Boardgames, Card Games, Gaming
Knavecon 4 is coming, Saturday August 30th, tell your families you won’t be home, hydrate, spread the word, shower, get your game on.
10am the Castletroy Park Hotel. It’s going to be good. Don’t dare miss it!
https://www.facebook.com/events/245146505668518/
Dramatisation, actual euphoria may vary
I’ve played some bad games in my time. I’ve often bought some honkers of games but it’s certainly been a while. Snake oil is a return to bad form. It stinks. Really really stinks. Two games is more than enough for a lifetime. One is bad. I played it twice. I’ll never get that ten minutes back
The idea is fine. You play the part of a snake oil salesman and try to use a combination of two single word cards from your hand of six to pitch a sale to another player. Players take it in turn to be the customer by drawing a customer card which sets them in the role of a Student, Builder, Policeman or some such. Having listened to each pitch they decide who’s was best and that player scores a point. Yes you can see the canyon like flaw in the rules. It’s not a hidden pitch nor can it be
I remember playing a game called scruples donkeys years ago and it was the same sort of thing and just as much dog shitty as this
I can’t help but feel a few things would make the game better (brain damage being one of them). Maybe if it had an adult theme like cards against humanity. A change to the rules to stop players from blatantly cheating, being able to flog multiple cards to empty your hand. I don’t know
I loved the idea of the game but the execution is terrible. Opening the box was a big “is that it?” moment.
However not one to give up easy, I’m going to try and improve on the game. I really think I can’t make it worse and I’m going to make it a long term project so expect results in the next twenty odd years but I may push that out
Snake oil. Don’t ask for it by name. I’ve saved you buying a turkey. Yes yes we’ll play it next thur
Don’t thank me
Huzzah!
Vic
Once again the good folks at Brocon put on a fantastic Convention. A big thank you to the hospitality of the guys, the entrance and the rather sweet T-Shirt. Great days gaming and it’s still rocking on the whole weekend. Get down there tomorrow (Sunday) and you’re guaranteed a good time. Great to catch up with the gamers from all around the country and do our thing. a report on some of the games I got to play on the day soon
Huzzah!
Vic
There is only one collectible card game I ever fell for and I fell hard. I will never love again or more accurately spend vast sums of money on one gaming system. Oh don’t worry I got out of Magic at the right time and even made a tidy profit on my cards but by then I’d had my fill of CCGs.
I played Magic the Gathering back when Unlimited was the current set and the Virgin Megastore was the only place in the country you could pick it up. That changed quickly. I have no problem these days with living card games but for me anyhoe random collectables just don’t beep my jeep. Although….. Marvel Dice Master DOES look interesting
It’s also new, fairly shiny and selling like hotcakes so if you are getting in on it, now’s a good time. NOW NOW NOW!
So far I have played the sum total of ONE game of it. I plan to do a bit more at Brocon. I have fellow gamers who reckon THIS is the next big thing. It’s not overly expensive (although ultra rare cards are), it’s got a fairly straightforward mechanic and it feels a bit like magic, if you played a lot of jungle decks. The quality of the components are OK. They weren’t bad but they weren’t as good as I would have liked. The cards I found a bit flimsy compared to other CCGs but they don’t get moved around a lot, it’s the dice that do the work and they’re fine, plain but fine.
The game itself is a mixture of dice and cards. Each character in your team comes with a custom dice and a little like dominion you’re constantly trading up dice to get more power (in the case of dominion gold) to buy every more powerful characters so you can send them off to biff up your opponent or keep them at home to avoid a paddling. This is a very simple overview of how it works and when I play it a bit more I’ll do a more detailed review.
It definitely has a certain something and you can put together a good deck/stack (is there a collectable term for a group of dice?) for around €20
I’ll report back when I know more
Huzzah!
Vic
The Blog is taking on a new look just because. Many thanks as ever to Dave Stafford for the new logo which I’m delighted with.
I’ll also be bringing THIS to Brocon. Don’t be worried. It’s not like it’s an electric shock game where there are no winners just people laughing at you. For no reason I can think of it proved very popular at the last Knavecon and I think it will fit in with the Brocon vibe perfectly 🙂
Huzzah!
Vic
Constonopolos is the grown up cousin of Puerto Rico. Bohemian and edgy, what Puerto Rico wishes it could be
If you’ve played Puerto Rico you’ll be in familiar territory. It’s worker placementy but with a different cock blockery. If you haven’t played Puerto Rico you’ve missed out on a classic game and should get thee to a game shop and try it.
Constantinopolis is a five player game that in theory can be played in 90 minutes, by a silent order of monks on speed who have spent the last several years learning the rules. Our group didn’t tick any of those boxes. I refuse to be drawn on how long it took to play out and I ask the jury to disregard any evidence they may have heard
The game plays out over ten turns in which a number of sub steps happen. The first is like Puerto Rico where you pick a role however in this case roles are bid on so it’s very possible to force others into overpaying
Buildings are bought which come in a variety of forms and functions. Resource producing, ones you cash in resources for money and fame (the games score), ones that give you a few extra swapping abilities or cost reduction. Ones that score you bonus points at the end
Key to the game as well are contracts which are drawn in various quantities and take the form of supply this or that resource or transport this person. In what you wonder. In ships of various sizes I say which you previously purchased.
Each turn ships are loaded and launched with contract goods and previously launched ships move closer to harbor and payment in fame and money
There are half a dozen ways of scoring fame and money and no foolproof strategy to secure victory. It’s fast (ha) and scoring is close from start to finish which I really like.
I got to play this game a few months back and was instantly hooked. I acquired a copy of it soon after as a swapse. My copy was in German but it’s multilingual and all icon driven. We as per tradition got a few rules wrong but not enough to effect our evenings entertainment.
I prefer this game to Puerto Rico and I’m a big fan of Puerto Rico so I highly recommend it. If you only buy one worker placement Puerto Rico type game this year make sure it’s Constantinopolis
I’ll be wheeling it out at brocon if you want to take it for a test drive
Huzzah!
Vic
Planning to bring the following to Brocon for people to try out.
Will throw in a few others if they take my fancy between now and then
Huzzah!
Vic
Red in the face, puffing and panting and ready to give up and that’s BEFORE I start running. Zombies Run! is a game I’ve had on my phone for ages and only recently got around to playing. It’s clever. At it’s heart it’s a running app but it does it from an angle that will appeal to a gamer. In this case running for your life from packs of zombies.
The game itself consists of a number of episodes which can be set to either half or a full hour. You start off at your own pace and a story plays out where you’ve been sent to a survivors base and wind up becoming a runner for them and have to scavenge resources from the locality. As it plays along a number of characters are introduced and a back story expands. The whole time you’re jogging (or in my case stumbling) speed-ups are introduced to your pace by the appearance of zombies whom you need to outrun by increasing your pace. The program tells you how close they are and a handy sonar type blip lets you know if they’re gaining or you are losing them. A few minutes running is often enough to outpace them.
On your travels you also pick up random items such as medi-kits, food, clothing and so on all of which can be used later in the game. What’s really nice about the app is you never have to touch it while you’re running. It handles your inventory by itself. The story and voice acting is good. We’re not talking James Earl Jones but it’s good enough quality and very believable in the setting. So far the story is interesting and enough mysterious events are introduced to make you want to find out what’s going to happen next.
Items you find in the game can be dropped to distract zombies if you’ve run out of puff and those you keep after you complete a episode can later be used to build and expand able station via a simple farmville type interface.
There’s a number of extras outside of the episodes like a radio station that plays your music as tracks whilst inter spacing it with chat and events, challenges like running to a GPS point and back to recover supply drops and there’s a little bit of multi-player which I need to investigate.
So far it’s early days for me with this, but I’ll do another post on it when I’ve used it a bit more.
All in all I’m really enjoying it. It’s clever. The sounds of zombies closing in as you sprint is exhilarating and how the whole thing fits around your play list of music it very well done. This is my first proper Augmented Reality (AR) game and it’s better than I expected. I have high hopes for this whole area of entertainment. It’s surprising how the brain is fooled into a slightly different reality just through the audio and on the first run I was nearly looking behind me to see if I was being pursued or expecting to see a building that was being described to me as being just around the next corner. I struggle with running, it’s not something I’ve ever been really good at but I do see this as a big help with training. More soon.
Now if you’ll excuse me a pack of zombies are closing in, I have to run
Huzzah!
Vic
Brocon,
Limericks Games and Anime convention is rolling around once again on the weekend of the 19th July in UL. Bigger and Better than Ever
Myself and some of the Knaves will be there running boardgaming sessions if anyone wants to drop down and say hello and try a few games out.
See you there
Huzzah!
Vic
Victor Gannon Games 