Here’s mud in your eye !

There is a joy in setting out a game. Arranging all the pieces just so in
anticipation of the coming clash. The bigger the game the better. It
feels just right when everything is laid out correctly and easily to hand.

War of the Rings takes a bit of setting up, it also takes a bit of space too, but oh boy is it worth the effort!

I spoke recently about this game having played a couple of games of it
and been completely smitten. It’s a really really good game. Even if
you weren’t a Lord of the Rings fan (that lone gentleman at the back you
can leave now) the mechanics and flow of the game are still sublime. I’d
happily play any setting with this setup. Being Lord of the Rings and
being so close to what you would expect of that world it makes a
brilliant game stellar.

So why you might ask am I back here? Well…. I lost again, or more
correctly team Evil lost again, but you know what? It was fun! Let’s go back to the events of the night while they’re still fresh and I’m still bitter.

Myself and my team mate (collective responibility for losing) took the
Shadow side with the previous two good players taking their places
again.

The game was very different this time around. If you recall the nasty
hobbiteseses won last time by getting to mount doom (only just). Well we
were determined not to let this happen again and vowed to throw a bit
more resource at corrupting the ring bearer. It almost worked too (damn meddling kids). In addition to this plan we went straight out (zero kissing) at Minis Tirith in an effort to break it and take it before Strider arrived to give it all that. Again we almost did it

The good players had obviously been reading up on their strategies since
last time (evil players don’t read) and quickly Gandalf got hosed and
replaced by the new shine white version. Gandalf the white is a pain
in the codpiece

This time around very little happened with the dwarfs, they wandered
around a bit but never got roused into war, ditto the northerners.

Gondor quickly joined the fray with combined actions against them from
the southerners and Mordor hordes. Minis Tirith was surrounded in siege
and the south of Gondor was taken by a large force of Southerers despite
a few spirited defenses and sallies from them. A relief force of
gondorians waylaid the Mordor forces but a counter attack saw them greatly reduced and destroyed but not before they relieved the siege of Minas Tirth and Strider got in and assumed the role of Isildur (curses)

The second siege of Minis Tirith saw good orcs die with not much to show for it and a little over extended the Sauron forces limped away went west and north while fresh troops moved in from Mordor to keep Isildur contained. It was too little too late, Isildur and his boys wiped the floor with these but still weight of numbers beyond Gondor held them back from coming out and attempting an attack on Mordor proper.

Not so Rohan, which having joined in the war swelled it’s ranks and
turned it’s gaze on Isengard. Saruman raised a large army of elite
troops to defend and the remaining Sauron orcs bolstered with nazguls
and the Witch king took a couple of Ronan towns and harassed the large
rohan army snapping at it’s heels and threatening to take helms deep
unopposed.

The Ronan army turned it’s attention to the anoying Sauron gnats and hammered seven shades out of them while Sarumans forces battened down the hatches and awaited Ronan’s advance. Secure and outnumbering in their defenses.

Then disaster struck as Whitey Gandalf with the aid of pippin coaxed the
Ents into not one but two attacks on Isengard, followed by the Eagles
(non the band) who devastated the uraks and followed up by a swift
approach by the reduced but still very effective Ronan army finally fell and gave up the keys for the tower.

At this point Rohan, Gondor and d’elves were doing well but paying for
their actions in troops that couldn’t be replaced (unlike the shadow
player whom had a bottomless, albeit slow pit of them).

The fellowship at this point had retreated to Lorien (because they’re
worth it) and were healing corruption, hanging out and partying while
the armies clashed all around.

Moria and Dol Guldor raised a huge host and marched on Lorien, planning
to crush them and take away support for the resident fellowship.

In the north a last ditch offensive had been put forth by the elves of
Rivendell. A plucky attack on the shadow bases of Mouth Gram. Shadow
armies were quickly raised. This was it, Isengard Uraks were mustering
to retake Isengard and it was only a short time before they would accomplish this. Ronan was bruised and bloodied from so much fighting. Lorien was about to fall and the fellowship was still quite a ways off it’s goal. If the northern shadow fortresses could repel the elves for a while it was all over for the now diminished forces of good. The nearby Shadow base was raising elites to throw into the fray and relieve the siege….

Didn’t work. Some fast play from the elves saw them take Mount
Grundabad in quick order and with Isengard still in their keep they won it by military victory….

What a stupendous game. The tension, the planning, the huge battles.
This was just as epic as the original trilogy and it all flew by in just
over three hours. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I’ll tell you something else. Even though we lost (again) we’re even
more fired up to play again. War of the Rings is a wonderful game. I
can see this hitting the table for a long time to come

Huzzah!

Vic

May 29, 2015 0

Dr Beat

But above all…. he played the part of the Evil Dr Victor Gannon

Huzzah!

Vic

May 28, 2015 0

4 Tribes Actually

Five tribes is a four player game. That’s the first thing that struck me. The second was this game can never ever (ever) be played with anyone who over analyses their move.

The game is relatively simple. It consists of a random spread of five by six tiles each populated by three meeples of five different colors. Each of the tiles has a special ability and a points value for ownership (it’s all about the points)

Play sees you lifting a clutch of meeples and then dropping them off one at a time into adjacent tiles in a contiguous path. The last spot you drop on you pick up all the meeples of the last colour you dropped, place them in front of you and kick off the special event (if you meet the criteria) for that spot. Lift the last meeple in that square and you claim ownership with a towel over a sunbed (or more accurately a camel meeple)

A number of other scoring routes exist, access to which are controlled by the colour of meeple you lift at the end of your sprinkling. Sets of goods cards (the more variety the more points), particular colors of meeples (worth progressively more points at the end the more you have) and djinns who not only grant victory points but shower points on you when certain actions occur. Palaces and palm trees can also be build which increase score yields.

It’s worker placement. It’s mind melting worker placement if you analyze your every move. It’s comstanopolis with a bit of lords of waterdeep tacked on.

It’s also one you’ll need a few gos of before it makes sense. It’s a grand game (as in it’s grand not big or sweeping), I’d go so far as to say it’s a forgettable game. There’s a lot of this stuff out there (Puerto Rico, Istanbul and so on). If worker placement be thy God than this is a fine Demi God worthy of your prayers. If however you like to stick it directly to your friends more directly (there’s some cock blockery to be had in the shape of assassinations and grabbing before others do) then you might want to look elsewhere

Huzzah

Vic

May 25, 2015 0

Libertalia

Liberalia is a game I played last year at Gaelcon and really liked it. I picked up a copy at Knavecon buy and sell for a good price and I’m very happy with my purchase.

Liberalia is a pretty simple game. From a deck of thirty or so cards it sees the youngest player (not me) draw out eight random ones and the others hoist onboard the same eight character cards.

Each of the thirty characters have a special ability and some conditions for making doubloons for the owner and in a lot of cases a negative attribute that might cost you points at the end of the round

A round consists of six days where you secretly pick a character cards and chuck it into the mix for the day. The cards gets laid out in cards number order and the lowest one first kick off their special ability (the brute for example kills the highest character in the mix, the governors daughter makes 5 doubloons if she’s the only daughter on the ship) some characters cash in at the end of the round, some of other characters if a lower value have been played and so on and so forth etcetera etcetera.

Once charters play out their special ability then in reverse order they get the choice of some of the booty available for that day (all clearly visible in advance), some of which is valuable. Less valuable, murderous or minus points.

There’s a decent amount of player interaction, but you rarely get the chance to hammer just one specific player, so often it’s a close run points race

A special mention has to be made of the artwork. The character cards are beautifully rendered. Some of the nicest and most realistic illustrations I’ve seen in a game.

Throw in a measure of card counting and you have a fine solid game. It’s short enough that you’d like a second try after more than likely losing. It’s chaotic enough to be unpredictable but not random and the variety of cards makes for a fairly different game each time you play

Let’s be honest it had me at “pirates” and after one play, i was hooked (if you’ll pardon the pirate pun) I can see this barky hitting the table a good bit over the next few months

Huzzah! As we pirates never say

Vic

May 23, 2015 0

TBG Diplomacy 2015 – Turn 1

The First Annual TBG Diplomacy began last night (GMT)

Let’s wish our plucky generals the very best! It’s going to be rough a ride!

GERMANY : Joe Morris (Ireland)
ENGLAND : Frank W. Roberts (Tennessee)
AUSTRIA : Wes Ferrer (California)
ITALY : Max Vaughn (Georgia)
FRANCE : Larry Cruz (Texas)
TURKEY : J.J. Novacek (North Carolina)
RUSSIA : Edward Uhler (Colorado)

Huzzah!

Vic

May 21, 2015 0

ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL BGG DIPLOMACY

Knavecon in conjunction with The Board Game Group are now inviting plucky Generals to apply for a position in what will be quite simply….

THE GREATEST GAME OF DIPLOMACY EVER PLAYED….

Seven brave souls from all around the World will compete for the ultimate bragging rights using all their diplomatic and gaming skills to win this classic game. (Knavecon and the Boardgame Group are contributing prizes for the ultimate winner including a rather nice Trophy)

If you think you have what it takes then apply in the comments below and lets get this this show on the road. (those of a delicate disposition need not apply).

The game will be played out over the coming months and chronicled by our experienced GM team. This is the first of what will prove to be an annual event

Don’t delay, glory awaits!

Huzzah!

Vic

May 19, 2015 4

War of the Ring (second Ed)

Just like Sauron I’ve had my beady eye on this game for a long time. I was glad to acquire it recently second hand but altogether perfect

War of the Ring sees between two and four players reenacting the titanic struggles of the lord of the ring series.

The free people must band together and fight off the unwelcome advances of the shadow players allowing the fellowship time to get to the cracks of doom with the one ring or with a lesser force conquer a number of shadow players fortresses. The shadow player must take over enough of the free people’s turf or corrupt the ring bearers in order to win.

So it’s capture the flag with hairy feet.

I’ve played two games of this so far. A 1v1 and a 2v2. Both of them have been epic and both have been right down to the wire. (The free people’s just making it before the shadow player engulfed middle earth)(Boo hiss)

The game is pretty straightforward once you’ve learned the rules (all of which fit on a single handy cheat sheet provided), that said it it did take two full games before every little niggle was ironed out. There’s a couple of really good instructional videos out there and I recommend you either play someone who knows this game or study the videos or you’ll find yourself reading the rules a few times over before it sinks in. (Universal head do an exemplary rules summary well worth a look). Just like twilight struggle knowledge of the rules won’t save you from ignorance of the event cards and a number of run throughs will be required and a few visits to the strategy forums. No bad way to spend a few hours.

The game itself is beautifully presented.(More so if you sell the house and buy the collectors edition). There are a ton of models for the various good and bad guys all cast in reasonable quality given the amount in the box. It can be a struggle to recognize the difference between say an isengard uruk versus a Mordor orc but since you’ll probably paint all 100 plus models straight off the bat it won’t be an issue for you.

This is a clever game. It captures the feel of the books magnificently. The way the game played out each time was perfectly believable. Gandalf the grey pops his sandals in moria. Isildur defends minis tirith like a boss. Gimili rouses the dwarfs in the iron hills to war. No two games play out the same and it’s possible to try out a few what ifs.

For the amount that happens in a sitting the game is surprisingly fast. Three hours saw us setup, played and finished and we were still chasing a couple of rules during that. There is no down time in this game. You’re either planning a few moves ahead or watching in horror as something unfortunate befalls you (more so if you’re the free people)

I like this game. The two sides play out very differently. The shadow player WILL rule middle earth. It WILL overpower the free people given time. It’s all about shock and awe. The free peeps are all about holding out, sacrificing and crowd surfing the hobbits to a victory. It’s desperate times and hopefully you have enough left in the tank for that final push when you eventually get to Mordor.

It’s also thrilling. From start to finish something is going on. No matter which side you’re always stretched to achieve what you want, making do, taking risks, setting things up for next turn, reacting to events, taking the best worst choices. It’s glorious and its my very favorite type of game.

Map based conquest, big battles, and a forgivable solid set of mechanics. Layer in a familiar world and we have a classic.

I was lucky enough to snag the second edition which sports a few improvements over the first. I know it’s an oldy (Boardgames never age they just get more expensive) but it’s my favourite game this year and I can’t wait to play again. Probably as the bad guys because well. You know. Highly recommended, doubly so if you’re a rings fan.

Huzzah!

Vic

May 16, 2015 0

Night of the Long Fangs – Werewolf

Kindly Reproduced with no permission whatsoever from Dread Pirate Joe…..

DAY SIX

“If the party after the lynching of the first (and second) alpha wolves was mad, the party after the wolf cub bit the dust was insane.

A lot of people staggered home that night

A lot fewer people assembled in the town square the next morning.

After a headcount (which took five attempts due to mis-counting, and needing to throw up by the counter – the Mayor- it was reckoned there were 4 people missing) – or missing but known where.

Well, one was well known after last nights party. Knowing glances were exchanged.

“OK, so we all saw Mike (The Hunter) Sheehan walk up behind Mark as he was drinking his whiskey martini and shoot him in the back of the head.” announed the Mayor. “What we also know is that Mark was one of us, a villager.”

Sad noises and moans came from the crowd. Mourning the death, or nursing their heads, it is hard to say.

“However,” continued Gloria*, “we did find out this morning that Mark had a rare genetic condition which made him appear to be a werewolf. A Lycan, or something they call it.”

“But,” continued Carl*, “We do know who is missing. It is Martin and Dave. Martin and Dave seem to have both been the victims of werewolves. At least it was… it was….” Vomits.

“Quick,” Gloria sneers (at Carl). “There was no defensive marks. Those wolves were pissed. We can ascertain that Dave was the DOCTOR, and Martin was the Seer.”

“So, who we gonna hang tonight?” asked a voice from the crowd.”I wanna vote NOW!”

Slowly walking over to the scrawled sign on the gallows which read ‘Wurst wearwolfs ever!’, Gloria took up the piece of chalk and added a question mark.

“No votes today people,” Gloria said quietly. “We need to hang a murderer. Mike.”

RESULT: No votes today. Mike will be hanged at 5pm (game time), but can contribute to the discussion (shouting from his jail cell) until that time.

Huzzah!

Vic

May 15, 2015 0

A Sheep in Wolf’s clothing – Werewolf V

I’m started to get used to games playing out in completely unexpected ways. Werewolf is usually a game of Hang a village, wolves kill someone, hang a village, wolves kill someone, hang a wolf if you’re lucky….

Not so the current game of werewolf. 21 souls wander around in their best Tescos PJs at all hours of the night unperturbed by the possibility of being eaten alive by wolves. any why you may ask?

Well for the first time in the history of any games of this I’ve ever played, the wolves are being wiped out systematically.

First night : Wolves don’t succeed in eating anyone

Second Day : a Wolf is hung

Second Night : Wolves don’t succeed in eating anyone

Third Day : a Wolf is hung

Third Night : A wolf is eaten….

What the absolute heck is going on here? Don’t ask me I’m not a wolf

Huzzah!

Vic

May 14, 2015 0

Betrayal at the house on the Hill

They say variety is the spice of life. I’ve no idea whom “they” are but “they” could be right. They usually are. Betrayal an the house on the hill has variety squared. Thousands of possibilities each time you play. It’s also been around a while and it’s still popular so it must be doing something right.

The game sees you entering the titular house (bad idea) and rummaging around its bottom middle and top floors (really bad idea) until something Ghostbusters bad happens (I warned you)

The bad could be anything (well not a man eating his own head for example), a vampire attack, the house flying into the air and only two parachutes available, zombies, a traitorous player who’s actually a vampire, serial killer or maybe a parachute etc.

Once this happens it’s everyone for themselves (no change there) and a swift exit or other objective required.

This is a good fun game. It’s fast. An hour will see you done and dusted with the right crew and it clicks along at a tidy pace. Nothing is particularly new in this game apart from perhaps the variety of that what you’re up against. The build quality is workman but more than adequate, the rules simple and the premise simple. It has a certain charm all of it’s own.

I’d definitely play it again which is always a good sign (then again I have a morbid curiosity). All in all a solid worth a lash game.

Huzzah!

Vic

May 13, 2015 0