Do I want to build a snowman?

If you’ll pardon the pun, Arctic scavengers leaves me a bit cold.  After a couple of games I’m neither excited to or unwilling to play it again. It’s fine, it’s a solid game and it does introduce some new elements to the genre but it’s not epic and I demand epic.  Again as ever this is an early review and I will return to it and review it again in coming months

Maybe it’s the theme that doesn’t grab me. The game sees you assembling a gang of survivors in the Artic with various skills.  Scavenging resources, fighting, providing food, drawing cards (a really handy skill when it’s 20 below and a polar bear is trying to make you into a glove puppet) and trying to score highest in a number of categories (buildings, population, medical) all by the time one resource pile runs out. I just don’t like the setting.  It’s bleak.  I don’t know why everyone is up there (I don’t care enough to read the back story in the same way as I pick the standard character with no customization to start an RPG video game.  If I like it enough I’ll come back to it, but for now, Jenny Generic is just dandy).  I can’t associate with the cards. Let me put it another way.  Ever go skiing? what’s the worst part? Getting kitted out and trying to remember everything. Getting your gear together in the cold. Stomping uncomfortably in sore boots, tired, burdened and cold. Now, the payoff is WELL worth the effort, way in excess in fact. I’m just not sure at least so far, that Artic Scavengers delivers the payoff. It feels all trudging and no soaring.

IMG_4029
I’ve played numerous card games of this type, pretty much all of them good.  Dominion, Ascension, Star Realms. This game to me looks a lot like these with a couple of extra rules.  It’s not new.

The graphics are ho hum. It’s all blues, whites and greys. Yes I know it’s set in the arctic and granted It’s mostly been played on a black table by us but the palate is just plain dull and uninspired.  Yes it adds to the whole end of the world feel but for me it’s just too Eddard Stark. (see what I did there?) I want to be entertained.  Look at Star Realms the pictures are gorgeous, you want to study them, Artic Scavengers you couldn’t care less you just look at the numbers on the edge.  The art work is work man like.  All of the dudes look pretty much the same.  Pretty much it’s a pic of a person or persons wrapped up well with a weapon/rope.

Now, what does pull this game from the bargain bin is the extra rules.  Having a charasmatic leader that grants you a bonus is nice, some of them seem a bit overpowered to be honest (like the cannibal) and some of them well weedy but time will tell. The three piles of cards are good.  The diminishing returns scrap pile adds something.  It’s definitely worth digging there early on but judging wether it’s still worth the effort when a number of other players have rifled through it with their grubby gloved fingers is cool.  The engineers and buildings is nice, but it’s a longer term play and we noobs didn’t go there that much.

IMG_4031

The fights are definitely cool. This on it’s own adds a nice dimension.  Cards not played are held for a big scrap at the end of each round to gain the round card that the first player each round got a peek at.  By big scrap there’s no actual fight as such and the most muscle points wins the card and the others just don’t get a look in but don’t lose anything

Another bit I like is being able to remove as many cards from your hand permanently as you like at the end of the turn.  This is a power move, but since it’s open to everyone it makes or should make it quicker to get to the good cards.  The games we played, it didn’t.  assembling your tribe is a slow business.  Again it would speed up with more replays but the time per game is WAY longer than the side of the box indicates. Thats fine, I’m in no hurry but there is something to be said for shorter games and more of them since this is essentially a lite game

As you can see I’ve no strong feelings on the good/bad number line.  I’m going to keep my opinion powder dry on this one and recommend you try before you buy and of course there’s no better place to try it than at the next Knavecon on the 30th April.

Huzzah!

Vic

0

Space Crusade

  

Flashback Friday review of a classic game from the 80s.

Space Crusade is a great game. When I first saw it back in the day I figured it was just heroquest in space. It’s not. It’s a very different beast

The game sees you and up to two others taking on a fourth overlord player who is going to make it their business to ruin your day. 

  
It’s like a four player space hulk but a lot more social and to be honest a lot more fun. I’d play this game anytime over Space Hulk. 

Missions follow a pretty similar pattern you arrive on a space hulk (dungeon) with four beweaponed space marines and their nails hard commander and need to get somewhere and do something, more than likely kill some big dude. Theirs a big supporting cast from kobol like space gretchens to lethal chaos marines and the big daddy ed209 style dreadnaught. 

The map is split into four parts and as your team enters each the overlord places blips face down for you to get LOS and kill. You’ve probably guessed this but I love playing overlord and running an evil tower defence on the questing “heroes”. There’s is nothing as fun as the look on someone’s face who’s been facing gretchens and suddenly comes face to face with a chaos marine with a rocket launcher when they’re all badly bunched up. It’s quite common to lose all your grunt squad but your commander to carry the day. 
There’s a time limit governed by a set of event cards (usually bad for the marines) that get drawn each turn.
Completing missions gives marines and more interestingly the overlord experience points which can be spent on equipment cards. 
The game is unfortunately expensive now to get your hands on. More so the two expansions for it. However unlike heroquest from the same era this IS worth getting your hands on
It’s become a firm favorite at Knavecon and will be there front and center at the next

Huzzah!

Vic 

3

Get your game plan on

331971999_6d6ceea4b4_b
I can see Clery’s now the rain has gone

2016  is upon us.  Before it flies by I’m going to make plans to play some games I’ve always wanted to.  Why not.  It’s my year.  Along with a minimum of two Knavecon’s it’s going to be a good year for gaming. Why? because I’m going to make it so.  So… I’m going to need a plan and I’m going to set goals.  I keep copious notes on my phone, mostly blog articles I’ve written up in advance but there’s also a set of notes I keep coming back to and adding to …. and subtracting from …. every so often.  My precious.  My planned play list.  It consists of two things.

  1. Games I fancy buying
  2. Games I own and need to learn the rules of and more importantly get to the table

It’s a movable feast and I never see it gathering moss but equally there’s a number of games there I’ve wanted to play for a while and it’s time to move them along.

First up this year I’m determined I’m going to play KEMET I’m a big fan of Cyclades and I’ve wanted to play Kemet for a long time, I was lucky enough to snag it this Christmas as a gift so that’s first for next Thursday. After that there’s a dozen games I need to get off my shelves and breath life into them.  All deserve a trot around the paddock and that’s what I’m going to do.  So expect some talk about the following.

  • Theseus – The Dark Project
  • Spyrium
  • Camel Up – SUpercup
  • Twilight Imperium
  • Last Will
  • Jerusalem
  • Tash Kalar
  • Earth Reborn
  • Tournay
  • Vasca de Gamma
  • Fauna
  • Battlestar – Exodus
  • Risk – Godstorm
  • Risk – LOTR

I reckon if I get all those played this year I won’t be doing bad.  So, watch this space. 2016 is going to be the best year of gaming yet.

Huzzah!

Vic

 

 

0

Tomorrow

  
And some people just want to watch the world burn or in this case all six of us would have been. By turn 5 we had gotten perfectly in character, lost the will to live and envied the dwindled population. This game is a dull game. It has the potential to be good but the execution was lame and uninspired. It’s a pity because the idea is good. The world is overpopulated. Reduce the population through drastic measures but make sure it’s your guys that are still standing at the end. 

  
On paper (cardboard) it should work but in practice the actions are limited. Each turn you get to choose from two of five actions. Nuke, military, cyber attack, contagion, block. In truth the block, nuke and cyber attack are rarely taken. The nuclear option is very much a damp squid. The contagion after a round or two is weak as it removes a percentage rounded down in a lot of cases. So whomever gets in the first decent disease early on steals a huge march on everyone else and a lot of it is luck based. 

  
I really wanted to like the game. It’s map based and conquesty but it feels half baked. I’m starting to think it was cheap for a reason. It had a lot of potential but it didn’t live up to it. I can forgive a lot. So so art work. Dull colors (it’s mostly grey) and a poor rule book with a number of grey areas. I can’t forgive poor execution and tedious play. It needs a reboot 

It’s one thing to finish a game early and see who’s ahead it’s another to go, Let’s just give up and not care at all who won. That was our tomorrow experience. 

  
I’d play version 2.0 of this if ever there was one but as always there’s a lot of good games out there and I don’t want to waste my valuable gaming time on just ok

There’s no tomorrow

Huzzah!

Vic 

0

CBM64 Coup

 

I Like Coup. It’s a great little filler game. The expansion for it is good too. G54 rebellion is like the big brother of Coup. A chip off the old block but way cooler and with a leather jacket.

vv1
Rebellion has 25 roles each of which have various abilities, five of these are randomly picked and you have at it with these. The one constant from the original is you can always draw one coin per turn and if you have eight coins you can unstoppably coup someone. Oh that and everyone is still lying through their teeth about their roles.  The setup is reminiscent of Dominion where you assemble a deck from mini stacks of identical cards and AWWWAAAAYYY you go.

The plus to this is every game is different. There’s an infinite amount of combinations or more accurately 25 factorial 5. Let’s call it 6 million or so. The down side is it’s going to take a while to learn this game as there’s so many bloody roles. Ok maybe that’s not a bad side, but it’s not conducive to a fast start. Players tend to roll back to the old reliable of amassing enough for a coup and just grabbing one coin in their turn.

vv2
It’s also a little harder to lie as you’ll be unfamiliar with the roles. That said the five roles are visible in the centre and it wouldn’t be above some players to use this to their advantage by appearing to read their role from their card before they pronounce what they are
If you like Coup you’ll like rebellion. I can’t say I’ve played it enough to get a full overview but let’s pretend I have and it’s great

Huzzah!

Vic

0

The thigh bone’s connected 

  
Interviewer : “So Reiner Knizia what’s you’re new game like?”

Reiner : “The old one!”

Ilium is a Reiner Knizia medium length worker placement game. It’s not bad. I picked it up cheap at the last Knavecon buy and sell. Well worth what I paid for it. 
  
The theme is not bad. You control an archeological team and take it in turns to place 1-3 dudes on paths leading to digs that contain various artifact cards with increasing numbers of artifacts of six different types. 
Once paths to a dig are filled with dudes the player with the majority of adjacent workers gets to pick the lowest value artifact from one of the digs on the path. The next highest (with at least half as many workers) gets to pick from the dig at the other end of the path. 

  
So it continues. The digs emptying out and better and better artifacts being snapped up by various players. Once a certain point it reached its game over count your sets and points.
It’s simple fun. The devil is in the detail. Out representing your opponents and cock blockery is king. There’s skill in here. I like the game. It’s light. If games like splendor appeal to you you’ll find comfort in this game. 
I have some gaming buddies who are bosses at games like this. Luckily I didn’t play them yet at ilium. I did come close to winning. It was a refreshing experience. 
I’d play again. Not rush to play but play happily
Huzzah!
Vic 

0

My 2015 favorite Games

Having spent a good year gaming. Many fine Weeknights and weekends filled with adventure and betrayal I conclude the following three games have been the most enjoyable for me this year. Not necessarily Released this year (that is the case for some) but ones I got to play so far this year and loved loved loved

Number 3


Fire in the Lake is a stupendous game. If you’re not familiar with it, It’s a BIT like Twilight Struggle on steroids for up to four players set during the Vietnam conflict. I’m still chipping away at a review of the game. It’s without doubt the most complex game I’ve tried to learn and after many weeks and three games I’m still learning. This for me is the ultimate desert island game. I really believe there’s a decade of gaming wrapped up in this beauty. It’s complex, it’s obscure, it’s got it all. It’s like someone wrote the game I always wanted. It’s NOT a casual game. It’s got a steep learning curve just to understand the rules let alone understand what the hell you’re doing. It’s amazing but not for the faint hearted
Number 2

Quartermaster General is a great little WW2 grand strategy game. At its heart it’s so simple. Up to six (I do recommend you play with the full six) players work 3v3 to win the war or more accurately end the war with more victory points. Play a card. Draw a card. Up your score. That’s it. Small map. Less units that diplomacy on the board and yet it packs a knockout punch. I can’t recommend it enough

Number 1


Forbidden Stars has a great pedigree behind it. Fantasy flight and 40k. Just like IBM no one ever got kicked out of a games night for bringing either. It’s not overly complex. The mechanics are sublime. The knife edge wins. The variety every time you play. How tight battles can be. The cock blockery. The beautiful production values.

This is another premium game from FF. It’s worth every cent. For me this is truly game of the year

Huzzah!
Vic

0

Gaming with kids

  

Board games are a wonderful hobby for kids. No iffs buts or maybes. There are so many skills imparted from game mechanics, maths, accountancy, negotiation and more cooperation than a whole season of Sesame Street

My experience of gaming with kids comes from 

A. Being a kid at one stage and having a great memory

B. Still Being a kid albeit a big kid

C. Gaming with my kids

D. Gaming with other kids (at knavekids etc)

E. Working as a teacher for five years
So turns out I may know a bit. Anyhoe on with the rant
Engage

Many years back I worked with teenagers who were early school leavers and young offenders. At the interview I was asked how I would maintain discipline with a group like this. My answer was I’d keep them interested so they wouldn’t get bored and I wouldn’t need discipline. It worked too. 

I was always an avid gamer so I used games to engage them. Simulations to teach them. Completions to reward them. They were rarely bored and ALL of them were devious intelligent players. 
Age matters

Younger gamers will usually want to get to the good stuff quick so you’ve got to let them. Pick games that are simple and quick but with some skill. I can’t stress this enough. Predetermined random games like snakes and ladders just don’t work. They might as well not turn up for them. If you’re an older parent like me. It’s all well and grand that it was the height of entertainment when you were a kid. It’s not now. Move on. On Rail games you can play them as well with other players as you can without them and you’ve got no game levers to exploit to make the experience more fun
Prepare to lose

For anyone who’s ever role played and acted as the GM the key is to work with the players and make it an enjoyable experience. It’s not about beating your players. It’s about letting them have a fun experience. Let them win. Stack the deck in their favor. Make them work for it but don’t stick to the letter of the law with rules. Remember the objective. Get them hooked on games so they’ll look for games for birthdays and xmas you can benefit from that. Lure them in with easy wins. Judge it. Judge the age. 
Short and simple

Make games age appropriate. Kids vary in ability. Don’t ignore any game you already own. Simplify the rules to accommodate younger players. I do it the whole time. Then add in more of the rules in second then third plays. You don’t introduce games to adult players with all the expansions the first time they play. Simplify and if all else fails make shit up. Kids don’t mind. It’s time with their parents where there’s no distractions. 
Coop

Younger kids love coop. They don’t feel overpowered, they love having a parent or two working with them. They just want to be part of it. Avoid competition with younger kids. It’s too heartbreaking for them and while I’m on the subject lets talk about losing
Losing

The hardest thing for a child to do is loose a game. It’s heartbreaking both for you and the child. Tears, sobs, snots full meltdown. Kids need to learn to lose but not continuously. It kills them. It will come with age and you need to judge it. Cook the rules. Let them win more than they lose. Multiple kids? No problem let them all team up against the parent and win more than they lose. 
Time together

Your kids will love you if you game with them. This is a special time. It’s something you enjoy they can experience as well. It’s your thing and you’re saying to them I want you to enjoy what I do as much as I do. Welcome to my world

Huzzah!

Vic 

0

Good people

  
I have to say this. I’m struck by the fact that gamers are good people (in general and within the hobby). Why am I saying this?. Well recently I posted a blog article in which I was critical of the game imperial settlers. I wasn’t a fan after one game and wasn’t overly bothered to play it again…..

Now. There was a lot of replies to the post. A number of people came back and expressed their opinion and it was all in the form of. Well I like it. Maybe you’re missing something. I’m not s huge fan. I agree. I disagree. I think it works better this way etc etc. the point is not a single person was rude, abrupt or aggressive in a group of 7.5k people. Think about that. With such a diverse crowd of gamers. All passionate about their hobby. Everyone of them was civil and helpful. Thats amazing

What’s more I was persuaded that it definitely needs another play and another blog article. 
So thank you to all and group hug
Huzzah!
Vic 

0

Fur coat, not much else

Wombles

I’m not sure (apart from snazzy graphics) what I was going to be getting myself into when I got to play imperial settlers but I was eager to have a lash of it. Oh I do know what I thought might happen. Some sort of develop your village attack your neighbours….. It IS like that but not in a slick and easy way….

Imperial settlers has you working through more hoops than 1970s spaghetti. You can’t do THAT until you have THIS and getting that you’ll need this. It was the second game of the night but I could feel the “let it end now” mood swinging in.

The game sees you with a hand of cards each with a resource cost on them. Getting them into play costs you a mix of apples, stone, wood and little pink people. Each round you draw a set of resources depending on your race and you try to build your economy as best you can via worker placement (On the cards you’ve been able to bring into play). There’s no map.  It’s a card game. so… no map.

settlers2

Ok I’ll say it straight out. I didn’t like this game. There’s only five rounds and every turn is unforgiving and to be honest tedious. By the time you get a reasonable economy together it’s game over. Granted after repeated plays you’ll be able to get things off the ground faster but it doesn’t matter. It’s just not that exciting planning to be able to generate an extra wood next turn if you play your cards right. Couple this with the lack of interaction and you have a pretty dull economy game. Yes you can attack other players economies but doing so will use resources better spent developing your own so we have a fairly solitaire experience. Granted again once you learn the game you’ll start to see different strategies emerge but I couldn’t be bothered. I only have a hundred years or so of life left and I don’t want to waste any of it.

There’s lots of economy games out there. This needed to be something special to raise its head above the rest. The nice pictures didn’t do it. To me it’s over hyped just like machi koro was. I won’t be rushing back. (I may saunter back)

Huzzah!

Vic

settlers

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑