Holy Monkeys! Depending on whom you are… this has Gotta hurt!
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Here comes the two stopper
Racing games are always fun. Well pretty much always. I like a good racing game I do. I rarely win a racing game but then again I rarely win lots of games
We played an old classic at Gael con. The original Formula De. Every time I play this game there’s a shout of “we’ll only do one lap”, this was no different.
There’s a real charm to Formula De. It’s simple, it’s German. I’m not sure how well it simulates a formula one race and I’ve never played the advanced rules but I’ve always enjoyed myself with it
It’s best played with six or more (as long as you don’t have slow players) and if you have time do play the full two laps. It’s a much more tactical game and doing a pit stop is pretty much essential. If you have five or fewer players take two cars each and it’s dynamite.
The game is essentially about getting your gears right. There we six dice from a lowly two sides to the mighty footballesque one that sports over twenty plus sides.
The trick is the higher dice have a Range of numbers. So for example fourth gear goes from 8 to 16. Fifth goes from 14 to 20 and so on so your guaranteed to be in a particular range of numbers when you roll it.
The track is laid out as a long grid and you move your car the number of squares indicated on the dice roll. So far so simple. To make it more interesting the track has a number of corners with a clump of squares you have to stop in as you pass through so it’s a gamble. Do I drop a gear and for sure make it into this corner or do I roar ahead and hope I get the dice roll I’m after? A limited amount of Brakes and Tyre points allow you to adjust the dice roll but mess up too much and you’ll spin out and have to restart in first gear.
So it’s a push your luck game and if you take It nice and handy you will make it very neatly around the track. Of course since everyone else is breathing down your neck it becomes just like real racing a white knuckle ride.
It’s a fun game, not to be taken too seriously and there is a reasonable chunk of random in there.
There’s a newer version of the game out since the one we played and it does play a bit different. I only played that one once so I couldn’t gauge if it was better or worse, my feeling was worse but it needs a replay.
There’s a number of race games out there but this one really is a classic and well worth a spin. It comes with two tracks but there’s a bunch of add ons for it and a big set of both official and unofficial rules for Grand Prix season, weather, car design and so on.
Certainly worth considering as it’s suitably different.
Huzzah!
Vic
Another Year Over – Winter Builds Diplomacy 2014
Builds now in for Diplomacy. Turn 3 coming this Friday…..
Over by xmas – Diplomacy Turn 2
Some surprise moves right there, shocked stunned, on the plus side no-one lost anything
Austria: Supp 5 Unit 3 Build 2
England: Supp 3 Unit 3 Build 0
France: Supp 5 Unit 3 Build 2
Germany: Supp 3 Unit 3 Build 0
Italy: Supp 5 Unit 3 Build 2
Russia: Supp 6 Unit 4 Build 2
Turkey: Supp 4 Unit 3 Build 1
Diplomacy 1901 – Round 1 Results
It never fails to amaze me that every game of Diplomacy is different. Here’s the opening moves to our captive game
After the move here’s how it’s all looking. I’m disqualified from commenting on Diplomacy on the basis that I’m “a bit rubbish” but my good friend* Handsome Bob will be doing an analysis of how it’s all playing out.
I already have my bet made as to whom is going to win, but even after one round I’m not so sure….
Huzzah!
Vic
It’s all about that Base, bout that base, No zombies
I MAY have lied earlier when I said I was done with zombie games for a bit. A week or two is a long time and not really scientifcally measureable, so chances are I actually told the truth and I’m not over my sabbatical, but seriously this is my last zombie game for a while. no takey backys
I got to play a game I’ve had my eye on for a while now and is as hard as something very hard indeed to get your hands on. (air as an e.g.) Dead of Winter.
Dead of winter is the first in a series of games by Plaid Hat, the first one is set in a colony that’s holding out against the zombies in, you guessed it a zombie apocolypse in (bonus points if you guessed it) the Dead of Winter.
It’s a semi co-operative game which with the gamers I play with means not co-operative at all. At all. Each player starts with a secret (they might be a loner, a traitor, a something else I haven’t seen, I only played one game) and to win they need to complete their objective which may not be in conflict with the overall health of the group.
When I played I was secretly the loner so I had to complete the overall objective which everyone else had to, but when it was complete I had to be the only one alive in my group (no followers). I didn’t win btw we were swamped by Zees mid game
Each player starts with their own little group, a leader and one follower and this may grow as time rolls on. Each of the players have their own party trick, a skill at fighting and scavenging and a number which indicates how tasty they are to zombies. if you wind up in a room with zombies and you have a higher number than your companions they get eaten first. So were dealing with zombies with a descerning palate. (if indeed they have a palate left)
Each turn your group of survivors muck in and try to help the colony survive, this could be by scavenging food, fuel, weapons, building barricades, taking out the trash (it’s true), killing zombies or contributing to a group problem (well the solution to it one hopes)
The game plays a little like Battlestar Galactica insofar as there are bad things that happen every turn and sometimes as a group you have to deal with them, keeping in mind you don’t really know what everyone’s secret agenda is, so there’s a fine level of paranoia throughout.
Also like Battlestar you have a number of resouces (weaknesses) that you have to keep an eye on. Morale being the big one. It this runs to zero it’s game over man and it’s very easy for this to happen. Losing survivors and various dilemas affect it and it’s hard and costly in resources to get it back up.
All in all it’s a BIT like BS with you and your ‘team’ juggling limited resources and rearranging the deckchairs whilst keeping a storm eye for traitors in your midst. It’s brillant.
it captures the feel (I imagine) of a desperate struggle. It starts off easily enough but within a very short time you’re making hard choices and both the time I played it and the game I observed it was rock hard. it was also hugely fun.
I can see why this game sold out so quickly. If you can lay you hands on it before xMas you’re doing well and the manufactures have a lead time of a number of months before a reprint. It’s going to sell again like hotcakes. I find a lot of zombie games, slow and repetitive, not this, this is the business. The model they have for the game is going to be reused. I understand the next themed game is going to be set in space and I can see it working perfectly.
If you can get this game, get it. If you don’t like it I’ll buy it off you
It’s a winner. Now excuse me while I some followers I need to arrange accidents for (evil chuckle)
Huzzah!
Vic
Die zombie die !
Zombie dice is a very simple push your luck game which you can teach in under a minute. THREE… TWO… ONE… GO!
Taught!
The game consists of a dozen or so dice of three types. Red, Yellow and you guessed it blue. No Red Yellow and Green.
Each of the dice contain one of three possible faces
Brains : worth one point (whom doesn’t like tasty brains)
Footsteps : reroll
Blast : shot by a shotgun
The green one has mostly brains (easy pickings), The red more blasts and the yellow in between
Each turn you draw three dice at random from the container and decide to roll or stick.
A stack of greens and you’re laughing. A whole passel of reds and it’s a more daunting prospect.
Every brain stays in front of you after a roll, as do the blasts. Rinse and repeat. Wimp out and your opponents (unless also wimpy) may get ahead (and a brain), go for it and you may wind up rolling three Shotgun blasts and end that round and lose all your brains from that round. sad zombie, zombie sad.
It’s pure push your luck and yes it’s luck based, but then again it’s a calculated risk.
The game ends when someone makes it to 13 or above brains
That’s it.
Its simple fun. Kids love it. So does my gaming group (I’m just saying). There’s a lovely noisy feel to rolling the dice. The zombie theme fits well (although you could just as easily be rolling for unicorns or bedpans). It’s a little expensive for what it is. 12 dice. But it’s fun and it’s a fine filler for ending an evening or when you’re waiting for a crowd to assemble.
It’s also very scaleable, so it’s possible to have as many players as you like (I don’t recommend above ten, unless of course you run two sets of dice around the table like the Magic Grand Melees of old)(it would still not work but it shows I’m at least thinking)
Worth getting. Have a look around for value
There’s two expansions. Both of each I have and I’ll review in quick succession. For now
Huzzah!
Vic
More Dead than Alive
“Should I stick with it?” Probably not a good sign when it comes to a TV series. I’m very unforgiving when it comes to TV. The Living Dead leaves me cold (pardon the pun). I read the comic and liked it for long time. I’m
Now a bit bored with it. The TV Series never really blew my head off. I’m going to try and get back into it. I’m on series 3. I’ll see how it goes.
The Walking Dead we played on Thur is based on the comic rather than the TV Series so more the better. The game can be summed up in two words. “Zombie snake”
Remember Snake on the Nokia where you zoomed around with an ever growing trail trying not to crash back into it? Tron light cycles if you will. That’s pretty much the game accept its zombies you leave behind and crossing your own tail means tangling with variable numbers of the not really dead.
You and up to five other players wander around the hexed map trying to complete three objectives in three locations before anyone else does. All the while trying to cock block the other players. The usual shout of “if you do that he’ll win” are regularly heard… It’s grand.
I played this game before and got hooped good and proper. This time I won. I’m still not into it. I love the game but I’m not IN love with it, sorry, it’s not your fault, it’s me not you.
It’s good fun but I see two flaws with it. It’s not interactive enough and its elimination. Oh and it’s shit. No it’s not shit it’s not a bad game it’s certainly not as jaw breakingly boring as Talisman but it has a bit of that vibe.
There are better zombie games out there (Zombicide) and certainly worse ones (zombies). This fits somewhere in the wide divide
Between them. Try it and see if you like it (maybe at Knavecon) . I don’t have strong feeling about it one way or the other
Huzzah
Vic
All over by xmas
Right all this talk about Diplomacy is making my back itch. Let’s have a chat….
I’m looking for a group of gamers who believe in fair play, sportsmanship and are above all interested in having fun whilst gaming. Im going to put those to one side the pick from the scum and villainy bunch that’s left (which is pretty much all the same lot we started with)
I’m going to GM a game of diplomacy and I want YOU to play it out. I’ll go one better. I’m giving the top player an exclusive KNAVECON Tshirt. What more could you ask for ? (Don’t answer that)
Turns take about five minutes of your time every week excluding any communication between players. I need you to email me your orders by Friday morning. That’s all that’s required of you. Oh and to learn the rules. But trust me* they’re easy
I’m bringing in a guest writer to do up the weekly report for me and I’ll post the map on the blog.
So…. Who’s game?
Huzzah!
Vic
*well done you didn’t trust me that time. There’s hope
I don’t like the look of yours
I tapped Jane Fonda, my opponent tapped mother Theresa. To each their own…
KGB v CIA Is a fairly simple two player game where opponents duke it out for world dominace (what else is there?) in the cold war era.
The game comes in a small box and consists of a stack of
BOOM!
Objective cards (worth points)
BOOM!
Groups (various groups you deploy to exert influence on the objective and hopefully claim it all with abilities and variable influence points)
BOOM!
Agents (your operatives who have special abilities)
The game is split into rounds where an objective is revealed showing a place and how many groups can operate in that theater along with the “ah now stop lads you’re taking the piss” level of influence that can be exerted before the region rebels and hands the win to the other player. Often a region will have a global affect as well that affects the round so every time you play its nicely different.
each player picks an agent to do their dirty work for that round and you take it in turn to draw and place groups from a face down stack up to the max that can be shoehorned into that objective. It’s awfully like blackjack where you want to get close to the max level of influence for that region but not go bust. Go bust and your opponent wins. Unlike black jack however you have a lot more control of the cards once picked and it’s quite possible to recover from a losing position
The cards you play in addition to exerting influence each have a special once off tap ability like remove or steal an enemy card. Tap any card and so on
It’s quite the little plate spinning exercise trying not to bust, keeping under the pop limit, trying to mess up your opponents play and planning which agent to employ in the next round not to mention drinking coffee and sledging your opponent “PAH! Call THAT an army I’ll show YOU an army”
Each round of the game yields roughly 5 – 15 points and first to 100 wins it.
You won’t go through the whole deck in a given game and I’m always a fan of this sort of thing when it comes to replays
I like this game. It clever it’s snappy and as two players games go it’s one of the better ones. Now it’s not twilight struggle it’s not even twilight lite it’s a different animal altogether and to a certain extent the setting has been tacked on. It is a solid game . It’s very tasty. Earning points is s struggle and anyone can be a winner in any given round. In fact losing a round convincingly is a valid tactic too when assassins are used.
For what you get its a great value game. Shop around and you’ll pick it up for a tenner
If you’re looking for a good two player game that will play out in under an hour has pictures of both mother Teresa AND Jane Fonda this is definitely the one to go for
Huzzah!
Vic
Victor Gannon Games 