War is Heck

Quartermaster General appeared on my radar relatively recently and due to the combination of A) selling all my x-wing stuff at the last Knavecon and B) a lot of favorable reviews and C). A hole burning in my pocket. I invested

Let me start by saying this is a cracker of a game. It’s World War 2 in an hour plus. It’s conquest and its card driven. I’m all in

Quartermaster general is a team game. In one corner we have Russia, USA and Britain In the other corner we have Japan, Germany and Italy. Each of theses have decks of varying size, Each of these have specific personalities. Russia has a big deck of cards. It’s a slow solid beast. It’s not going to run out of resources. Italy is flighty, lots of attacks but no staying powers. USA is slow to start but powerful and so on. Just as you’d expect these nations would have behaved and as far as I can see all nicely balanced.

During your turn (of which there’s twenty) you play a card. That’s it. That’s your turn. You play a card and you take the action on it. Then you score your occupied supply centres.

You discard as many as you like and redraw back to seven. Run out of cards however due to zealous discarding and the war is over for you. In that respect its a little like small world your nation may continue to score points for what it’s conquered but it’s a very small matter of time that a more agile nation will overrun your prone position

The cards themselves come in a variety of flavors all of which are fool proof. Build an army, build a navy, attack, place an effect card, place a reaction card face down and that’s pretty much it

There’s a simplified world map with around twenty plus spots on it. (Have a look at the pic). Here’s where all the action plays out. Again it’s simple, each spot can hold one army (allies can share). The army unit numbers are small. Italy can field three of four armies and the same in navies. Germany can field a whopping seven armies. This is not Risk, it’s a lot more like Imperial (this time you DO own the nations)

Battles are simple affairs. You remove an adjacent army or navy. Actually everything is simple, once you’ve read the short rule book everything else you need is written on the cards you play.

So how does it play? Like a dream. This is a tasty game. It’s suitably different, thematic, fast, tactical and a joy to play. We fought the good fight in two hours or so. Mistakes were made the 1000 year reich lasted a mere two hours so a bit of over estimation right there. I really liked the sound of this game when I’d heard about it and I really liked it in action. I can see this hitting the table a lot over the next OH LOOK A NEW GAME! No seriously I can see this being played a nice bit over the next few months. It’s a cracker. I can also see their game system being used for any number of conflicts.

One final observation, Counter intuitively this game plays faster the more players you add. I’m not aware of ANY other games with this unique attribute.

More of this sort of thing

Huzzah

Vic

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July 6, 2015 2

It’ll be the death of em

I got to play Village last night. It’s one of those games that you’ve probably seen in every games shop and its at the “not a bad price but, is it any good” price range.

I played Blood Royale at Knavecon some years back and LOVED the family generations mechanic. The game lasted over several generations and your heirs took over the reins of power and so on. Village features something similar, simpler but no less fun

If you’re a worker placement fan you’ll be in worker hog heaven. It’s classic stuff with a few twists that make it very enjoyable.

You start the game with your own shiny farm and a family of four (first generation) on the outskirts of the eponymous village. Your four meeples can stay down on the farm and help with the harvest, go to the village and specialise in certain skills/buildings getting you an extra bite of the cherry from the actions available there or go travel the world and return trinkets and more importantly score

The village has a number of spots with a limited few colored resource cubes on them which you can pull to operate that particular building. The buildings allow you to buy economic motors like oxen, wagons, horses and scrolls. Other buildings allow you to enter some of your meeples into the church (scoring), politics (turn order), kick off a market (allow you to flog resources for points) and so on. There’s a good half dozen plus

Resources can be used for a few things like sending one of your meeples off to travel the world and bringing back resources and points. Used for getting ahead in politics and the church hierarchy and paying for some of the actions in the buildings.

So far this is all run of the mill (pardon the pun) stuff, but what makes it very interesting is the time resource

Each of your meeples starts with a big one on them (first generation). Marriage allows you to add new meeples to your pack (second gen) however on the flip side some actions or pushing the envelope uses up time and every ten or so time used will see one of your oldest generation kick the bucket and be interred (if there’s room) in the book of remembrance (scored at end of the game).

It’s a stupendous mechanic, lifting just another worker placement into something way more interesting. You find yourself agonizing over taking a good move but loosing one your older meeples in return. Like all good games it’s a case of making the best worst choices or at least hoping you have.

This game reminds me a bit of Constonapolis. There’s a lot of bang here for your buck and despite being tired from playing other games I found myself getting more and more into this game as it progressed. This is a fine fine game.

If I could find fault, I found it hard to figure out where everyone was score wise mid game. You can get an idea but no more. When the game was over there was a considerable difference in scores. In my case I sat watching the others zoom way ahead of me on the scoring track. I was ok with that. I had a lot of fun with this game and I’m eager to play it again

Nice game. Well worth a look

Huzzah

Vic

June 28, 2015 1

Bad year el Presdente ?

Junta is an old game. It’s also a classic and one of those rare games that seats seven comfortably. Truth be told it works best with the full heptagonic compliment and given the right group it’s a lot of fun

I have the old west end games version and the build quality wouldn’t make a huffing big bad wolf break a sweat. That said this isn’t a game that will come out all that often so it’s adequate. It’s also a game that can and quite often does given a vengeful group (the people I usually play with) drag on for some time. That’s fine you can adjust the wick of it easily by reducing the starting cash.

Junta is something akin to those celebrity multi bird Xmas dinners. It’s a simple please everyone round with the more than possible threat of a time sucking rebellion phase lurking just beneath the surface.

Each turn the elected el presedente draws a random face down budget from the card stack. They then announce the budget to the ministers (whom he put in office), “minister for secret police gets three million, the Air Force gets two, navy none” and so on

The ministers use a combination of face up political support cards and cards in hand to either vote it in or force a recount or possible coup. It’s sweaty stuff. You find yourself trying to please everyone or at least enough to stay in office so you can feather your nest.

If it passes ministers hide theirs stash and if possible try and make it to the bank to lodge it in their Swiss bank account. The others can hire assassins, thieves or some other threat to try and waylay them. At the end of the game whomever has the most tucked away in Switzerland wins

You’d think the president would be the best hope to win but between keeping others sweet and the very real threat of coup it’s often not the case.

Coups occur when the ministers have had enough of this corrupt government and want to elect their own better paying corrupt government and therein kicks off the second game, The coup bit which sees ministers rally their loyal forces to either defend the president’s will or try and oust him.

Like a lot of games I like the majority of the skill comes down to negotiations, lying, bribery, coercion and good old fashion back stabbery.
It’s not a difficult game to learn. It’s definitely a fun game and it’s one of those classic games you should really try and play. I recommend the game. I’ll have it at the next knavecon and probably knavekids so you can try it for yourself

Huzzah

Vic !

June 26, 2015 0

Knavekids 1

I think this says it all. It’s Sunday the 19th July for a gamers family day out. Book your place with me now

Huzzah!

Vic

June 23, 2015 0

Stop avoiding confrontation

Lord of the Rings. The Confrontation is a two player, quick, fun, strategy game that’s definitely not co-op.

I wasn’t a big fan of the Reiner Kenisa Lord of the Rings games. I had the first two and the whole co-op thing didn’t light my palantir. This is a different beast. Straight in, Mano et Mano, bare minimum of kissing.

The game sees you as either the fellowship trying to sneak Frodo into Mordor or ‘the lads’ trying to kill Frodo or less likely get three of your dudes into the shire. Both locations are at opposite ends of the map so it’s going to be a struggle

The Trick to this game is the subterfuge. Your characters are only visible to you. The other side of the stand they’re on is opaque, so you spend your time double and triple guessing your opponent. Each character has a special ability. Pippin kills the witch king if they meet in combat. Sean Bean kills both himself and whomever the opponent is in combat. The Nazgul can attack anywhere on the map and so on. It’s pretty balanced. I couldn’t find any massive advantage on either side even though they are a good bit different. The fellowship tend to be a bit weaker in fights but make up for it with their special abilities. The Sauron forces are militarily more powerful but really need to root out Frodo to have a chance.

The map is split into a dozen or so regions massaged to fit the diamond shaped board and every turn without fail you have to march forward on of your units. Most regions can only support two units (one in the mountains) so like checkers it’s a gravitational pull towards the opponents side and just like checkers it’s a one way trip. With some exceptions, units can’t move backwards

Battles kick off when one unit moves into a square containing an enemy piece. Both are revealed, their special ability applied and their combat strengths compared. Secretly players pick attack cards from their small (have to burn through them all first before they recycle) deck of combat cards and the winner stands while the loser exits stage left. It’s fast and brutal.

There’s a few cards like retreat or ignore other players card text so there’s a bit of variety. Card counting is essential

There’s also a nice bit of variety. The game comes with basic rules. Extra rules for magic cards and alternative characters so there’s considerable variety in here.

There’s a real one more go about this game. You’ll get it played it twenty minutes. I played a half dozen games recently against the one opponent, each of them close and each of us demanding a replay having called into question the winners parentage

As you would expect I’ve played mostly the Sauron side and I’ve loved every minute. Both sides are different experiences and both are a lot of fun to play.

If you’re looking for a good solid two player and you’re a Lord of the rings fan this will serve admirably.

Huzzah

Vic

June 20, 2015 5

A Date in Istanbul

I picked up Istanbul at the last Knavecon. It had been recommended to me by a gaming buddy (who’s opinions on games I trust) and it looked suitably different to warrant a gander or more accurately a pony.

The game sees you and your opponents as sweating street merchants hauling around a cart full of goods from pillar to post trying to acquire six expensive gems before you’re opponents do. The board consists of sixteen locations all with an action you can use when you arrive there.

Having grandiose notions you maintain an entourage of four street urchins who follow you around and on arrival at a location carry out the necessary paperwork on your behalf. These urchins are a key limiting mechanic and you find yourself spending precious turns trying to recall them to you so can continue your quest.

The locations you move around offer up various rewards picking up goods for your cart, selling goods for cash, giving you bonus cards, allowing you to recall your entourage, spots that allow you to improve your cart, buy gems and buy general improvements and help. Like a lot of games of this ilk (splendor) it’s a case of building your economy and then deciding when to go for broke. Unlike some games (five tribes) it’s abundantly clear who’s ahead and behind as all that counts at the end is someone getting their sixth jewel

Again following the traditions of this type of game it’s a relatively solo affair with some cock blockery open to players but as far as I could see the swiftest route to victory was to keep your head down and concentrate on yourself. I’m probably wrong about this and a further report will follow when a half dozen games have been played.

The game is no less fun for this way. It works really well, it’s also pretty fast. An hour to an hour and a half will see you done and dusted depending on how many you have (2-5) and it seems to scale well.

The board is something of note. It’s made up of 16 cards which can be arranged in a variety of configurations making for longer and shorter games. The artwork is very nice. The rules are excellent and despite a medium complexity you’ll be up and running pretty quick. I’m confident as well that we got the rules worked out perfectly on our first game, which is quite a feat.

The proof of the pudding was all the players fancied another go and went off looking for places to buy it from so all good

Huzzah!

Vic

June 19, 2015 0

Jupiter’s Lad

“Choose life. Choose a ball and chain. Choose armour with a matching helmet. Choose a javelin. Choose slaves. Choose back stabbing opponents, turning your thumb down and poisoning your opponents wine, choose wasting your last coin on a sure fire bet and having to send half your gladiators packing because you’re a flat broke fat bloke… Me I chose a something else…”

I like when a game has more than one route to win. I like it as well when I discover it myself and my opponents find out the hard way. Now when I say a route to win don’t assume I won in the traditional sense using this technique. Assume I … Stormed the initial rampart so lesser gamers could follow. For me it was win, the scoreboard just didn’t have the fidelity to record it as such.

I’ve spoken before about Spartacus and its expansion but it’s been a while and we got to play it recently. Almost by accident I discovered a route to victory (which if it were not for those meddling kids I would have exploited for a quick win). As it was for no apparent reason I could see I was picked on and victory was snapped from my hands. I don’t really like to talk about it so lets move on

The game sees with the aid of the expansion six houses compete for the highest influence via the rather bloody and sordid conduit of gladiatorial combat. Each player manages a stable of gladiators and supporting slaves along with the intrigues and down right back stabbery one would expect. (Well I would expect). Money is used to bid on warriors, slaves and weapons and bets on matches are the primary source of income.

The matches themselves are fast and furious and often see gladiators (at least the less favoured ones) getting the final thumbs down. It’s a neat little game. Almost by accident I found that it was quite possible just like the Swiss bankers in Imperial to stay aloof from the fighting if you could ensure you were the only one who ran the matches. So that’s what I did. I saved all my greasy coins and only bid on the hosting of matches. You see the one who hosts the Matches gets one influence for their trouble so it meant along with various intrigue cards I was a winner every turn. All grand and dandy until one player out bid me (after some bad betting left me a little short of AU79) and asked me to fight in a match. Not wanting to lose face I garbed up a Slave who proved as effective as a chocolate teapot in a burning house. Having lost all my slaves the same mongrel hit me with a “if the player has no slaves” intrigue card and knocked me off my pedal stool….

Successfully winning the bids while the others burn their finite coin on beef units and pointy kit will worked. Well it should work. Given the right group (one who doesn’t know me) I think this could be the fast route to victory. It was fun. It’s a great game. I recommend you play it. Better still I’ll play you at the next knavecon and if you see me not bidding on anything you’ll know what I’m all about. Probably.

Huzzah!

Vic

June 15, 2015 0

Game Over Man!

Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game is a very interesting deck builder. It’s sort of a Star Realms plus but I’d do it a disservice leaving it there.

The game is either a coop or semi coop depending on what rules you go for (Basic or Advanced) with the ingenuous option of playing as an alien if you get killed by one

I was lucky enough to get to play two games of it, both of which were very different.

The game sees you playing out the plot or more accurately completing a number of objectives from the various aliens movies (1-4). Each use the same rules but work off different decks all of which makes for nicely different experiences

This game oozes theme. Everything you’d expect from the movies and a bit more. The designers took a little artistic license to bring a variety of different alien types not just the queen, face huggers and drones. The game sees the players battle xenos with acid blood, howling aliens, bigger dudes, smaller ones, stealthies, fast ones and all of them are believable.

A game starts by first picking which film to play out, choosing the respective alien and player decks and the three events that have to be completed to win the game. Seal the airlock. Setup sentry guns, Kill the queen and so on.

Players take an avatar with a certain amount of hit points and a unique starter card for their starter deck and square off with basic cards against aliens that each players turn move through six zones towards the combat zone (like a conveyor belt of chitinous doom). Once they get to the combat zone they start handing out damage cards like they were free samples so its key to wipe them out before they reach it.

The two currencies in the game are damage and recruit points. If you’ve played star realms (or most deck builders) you’ll be in familiar territory.
Recruit points (gold) allow you to buy more cards for your deck. Damage points are used to reveal aliens cards creeping through the sectors and wipe them out. Some of these aliens have an effect (usually negative) when revealed, some have an effect (usually negative) when they die.

So it’s a race to stem the tide of shiny black whilst trying to compete the group mission.

I got to play the first game with two players (it will accommodate five) and the second with three. We did very well with the first (the first alien movie) but got soundly hammered towards the end of he second (Couldn’t rescue all the hostages in time).

Even though it was coop it was a lot of fun and edge of your seat stuff from start to finish. Advanced rules allow for hidden agendas for characters (you might wind up with a Burke type character who wants to bring back a sample by being the sole survivor etc), now this mode really interests me. Equally you could play the rules that sees dead players take the part of aliens with their own decks and wreaking havoc with the humans.

This is a very neat game. I can see it becoming a decent iOS game like Star Realms before long and the Predator version which can be played stand alone or integrated with this is currently in kickstarter.

If I had to fault it I through the art work was only average. The designers chose to do their own art work rather than take stills from the films which range from comic art to recreations of movie scenes to junior colouring competition stuff. It doesn’t affect the gameplay at all but we’ve come to expect higher quality art on our cards and this isn’t it.

One thing of note is a lovely three foot long playmat that comes with the game and it’s invaluable for setup showing clearly where all the various stacks start and discard to

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this game before playing it. I figured it would be a game with the aliens theme tacked on but I was pleasantly surprised. I’m not going to rush out to buy it because someone in the group has it but if you’re an alien(s) fan this is a fine game for your needs.

Huzzah

Vic

June 13, 2015 0

KnaveKids

After the success of the Kids Corner at Knavecon V (due in no small part to Borys and the other parents who knocked it out of the park on the day) we’re going to run a smaller shorter, one day event just for families.

Starting at 11am on Sunday the 19th July 2015 until 8pm in the Castletroy Park Hotel Knavekids is going to be a family boardgame convention. Bring yourself, bring your kids and take part. Knavecon will provide all the games you’ll need or bring some of your own favourites.

We’re going to gear everything towards children so lot’s of games for younger players, group games and events, chill out spots with colouring and lego and anything else we can think of before then. That’s not say we won’t cater for older kids, we will. We’ll adjust it around the group.

Places are going to be strictly limited and prepaid. The cost is €20 for the day for you and your family.

The event is a family event for accompanied children so you’re expected to game with your kids too. If you’re a veteran gamer or a complete beginner this is a great opportunity to get your children interested in this wonderful hobby.

I’ll be joined by Borys & co who ran kids corner at Knavecon V and I’m hoping this will be the start of a regular event.

If you fancy taking part, contact me via the usual channels and let’s make it a day to remember (in a good way)

Huzzah!

Vic

June 12, 2015 0

Why can’t we just get along?

Invasion from Outer Space : The Martian Game

Why can’t we get along? Well… If we did it would make for a very short game. This is a rework of last Night on Earth. It’s a straightforward no messing around zombie game not a million miles from zombicide. I was lucky enough to pick it up in pristine condition at the Knavecon buy and sell.

The game sees two or more players take the part of the evil Mars attacks type aliens and the mad as hell and not going to take it anymore colourful circus performers.

Like all good zombie games, The bulk of the alien forces are cannon fodder but plentiful and can overwhelm in numbers. The Heroes are a tougher lot and can take a number of hits before they fall beneath the green tide.

The invaders also sport a couple of super aliens in the shape of the Zard beast. An indiscriminate wrecking ball and the Martian hero, the equivalent to the human heroes.

Play sees the two duking it out in a variety of scenarios all with a strict and terminal (for the humans) amount of game turns. The action happens around a fairly randomly laid out circus with the big top always at the centre. Various rooms offer up a wide variety of searchable items (hero cards) ranging from weapons and equipment to various cantrips. The aliens equally get to draw from their invader deck with a view to spiking the Carneys 8pm performance (and taking over the world)

It’s a very neat game. It does everything you’d expect of this genre and there’s no real down time. I’ve only played it two player, but from my experience of last night on earth it should scale pretty well.

The art work and print qualify is excellent. It’s very shiny. The art is on par with other games from Flying Frog. I assume that unlike me Flying Frog have a brace of handsome friends they can call on to play the parts of the various heroes. The photo work is superb and exudes an air of fun and frivolity.

I like this game. It’s a happy, fun, relatively light affair, well worth the entrance fee. If you don’t have a good zombie game and don’t fancy shelling out for a more expensive animal you won’t go far wrong with this

Huzzah (or ag ag ag ag as we alien invaders like to say)

Vic

June 10, 2015 0