Hat trick of hate

I’m reliably informed (if you’re someone who trusts gamers) that it wasn’t the lava or indeed the ash that killed the population of Pompeii it was the pyroclastic surges.

Well that’s all well and grand but lava is the staple of so many adventure stories and when we played on Thur it was lava and to be even more accurate ME that killing the good people of Pompeii left and right.

The downfall of Pompeii. The game is medium length under an hour will see you good. We played it three time last week. THREE TIMES. that should tell you alone how good this game is. A few of the guys at knavecon IV had played it stupid and had recommend to me. They weren’t wrong

The game is very simple. Each turn you add one of your meeples to a building based on the cards in your hand. Each building can fit a limited amount of meeples and placing one in an occupied building lets you place additional meeples elsewhere via the relative rule

So the first half of the game you’re loading your guys (as many as possible) into building, preferably ones close to an exit because all hell is going to break loose come act two. During the first phase there’s cock blockery aplenty with players jockeying for the best spots like Guerrers trying to get up on a phone box during a parade. Omen cards allow you to (with great pleasure) take an enemy meeple and chuck them into the volcano freeing up some choice real estate but in no way appeasing the angry gods.

Then suddenly it’s fire and brimstone ,nikes on and to hell with making an orderly exit.

Once the second eruption card is pulled its lava from there on out. Players add an extra all devourer lava tile onto the already bubbling mass that’s rising up from six points within the city. So every turn a player gets to steer the avalanche hopefully onto enemy meeples and iggy pops two of his dudes to the nearest exit (the so long suckers salute is taken for granted)

Once everyone has exited Hanoi or at least got as many out as they could it’s all over and it’s most survivors that carry the day

This is superb. Absolutely fantastic game. I wholeheartedly recommend it. Works great with kids too. Despite what seems like a very simple game there is depth here. Each time we played it we found a bit more

Get this game. It’s cheap. If I was to fault it the build quality could be better and I already see a bit of wear and tear after three games but I can forgive

Going to play this again real soon

Huzzah

Vic

September 28, 2014 0

Constantinopolis Craving

Constonopolis is like a grown up version of Puerto Rico (we’re all grown ups at Thur night gaming as you know). We’ve spoken about it before (insofar as I’ve spoken about it). It was the second game of the night so it was like the secondary target in a Flight Sim, didn’t really matter, the main game was played and we could all land happy.

It is worker placement plain and simple. Last Thursdays flavour and it’s not bad at all. I’ve said it before and I’ll say if again (and probably again if allowed) if you haven’t played Puerto Rico you are missing out. If you’ve played a LOT of Puerto Rico then Constonopolis is a fine vapor pen like replacement.

Constonopolis (I’ve said it three times now) has got pretty much all the elements of Puerto but also a bit more. Trading (which I’m not so sure about). Mini missions in the shape of ships and buying of goods as opposed to just growing them.

It doesn’t have colonists to power stuff but that’s not a big loss by any means.

Myself and the group have played a lot of PR and almost solved the game at this stage, so this is new and fresh. I haven’t figured out one way of winning (with this and most games) It’s quite possible to go several routes to gain victory points and as far as I could see each of them was valid.

There’s cock blockery a plenty in the form of bidding and grabbing positions before others do and more importantly overcharging others for certain resources. Worker placement tends to be awfully polite (well with other groups I assume), lacking the “HA! I just invaded and ruined your epic plan, Squirt some tears punk ” moments. It’s all a bit more subtle but it’s no less fun for that.

Squeaking ahead on the score or cashing in a bonus and winning at the end never gets old. This is a solid game that gives warm hugs. It’s definitely worth playing but if you haven’t tried Puerto Rico I recommend you start with it first

We had already played one worker placement on the night so this was like a second happy meal in one day. I’m glad I got this game (It was a swapsee for something else) and I’m going to play it again. Try and stop me

Huzzah!

Vic

September 22, 2014 0

Rhymes with Archipelago

When games become a religion AS THEY INEVITABLY WILL (let’s ignore than I plan to be the first Pope of gaming for now). When it Happens one of the dominant sects will be worker placement (possibly with live workers). I can’t remember when WP came about but it’s everywhere now in gaming and in some camps it’s greeted with shouts of praise and others it’s all nashing of hair and pulling of teeth 🙂

I like a good WP game as much as the next dice chucker but add in a big of map based action and I’m your huckleberry

Arcepellego is one such game. I’m thankful for every game I get a chance to play and this was no exception. Now I have to clarify, we played one game last Thur and we were only really getting the tyres wet. It’s a complex game. When it was being explained my mind kept drifting to this video, however like most games an explanation from someone who’s played it and a play through makes every game simple.

Archipelago is an exploration, worker placement, economic five player. It’s map based via a set of big hex terrain card which lock together to form you guessed it an archipelago.

On these tiles are a half dozen resource types, fish, wood, iron, cows, instant whip (or some such) and you can harvest then by placing workers on them. Other moves involve things like exploring, building well … Buildings and generally not straying too far from the normal worker placement style you would expect

Each turn global events kick in and knock your workers over like and exploding Sauron and sacrificing goods allow you to stand them back up.

A rebels versus settlers governer mechanic leads to a careful exploitation balancing act and coupled with every one having their own secret set of game end conditions Archipelago is suitably different from anything else I’ve played

There’s a market economy going on with goods increasing in value and adding bonuses as you stockpile them in the central hoard.

Now I could be wrong (I’m not the Pope yet) but the only cock blockery I could find was grabbing before your opponent does. In this respect it’s a bit like Puerto Rico (which is no bad thing)

The game can be played in three lengths depending on setup short, tall or grande (you know what I mean). The shortest game being about two hours long. I’m starting to see a bit more of this with games and it’s welcome. Nations has a handicap system for experienced players and this simple addition makes a game a lot more accessible for players of mixed skills and gaming windows.

I’d be very interested in playing this again. I don’t think I’ve seen enough to make a Judgement on this game but it does have a vibe of a record you play once and think hmmm that was ok but a few plays more and you love it.

I infaliably reckon it might get another play next Thur

Huzzah

Vic

September 21, 2014 2

Hiding it’s Titan under a Bushel

This game has been faithfully turning up at Thur night games and serially overlooked like an extra with a killer signing voice for over a year. We played it last Thur and Cyclades is a SUPER game.

It’s got everything I like in a game. A map, ships and land troops along with big monsters and Greek mythology. So it’s unique enough. (Now THERES a sentence)

On the face of things it’s a map based conquest game played out on a round map with preset island and sea squares. The map is a decent size but not too large that you won’t meet everyone else a number of times during the game.

There’s a bidding element to it too where you try and favour one of the gods who’s in charge of ships (go on guess his name), land troops, priests or colleges along with a fifth god which is a sort of god of social welfare who doles out coins and horns of plenty (+1 coins per turn)

Before movement commences the bidding kicks off and increasing bids push players off these actions and allows then to rebid for others. So each turn you’ll be doing only one thing, raising and moving troops, ditto ships, building colleges or Temples or grabbing money.

Add to this a set of one off cards which allow you to summon titans to ruin someone’s day or give you movement or battle boosts and you have a game that borrows a lot of good elements from a number of games.

(Can you tell I really like this game?)

It’s five player a semi magical number and the race to the finish sees a lot of plan changes and sneaky plays.

When we played it it ended very close with most of the players one turn from victory. No bad thing.

It’s very good. It’s medium complexity (something I can handle). It’s fairly fast, below two hours and there’s a great sense of achievement unlike those silly flicking games everyone is mad about right now 😉

There’s a couple of expansions out for it and a newer Egyptian themed version but for now the game I played is perfectly formed

Highly recommended and in need of another play. Maybe next Thur

Huzzah!

Vic

September 17, 2014 0

Krazy Kosmonauts Krush Kompetition

I like Kosmonauts. I liked it more the first time I played it but I still liked it the second time and am sure I’ll like it next time whenever that will be.

I especially like it because it’s Russian and it has a strong K in the title. Fantastic

Kosmonauts is a fairly simple robo rally type game but purely based on movement. There’s no messing about with shooting and bumping, this solar system is more than big enough for the two (to four) of us

Each turn the current player (moves on each turn) moves all the planets around their track and the rather zippy Haley’s comet then picks a Global effect from a display of three cards. These take the form of solar winds that give a boost in one direction (usual not the one you want), restricts certain actions or removes or rewards fuel. Each of these global effects can be cancelled for you by burning one of your three non regenerating shield which also come in handy when you scream through the asteroid belt near solar central.

The whole game is a bit like skipping where knowing when to jump on and out of the rotating planets will pay dividends. I surprises me how little time you need to think about your move, granted you do need to move your lips while you’re figuring it out but it’s fairly straightforward.

Now here’s where it takes a bit of a twist and the game becomes a bit hard to figure. At the start of the game you secretly get a choice of three missions from a possible six drawn ones. These missions are to get to a certain planet but the rub is you have to choose in advance if you reckon (a scientific measure) you will be first or second to land on that Planet.

This makes the game almost modern art hard to Strategise. I’m sure given a few games it would become more obvious but I struggled a bit with it. As look would have it my standard strategy or no strategy worked fine.

The game ends when someone has reached all their planets and gotten back to earth but you can see this happening easily enough and it leads to more risky burns from everyone else to make your missions before your opponent does

I like this game. It’s pretty simple. It’s different (I understand high frontier is a little similar but a lot more complex). It’s fast. It’s fun. I’d definitely play it again and keep and eye out for it.

So should you komrade

Huzzah!

Vic

September 15, 2014 0

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

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