind Assault that allows her to attack all adjacent opponents like the Shaolin Monks. One other change is that instead of being Merciful, she is now Resolute. I like the new Raelin, but I am unsure if she is worth 40 more points than the old Raelin.

Sgt. Drake Alexander – The other updated character gets a boost in his stats with his life moving up to six, his move up to six as well and his defense up to four. Drake kept his old Thorian Speed special ability even though I was hoping it would get a boost and protect from special attacks as well. His Graple Arm special ability did get a boost and now allows him to move up to four spaces with it and can move up and down 45 levels when using it. Another great addition to Drake is his new Pistol Fire Special Attack. I was very happy to see Drake get a ranged attack, and I thought it was a cool little caveat to not allow his special attack to target other Jandar figures. Overall, I think the new Drake is really cool, but 170 points is probably too much.

Sonlen – Ullar gets a new elf with the addition of Sonlen. At 160 points, he is a little spendy, but he gets decent stats and alright special abilities for his cost. He has six life, and can move five with a range of six, attack of four and defense of three. His Dragon Healing allows him to heal one wound from any Hero figure within 4 clear sights spaces of him before moving if he rolls 15 or higher on the d20. His dragon Swoop does the opposite and causes a wound on 15 or higher with the d20 to a figure within four clear sight spaces. I am a little hesitant to spend 160 points on his three defense and six life when his special abilities have such a low success rate.

Major Q10 – At 150 points, Major Q10 is Vydar’s contribution to the set. He is a pretty versatile unit, but unlike Major Q9 he dies a little too easy with four life and five defense. He keeps the same move of five, range of eight and attack of four like his predecessor Q9, but he also has different special attacks that fit in the same versatile vein of Q9’s special. Q10 gets a Machine Pistol Special attack that has a range of seven and attack of two that he can use four times in the same turn. His Wrist Rocket Special Attack has a range of four and an attack of four that he can use twice in one turn. I think Major Q10 isn’t a strong enough figure that one will build an army around him like Q9, but when you want some good versatile range and you have 150 points available for it, Q10 will certainly fit the bill.

Shiori – Arguable the weakest hero in the set, she also has the lowest point value of 60. Einar’s contribution to this set will probably not see a lot of play with her life of three, move of six range of one and attack and defense of three. Shiori also gets several specials including the Shuriken Special Attack that gives her a range of five and an attack of three against figures her size and smaller, but only two dice against larger beings or destructible objects. Shiori also gets Phantom Walk that allows her to move through all figures and leave engagement without being attacked. Her final special ability, Concentrated Will is one of the more innovative special abilities in the game to date. If Shiori has one unrevealed order maker on her, she gets an additional defense die. This ability isn’t too powerful, but I like the idea of it, and so far I think there is only one other unit that has a speical ability like that, and that is Spartacus, who never sees play.

Tor-Kul-Na – A powerful new addition to Utgar, Tor-Kul-Na boasts powerful stats with six life, six move, one range, six attack and five defense. He should be able to take some pain and dish it out as well. Tor-Kul-Na also comes with probably the longest special abilty yet, but it is called Trample Stomp and it boils down to him being able to move next to an opponent’s figure and roll the d20, on an 8-20, that figure takes a wound. If it is destroyed Tor-Kul-Na can continue to move and trample. It can be very useful against common squads, and especially high defense/point cost ones that are clumped together. All this power comes with a hefty point cost of 220 though, so I think Tor-Kul-Na is well in check, as one must devote a good chunk of their army to play with him.

Marro Hive – The other Unique Hero from this set is one of the most innovative additions to the game yet. The Hive is a draftable unit that comes with a six hex swamp water tile that it sits on in one’s starting zone. The Hive even comes with its own new rules in the master set rulebook, which I talked about earlier. It has six life, but it only has two defense, so it can die pretty easily when attacked. It is also very susceptible, because it can’t move or be moved and it is huge so it can be seen from most of the map. I think that it is kind of funny and cool that the hive can actually attack with one die at a range of one, so it can kind of defend itself. Where it really shines though is its special abilities. Its Hive Mind special ability allows it to take a turn with any common Marro squad within 12 clear sight spaces. I think this ability is going to be even better when Wave 8 comes out with the Marro Cavalry. Also, the Marro Hive has the Marro Rebirth ability that allows one to revive a dead common Marro squad figure on a 13 or higher d20 roll. All this come for just 160 points, which is pretty good, but I think the Hive will really shine in high point games where one is fielding multiple common squads.

Marro Drudge – These guys are arguably the bottom of the barrel in this set. They are only 50 points for a common squad of three with five movement, five range and two attack and defense. So, they have rather low stats, but their special abilities will make up for that, right? Well actually I don’t think they do. Their Swamp Water Strength adds 1 to their attack and defense, but if they are on swamp water, they are unlikely to have height advantage, and there are not a lot of maps that have swamp water. Their other special ability is pretty cool except it also references swamp water, but the Swamp Water Tunnel allows them to move to another swamp water space within five spaces when they end their move on a swamp water space. Unfortunately, their specials only work on swamp water and doom them to the fate of the other terrain specific units that will rarely see play.

Marrden Nagrubs - The small Nagrubs are an interesting addition to the Heroscape world. At only 30 points for a common squad of three, they have a really good ability with low stats to match their low point cost. They can move six spaces, attack at a range of one and roll two attack and defense dice. They have the special ability of Climb x2 to help them navigate the board, but their powerful ability is Hivelord Life Bonding. This ability lets them take a turn with any Hivelord their player controls, but also before doing that, the Hivelord can destroy an adjacent Nagrub to heal a wound. This ability is very cool with both Su Bak Na and Tor-Kul-Na and I think it will be even cooler when the new Hivelord comes out in Acquilla’s Alliance next month. The Marrden Nagrubs have the potential to pack a powerful little punch.

Marro Stingers – I think I saved the best for last. The Marro Stingers are generating a lot of buzz for their very solid stats to point ratio. For only 60 points they provide a player with a common squad of three figures that can move five, attack at a range of five with three attack and defense. They also have the Stinger Drain special ability, that although can be dangerous, can often be used at the right time to turn the tide of battle. With the Stinger Drain, a player can roll the d20 and on a 10 or higher add an attack die to the Stingers attack rolls. The dangerous part is that on a 1-4 the player must kill a Stinger and end their turn without attacking, with the really bad part of that negative effect being losing the turn of attacking. However, if a player chooses the right time to juice their Stingers up, they should be able to do some major damage attacking from height with five or even six with a glyph of Astrid or Crevcor. I have seen it happen and it is scary. The most valuable unit in this set is by far the Marro Stingers.

I feel that the gameplay in Swarm of the Marro deserves 9 hexes out of 10.

Look and Feel - Heroscape tends to be a killer in the look and feel category, and this set is no exception. It really looks really good overall.

The figures are overall really well sculpted and painted. I especially like the Hive. It looks amazing and had some pretty high production value placed on it. It was made in several pieces and fused together; so that they could have some clear plastic bubbles through which you could see the Marro spawn being generated. It is just uber-goodness!

Tor-Kul-Na is also a very cool looking piece. It is just a massive monstrous looking hero with a little Marro man riding him; there is just something impressive about this figure. I also like the attention to detail with a little bag strapped under the saddle that contains Tor-Kul-Na’s traveling stuff.

I think Sonlen is another really good looking piece. His color scheme is great and his sculpt with the little red draon and his pose is very cool.

I also really liked the addition of color to the Marro figs in this set unlike some of the older Marro, these guys all pretty much got some colors that pop off of them. The Stingers have big dark green and gold guns, while the drudge have a nice purple cord attaching their silver guns to them and the Nagrubs have a nice green color on the crests of their heads.

The tiles are also very nice as with the original set. It contains some of the same tiles as the old set, but it also adds the swamp tiles and swamp water tiles. I really like the look of the swamp tiles with the lighter green and dark green tops. They are still just as fun to build with as ever, but this set is a bit skimpy on the quantity of tiles given, so one can’t build quite as much with it. I do think the production value of some of the other component’s can help offset that though.

The art on the glyphs is once again good and matches the old ones.

The game comes with 23 wound markers a round marker and negation marker which are all just like the markers that already exist for the game. However, the 16 order markers are green to match the swamp theme, and I think that is a cool little touch. The dice are also the white new style with skulls and shields on them, and the d20 is a black one like the original set. It would have been kind of cool if the d20 would have been green too.

Another interesting thing is the cards in this set have a little bit of a new template with vines and such around the edges to kind of go along with the idea of swamps and the new jungle set that will be coming out soon.

The look and feel of this game earns Swarm of the Marro 9 out of 10 hexes.

Overall Score - 9 hexes out of 10

Final word - Obviously, if you already love Heroscape you have bought this. If you haven’t picked up Heroscape yet, this is a good starting point, but I would still recommend getting the original Rise of the Valkyrie set first as you will get a bit more terrain in it. This set is a great addition to the Heroscape universe and introduced several things that make me very excited for the future of the game.

Kung Fu Fighting

My first encounter with this game was a demo at Gen Con. My friend Marcus and I dug it immediately, and I purchased it on the spot. Marcus waited until towards the end of the con, because he has trouble parting with money.

Game Play - This game has great game play that really holds true to the feeling of Kung Fu movies with cards like your Kung Fu is Weak and Dramatic Pose.

2-6 players take turns in an all out brawl to try and take your opponents chi from 20-0. During your turn you can lay down a stance and or a weapon. These are permanents, but can be discarded by some cards. Also you may discard your own stance or weapons during your turn to play a new one. Also during your turn you can play as many chi restoration cards as you have. The other thing you can do on your turn is to play an attack. Attacks can come from your hand like a kick or a throw, or from a weapon you have in play. You can also add enhancements to your attack like, wild or spinning. These attacks can be blocked if your opponent has the proper blocking card.

I feel that the strategy really come in this game with hand management. At the beginning of your turn you can discard as many cards as you want and draw up to 7. Otherwise the game is pretty luck dependant.

The other strategy issue is loose alliances. It is hard to win the game if everyone around the table is attacking you.

I feel that the game play deserves 6 out of 10 chi.

Look and Feel - The cards have nice art. It is a good style for the game. I also like how the different stance cards seem to have the actual stance shown on them.

The game also flows well thematically. The different stances give bonuses based on things that make since. Like Crane Stance gives a bonus to Flying and Drunken Stance gives a bonus to Wild.

It also really helps to use your best Kung Fu movie voice while playing to really augment the game's feel.

The look and feel of this game earns Kung Fu Fighting an 8 out of 10 chi.

Overall Score - 7 chi out of 10

Final word - If you are into Kung Fu movies and or fast paced card games, this game should join your collection. It doesn't offer a deep well of strategy, but it does offer a deep well of fun.

One more note about this game. I have heard that there is an expansion on the way, but I have no firm date as of yet. The expansion is supposed to include locations and the ability to interact with them, like attack enhancements that will allow you to throw people out of windows and such.

Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game

Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game is a board game developed by Flying Frog Productions based on the zombie survival genre that can accommodate 2-6 players. It is a combination of cooperative and competitive; as several hero players work together to defeat the scenario while one or two players act as the zombies and try to defeat the heroes.

Components

The components for this game are just beautiful. Flying Frog Productions did not skimp on components at all. With thick cardboard tokens, great plastic sculptures, and quality cards used for the zombie and hero decks. There have been a few people that have had a bad batch of cards, but it sounds like Flying Frog Productions has been ready to replace them with ease.

The game comes with a full color rulebook, 1 town center board game (flip side is the manor house for one particular scenario), 6 L-shaped outer board pieces, 8 hero figures, 14 zombie figures (7 green and 7 brown), 60 card zombie deck, 60 card hero deck, 6 reference cards, 8 hero character sheets, 5 scenario cards, plenty of counters, 16 six-sided dice, and 1 CD of original music to use as a soundtrack.

The only thing I would replace if I could (and plan to in the future) is the little dice that come with the game. With all the other components looking so great, the small dice area bit of a letdown when you first pull them out. But it is a minor thing and does not really take away from the overall game.

Mechanics

Cooperative Play – Up to 4 players work together as the heroes to complete a chosen scenario and survive the zombie onslaught. At the same time, up to 2 players can work together as the zombies to try and thwart the heroes. The exact number will depend on each side will depend in the number of players participating in the game.

Competitive Play – There is also a competitive play mechanic with this game, as the zombie players and the hero players work towards different goals and are in direct opposition of one another. When the game ends, either the zombie players or the hero players will be victorious.

Hand Management – Both the zombie players and the hero players have card decks that they can utilize. For the zombie player it is automatic but the heroes have to search in order to collect cards. Hero players might have to decide on items to discard or trade away if they already have 4 items in play (or 2 of those items are already weapons). Zombie players have a max hand size of 4 (total, so if there are two zombie players, each has a hand size of 2). Zombie players can also discard up to one card per turn. So zombie players need to play or discard their current cards in order to get more cards.

Dice Rolling – Yes, the random element of dice rolling is involved in this game. This is a mechanic that can be a killer for some people. But honestly, it works for the type of game this is and between special abilities and cards there are plenty of ways to possibly manipulate the dice rolls. The dice are used for hero movement, ranged weapon results, ammunition checks, and normal combat.

Modular Board – There are 6 L-shaped pieces that make up the outer board, but typically only 4 of those pieces are used at a time. So the makeup of the town is slightly different with each game.

No Player Elimination – Zombies are going to kill heroes, that is part of the game and eventually those evil random dice turn on you. The good news is that Flying Frog Productions has thought of this and added in a mechanic so that players are not eliminated from the game early. If a player loses the last hero they control, they simply randomly grab a non-played hero and start in a random location. The game keeps going and everyone continues to play until one side or the other meets their objectives. What if you run out of non-played heroes? Not really possible, because one of the default objectives of the zombie players is an automatic win on killing 4 heroes.

Scalability – This is one of the things I really like about this game. There is always the same number of heroes on the board, regardless of number of players. There is also always the same number of zombies to control. In this way the game scales easily from 2 to 6 players, even in mid-game if necessary! If you have a game night where people come and go, this game works extremely well for adding and losing people during play. Nothing on the board changes, just which player controls what.

Scenarios

There are 5 scenarios that come with the game, and 1 scenario available for download on the Flying Frog Productions website. These scenarios, combined with the modular board, keep the game from being the same with each play. Future expansions will also have new scenarios in them, making this a fun and flexible game with a good amount of replayability. Scenarios range from the basic, kill 15 zombies before 2 heroes die, to the more advanced, take out 3 zombie spawning points, find and rescue 4 townsfolk, or keep 9 zombies out of the manor house until daybreak. Each scenario will require the hero players to try and work together for a different goal and possibly use different powers available to them.

Overall Impressions

I am a huge horror movie fan, and that includes zombie movies. I have a lot of the zombie related board games themed around the genre; and this is by far my favorite zombie related board game. I have played this game countless times and even demonstrated it at conventions and gaming events, and I have yet to grow tired of it. I love breaking out this game with a new group, or with a bunch of people I know enjoy the genre. So if you ever want to give it a try, just get a hold of me; I am always up for a game!

I highly recommend giving Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game a try, especially if you like zombie genre games. You will not be disappointed.

Brrrraiiins!!

Mahjong

Mahjong is a traditional Chinese set-collecting game, often played for money, similar in many respects the Western game of rummy. Four players, each playing individually (no partnerships), vie to be the first to "go out" with a hand of 14 tiles (4 sets of three, plus a pair).

Although in essence a card game, Mahjong is played with tiles rather than cards (the latter are available as an alternative, although the game experience is much inferior). The caliber of the components is central to the enjoyment of this game; and the look, feel and sound is just not right unless played with good-quality tiles.

There are 9 values (1-9) in 3 suits (circles, bamboo and numerals), with 4 duplicates of each combination, in addition to several special or bonus tiles. Players attempt to collect sets of three - either suited sequences of consecutive values, or duplicates of the same suit and denomination. Sets of all four duplicate tiles are also possible, but require an extra tile be added to the hand to maintain the correct number for going out.

The prelude to the game consists of mixing ("washing") the tiles - quite a noisy process if performed correctly! - then arranging the tiles into four walls that constitute the draw deck. Each turn consists of a draw and discard. Discards may be claimed up by other players to complete their sets. Play passes to the right unless a discard is claimed (in which case the claiming player is next to discard).

Some tiles and sets will double the value of a player's hand should he win. In addition, certain winning hands are worth one or more doubles, e.g., one-suited (pure) hands, or hands containing only duplicate sets (no sequences). Obviously, putting together several doubles has a big effect on increasing payout for a winning hand (but usually makes it more difficult to be first player out). The specifics of scoring, and even the type and number of bonus tiles available, varies widely between the many different styles of Mahjong, so one should be very clear which system is in effect before agreeing to play!

While its mechanics resemble rummy, the spirit of Mahjong is much like that of another gambling game, poker. Games may run late into the night, with snacks and drinks in plentiful supply. Success does not come from winning often, as much as from winning big.

A good Mahjong set (with tiles of a decent size and heft) would be expected to cost a little over $100. Thus, its value for money compares favorably with some big-box component-rich designer boardgames, but is offset by the restriction on player numbers and repetitive gameplay with limited player interaction. A Mahjong table (square tabletop with raised edges to prevent the tiles falling off) is useful although not essential. Hence, this is not a game to be purchased by the uninitiated, but rather by someone who already enjoys the game and has a reliable contingent of fellow players to call upon.

For me, Mahjong evokes pleasant memories of time spent with immediate and extended family, often around Chinese New Year. For the sake of nostalgia and family tradition - and also because it's great fun - I play this once or twice a year, ensuring that there are many opportunities at other times to introduce my relatives to more innovative games.

Marvel Heroes Board Game

Spiderman vs. Venom, Wolverine vs. Sabertooth, The Avengers vs. Ultron. If you can think of a combination of heroes and villains from the Marvel Universe, they can face each other in battle on the streets of New York in Fantasy Flight’s latest European import, the Marvel Heroes board game. Replay the classic battles or see how other heroes might fare against your favorite villains.

This game at its most basic is about the heroes and villains and their interaction. There is another way to earn points towards victory but eventually you’ll have to face down your enemies in single combat.

The game play is a little complex, and I’ll detail it briefly. Each player controls one team of four heroes. They are The Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk), The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, the Human Torch, and the Invisible Woman), The X Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, and Wolverine), and the Marvel Knights (Dr. Strange, Elektra, Daredevil, and Spiderman). Each team has their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as a nemesis (the Red Skull, Doctor Doom, Magneto, and the Kingpin respectively) who has their own schemes and plots to advance. The players each also control one nemesis as well. The other heroes and villains are represented through different resource and villain cards.

After the players have each selected their teams, and handed the corresponding nemeses to their opponents, a scenario is decided upon. The basic scenario requires that players only achieve a certain number of victory points, others modify the rules of the game, making it more difficult for players to defeat villains, or harder for them to power up their team.

Players each start on equal footing with a certain number of plot points. These represent the investments in their team and the heroes who can take on the headlines, the threats happening all across New York. If you want to prepare the Hulk, his power level requires a greater investment than Daredevil. Headlines are rated on their difficulty level as well as their type and subtype. If you want someone to take on danger there is no on better than Spiderman, but if you have a mystery that requires solving, it might be better to make Jean Grey ready to troubleshoot, determining the precise amount of trouble being caused in the area.

The heroes also have different skill sets that represent their areas of expertise. Mr. Fantastic is skilled in science and mystical problems, while Cap specializes in rescue and protection. The Hulk’s skill is in fighting, and the sixth one is investigation, something that is the pervue of Daredevil. The hero’s rating in the primary headline type reduces the overall threat level (determined randomly) while the secondary ability modifies just how powerful those dice can be.

Once you’ve decided which heroes to make ready to fight and which ones to provide support for those ready heroes, you may have some points left over. Now it’s time to recruit allies! A helping hand from another hero at an opportune time can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat many times over. The cost to play these allies is in the points you invest in them at the start of the round, but they don’t leave your side unless a villain’s power makes them.

Once you’ve set up your team for the round its time to get those heroes out on the streets of New York where they can beat up the bad guys. Movement is often the first action you’ll undertake in a round since you have to go to an area to troubleshoot it, determining exactly what is causing the problems. It is during the troubleshooting phase that the other players are against you. Once they’ve determined how much trouble is in the area they can they work together to play the villain card from their hands that is most likely to defeat your team, preventing you from earning your points and advancing toward victory. However, the players must be careful. Some villains are ‘most wanted’ and if they defeat their current opponent they can stick around to wreck havoc on the other teams as well, including the player who initially played them.

Combat is done in secret, with the active player and the player controlling the villain choosing which super power, with its appropriate ratings, they want to fight with for that round. Each power contains a rating for a fighting skill, a body defense, and an outwit contest. If Cyclops uses his optic blast, he has an incredible fighting rating, but he risks all for this attack, as his is overextended and doesn’t defend well. He is also effectively off balance and doesn’t have his wits about him either. In contrast, if he uses a more controlled area blast he doesn’t do as much damage, but he is better able to defend himself as well as plan his next move, if there is one. Heroes always start with the initiative, and the attacker wins ties in physical combat, a change from most games. Some heroes and villains can only lose one aspect of combat before being knocked out (Elektra, Invisible Woman, Captain America among others) while others can take up to three (Thing, Hulk, Thor)

Some headlines are special, representing the potential involvement of the mastermind villains. These headlines are generally worth more points for the same threat level because that threat level can be increased by the masterminds. The main villains can also choose to collect more villain cards for the controlling player, giving them more options on who to use as their lackey, or to make that lead villain more threatening by boosting their dice. This decision is left tot the player controlling that villain, but the other players are free to offer their opinions. In addition, the villains all have master plans that they are attempting to advance, and they can choose to do this once per round they are involved. If they do so, they are placing themselves in front of the heroes. If the hero team defeats the lead villain, they then have to decide if they want to face their nemesis immediately afterwards. The risks are great, as they are likely already have their resources depleted and may even be partially wounded., The rewards are also great however, as if they defeat the nemesis, they ear a team power up immediately. This can give them a significant strategic edge over the other players. However, if the heroes fight and lose, or if they don’t fight, the villain’s master plan moves forward. If it reaches fruition the team will lose victory points, so each team must be careful not to allow their villain’s plan to advance too far.

Outside of combat there is the story track. This represents the things that are happening in the lives of the heroes outside of combat and represent significant events along the Marvel timeline. Each team has the option of taking a story action at any point during its turn. That team collects a resource card, very valuable as this is the only way to earn them outside of a special ability or the use of a select few cards they may already have. They can also choose to reorganize the story placing their team’s event at the end, advancing the track and awarding that card to the team represented on the card that falls off, or leaving the track as is. Each team that collects a story card in this fashion receives one victory point, as the player has taken the time to work on the non combat aspects of his team and is rewarded for doing so. Collecting three of these story cards allows a team to earn one of its power ups during the next planning phase.

Each team member has different ready powers, all of which require resource cards to activate. These generally provide a significant boost to the upcoming battle or combat phase. They each also have a different ability when they are in support. Some are played as an action and result in more resource cards or plot points, giving you more options for next round. Each team also has one member whose ability supports combat, allowing them to influence the fight without being totally readied for it. There is also one team member whose abilities come into play during the troubleshooting phase only.

This is a game that involves a lot of timing decisions, a lot of deducing what your opponents are going to do, both with the way they have planned their team as well as with the powers they might be using in combat. If you are going later in the round this is pivotal, as you don’t want to be improperly prepared for a headline lest you be defeated and let your opponents take the lead on you. It is also game of resource management, as you have to decide which heroes to make ready and how many points to invest in that team as well as how many points and cards to invest in allies. Should you play Nightcrawler, using 2 plot points and only have 3 left to make your actual team ready or is he more valuable in your hand, as a resource card that can be discarded to Wolverine’s regeneration power? You are also managing your actions since you get five of them per round, and you don’t want your superhero team to get scooped on their headline. If someone else gets there first, you might not be able to use your team in the manner you best prepared it for. Then again, if you don’t take the time to use the appropriate support abilities of your heroes or advance their back story, you might find yourself in the middle of a fight without any cards to discard to Human Torch’s Nova Blast ability, a mistake that can easily cost you the battle.

The game does have its flaws. There is a lot of dice rolling which can result in a situation you were perfectly prepared for suddenly tuning against you at the last minute. I think this does actually represent the way battles can go in the comics. If someone hits that vital spot or ducks behind a wall at just the right time you can see the tide of battle turn just as easily. It does in fact distract from the strategy aspect of the game knowing that even the best laid plans can be subverted by random chance,, but I take solace in the fact that eventually the dice will do that to everyone, so all you have to do is continue to make the best decisions and you’ll likely be successful.
The story aspect of the game does feel a bit forced at times, but I think it is a manageable aspect. You don’t see heroes fighting 24/7 in the comics, and it can also be thought of as representing time spent developing your team’s powers.

Whether the teams are balanced or not is an assessment that probably needs to be made after several plays. I’ve found an order to the teams in my opinion, but I’ll leave that discovery to you. Sometimes just the excitement of playing your favorite heroes can take a mediocre team to the next level. Other times players might be too excited to recreate their favorite battles even when that isn’t the best strategic decision.

In summary, Marvel Heroes is a strategy game with several layers. The surface is really cool painted miniature heroes and villains and a lot of different superpowers. A little deeper glance shows the different ways the team interacts and the way the cards help or hinder what you’re trying to do. Deeper still is the interaction between the players and the planning based on what you think everyone else is going to do, just like the heart of any strategy game.

Furthermore, the background subject matter is just plain fun! I’ve enjoyed watching the success of Marvel at the box office recently and I can’t wait for more there. In the meantime I’ll recreate the stories I’ve seen before and want to see in the future any chance I get.

Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare

Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare (MNB:GW) is a card game portraying combat between modern ships, submarines, and aircraft. It is one of those games that, while not being extremely detailed or complex, are a reasonable simulation that presents the players with many of the challenges, decisions, and results you would expect in the real world.

You won’t find rules for maneuver, searching or detection in MNB:GW. This game assumes that the opposing sides have found each other and are ready to slug it out, toe to toe. If you have played other modern naval warfare games, you probably already know that the speed and range of modern weapons make the movement of individual ships mostly irrelevant. Once the missiles start flying, the ships might as well be sitting dead in the water. Therefore, MNB:GW is all about launching enough hardware at your opponent to sink his ships before he sinks yours.

MNB:GW consists of 220 standard-sized cards printed in full, photographic color and quality. Half of the cards represent modern-era ships and submarines from 9 different nations: USA, USSR, UK, France, China, Argentina, Taiwan, Norway, and Japan. The other half of the cards are Action cards. Some think the cards are a little too thin and not very durable, but if you aren’t playing against a gorilla I think the cards will survive hundreds of uses. The game also comes with two six sided dice and a rules booklet.

In MNB:GW, ships in your fleet can be deployed in up to three rows. This is important because most weapons have ranges of between one to three rows, so hitting a ship in the second or third row of your enemy’s fleet will require long range weapons like cruise missiles. Similarly, ships that are only armed with guns better be in your first row because otherwise they won’t be able to hit any enemy ships. You can also protect your most valuable assets (like aircraft carriers) but putting them in your second or third row and screening them with one or two rows of small, “expendable” ships like frigates or destroyers. There is even a Screening Ship card that lets you shift damage from an attack from your opponent’s target to friendly ship of your choice.

Submarines and aircraft are handled a little differently, and can attack enemy ships in any row. This simulates the stealthy qualities of submarines and the mobility and range of modern aircraft.

Play is relatively simple. One player is the attacker and can play any number of Action cards (from a hand of seven, usually) against his opponent’s ships. There are Action cards for guns, missiles, cruise missiles, and torpedoes. Only one Action card can be assigned to each ship, and then only if the ship actually carries the weapon that the Action card represents. For example, if an Action card contains the symbol for a cruise missile, that card can only be used to attack an enemy ship if the attacker has a ship that also has a cruise missile symbol on it. Some cards, like Air Support, can be used without having to match a symbol on a ship card, but in general, the more ships you have, the more chance you will have to play Action cards from your hand to attack your opponent’s ships. Attacks are not resolved immediately because, once the attacker has declared all attacks, the defending player can play cards to try to prevent the attacks from being successful. Most Action cards contain a defensive capability against one or more types of attacks. For example, an Action card with a missile on it might be used offensively in the attack phase, or defensively to cancel out air attacks or other missile attacks. Some ships have an intrinsic defensive capability against some attacks. Once all defensive cards are played, all remaining attacks are resolved. It doesn’t take too many successful attacks to sink most ships – frigates and destroyers are likely to go down with only one cruise missile, while a carrier can absorb half a dozen or more before sinking.

When one player has finished attacking and the other has finished defending, both players draw cards to bring their hands back up to the limit. Play switches sides and the other player becomes the attacker and the first player the defender. That’s it. Very simple, but I’ve found that, as in most card games, the outcome of the game sometimes hinges on having the right hand at the right time.

I very much like this game. (Thanks to my RGC Secret Santa!) It sets up in a couple of minutes and plays in maybe 10-20 minutes depending upon the number of ships on each side. It can even be played solo by drawing a completely new hand each time play changes sides so you don’t know what cards the “other” player will be able to use defensively until it is “his” turn.

There isn’t much I don’t like about this game. What it tries to do it does very well. I wish the rules booklet would have provided a few more scenarios based on historical or hypothetical situations.

Overall, this game is highly recommended if you have any interest in modern naval warfare.

Modern Naval Battles: Global Conflict (MNB:GW) is published by DVG (Dan Verssen Games) and is a re-design of a game (and expansions) first published in 1989 by 3W (World Wide Wargames). Both were designed by Dan Verssen.

APPENDIX

For those who are interested, here is a primer on some of the weapons used in modern naval combat.

There are many nations developing and deploying many different weapons for ships and submarines, but they all tend to fall into one of four or five categories

Guns: These range from “small” rapid-fire guns that are useful against smaller targets at close range, including aircraft and slow-flying missiles to larger guns that are primarily used against other ships. Really big guns like those seen on battleships are rare but impressive in the damage they can cause, and can sink most ships with a single hit. However, even their range is short compared to missiles.

Missiles: Missiles can be used against other ships in surface-to-surface mode, but aren’t likely to sink a larger ship. They are primarily effective in damaging weapon mounts, radar antenna, communications systems, and other fragile structures mounted on the deck and superstructure of the target ship. Missiles in surface-to-air mode are used to shoot down attacking aircraft and slow-flying missiles. Cruise missiles have a very long range and pack a mean punch, but they fly slowly and can be shot down by other missiles or even aircraft. Some submarines can launch cruise missiles, too.

Torpedoes: Torpedoes have evolved over one hundred years, but they still rely on being hard to detect since they are fired from underwater submarines and they have an enormous warhead capable of sinking most ships.

Aircraft: These are more a weapons delivery system than a weapon. Fixed wing aircraft can be used offensively to attack ships and defensively to ward off attacking enemy aircraft and cruise missiles. Helicopters are often based on ships and are used to hunt and kill submarines. Aircraft that are involved in naval combat can be either from aircraft carriers or from land bases.

Nexus Ops

The pretty pieces and Toys R Us sale pulled me in to the Nexus Ops world, but the great gameplay got me to stay.

Gameplay - I was pleasantly surprised to find that Nexus Ops has great gameplay to match the beautiful colorful bits.

The object of the game is to obtain 12 victory points through waging battles with your opponents on a moon that contains a much sought after energy source called Rubium.

The game is set up with hexagonal tiles much like Settlers of Catan. The differences in this game being that the center tile is a raised cardboard hex called the monolith. The next ring consists of single hexes and the ring beyond that contains double hexes. Then depending on the number of players, the home bases (made up of three hexes joined together) are played out on the edges of the board. Each hex is also a different type of terrain that influences the game in some way.

Play consists of several steps in a turn. Once one player has finished all of their steps, their opponent performs the same steps.

The first step allows players to recruit new units through spending of Rubium. The units have variable cost depending on their respective strengths; starting with the lowly 2 cost Human Soldier to the magnificent 12 cost Rubium Dragon.

After units have been paid for and placed in one of their home base tiles, the move step begins. During this phase, the player whose turn it is may move each of his or her units onc hex, unless that unit has a “special movement ability.”

The next step is to explore the tile if it hasn’t already been explored. Each tile has a facedown chip on it at the beginning of the game, these chips can have mines and or additional units to join your side.

Then every hex that has units from more than one faction must battle. This is where a lot of the victory points can be accrued. If a player wins a battle on his or her turn, he or she may play a win a battle card for one victory point, if instead they have met the requirements for a secret mission card in their hand, they may play that card instead. If a player loses a battle on an opponent’s turn, they are allowed to draw an energize card. Energize cards are cards that are either played at the start of the turn or they occur at some point during or before a battle and offer some sort of benefit to the player that plays them. Battle starts with the most expensive units and moves to the cheapest. Each figure has a “to hit” number and must roll that or greater in order to cause a casualty. If a casualty is caused the opponent must immediately remove a figure of his or her choosing.

After every contested space has had one battle occur, the player may collect Rubium for each mine that he or she controls. A player controls a space if he or she has the only units on that hex.

The last thing a player does on his or her turn is draw a secret mission card. That player may also draw 2 energize cards if he or she controls the Monolith.

The game is really a light war-game and can be played with relatively young players.

There can be a little bit of an unbalanced board in a two player game, but it usually isn’t too big of a deal. Nexus Ops plays really well with two, three or four players. I could see an expansion allowing for five and six players working well. But, since Hasbro seems to be dumping Nexus Ops along with a lot of the other Avalon Hill titles, I don’t believe we will se an official expansion.

There is a lot of luck in the rolling of the die, but a player who plays the odds right and manages their resources well should usually beat the player that fails to do these things as well.

I feel that the gameplay deserves 8 out of 10 Rubium.

Look and Feel - This game definitely gets props in the look and feel category, but the smell category definitely brings it down (the people who own this game know what I am talking about with the smell. The stench has pretty much left mine now, but when I first opened the plastic bags for the pieces, they had quite the strong unpleasant smell about them).

The bright colored board and pieces look great, and appear as if they would glow in the dark. While they don’t quite glow in the dark, they are black light reactive, so you can have some good fun playing this game by black light.

The one negative to the feel of the game, besides the smelly pieces is possibly the size of the pieces. They are pretty small, which makes them easy to move when the table is bumped, or send flying into another space while trying to move other pieces.

The look and feel of this game earns Nexus Ops 8 out of 10 Rubium.

Overall Score - 8 Rubium out of 10

Final word - If you like a light war-game with lots of bits and some dice rolling, you might find yourself a winner here. The game is very colorful and fun for 2-4 players and is suitable for a wide age range.

Power Grid

Power Grid is a highly acclaimed and popular game, second only to Puerto Rico in BoardGameGeek ranking. Despite its dry theme - administering a national power grid - and emphasis on arithmetic, it is an engaging experience that most players enjoy thoroughly regardless of whether they win or lose.

The components that come with the basic game include a deck of cards representing the power plants consuming different resources (oil, coal, garbage, uranium or renewable energy), painted wooden pieces to represent these resources, and a double-sided mounted map board with the option of playing in the USA or Germany. Official expansion maps are available, as is an alternative power plant deck; unlike expansions for many other games, the prices for these are very reasonable. Many unofficial expansion maps are also available freely on the internet.

Each turn consists of: a round of auctions to purchase new power plants, purchasing resources to fuel those plants, expanding the power grid, and firing up plants to collect income. For each of these phases, players act in an order designed to disadvantage the game leader and help the game loser ... er, lagger ... and thus keep the game competitive from beginning to end. Each phase represents a game-within-the-game, with many decisions likely to impact at least minimally on other players. Officially, each player's bankroll is kept secret; while this may have an impact on serious or competitive play, most casual games can be played with open money.

The representation of the resource market follows a simple but effective supply-and-demand economic model. Resources in abundance may be purchased cheaply, while a resource that is scarce is more expensive. The demand for resources depends on which power plants players have purchased. If all players are competing for fossil fuels, the price will escalate like today's oil prices. The worst-case scenario is that another player may buy the last of a resource that you need, leaving you unable to power your cities.

As the game progresses, players can improve the efficiency of their power grid by taking on new and more expensive power plants capable of powering more cities with fewer resources; this also enables one's resource focus to be changed, for example, from fossil fuels to uranium or renewable.

The game ends when a player builds a certain number of cities, depending on the number of players. The winner is whoever can power the most cities that turn. Ties are won by the player with most cash, hence the saying, "Money isn't everything, but it is a tie-breaker in Power Grid."

The designer, Friedemann Friese, insists that the game is more fun when players don't plan ahead in copious detail and budget right down to the last Elektro (i.e., dollar). I agree that Power Grid should be played as a light game and not a brain-buster. While it is occasionally frustrating to fall a couple of Elektros short of what you need that turn, it's rarely a game-breaker. This is definitely a game you'll play more than once.

My rating: 9 out of 10 Elektros.

Puerto Rico (Jormi_Boced's review)

I had played this game a couple of times before buying my own copy, and then that copy sat in the box for quite a while. It is now out and punched and seeing frenzied play as it should.

Game Play - Puerto Rico has a very unique gameplay that really sets itself apart from other games.

In Puerto Rico, players are loosely simulating the colonization of Puerto Rico. They do this buy assuming different roles that change the turn structure. One person is the designated governor for the turn. They then get first pick of the roles and then go clockwise around the table. The governor passes to the next person each turn, so everyone gets a fair shot at picking the role they want first.

The goal of the game is to get the most victory points. This can be achieved in several ways. The main way is by sending goods back to the old world on ships during the Captain phase. Another way is by constructing buildings during the Builder phase.

Another aspect of the game is generating revenue in the form of doubloons. Some people get caught up in the money making aspect and lose sight of the true goal of gaining victory points.

The game offers a lot of strategy and little monotony with its turn structure. Not knowing what phases are actually going to occur each turn requires one to make decisions with limited information and try to guess what the opponents are going to do. One also has to be careful when choosing his or her role, because the role that might be the most helpful, may also help an opponent more.

I feel that the gameplay deserves 9 out of 10 doubloons.

Look and Feel - The art for the game is good. Nothing outstanding, but it works well with the theme and time period.

I have to say that when I play this game, I do not feel like I am really colonizing Puerto Rico. I feel like I am in a race for victory points.

Also be ready to do some punching when you get this game. There are a lot of pieces to punch, but lots of bits are cool.

I also like how each player is playing on their own board with the community board in the middle to buy and trade from.

The look and feel of this game earns it a 7 out of 10 doubloons.

Overall Score - 8 doubloons out of 10.

Final word - If you are a fan of Euro style games, this game is already in your collection. If it isn’t, what are you doing reading this. Go get it now.

Puerto Rico (Meng's review)

Puerto Rico, designed by Andreas Seyfarth and published in 2002, is a game about managing plantations in Puerto Rico, for 3-5 players. Its enduring popularity is evidenced by its long-standing status as the most highly ranked game on BoardGameGeek.

The game revolves around the most important colonial occupations, or "roles" - Settler (establishes plantations), Mayor (brings colonists to the island), Builder (constructs buildings), Craftsman (produces goods), Trader (sells goods), Captain (exports goods), and Prospector (receives money). On his turn, the active player selects a role, thus giving all players the opportunity to improve their position, but with an exclusive additional benefit for the active player (exception: the Prospector benefits the active player only).

Production of goods (of five types - corn, indigo, sugar, tobacco, coffee) follows a fairly simple system of requiring the appropriate plantation and a production plant, adequately manned by colonists (exception: corn production requires only the plantation). Goods may be sold through the Trader to earn money (doubloons), or else may be exported via the Captain to earn victory points. Money allows the purchase of buildings, which are themselves worth victory points at the end of the game, and in the meantime provide a variety of enduring benefits such as bonus goods or money.

A round consists of all players selecting one role each. For the next round, all roles become available again, and the first player (Governor) marker passes to the left. Bonus money is placed on any roles unselected in the round just completed as an added incentive for selection in the coming round.

The final round is triggered when either the colonist pool or victory point pool has been exhausted, or when a player has built the maximum number of buildings permitted. At game end, the player with the most victory points is the winner.

Superficially, players have several options to choose from each turn; in practice, though, at most 2 or 3 of the available options will be helpful to the active player in any given game situation. This is a good "sweet spot" for a gateway game, although first-time players may agonize over the apparent surfeit of choice. Otherwise, the game plays in well under an hour, and there is little to no down-time.

Despite, or perhaps because of, its overwhelming popularity, Puerto Rico has its share of highly vocal detractors, and has even spawned a few minor controversies. One is the use of the term colonists as a euphemism for slaves, represented by the dark-brown color of "colonist" markers. Another is the much-reviled Puerto Rico Nazi. This pathetic excuse for humanity believes that there is one and only one correct way to play the game, and that unorthodox, i.e., "wrong", play spoils the game for him, and by extension, for everyone else. (Think of the bridge partner from hell, only much worse.)

The game was once available for online play through BrettspielWelt, but was removed in early 2007 because the electronic rights had been sold to Microsoft, which has yet to introduce the game to Xbox Live Arcade, where it will join games such as Carcassonne and Catan. Although other, more obscure, outlets remain, there is little doubt that online play of Puerto Rico is effectively dead for now.

An inexpensive expansion is available, broadening the variety of buildings. The official 2-player variant of Puerto Rico is considered by most to be a waste of time. A card game spin-off, San Juan, for 2-4 players, has a similar playing time and comparable popularity.

Puerto Rico (Schwade's review)

Upon hearing the words, “Puerto Rico,” among a bunch of gamers, the first thing I thought of was, “what a great vacation that’d be.” That was, until I learned about this game. Now, I sometimes still think of the sand and sun, particularly in the cold Minnesota winter, but more often think of the top rated game on www.boardgamegeek.com.

The reason this game draws people in and the reason it has such replay value is very simple, there are multiple viable strategies to win the game, and each play one or the other is going to be more useful, depending on what the players around you are doing. You have to pay close attention to what you’re about to do and how it may benefit your opponents, particularly as you consider what options they have left after you choose.

The theme of the game has players each representing land owners in colonial Puerto Rico. They develop their village by building different buildings, each of which gives them a different ability. They settle plantations of different crops then use their production facilities to process them. After processing, they can sell those goods to market and make more money to buy more buildings, or they can ship them back to the old world, for victory points.

The game consists of rounds where each player takes their turn at selecting a role to play for that round, and then, starting with the player who selected it, they each perform the action allowed by the role. The person taking the role either gets an extra advantage or an extra option for taking that role.

There are seven different roles in the game, although one is not used in 3 player, and that one exists twice in a 5 player game. The roles are settler, builder, mayor, craftsman, trader, and prospector. Each role is available only once per game round, and players take turns selecting their role first. The player who selects first in the round is the governor for that round. It’s really just an easy way to keep track of who went first that round, sort of like a dealer button in poker. There will be three roles not selected per round, and to make those more enticing the next round, a doubloon is added to each role, so that the player who selects it gets the doubloon in addition to the other edge for that card.

Each player begins the game with a playmate that has 12 plantation spaces and 12 building spaces. There are also a set number of victory points available and a set number of colonists available. The game ends at the end of the round in which a player either fills their buildings, the last victory point is taken, or the colonist ship can’t be filled with the appropriate number of colonists.

The settler role allows a player to choose a plantation from a number of face up piles equal to one plus the number of players. In a four player game, there would be 5 tiles face up at any one time, with the player who chose the role of settler going first and selection proceeding clockwise. The 5 plantation types that produce goods are corn, indigo, sugar, tobacco, and coffee. There is a 6th type, available as an option to the player who chose the settler role, a quarry. A manned quarry (more on that in a moment) allows a player to purchase buildings for lower than the listed price. Players can opt to not take a plantation if they’d like, but this is typically only done near the end game, and rarely then.

The builder role allows players to spend their doubloons to purchase buildings for their city. There are production facilities to allow for processing of goods taken from the plantations, and non-production buildings that give the players special abilities.

The column the building is in is also important. The first column on the left can only be discounted by one quarry. Even if a player has 2 manned quarries on their playmate, the largest discount the can get for one of those is 1 doubloon. Each building costs a number of doubloons equal to the number in the circle to build. This does mean that some buildings can be free to build. The second column allows for the use of 2 quarries, the 3rd column for 3, and the large buildings can be discounted by 4. In addition, the player who selects the builder role receives a discount of one doubloon off the listed price. There are a limited number of buildings, including production facilities, so choosing the correct order in which to build is important. There is only one of each large building. At the end of the game, whether it is staffed or not, each building is worth a number of victory points equal to the number in red.

For the plantations to produce anything, or the buildings to allow for their effects to work, they must be manned by colonists. In order to obtain colonists, one player must choose the role of mayor. Initially there are a number of colonists equal to the number of players on the ship. The player who selects mayor takes one off the ship, then they are taken off in a clockwise fashion, one to a player. If there is an uneven number, the players who are last just don’t get as many. After these are taken, the player who selected mayor receives an extra colonist from the pile. Players then place them on their buildings and plantations as they see fit. Again, a plantation isn’t being worked if there isn’t a colonist on it, and a building’s effects don’t take effect if there isn’t a colonist working it. In order to produce goods, you need the plantation manned and the appropriate production center manned in your city. The exception to this is corn, which only requires the plantation be manned, and doesn’t have a corresponding production facility. This phase is also the only time that players can rearrange their current colonists to move to new buildings or plantations they’ve acquired since the last mayor phase. Finally, once all players are set, the ship is filled for the next time someone selects mayor. It is filled with a number of colonists equal to the number of players, or the number of empty circles for colonists in buildings on all players’ cards. If each player had a large indigo plant with one colonist on it, there would be 8 empty spaces in a 4 player game, and so 8 would be the number of colonists on the ship the next time mayor is selected, for example.

The next role to describe is the craftsman. This role allows players to produce their goods. Starting with the player who chose this role, the players take one ‘barrel’ of a good for each one that they can produce, meaning they have a working plantation and a manned production facility. A large production facility has more than one circle, and if more than one colonist is manning that building, it can support more than one plantation. If there are no barrels of a particular good left, that player doesn’t produce that good this round. There are a limited number of barrels of each good in the game to balance this as well. Once all players have taken their goods from the supply, the player who selected craftsman may choose one extra barrel of any good he or she actually produced that round. Of course, there must still be some remaining in the supply for them to gain this extra benefit.

Once a player has produced goods, they have two options on what to do with them. These roles can be taken before they really help you early in the game, and sometimes the number of doubloons on them makes them worth it, but when they benefit you is when they really shine.

The first of these two is the trader. Players take turns, beginning again with the player who selected trader, selling their goods to the trading house. The trading house holds 4 goods, and can only hold one of each type. Corn sells for 0, indigo for 1, sugar for 2, tobacco for 3, and coffee for 4. If all 4 spaces are when it is a player’s turn, that player cannot sell this round. If all 4 are full after the player’s turn, the trading house clears. The benefit of choosing the trader role is that you sell your goods for one doubloon higher than they otherwise would have sold for, and this does stack with building bonuses, if applicable.

Probably the most difficult role to understand for the new player is that of the captain. This role is different than the others in that it is a must, rather than a may type action. When a player selects the captain, all players ship their goods back to the old world beginning with the player who chose the role. He or she also gains an extra victory point for their first shipping as the bonus for choosing the role. There are 3 ships, of varying capacity based on number of players, next to the board, and each one can only carry one type of good. If you have goods and there is an empty ship, or one that isn’t full that is shipping a good that you have, you have to place all of that type that you can on that ship, and collect one point for each barrel that you placed on the ship. One player ships all they can of one type of good of their choice, and then the next player, and so on. This continues until all players have shipped everything they can . If you have goods that can’t ship, either because another ship is already full of that type or because there isn’t a ship carrying that type, you have to spoil (discard) all barrels except for one. The strategy in this phase comes in the form of deciding what type of good to ship on which ship, and in what order. Maybe you want to ship your corn first, so you can hold on to your coffee and sell it later. Or, maybe you want to ship your coffee, so the player behind you can’t ship his corn and it spoils.

The final role is that of the prospector. Quite simply, choosing this role nets you one doubloon. That’s it, but it does nothing for any of the other players. A role that benefits you and not your opponents often has it advantages. This role is not included in the 3 player game. Two prospector roles are included in the 5 player game.

That is the basics of the game. Each non-production building allows you to effectively break one of the rules I just mentioned or gives you some other type of benefit. They’re on the card above, and if it’s not readable and you’re really curious, you could always save it to your computer and then blow up the image.

All in all, this game has a lot of different choices to make each turn. Which role do I choose? How can I move ahead without benefiting my opponents more than myself? Do I want the game to end now or not? What might my opponent choose after I choose? I’m really glad I gave this game a chance, and picked it up about 3 months after my first play. It’s now a favorite of mine, just like it is for many gamers. I’d recommend it to anyone who is looking at a strategy game. Honestly, I’d probably rate the game 9.5/10. I’m always looking for 2-4 other people to get into a game with.

Race for the Galaxy Review (Plus the Gathering Storm)

At its heart, Race for the Galaxy is a development game. In the game, each player manages resources (cards) to settle and develop a community among the stars. The game involves each player selecting one phase of the turn to happen, than performing all phases that each player selects.

First things first, what do you get for your money? In the base game you get the cards, including 6 different starting planets, and the action cards, plus the victory point chips. The cards are high quality, and the chips are pretty standard punch out cardboard. It seems like the game is priced like a board game, but given the rising price of board games, its reasonable.

The five (plus one) phases of the game are where the strategy really lies. The phases allow you to do the following things:

Explore: Draw 2 cards, keep one
Action: Draw, keep an extra card
Action: Draw 5 extra cards
Develop: Pay for and place a development card
Action: Your development costs one less card to play
Settle: Place and pay for or conquer a planet
Action: If a planet settled, draw one card
Consume Trade: May sell one good and must consume the others according to abilities on cards
Consume VP x2: Consume all goods, receive double victory points for each VP reward
Produce: Players produce on production worlds
Action: Produce on one windfall world.

If you choose the action, you get the beneficial effect of that action. Each player gets to do the basic action, explore, develop, settle, consume, or produce. Trading is only performed if you select that action. Also, each card with a power in the chosen phase activates each time that phase is chosen. Some of the cards you play will give you bonuses during one or more phases, and some just provide points at the end.

To play developments or settle friendly planets, you need to discard cards to pay the cost of the card. The fun part is that the cards you discard to pay this cost could be played later if only you held onto it. Decide which ones you want to save and which ones are expendable. That’s the heart of the matter.

The military worlds deserve special mention because special rules apply. Instead of discarding cards like any other planet or development, the military worlds have to be conquered. Some planets and developments generate a military strength for your new society. It may seem like this offers a significant advantage, since each military card you play saves you cards from your hand, but other players are also trying to do the same thing, and there aren’t that many cards to go around. Plus these cards don’t offer too many other advantages while the ones you pay for with cards can.

One other set of cards that are a little different are the 6 cost development cards. Each of these cards can provide substantial extra points at the end of the game based on how many of a certain type of card you have. These cards can direct a strategy if you draw them early enough, you can base what you’re trying to do this game on what you have early in the game.

The speed of the game is one of the major draws. One game with 3 or 4 can take anywhere from 30-45 minutes, much less online or if everyone has played before. The 2 player game often goes even faster.

Overall, the game is a fun challenge of resource and action management, with a great theme.

The Gathering Storm expansion adds a lot to the game, unfortunately without adding very many cards to the deck.

Included in the expansion are about 18 cards for the common draw deck, 3 more start worlds, rules for a single player game, and variable goals for each individual game, plus the cards for a 5th player.

The cards that get added to the deck basically seem to pave the way for the next expansion, due out later this year. Rumor has it that the next expansion will allow for direct player interaction, which might be fun to see. We’ll have to wait for that one to be sure.

The goals are divided into 2 different types, those that are awarded to the player who achieves them first, worth 3 points, and those awarded to the player who has the most at the end and has taken the clear lead from the previous holder, worth 5 points. Each game has 4 of the 3 point chits and 2 of the 6 point ones.

The robot rules have both easy and hard settings. I haven’t played through these at all, but I’ve heard they go pretty easy on easy and pretty hard on hard.

Adding the 5th player just means that more people can join in the fun, and it really doesn’t decrease the speed of the game at all. I’m a fan of it, I just wish they’d picked a color a little different from the blue in the base game.

Over at boardgamegeek.com, I’ve rated both of these games an 8. I’m usually up for a game, and suggest it frequently when there isn’t a lot of time to play a longer game, or as a good starter while waiting for a couple more players to arrive.

Red Dragon Inn (I &II)

For those who don’t know, Red Dragon Inn II is a recent expansion to the first game, published by Slugfest games. The theme of the game involves adventurers sitting around a tavern after a recent haul telling tales and sharing drink. The expansion itself contains decks for 4 new adventurers, plus a new deck full of drinks and the mats and markers necessary to keep track of who is how weakened and how drunk.

A bit of the mundane: The cards are a very solid cardstock, the mats are thick cardboard and the beads are typical glass beads, nothing special or not too cheap. Basically the components you get are of sufficient quality. The components aren’t where the game really shines, although they aren’t bad.

The gameplay basically consists of each player in turn discarding as many cards as they like, drawing to a full hand of seven, playing one action per turn, and then as many cards as they like that can be played “sometimes” or “anytime.” To play these cards the conditions have to be right. Then you buy a drink for one of your opponents, then drink the top card of your own drink pile. Then it’s the next player’s turn.

The cards you can play can either cause you to injure your opponents, get them drunker, or heal or sober yourself up. Or, what else would there be to do other than your new found wealth than gamble? You can start a round of gambling with the appropriate action. Once a round starts, players take control until one player holds it while the others pass, then that player wins.

A player is eliminated in one of two ways. Either they can’t pay any more gold when required, or they pass out. Players have to pay gold when they play poker, use certain cards, or if the drink deck gets emptied and needs to be shuffled. They pass out when their fortitude and alcohol content pass one another.

The first edition of the game gave us Deidre the Priestess, Fiona the Volatile (fighter), Zot the Wizard (and pooky), and Gerki the Thief. The recent expansion gives us Gog the Half-Ogre, Dimli the Dwarf, Eve the Illusionist, and Fleck the Bard. Each of the first four and each of these new four characters have certain skills they’re good at and others they aren’t so good at. The Dwarf isn’t the greatest gambler. The half-ogre really has no way to heal himself. The illusionist can’t do that either, but she can hurt you. You get the idea.

There is no reason you can’t mix and match the original and the expansion character decks. You could even combine the 2 for an 8 player game, though I feel it bogs down once you get past six players honestly. Plus, if you get too many players in the game, those who don’t excel at gambling are likely to be early casualties and end up waiting while the others continue.

The whole game plays in a maximum of about 45 minutes to an hour. Then you can move on to other games, switch decks and play as a different character, or try again with the ones you’ve played and like.

Ovedall I’d rate the game a solid 8. It’s a lot of fun, is heavily influenced by theme (the quotes on the cards will make you recall your RPG days), and has an incredible amount of replay value. I’ll almost never turn down a game of RDI (I or II), and I’d recommend you check it out if you want a good laugh while you’re having more fun than you might expect.

Talisman: 3rd Edition (Schwade's review)

Another month gone, another classic game to describe. This month the members of RGC have nominated Talisman as their featured game and, true to my word, I’ve prepared a write up.

This game is one that is near and dear to me. My brother and I received this for Christmas one year growing up. I can’t tell you what year it was but I can tell you that it was the second edition of the game, before any of the expansions to that edition had been printed. If I had to guess I’d say my copy is about 18-20 years old, and looks every bit of it.

Recently, Games Workshop has released the 4th edition of the game. It is a virtual reprint of the 2nd edition, with a few minor rules improvements and a few extra ways to turn you opponents into a toad. More on that later.

Each player starts by selecting a character at random from the stack, or at least that is what the rules say to do. Most of the time house rules that allow for a choice between 2 characters are used. This allows you to have at least some choice in how you go about achieving the goal of gaining control of the crown of command and ruling the realm.

Each character has a rating for strength and craft, representing their physical strength and fighting ability and their wits and mental ability respectively. Most monsters and animals (and other players) are fought using strength, while craft controls your ability to fight spirits and cast spells.

As you roll and move (not the greatest moving mechanic ever, but you can at least choose direction) you can encounter either adventure cards or other players. If you encounter the space you land on, you don’t encounter the player in that space if there is one. Conversely, if you encounter the player in the space you land on, you can’t encounter the space itself.

The adventure card deck holds many different types of encounters. Events can occur which happen to you alone or to all players, monsters or spirits may be fought, strangers who may help or hinder you can take up residence, you may find an object, magical or not, or a follower to take with you, or a strange place to explore.

Throughout the game you must balance your need to become more powerful with your need to beat your opponents to the end. When do you leave the relatively lower threat of the outer region for the higher risk, higher reward middle region? Your goal lies at the center of the inner region, so you must eventually push on, but there is no reaching your ultimate goal without a talisman to protect you, so you must obtain one before proceeding.

There are many different spaces on the board that you can encounter along with those that let you draw cards. You could visit an enchantress, alchemist, or doctor in the city, a mystic, market, or healer in the village. You could pray at the temple or chapel, or try to invoke the spirits in the graveyard, if you’re evil. There are deserts and black knights to be feared and maidens to be rescued. Classic fantasy at its finest.

The game doesn’t have a real good mechanism for ensuring that things move forward and so it can get bogged down as each player tries to gain more power. This can result in a long game, but the players themselves have to keep one another honest. Eventually someone will make a run for the end, and if successful, the game typically ends in short order. There are also rules for shorter play included, and I’d recommend considering those if time is short.

I promised you more information on the toads. Nearly anytime you encounter a magician in the game, there is a chance a player can be turned into a toad for three turns. This can set back even the strongest player, and can be a perfect time to attempt to take a life or two from a player. Each player begins with 4 lives, and has to start over if they lose them all. This explains the value of the healers and doctors in the game.

Combat is simple enough. You tally up all your bonuses from items, followers, and your own score. The enemy has its respective rating in either strength or craft. You roll a 6 sided die for yourself, the opponent to your left rolls one for the monster. You both add your die rolls to your totals, then the highest total wins. In case of a draw, there is no winner or loser. If you lose, you lose one life, unless you’re protected by armor or magic. If you win, you gain valuable experience.

Advancement is done through defeating monsters and spirits. Once you’ve defeated 7 points worth of enemies you can trade them in for another point of the respective attribute. There are also items and followers that can advance these abilities, but if you lose them you also lose their abilities as well. The same goes for followers who make you stronger or wiser.

All in all I’d highly recommend this game to anyone looking to play in a world of classic fantasy through a board game mechanic. My personal, slightly biased rating would have to be about 9/10. I can’t wait until my next play.

Talisman: 2nd and 3rd Edition (Jormi_Boced's review)

After hearing a lot about this game, I got a chance to play it and was not real impressed. This review is only based off of experiences with 2nd and 3rd edition. I have not got a chance to play the new 4th edition, but from what I hear it is pretty close to 2nd, so I may just skip it.

Game Play - The game play consists of rolling a die moving your character and encountering mostly random objects places and monsters or other players. Combat is decided by adding up strength and a die roll. It is a basic roll and move game with RPG elements.

Characters have different abilities (some way more powerful than others) and starting strength and craft scores. These can be increased by objects, followers and encounters throughout the game.

The game is played out on a semi-linear board. There are three rings that players can move back and forth in, and under certain condition can cross over to another ring.

The gameplay really lacks a lot of the strategy elements I look for in a game, and seems to turn into a game of who can get the luckiest.

I feel the gameplay deserves 2 out of 10 talismans.

Look and Feel - This is where the game shines. The look brings me back to the 80s and the classic feel of Dungeon and Dragons. Some might say the art is a little cheesy or lacking, but I kind of dig it.

I really like the feel. It is fun to take your character and make them stronger by defeating enemies, and the encounters can be exciting. Will it be a monster or a magical object am I in danger or will I find a great blessing.

The feel and look drew me into the game and I give it 6 out of 10 talismans for the experience.

Overall Score - 4 talismans out of 10

Final word - Some fun can come out of this game, but I wouldn't need to play it more than once every couple of years. Let a friend buy it and save you money for something more worthwhile. I have also found that playing this online is great, as it eliminates the downtime in between turns and I don't feel like I have wasted my time when the player that gets lucky finally wins.

Thurn & Taxis

Thurn and Taxis is a game for 2-4 players. In the spirit of games like Ticket to Ride, is a game about collecting routes between cities and earning victory points. Routes of a certain length earn these victory points, and bonus points are earned by completely filling Provinces with your post offices.

Components
The components for T&T are very nice. There is great artwork; all with an “old world” look it. There are heavy stock cardboard reference cards, listing the special abilities you can choose from. (Although, they are unnecessary, since the information is also printed on the game board) It includes nice wooden houses used to mark the cities you have claimed. If I have one complaint, it would be the small cards that are used. I am not a fan of the small cards in any games. To give credit, the small size is necessary, since there is a place on the board for the six cards that are available to choose from. From the actual box design to board design, both the colors and graphics are pleasing and inviting.

Gameplay
The object of Thurn & Taxis is to build postal routes across Bavaria – the southern area of Germany, Austria. Switzerland. By playing cards (one per turn) you build a postal route from city to city. You may only extend your route to a city that is adjacent to one end of your current route; so there are times where you won’t get a card to extend your route. As your turn action, you can complete your route, and score the victory points for it, if possible. When you score your route, you put your wooden houses on the cities in your route. These houses become important as you try to fill an area of the board to get victory points.

The game end is triggered when a player either places their last house on the board, or when they score a route to take the company card for a 7 length route. When the end game is triggered, the current round is finished, and then everyone totals up Victory Points.

The biggest problem with the game is the lack of player interaction. There is no way to “block” an opponent, as in Ticket to Ride. Since all players can have a post office in each city, the only way you can disrupt your opponent is by choosing a card they may need, or to wipe the available cards off the board (using one of the special abilities). The game really becomes a game of timing. At what point do you score a 7-length route to trigger the end of the game?

Verdict
As a fan of Ticket to Ride, I like Thurn & Taxis. It seems to play a bit quicker than Ticket to Ride, and you don’t have the frustration of blocked routes, and you don’t have to worry about losing points for incomplete destinations. Another game that is easy to learn, and fun to play with two, three, or four players.

Ticket to Ride

I first played Ticket to Ride with a friend and it was on my must get list for quite a while. Once I got it, my family went on a TTR binge and wanted to play it all day every day. I did end up getting a little sick of it after a while, but now that the fervor has died down I still really enjoy it.

Gameplay – The gameplay is great. It is one of those games that the mechanics are simple enough to understand in a few minutes, but their is enough strategy there, that experiences players should have an edge.

Each turn consists of either drawing train cars, staking a claim if you have the proper color and number of cars for the particular route, or drawing new destination tickets.

The goal of the game is to get the most points. You can gain points during the game by claiming track. At the end of the game you will also gain points for each completed ticket in your hand and possibly by having the longest route. You can also lose points at the end of the game for each ticket you failed to complete.

The game turns are fairly quick and smooth, although hey can tend to get a little monotonous. Also, whenever a player draws new destination tickets, there can be a pause that slows down the game before the next player gets their turn.

Another great addition to the game is a code to play online at Days of Wonder's Web site. I like little extras like that.

Although the game can play 2-5, I think it is definitely lacking with 2. The 1910 expansion has some new ways to play that make it more fun with 2.

I feel that the gameplay deserves 8 out of 10 tickets.

Look and Feel - The game has beautiful board, although not completely geographically correct, but the straying from geography seems to be necessary for gameplay purposes.

The components are all fairly nice. The cards are on nice stock and have nice colorful illustrations. The only problem is the cards are small; the 1910 expansion has reprinted the cards full size though. The trains are plastic, which is alright, but wood could be nicer. The scoring tokens however are wood.

The look and feel of this game earns Ticket to Ride 8 out of 10 tickets.

Overall Score - 8 tickets out of 10

Final Word - If you are looking for light euro-style game that can appeal to a non gamer, this game is for you. It's mechanics are light enough to let new gamers in, but strong enough to keep hard core gamers interested. I would say Ticket to Ride is one of the best gateway games available right now.

Twilight Struggle

Twilight Struggle is a 2-player, card-driven game where one player plays the role of the US, the other the USSR during the cold war (1945-89).

The game is played to either a 20 victory point differential or until DefCon is degraded to 1 on a player’s turn, thereby triggering globalthermonuclear war. The player who allowed defcon to be degraded on his/her turn loses the game. If this doesn’t happen, the player who achieves the 20 point differential wins.

The heart of the game comes by establishing influential control of different countries on the map through the use of your cards. Each side starts with some influence in countries throughout the world, and some discretionary influence to use in Eastern/Western Europe respectively. Each side is able to look at their first hand of cards before playing their influence, which can be critical of course.

Each card has a point value that the players can use to conduct operations (actions) and an event on it. If you play a card that has your symbol on it, you have to decide whether to have the event take place or to use the points. If you choose to use the points, the card goes into the discard pile. If you use the event, it may get removed from the game. This is important because the decks will get reshuffled and if your cards are all out of the game, you’ll draw more of your opponents. If you play a card that is coded to both sides the same rules apply. If you play a card coded to your opponent, the event WILL happen, and you’ll be able to get the points. You decide which order those 2 things happen in, but your opponent will get some benefit from your playing the card. Of course, both your cards and your opponents will end up in your hand, and management of these issues is critical. Naturally the best events are also worth the most points for each of you. There are also scoring cards which award points to each player based on their influence in the region. Having these requires that they be played during the turn, but allows you to better prepare for them as well.

There is one way to prevent your opponent’s events from happening, at least temporarily. You can play one card per turn into the Space Race. You discard a card with a minimum point value (which goes up progressively) to roll one die to determine if you make a certain advance. If you’re the first side to get there, you gain an advantage (VP or and ability) until the other side catches up.

Each round is played with two cards more than there are action rounds. One card is used to play as a ‘headline’ where the event takes place only, but the points are not used. Scoring cards can be played during this phase before any player has a chance to make adjustments to the board. The headlines take place in order of point value on the card, and if appropriate are removed from the game. Then the USSR player takes their first action and players alternate until they have played 6 (or 7 later in the game) action rounds. Each player might be able to hold over one card for the next round, but scoring cards can’t be held over. Mid war cards are shuffled in after turn 3, late war cards after turn 7. The game ends with a final scoring if no one has won by turn 10.

So, you’ve got your side chosen, your cards in hand, your headline played. Now what? The cards can be played for their event of course (and there are far too many to go into detail here), or one can be discarded to the space race as you action for that action round. Alternatively, you can play the card for the points and then do something with those points. What can you do with the points you ask? Well, I’m glad you asked.

You have 3 options on what to do with the operations points. First you can directly place influence into a country. You can only do this if you had influence on a country that bordered that country at the start of the action round (or in the country itself), or if the country is adjacent to your country. You can place one influence for each point if you have control of the country or if no one has control of it. If your opponent has control of it, each point of influence costs you 2 operations points until s/he no longer has control. Control of a country is established by having at least the stability number of the country in influence more than your opponent. For example, Italy has a stability number of 2. If you have 3 influence there and your opponent has one, you have control. If your opponent wanted to play points to increase their influence, they would have to pay 2 for the first influence (since you have control), then one for each other (since your lead in the country is now only 1, not equal to the stability number and therefore not enough to establish control).

Your second option is to attempt a realignment of a country. To do this, your opponent has to have influence in the country. You both roll a six sided die and add various modifiers, and if you have a higher total than your opponent, you get to remove that much influence of theirs from the country. You cannot increase your influence in the country through this method. You may make one realignment roll for each operations point you have (all points must be spent on the same type of action), and you can make them in different countries. The modifiers include control of neighboring countries, adjacency to your home country and other factors. The defcon status plays a role here, as if it has been degraded then there are certain regions that are immune to realignment or coup attempts, which I’ll discuss next.

Your third method of spending points is on a coup attempt. To make this attempt, you play a card and select a country in which your opponent has influence. You take the stability number of the country, double it, and roll a six sided die. Add the result of the roll to the number of operations points on the card. If the result is higher, you subtract that much influence of your opponent from that country. If there is overage, you add your own influence in the amount of the overage. If the doubled stability is higher, you don’t adjust the influence at all. In addition, you add a number of military operations points to your total equal to the operations value of the card you played. Finally, if the coup attempt was in a battleground country, you degrade DefCon by one level, which will disallow coup and realignment attempts in certain regions.

Since I’ve just mentioned them, there is another track to pay attention to. Each turn each player must conduct military operations equal to the level of DefCon at the end of the turn, or their opponent scores one victory point for each that they fail to attain. Any excess is not counted for either player, nor can it be carried over. If both players fail to achieve the goal the player who was closest will still receive a net victory point gain. Some of the event cards also instruct you to count them as military operations, so there are other ways than just through coup attempts to collect these points.

The victory points are counted on a single track. If you score points, the track is moved in your direction. If your opponent later scores points, the track is moved back toward zero, then positive in your opponent’s direction. The game ends when the track is at 20 for either player.

Some of the events, like hosting the Olympics, will give victory points, but the majority of points will come from the scoring cards. Each region is scored in different parts of the war, but the premise is the same for all of them except one. When a card is played the countries a player has control of are identified. If a player has control of at least one country in a region, that player is stated to have a presence. If a player has control of at least one non-battleground country and more battleground countries than his opponent, that player has domination over the region. If a player has control of all battleground countries and more countries overall in a region, that player has control of the region. The different stages score different points based on which region it is. In addition, each card allows for +1 for each controlled battleground country and +1 for each controlled country adjacent to the opponent’s superpower in the scoring region. If a player has control over Europe during the scoring, that player wins the game immediately. Southeast Asia scores a bit differently, with each player scoring one point for each controlled country except for Thailand (the only battleground in Southeast Asia) which is worth 2 points. Being able to establish and hold domination or control in a region when the scoring card comes up is critical toward a victory point goal, but you can’t neglect the other regions, because they have scoring cards too.

Some of my favorite aspects of this game haven’t been mentioned yet. First, there is the China card. Representing the huge influence and sway that China held, and how much each side wanted the Chinese on their side, there is one card that is initially given to the USSR player and is held, face up, on the table. This card doesn’t count towards the hand limit and can be played to give its player 4 points to conduct operations, or 5 if all of them are spent in Asia. The trick is, once you play it, you give it to your opponent face down. The next turn they turn it face up, and can play it right back against you.

Next, I really love the way the game makes for tough decisions. Do you play some of your more powerful cards as events or for points? If you play too many of them as events and they get removed from the game you have to worry that the deck will be stacked with cards which favor your opponent. Since their events always trigger if you play them, you don’t want to be playing those cards too often. Of course, the flip side is that if you don’t play your events you don’t get the advantage they offer you, whether it be changing the board conditions or allowing play of another event. It’s a huge give and take.

I also like the ability to bluff your opponent. If you’ve got a slight lead in one area and know that you’re holding the scoring card, you can plan most of your operations there trying to increase your lead. Of course, an observant opponent will notice this and will start trying to block you, lest you score too many on them with your scoring card. This in turn means that you might just leave that small lead alone and work on another area, assuming that its scoring card might also be coming along. If your opponent tries to work where you have the scoring card then you play it, or you work back. Meanwhile, you’re working on another area as well.

The card interaction is particularly fun. I manage to learn a bit of history every time I play this game (partly because I knew so little to start with) because I didn’t know the specifics behind the cards. The rulebook helps here, as in the back there is an explanation of the historical significance of each card. This was a fun read just after getting the game too. Of course, I didn’t remember everything and so I still have to look things up.

The game isn’t perfect. The board itself is thin cardstock folded into 8 sheets. I’d highly recommend putting it under plexiglas or something similar to play on. I actually went out and bought a cheap poster frame to slip the board into before play. This works perfectly and eliminates the problems of the memory of the board causing pieces to slide. The components are all punched out squares with different numbers on them to represent the different influence you have in the country. They are workable and I don’t think any other way would have added to the game in any meaningful way. The cards are of a decent quality and have survived many shuffles already. I suppose card sleeves would help, but I hardly think they’re a necessity.

For those of you who don’t like the randomness of the six-sided die, you might find yourselves a little frustrated with this game. The coups and realignments and space race rolls and war cards all depend on the luck of the die. That’s a lot of luck for some people, just the right amount for others. I like that things don’t always happen the same every time, and that sometimes the best laid plans can be brought low by a roll of the die. That being said, if you’re not in the mood for that at the moment, this might not be the game to pull off the shelf. Of course, the card draws are also random and probably have the biggest impact of all on the game (save for the strategy of how to spend the actions) so that could also get to those who don’t like randomness in their games.

Vegas Showdown

The members of RGC have selected Vegas Showdown by Avalon Hill as their game of the month for March. This game is a heavily themed strategy bidding game, with an element of tile placement and connection, ultimately rewarding those who keep their eyes on their scoring. The winner is of course the player who accumulates the most victory points.

I’ll start with my only real complaint about the game, and that is the pieces that come with it. The board and rooms are nice, thick cardboard that will stand up to lots of use. The playmats are pieces of paper that are folded, and very flimsy. The markers are wooden and nice, but the poker chips are the absolute cheapest plastic chips ever. Since the poker boom most probably have better chips than these lying around, and if you are so inclined, adding about 50 of the higher quality chips will enhance the game, at least to me.

Each player starts out the game the same, with an empty casino. It’s his or her job to fill it with different rooms, all of which can bring increased revenue, increased population, or increased fame (victory points). Some rooms bring more than one of these at a time, and some bring all 3. These rooms are the most sought after, and the most expensive.

Turns progress like this:
1). Drop prices on premiere rooms that are up for bid, but not sold yet.
2). Draw a card if there are any open spaces for premiere rooms, and follow the instructions on the card on which sized rooms to fill the empty spaces with.
3). Collect income (players collect the lower amount of their revenue or population).
4). Bid on rooms/take other actions (once a player is outbid, that player can place their pawn on any other bid, or not bid at all).
5). Pay for and place rooms, if legal, and complete other actions.
6). Pass first player button.

This is a fairly simple concept. Each player starts with a revenue of 5 and a popularity of 8. They all start with $20 in cash. Each playmat is empty at the start.

The only part that could be challenging to the new player is the bidding. A player can bid on one thing, and then if he or she gets outbid, can outbid another player elsewhere. You’re not committed to staying in the same bidding line. The player you outbid can go outbid you, the first player who outbid you, or someone else. Or they might not have enough cash left or might not want to spend it all, and they can take a different action.

The cards you draw can have a profound impact on the game. In addition to telling you which pile to draw the premiere rooms from, the cards can either reward those who already have things built, or eliminate a choice from the game for that round (if slot builders, lounge builders, or restaurant builders go on strike, for example). This makes each game a little different, and not completely predictable. I actually like that aspect of it. If you don’t like not being able to perfect your play based on the lack of random elements, this may not be the game for you.

Any yellow room purchased must have a traceable path to the yellow ‘Casino’ entrance; any blue room purchased must have a traceable path to the blue ‘Hotel’ entrance when played. It doesn’t matter if you go through green or other blue or yellow rooms, so long as you can trace a path to that entrance, you can play the room. Provided that is, that there aren’t any other required rooms first. None of the base rooms (slots, restaurant, and lounge) have any pre-requisites, but several of the premiere rooms do.

Probably the most difficult concept to understand is that once you’re outbid, you can go to any other bid, and don’t have to stay with the one you’ve started with. You can also stop bidding at any time and choose the publicity or renovate actions.

Publicity simply earns you one fame point, and allows you to place one room into your casino if you have one that you haven’t placed yet, either because you renovated recently or because you purchased it before you had the prerequisites, hoping that you’d get them eventually.

The renovate action allows you to remove up to 2 rooms from your casino, and allows you to place up to 2 rooms that were off your casino before the turn started onto the casino however you’d choose. This means you can’t remove and replace the same rooms in the same turn.

As a general rule, the yellow rooms will increase your revenue, and the blue rooms will increase your popularity. Some of the premiere rooms will do both. These tend to start at a prohibitive cost, and your opponents will be eyeing them the same as you are. Keep a close eye on how much money everyone else has, as that will help you know what to bid and when. The amount of cash each person has is public information, so they have to tell you if you just ask. Remember, you don’t have to start the bidding at the minimum, and you don’t have to only increase the bid by one increment. If you really want the slots this round (to increase your revenue by one), then if someone bids 5, jump up to 9, that way they’d have to pay 12 to outbid you.

One of the great things about this game is that it really does have a different feel with a different number of players. The game actually has different room availability for 3, 4, or 5 players. In a 3 player game, only 3 of the premiere rooms are available for purchase each turn. This often results in a slightly longer game, as the game ends only when you can’t refill a room slot or someone fills their entire playmat with rooms. The 4 player version adds the 4th premiere room space, and the 5 player game allows 2 basic slot tiles to be purchased per round.

The last thing to mention is the end game scoring. In addition to fame points earned along the way through publicity actions and placed rooms, plus some of the cards, there are a lot of points to be won when the tiles run out. Whoever has filled casino or restaurant sections, connected doors, top 3 revenue or popularity, or cash on hand in increments of $10 earns money. In addition, some of the premiere rooms have diamonds on the corners, and any tri-corner or complete diamond scores victory points as well. This end of game scoring often pulls a player up to victory. Its critical to consider the end game scoring in the mid-game, particularly when it comes to positioning the rooms with the diamonds, as there aren’t all that many of them, and you’re not likely to be able to win too many from your opponents.

I’ve got quite a few plays of this game in now, and I enjoyed the game so much I bought it for myself after about 4 plays. It’s got more strategy than you’d think at first glance, and I like the auction mechanic a lot. Part of the fun for me is trying to guess what my opponents are going to want to do, and then making that a little more difficult for them while still getting what I want at the end of a turn.

In this game, everyone has the same goal; its how they choose to go about it that makes the difference. I already mentioned bidding strategy earlier, but I think it’s important to talk about that a little more. Watching how much money everyone is going to make at the start of next turn gives you a lot of information, as you can quickly determine who might be competing with you for the room you want next round. It’s a good idea to evaluate all the premiere rooms that come up and determine if you’d like them, and what price you’re willing to pay to get them. Some of the rooms provide a lot of fame points, and those might be worth getting for a hefty price in the late game, but not so much in the early-mid game, where you’re still trying to solidify your base and increase your per turn income.

I like to start the game with my eyes squarely on something to bring in income on the first turn. Each player starts out with a gap of 3 between their revenue and their popularity. Increasing your popularity doesn’t help you for a long time. Increasing revenue does. If you can’t get slots, table games, or a sports book on the first turn, I think you either buy the lounge to setup the exits out of your restaurant side for the next few turns or don’t spend. Getting frozen out of the revenue tiles round one stinks, but it isn’t unrecoverable, particularly if you’re well positioned to purchase something without being outbid too much in round 2. Don’t go more than 2 rounds without picking up something that you can place that gives you income, or you’re starting to get into a very deep hole.

Don’t be afraid of buying something you don’t have the prerequisite for if it’s a good deal. Picking up a fancy restaurant or nightclub can be a coup for your casino, and you can always place a tile through a publicity action later on in a round where you don’t really have the cash on hand to compete with the other players in a big auction anyhow.

I really don’t like the renovate action. I’ve never seen it used to such a good effect that it made it worth it. Taking an entire turn to remove up to 2 tiles, and losing what they gave you while they’re off the board just doesn’t seem like a winning strategy. Your opponents will be using this turn to purchase more tiles for their casinos, and you can bet they’ll be tiles you wish you had. I suppose if you’re faced with a situation where the game can’t end in the upcoming 2 turns, and your renovation would earn you an extra 7 or 8 points (through connecting, completing one side or the other, or diamond scoring) that it might be worth it. One or 2 points isn’t enough to justify the loss of time though.

Overall I really enjoy the gameplay that Vegas Showdown offers. The bidding element of the game and the fact that you can drive up the prices on your opponents while eyeing something else for yourself all along is a fun element, although it can backfire on you. The little amount of chance with the cards and tiles ensures that every game is at least a little different. The game is dripping with theme and is a quick play, taking only about 45 minutes to an hour on average, no matter how many players there are. I’d rate the game an 8.5/10, and not higher just because I’m not so sure how many different viable strategies there are yet. Well, that, plus the cheap poker chips and playmats. Maybe with more plays I’ll understand a couple more nuances of it, and that’ll increase my opinion of the game.

Vietnam Solitaire (GuruDave's review)

Vietnam Solitaire is a simple solo wargame designed by Dave Kershaw and available for purchase in electronic format on the wargamesdownloads.com website. In this strategic-level game the player assumes the role of the commander of American and South Vietnamese forces and plays against the simulated North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.

The game is purchased as a PDF file of only about 200KB, so it is fairly quick to download. The file prints out as seven pages of rules, one page of counters, and a single page for the map. The 56 counters and the map are in full color and at least the map needs to be printed out in color so that you can distinguish between the various terrain types on the map.

What You Need

To play the game, you need to print out at least the last two pages which are the map and counters. I printed the map on heavy cardstock and gave it a light spray of fixative to keep it from smudging or smearing during play. I printed the counters out on a self-adhesive paper which I then affixed to heavy cardstock before cutting them up. I like doing this to make the counters a bit thicker and therefore easier to pick up and move during play.

You’ll also need a single six-sided die to play.

What You Are Told

In the design notes included in the rules the author claims that Vietnam Solitaire will reflect the historical struggle for Viet Nam, including the inevitable result which was of course victory for the North Vietnamese. The design notes further say that the game is intended to demonstrate relative effectiveness of the various forces involved. This includes Viet Cong irregulars, the North Vietnamese Army, the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (South Vietnam) and the infantry, air force, Special Forces, and air cavalry of the United States.

What You Will Discover

If you didn't know it already, after playing this game a few times you'll tend to agree with most people that the war in Viet Nam could not have resulted in a victory for the United States, despite overwhelming American technical and military superiority. This was because the political cost, at home and abroad, of driving the war to a successful conclusion was more than the American people were willing to bear. In playing Vietnam Solitaire you will get a good feel for the frustrating dilemma faced by the American government during its involvement in the Viet Nam conflict.

The game is played in roughly nine phases, including raising, moving, and combat between opposing forces. Each complete turn represents a year of real time, starting in 1963.

Political Points are the currency of the game, and are used to purchase new units and launch offensive air actions. Political Points are also expended when a friendly unit is eliminated, and are added or subtracted at the end of each turn depending upon how many areas are under the control of the American or not. The game ends at the end of a turn in which a certain limit of Political Points has been reached. The game assumes that the North Vietnamese will ALWAYS win, so the goal of the player is to try to match or exceed the historical outcome from the American perspective.

The map is an abstract representation of South Vietnam, and is divided into six distinct
areas. Each area is further divided into sub-areas which are either Jungle, Urban, or Paddy terrain. The terrain type is important because the various units have different
capabilities depending upon the terrain. This is pretty standard stuff -- very simple but very effectively used in this game.

The rules use area movement, fairly conventional combat and movement mechanics, and a simple system for simulating the non-player opponent. I wasn't surprised or confused by any of the game mechanics, but I was pleased by how the rules were never more complicated than they needed to be to get the job done. Also, I never felt like I was reduced to the role of an accountant simply pushing numbers around instead of playing the role of the commander in chief of the American effort and making decisions based on their military value and political cost.

What's Good

The rules are very well written. They are concise, clearly, well organized, and include a table of contents, examples of play, and all tables needed for play. The map sheet is attractive and functional and includes a summary of the sequence of play and tracks for keeping track of the turn number and Political Points.

The game itself is multi-dimensional despite its simplicity. US Special Forces (Green
Berets) and B-52's are used to control the expansion of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Tactical
air forces (in the form of Napalm strikes) can be used to destroy enemy units. The
player can opt to expend Political Points to purchase ARVN, Grunt (US infantry),or Air Cavalry units. Each of these different units have different capabilities and costs, leaving it up to the player to decided the optimal mix of US and ARVN forces.

In general the game does exactly what a good game does. It allows the player to make decisions about where to invest and what risks to take and provides varying degrees of rewards based on the wisdom of the investments. Of course, fortune plays a part in the outcome of individual events and a string of bad luck can quickly end the game, as it does in real life.

The game has a high replay value. There are optional rules for a faster game, a game in which South Vietnam receives a higher level of support, and an historical game. A player could decide to use different strategies each time the basic game is played to experiment with different options. A few examples would be a strategy in which no US forces are involved, a strategy in which only US air forces are involved, a gradual escalation of US forces, a rapid escalation, etc. With a few "house rules" the game could include more military options (Soviet intervention? nukes?) or introduce more peripheral political events (liberal media? Hanoi Jane?) to make the game more colorful.

What's Bad

The first time I played this game, I lost badly on the first turn. I think that is
because the game starts out with a VC counter and an ARVN counter in every area, and a heavy US investment and a few bad rolls which leave VC or NVA in control of three or four areas on the map can cause you to lose the war in 1963. I could have misinterpreted the rules, or simply played the first game poorly, but the play balance of the first turn seems to make it more difficult for the US player to stay in control than later turns.

The second time I played I managed to survive the first turn and stabilize the situation
for a few more turns. Around the fourth turn a specific rule prevented me from using B-52 and Green Berets to attack the growing Ho Chi Minh trail. As a result a large number of NVA showed up by turn 6. A roll of the dice decided that the NVA would launch a general offensive and attacked the US and ARVN forces in almost every area of South Vietnam. The combat results in almost ever area favored the Americans and the NVA and VC offensive was crushed. I checked, and interestingly enough this corresponded to 1968! I still managed to hold on for a few more turns, but eventually (as the design notes suggest) the game ended when I had a bad turn.

About the only negative thing I can say about the production values is that I didn't care for the counters. I don’t like the artwork on the counters, which includes a "Rambo" like character on the Green Beret counters, and something I can't recognize on the Trail Counters. I think I would have preferred more military terminology and symbols on the counters, but that is a personal preference. Also, the counters could be a little larger. At one centimeter, they are a little hard to pick up and move. They have to be small enough to fit on the map but the map has some room to make the areas larger so both could have been a little bigger to make it easier to move the counters around.

Vietnam Solitaire is very playable as is. I found it matched much of what I already knew about the conflict and it stimulated my interest to learn more about the war in Viet Nam.

Since I have a personal interest in the air war in Viet Nam, I am tempted to develop a "plug-in" module that would replace the original very simple air war rules with
something a little more complex. This might include allowing the player to deploy
different aircraft types – air superiority or Wild Weasel electronic warfare aircraft for example -- and rules for SAM, triple-A, etc. The outcome of the air war phase of each turn would determine the availability, effectiveness, or Political Points cost of offensive
air operations in support of the ground war.

A very interesting possibility is that Vietnam Solitaire could be used as the highest layer of a solo miniatures campaign system, setting the stage for tactical battles using your favorite scale miniatures and rules. Each combat, which is normally resolved abstractly with each side rolling for "hits," could be instead the impetus for a miniatures game using a programmed scenario. You would need an intermediate layer to generate the forces, terrain, objectives, etc. for each combat. Something like C.S. Grant's “Programmed Scenarios for Wargames” would be an excellent resource for creating scenarios. For example, if while playing Vietnam Solitaire, during the NVA/VC offensive phase an NVA unit moved into a Paddy area which is occupied by a Grunt (US infantry) unit, combat is required. In a campaign game, this would trigger a miniatures game between NVA and American forces. A die roll could be used to randomly pick the scenario -- for example, on a roll of 1 the scenario is a holding action, on a roll of 2 a blocking action, etc. In this example since the combat occurred during the NVA/VC offensive phase, the NVA would take the role of the attacker (Blue forces) and the Americans would be the defender (Red forces). If the miniatures game was triggered by American or ARVN forces moving into an area occuppied by VC or NVA forces during the player movement phase, the roles of Red and Blue would reversed. A campaign like this would likely require days to game out, but of course the player could always opt to use the original combat resolution mechanic in lieu of a miniatures game for any of the combats.

Overall I am very pleased with the Vietnam Solitaire, and at the price it is a real bargain. Dave Kershaw has also designed at least two other solo games which I believe use a similar system – once involving the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and another simulating Operation Barbarosa. I intend to check out these titles and add them to my solo game collection.

Vikings

Publisher: Rio Grande Games

The Basics

Vikings is a strategic purchasing and placement game for 2-4 players played in 6 rounds, wherein the players take on the role of a Viking leader who sends off other Vikings to explore nearby islands. Once the islands are found, the player populates the islands with other Vikings, each with distinct roles to play, providing much needed resources to maintain the new island's population and send back precious goods to the player's Homeland, providing wealth and fame. But there is danger. Enemy ships lurk about and will attempt to disrupt trade and wreak havoc on the islands.

The Game Components

This game includes a game board, player markers, a starting player marker, homeland bases, viking meeples (affectionately known as "veeples"), coins, a cloth sack (for the many veeples to live in), scoring summary cards, ship tiles, and land tiles.
The game board keeps track of the player's score, what offerings are available for each round, and the Viking Wheel, which determines what resources are available (ships, landmasses and veeples). The homeland bases are used to strategically place the purchased ships, landmasses and veeples.

In all cases, the components of the game are of the highest quality.

Playing the Game

There are 3 stages to each of the 6 rounds that make the complete game.

Stage 1: Distribute the Offering

Each round a new offering is place around the Viking Wheel. The offering is always random. The landmasses are placed first followed by the ships (the enemy ships are mixed in with the landmasses). Then the veeples are drawn randomly out of the bag and placed in groups around the wheel.
This makes for a different offering each round and also requires the players to think about what they will be purchasing as there might be many veeples of one type and little of another. There might also by many enemy ships, but little land to be found.

Stage 2: Acquiring Sets

Once the Viking Wheel has been populated with the offering, the players take turns purchasing sets (ship or landmass and a single veeple). Each player MUST purchase a set if they have money to do so. The player may purchase any set except the one marked as “0”, which is reserved. Players have the option of selling their fame points (what counts as “scoring”) for 1 gold per fame point, but they are never forced to do so.

Once a player buys a set, they place them immediately. An added level of difficulty comes in when you are required to place the veeple on the same landmass you just purchased. And since veeple types (Scout, Fisherman, Goldsmith, Warrior, and Boatsman) must be placed in certain areas of your homeland, a player must think ahead and determine if they can use both.

Ships and Landmasses are always played, but not necessarily the veeples. Any veeple that cannot be played at the same time as the ship or landmass goes on a temporary spot and is later ferried over by any Boatsman the player may have. The benefit here is that the veeples are not lost; however, they don't score points, either. Therefore, careful planning is in order.

Throughout this entire stage, the Viking Wheel will move if either the “0” cost set is taken (by the first player who doesn't have any money) or all of the veeples of one group are purchased. When the Viking Wheel turns, the cost of all offerings still on the board are reduced.

Stage 3: Scoring

After all the sets have been purchased and placed, the round ends and the current state of the game is scored. There are 6 rounds and so there are 6 times the game is scored, plus one End of Game scoring round. The game is scored differently each round. Small and Big scoring, respectively.
Small scoring happens after rounds 1,3, and 5; while Big scoring happens after rounds 2, 4, and 6. The End of Game score is taken after the Big scoring at the end of round 6.
The character with the most fame points wins the game.

Final Thoughts

Vikings is a very good game that is quick to learn and difficult to master. The game components are easy to use, the game is fast to setup and start, and the rounds do not take long. In general, a game may last you no more than 60 minutes, less if you are playing with others who are familiar with the game.
The learning curve for this game is not terribly huge if you are familiar with games such as Alhambra, Settlers of Catan, and Puerto Rico. Any player who has had little to no experience with such games will need some hand holding.

I highly recommend this game and would be happy to play and teach it anytime, anywhere.

LONG LIVE THE VEEPLES!