Guns and Steel is a thinky Filler. A Civilization game played out in twenty minutes or so. It’s cheap, fairly simple and surprisingly good. I SAY fairly simple but the whole Fibonacci series resource mechanic can be confusing at first. Each turn you place a resource (the back of the card) and an action card (the front of another card) and take the action. You also get to buy a card from the technology pyramid of cards on the table.

As the game progresses your small hand of cards increases in potency and new resources from the starting food and metal open up to you along with better actions and more beefy military units.

Military is simple. Some cards have spear symbols on them and when you call and attack you count how many spear symbols you’re bringing to the party and woo betide the players with less. At best they will temporarily lose some resources or at worst have to hand over a wonder of the world they built/stole.

Beside each row of the ziggurat of tech cards is a wonder card that requires a particular combo to win. So it might be having 3 strength in military or having such and such a level of resources. Wonders give you big points along with the various bought cards.

For such a simple game there’s a lot of Depth here. There’s a lot to think about. Which cards to angle for. Which cards others have taken. When to draw your hand back in and get a fresh run but expose yourself defensively. When to Risk an attack or do a small one to deny an opponent resources then do a better one to steal their wonder.

I really like this game. It seems clunky in the first few turns but it suddenly clicks and it’s a turns into a sick experience. It packs a hell of a punch giving you a lot of the feels you’d get from a much bigger longer game

I’m going to pick up a copy. It will be at Knavecon and definitely worth fifteen minutes of your time

Huzzah!

Vic

The Godfather movies have all the ingredients for a great boardgame. It seems odd that no one has made a decent stab at it as a dudes on a map style game until now.

The Godfather Carleone’s empire to give it it’s full title is a worker placement area control game with shades of Tammny Hall, Lords of Waterdeep, Junta and hints of Blood Rage and even Forbidden Stars at a stretch.

The game is played out on a map of New York which is divided up into eight sectors each with one or more businesses. A business (some of which are fixed on the map and some drawn from a deck each turn) has two spots you can place a mobster worker on. Either a thug in the front of the business to shake it down or a mobster boss who stands adjacent to a number of business and gets them to pay out what they’re doing at the back of the building.

Like any worker placement getting in first is critical to get the good stuff. The stuff in this case consists of guns, drink, blood money or wildcard drugs. These are used to complete missions which grant you money (also used as score) and resources.

Key to all this is your suitcase (which is a natty little protractor style pencil case affair) only money in it at the end of the game counts and getting it in there is an action on a business spot. Unlike Junta money in there (as I found out) is far from safe and needs to be used for bidding later on and is open for stealing by other players. This mechanic is neat. It leads to a very tense game. Especially later when the game is coming to an end and you want to get all your ill gotten gains squirreled away in it.

Area control Is clever. If you have more workers in a location you take control and stick down a tag showing this for subsequent rounds. Owning an area allows you to wet your beak when other players take resources from there. Ownership is easily lost too, so be warned. This can lead to a little bit of analysis paralysis later in the game but a few played games I reckon will fix that.

As the game progresses more family members and mobsters (workers) get added to your roster so more moves and more interestingly conflicts happen. A variety of public officials like the mayor, police chief and godfather appear each turn and can be bid on and bought. These grant you certain powers such as arresting or moving on thugs or giving more ownership rights for areas.

Rules wise it’s not that complex but you will get a rude education (like I did) the first time you play as to what can be done in the game.

I’m only scratching the surface here with options. There’s cards that allow drive by shootings, hostile take overs and well more shootings really. There’s Depth here and a few gotyas that will require multiple plays.

I really like it. I was treated to a copy with some of the minis painted which added to it. Including the horses head counter which indicates the first player.

Build quality is good but not excellent. The board is a little dull and the artwork for some bits boring but don’t let that detract you. The game play is solid. This is a game crying out to be pimped out.

I’m going to pick up a copy of this sometime soon. I’m that impressed with it. It’s pricey but it does make you an offer you can’t refuse….

Sorry

Huzzah!

Vic

More games added to the raffle…. Three of them!

+ +

Plus

+

Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove

Don’t Forget!

and let’s not forget

MORE TO FOLLOW

SO! how do I get tickets early and beat the rush on the day and benefit from the 2 for 1 offer before the friday before the Knavecon?  Simples just paypal my Swiss bank account at

victorgannon@yahoo.com

Prices are currently

• 2 x raffle tickets for €1
• 20 x raffle tickets for €7
• 50 x raffle tickets for €12

Should you feel inclined, feel free to pre-book your tickets for the event too.  Tickets will be available on the door on the day as usual.  It’s going to be a busy con!

• Adults €18
• Students and unwaged €10
• Accompanied Children Free

Huzzah!

Vic

More games added to the raffle…. Two in fact

+

Plus of course

Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove

Don’t Forget!

and let’s not forget

MORE TO FOLLOW

SO! how do I get tickets early and beat the rush on the day and benefit from the 2 for 1 offer before the friday before the Knavecon?  Simples just paypal my Swiss bank account at

victorgannon@yahoo.com

Prices are currently

• 2 x raffle tickets for €1
• 20 x raffle tickets for €7
• 50 x raffle tickets for €12

Should you feel inclined, feel free to pre-book your tickets for the event too.  Tickets will be available on the door on the day as usual.  It’s going to be a busy con!

• Adults €18
• Students and unwaged €10
• Accompanied Children Free

Huzzah!

Vic

More games added to the raffle….

Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove

Plus of course

Don’t Forget!

and let’s not forget

MORE TO FOLLOW

SO! how do I get tickets early and beat the rush on the day and benefit from the 2 for 1 offer before the friday before the Knavecon?  Simples just paypal my Swiss bank account at

victorgannon@yahoo.com

Prices are currently

• 2 x raffle tickets for €1
• 20 x raffle tickets for €7
• 50 x raffle tickets for €12

Should you feel inclined, feel free to pre-book your tickets for the event too.  Tickets will be available on the door on the day as usual.  It’s going to be a busy con!

• Adults €18
• Students and unwaged €10
• Accompanied Children Free

Huzzah!

Vic

You know  you give me no choice but to add more games to the Grande Raffle.  I thought we had peaked at Knavecon 9 but OH NO, this is going to be the best raffle to date.  A big thank you to a number of people who have donated prizes for the big event.  Knaves I give you the kickstarter that is….

Don’t Forget!

and let’s not forget

MORE TO FOLLOW

SO! how do I get tickets early and beat the rush on the day and benefit from the 2 for 1 offer before the friday before the Knavecon?  Simples just paypal my Swiss bank account at

victorgannon@yahoo.com

Prices are currently

• 2 x raffle tickets for €1
• 20 x raffle tickets for €7
• 50 x raffle tickets for €12

Should you feel inclined, feel free to pre-book your tickets for the event too.  Tickets will be available on the door on the day as usual.  It’s going to be a busy con!

• Adults €18
• Students and unwaged €10
• Accompanied Children Free

Huzzah!

Vic

Jimmy “The Infamous” Murphy was good enough to guest write a review of Camel Up the card game, let’s hear what he has to say…..

Camel up is a fun board game that can go to 8 players with expansions.

If you’ve played that game then you’ll find a lot of similarities.

It’s still a game about betting on camels racing down a track and hoping that the next move will go your way.

The betting options are largely similar. You have a set of bets on where the camels will come in this leg of the race and a set of bets on the final places. There is one end of race bet for each camel to either win or lose. The payout for being fight is pretty large in the game context so getting it right is important. You can only have one win and one lose bet in front of you but you can swap then so it is entertaining to watch the musical chairs effect when camels make big gains or losses in a round.

The leg bets are on each camel and decrease in value so there’s a pizza too grab them quick, the downside being getting it won’t can lose you money. The bet payouts are generally good enough that players are encouraged to make bets and be engaged in the race.

This version runs on cards, literally. Track is a set of cards and the movement is governed by the race deck. The race deck is built by each player getting a hand of cards and splitting that hand into discards, secret race cards ,one known racecard and one card they can play in their turn.

This makes the game interesting as each player has a certain amount of knowledge about what’s in the race deck. Numbers vary on the player count but if 3 player it’s the following.

You get 9 cards.

You put 3 into the race.

You discard 4.

Then you have one you hold and one you reveal to the table on your turn if you choose.

So the rounds run with everyone trying to grab the best bet, choose the perfect moment to play their secret card and wondering what the fates and the other players are going to do to them. The level of engagement for players is high even on other people’s turns as you are watching the race unfold. There is a lot of silent and not so silent commentary on the performance and probable hereditary of the camels each leg.

When it looks like the race is ending the banter and plots hit a high point. Alliances are made and broken based on the likelihood of the player with the currently leading camel to be able to reach the end line if everyone else is discarding the cards that make that camel lose. This is the leg of significant nods and smiles and flat out bluffs

For me camel up cards is not as much fun as the board game with the expansion. But I Think it’s going to be a handy one for casual play. Works well with kids and goes to six players. The real bonus is the box is about the same size as a tiny epic game making this a much more portable version.

Jimmy

Finally got down to Cork to game with Jimmy "the infamous" and the guys from Dan Lowery's tue night games. It was an honor and a pleasure. For them obviously. For me it was a savage beating at The Godfather game.

The guys have a fantastic setup. A cosy bar, friendly staff (related), good food and decent coffee and unusually for a bar alcohol.

The bar even has its own themed board gaming menu of meals. Drop in early. Have a bite to eat, play a few games, have a drink. Not a bad evening at all

A big thank you to the lads for their hospitality. Great nights entertainment and I'm looking forward to seeing these complete 24 carat bastards at Knavecon 10.

Huzzah!

Victor

AS YOU KNOW, the knaves are famous for their gentlemanly/ladylike behaviour, their effortless classiness and their love of the aesthetic.  Knavecon 10 is going to be something special and we’re going to be wheeling out some very special games as part of our Posh Gaming series (which I just thought up seconds before now).

One of the Thur crew is going to be inviting correctly washed and gloved gamers to join him for a game of War of the Ring on his brand new shiny copy of the 2017 Anniversary Edition.  His copy includes the anniversary edition expansion Warriors of Middle earth and 3D printed custom fortress pieces which look the Business!

We will also have a copy of the Kickstarter edition of Takenoko available to us and more posh games will be added before the 2nd September.

I’ve you’ve been hoarding a special edition of a game for some time.  Knavecon 10 is the perfect time to whip it out and show it to everyone….

Huzzah!

Vic