Pirate Ninjas Rule

I got to play a game I’ve seen a few times lurking on the edges in Amazon also boughts. Smash Up by AEG

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122522/smash-up

I had very few expectations going in, I figured it was going to be a bit like King of Toyko but it’s not. It’s borrows from a number of different games. I’m not sure where exactly it stands. Definitely a filler game, definitely as good as King of Toyko but it needs more play to be sure and I intend to give it some.

The game I played was a two player and it allows up to four which I suspect would be as crazy as after eights eaten at 7:30.

It’s quick to learn. A player starts with five cards which are of two types either actions or minions. On the board are a number of bases with all very colourful titles (Monkey lab anyone?) a completion value (from say 18-24 or so), a score value for first, second and third positions and a special ability.

Each turn a player gets to place a minion against a base, use the minions special ability (which could be kill another minion there, increase some variable, do something, I dunno else, it varies quite a bit from faction to faction) and also play an action, which could be Kill another minion, increase some variable (you get the idea). Each minion has a strength value or say 2-5 and when enough minions in total from everyone are at a base the based is scored, the highest strength of minions from one player gets the first scoring value and the next gets second prize and so on. You obviously want to be first if possible to snag the highest score. Once it’s scored a new base is wheeled out and the process repeats until someone scores 18 points or more, then pulls their jersey over their head and does their winner dance/slide/gesticulation

What makes for an interesting game is that at the start you pick two sets of factions from a base game of around a dozen or so. These vary a good bit so you have some colourful stuff, like Pirates, Zombies, Ninjas, Cthulu and so on. I opted for the obvious awesomeness of Pirates and Ninjas whilst my opponent went with Time Travelling and Zombies. You then carefully blend the play decks of your two choices together and wind up with a combined deck of 40 cards and play begins.

It was surprising fun, the theme of each it very well done, Ninjas are sneaky and good at assassination, Zombies just keep coming back again and again. Mixing two factions together makes for a different experience each time. Maybe even 132 different combos, (though my maths may be off)

Would I recommend it? yes, I would. I wouldn’t rush out and buy it, but I’d definitely play it if it was lying around. It’s not getting bumped up on my must buy list, but it’s good fun and if you have a spare 20 minutes and this at hand you could do a lot worse

Huzzah!

Vic

May 27, 2014 6

Running Rings Around – Thur

Thur night was a night of stealth and deception. First up we played something that’s been on my shelf for a long time but never dusted off

Lord of the Rings – The Confrontation

I’ve never been a massive fan of Reiner Kniza’s LOTR games, they’re fine but the whole happy happy co-op thing just doesn’t work for me. They’re also a bit too simplistic. The Confrontation is another in the same style. Same sort of box, same type of artwork but this time it’s a two player game and it’s very much not co-op (The name does sort of give it away)

The Confrontation is like a cut down version of Stratego with only nine pieces per side and the addition of combat cards. That pretty much sums it up, so feel free to get back to your life and not read the next bit.

Ah thanks for joining me again.

The game is played out on a stylized map of middle earth with Mordor on one side and the Shire on the other and a dozen or so locations in between. Each player gets a set of nine characters and work to get either Frodo to Morodor OR the Witchking to the Shire. Now I have no idea why the Witch King wants to get to the shire, maybe he’s heard the food it good, Maybe he’s going to take the waters, maybe he wants to buy a T-shirt that says something like “I Soured the Shire and all I got was” but if he gets there or Frodo gets to Mordor it’s game over. Equally if three of Saurons forces make it to the shire together like a bunch of beered up soccer hooligans it’s a win for the forces of evil too.

Here’s where it gets a bit more interesting. Your opponent (via a nice set of plastic blocks you insert the cards into) can only see the back of your cards so they have no idea where your key players are, more importantly they have no idea where your hard hitters and wimps are in your mix.

When two opposing characters bump into each other they reveal their characters, each of which has a combat value and a special ability. The special abilities are resolved straight off (Boromir in keeping with Sean Bean dies in his first combat but takes the enemy with him, The Orcs win their first battle automatically and so on), if the two characters are still standing they secretly pick an attack card with a combat value from their limited set of cards and the highest combined combat value wins. The cards are limited btw. It’s simple, it’s neat, it’s cheap, It’s FAST, A game can easily be played in 20 minutes and it’s good fun. There’s also a number of variants to it, like alternative characters and abilities, extra magic cards and so on. As two player games go, this is a goodie and so far I’m liking it a lot. It’s also quite a simple game and plays quite well with younger players. All in all a winner I reckon

Next up was another game of Fury of Dracula. (Show him your cross!)

It’s great how with fresh players games can get a new lease of life. One of last weeks players (not me) decided to take their chances as the snappy dressing Transylvania….. and he lasted about as long as those 5 dots back there. BOOM, staked, good and proper. So after a quick bit of pointing and laughing we decided to have a second game with the same vampire and this one was way more interesting.

Dracula is a great game, I think the most fun is to be had as Dracula himself although it’s good to be a hunter too. Dracula led us a VERY merry dance and unlike most other games he was popping out lady vampires to beat the band or more accurately beat we the hunters. There are two cards in the game that are real show stoppers. Hypnosis where you can find exactly where drac is and eh… something else that effectively lets Dracula teleport to another spot on the map.

Mid game Dracula got the first and despite our best efforts (and our worst) we didn’t get so much as a sniff of colonge of our target. It was looking bad and after extensive searching we finally reckoned (a scientific measure) he was masquerading around England far from the maddening hunters. With little time to go before he completed his dastardly plan and scored his six points we finally tracked him down (via hypnosis) to London and one of our number confronted him cook report style. After a ‘robust discussion’ with Dracula he finally slipped our net and having lost more blood from his body than John Holmes he staggered off confident of a quick win. Then I arrived, grabbed him and renditioned him right off a cliff. Bye bye Vlad. You came close but no cigar.

Great game. Always fun and absolutely no shame should be be attached by us to the Dracula player for losing.

Twice.

In a row.

More of this sort of things soon

Huzzah!

Vic

May 24, 2014 4

Interview with Victor Gannon and Krystian Czekalski

I recently took part in a video interview along with the Krystian from the boardgameguys to talk a little about boardgaming.

May 18, 2014 2

Back to Thur – Being a Drax Report

I was THIS close to winning Dracula, damn those meddling kids (and by kids I mean a bunch of old blokes and one young fella)

We didn’t get to game last week so it was great to get back in the saddle, meet some good* friends* and try out a few new games. First up was a polish special. A favourite of this blog

“Rycerze I Zamki”. (I reckon Countdown would have been a very different game in Polish. “I’ll have a Consonant Kharol, and another Consonant, and another Consonant”). This is the the fourth game

I’ve played from this games company and they’re all great fun, also cheap as chips. €5 for a game is just wonderful. I suspect our man in Poland will get asked to smuggle back in several more games the next time he goes home.

Rycerze I Zamki which means Knights and Castles (My google is strong) is a very simple game, you have a set of three castle types which can be made of Wood, Brick or Stone. Everyone starts with a set number of cards (Knights, Catapults, Archers and so on) that have a value from one to ten in these three elements. Some better than others in the three different categories. Each turn you draw a castle which is worth 1 or 2 points and players secretly pick two of their cards and reveal them. Duplicates between players are removed and the combined value of both cards in the element for that castle wins it (the points value of which are totalled at the end of the game). A few other rules like one castle being randomly removed at the start, being able to draw back some of your cards and so on make for a very interesting and very fast little game. It’s lite, it’s fun, it’s a great filler. All hail Rycerze I Zamki and the Polish game industry. It has yet to turn in a dud

Next up was something I’ve wanted to played for a few weeks now. El Grande (pronounced “Y Grande)” and featuring a Castillo (Castiyo) and a bunch of Caballero (Cabayero). So Spanish music channel and “we don’t like your type around here” jokes were the order of the day. El Grande is a worker placement game which came out nearly 20 years ago. It rates high on Boardgamegeek and…. we’ll I didn’t win it, I didn’t come close, but it’s still a fine game. Spanish music was stopped after a bit. It was like being in a taxi to your hotel on holidays and didn’t add to the 15th century vibe.

El Grande is set in the 15th Century funny enough where Grandes (large coffees from starbucks I assume) vie for power and more importantly score around the edge of the board

It’s all about placing your Caballero on the board and gaining dominance (biggest numbers) of as many provinces as you can come the scoring rounds, of which there are three. Unlike life there are prizes for both second and third place when a region is scored, but any number of cards and cock blockery can affect things.

The game has got elements from Eight Minute Empire in fact Eight Minute Empire is like a lite version of El Grande in every way. It also borrows a tiny bit from a Study in Emerald (or maybe I just really Like ASIE and I want to work it into every blog) The Caballero work in a similar manner where you have a two stage staging area where you firstly draw them into your muster point from the void (provinces) then use another action to place them on the board.

The game plays out over nine rounds after 3,6 and 9 there are scoring and that’s it. You do you best. A clever mechanic is your power cards which are finite and dictate your play order. The earlier you play a round based on your power card the less Caballero you get to bring to bear on the board so it’s a juggling act. Going early gets you an early pick of the action cards which do things like, score certain areas once off, move existing pieces, move the king who exerts power on a certain area and everyone fawns over him by only deploying men in adjacent regions.

It’s a nice game. It’s also medium fast so it should be possible to get it all done and dusted in ninety minutes I would guess. It plays five which is sort of a magic number for gaming and it’s close and fun throughout. I started scoring early on and looked good but got caught up mid game and was left coughing scoring dust late game. There’s a bit of a pattern here but, we need to play more of this. All in all I like it. I’m still a bit unsure of it but it’s definitely good, not stellar but good. Maybe replays will make it stellar. Who knows

Having finished this fairly quickly we had to play something else of medium length. Some of the lads hadn’t played Fury of Dracula (or Furry Dracula if you prefer) so they got introduced in quick order. To paraphrase Mannequin there are two things I like doing, fighting and playing Dracula. I got to play Dracula again.

Fury of Dracula is like a more complex version of Letters from Whitechapel, which is itself a more complex version of Scotland yard. Before we go any further let me declare my interest before the right honourables. I LOVE this game. I loved it from day one and still love it now. It’s stupendous. One person plays Dracula and the other four players play various vampire hunters who must work together to flush him out and stake him good. Dracula who steals the show must spend his time sneaking around Europe, setting traps, avoiding pursuit, hiding during the day, attacking hunters at night and leading the hunters a merry dance. It’s all good.

Fights ensue, Dracula is more than a match for hunters at night but weak and mortal during the day. He had a limited amount of blood points that get whittled away from fights, spell casting and sea travel and when it’s down to zero it’s

good night Vienna. The Hunters have only six days to find the fiend, less if he starts killing them off and gaining bonus points that way. But enough about the rules, more of the merry dance.

I started off as far away from the hunters as possible and slowly ambled my way up from Greece while the aforementioned scratched (amongst other things) their heads trying to find me. It was day two before I popped up and I quickly disappeared again. I bumped off Nina Harker (oh err missus) and it was looking rosey until the hunters started to successfully second guess me. A robust exchange happened in Prague and there were wigs and fangs on the green and shillelagh law ruled the day. Dracula just about survived as did one of the hunters so he was in trouble BUT close to getting his six points and winning. Then disaster struck, I took the group for fools (and I was right) but they stumbled onto me anyway and like the scene in Full Metal Jacket with the bars of soap in the pillowcases I got seven shades beat out of me and died my undeath again. THIS CLOSE I was THIS CLOSE to winning

Great game and of course we got a rule or two wrong even though we’ve played it several times before

More of this next Thur

Huzzah!

Vic

May 16, 2014 0

MrSaturday Turns 40 – Part 3

I’ve meant to get back to (some of) the events that took place in Connemara to mark the passing of Mr Saturday from the foolish, loud, impetuous state of his 30s to the enlightened, wise and mellow 40s*. I didn’t. I’m doing it now.

Being a marathon session of gaming in the same way it was inevitable that Hunter S Thompson and Dr Gonzo would sooner or later get into the ether we would have to play a zombie game. Zombicide the current favourite had been hot bunked all weekend. It was mid to late weekend that we jumped on it.

I’ve played my fair share of zombie games, zombies, eh, other zombie games, you name it, I’ve probably played it, to date Zombicide is my favourite. It captures the whole spirit of the zombie thing in the same way as the video game left4dead, it’s simple, it’s fast and above all it’s great fun. (A buddy of mine plays it with his kids who believe that a chainsaws primary purpose is crowd control)

Now I haven’t exactly covered myself in glory with this game. There was an incident on a Thur night were I may have made the classic horror mistake of going ahead on my own and drawing a lot of heat onto the group. I did selflessly hide and let the hoard attack the main group before crawling out and whispering ‘sorry’ as the Zees chomped down on the surprised survivors. It happens. In my case quite a bit. They say some people will freeze in a plane crash and some will crawl over others to get out, chances are I’d take the only parachute and jump just after I suggested they draw lots for it.

Zombicide is a survival game in the classic genre. The world is overrun with zombies, dogs and cats sleeping together, no coffee, basically the end of everything and your small group of six survivors have to

Arm themselves
Achieve some objective
Get to the exit with a minimum of bite marks on their pasty bodies

Optionally allow your fellow survivors to die. It’s not in the rules, I’m just saying

The rules are piddly simple. you can move a set number of spaces and along the way carry out some basic actions like, shoot, search, pass equipment to another survivor or carry out some action based on the equipment you have. After the group has moved All the zombies get to move towards the nosiest square and additional zombies spawn at defined spawn points around the board.

Noise is created by moving, breaking doors, shooting etc. and the zombie hoard gets added to based on the draw of zombie reinforcement cards. Make no mistake it’s a HOARD of zombies and it’s never ending. You need to get your business done as quickly as possible and get out of dodge. Any delay or detour spells grizzle death for both you and your team. More importantly you,

Each of the survivors are suitably different and some are inevitably clichéd. The Cop, the Drifter, The Student, The Token and so on, but there are some novel ones in there like the pissed off office worker and the roller girl and a TON of ones you can download and purchase models for. Each of them start with different equipment and special abilities and each of them have different upgrade paths.

Ah yes upgrades.

As you accumulate kills in a Gimli v Legolas manner, you will start to level up and acquire a choice of new abilities but here’s the rub, it also attracts more numerous and nastier zombies. In the card above you can see how our hapless survivor goes from blue to red to orange and then maxes out in red. The colour indicates what section of the reinforement card to read from, blue being ok-ish and red being very bad indeed. Worse still the spawn rate of the zombies is determined by the highest level character in the group so as soon as one character gets into a higher level it opens a can of whoop ass for all the team.

The zombies aren’t all just shamblers, there’s fast moving zombies, replete with jogging suits, fatties that are tougher to kill and worst of all abominations that are the McBain of zombietown. So as I said get in, get your objectives and get the heck out of there as if your life depended on it. ho ho.

So how did it go at MrSaturday’s event? Well not as planned would be a kind way of putting it. The objective was to get to thirty kills which I obviously took as a challenge that included the caveat of “before anyone else”. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t implicit in the rules but it was real for me. I was allowed the first turn to which I jumped into a nearby police car, drove straight through my team knocking some aside and wounding others and proceeded to do doughnuts around the central building knocking over zombies and well, I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for the haters in my team who working together (for shame) ran out jumped on the bonnet of a nearby car as I screamed by, shot me dead then continued the game without me…. I had a long but not unpleasant wait for the game to end

Zombicide is a cracker of a game, I highly recommend it. There are a ton of additional scenarios and some very nice extra characters that can be acquired. Snake Pliskin anyone? On top of that there’s already a couple of expansions for it set in a shopping centre and a prison and lots of mini expansions. If you’re a zombie fan then this is where it’s currently at with zombies games. Look no further

Huzzah!

Vic

May 13, 2014 0

Memoir of Memoir 44

Memoir 44 is a lite tabletop historical wargame for two players set in ww2. It comes complete with all you need for a dozen or so scenario based battles, it’s easy to play and perfect for introducing your children to the horror of war.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Memoir 44 (and I’ve successfully used the word Memoir five times, which may not seem like such a big deal but it’s more than you’ve used it in a whole week)

The models are neat and dinky. Not up to the high standards of say descent, more Airfix 72nd scale from your childhood (well, my childhood) but perfectly adequate for purpose

The base game comes with a big
Pile of German and America troops consisting of infantry, tanks and artillery and a few extra bits like sandbags and tank traps. The game board is a good sized double sided hex board with grassland on one side and a beach on the other. Perfect for your d day Landing needs

On top of the map a number of hex tiles can be laid to add rivers, hills, forests and villages. Other features like bridges and bunkers can be laid on top of these again to create fairly varied battlefields.

The game comes with a number of increasingly complex scenarios but it never feels hard to understand and above all other things the game is always fun and easy to play.

This is a great game for two players. It’s a good one to give to the seventh and eighth player on a games night or to while away a few hours without being too stressed. It’s also a best game to show to kids and introduces a number of key elements for more complex tabletop games

The command system is quite neat and features cards that allow you to move troops withe on the left, centre or right flank. This system leads to some interesting choices on holding cards, bluffing and guessing.

All in all a best little game. I got to play it last Friday with my 6 yr old and although the rules were simplified a little for that battle it still proved to
Be a fast, fun game.

A dozen or so add ons and numerous scenarios are available to add longevity. I’ve only ever played the base game so I can’t comment on the extras but I like it and look forward to working my way through all the scenarios.

All in all good clean warlike fun

Huzzah!

Vic

May 12, 2014 0

Rex Thur – Being a Drax Report

House Atreides, House Harkoonen, House Corrino, chances are you know the names well and can pronounce Kwisatz Haderach without any difficulty or a throat full of phlegm. It’s unfortunate that Fantasy Flight didn’t get the rights or didn’t want them or I don’t know why but they didn’t republish the original game DUNE as DUNE they rebooted the game as Rex – Final days of an empire.

Now if they HAD rebooted it as DUNE then it would have been near perfect, definitely in my top ten. Not that I have a top ten but I’d start one if, well you get the idea.

As it stands Rex is not a bad game at all and after last Thur it went up in my estimation. Rex Final Days of an Empire is a game we’ve spoken of before. Indeed what is this WE business pale face, well this blog is fed by a lot of things not just my ramblings but the ramblings of other gamers so it will always be the royal we. Rex is a remake of the 1976 game DUNE (which was actually made in 1979, I looked it up and my guess was off, but there you go). Rather than the aforementioned houses we have six factions from the Twilight Emperium universe which are all fine and dandy and a bit Disney. Turtle and Tiger people, very original, top marks FF.

The game itself is good BUT it does need the full six players to make it work IMHO and it does take a bit of playing to get the most out of it. You need to invest a few games in this before you get into it. It was only through playing a Study in Emerald a number of times that I realised that this game is better than it had seemed in the past. I’m sorry to admit that I had come this close to trading it away as it wasn’t proving that popular.

There are a few bits in the game that are very similar to a Study in Emerald and ASIE is a cracker of a game so by extension we could really be at the races with this game if we invest more time in it. The setting is interesting. A besieged future city, under constant bombardment from orbit is ruled by six factions all vying for power by capturing and holding key points. So all in all dung beetles fighting over a big pile of …. burnt out city.

What makes the game different is all of the races play in a different way. One faction is very sneaky and all about spies and backstabbing (yes I like them), another are peacekeepers (boo hiss), some are weapons dealers and so on. There’s a nice bit of variety in there and the game is different for each player when they replay. Now not as different as a Study in Emerald but it’s fun to play a different faction each time as they all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

After a random draw I wound up with the tiger men guys (not the actual name) whom are effectively arms dealers and gain influence (let’s just call it gold) when anyone buys troops. So I reckon I was on the pigs back from the off (please note there are no actual pig people in the game so get that image out of your head). There are five key points on the map which if captured and held win the game for the holders. If it’s a one player win they need to hold three points an alliance of two players they need to hold four points and a shower (the correct multiple term) of three players they need to capture and hold all five points between them.

I like the way the alliances work. Normally an event card with pick the next spot for a bombardment to happen however a few lull in bombardment cards allow players to quickly make alliances with others and gain some of the traits of the players they’ve allied with. More interestingly an alliance formed during a lull in bombardments HAS to be kept until the next lull, no if buts or maybes. The first lull brought about two unusual occurrences. Three players teamed up together and in desperation I allied with Drax. Yes that’s right you read it right I co-operated with the devil for which there must always be a price. In this case the loss of the game. BUT I had fun and this game has gone up a couple more notches in my likey meter. This will hit the table again soon

After that is was … Modern Art

I may not know much about art but I know what I like, in this case Karl Gitter. Modern Art is an old enough game by Reiner Knizia. It’s been reprinted a few times and I have the …. (Looks up boardgamegeek) …. the 1996 version. It doesn’t matter I think they’re all the same. The game involves buying and selling paintings by a number of artists in the hope of upping their value and reaping the rewards of ownership. It’s a strange game. I’m damned if I can come up with a strategy to win but then again I can’t get my head around certain games like Power Grid either so don’t be put off.

It’s a fairly quick game, say an hour plus and it is good fun. It’s Reiner Knizia but don’t let that put you off :), this time it’s theme does match it’s mechanics and I’ve yet to play a bad game of it. In the same was as Catan is a solid enough game so is this. If you’ve played it a few times you’ll want to rest it before playing again but it will hit the table again and again.

I lost btw. I told you I’m damned if I can get the hang of this game

More soon

Huzzah!

Vic

Oh and we played HEY! That’s my fish and wrung €13 of value out of it

May 7, 2014 2

Wee Gamers in the House!

Ran into the lads from Wee Gamers at the weekend who were running a stand at Invasion Dublin

The guys were demoing X-Wing Miniature game and Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG. Looking forward to having them at the next Knavecon

Great bunch of lads 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/weegamers

May 6, 2014 0

Twiligh Thur – Being a Drax Report

Do you suffer from Roids? A surprising amount of Pilots, both Imperial and Rebel Scum do. I was certainly suffering badly from them last Thur when I drove not one but two of my Tie Fighters through a few choice asteroids all clearly labelled as such. The real enemy Star Wars X-Wing miniatures (just like life) are not the other players it’s often yourself…. /Allows time for reader to nod sagely

I’m pot committed with x-wing. Myself and a gaming buddy (please note: buddy is a misnomer, there are no gaming Buddies as such, just opponents or people if you play it right, whom help you until it’s high time to stiletto them. Just before they we’re planning on vaping you. It’s the nature of things) but in the loosest sense of the word a gaming buddy (see earlier) and I have a fine collection of x-wing models which since it’s a mare to separate we’re married in a humanist ceremony some time back and are often seen out together having fun. It was high time to crack open the boxes they reside in and breath some life into them with the appropriate rules and phew phews.

X-wing is not a million miles (or a long long time ago) from Wings of Glory a WWI Flying Ace combat game . It’s a relatively new game from Fantasy Flight and as you would expect it has high production values and it’s not half bad. Ok let’s be honest the game has EXPLODED. It has very keen models which very importantly come pre-painted. You can jump right into it with just the started box (which comes with an x-wing and two Tie fighters) and it’s gloriously collectable.

There are over a dozen ships that can be bought to add to the basic game, A-Wings, B-Wings, Tie Advanced, to name but a few, and thankfully all from the original series. Fantasy Flight have done a sterling job (at least for them) in drip releasing new ships every so often and some of them (A-Wings for example) sell like hotcakes. Some of the bigger and seriously expensive ships are due to hove into sight soon which will really put the transports amongst the pigeons

A couple of things I like about X-wing. It’s Star Wars. The greatest trilogy of all (yes it is)(don’t argue) time, it’s the original trilogy, the models are really really nice. Everything you need to play a decent game comes in the original box. Also it’s Star Wars.

There’s a fantastic feel to the whole thing, It’s pretty easy to play, the games are fast (depending on size), there’s a lot of variety and it’s edge of your seat stuff start to finish.

If I had to fault the game I’d say it’s a PIG to store. The models although gorgeous are awkward and like a lot of tabletop stuff easily broken, although, touch plastic, none have for me so far. (Hi faith, Victor here). You can spend a bit of money and get a decent storage system but it can be pricey. A few cheaper options are presenting themselves and a bit of imagination can help with your storage woes. Dragging out a lot of models and setting them up for a big battle can be a chore but no more than any other tabletop game and it’s your own fault if you set-up a huge battle.

The game can be played as either a points versus battle or as a scenario based game. Either is good although my understanding is in a points battle some combos are killer and some are weak beer. That said Fantasy Flight and the greater gaming community recognise this as an excellent game and adjust it accordingly with new releases.

I like this game, I had better really since I’m a few models in and want more, because I do and that’s reason enough.

The game on Thur was a 50 points 2v2 which is really a 1v1 with two people on either side if that makes sense. We split into two groups each of which had semi-experienced players and me and another player.

My team took Imperials while my erstwhile buddy took rebel scum.

We had Five Tie fighters (one of which was Vader flying the Tie Advanced) and we squared up against two X-Wings, an A-Wing and a Y-Wing in a straight out fire fight in an asteroid field. (Be careful with them there asteroids, there’s a reason Tie Fighter pilots tend to avoid them)

Our Tie fighters were a mix of academy pilots and veterans and it was straight in zero kissing first turn, plenty of phew phew and initially anyway a nice mix of hits on the rebel shields. The Rebel Y-wing a real workhorse took a sustained hammering from the swarm of ties expertly directed by Vader, who indeed “has you now”. Return fire was minimal and all things were looking good

The next turns became a bit of a scrum with ships knocking up against each other and worse still against some asteroids and a hard fight en-sewed with very little finesse, just lots of guns and hope. There was NO flying casual.

Whittle by whittle (see what I did there?) both fleets started to be whittled down until it was just Vader and his youngfella Luke Skywalker and his shit of a droid R2-D2 (who btw knew all long who his Da really was but never mentioned it once. not once). Finally Vader vanquished skywalker and after a short robotic cry it was all over.

Not bad. We need to play this more. That said we need to play lots of games more and we will

Joined by another gamer we jumped into the very long titled

DC Comics Deck-Building Game

This game is very similar to Dominion, a game I liked initially and now doesn’t beep my jeep at all. It has some nice pics of superheroes but that doesn’t save it from being an OK game. My problem with this and Dominion (and a few others) is it’s primarily a solo game, there isn’t a whole lot of interaction with the other players, there’s a bit, but it doesn’t have the whole “HA! Take take” style of play. It’s more about getting the best deck together you can before anyone else and it just doesn’t work for me.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with the game, The card quality and art work is very good, the game is fairly fast it’s just…. it’s Dominion clone and not a very good one either. Each game is the same, you don’t even get to vary the cards like Dominion. I’m sure there’s a stack of expansions in production but I just can’t be bothered with it. It’s a dull game. I’ll play it but I refuse to be excited.

Funny enough I played Aquaman whom is not as bad as all that.

So in summary X-wing good, DC Comics Deck building game bad if you’re not a dominion fan.

Expect a few more mini reviews of X-wing. It’s just too good not to play again and again

More of that soon

Huzzah!

Vic

April 29, 2014 2

ACTUALLY it’s my fish

Hey! That’s my fish is a very simple (and equally importantly cheap) game from Fantasy Flight. It’s a good one for kids (I’ve play tested it with my 6yr old and 2yr old and it’s passed with flying colors) and it’s equally good for adults. Now it’s not quite up there with ribbit but it IS very nice

Do you remember “dots” when you were a kid? A game a step up from x and o where you took it in turn to join lines between a grid of dots and try and complete squares and claim as many of these as possible. No? That’s a pity because it’s a bit like that

Each player starts with a number of penguins (more with less players) standing on an ice flow that’s made up of 50 or so hexes all stuck together which have either one two or three fishes on them.

Each turn a player can move one of their penguins in a straight line (just like the queen in chess). They cannot jump over other penguins or jump any gaps in the flow.

Now here’s the sizzle. When you move you lift the hex from the spot you just moved out of and put it on your stack of collected fish. So you can use your penguins to carve up the ice and isolate other penguins on smaller chunks of the flow with as you guessed fewer fish.

The game continues until all of the fish that can be collected are. Add up your score and the highest is the winner

It’s simple it’s fun. It’s good enough. At €13 it’s good value. Setting up the board is a bit of a pain and removing the hexes from the middle of the flow is awkward but all in all worth a visit. I’ll try it on thur with some slightly more mature players and see how it goes down

Huzzah!

Vic

April 25, 2014 4