Economical with the truth

I did see a couple of the pirates of the Caribbean films. Truth be told I fell asleep during the first one. Watched it again and promptly fell asleep again. That’s neither here nor there and I since watched it again and haven’t fallen asleep. In one of them they play a game that is liars dice. End of review.

UNLESS like me you’ve never seen that movie in question in which case it’s a push your luck game played with dice and a communal “hand”.

Each person starts with five dice in a shaker and secretly rolls them then the starting player calls a challenge. “I bet there are Four Threes in the group of dice (all 20)” they might yell

The next player has to call “PULL THE OTHER ONE!” (or equivalent but probably involving anatomy) or raise the bet. And so it goes until one player calls BS and either the bet is met or failed. Whomever fails loses one of the their dice and it continues until only one player has dice

It’s simple. It’s light. It’s fun. Reminds me a bit of skull and roses. You could make it up with a sheet of A4 and a stack of dice (and I encourage you to do just that)

I picked it up cheap in the big buy and sell at Knavecon. It would have been a sin to leave it behind so I’m going to justify my tenner

Game length is short. You can have it played in fifteen mins and it’s a nice wind down game at the end of the day. Apart from a hearty pirate Yargh! I have nothing to add

YARGH!

Vic

September 9, 2014 0

GRRRRRR! Dino-saur

I got to play Rampage late LATE at Knavecon. It’s pure silliness mixed in with equal parts charm and big stompy monsters. Anyone here remember chaos orb from magic the gathering? No? Damn I’m old

It was an early silly card which you dropped onto another players cards and it destroyed whatever it touched. Rampage reminds me of this.

It borrows the name from the old Bally Midway game rampage. Oh and the monsters. Eh and the concept can’t imagine why they would threatened legal action against the designers.

The object of the game is to score points as a monster destroying buildings and eating locals. I’m all in!

Got to play it again last night

The game is expensive and hard to find as it’s out of print. It’s a pretty sturdy game, it has to be since a lot of the pieces will undergo kinetic testing every round. Big colorful wooden monsters and pieces along with sturdy cardboard building floors makes for a visually impressive set-up

The rules are pretty straightforward with monsters allowed to take two actions per turn which could be move, elbow drop on a building, blow at targets or flick a truck. After each of these actions any building with unoccupied visible floors can be consumed revealing tasty humans (meeples) to chow down on. Just before you end your turn you can eat as many humans in your Vicinity as you have teeth (six to start with)

The real fun starts when one monster muscles in on another’s patch and robust exchanges initiate.

Knocking another monsters teeth out banshee style not only reduces his scoring potential but scores you points too. All consumed teeth and meeples wind up in your stomach (your player screen) and full sets of six meeples with one of each colour. (Blondes, old folks, reporters, eh foreign nationals etc.) score big points so a balanced diet is key for a modern monster

Each monster starts with a couple of special abilities (long tail, wrestling champ that sort of thing) and a one shot nasty ability which can swing the game (but quite often fizzles out like a damn (giant) squid) (I know) because of your sloppy aim. WHAT where you thinking?

This is NOT by any means a serious game insofar as any game is serious. It’s purely for fun and winning is neither here nor there (I won the game on Thur night by a long chalk /fist pump).

The gaming fraternity is very split on this game. Pure Marmite

Relax…. it’s a bit of fun if you don’t like it don’t play it. Ignore the pressure, just say no. If on the other hand you do play you’ll get to try something unique. There’s skill and planning in here there’s tactics. There’s very little strategy and there’s a fair bundle of luck.

Last week we had flicking in Ascending Empires this week Rampage. Next week subetteo? We’re certainly in different territory with the games of late but that’s no bad thing

Worker placement, map conquest? Pah! The future is monster flicky games (for at least a forthright)

Huzzah!

Vic

September 7, 2014 0

OI! Did you spill my potion?!!

Wizards fighting is an epic event. Usually I let you figure out the reference on the post but I’ll shortcut it just this once. This was from a 1963 movie called “The Raven” which I can vaguely remember (a rerun of) and featured a final showdown between two sorcerers played by Vincent Price and Boris Carloff (who seemingly one of the lads on Thur night is related to) Here’s a clip of the battle.

THIS is how gentlemen fight

Wiz War is a capture the flag shoot out in the style of Frag! It’s good clean fun and it does exactly what it says on the tin and exactly what you would expect of a game like this to be like. Up to four wizards scamper around a fairly random maze attempting to hold onto their own treasure whilst trying to grab someone else’s….

I’m going to tell a story now which I think is hilarious (says more about me than you). It’s off color so I’ll choose my words carefully. My dad worked on building sites when he was young and there wasn’t any toilets in this particular large development of flats. He was caught short one day and spying a flat across the way that another chippy had just vacated he ran down and left him a present …. only to return and find some thoughtful fella had done the same in his flat in his absence. 😦

This is wiz war in a nutshell. Run in and do the business before someone else does it to you 🙂

Wizards can move a certain amount of squares and at any point in movement launch off a spell. These come in the form of movement, offensive and defensive buffs, direct damage, passage blocking, direct damage and traps, this that and the other, exactly what you would expect. You score one point for grabbing enemy treasure. One for killing a wizard. Score two and it’s all over.

Here’s my problem, there’s nothing in here you don’t expect. Nothing novel or innovative. It’s uninspired, it’s quick but it’s a cheap thrill where winning isn’t really an accomplishment. It’s not random. There is skill in here but not enough to make you love the game.

It’s a fantasy flight game so it can’t help but be produced well. The minis (four wizards) are good quality. Ditto the board and cards. There are other games out there that do wizardly combat. Magic the gathering among them. They do it better.

That said there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this game and I’ll happily play it again but I wouldn’t be rushing out to buy it. It’s certainly good fun for younger players and there is a new expansion coming soon that looks interesting.

When I was a student and games were hard to find (or pay for) I used to design up my own. All of which wouldn’t pass muster these days. This game reminds me a bit of this. If you were asked to write a tabletop game of wizardly combat you’d probably come up with something similar to this. I’m going to play it again and my view may change but for now it’s raises only a meagre huzzah (with no capitals or exclamation points)

Head still spinning from games played in Knavecon so lots in the tank for more blogs. This could be good or bad

Roll on tonight, we’re playing RAMPAGE!

Huzzah!

Vic

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September 4, 2014 0

Knavecon IV ROCKED!

What Made Knavecon IV great?

The venue ? Fantastic, best venue so far, layout was great, big, airy, the reception room for chill-out, game demos, buy and sell and coffee worked a treat. The tables were way better than the last setup and we had ample space. Hotel Staff were great.

The Games? We had a great selection of games on the day, more than last time, some great games were played. I LOVED Rampage, what a crazy, silly game, (Which one of the lads rushed to Galway the next morning and bought a copy and it will be appearing this Thur at Thur night games!). I loved cockroach salad (It just hated me).

The Helpers? We had a lot more people on hand to speed up registration, help with game demos, move stuff and generally offer advice (I don’t believe anyone said “don’t trust Vic” once at the con, they’re slipping)

The random events? People in dressing gowns wandering down from the Spa, Wedding guests strolling in and quickly strolling out, men with bagpipes tuning up

The traders? Some great games on offer from our traders, thanks guys for making the trip

Nope!

These all helped but it was the people who came on the day, got stuck in and gamed gamed gamed until the wee hours.

Every time Knavecon is run we learn more about what you want, what we do wrong and what we do right and we always try and make the next one that bit better. Knavecon V is going to be a milestone for us. Preparations are already afoot for it and it’s going to be the best one to date.

Knaves (anyone who came is a Knave), you came, you gamed, you rocked. I salute you!

HUZZAH!

Vic

September 1, 2014 0

Knavecon IV

Knavecon IV begins today

10:00am Castletroy Park Hotel. Let’s game ’til we drop

Huzzah!

Vic

August 30, 2014 0

Breakfast of Heroes

Knavecon is a long day, best to prepare with a good hearty breakfast. Myself and a few of the knaves as per tradition will be meeting around 8:30 or so for a big fry up in the hotel before kick off. By all means join us!

Huzzah!

Vic

August 29, 2014 1

What should I bring to Knavecon?

What should I bring?

Bring yourself. If you have a game or two you like bring them too. If there’s a game you own and haven’t tried yet, bring it along and there’s bound to be someone who knows the rules and will be happy to play with you.
What Time and ’til when?

Knavecon is a one day event albeit a LONG day. We start at 10am and finish some time Sunday morning. Come along whatever time you like. Play as a little or as much as you like.

Will there be competitions?

There will be a number of fun competitions running during the day, nothing serious. Prizes will be games or tickets to other cons.

Are kids welcome?
Absolutely. Accompanied children are admitted free. All unsupervised children will be sold to the goblin king

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Will there be any events during the day?

We plan on running werewolf, cash and guns live, 30 seconds, x-wing, pegasus bridge and one or two other games during the day along with all the impromptu games that will happen. Grab a game and try it or join a group for a game their running, whatever you fancy

I’ve never played games before will this convention suit me?

Absolutely. You’ll be a veteran gamer by the time you leave 🙂

Are there any rules of conduct?

Don’t be a dick and respect the games you’ve been leant. Return them in the same fashion you received them

Anything else?

Have fun, relax and enjoy the day. It’s going to be good

Huzzah!

Vic

August 28, 2014 0

25, 26, 27

Psssttt!! Want to make some money? Go have a look at the game Ascending Empires on ebay. Here use this handy link on BGG

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37919/ascending-empires

$200 for the game in the states, €15 in France. Buy low sell high (send me half the difference as a finders fee)

When I got Ascending empires as a swapsee I had thought it was a standard enough 4x game (Expand, Explore, 2 other exes), I was a bit surprised when I found out the movement around the board was controlled by flicking the pieces. Having played one game I was hooked, this is genius and all games should have a flicking mechanic. Or NOT.

It’s been a while since I’d played it but I remembered how to setup the board so it was all go after that. In AE you start with a handful of troops and two small ships. The board consists of a scattering of random colored planets (facedown) and you flick your ships across the uneven surface and if you get in orbit of a planet you can land your troops and take it over. Once established on a planet you can build colonies and cities (adds defense and bonus points at end game) and research centers. These are key and allow you extra abilities and options depending on which tech branch you pursue

There’s a finite amount of planets so inevitably (i.e. after turn one) conflict ensues (much to the chagrin of the players) and planets are sieged, ships destroyed and empires humbled. What’s lovely about it is unlike most map based conquest games where it’s often trench warfare, due to the flick mechanic it’s quite possible to sneak interdiction attacks into the heart of your enemies empire.

Tech plays a big part in this game, getting ahead will give you major benefits.

There are four different colours of tech which correspond to planet colours. Each branch does different things like increase the amount of ships and troops you can have, how many flicks you get during movement, allow you to build a bigger battleship craft and so on. To tech up you first need to conquer a planet of the appropriate color and build a research station on it then research the tech to move up. To get to a particular level of tech you need to own that many planets of the corresponding colours with research stations on them. A Tall order when everyone is fighting for resources.

Getting to the fourth level of any tech colour grants some awesome powers. in my case I teched up brown and could teleport to unowned planets nilly willy. It was like having moles in your garden.

The game for a map conquest is relatively quick. Turns shoot around (pardon the pun) and there’s practically no down time.

I like this game a lot. I’ve only played it a few times and usually only 1v1 so with extra players (it takes up to four) it gets really interesting. Now it does have it’s faults, the board is notoriously poor in design. It’s a set of jigsaw pieces that should form a flat surface for flicking around but it doesn’t. There was more than one curse when a ship careered off a joint. It’s certainly not a show stopper and it makes the game a little bit more crazy golf than billiards. No-one really complained as everyone was working on the same playing field.

The game is simple to play, the rules are all contained on your play board and it’s very elegant. There are no grey areas or what ifs, everything is covered. I’m surprised this game didn’t make a bigger splash and that it’s out of print, I would have loved to see more games like it but who knows, games have a habit of reappearing. As it stands it’s a tasty little game and if you can get your your hands on it go for it. It’s a goodie

Oh lest I forget i won. 27 points, my opponents scored 26 and 25 points 🙂

it will be at Knavecon IV

Huzzah!

Vic

August 27, 2014 0

Holy Monkeys only 3 days to Knavecon IV

Next Saturday is Knavecon IV. It’s going to be a GOOD day. A lot of work has been put in place to make sure it all runs smoothly and I’m looking forward to it. I’m currently in the eye of the storm having done a lot of prep work and come Saturday I’m looking forward to a good, extended, relaxed day of drinking coffee, eating rubbish and playing some awesome games, more than likely against people who don’t know me that well and have not been told “don’t trust Vic”.

The stage is set, the wheels are in motion, additional generic metaphor.

Let’s rock up, kick some ass and take names

See you all on Saturday!

Huzzah!

Vic

August 26, 2014 0

Last Thur we gamed

Well the weather was starting to look all boardgamey so it seemed only appropriate to not fight with it. I’ll come back to the main game of the night later but for now I have to mention the wind down game we played or more accurately survived

Panic Lab!

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121073/panic-lab

is a kids game. Seeing a trend here? Which is very simple but with the addition of a few rules makes it’s an adult game and a complete head wrecker. In one of the circles of Hell they’re playing Panic Lab right now with pitch forks and electric shocks. If you wanted to break and enemy agent or find out where treasure is buried, force them to play Panic Lab, they’ll crack sooner rather than later.

I reckon (a scientific measure) that as a kids game, someone that masters this game should be locked up away from the rest of society. It’s like mirrors, it’s not natural.

The game of course is simple. You spread the cards in a circle and they consist (depending on how hard you want to make it and how much you hate your brain)

Start Points
Creatures
Transformers (optional)
Vents (optional)

You then roll the four dice and it dictates

The colour creature you’re looking for (red/blue), Spots or Stripes, Travel Clockwise or Anti-Clockwise and whether it’s a ghost or a slug type creature. First one to spot it sticks a finger on it and claims a point, get it wrong they loose a point. Simple so far….

Here’s where it all goes wrong. Along the way you have Transformers (not those ones)

And these little honeys swap around what you’re looking for. So now you’re looking for a striped creature and now you’re looking for a blue one.

Let’s not stop there, along the way are vents, go onto one and you teleport to the next vent and continue from there. It’s quite possible to wind up (in your mind) doing a few revolutions of the circle before you find the little fella you want. Do this before everyone else does it, ignore the foam on players mouths. Mind Blown.

Seems very simple but try it and you’ll find a new level of profanity issuing from your lips as you get it wrong again and lose a point

The game is cheap as chips. About a €10 or so. It is very intense so you couldn’t play more than a few games but while you’re in that masochistic zone it’s a very “interesting” experience. It’s great with kids, start them off without the transformers and vents.

I’m certainly going to pick up a copy of it but I’m not sure if that says more about me than the game

It’ll be a Knavecon

Huzzah!

Vic

August 25, 2014 0