I think this says it all. It’s Sunday the 19th July for a gamers family day out. Book your place with me now
Huzzah!
Vic
Stop avoiding confrontation
Lord of the Rings. The Confrontation is a two player, quick, fun, strategy game that’s definitely not co-op.
I wasn’t a big fan of the Reiner Kenisa Lord of the Rings games. I had the first two and the whole co-op thing didn’t light my palantir. This is a different beast. Straight in, Mano et Mano, bare minimum of kissing.
The game sees you as either the fellowship trying to sneak Frodo into Mordor or ‘the lads’ trying to kill Frodo or less likely get three of your dudes into the shire. Both locations are at opposite ends of the map so it’s going to be a struggle
The Trick to this game is the subterfuge. Your characters are only visible to you. The other side of the stand they’re on is opaque, so you spend your time double and triple guessing your opponent. Each character has a special ability. Pippin kills the witch king if they meet in combat. Sean Bean kills both himself and whomever the opponent is in combat. The Nazgul can attack anywhere on the map and so on. It’s pretty balanced. I couldn’t find any massive advantage on either side even though they are a good bit different. The fellowship tend to be a bit weaker in fights but make up for it with their special abilities. The Sauron forces are militarily more powerful but really need to root out Frodo to have a chance.
The map is split into a dozen or so regions massaged to fit the diamond shaped board and every turn without fail you have to march forward on of your units. Most regions can only support two units (one in the mountains) so like checkers it’s a gravitational pull towards the opponents side and just like checkers it’s a one way trip. With some exceptions, units can’t move backwards
Battles kick off when one unit moves into a square containing an enemy piece. Both are revealed, their special ability applied and their combat strengths compared. Secretly players pick attack cards from their small (have to burn through them all first before they recycle) deck of combat cards and the winner stands while the loser exits stage left. It’s fast and brutal.
There’s a few cards like retreat or ignore other players card text so there’s a bit of variety. Card counting is essential
There’s also a nice bit of variety. The game comes with basic rules. Extra rules for magic cards and alternative characters so there’s considerable variety in here.
There’s a real one more go about this game. You’ll get it played it twenty minutes. I played a half dozen games recently against the one opponent, each of them close and each of us demanding a replay having called into question the winners parentage
As you would expect I’ve played mostly the Sauron side and I’ve loved every minute. Both sides are different experiences and both are a lot of fun to play.
If you’re looking for a good solid two player and you’re a Lord of the rings fan this will serve admirably.
Huzzah
Vic
A Date in Istanbul
I picked up Istanbul at the last Knavecon. It had been recommended to me by a gaming buddy (who’s opinions on games I trust) and it looked suitably different to warrant a gander or more accurately a pony.
The game sees you and your opponents as sweating street merchants hauling around a cart full of goods from pillar to post trying to acquire six expensive gems before you’re opponents do. The board consists of sixteen locations all with an action you can use when you arrive there.
Having grandiose notions you maintain an entourage of four street urchins who follow you around and on arrival at a location carry out the necessary paperwork on your behalf. These urchins are a key limiting mechanic and you find yourself spending precious turns trying to recall them to you so can continue your quest.
The locations you move around offer up various rewards picking up goods for your cart, selling goods for cash, giving you bonus cards, allowing you to recall your entourage, spots that allow you to improve your cart, buy gems and buy general improvements and help. Like a lot of games of this ilk (splendor) it’s a case of building your economy and then deciding when to go for broke. Unlike some games (five tribes) it’s abundantly clear who’s ahead and behind as all that counts at the end is someone getting their sixth jewel
Again following the traditions of this type of game it’s a relatively solo affair with some cock blockery open to players but as far as I could see the swiftest route to victory was to keep your head down and concentrate on yourself. I’m probably wrong about this and a further report will follow when a half dozen games have been played.
The game is no less fun for this way. It works really well, it’s also pretty fast. An hour to an hour and a half will see you done and dusted depending on how many you have (2-5) and it seems to scale well.
The board is something of note. It’s made up of 16 cards which can be arranged in a variety of configurations making for longer and shorter games. The artwork is very nice. The rules are excellent and despite a medium complexity you’ll be up and running pretty quick. I’m confident as well that we got the rules worked out perfectly on our first game, which is quite a feat.
The proof of the pudding was all the players fancied another go and went off looking for places to buy it from so all good
Huzzah!
Vic
Jupiter’s Lad
“Choose life. Choose a ball and chain. Choose armour with a matching helmet. Choose a javelin. Choose slaves. Choose back stabbing opponents, turning your thumb down and poisoning your opponents wine, choose wasting your last coin on a sure fire bet and having to send half your gladiators packing because you’re a flat broke fat bloke… Me I chose a something else…”
I like when a game has more than one route to win. I like it as well when I discover it myself and my opponents find out the hard way. Now when I say a route to win don’t assume I won in the traditional sense using this technique. Assume I … Stormed the initial rampart so lesser gamers could follow. For me it was win, the scoreboard just didn’t have the fidelity to record it as such.
I’ve spoken before about Spartacus and its expansion but it’s been a while and we got to play it recently. Almost by accident I discovered a route to victory (which if it were not for those meddling kids I would have exploited for a quick win). As it was for no apparent reason I could see I was picked on and victory was snapped from my hands. I don’t really like to talk about it so lets move on
The game sees with the aid of the expansion six houses compete for the highest influence via the rather bloody and sordid conduit of gladiatorial combat. Each player manages a stable of gladiators and supporting slaves along with the intrigues and down right back stabbery one would expect. (Well I would expect). Money is used to bid on warriors, slaves and weapons and bets on matches are the primary source of income.
The matches themselves are fast and furious and often see gladiators (at least the less favoured ones) getting the final thumbs down. It’s a neat little game. Almost by accident I found that it was quite possible just like the Swiss bankers in Imperial to stay aloof from the fighting if you could ensure you were the only one who ran the matches. So that’s what I did. I saved all my greasy coins and only bid on the hosting of matches. You see the one who hosts the Matches gets one influence for their trouble so it meant along with various intrigue cards I was a winner every turn. All grand and dandy until one player out bid me (after some bad betting left me a little short of AU79) and asked me to fight in a match. Not wanting to lose face I garbed up a Slave who proved as effective as a chocolate teapot in a burning house. Having lost all my slaves the same mongrel hit me with a “if the player has no slaves” intrigue card and knocked me off my pedal stool….
Successfully winning the bids while the others burn their finite coin on beef units and pointy kit will worked. Well it should work. Given the right group (one who doesn’t know me) I think this could be the fast route to victory. It was fun. It’s a great game. I recommend you play it. Better still I’ll play you at the next knavecon and if you see me not bidding on anything you’ll know what I’m all about. Probably.
Huzzah!
Vic
Game Over Man!
Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game is a very interesting deck builder. It’s sort of a Star Realms plus but I’d do it a disservice leaving it there.
The game is either a coop or semi coop depending on what rules you go for (Basic or Advanced) with the ingenuous option of playing as an alien if you get killed by one
I was lucky enough to get to play two games of it, both of which were very different.
The game sees you playing out the plot or more accurately completing a number of objectives from the various aliens movies (1-4). Each use the same rules but work off different decks all of which makes for nicely different experiences
This game oozes theme. Everything you’d expect from the movies and a bit more. The designers took a little artistic license to bring a variety of different alien types not just the queen, face huggers and drones. The game sees the players battle xenos with acid blood, howling aliens, bigger dudes, smaller ones, stealthies, fast ones and all of them are believable.
A game starts by first picking which film to play out, choosing the respective alien and player decks and the three events that have to be completed to win the game. Seal the airlock. Setup sentry guns, Kill the queen and so on.
Players take an avatar with a certain amount of hit points and a unique starter card for their starter deck and square off with basic cards against aliens that each players turn move through six zones towards the combat zone (like a conveyor belt of chitinous doom). Once they get to the combat zone they start handing out damage cards like they were free samples so its key to wipe them out before they reach it.
The two currencies in the game are damage and recruit points. If you’ve played star realms (or most deck builders) you’ll be in familiar territory.
Recruit points (gold) allow you to buy more cards for your deck. Damage points are used to reveal aliens cards creeping through the sectors and wipe them out. Some of these aliens have an effect (usually negative) when revealed, some have an effect (usually negative) when they die.
So it’s a race to stem the tide of shiny black whilst trying to compete the group mission.
I got to play the first game with two players (it will accommodate five) and the second with three. We did very well with the first (the first alien movie) but got soundly hammered towards the end of he second (Couldn’t rescue all the hostages in time).
Even though it was coop it was a lot of fun and edge of your seat stuff from start to finish. Advanced rules allow for hidden agendas for characters (you might wind up with a Burke type character who wants to bring back a sample by being the sole survivor etc), now this mode really interests me. Equally you could play the rules that sees dead players take the part of aliens with their own decks and wreaking havoc with the humans.
This is a very neat game. I can see it becoming a decent iOS game like Star Realms before long and the Predator version which can be played stand alone or integrated with this is currently in kickstarter.
If I had to fault it I through the art work was only average. The designers chose to do their own art work rather than take stills from the films which range from comic art to recreations of movie scenes to junior colouring competition stuff. It doesn’t affect the gameplay at all but we’ve come to expect higher quality art on our cards and this isn’t it.
One thing of note is a lovely three foot long playmat that comes with the game and it’s invaluable for setup showing clearly where all the various stacks start and discard to
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this game before playing it. I figured it would be a game with the aliens theme tacked on but I was pleasantly surprised. I’m not going to rush out to buy it because someone in the group has it but if you’re an alien(s) fan this is a fine game for your needs.
Huzzah
Vic
KnaveKids
After the success of the Kids Corner at Knavecon V (due in no small part to Borys and the other parents who knocked it out of the park on the day) we’re going to run a smaller shorter, one day event just for families.
Starting at 11am on Sunday the 19th July 2015 until 8pm in the Castletroy Park Hotel Knavekids is going to be a family boardgame convention. Bring yourself, bring your kids and take part. Knavecon will provide all the games you’ll need or bring some of your own favourites.
We’re going to gear everything towards children so lot’s of games for younger players, group games and events, chill out spots with colouring and lego and anything else we can think of before then. That’s not say we won’t cater for older kids, we will. We’ll adjust it around the group.
Places are going to be strictly limited and prepaid. The cost is €20 for the day for you and your family.
The event is a family event for accompanied children so you’re expected to game with your kids too. If you’re a veteran gamer or a complete beginner this is a great opportunity to get your children interested in this wonderful hobby.
I’ll be joined by Borys & co who ran kids corner at Knavecon V and I’m hoping this will be the start of a regular event.
If you fancy taking part, contact me via the usual channels and let’s make it a day to remember (in a good way)
Huzzah!
Vic
Why can’t we just get along?
Invasion from Outer Space : The Martian Game
Why can’t we get along? Well… If we did it would make for a very short game. This is a rework of last Night on Earth. It’s a straightforward no messing around zombie game not a million miles from zombicide. I was lucky enough to pick it up in pristine condition at the Knavecon buy and sell.
The game sees two or more players take the part of the evil Mars attacks type aliens and the mad as hell and not going to take it anymore colourful circus performers.
Like all good zombie games, The bulk of the alien forces are cannon fodder but plentiful and can overwhelm in numbers. The Heroes are a tougher lot and can take a number of hits before they fall beneath the green tide.
The invaders also sport a couple of super aliens in the shape of the Zard beast. An indiscriminate wrecking ball and the Martian hero, the equivalent to the human heroes.
Play sees the two duking it out in a variety of scenarios all with a strict and terminal (for the humans) amount of game turns. The action happens around a fairly randomly laid out circus with the big top always at the centre. Various rooms offer up a wide variety of searchable items (hero cards) ranging from weapons and equipment to various cantrips. The aliens equally get to draw from their invader deck with a view to spiking the Carneys 8pm performance (and taking over the world)
It’s a very neat game. It does everything you’d expect of this genre and there’s no real down time. I’ve only played it two player, but from my experience of last night on earth it should scale pretty well.
The art work and print qualify is excellent. It’s very shiny. The art is on par with other games from Flying Frog. I assume that unlike me Flying Frog have a brace of handsome friends they can call on to play the parts of the various heroes. The photo work is superb and exudes an air of fun and frivolity.
I like this game. It’s a happy, fun, relatively light affair, well worth the entrance fee. If you don’t have a good zombie game and don’t fancy shelling out for a more expensive animal you won’t go far wrong with this
Huzzah (or ag ag ag ag as we alien invaders like to say)
Vic
Here’s mud in your eye !
There is a joy in setting out a game. Arranging all the pieces just so in
anticipation of the coming clash. The bigger the game the better. It
feels just right when everything is laid out correctly and easily to hand.
War of the Rings takes a bit of setting up, it also takes a bit of space too, but oh boy is it worth the effort!
I spoke recently about this game having played a couple of games of it
and been completely smitten. It’s a really really good game. Even if
you weren’t a Lord of the Rings fan (that lone gentleman at the back you
can leave now) the mechanics and flow of the game are still sublime. I’d
happily play any setting with this setup. Being Lord of the Rings and
being so close to what you would expect of that world it makes a
brilliant game stellar.
So why you might ask am I back here? Well…. I lost again, or more
correctly team Evil lost again, but you know what? It was fun! Let’s go back to the events of the night while they’re still fresh and I’m still bitter.
Myself and my team mate (collective responibility for losing) took the
Shadow side with the previous two good players taking their places
again.
The game was very different this time around. If you recall the nasty
hobbiteseses won last time by getting to mount doom (only just). Well we
were determined not to let this happen again and vowed to throw a bit
more resource at corrupting the ring bearer. It almost worked too (damn meddling kids). In addition to this plan we went straight out (zero kissing) at Minis Tirith in an effort to break it and take it before Strider arrived to give it all that. Again we almost did it
The good players had obviously been reading up on their strategies since
last time (evil players don’t read) and quickly Gandalf got hosed and
replaced by the new shine white version. Gandalf the white is a pain
in the codpiece
This time around very little happened with the dwarfs, they wandered
around a bit but never got roused into war, ditto the northerners.
Gondor quickly joined the fray with combined actions against them from
the southerners and Mordor hordes. Minis Tirith was surrounded in siege
and the south of Gondor was taken by a large force of Southerers despite
a few spirited defenses and sallies from them. A relief force of
gondorians waylaid the Mordor forces but a counter attack saw them greatly reduced and destroyed but not before they relieved the siege of Minas Tirth and Strider got in and assumed the role of Isildur (curses)
The second siege of Minis Tirith saw good orcs die with not much to show for it and a little over extended the Sauron forces limped away went west and north while fresh troops moved in from Mordor to keep Isildur contained. It was too little too late, Isildur and his boys wiped the floor with these but still weight of numbers beyond Gondor held them back from coming out and attempting an attack on Mordor proper.
Not so Rohan, which having joined in the war swelled it’s ranks and
turned it’s gaze on Isengard. Saruman raised a large army of elite
troops to defend and the remaining Sauron orcs bolstered with nazguls
and the Witch king took a couple of Ronan towns and harassed the large
rohan army snapping at it’s heels and threatening to take helms deep
unopposed.
The Ronan army turned it’s attention to the anoying Sauron gnats and hammered seven shades out of them while Sarumans forces battened down the hatches and awaited Ronan’s advance. Secure and outnumbering in their defenses.
Then disaster struck as Whitey Gandalf with the aid of pippin coaxed the
Ents into not one but two attacks on Isengard, followed by the Eagles
(non the band) who devastated the uraks and followed up by a swift
approach by the reduced but still very effective Ronan army finally fell and gave up the keys for the tower.
At this point Rohan, Gondor and d’elves were doing well but paying for
their actions in troops that couldn’t be replaced (unlike the shadow
player whom had a bottomless, albeit slow pit of them).
The fellowship at this point had retreated to Lorien (because they’re
worth it) and were healing corruption, hanging out and partying while
the armies clashed all around.
Moria and Dol Guldor raised a huge host and marched on Lorien, planning
to crush them and take away support for the resident fellowship.
In the north a last ditch offensive had been put forth by the elves of
Rivendell. A plucky attack on the shadow bases of Mouth Gram. Shadow
armies were quickly raised. This was it, Isengard Uraks were mustering
to retake Isengard and it was only a short time before they would accomplish this. Ronan was bruised and bloodied from so much fighting. Lorien was about to fall and the fellowship was still quite a ways off it’s goal. If the northern shadow fortresses could repel the elves for a while it was all over for the now diminished forces of good. The nearby Shadow base was raising elites to throw into the fray and relieve the siege….
Didn’t work. Some fast play from the elves saw them take Mount
Grundabad in quick order and with Isengard still in their keep they won it by military victory….
What a stupendous game. The tension, the planning, the huge battles.
This was just as epic as the original trilogy and it all flew by in just
over three hours. Not bad. Not bad at all.
I’ll tell you something else. Even though we lost (again) we’re even
more fired up to play again. War of the Rings is a wonderful game. I
can see this hitting the table for a long time to come
Huzzah!
Vic
Dr Beat
But above all…. he played the part of the Evil Dr Victor Gannon
Huzzah!
Vic
4 Tribes Actually
Five tribes is a four player game. That’s the first thing that struck me. The second was this game can never ever (ever) be played with anyone who over analyses their move.
The game is relatively simple. It consists of a random spread of five by six tiles each populated by three meeples of five different colors. Each of the tiles has a special ability and a points value for ownership (it’s all about the points)
Play sees you lifting a clutch of meeples and then dropping them off one at a time into adjacent tiles in a contiguous path. The last spot you drop on you pick up all the meeples of the last colour you dropped, place them in front of you and kick off the special event (if you meet the criteria) for that spot. Lift the last meeple in that square and you claim ownership with a towel over a sunbed (or more accurately a camel meeple)
A number of other scoring routes exist, access to which are controlled by the colour of meeple you lift at the end of your sprinkling. Sets of goods cards (the more variety the more points), particular colors of meeples (worth progressively more points at the end the more you have) and djinns who not only grant victory points but shower points on you when certain actions occur. Palaces and palm trees can also be build which increase score yields.
It’s worker placement. It’s mind melting worker placement if you analyze your every move. It’s comstanopolis with a bit of lords of waterdeep tacked on.
It’s also one you’ll need a few gos of before it makes sense. It’s a grand game (as in it’s grand not big or sweeping), I’d go so far as to say it’s a forgettable game. There’s a lot of this stuff out there (Puerto Rico, Istanbul and so on). If worker placement be thy God than this is a fine Demi God worthy of your prayers. If however you like to stick it directly to your friends more directly (there’s some cock blockery to be had in the shape of assassinations and grabbing before others do) then you might want to look elsewhere
Huzzah
Vic
Victor Gannon Games 