Sometimes, you want something a bit more fancy. Something with a little bit of glitz and glam put on it. Nothing wrong with that. And that holds for our board games, too. Well, if you want a prettied-
Sometimes, you want something a bit more fancy. Something with a little bit of glitz and glam put on it. Nothing wrong with that. And that holds for our board games, too. Well, if you want a prettied-up version of Castles of Mad King Ludwig (a game about making beautiful castles, to begin with), you're in luck, as there's a Collector's Edition of the game up on Kickstarter now.
From the campaign:
The campaign's around 52x funded with 29 days left to go.
Since there was no physical Gen Con this year, I missed out on my yearly opportunity of walking the halls and just seeing circles of people slapping their legs in unison while playing Werewolf. Well,
Since there was no physical Gen Con this year, I missed out on my yearly opportunity of walking the halls and just seeing circles of people slapping their legs in unison while playing Werewolf. Well, though there was no show this year, next year, they might not just be playing Werewolf, but Bezier Games' new Ultimate Werewolf Extreme. This new version of the classic social deduction game is up on Kickstarter now.
From the campaign:
Prepare your village for an amazing social deduction experience with Ultimate Werewolf Extreme.
All new artwork featuring incredible, lifelike illustrations
Fine-tuned core mechanics that create perfect game scenarios
Brand new, thoroughly playtested roles
Unique player items that increase playability and fun
Revolutionary, fully-integrated app that automates setup and gameplay
The Kickstarter is more than 9x funded with 29 days to go.
Sure, having a board game is nice. But sometimes you want something just a touch fancier. Maybe some extra artwork or an upgraded board or other components. For those that love the game Suburbia from
Sure, having a board game is nice. But sometimes you want something just a touch fancier. Maybe some extra artwork or an upgraded board or other components. For those that love the game Suburbia from Bezier Games but want something just a little bit more, you should check out the pre-order going on now for the deluxe edition of the game.
From the website:
Suburbia Collector’s Edition is a revamped version of the classic game Suburbia by Bezier Games. Suburbia fans old and new will fall in love with the updated three dimensional artwork, city-specific recessed borough boards, oversized tiles, and giant tile tower. This beautiful collectors edition features several amazing Game Trayz organizers and includes all existing expansions as well as a brand new one: Nightlife, which has buildings and locations that are more active in the evening hours.
This strategic tile-laying game has players use hex-shaped building tiles to create their own unique city. These tiles include residential, commercial, civic, and industrial areas, as well as special points of interest that provide benefits and take advantage of the resources of nearby places. Your goal is to have your city thrive and end up with the greatest population.
Each player builds up their own economic engine and infrastructure that will be initially self-sufficient, and eventually become both profitable and increase your population. As your city grows, you'll increase both your income (giving you more cash to spend) and your reputation (growing your population). The winner is the player with the largest population.
During each game, players compete for unique goals that offer additional population boosts - and with the many varying buildings and properties, you’ll never play the same game twice!
Hellooooo Saturday!And what do we do on Saturdays? (We wear pink!) That's Wednesdays. No, on Saturdays we look at some reviews. So let's get to it.Today we have: That's a Question, Seikatsu, Through t
Hellooooo Saturday! And what do we do on Saturdays? (We wear pink!) That's Wednesdays. No, on Saturdays we look at some reviews. So let's get to it.
Today we have: That's a Question, Seikatsu, Through the Ages App, Between Two Cities: Capitals, Storm Hollow, Whistle Stop, Rhino Hero: Super Battle, SpyNet, King Frog, Paramedics: Clear, Trickster: Champions of Time, and Zero Down.
Seikatsu is a tile-laying game in which you are trying to match types of birds to score instantly. And match the flowers on the tiles for end game scoring.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Storm Hollow the adventure Storyboard game. There is a ton of content in this system and I am impressed with its smooth mechanics, simple game play, and high level of quality components. It really is a fantastic gaming system for the family and I highly recommend this if you are a RPG'er or have considered getting into something like this with the family. All fairy-tails and stories from this realm are a reality in Storm Hollow. You will go on awesome magical adventures both fun to tell, as the game master, or experience as a player. The introduction is quick for the game master and players will be ready to play and start quickly. It also features a co-op board game experience as well - so if you simply want to set the adventure story mode aside and play a board game like experience, you can do that as well.
The goal in Rhino Hero: Super Battle is to get your hero to the highest level of the communal tower.
Each turn, you choose a floor card from your hand that determines which and how many wall cards you will use (short or tall) to support the floor card. The walls are placed on the tower (either on the base level or on previously played floors) with the floor on top of them. If the floor shows a monkey, you have to hang a spider monkey from the floor card.
SpyNet is a very straightforward game, but with a card draw twist that adds some intrigue. Every player starts with a hand of one card. In the center of the table are the main deck and three piles of cards. On each turn, a player may “Recruit” by drawing cards or “Deploy” by playing cards.
Colored lily pad tokens for three sections divided by wild lily pads are placed in a circle. The bulging eye player frog disks are placed on starting lily pads. Players also receive a hand of five mosquito cards numbered 1 through 5.
Each turn, players will simultaneously play a card from their hand. The lowest numbered mosquito card allows that player to move first, hopping their frog a number of spaces equal to the number they played. Spaces occupied by other frogs don’t count.
The goal of Paramedics: Clear! is to not only save lives, but to save more than your fellow Paramedics. That’s right, this was surprisingly a competitive game.
Trickster: Champions of Time comes with 14 different character cards, each illustrated wonderfully by Beth Sobel. Each character has a card in each of the 8 colors in the game and 7 characters are chosen for each game.
Zero Down is a set collection/hand management card game for two to five players. Players try to collect sets of the same number or same color to score the fewest points. The player with the fewest points wins.
Let's see if the system decides to eat this one or not. Anyway, it's Saturday, and that means I'm happy. I've been doing various domestic things this morning in order to be ready for when a friend com
Let's see if the system decides to eat this one or not. Anyway, it's Saturday, and that means I'm happy. I've been doing various domestic things this morning in order to be ready for when a friend comes over for some gaming (Guild Ball and Ascension are the most-likely games to be played). The other thing I need to get done this morning is type up this post. Yes, I'm typing this up early and scheduling it to post later. The Magic of the Internet, everyone! Anyway, let's get to it.
Today we have: Stone Age, Wits and Wagers: Vegas, Space Editor, Kingsport Festival, Deadline, Herbaceous, and Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft, Tiny Park, Suburbia: 5 Star Expansion, Windup War, Ethnos, Quartz, Medici, Frogriders, Mini Rails, and Drakkar.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Wits and Wagers Vegas Edition. Vegas has recently successfully kickstarted and ready to make its way to retail. This version of Wits and Wagers is awesome and probably the best so far in many ways. So get your group and make your bets because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas....or at least that is what Bear says!
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Space Editor a brand new game from Tactical Games and will be hitting kickstarter soon (Sept 13th 2017). I definitely recommend looking for this one as over the course of game play you build a beautiful space layout on the table with stars and planets and tactically make decisions on the fly that effect the rest of the game and the cards you have available to you as a player. Fun, simple, good game.
In this video I will teach you how to play including: Setup, components, game rounds, player turns and final scoring. I will also give you my thoughts and opinions on the game, and would love to hear yours.
We are back with another edition of Parental Guidance, where I play games with my parents and they let me know what they thought of my choices. This is all part of my never-ending search for games I can play with people who aren’t part of my usual gaming group. While we’ve always got the old standbys like Ticket to Ride or Catan, eventually you can get tired of playing those. With this article series, I’ll let you know what games I chose and why, and my mother will chime in to let you know how good of a choice it was for non-gamer.
The goal in Tiny Park is to be the first player to complete your amusement park. On their turn, a player rolls the game’s 5 dice, with up to two re-rolls allowed. Once they are finished rolling, they must match the symbols from the dice to available tiles in the market. The bigger the tile, the more symbols will be required to collect it.
Once chosen, the tile is added to that player’s board and the next player takes their turn. The tiles are a polyomino shape, so players must be aware of the space remaining on their board as they begin to run out of room. The game ends once a player has finished their park.
Suburbia 5? adds 50 new building hex tiles to the game and six new ‘boundary’ tiles (like the ones in Suburbia Inc.) These new building tiles represent tourist-friendly attractions to add to your borough. New goals, challenges and bonuses are also there to be added to the game.
To start, you choose one of the six factions to play. Each faction is their own type of toy, you can play as the Dinosoldiers or the Alien Army, for instance. Other than artwork, each faction contains exactly the same units and action cards.
Each player in the land of Ethnos leads tribes of creatures ascending to dominance. To win, players acquire victory points by maintaining control over land areas, having large bands of warriors, and collecting various racial bonus points.
Each card in the game has two features: race and color. Players holding a hand of cards have two choices on their turn: play a set of cards (called a band) or take a card from the display or the deck.
Quartz is a push-your-luck game about dwarves mining gems and sabotaging each other.
Over the course of 5 rounds, you and the other players will dive into the depths of the mine, hoping to find valuable gems instead of worthless and troublesome Obsidian.
Medici: The Card Game is a press your luck set collection game for two to six players. Players are merchants competing to get the most valuable goods on their ships and to be the best trader in five separate commodities. The player with the most florins after three rounds is the winner.
Now we all love a bit of Norse mythology. The Marvel films are testament to that. A good looking chap with a big mallet walloping things around the head seems to make for the good times. And I’m sure he’s handy in a workshop too. Smacking nails into wood with one mighty swing – even less if he uses his hammer.
A big part of the old Norse history is the Vikings – another favourite of games and stories in general. Huge hairy folk raiding and pillaging their way around Scandinavia and eventually making their way over to Blighty to start the Celts on their merry way and give people like me their lineage. Focussing on the raiding and pillaging is the subject the upcoming game Drakkar from Spaceballoon games. Each player acts as the leader of their village and attempts to muster the resources needed to scamper off on a mission to grab as much loot as they can get their oversized hands on.
Man, it's hard to think that Gen Con was a week ago. At this point, the show was more than half-over. How time flies. Hopefully everyone was able to recuperate well. I seem to have missed out on getti
Man, it's hard to think that Gen Con was a week ago. At this point, the show was more than half-over. How time flies. Hopefully everyone was able to recuperate well. I seem to have missed out on getting Con Crud. So that's good. My feet were feeling just fine again by Tuesday. So that's good, too. And, just yesterday, I finally caught up on the massive back-log of e-mails I'd had. Of course, as I finished that back log, more had come in. But I'm getting to those as well.
Anyway, as it's Saturday, I've got your regular bit of reviews that I know you so desperate desire. I'm also looking forward to the coming weeks when I'm sure all the games people picked up at the show get reviewed.
This week we have: Barenpark, Whistle Stop, Flamme Rouge, 51st State: Scavengers Expansion, Herbaceous, CVlizations, and Cigar Box Battle Plush Gaming Mats.
Much like the other small box expansions for 51st state, Scavengers doesn’t include any new factions. Instead there are 50 cards that can be mixed in with the core set.
The new cards in Scavengers change-up the game play in a few ways. The biggest new feature is that each player now has their own personal discard piles. This is important because any time a player has to discard a card, it goes to their own pile and many cards in the Scavengers expansion will reference another player’s discard pile. Some will let you draw cards from them, while others will give you resources based on the icons showing on the top card.
Herbaceous is as simple and accessible as it comes. If it takes you more than a minute or two to explain the rules, chances are you trying to teach the wrong game.
Barenpark is a tile laying game that has you building your own personal bear park using tiles you take from a communal supply. Note that the first available tiles in any area are worth the most points and values dwindle as tiles are claimed and placed.
CVlizations is an action-selection engine-building game for two to five players. Players are the leaders of civilizations trying to write the story of their accomplishments through the ages. The civilization with the most happiness at the end of the game wins.
One of the newest products they produce is the PLUSH fabric gaming mat. This was developed due to the rise in popularity of using ‘Teddy Bear Fur’ mats for gaming – the PLUSH finish provides a deeper texture/pile on the gaming mat – it’s it not as long as ‘standard’ Teddy Bear Fur, but enough to provide a grass texture on the mat.
This review is looking at one of the Double-Sided PLUSH terrain mats that Cigar Box Battle will only be producing using a special kickstarter campaign, which is running until Friday 1st September.
Hey kids. It's Saturday! If you're like me, you're at the LGS, hanging out and talking/playing games. I hope you're doing that, anyway. I mean, it's what Saturday's for!It's also for reviews. So let's
Hey kids. It's Saturday! If you're like me, you're at the LGS, hanging out and talking/playing games. I hope you're doing that, anyway. I mean, it's what Saturday's for! It's also for reviews. So let's get to it.
This week we have: Heldentaufe, Monster Trap, Galaxy of Train: New Order, Lords of Hellas, Bestiary 6, New York Slice, Orphan Black, Sailing Towards Osiris, Perdition's Mouth: Abyssal Rift, Moons, Adrenaline, and Terraforming Mars.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Lords of Hellas a brand new game from Awaken Realms. This is a prototype version of the game but very special in many ways! Custom painted resin miniatures and a super limited special made box (watch the video for what "special" magic this box does).
The Kickstarter is coming to us end of May/early June and will feature new game play additions, extra miniatures, solo game play rules and much more. This is your chance to get your hands on the game super early before it comes out! So subscribe and have a chance to win my copy of the prototype version with special resin miniatures and epic custom box!
The quality on this one is off the charts and I cant wait to see what all they do with this game in the upcoming Kickstarter.
It’s not clear who the players’ roles are in New York Slice, but what is clear is that players will be dividing up and selecting slices of pizza from a random pie. Majority scoring occurs for the number of slices each player has acquired, with the number of points matching the number of slices available in the game. Chalkboard tiles grant special abilities for an additional variety of scoring opportunities.
In Orphan Black, players are assigned a faction and three specific clone targets. They play influence cards to try to move clones to their faction without tipping off everyone to their loyalties. After all 9 clones have been resolved, players score bonus points for their targets and any correct accusations they made. The player with the most points wins.
Sailing Towards Osiris is a game that simulates the building of monuments and tributes to win an election… sort of like in the United States, except in Egypt.
The Pharaoh has died and he has no heirs. Governors (the players) have four rounds to build the greatest tribute to Osiris in honor of the recently deceased Pharaoh, with the wining governor becoming the Pharaoh’s successor.
In Perdition’s Mouth, player’s are delving into the depths of a cultist stronghold to embark on a series of missions. The game can be played as one-off sessions, or as a linked campaign.
During the game, each player choose a unique hero to command and must work together if they hope to make it out of the rift alive. The gameplay embraces the eurogamer style of play, eschewing dice rolling and hacking-and-slashing for a more unique rondel based action system. Players definitely need to employ solid teamwork and tactics if they hope to survive.
As a trick-taking card game Moons orbits the genre fairly closely, but also adds some twists to rocket up the fun. It is a plain trick-taking game with no trumps. That is, instead of capturing cards worth points, winning a trick allows you to take a moon token that is worth a point at the end of the game – more if part of a set.
Adrenaline is an action game all about blasting your friends into tiny bits with the biggest, coolest guns.
On your turn, you can move, shoot, or pick up items (guns or ammo). After 2 actions you can reload your guns, then score any kills you made during your turn before play passes onward to the next player!
The weapons are where the heart of this game dwells. Each weapon (in addition to having a cool name and FPS-style design) has an effect that typically deals out damage based on your target’s proximity. Most guns have multiple possible effects, and some allow you to spend ammunition when you put the gun into play to increase its effectiveness. For example, one gun lets you choose to deal a lot of damage to one player, or spread out the damage to multiple players in the same space. There are guns that shoot through walls, guns that suck your target towards you, guns that let you run up, smash someone for damage, and then run away.
You’ll need ammo to power your guns, so you’ll pick up tiles that let you collect ammo cubes and someimtes item cards that grant additional powered abilities.
Terraforming Mars is a resource-management engine-building game for one to five players. Players represent corporations who are working to make Mars inhabitable. The game ends when the three global parameter minimums–oxygen, temperature, and oceans–have been met. The player who contributes the most to the terraforming effort is the winner.
Bezier Games has started taking orders for their new game, Werewords. In it, players are looking to guess a secret word known to just a couple players (who don't know which other players know that the
Bezier Games has started taking orders for their new game, Werewords. In it, players are looking to guess a secret word known to just a couple players (who don't know which other players know that they know). As they make their guesses, they'll be given "yes," "no," "so close," and the coveted "correct" token in order to better figure out what the word is. But be careful. There's a werewolf among you who is looking to keep you off the scent of the right word. But if you get the word wrong, you can still win by guessing who the werewolf is.
From the release:
12 role cards on thick, sturdy tiles, 36 Yes/No tokens, 10 Maybe tokens, 1 So Close token, 1 Correct token, and a concise rulebook that will get you up and playing in minutes.
Each game takes less than 10 minutes to play, and players can adjust both the difficulty level of the word lists (Easy, Medium, Hard, or, if you're a little bit loco, Ridiculous) as well as the time allowed for figuring out the word. As each question is guessed, the word-knowing Mayor (who may not speak), must answer every question by giving the asker a token: one of the limited double-sided "Yes/No" tokens (with the appropriate side up), a "Maybe" token (in case the question can't easily be answered with a Yes or No), the coveted "So Close" token, and finally, when the word is guessed correctly, the "Correct" token. But if the Mayor runs out of Yes/No tokens, the village team has to stop guessing, and much figure out who the werewolf (or werewolves, if you're playing with more people) is in order to salvage a victory. Additional roles such as the helpful Beholder and the not-so-helpful Minion provide additional, optional variety for players.
One of the things that's unique is the Mayor, who is trying to help out the village...at least that's what you thought... Well, he might also be a werewolf, and he can lie when answering questions to throw you off track! Of course, he can't be too blatant about it or you'll figure it out and vote for him to save the day for the village.
Another unique thing is that players can create and upload their own custom word lists into the app, so you can create an NSFW list, a super-boardgaming-geek list, or any other list of words you can imagine!
Hey everyone. Congratulations as you've made it to the weekend. Saturday is here and that means it's time to sit back and relax some. Hopefully you've got something gaming-related going on. I might be
Hey everyone. Congratulations as you've made it to the weekend. Saturday is here and that means it's time to sit back and relax some. Hopefully you've got something gaming-related going on. I might be working (on a super-secret project that's set to revolutionize the gaming world!!! ... ;) ), but it's still at least gaming related. I also have a fresh 12-pack of Mt. Dew Pitch Black. So it's a good day. But anyway, let's get to those reviews I know you all love so much.
Today we have: Bite Nite, Papayoo, Dungeon Busters, Steampunk Rally, Castle Panic Engine of War Expansion, Colt Express (iOS), Gangs of Cammorragh, Star Wars: Destiny, New York Slice, Burano, Mysterium App, Seasons, and Tyrants of the Underdark.
Bite Nite is played out over a series of 3 nights in which players are competing to bite the most influential victims in the city. However, being vampires, they are not content to just let their rivals go about their business. Players will be using action cards to not only advance their position in the game, but also hinder their opponents. At the end of the third night, whichever player has the most points will take their place along side Dracula to rule the city.
Papayoo is a straightforward trick-taking game. You try to get rid of your cards but try not to collect points. You receive points by collecting cards from the Payoo suit and the dreaded Papayoo card.
Dungeon Busters tasks a party of adventurers with killing and looting monsters in three dungeon levels. Through clever cooperation, the heroes will escape with riches aplenty in tow, but beware: a touch of the prisoner’s dilemma pits hero against hero as the adventurer contributing the least amount of effort to each battle takes the largest share of the booty.
The good thing about racing games is that the goal is fairly self evident: get to the finish line before anyone else. How you get there is entirely in your hands. Players take on the roles of a historically significant scientist and create their own racing machines in order to navigate the difficult terrain of the track. Every round begins with players constructing their racing machines and gathering fuel. Afterwards, players vent any pent up steam from previous turns and power their machines to move along the race path. The round ends with some cleanup that includes resolving the effects of damage that may have occurred during the turn. If no one has reached the finish line, play continues.
Engines of War is an expansion for the cooperative game Castle Panic. Since we’ve already reviewed Castle Panic, I won’t go into detail about how to play the base game as you can read our earlier review if you need a refresher. Note that this expansion can also be played with any or all of the other Castle Panic expansions and the rulebook offers instructions for incorporating other expansions. For the purpose of this review, however, I’m only going to talk about Engines of War on its own.
Game play in the digital app is essentially unchanged from the board game. In Colt Express you are a desperado running around and climbing about a speeding train to collect loot, knock out rival outlaws and dodge the marshal. Each round, you and the other players play a specified number of action cards according to a certain variable sequence. After they’ve been played, you resolve each in order and find out who is the quick and who is the joker left empty-handed! Check out how to play this 2015 Spiel des Jahres winner with our review here. Don’t worry, we won’t leave the station without you!
Burano, also known as the lace island, is an island in the northern Venetian lagoon. Burano is extremely famous for its brightly colored houses, those square-shaped houses of a riot of colors along the water channels make it like a fairy tale land.
Mysterium, the murder mystery and deduction game, has been ported to digital format. You must decipher pictures that give you clues about the suspects. Guess right and you’ll solve the case.
Saturdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!*runs around with my arms over my head*Ok, enough of that. Let's get down to business. You want to see review articles and I'm here
Saturdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! *runs around with my arms over my head* Ok, enough of that. Let's get down to business. You want to see review articles and I'm here to supply them (it is one of the most-popular posts of the week, after all).
Today we have: Sky Dynasty, Inis, Flash Point: Dangerous Waters, My Village, Death Pit Duels, Mombasa, Hold Your Breath, Tiny Epic Western, Colony, Z War One Damnation, Nightlancer, and Scythe.
In Sky Dynasty players amass powerful fleets of starships to control Lumia’s key sectors that bestow varying benefits in an ultimate goal to garner influence throughout the system. It is a deck-building, area control card game with a unique simultaneous turn structure, often ensnaring the entire table in high-stakes, winner-take-all battles leading to glorious victory…or ignominious defeat.
As the leader your clan, it’s your goal to prove yourself worthy of being called High King over a newly discovered island. You will achieve this feat by having clans in at least 6 territories, being the chieftain over 6 opposing clans, and/or being present in territories with a combined total of 6 or more sanctuaries.
Dangerous Waters retains all the core tenants of the original Flashpoint, so if you’re not familiar I recommend checking out our review of the base game. In summary: you’re firefighters, you’ve got to rescue people to win, and in the meantime fire is spreading and burning your house down.
My Village is a dice-drafting Euro game for two to four players. Players seek to build their personal villages to generate the most prestige. The player with the most prestige when a predetermined number of villagers die will be the winner.
In Death Pit Duels, you and another player are gladiatorial promoters assembling a team of fantasy warriors to fight to the, well, death! Not that you care…as long as it leads to profit!
Players begin the game drafting their slaves champions through an “I divide, you decide” format. The fighter deck is comprised of ten cards each in four races: human, orc, goblin and cyclops. The first player draws five cards and creates two pairs, setting the fifth aside. The second player chooses which pair he wants and the first player gets the other. Then the second player draws four new cards, adding the previously undrafted warrior to it and repeats the process. When both managers have twelve fighters, the rest of the deck is set aside.
Mombasa takes place over a period from the European Renaissance to the early Industrial age during which various companies were chartered to acquire trading opportunities and influence in Africa. Players accumulate shares in these companies, manage bookkeeping, obtain wealth, and collect diamond interests to gain points. However, it is worth noting that a statement in the rules makes it clear that Mombasa is not meant to be a “historical situation”.
In Hold Your Breath, our unlucky pirates find themselves swimming towards land. Fortunately for them, they managed to get close, but an argument broke out about who could swim the deepest and make it back to the surface. They are not the smartest group of pirates. The game is separated into two phases, the Descent and Ascent. Players will need to play cards to allow the pirate to dive and return to the surface. But these are pirates we are talking about, so this won’t be a clean game. The cards can also be used to hinder your opponent’s chances of winning. The person who can dive the deepest and return to the surface before running out of time will win the game.
Congratulations! You've made it to Saturday! *throws a little party*Mine's been busy so far. We're just a couple weeks out from Gen Con, and that means about a million little things to get done (along
Congratulations! You've made it to Saturday! *throws a little party* Mine's been busy so far. We're just a couple weeks out from Gen Con, and that means about a million little things to get done (along with a couple big things) before heading to the show. My "To Do" list is imposing, but with steady work, I'll chew through it all. *looks at list* Hmm, "Type up Review Roundup." Alrighty...
Today we have: Sugi, Stak Bots, Food Fighters, Infinity Combined Army Onyx Force, Galaxy Defenders: Operation Strikeback Expansion, SET, Dragonwood, Millennium Blades, Beyond Baker Street, Dark Dealings, America, Fate of the Elder Gods, Burano, Happy Party, and My Village.
SET is the “The Family Game of Visual Perception” originally published in 1988 by SET Enterprises for ages 6+. The name of the game says it all. You are creating sets of 3 cards that have all of the same attributes OR all different attributes. Sounds pretty easy until you see that the cards each have 4 different attributes – Symbols, Colors, Numbers and Shading, and that all 4 of the attributes have to be the same or different. You can’t have 2 cards that are green and 1 that is purple. You have to have all of the cards the same color or all of the different colors. The same goes for the rest of the attributes in a set.
Millennium Blades is a game in which you and your opponents play the fictional CCG game Millennium Blades. Don’t worry though, everything you need to play Millennium Blades is in the box, there is no money sink on booster packs here.
Players in Burano lead prominent local families directing their clan’s productive and domestic affairs. While cooperatively building one of the more famously colorful communities in the world in the process, each patriarch/matriarch earns points by sending out men to do men’s work – like fishing – and women to do women’s work – like sewing. It’s the rules, so remember, don’t shoot the reviewer.
Happy Party is a dexterity/memory game for two to four players. Players roll dice and blow out cake candles to collect presents for their wish list. The first player to complete his or her wish list is the winner.
Each player will be charged with the care and growth of an idyllic village with the goal of creating a town to be remembered for generations to come. You’ll be training your villagers in various professions, selling wares, farming the land, and constructing various religious and civic buildings. Death of your villagers, either via rat infestations or old fashioned time, will need to be monitored in order to make sure everything runs smoothly. You begin the game with six trained villagers and a handful of coins in order to achieve greatness. Moment to moment achievements are less important than ones that will last for generations. A church building that will last for years grants prestige points, whereas minor achievements only grant story points that need to be actively converted into prestige points.
Aaaaaah... Saturday.What a glorious day. What cannot be achieved on such a day as Saturday?Well, I know I can be working on various articles for the site. Hopefully you're getting in some gaming, like
Aaaaaah... Saturday. What a glorious day. What cannot be achieved on such a day as Saturday? Well, I know I can be working on various articles for the site. Hopefully you're getting in some gaming, like I am, too.
At the moment, though, we've got ourselves the Review Roundup.
In today's feature we have: Vikings Gone Wild, Blood Rage: Mystics of Midgard Expansion, Codinca, Blood Rage: Gods of Asgard Expansion, Imperial Settlers: Atlanteans Expansion, King's Forge: Queen's Jubilee Expansion, Talon, 13 Days, 51st State, The Grizzled: At Your Orders, One Night Ultimate Vampire, Area 1851, Tesla vs. Edison: Powering Up, No Thank You Evil, Valeria Card Kingdoms, Legends of the American Frontier, Jail Break, Adventure Land, Anachrony, Android: Mainframe, Shogunate, T.I.M.E Stories: Under the Mask, Aya, Porta Nigra, The Gallerist, Doctor Panic, and Knit Wit.
Queen’s Jubilee is the first expansion for King’s Forge. It has new craft cards and some new gather cards too. It adds variety without adding complexity. And even makes the game play quicker!
In Area 1851, you are one of the area’s top five Tinkerers and you’re looking to prove your grit to the citizens of this Wild West town.
Each turn, players have to deal with and negotiate random events in the area, then continue the turn under those circumstances, by drawing Tinker cards to fill their hand up to five cards, then rolling dice to determine their resources for that turn. Players then spend those resources to build new Gadgets or augment their existing Gadgets with Modifications. These Gadgets and Modifications can then be Delivered to the townsfolk for Reputation. In addition players can choose to scrap cards from their hand, and pull them out of circulation.
The Powering Up! expansion takes Tesla vs. Edison gameplay to a whole new level by infusing exciting new systems and introducing both a sixth player and a solitaire variant! Fans of the game will delight in exploring:
Building a headquarters. What is a good electric company without state-of-the-art facilities such as a laboratory, works, office, and studio? Each option offers different bonuses and rewards to the enterprising player!
Valeria: Card Kingdoms is a tableau-building game for 1-5 players and will feel familiar to deck-building fans. The cards you buy can work for you on your turn and on all the other player turns, as well. On your turn, roll two dice and activate citizen cards with the result of each individual die and the sum of both dice. Other players will simultaneously activate their citizen cards based off of the roll. Next, take two actions from the following: slay a monster, recruit a citizen, buy a domain, or take 1 of any resource. The player with the most victory points at the end wins the game.
Legends of the American Frontier is an adventure game for 3 to 7 players in which you live the life of a newly-minted citizen in the colonial days of America, starting just after the Revolutionary War in the 1780s and running through the early 1800s.
Jail Break is played on a randomly setup, modular board. Consisting of 24 cards, the jail can be laid out in a 6×4 grid, or really into any shape the players would like. Changing the configuration of the jail can lead to a different experience in each game.
Players will each have a mugshot card that shows their special ability. During the game, players will be able to move throughout the prison, gathering resources and potentially attacking other players. Each turn a card will trigger a random event that could be positive or negative, and at the end of the turn, a guard will be moved to a new location of the player’s choice. The first player to successfully escape is the winner.
Adventure Land is a bit of an abstract fantasy adventure game. There are three different adventures (scenarios) included in the box, each of which has their own complexity level and win conditions. The basics of the game remain the same no matter which adventure you are playing.
In Adventure Land, players will be moving their heroes around a 10×11 gridded game board. As your adventurers move, they will be collecting items and companions to use when they try to defeat the game’s fog monsters. While each of the three adventures has their own unique win conditions, many require players to collect a certain type of item(s) to earn victory points. At the conclusion of the adventure, the player with the most victory points will be the winner.
Each player in Anachrony commands one of the games four Paths. During each round, players will be collecting resources, workers, and scientific breakthroughs in the hopes of advancing their society. Anachrony is a two-tiered worker placement game, meaning that players will be taking actions on a shared main board, while also building up their own player board with actions and special powers.
For you historians out there, Android: Mainframe is a reimplementation of a game called Bauhaus. That probably doesn’t mean much to most of you, since it was released only in Spain and only 17 people have it marked as “owned” on BGG. Allow me to explain.
No, there is too much. Let me sum up. The goal of Mainframe is to capture “nodes” (squares) on the board by surrounding them with “partitions” (little blue walls) with your Access Point Tokens inside. You only get points at the end of the game if your enclosed zones contain only your own tokens, and no other players. The bigger the zone, the more points your access tokens score.
Shogunate pits players against each other as heads of rival clans in a power play maneuver seeking the emperor’s throne. You’ll need to deceive others as to your true intentions, deduce that of your enemies’ and even eliminate other claimants.
In this quick, social deduction card game each player secretly receives a clan affiliation and five action cards. Cards corresponding to the five clans are then randomly lined up on the table. The goal is to scheme your clan’s way to the head of the succession line by the end of the game. The twist is that someone else gets to resolve the actions you play!
If you read my review of A Prophecy of Dragons, you'll know I was disappointed with the previous adventure for TIME Stories, the time travelling cooperative game which I still believe is one of the best cooperative board game experiences on the market. Thankfully, I am happy to say that Under the Mask is a return to form, a fun puzzle and adventure that gets everything just right.
TIME Stories is a mystery and as such your experience will rely on not knowing the puzzles ahead so I'm going to attempt to keep this review as spoiler free as possible. However, there will be some very mild spoilers from here on, so if you want the Under the Mask to be a complete surprise then come back later.
Imagine someone had created a cooperative board game out of domino rally. There you go, you've just imagined Aya and to be fair I could leave the review right there.
In Aya you and your friends have discovered a new land and are travelling inland via river, exploring the untouched wilderness and photographing the local wildlife and breathe taking scenery.
You are a builder in ancient Rome. But you want to be a Master Builder, known as the greatest in the Empire. To claim that title, you’ll work to construct four Roman structures, including the titular city gate, the Amphitheatre, the Basilica, and the city wall, faster and better than your opponents.
It’s a perfect economic strategy board game for all art lovers – manage your own art gallery and became successful and internationally well-known art dealer! You have to do a lot of work to achieve that – make promotions for pieces of art and artists themselves, buy and sell in the international market, bring visitors to your exhibitions, sign contracts and of course hire assistants, who will help you to cope with all this work. Develop your own business-strategy and become the richest and the most famous Gallerist! We are happy to offer you a board game review. Designed by Vital Lacerda, artist is Ian O’Toole, published in 2015 by Eagle-Gryphon Games, Fire on Board Jogos and Giochix.it.
It's here. Doctor Panic, the first co-op game to ever feature a whoopie cushion, or a hairnet, or a needle and thread, is now available in shops. Best of all, it's every bit as dumb as advertised!
There's never been a game that demanded SU&SD's attention more. Time for us to turn on the bright lights, disinfect our mouths and begin the delicate operation... of the review.
In (almost!) five years of running Shut Up & Sit Down we’ve always put the game first. We’ve fretted about player counts and waxed lyrical about themes. We’ve snapped apart mechanics like so many Lego bricks. So today, I hope you guys will indulge me in putting something else first.
Look. At. This. Flipping. Box.
I mean that literally. Knit Wit, the new game from Pandemic creator Matt Leacock, is opened with a flip-top magnetic catch at one end. But we’re just getting started.
Mind Games, part of the American Mensa society, has released their list of the winners of their coveted Mensa Select Game award. Only those that pass rigorous testing can use this much-sought-after st
Mind Games, part of the American Mensa society, has released their list of the winners of their coveted Mensa Select Game award. Only those that pass rigorous testing can use this much-sought-after stamp of approval for their products. There are over 50 games that try for the award, but only 5 can be given it each year. This year's winners are Castles of Mad King Ludwig by Bezier Games, Dragonwood by Gamewright, Lanterns: The Harvest Festival by Renegade Game Studios and Foxtrot Games, Letter Tycoon byAd Magic/Breaking Games, and Trekking the National Parks by Bink Ink. Congratulations to the winners!
From the website:
Founded in 1990, American Mensa's Mind Games has become one of the most respected national games competitions. If you're unfamiliar with Mind Games, follow the quick links below to learn about this exciting annual event for Mensa members.
Of the more than 50 games entered and judged each year, five are chosen as Mensa Select®. Winners such as Scattergories™, Taboo™ and Apples to Apples™ have gone on to become top-sellers and award-winners.
325 judges, 60 competing games, and forty-four hours of nonstop board game action later, five games claim bragging rights as Mensa Select® winners!
San Diego Area Mensa hosted this year’s event at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego, Calif. Members of American Mensa, the high IQ association, selected five Mensa Select winners at its 2015 Mind Games event.
Out of the 60 entries in this year’s competition, only these five will have the honor of displaying the coveted Mensa Select® seal. This year’s Mensa Select games are: •"Castles of Mad King Ludwig," Bezier Games, Inc. •"Dragonwood," Gamewright •'Lanterns: The Harvest Festival," Renegade Game Studios and Foxtrot Games •"Letter Tycoon," Ad Magic/Breaking Games •"Trekking the National Parks," Bink Ink, LLC
“We are so pleased that game manufacturers from around the globe find value with our feedback and our Mensa Select designation,” said Chief Judge, Greg Webster “I can’t wait to see what awesome new titles will compete in 2016!” Next year's event will be hosted by the Chicago area chapter of Mensa.To find out about the competing games and the winners visit mindgames.us.mensa.org. American Mensa is an organization open to anyone who scores in the top 2 percent on an accepted, standardized intelligence test. Mensa has more than 56,000 members in the United States and more than 110,000 members globally.
Gettin' Higgy With It has a new episode up. This time they look at One Night Ultimate Werewolf.SourceIn this episode:We take a look at the viewer requested werewolf card game, One Night Ultimate Werew
Gettin' Higgy With It has a new episode up. This time they look at One Night Ultimate Werewolf.
We take a look at the viewer requested werewolf card game, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, by Ted Alspach & Akihisa Okui. Distributed by Bézier Games. One Night Ultimate Werewolf is for 3-10 players, age 8+ and takes about 10 minutes per game.
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