My son received "Dragonology:The Game" for christmas. He's a simply nuts for anything with big teeth, be it dragons, dinos or even crocs, so this is way up his street.
When I saw the box I was impressed. Its about the size of a standard square box, think Lord of the Rings(2000) or Doom:The Boardgame or Memoir '44, and you're on the right track. This box is a nice heavy weight card with a loverly design printed on it, it exudes quality. What I especially like about it though is that the top of the box is also a flap! Open the flap and behind you find a transparent plastic top that lets you see the playing pieces inside the box.
When you take off the top inside you find some excellent looking bits. There are a number of character pieces that you use as pawns. These characters are full of ... well character. They are pre painted and each is different. There's the woman dressed for a tea party, an explorer and a chap in a nice suit and so on. You'll be moving these around the board. Unfortunately play has revealed that a couple of these are perched on bases too small and tend to fall over.
Then you have a bunch of dragon miniatures. These represent pretty much every type of dragon you've ever heard of. The standard four legs two wings, the chinese dragons the wyverns and so on. These are fairly small and not in scale to the player pawns.
The board is a wonderful peice of art featuring the entire world laid flat with path ways traced aross it. Along these pathways are cities, ports, dragon homes and special spaces that allow you to collect tickets or knowledge ( more later ).
The theme of the game is that your character will be travelling around the world researching information on dragons, which you then use to ensnare a dragon or three. Some of the special spaces I mentioned allow you to take a Ticket to help you on your journey around the world. These tickets are absolutely wonderful. Shaped like old world tickets and depicting airplanes, balloons, trains etc they look like real tickets!
As I said you're going around the world researching, so when you land on a city, dragon-home etc you can take a "Bit of Knowledge" card. These either give you an ability to break a rule or give you a bit of knowledge about one of the dragons. When you collect three bits of knowledge for a single type of dragon, you should make your way to the dragon's home space and collect that dragon. Once you have it, no one else can get that dragon... unless they have a card that lets them steal it!
The "Bit of Knowledge" cards are loverly to look at, they have a high sheen and the art on the front is top notch, unfortunately they choose to have odd shaped cards without a straight edge on them. They look great but do suffer from not being easily shuffled or fanned in the hand.
As to play. Well it's basically, roll the die, move, pick up a card or ticket if you can, collect a set, get a dragon, move to the end game space. And that's it. There just isn't any substance to it for a hobby gamer. For the family however to play over the Christmas break, once a year, instead of Monopoly... most definitely.
It is a wonderfully produced and smashing looking, and sadly missing any real game play.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Deepsea Desperation
Deepsea Desperation is a board game released by Greenpeace. It's a little print and play game that quite obviously is a dig at BP, and politically driven. At first glance you can see that the oil drillers are the bad guys and animals are in danger, everything as you might expect.
What did I expect?
I expected a miserable piece of rubbish. The "real" world often puts out these kinds of things and without fail thay are rubbish. Roll 'n move in a snakes 'n ladders style.
But Wait! What's this? The game is designed by Terror Bull games? The people who designed "War on Terror"! Real game designers. Wow!
That's right a small print and play given away with political motives designed by real game designers! I was shocked.
Well I printed the game and gave it a try. To be sure its not a great game, but it is a real game with tactics. Considering that it's only two pages to print and games last about 10 mins' what do you have to lose.
I hope this kind of thing becomes a trend. People pushing agendas, maybe even products, but with real playable interesting games we can get our hands on.
Not much chance , but I've got my fingers crossed.
Get the game
.
What did I expect?
I expected a miserable piece of rubbish. The "real" world often puts out these kinds of things and without fail thay are rubbish. Roll 'n move in a snakes 'n ladders style.
But Wait! What's this? The game is designed by Terror Bull games? The people who designed "War on Terror"! Real game designers. Wow!
That's right a small print and play given away with political motives designed by real game designers! I was shocked.
Well I printed the game and gave it a try. To be sure its not a great game, but it is a real game with tactics. Considering that it's only two pages to print and games last about 10 mins' what do you have to lose.
I hope this kind of thing becomes a trend. People pushing agendas, maybe even products, but with real playable interesting games we can get our hands on.
Not much chance , but I've got my fingers crossed.
Get the game
.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Nile - review
"Nile" is a straight forward card game for 2 - 5 players. I've been playing this with the guys at work during lunch and it's proved itself very popular. Our first couple of games went quite slow but now we're easily getting two games in during the lunch break with minutes to spare.
The cards in the game represent five basic crops, Lettuce, Castor, Wheat, Papyrus and Flax. During play you'll be playing cards of the various types out on the table in front of you into your "fields". Of course it's not that simple!
At the start of your turn, you turn over a "flood" card. The crop shown on the Flood card is then harvested by all players that have that crop planted. So if you have a field with three Wheat cards in it and the flood card was "Wheat" you would take the top Wheat card from your field and place that in your score pile. You'll be collecting cards of the various types like this throughout the game.
Once the flood has been dealt with you can "trade". There are two types of trade neither of which is actually trading with other players. The first type of "trade" is where you discard two cards and draw one from the deck, hoping to get a card that you need. The other trade type is to discard two cards and turn over a new Flood card causing extra Harvests.
After the trades you get to plant new fields by playing cards straight to the table in front of you or into existing fields. You can plant two matching cards ( for instance two Wheat ) as a new field. You could also plant two cards of two different crops ( one of each ). Additionally you can any number of cards that match into fields you already have planted.You can't however plant just anything! You cant plant any cards that match the current "Flood" card, and you cant plant a new field unless playing more cards than any other player has on the table in that crop. So if the Flood card is Lettuce, I can't play that, and if any other player currently has Flax planted I can't play that... unless I can plant two Flax and he only has one. If you do manage to plant a new and bigger field the other players have to discard their smaller field!
The last thing you do on your turn is to draw two cards.
You go through the draw deck once for each player, and as players are constantly adding cards to their score pile each iteration gets quicker as the deck is shrinking.
There are two more card types that add flavour. A single "Locusts" card when drawn makes the player with the biggest field (largest number of cards in that field) discard the entire field. The other type of card is "Speculation". On your turn you can play up to two speculation cards. These cards have two crops on them, if the next flood card matches either then you immediately get to draw three cards into your hand.
At the end of the game, you sort your score pile into the different crops and score one point for each card in your smallest pile. If you haven't got one of every crop, you score zilch!
That's it. Simple stuff, yet it is tactical and you will be making plans and actioning decisions during play.
Some anecdotes for you.
I discovered that one player was tracking what crops I had harvested and had deduced that I hadn't any Papyrus, so he made great efforts to keep a big field of Papyrus in front of him, denying me any score at all at the end. It worked too!
During another game I was again trying to harvest a Papyrus, if I got it I would have at least one of every crop type scored. I had a two Papyrus field in play and was very aware that the Locust card had not come out yet. So to protect that field I built up a field of four wheat ( so if the Locust came out they would take Wheat and not my precious Papyrus ). A few turns later I still hadn't scored it, so started discarding cards to generate new floods and did manage to get Papyrus in flood, Huzzar!.
In a similar incident I wanted to plant a field of Castor but one of my opponents had a two Castor field. So again I started discarding to cause Floods and that paid off, I flooded Castor, reducing the size of his field. Then flooded Lettuce and was able to play out my two Castor in a new field.
On a number of occasions I've felt the pressure of trying to score that last type of crop and watching the deck shrink far too quickly, adding a level of interest to the game, a tenseness.
In summary, I'm really quite taken by the game and it's proved very popular with my group.
The cards in the game represent five basic crops, Lettuce, Castor, Wheat, Papyrus and Flax. During play you'll be playing cards of the various types out on the table in front of you into your "fields". Of course it's not that simple!
At the start of your turn, you turn over a "flood" card. The crop shown on the Flood card is then harvested by all players that have that crop planted. So if you have a field with three Wheat cards in it and the flood card was "Wheat" you would take the top Wheat card from your field and place that in your score pile. You'll be collecting cards of the various types like this throughout the game.
Once the flood has been dealt with you can "trade". There are two types of trade neither of which is actually trading with other players. The first type of "trade" is where you discard two cards and draw one from the deck, hoping to get a card that you need. The other trade type is to discard two cards and turn over a new Flood card causing extra Harvests.
After the trades you get to plant new fields by playing cards straight to the table in front of you or into existing fields. You can plant two matching cards ( for instance two Wheat ) as a new field. You could also plant two cards of two different crops ( one of each ). Additionally you can any number of cards that match into fields you already have planted.You can't however plant just anything! You cant plant any cards that match the current "Flood" card, and you cant plant a new field unless playing more cards than any other player has on the table in that crop. So if the Flood card is Lettuce, I can't play that, and if any other player currently has Flax planted I can't play that... unless I can plant two Flax and he only has one. If you do manage to plant a new and bigger field the other players have to discard their smaller field!
The last thing you do on your turn is to draw two cards.
You go through the draw deck once for each player, and as players are constantly adding cards to their score pile each iteration gets quicker as the deck is shrinking.
There are two more card types that add flavour. A single "Locusts" card when drawn makes the player with the biggest field (largest number of cards in that field) discard the entire field. The other type of card is "Speculation". On your turn you can play up to two speculation cards. These cards have two crops on them, if the next flood card matches either then you immediately get to draw three cards into your hand.
At the end of the game, you sort your score pile into the different crops and score one point for each card in your smallest pile. If you haven't got one of every crop, you score zilch!
That's it. Simple stuff, yet it is tactical and you will be making plans and actioning decisions during play.
Some anecdotes for you.
I discovered that one player was tracking what crops I had harvested and had deduced that I hadn't any Papyrus, so he made great efforts to keep a big field of Papyrus in front of him, denying me any score at all at the end. It worked too!
During another game I was again trying to harvest a Papyrus, if I got it I would have at least one of every crop type scored. I had a two Papyrus field in play and was very aware that the Locust card had not come out yet. So to protect that field I built up a field of four wheat ( so if the Locust came out they would take Wheat and not my precious Papyrus ). A few turns later I still hadn't scored it, so started discarding cards to generate new floods and did manage to get Papyrus in flood, Huzzar!.
In a similar incident I wanted to plant a field of Castor but one of my opponents had a two Castor field. So again I started discarding to cause Floods and that paid off, I flooded Castor, reducing the size of his field. Then flooded Lettuce and was able to play out my two Castor in a new field.
On a number of occasions I've felt the pressure of trying to score that last type of crop and watching the deck shrink far too quickly, adding a level of interest to the game, a tenseness.
In summary, I'm really quite taken by the game and it's proved very popular with my group.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Where there is Discord - Session Report
Yesterday was a good day for me! Why? Well I got to play a game of "Where there is Discord : War in the South Atlantic" right through.
It's a solitaire wargame where you control the British task force heading south to retake the Falkland islands in 1982 and the reason I was so happy about playing it is that I dont get it to the table very often at all.
The reason it's a rarity is that it is massive, the sides of the board actually hang over the sides of my table and the game play itself usually takes me about nine hours! I'm not able to leave games set up overnight so reserving the time and table can be a challenge.
Yesterday's was of the usual length, but do not fear, every minute of that game was great fun. I just love the way the game builds in intensity as you play. My wife noted my occasional bellows of "Oh yeah!" and "In your face!". Sadly she also noted my occasional wail of pain. It's that kind of game, it gets to you.
Before I say how it went I want to advise that anyone playing this game grabs a copy of the "Expanded Order of Play" by Board Game Geek user Doug Adams as it can save quite a bit of looking up when you haven't played for a while.
So here's what happened in May 1982...
1st : Had to reduce demands on US resources and send two ships home. I regretted this later.
3rd : Had a terrific offer from the French to train with them that meant I got to bounce all future Mirage and Dagger attacks. This undoubtably saved me a few ships.
4th : A bad day all round, not only did the world hate the interference with the banking system neccesary to stop the Argi's getting more Exocets, but worse still a surface battle group snuk through the screen and managed to sink HMS Yarmouth before getting away.
6th : HMS Avenger had to be sent to Chile rather than sent to the Falklands as a reinforcement. Once again, this came back to bite me later.
7th : Today felt like I was stabbed in the back. After sending the Avenger to Chile yesterday, today they stopped giving me intel because of all things I upped the security at Malta!
8th : Finally the weather started letting me interdict Argi' supplies. HMS Splendid spotted the Argi' Carrier group but couldn't get permission to fire, dang!
9th : Splendid got the permission it needed and sunk the Carrier. Also launched a joint Vulcan/Harrier bombing attack on the Falklands airport which was mildly successful but at the cost of a Harrier.
10th : HMS Sheffield sunk out in the defence zone
11th : HMS Invincible had to withdraw with a couple of escorts for repairs.
12th : Had an opportunity to launch an SAS mission against the Argi' Exocet supply, but cancelled it because of potential international reprecussions.
15th : An Exocet attack took place but the missle missed. Harrier "Red 2" took on four Skyhawks, he got two of them before he was shot down.
16th : HMS Ardent sunk by bombs.
17th : Two destroyers taken from picket duty to escort a "friendly" Russion trawler away from the task force at the worst of times. Immediately after, a raid by Skyhawks sunk the Invincible. I was devastated. Fortunately the remaining Harriers managed to make it off before she went down.
The very next raid meant the loss of HMS Brilliant to an Exocet. I was really cursing the Russians at this point. Then a second Exocet came in and sent HMS Brilliant to the bottom. All in all, a very bad day.
18th : The dreaded Exocet struck again, this time HMS Glamorgan. Revenge was sweet, the next attack in was by a pair of Etendards but a rapidly scrambled Harrier managed to shoot the one carrying the Exocet out of the air. "IN YOUR FACE!" Doubly sweet because intel said it was the last they had.
19th : Harrier lost to bad weather, such a waste.
23rd : After delay 3 Para land in San carlos but HMS Glasgow and HMS Andromada both lost.
24th : Both the Welsh guards and the Gurkhas failed to get a lodgement when landing.
25th : Intrepid lost, 42 Commando lost, vicious counter attacks fought off by the SBS and 8 Commando.
26th : HMS Fearless sunk. The people back home couldn't take any more and the government ordered a withdrawl.
And so the game ended in a complete loss. Looking back over it there were a couple of decisions that I went the wrong way with. I definitely should have gone with the SAS attack on the Exocet supply, those things are just too dangerous to ignore. Why didn't I attack, because of the International Opinion. i think I was being too precious about it. With every other option I had, I ensured Exocets were blocked withheld banned etc but this a big regret.
In San Carlos I should have placed "junk" ships on either side of the ones carryingout the landings, to soak up Skyhawk attacks. Failing to do this cost me a landing ship which subsequently meant I lost a unit on sure beacuse it was at diminished strength
Also I will study my troop loading more carefully next time. I felt I was almost wasting a turn/day sitting in San Carlos not unloading everything I could.
Once again, a Great Game
It's a solitaire wargame where you control the British task force heading south to retake the Falkland islands in 1982 and the reason I was so happy about playing it is that I dont get it to the table very often at all.
The reason it's a rarity is that it is massive, the sides of the board actually hang over the sides of my table and the game play itself usually takes me about nine hours! I'm not able to leave games set up overnight so reserving the time and table can be a challenge.
Yesterday's was of the usual length, but do not fear, every minute of that game was great fun. I just love the way the game builds in intensity as you play. My wife noted my occasional bellows of "Oh yeah!" and "In your face!". Sadly she also noted my occasional wail of pain. It's that kind of game, it gets to you.
Before I say how it went I want to advise that anyone playing this game grabs a copy of the "Expanded Order of Play" by Board Game Geek user Doug Adams as it can save quite a bit of looking up when you haven't played for a while.
So here's what happened in May 1982...
1st : Had to reduce demands on US resources and send two ships home. I regretted this later.
3rd : Had a terrific offer from the French to train with them that meant I got to bounce all future Mirage and Dagger attacks. This undoubtably saved me a few ships.
4th : A bad day all round, not only did the world hate the interference with the banking system neccesary to stop the Argi's getting more Exocets, but worse still a surface battle group snuk through the screen and managed to sink HMS Yarmouth before getting away.
6th : HMS Avenger had to be sent to Chile rather than sent to the Falklands as a reinforcement. Once again, this came back to bite me later.
7th : Today felt like I was stabbed in the back. After sending the Avenger to Chile yesterday, today they stopped giving me intel because of all things I upped the security at Malta!
8th : Finally the weather started letting me interdict Argi' supplies. HMS Splendid spotted the Argi' Carrier group but couldn't get permission to fire, dang!
9th : Splendid got the permission it needed and sunk the Carrier. Also launched a joint Vulcan/Harrier bombing attack on the Falklands airport which was mildly successful but at the cost of a Harrier.
10th : HMS Sheffield sunk out in the defence zone
11th : HMS Invincible had to withdraw with a couple of escorts for repairs.
12th : Had an opportunity to launch an SAS mission against the Argi' Exocet supply, but cancelled it because of potential international reprecussions.
15th : An Exocet attack took place but the missle missed. Harrier "Red 2" took on four Skyhawks, he got two of them before he was shot down.
16th : HMS Ardent sunk by bombs.
17th : Two destroyers taken from picket duty to escort a "friendly" Russion trawler away from the task force at the worst of times. Immediately after, a raid by Skyhawks sunk the Invincible. I was devastated. Fortunately the remaining Harriers managed to make it off before she went down.
The very next raid meant the loss of HMS Brilliant to an Exocet. I was really cursing the Russians at this point. Then a second Exocet came in and sent HMS Brilliant to the bottom. All in all, a very bad day.
18th : The dreaded Exocet struck again, this time HMS Glamorgan. Revenge was sweet, the next attack in was by a pair of Etendards but a rapidly scrambled Harrier managed to shoot the one carrying the Exocet out of the air. "IN YOUR FACE!" Doubly sweet because intel said it was the last they had.
19th : Harrier lost to bad weather, such a waste.
23rd : After delay 3 Para land in San carlos but HMS Glasgow and HMS Andromada both lost.
24th : Both the Welsh guards and the Gurkhas failed to get a lodgement when landing.
25th : Intrepid lost, 42 Commando lost, vicious counter attacks fought off by the SBS and 8 Commando.
26th : HMS Fearless sunk. The people back home couldn't take any more and the government ordered a withdrawl.
And so the game ended in a complete loss. Looking back over it there were a couple of decisions that I went the wrong way with. I definitely should have gone with the SAS attack on the Exocet supply, those things are just too dangerous to ignore. Why didn't I attack, because of the International Opinion. i think I was being too precious about it. With every other option I had, I ensured Exocets were blocked withheld banned etc but this a big regret.
In San Carlos I should have placed "junk" ships on either side of the ones carryingout the landings, to soak up Skyhawk attacks. Failing to do this cost me a landing ship which subsequently meant I lost a unit on sure beacuse it was at diminished strength
Also I will study my troop loading more carefully next time. I felt I was almost wasting a turn/day sitting in San Carlos not unloading everything I could.
Once again, a Great Game
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Legitimacy - Review
A couple of months back I sold my copy of Talisman which I'd been lugging around since the 80's. Why did I sell it? I realised that I'd become reluctant to play it. The reason I was reluctant was simply that the game was too darned long, even when I used my "play fast rules". I also found the use of counters for everything a wee bit fiddley.
The hole that Talisman left in my collection has now been very well filled by Legitimacy!
In this game you take control of a character in a fantasy land and move around the board fufilling quests collecting crown jewels and then race to claim the throne.
The charcater you play can have three stats, move, fight and magic. Move is a bonus you add to a die roll when it comes time for you to move. Fight is added to a die when you're bashing another player, and magic is a ranged attack which can take various forms depending on spell used.
All the chracters start as "Good" but if you attack another player your'll become "Evil". This doesn't change your character as such, but if you have any "Good" followers they will leave you when you turn "Evil" and vice versa. Once you complete a mission and gain a Jewel however your character becomes "good" again, huzzar!
You'll also start with a random pet, which adds to one of your abilities.
The board is based on large hexagons each of which has a colour. Your character has a colour too, and an associated board hex. When setting up the hexes as the play board you always start with the black hex and add the hex for each character. So if you have three players you would have a board made up of a total of four hexes. These hexes are cute with comical graphics and little characters hidden amoungst the artwork such as the nessie in the lake.
These hexes, contain a number of path ways and you can move your character along these (roll a die add your move stat). The paths cross from hex to hex. The paths all have various munbers of spaces along them, including named spaces and black spaces. If you choose to stop at a black space you can draw a card that might be a mission or an object. If its a mission, which is usually just travel to a named space, your in luck. Once you travel to that named space you'll get to draw a Crown Jewel card. You'll need three crown jewels to win. As a bonus some of the Jewels also have special abilities.
As you're traveling around you are able to attack or zap other players and nick their stuff, of course they'll be trying to do the same to you! This leads to some careful decisions as to which direction and how far you might travel along certain branches of the paths. As I found out while playing, it does no good to travel up a dead end path to get to a named space so you can grab a jewel, only to find yourself trapped,attacked and looted!
Once you've got your hands on the required three jewels you race to the castle throneroom at which point you'rw the winner.
This is a light game with comical artwork that is fun to play with the family. It's length is just right for the complexity.
Here's why I feel this replaced Talisman:
The game DOES NOT drag on for three hours of roll and move.
It DOES NOT have lots of fiddley counters used to track everything.
It DOES NOT have a bunch of fiddley rules for what you can carry.
It DOES NOT have you constantly going backwards and forwards trying to get to a particular space.
It DOES NOT have the equivalent "Bandits" card to spirit eveything that you worked to gain in the last two hours away to the oasis.
IT DOES play in a decent amount of time.
IT DOES use cards to track your goodies and abilities.
IT DOES vary with each play depending on what characters you choose.
IT DOES vary what spells, pets, objects and missions you have to complete.
IT DOES generate a lot of table chat and FUN!
All in all, I really like this game, comical, light, fantasy adventure in less than an hour.
The hole that Talisman left in my collection has now been very well filled by Legitimacy!
In this game you take control of a character in a fantasy land and move around the board fufilling quests collecting crown jewels and then race to claim the throne.
The charcater you play can have three stats, move, fight and magic. Move is a bonus you add to a die roll when it comes time for you to move. Fight is added to a die when you're bashing another player, and magic is a ranged attack which can take various forms depending on spell used.
All the chracters start as "Good" but if you attack another player your'll become "Evil". This doesn't change your character as such, but if you have any "Good" followers they will leave you when you turn "Evil" and vice versa. Once you complete a mission and gain a Jewel however your character becomes "good" again, huzzar!
You'll also start with a random pet, which adds to one of your abilities.
The board is based on large hexagons each of which has a colour. Your character has a colour too, and an associated board hex. When setting up the hexes as the play board you always start with the black hex and add the hex for each character. So if you have three players you would have a board made up of a total of four hexes. These hexes are cute with comical graphics and little characters hidden amoungst the artwork such as the nessie in the lake.
These hexes, contain a number of path ways and you can move your character along these (roll a die add your move stat). The paths cross from hex to hex. The paths all have various munbers of spaces along them, including named spaces and black spaces. If you choose to stop at a black space you can draw a card that might be a mission or an object. If its a mission, which is usually just travel to a named space, your in luck. Once you travel to that named space you'll get to draw a Crown Jewel card. You'll need three crown jewels to win. As a bonus some of the Jewels also have special abilities.
As you're traveling around you are able to attack or zap other players and nick their stuff, of course they'll be trying to do the same to you! This leads to some careful decisions as to which direction and how far you might travel along certain branches of the paths. As I found out while playing, it does no good to travel up a dead end path to get to a named space so you can grab a jewel, only to find yourself trapped,attacked and looted!
Once you've got your hands on the required three jewels you race to the castle throneroom at which point you'rw the winner.
This is a light game with comical artwork that is fun to play with the family. It's length is just right for the complexity.
Here's why I feel this replaced Talisman:
The game DOES NOT drag on for three hours of roll and move.
It DOES NOT have lots of fiddley counters used to track everything.
It DOES NOT have a bunch of fiddley rules for what you can carry.
It DOES NOT have you constantly going backwards and forwards trying to get to a particular space.
It DOES NOT have the equivalent "Bandits" card to spirit eveything that you worked to gain in the last two hours away to the oasis.
IT DOES play in a decent amount of time.
IT DOES use cards to track your goodies and abilities.
IT DOES vary with each play depending on what characters you choose.
IT DOES vary what spells, pets, objects and missions you have to complete.
IT DOES generate a lot of table chat and FUN!
All in all, I really like this game, comical, light, fantasy adventure in less than an hour.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sturgeon - A Review
Today I played the new card game from "Minion Games" called simply "Sturgeon". I played with three but this game does cope with up to five.
It's an odd name for a game, but the game behind the name is pretty good.
It's not really a gamers game, but a more family orientated light filler. Once your first learning game is out of the way I think you'll get through a game in about fifteen minutes. That length feels just about right for the variety of mechanics and decision making involved.
The theme of the game is fish, yes fish. Not fishing, just fish. The table in front of each player represents a part of a shared lake. Each player wants to get two Sturgeon ( thats a fish! ) in their part of the lake. The first player to get two of these big fish wins.
You turn is pretty quick and pretty easy. You start by drawing a card into your hand, you can then play as many cards as you can, with a limitation being that you can only play one fish card. Then if you happen to have more than five cards in your hand you discard down to five. That's it.
You play fish cards down in front of you. You can simply play a "Minnow" into your part of the lake. However to play a "Bass" which is a bigger fish you have to eat ( discard ) two "minnows". To play the mighty "Sturgeon" you have to eat ( discard ) two "Bass".
However you don't just have to eat fish in your own area of the lake. Ther is another type of card, a "Swim" card. If you play a swim card as you play a Bass or a Sturgeon you can eat a fish from another part of the lake, play two "swims" and you can eat two fish from someone else part of the lake. Normally a swim card can only allow you to reach an adjacent player, but if you double up the swim cards you can reach further around the turn order.
There are other cards in the deck, one revserses the order of play, which also effects how "swim" cards are played. Another card is the Fisherman, which you can play to remove another players Sturgeon. Also you can protect your fish with "Weeds" or by making them into a school.
And thats about it. It's a simple path to victory and the play is certainly not going to strain your brain. It's a light and quick to play game, ideal for family play or as a simple filler. You might even play a round to see who'll be your start player of the next game.
The game comes in a nice shiny tuck box featuring a Sturgeon leaping out of the lake, and the game is made up of 60 cards. The cards are themselves are standard weight and thickness and feature some nice cartoon fish, and I just love the minnow hiding in the weeds, he's so cute!
The rules cover 1 side of a sheet of paper with the rear side of the same sheet containing examples of play.
All in all its a nice family game, well presented, clearly explained and all for under 12 US Dollars. At that price you can't complain, it's simply a bargain!
It's an odd name for a game, but the game behind the name is pretty good.
It's not really a gamers game, but a more family orientated light filler. Once your first learning game is out of the way I think you'll get through a game in about fifteen minutes. That length feels just about right for the variety of mechanics and decision making involved.
The theme of the game is fish, yes fish. Not fishing, just fish. The table in front of each player represents a part of a shared lake. Each player wants to get two Sturgeon ( thats a fish! ) in their part of the lake. The first player to get two of these big fish wins.
You turn is pretty quick and pretty easy. You start by drawing a card into your hand, you can then play as many cards as you can, with a limitation being that you can only play one fish card. Then if you happen to have more than five cards in your hand you discard down to five. That's it.
You play fish cards down in front of you. You can simply play a "Minnow" into your part of the lake. However to play a "Bass" which is a bigger fish you have to eat ( discard ) two "minnows". To play the mighty "Sturgeon" you have to eat ( discard ) two "Bass".
However you don't just have to eat fish in your own area of the lake. Ther is another type of card, a "Swim" card. If you play a swim card as you play a Bass or a Sturgeon you can eat a fish from another part of the lake, play two "swims" and you can eat two fish from someone else part of the lake. Normally a swim card can only allow you to reach an adjacent player, but if you double up the swim cards you can reach further around the turn order.
There are other cards in the deck, one revserses the order of play, which also effects how "swim" cards are played. Another card is the Fisherman, which you can play to remove another players Sturgeon. Also you can protect your fish with "Weeds" or by making them into a school.
And thats about it. It's a simple path to victory and the play is certainly not going to strain your brain. It's a light and quick to play game, ideal for family play or as a simple filler. You might even play a round to see who'll be your start player of the next game.
The game comes in a nice shiny tuck box featuring a Sturgeon leaping out of the lake, and the game is made up of 60 cards. The cards are themselves are standard weight and thickness and feature some nice cartoon fish, and I just love the minnow hiding in the weeds, he's so cute!
The rules cover 1 side of a sheet of paper with the rear side of the same sheet containing examples of play.
All in all its a nice family game, well presented, clearly explained and all for under 12 US Dollars. At that price you can't complain, it's simply a bargain!
Friday, June 11, 2010
A MERP RPG session heading for a TPK
The party have entered an underground Orc infested dungeon like affair.
Two orcs escaped from the first combat, running down a corridor. One nipped into a side room, The other ran to the end and opened the door. the door led to a cafeteria and 6 more Orcs were muching their chow in there.
The Orc that opened the door turned and guarded it waiting for back up from his pals. The party first nipped into the side room which turned out to be the armoury and put an arrow or two through the orc who was himself grabbing a bow and some arrows.
Then they decided to deal with the other Orc, as they emerged into the corridor they found that he was standing his ground but a table had been turned on its side and pushed across the doorway and a bunch of Orcs were behind it waving nothing bigger than cutlery ( they had been eating ).
The partys sniper ( Elf with +71 Missile ) planned to start picking them off and pulled out his bow and commenced to fumble it dropping it. Then the tank came running down the corridor ( Fighter with +43 1 Handed Edged ) and he too fumbled, badly, and ended up rolling a D crush crit which broke his leg giving him a -40 to activity! We ruled that he'd tripped over the elfs bow as he ran forward.
The partys scout and wizard came rushing foward to protect the fallen warrior. The Orc tried to kill the fallen man with a big swing but HE fumbled! The sword went flying! I gave it a 30% chance of the sword flying over the barricade to the Orcs with the cutlery, and it did!
The Orc threw itself onto the warrior in a grapple attack.
The partys scout jumped into the grapple and managed to pull the Orc off the fighter in a full nelson. The sniper and Wizard put an arrow each into it.
At this point the Orcs behind the barricade boosted the Orc with the newly aquired sword over the obstruction in a flying attack. He crashed into the floor and was pin cushioned with arrows before he could rise.
A few more arrors went over the table thinning the Orc heard before the Scout could stand no more of this waiting. He decided to jump the Barricade and get into combat, but rolled poorly, ending up only halfway over the barricade! The Orcs immediately all fell on him, opening him up with thier knives.
And there we ended it. Scout dead, tank immobile ( with -40 he couldn't even move! ) four angry Orcs a few feet away, and only a weak Wizard and the Sniper left on their feet.
A fun time all round and proof that the crit and fumble systems of MERP can make for great game play :)
Two orcs escaped from the first combat, running down a corridor. One nipped into a side room, The other ran to the end and opened the door. the door led to a cafeteria and 6 more Orcs were muching their chow in there.
The Orc that opened the door turned and guarded it waiting for back up from his pals. The party first nipped into the side room which turned out to be the armoury and put an arrow or two through the orc who was himself grabbing a bow and some arrows.
Then they decided to deal with the other Orc, as they emerged into the corridor they found that he was standing his ground but a table had been turned on its side and pushed across the doorway and a bunch of Orcs were behind it waving nothing bigger than cutlery ( they had been eating ).
The partys sniper ( Elf with +71 Missile ) planned to start picking them off and pulled out his bow and commenced to fumble it dropping it. Then the tank came running down the corridor ( Fighter with +43 1 Handed Edged ) and he too fumbled, badly, and ended up rolling a D crush crit which broke his leg giving him a -40 to activity! We ruled that he'd tripped over the elfs bow as he ran forward.
The partys scout and wizard came rushing foward to protect the fallen warrior. The Orc tried to kill the fallen man with a big swing but HE fumbled! The sword went flying! I gave it a 30% chance of the sword flying over the barricade to the Orcs with the cutlery, and it did!
The Orc threw itself onto the warrior in a grapple attack.
The partys scout jumped into the grapple and managed to pull the Orc off the fighter in a full nelson. The sniper and Wizard put an arrow each into it.
At this point the Orcs behind the barricade boosted the Orc with the newly aquired sword over the obstruction in a flying attack. He crashed into the floor and was pin cushioned with arrows before he could rise.
A few more arrors went over the table thinning the Orc heard before the Scout could stand no more of this waiting. He decided to jump the Barricade and get into combat, but rolled poorly, ending up only halfway over the barricade! The Orcs immediately all fell on him, opening him up with thier knives.
And there we ended it. Scout dead, tank immobile ( with -40 he couldn't even move! ) four angry Orcs a few feet away, and only a weak Wizard and the Sniper left on their feet.
A fun time all round and proof that the crit and fumble systems of MERP can make for great game play :)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Five Torpedoes and down she goes...
I've just finished my first game in a couple of months of "Sink the Bismarck", and managed a reasonable score, but in a rather odd way.
The first couple of turns passed with things going my way quite nicely, I managed to down a couple of Swordfish planes quite quickly, but then things started going weird.
The early success turned into air-gunnery disaster, when for turn after turn I hit nothing at all, and the first torpedo hit the ship very quickly.
Another couple of rounds later and the air was filled with Swordfish and I was having to point all of the guns into the water to fend off torps.
It was in the water that my luck was strongest. In the end I blew thirteen torpedos and only downed five aircraft! Most turns I was pointing two gunnery dice at a torpedo, other turns all of them. Only when there was a slight breather was I able to target an aircraft.
In the water I kept getting 6 after 6, but in the air... only despair!
When you target an aircraft in one of the outer air lanes it gives you a two thirds chance of targetting the right space, as the plane only has a one third chance of deviating. However this did not work for me at all in this game. The Swordfish just kept dodging.
Back in the water my luck was outrageously good. But luck is of course fickle, and my run of 6's couldn't hold. Eventually it broke and the last three torpedos all hit within two turns.
It all ended with a not-bad score of 70 points.
The first couple of turns passed with things going my way quite nicely, I managed to down a couple of Swordfish planes quite quickly, but then things started going weird.
The early success turned into air-gunnery disaster, when for turn after turn I hit nothing at all, and the first torpedo hit the ship very quickly.
Another couple of rounds later and the air was filled with Swordfish and I was having to point all of the guns into the water to fend off torps.
It was in the water that my luck was strongest. In the end I blew thirteen torpedos and only downed five aircraft! Most turns I was pointing two gunnery dice at a torpedo, other turns all of them. Only when there was a slight breather was I able to target an aircraft.
In the water I kept getting 6 after 6, but in the air... only despair!
When you target an aircraft in one of the outer air lanes it gives you a two thirds chance of targetting the right space, as the plane only has a one third chance of deviating. However this did not work for me at all in this game. The Swordfish just kept dodging.
Back in the water my luck was outrageously good. But luck is of course fickle, and my run of 6's couldn't hold. Eventually it broke and the last three torpedos all hit within two turns.
It all ended with a not-bad score of 70 points.
Monday, May 03, 2010
The end for Talisman?
Yesterday I played Talisman for the first time in probably a year, maybe two years, I havn't actually checked.
I played it because my son had been asking. I was reluctant because I knew just how long the game takes. I've felt for a long time that the game is too long, under the normal rules it usually runs for 3+ hours.
To address the time problem I've made a few house rules, which are as follows.
1 ) When you kill Craft based monsters you can cash in your trophes for a gain in craft, just like you do for Strength.
2 ) Instead of needing 7 Strength ( or Craft, see rule 1 ) in trophies to increase a stat, you only need 5.
3 ) You can have as many followers as you can collect.
4 ) No limit to how m any items you can carry
5 ) No limit on the number of weapons, armors etc you can use, so yes, you only have two arms but can use 6 swords.
6 ) Start with 4 gold.
So thats what I changed in order to speed up the game. However, it wasn't enough. Sure it speeded up the game, but something was still wrong. It's only now the next day that I've allowed mysef to see the problem.
"Allowed myself to see", you say? Yep, I believe that I've been in denial about this game. I've actually had this game since the 80s and even bought an expansion for it back in the day. This game has followed me for over 20 years and that has given it a certain amount of "value".
But now, now that my experience of games has grown, I've come to realise in the last day that I don't actually like the game. I don't like this game that I've kept safe and secure for 20+ years and carried from home to home. That was a hard truth to uncover.
So, what is it that I dont like? Obviously it's too long. But it turns out there's more. It's just too random for my liking. As a principal I dont mind randomness in games, but here, it's gone too far. Roll to move, roll for the event card, roll for the encounter, roll for the location effects. Roll, roll, roll leading to too little choice, too much bad luck and too little stratergy.
With my new realisation I'm now planning on selling my 1983 copy of Talisman along with its expansion, making room in my collection for a game I do like!
Oh, and despite the game being so random, how come the Witch always ends up on the doorway to the inner circle?
I played it because my son had been asking. I was reluctant because I knew just how long the game takes. I've felt for a long time that the game is too long, under the normal rules it usually runs for 3+ hours.
To address the time problem I've made a few house rules, which are as follows.
1 ) When you kill Craft based monsters you can cash in your trophes for a gain in craft, just like you do for Strength.
2 ) Instead of needing 7 Strength ( or Craft, see rule 1 ) in trophies to increase a stat, you only need 5.
3 ) You can have as many followers as you can collect.
4 ) No limit to how m any items you can carry
5 ) No limit on the number of weapons, armors etc you can use, so yes, you only have two arms but can use 6 swords.
6 ) Start with 4 gold.
So thats what I changed in order to speed up the game. However, it wasn't enough. Sure it speeded up the game, but something was still wrong. It's only now the next day that I've allowed mysef to see the problem.
"Allowed myself to see", you say? Yep, I believe that I've been in denial about this game. I've actually had this game since the 80s and even bought an expansion for it back in the day. This game has followed me for over 20 years and that has given it a certain amount of "value".
But now, now that my experience of games has grown, I've come to realise in the last day that I don't actually like the game. I don't like this game that I've kept safe and secure for 20+ years and carried from home to home. That was a hard truth to uncover.
So, what is it that I dont like? Obviously it's too long. But it turns out there's more. It's just too random for my liking. As a principal I dont mind randomness in games, but here, it's gone too far. Roll to move, roll for the event card, roll for the encounter, roll for the location effects. Roll, roll, roll leading to too little choice, too much bad luck and too little stratergy.
With my new realisation I'm now planning on selling my 1983 copy of Talisman along with its expansion, making room in my collection for a game I do like!
Oh, and despite the game being so random, how come the Witch always ends up on the doorway to the inner circle?
Sunday, May 02, 2010
A six turn limit.
I have now played exactly one game of Risk : Transformers.
From a read through of the rules before playing I thought I had finally found a risk variant that would work for me.
My experience of risk has been the original version which simply drags on and on longer than a game of Talisman! The other verion I played was the awful Star Wars : Clone wars disaster, which was totally broken.
So how'd it go with this game? It went very well actually!
For a start the box is just the right size, The two other versions I mentioned are in larger boxes that take up too much space. This box fitted a hole on my shelf perfectly.
Inside we have a very colourful board, Robots (transformers) and tanks for playing pieces and a somewhat bizarre L shaped piece of plastic for each factions leader, The dice are good quality and heavy.
Another nice addition is the plastic scenery. There are two turntable areas that allow you to join or break connections between two areas. You get an army into the zone, only to have your opponent swivel it so it no longer goes where you want it to go. The other two plastic zones have a sliding area that can be moved to open a factory where extra units can be created.
So what we have are some good variation to the basic game.
1) Plastic terrain pieces that move
2) Strange L shaped leader pieces ( that also fight with D8s )
3) The game is only 6 turns long
STOP! WAIT! WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?
Yes that's right the game is exactly 6 turns long. And this fixes the biggest bugbear I have with Risk, that it goes on far far too long.
So all of the usual tactics are here, take over areas, earn cards, mass for attacks etc, except now it doesn't go on for 20 hours.
After 6 turns you just count who has the most areas occupied to see who's won. Frankly thats just enough for the repetitive Risk mechanics, but here it's even enhanced by the ability to use the plastic terrain pieces to your advantage.
So I reccomend this version of Risk.
From a read through of the rules before playing I thought I had finally found a risk variant that would work for me.
My experience of risk has been the original version which simply drags on and on longer than a game of Talisman! The other verion I played was the awful Star Wars : Clone wars disaster, which was totally broken.
So how'd it go with this game? It went very well actually!
For a start the box is just the right size, The two other versions I mentioned are in larger boxes that take up too much space. This box fitted a hole on my shelf perfectly.
Inside we have a very colourful board, Robots (transformers) and tanks for playing pieces and a somewhat bizarre L shaped piece of plastic for each factions leader, The dice are good quality and heavy.
Another nice addition is the plastic scenery. There are two turntable areas that allow you to join or break connections between two areas. You get an army into the zone, only to have your opponent swivel it so it no longer goes where you want it to go. The other two plastic zones have a sliding area that can be moved to open a factory where extra units can be created.
So what we have are some good variation to the basic game.
1) Plastic terrain pieces that move
2) Strange L shaped leader pieces ( that also fight with D8s )
3) The game is only 6 turns long
STOP! WAIT! WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?
Yes that's right the game is exactly 6 turns long. And this fixes the biggest bugbear I have with Risk, that it goes on far far too long.
So all of the usual tactics are here, take over areas, earn cards, mass for attacks etc, except now it doesn't go on for 20 hours.
After 6 turns you just count who has the most areas occupied to see who's won. Frankly thats just enough for the repetitive Risk mechanics, but here it's even enhanced by the ability to use the plastic terrain pieces to your advantage.
So I reccomend this version of Risk.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Decktet book.
This is a review of the recently released Decktet book.
Disclosure : I designed a game that uses the Decktet, a variation of that is included in this book, and I was sent a complimentary copy.
The Details :
This softback book is the size of a regular paperback and runs to 136 pages, has a glossy colour cover and is black and white within.
In my murky past I once read a book about the various standard games that can be played with regular cards. That book ( long since lost ) basically listed the games and gave the rules for each in a dry style. This book does not do that, this book has a jaunty style that makes it an engaging read, it also contains much more than just rules!
Lets step through the pages.
After a couple of pages preliminaries it leads into a section that I found really enjoyable. In this section the author describes the genesis of the Decktet gaming system, from first ideas to final version. The text and images show how the card designs evolved and give an insight into the desingers mind and inspirations.
The next section is the biggest in the book and actually gives you the rules for a number of games. This is not some dry recital of mechanics! As I mentioned earlier, the mood of the writing is jaunty and never boring.
I should mention that the designer has a "game world" in mind when dealing with the Decktet, and many of the games have a background story about their development or place in the world. What this does is help to build a theme into the card play. With a regular deck you'd just be following suit or some such, but with this background you have a theme or a story to the game play. I have found that having that background adds to my enjoyment of the games.
In general each game description is broken up into "Setup", "Play", "stratergy" and "using the Extended Deck", the final section often giving extra rules which you might consider the advanced version of the game.
In total 21 games are presented.
Next up are a few pages suggesting how you could use the card deck within a role playing game. I hadn't thought of that until reading this section, and I found that it did inspire me to use the deck for this. Some good ideas here.
Then comes part 3, which a guide to using the Decktet for fortune telling. Obviously this is silly nonsence, BUT the process' and suggestions here are very useful once again for the roleplayer. The Gypsy fortune teller in your RPG could be played out in full at the gaming table using this guide.
For the number crunchers out there, you will find the final section of interest. It presents a number of analytical views of the deck with especial reference to how the numbers add up for the various games. this knowledge will certainly be of use to a serious player.
A final note, about art. The book is liberally scattered with black and white art, varying in style from simple pen and ink drawings to wood-cut like. All of the art adds to the "feel" of the book and the theme of the Decktet itself.
In summary, I've really enjoyed reading the book and would reccomend it for any fan of the Decktet, or anyone who wants a game related book for some light reading.
The Decktet
.
Disclosure : I designed a game that uses the Decktet, a variation of that is included in this book, and I was sent a complimentary copy.
The Details :
This softback book is the size of a regular paperback and runs to 136 pages, has a glossy colour cover and is black and white within.
In my murky past I once read a book about the various standard games that can be played with regular cards. That book ( long since lost ) basically listed the games and gave the rules for each in a dry style. This book does not do that, this book has a jaunty style that makes it an engaging read, it also contains much more than just rules!
Lets step through the pages.
After a couple of pages preliminaries it leads into a section that I found really enjoyable. In this section the author describes the genesis of the Decktet gaming system, from first ideas to final version. The text and images show how the card designs evolved and give an insight into the desingers mind and inspirations.
The next section is the biggest in the book and actually gives you the rules for a number of games. This is not some dry recital of mechanics! As I mentioned earlier, the mood of the writing is jaunty and never boring.
I should mention that the designer has a "game world" in mind when dealing with the Decktet, and many of the games have a background story about their development or place in the world. What this does is help to build a theme into the card play. With a regular deck you'd just be following suit or some such, but with this background you have a theme or a story to the game play. I have found that having that background adds to my enjoyment of the games.
In general each game description is broken up into "Setup", "Play", "stratergy" and "using the Extended Deck", the final section often giving extra rules which you might consider the advanced version of the game.
In total 21 games are presented.
Next up are a few pages suggesting how you could use the card deck within a role playing game. I hadn't thought of that until reading this section, and I found that it did inspire me to use the deck for this. Some good ideas here.
Then comes part 3, which a guide to using the Decktet for fortune telling. Obviously this is silly nonsence, BUT the process' and suggestions here are very useful once again for the roleplayer. The Gypsy fortune teller in your RPG could be played out in full at the gaming table using this guide.
For the number crunchers out there, you will find the final section of interest. It presents a number of analytical views of the deck with especial reference to how the numbers add up for the various games. this knowledge will certainly be of use to a serious player.
A final note, about art. The book is liberally scattered with black and white art, varying in style from simple pen and ink drawings to wood-cut like. All of the art adds to the "feel" of the book and the theme of the Decktet itself.
In summary, I've really enjoyed reading the book and would reccomend it for any fan of the Decktet, or anyone who wants a game related book for some light reading.
The Decktet
.
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