The Last Thur Thur – Being a Drax Report

I’ve always loved the Romulian War Birds. They’re way cooler than the federation ships and they can cloak. I didn’t realise until lately the ships are considerably bigger than the federation ones, three times the size or so oh and a big plus….. the Romulian’s are a devious bunch of weasels, so all in all my kind of people.

I had been teased by Star Fleet Captains for some time. One of the guys had it and it never hit the table due to a number of circumstances but on the last gaming Thur of 2013 out it came in all it’s glory. but before that it was more ribbit (or turtles game as it’s known in our group). Lots and lots of Turtles game, before Star Trek, after Star Trek, I’m surprised we didn’t play it during Star Trek. it’s still a hugely popular game and it’s well worth picking up as a super filler

Right the meat and pasta, Star Fleet Captains by Wizkids

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/79127/star-trek-fleet-captains

Starfleet Captains does a fine job of capturing the spirit of the Star Trek Series. You each take a fleet of ships and boldly go exploring and resolving encounters and scoring victory points, hopefully more quickly than your opponent. It’s NOT as I thought it would be, a straight out fight against your opponent, it’s more than that, yes you get to knock hells bells out of other ships but that won’t win the game alone (although it’s great fun).

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1109065/star-trek-fleet-captains

The first you notice is, the game is really nicely produced, the models are really good. A nice chunky size (bigger than x-wing) and fairly good details on them. They’re a lot like the models from Star Trek Attack Wing. We had both the base game (Starfleet and Klingons) and the expansion (Romulans) and each of the races play in a distinct way. Starfleet is all about science, the Klingons about attacking and the Romulans about espionage, sneaking about and being weasley. Each of the players at the start pick a sub faction of command cards within the races so each of them can have a more attacky or more espionagey (it’s a real word) style of play.

At the start each player gets a number of mission cards which may or may not be secret (not played face up) which give bonus points for achieving certain objectives. The galaxy is laid out as a set of randomly picked hex cards face down that get explored as your ships enter them. Both teams (did I mention it was a two player/two team game?) set up in the corners in their bases and a whistle is blown and off into the inky blackness we go.

Points are scored for rocking into a new sector, drawing an encounter card and completing it which requires testing against the ships different systems, sensors, weapons, shields, engines. It’s possible in wizkids dial style to adjust your ship to have more shield power but less weapons, more engine but less sensors and so on. Thus set-up you go out and do your best. (Top tip, keep your shields on high if you’re playing with my group)

When battles occur ships in the same sector throw dice adding weapons strength versus shield strengths, if successful the damaged ship’s dial moves to yellow section with reduced function and then red and finally destroyed. It’s a simple system and it keeps battles snappy. It is immense fun to arrive into a sector with a smaller ship and hammer seven bells out of it leaving it severely damaged (and why wouldn’t it be). Command cards can be throw at combat to assist and terrain (nebulas, black holes etc.) all have an influence on combat. My tactic at the romulas was to cloak and run away, rinse and repeat.

The game does take a little bit of set-up, the board and the cards, but nothing too bad and if you’re smart enough to put it away the way you got it it speeds that bit up considerably.

All in all I liked this game, my only gripe would be that it is in essence a two player game or in our case a two team game. I’d definitely play it again. I lost and I lost for my team. It didn’t help that a buddy of mine from WAY back appeared to join us for games whom I hadn’t gamed with in the guts of 20 years and in between taking my turn we fell to talking shite and catching up. I also thought it very unfair that the first words out of his mouth were “Hey guys, you know not to trust Vic right?”. It’s been going on that long

It’s a nice game, it demands a replay and I’m more than ok with that.

Now since it was the last Thur with the regular group I have to say that all in all it’s been a great years gaming. I’ve enjoyed gaming with what seems like a new game every week and we’ve been fortunate enough to have some great people join us for games (plus everyone else)

Me personally I’m looking forward to more of this sort of thing in 2014. Again thanks to all those who took part on Thur nights in 2013 and those who came to Knavecon. Assuming I survive playing Cards Against Humanity with my in-laws at xmas there’ll be more from me soon

Happy Xmas gamers!

Huzzah!

Vic

December 21, 2013 0

xmas Eve Thur – Being a Drax Report

I learnt a new word (and it’s not a curse this time) “Peloton” and I’m going to use it at least half a dozen times in the review of LEADER 1 which I received as a swap for something else that displeased me.

Leader 1 is a bicycle racing game where players through careful management of their energy race across a varied race stage against the others.

In it’s favour it’s got

Can accommodate lots of player (10 I believe)
It’s quick (about and hour or so)
It’s fun
It’s got really keen models of cyclists in a variety of colours

Against

The rules are pretty poor being translated from another language (possibly Vulcan) to English. That said there’s a number of rewritten rules available on the web.

It’s a fairly simple game, it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it and the rules can be revealed slowly to new players as the game unfolds without shouts of “you never said that!” which can often mar other games when experienced gamers sometimes try and protect new players from the intricacies of games by revealing critical rules just before they slam dunk a win.

The game starts with the Peloton, a bunch of riders all huddled together like emperor penguins and all breaking wind in front of each other seemingly, (these cyclists are a rum bunch) The pelton which is led each turn by a different leader tips along the course which consists of flats, hills, steep climbs, descents and more flats or whatever you’re having yourself based on the setup.

Each player has one or more cyclists, each a specialist in hill climbing or sprinting or a bit of both and can decide to go for it and break from the bunch and try and make it to the finish line before the others. The trick is to decide when to go for it and to manage the cyclist’s energy so they don’t get burnt out before the finish line.

There’s a real skill in this and real schadenfreude in seeing a rider who’s burnt all their energy get caught again by the pack.

Things like cobbled roads, slip-streaming, feeding stations add to the complexity but the game remains fast and really good fun.

The closest game to this would be Formula De or Rallyman however I think this is a far superior game to these two. There’s less luck involved (certainly less than Formula De), the tracks are much more variable and it has nice little models of cyclists (who have a habit of falling off)

One funny thing is there are no win conditions in the rules (I had it checked), so we figured it was first over the line although it could be interesting to give points based on finish position.

There’s extra rules for playing a longer game with a number of stages. Overall like Ming I’m pleased with this and will not blast it into space until it displeases me

I didn’t win btw

Next up was the old favorite Lords of Waterdeep. This game is still hugely popular and we had some new players who learnt it very quickly. I DID win at this. Great game, best game ever

More of this Next Thur

Huzzah!

Vic

December 13, 2013 4

Struggle of Thur – Being a Drax Report

We (well I) decided to play Struggle of Empires on Thur. It’s a game I’ve been interested in playing for some time and it was worth waiting for. The rules were carefully read, squinted at, cheatsheets downloaded, read, read again, misunderstood, read again and finally tried out

The group has had a taste for longer games having played a lot of shorter ones of late and this one (unlike Rex) looked like a winner.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way straight away. The biggest problem with Struggle is getting your head around the rules. If you’ve gamed for a while you come to it with preconceived notions on movement, support etc. They’re all wrong. This is NOT risk, this is not Diplomacy it’s something different. Add to this the tutorial videos online (some blokes with beards blabbing on about how it doesn’t represent the real 19th century, for four hours) and you really have to play it to understand it, then play it again.

The game is (remember it’s just a game not a simulation) a representation of colonial power in the 19th century . It plays out over a series of 3 wars where each player gets to build and move troops, build improvements and exert their power across the globe. It’s a hoot.

The war starts by bidding on allies so you know who won’t be stabbing you in the back during THAT war. then it’s straight to the ships and getting control of the world whilst more importantly denying others the same. The battle mechanics are simple and fast. once you get your head around the improvement cards it’s got a lot of depth and it really is a struggle to balance unrest, gold and troops (a feat I couldn’t do).

I really liked the movement rules. if you have a ship somewhere you can go there, no turtling in the corners, no building up steamroller forces. It’s constant war from start to finish and it’s gloriously fun with lots of vengeance and sneaky play.

I’m eager to play this again, in fact I wouldn’t be shocked if it hits the table next thur. As for time it really did whip around after the first war where we were just getting the hang of it. There’s very little down time, you’re either doing it to others or hoping not to be on the receiving end in someone else’s turn.

I like it, I want more of this, I will rule the world

Huzzah!

Vic

December 8, 2013 2

Rex Thur – Being a Drax Report

I’ve bought into too many gaming backgrounds, I’m now suffering from cynical background syndrome (c) so if a game is going to plaster on the fluff thick it had better be good. Aliens that look like turtles and tigers just doesn’t cut it.

The Twilight Imperium universe is… generic. I’m sure if I read all the fluff it would be great and the bad guys would be really evil but in some ways good and the good guys really troubled and YAWN! I couldn’t be bothered. There are no good guys when you game so get to the mechanics already.

Rex. Final Days of an Empire is a game we revisited after a wee break. The group has been hungry for a big epic game after thurs of multiple small lite games. So Rex fit the bill… or so we thought

It’s a remake of the 1976 DUNE game and unfortunately Fantasy Flight didn’t get the IP for that setting so they transplanted the game to the Twilight Imperium universe they had hanging around and it’s got tiger and turtle people in it. So as far as fluff goes, I’m out. Thanks very much

As for the game, well the nice thing about it and I really like is every one of the races play a little differently. Some are peacekeepers, some make money from weapon sales, some predict who will win etc. etc. This makes for a very different game but there are two problems from the off

1. you NEED six players, no more no less or it just doesn’t work

2. those Six intrepid players need to be familiar with the game

If you can assemble such a crew you’re in for an interesting nights entertainment (sans fluff). If like us you played with five it’s just not the same. It’s not a bad game with less it’s just not an epic game. Speaking of which the game is not what you think, it’s all about alliances and working together (no wonder it didn’t work with our guys), but (and we’re back in comfortable ground now) it’s about stabbing your ally in the back.

I’m tempted to write this game off based on last thursdays play but from a lot of soul searching (I don’t have one so it was a short search) I think it deserves another go. in the future. once we get through some other epic games

We played it twice btw. One of the players who won it in two turns while we weren’t watching so we played it again. Someone else won. I can’t remember it certainly wasn’t me and it didn’t look like it was going to be me from the get go

You’re on a warning Rex, I’m going to assemble six players and try you again but if you fail me once more… it’s the trading pits for you, you’ve been warned.

More of this next week

Huzzah!

Vic

December 1, 2013 0

Viva la Revolution Thur

Sometimes games turn up in the oddest of places, in this case TK Maxx in Arklow. I had heard that TK Maxx was doing boardgames in the last few weeks and Limerick was sold out so by chance I found myself in Beautiful Arklow and browsing the kids section

Last week I was talking about The Hobbit Card game that I had picked up for €6, this week we got to play Steve Jackson’s Revolution which cost me the paltry sum of €12.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34887/revolution

First up was a few games of Ribbit (or the turtle game from Poland)

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9441/ribbit

It’s a great little game, and it’s a super fast filler for five people. Every time we play it we say

1. You could play this for money (not me I keep losing)

2. You could add some interesting rules

I’ve spoken about it before so I won’t rant on (it’s just not me) but I recommend getting this game both for adults and kids

The main game of the night was

Revolution!

This is in essense a very simple game, it’s a hidden bidding game where players try to gain control of different areas of the map spending their influence and also trying to grab more influence to use in following turns. It’s very simple, it’s also very bloody good. Even half way through we had come up with several strategies for winning (none of which won btw).

Now usually I’m not a fan of Steve Jackson games but he does bring out some crackers and this is one of them (so is zombie dice)

If I had to fault it I’d say it’s only 4 player BUT there’s an expansion out there for 6 so I reckon (price dependant) I’ll be looking for that

Then we all talked rubbish about Knavecon for a good hour + and went home very happy

Huzzah!

Vic

November 23, 2013 0

Just another Thur Thur – Being a Drax Report

There’s a chap in Russia who in the name of art nailed his undercarriage to red square. I’m sure he thought it was a great idea at the time but regretted it fairly quickly. I was pretty much in the same boat as comrade holey purse last Thur night when we all played Relic . But I digress…

First up was

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/130626/the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-das-kartenspiel

The Hobbit an unexpected journey card game courtesy of TK Maxx which occasionally stocks weird and wonderful games. No it’s NOT that card game it’s the other one with DAS KART a the start.

It’s a Reiner Knizia game based on another Reiner Kniza game so absolutely nothing to do with the hobbit just the pictures of the boys and a card placement game that’s similar to ever other game he did. It’s fine. it’s got card counting, it’s fairly quick but it does take up a lot of table space. all in all meh.

Now the (pardon the pun) meat and two veg of the night RELIC

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128442/relic

Relic is Talisman with a Space Marine Theme bolted on and some extra mechanics. It’s from Fantasy Flight so it’s all very nicely put together (the board is very busy looking tbh) with very good production qualities. If you like Talisman you’ll like Relic. I don’t like Talisman. 12 year olds probably like Talisman. I couldn’t say. But this thing just drags on and on and on until someone gratefully wins. There’s no interaction with the other players. It’s pretty much all dice based. This could one of the games from Winning Streak.

The idea is to build up a character and get him into the centre to win. There are three concentric rings where you can pick cards and fight stuff each of which is more difficult, don’t kill you and might make you stronger, then in the centre you take the long walk and hopefully your character is tough enough to make it and win. A second theme to the game is staying awake whilst playing it and not being the first player to cut yourself through sheer jaw breaking boredom.

You might be able to tell I’m not a fan. Ah well it’s nearly xmas we’re allowed a turkey this season.

Less of that next thur 🙂

Huzzah!

Vic

November 16, 2013 0

Artemis Thur – Being a Drax Report Missed a bit

Oh yes, I just remembered we got to play Guilds of Cadwallon last night. I really like this game. I’d seen it (well the box anyway) with the Wee Gamers at Conclave when it was in Kickstarter. The artwork was excellent. I was curious and at £8 (for some reason) I snapped it up. All that had to happen now is I had to like it.

Well I do like it, it’s snappy, it’s a little bit different and the artwork is lovely. The idea behind it is Cadwallon (a city) is controlled by a number of guilds whom you wish to curry favour with. You send your agents out to the streets to join together different guilds and in the process gain influence over them.

I was very impressed with Catan when I saw it first and realised you play it on the edges of the area. Catwallon plays in the same way, you have a 3 x 3 grid of cards (buildings mostly) with gaps in between (boulevards) in which you can place your agents. Each of the buildings confer a certain amount of influence which you can use to influence nearby buildings you connect with your agents. Makes no sense, that’s fair enough it needs a 1000 word picture. Take it from me this is a clever mechanic.

The game plays out over a number of rounds and the cards you gained influence over at the end are grouped and scored. In the mix are some action cards that change things around, wildcard characters and options secret missions and global effects. For such a small package it packs a fair punch.

It has elements from Catan, Citadels, 7 Wonders and a few others but it’s still fairly unique. It happily plays out in say 20-30 minutes so it’s quite lite. I’m eager to have another go at it which is not a bad recommendation.

I lost btw, I figured I would, then I figured I had it won then it was snatched from me if snatched means a country mile. Nice game, more of that

Huzzah

Vic

November 8, 2013 0

Artemis Thur – Being a Drax Report

It was early last week that a group of gamers from Northern Ireland by the power of the inter-web made me aware of a gaming experience called Artemis. Artemis was the virgin goddess of the hunt and the moon and there’s a fair chance that the people who will get the most out of this game are themselves virgins (or possibly affected by the moon). Event though it doesn’t say it this IS the bridge from Star trek.

You and a team of other players via laptops, smartphones and tablets and a wireless network get to team up and take the roles of Engineer, Navigator, Communications, Weapons, Science of even cooler Captain of a Starship.

It’s clever, very clever. One PC or device becomes the server and shows an external view of your ship. The other players with their laptops/tablets can then jump on and become the various work stations for the afore mentioned roles. Off you go on a variety of missions and work together to complete them or I dare say even more interestingly off you go with a larger number of players on DIFFERENT ships and take each other on Wrath of Khan style.

You can probably sense my excitement here, this is Sci-Fi nirvana and yes I did want to be the captain.

To be honest it was a pretty rushed affair having only heard of the game but all was looking good. One of the guys even brought a rather nice mini projector and had the main view screen up on the wall. Unfortunately due to different versions being released (at the moment) on ipads and PCs we couldn’t link them all together so we fell back to playing a less ambitious game with just iPads.

Yes, it’s great fun. If you’re short a few players you can swap between posts on the one PC. For such a new game it’s very nicely polished and the experience is very good. Even though we were like a bunch of cadets on a school tour we did manage to nuke and destroy an enemy ship whilst calling the odds to each other from our various stations. this is DEFINITELY one we’re going to revisit when they get the versions in order

After that is was back to earth for more simple fare.

Race for the galaxy was played while we few startreked across the universe. I can’t comment on it I’ve only played it once and that was a long time back and I didn’t get it.

Next up was an old classic Scotland Yard

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/438/scotland-yard

Most people have played scrabble, monopoly, game of life etc. Scotland Yards is one step up from these and a nice gateway game. I’d never played it before and I did like it, but then again this type of hunter/hunted game appeals to me.

Scotland yard < Letters from Whitechapel < Fury of Dracula

The above three are similar but increase in complexity as you go right. I’ve mentioned whitechapel and Dracula before, both excellent game. Scotland yard is a similar but a little bit simpler and certainly less bloody and more family friendly than the other two.

One person plays the bad guy who’s sneaking around the city, the other play police men trying to hunt him down by deduction, luck and guile. It’s a nice little game, very straightforward it is definitely fun to play. Our first game we caught the bad guy about half way through the game

the second (some way say third) I was the bad guy ….. and they never caught me. Buwahaha hahaha. That said I’ve played a lot of Dracula and Whitechapel so I was prepared. I would definitely play again. It’s faster than other too and it hits the spot. If a criticism could be levelled it’s that all three games are really two player games just with a group playing the good guys. That’s fine too. I’m just saying

Also played that night were Ribbit (you B******DS) and Love letter. Ribbit is killing me, I can’t get the hang of it and it’s a childs game for 5-105 year olds…. just goes to show

More next Thur

Huzzah!

Vic

November 8, 2013 0

All Hallows Thur – Being a Drax Report

“Victor how come there isn’t a mark on any of the rule books for you games?”

It’s true I’ve been accused of not reading the rules before starting games. It’s a filthy lie, I ALWAYS read the rules, perhaps a few times before I put a game out to play. Now that said I may have READ the rules but that’s no guarantee I have a clue what the rules mean

So last night was no exception. I read the rules for Netrunner a carefully, I read the cheat sheets, I even watched the tutorial videos a few times. I carefully punched and bagged up the games and everything was ready to go…. took a while to figure out though. But I digress first up was Cards Against Humanity

This is pure and simple, adult Apples to Apples and just like that game you play the person not the game. it’s fantastic. Great party game, easy to learn and is gut bustingly funny.

It’s a perfect game for non gamers. be warned it will offend some people (whomever they are), it’s quite adult

Next up whilst the lads had a go at Ticket to Ride (I hate ticket to ride) Someone who drew the short straw got to play den den DENNNNNN NETRUNNER agin me.

Netrunner is a fast paced (unless you play me) two player card game by Richard Garfield. One player takes the role of an evil (aren’t the always?) corporation who wants to advance their agendas while the other player takes the role of a dashing Hacker intent on stopping them. Now what’s really cool about this is both players play slightly different games

It’s really worth having a look at the video tutorial and you’ll get it pretty quick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAslVfZ9p-Y

The Corporate player sets up agendas and assets that will give them score and resources (the resources in the game are credits and clicks). These are set-up on remote servers and are protected by ICE to stop hackers getting at them. There’s a certain about of bluffing insofar as the hacker doesn’t know what each server contains, it could be an agenda an asset or a trap.

The hacker spend their time building up their assets (hardware, programs) and when they choose they can do a run to disrupt a corporation server.

It works really well, I’m dying to play this again and as we learned the game the turns whipped along pretty fast.

We were only scratching the surface last night as the game comes with a number of corporation and hacker decks and as you learn the game you can configure the decks to your best advantage.

NOW unlike say Magic the gathering this is a living card game so when you buy it it’s got everything in there, you don’t need to buy a dozen decks to get a half dozen cards. I like that idea and fantasy flight are old hands now at this format

Production values on this game are excellent as you would expect with FF. Card Quality, Artwork, everything, it can’t be faulted. There’s also a stack of expansions already out.

It’s set in the Android universe (very bladerunner). I played the original Android game some time back and it never really worked for me even though I really wanted it to but I’m glad to see FF are using the same IP again just like they’ve been reusing their Twilight Emperium universe for new games like Rex.

If you’ve looking for a good two player with a good level of complexity I would highly recommend this. Make sure to read the rules. several times.

The evening wound up with a bit of Ribbit and then it was time for a clean up

Good fun, no-one lost and eye

More of that next Thur

Huzzah!

November 1, 2013 0

Still October Thur – Being a Drax Report

7 in boardgaming is an unlucky number, well not so much unlucky as awkward. Most games are designed for a max of 4,5 or 6 players so when you get 7 people around a table the obvious thing to do (apart from ignore one person) is to split into two smaller groups but somehow last night that wasn’t going to work for us so it was 7 players all the way

First up was TSURO

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16992/tsuro

It’s a very simple game akin to pipe dreams where you lay ties with paths on them and move your marker and anyone on the same tiles marker to the end of that tile. go off the edge or collide with someone else marker and it’s game over. very simple and I THOUGHT practically no strategy, so… why do I still like the game? I don’t know. It intrigues me, I got it for the iphone and it still intrigues me.

The game itself if beautifully presented, nice quality pieces and a lovely oriental theme. It’s very light and you wouldn’t play a huge amount of it BUT it does have the one more go quality and it plays up to eight. Try it on the iphone first

Still with 7 in place we moved onto CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50381/cards-against-humanity

This is a winner. Quite simply it’s Apples to Apples for grown ups. The box says 17+ age for players and it’s accurate. it’s also HILAROUSLY funny, bawdy and very cleverly written. Oh and it’s good value for money, I ordered it from amazon half way through the first game, it’s that good. if you haven’t seen Apples to Apples it’s a great party game especially for children but it works well with adults too. I recommend CAH it was the game of the night

Still holding fast with 7 we moved onto 7 Wonders

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders

7 wonders is a card based civilisation type game with no map, a LITTLE like through the ages but way faster and a little like Magic the Gathering insofar as if you’ve ever played a grand melee it will be instantly familar. You can only attack the person left or right of you.

The players get a hand of cards, pick one and pass the reduced stack to their left, play the card and take the stack coming from their right. The idea is to build the best ’empire’ you can whilst messing up the other players turn. it’s fast, it’s very strategic and it’s good fun. Especially the crys as you hand a hand of rubbish to the player on your left

Then without a pause it was King of Tokyo

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-of-tokyo

This is a great little game by Richard Garfield. It’s nippy, it’s lite and it’s in your face. You take monster and duke it out with other players in Tokyo (where else) until all the other monsters lie dead and you do your victory dance.

After that we wound down with Love Letter

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/129622/love-letter

A favourite of mine since Knavecon. Great little game and I learn more about it every time I play which is saying something since there’s only 15 cards in the deck!

So all good clean fun and more of that sort of thing next Thur

Huzzah!

Vic

October 25, 2013 0