Sometimes, a game's regular components might be good, but they could really go for some extra zhuzh and sparkle. But a game maker might not want to add them all in to the base game, as it'd push the p
Sometimes, a game's regular components might be good, but they could really go for some extra zhuzh and sparkle. But a game maker might not want to add them all in to the base game, as it'd push the price point beyond where they might want it. But for those of you out there that like deluxe and premium versions of things, they're perfect. WizKids is coming out with at Premium Upgrade Kit for Betrayal at House on the Hill, and they're showing off just what, exactly, will be inside.
From the website:
This fantastic Upgrade Kit includes six pre-assembled and double-sided character cards with dials sandwiched between the two sides to accurately track your character’s Speed, Might, Sanity, and Knowledge with ease! Featuring all new character art and sturdy construction, these new character cards are sure to bring new life to your next session of Betrayal at House on the Hill!
That’s not all! Accompanying these beautiful character cards are eight premium dice featuring the custom pips and all an new eerie, pearlescent green and piercing, bright yellow color scheme of the well-known Betrayal at House on the Hill Base Game box!
Head in to or call your FLGS today to reserve your very own Betrayal at House on the Hill Upgrade Kit today!
WizKids is looking to make your experience with Betrayal at House on the Hill even better than it is now. They are going to be bringing out an Upgrade Kit for the game this September. It contains new,
WizKids is looking to make your experience with Betrayal at House on the Hill even better than it is now. They are going to be bringing out an Upgrade Kit for the game this September. It contains new, custom dice, high-quality, double-sided player cards, and much more to create a deluxe playing experience.
From the announcement:
WizKids, the leader in high-quality pre-painted miniatures and publisher of hit board games, announced a new Upgrade Kit for the internationally-acclaimed board game, Betrayal at House on the Hill, featuring enhanced double-sided character cards and premium six-sided custom dice, set to release this Fall.
“With the Upgrade Kit, we’ve provided a premium experience for players to enhance gameplay,” said Zev Shlasinger, director of board games, WizKids. “The upgraded character cards feature new art and integrated dials for ease of tracking a player’s stats. Combined with the dice, this kit will really resonate with players at all levels!”
The six pre-assembled and double-sided character cards introduce all-new character art and high-quality construction by incorporating dials between the two sides to accurately track each character’s Speed, Might, Sanity, and Knowledgewith ease. The haunts of Betrayal may cause you to fear a bump in the night, but the integrated dials of the new character cards will resist a bump to your gaming table.
Additionally, each Upgrade Kit includes eight premium dice to accompany the new character cards, featuring custom pips and the piercing pearlescent green and bright yellow color scheme of the well-known Betrayal at House on the Hill Base Game box.
The Upgrade Kit releases September 2018. Pre-order at your FLGS or online!
Usually, I'm all like, "hey! It's Saturday! Go get your gaming on!" and, in a way, I'm still that. But I'm also, "It's the Saturday before Gen Con... ... ... I Have So Many Things I Still Need To Do!!
Usually, I'm all like, "hey! It's Saturday! Go get your gaming on!" and, in a way, I'm still that. But I'm also, "It's the Saturday before Gen Con... ... ... I Have So Many Things I Still Need To Do!!!" A couple people have asked me, "are you ready for the show?" My answer is, "you're never 'ready' for Gen Con. You're where you are in your attempt to be ready, and then the show starts happening, whether you got all you needed done or not." But I am doing my best to have as much done as possible. That includes getting you your reviews I know you all so desperately desire.
This week we have: Nerdy Inventions, Incantris, Anachrony, Lucky Dogs, Wordsy, Deckscape: Test Time, A Dog's Life, Titan Tactics, Frantic, Have at Thee, Upon a Fable, Sopio, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Shadow War: Armageddon, Massive Darkness, Oh My Goods, Nimbee, Pandemic Legacy Season 1, and The Lost Expedition.
Incantris provides a decent variety of game setup options, including a straightforward arena battle, capture-the-flag, sap the crystals (similar to CTF but resource depletion), and shifting arena (moveable terrain). With the addition of the extra miniatures from the Kickstarter, it also allows for multiple wizard types for each player color and cards to fully customize the spells for each wizard.
While the story is somewhat convoluted, the mechanisms in Anachrony rely heavily on the idea that most of the area cannot be accessed without Exosuits, and resources can be sent through time. Most of the worker placement spots in Anachrony are on the main board and can only be activated by a worker in an Exosuit. Each player has 6 Exosuits at their disposal and chooses each round how many to power up, but powering more suits will require more resources.
On your turn, you will roll six dice (or all you have if you have fewer). Then set aside any dice that match other dice you rolled, these dice are not eligible to be placed on the dog bone tiles this turn.
You then take your remaining dice and see if you can place them on any of the matching number on a dog bone tile. If you are unable to play any of your dice on a tile, either because of rolling all multiples or there are no matches on the tiles, place one die on the doghouse tile.
Wordsy is played over a series of eight rounds in which players will write down the highest scoring word that they can come up with. Once a player is the first to have written down a word, they flip the sand timer and all other players will have 30 seconds in which to write down their words after which, scores will be tabulated for all the words written.
Deckscape: Test Time is a cooperative card-based tabletop escape room for one to six players. Players are students of Dr. Thyme who must solve puzzles as part of his test. If they can escape the laboratory in an hour, they win.
A Dog’s Life is built around an action point allowance system. You’re using actions to move around the board, feed yourself, mark your territory, challenge other dogs, and find and bury the ultimate treasure: Bones. The goal of the game is to be the first player to find three bones and bury them in your den.
Players randomly choose a dog to begin the game. Each dog has its own den, represented by a space on the board. This is where you begin the game and where you’ll return to bury your bones. (You’re also given a den card to remind you which den is yours.) Each dog has a set number of action points to spend each turn. The faster dog breeds get more points, while slower dogs get fewer. That’s okay. The slower dogs have other ways to stay competitive with the speed demons. More on that in a minute.
Over the years we have been sent a number of review copies of games that have slipped through the net. It’s an embarrassment, it's unprofessional, its ramshackle, but there is a reason these games have remained unreviewed, they have struggled to even get to the table. Some of them are boring, some are uninspiring and some are just plain bad but it's our duty as honest reviewers to tell you why we just don’t like this set of games.
There’s a rumour circulating the industry about us reviewers, about how some don’t post negative reviews. I won’t get into that here as it’s up to the individual reviewers to create content as they choose. We at Polyhedron Collider, however, are certainly not above or below putting the boot in, especially me (Andy), as we firmly believe an honest opinion is far more useful to you, our vast and knowledgeable readership, so you can make a more informed judgement as to where you spend your hard-earned pennies (or not as the case may be).
I make this statement as the subject of this review, Betrayal at House on the Hill, isn’t exactly high on the list of “must buys” here at Collider Towers. Both myself and Steve have played this indelible stain on the gaming world many times (heck, I even owned it before I knew better and sold it) and suffice to say, we’re hardly enamoured by it. Well, let’s not beat about the bush. Personally, I’d rather attend a three-day accountancy seminar on the benefits of triplicated documentation than endure another game of that decisionless dross. Which is not a statement I say lightly given Steve is a bit of a dice-fiend, but even he will concede that House on the Hill is…lacking in any real thought. Although we both agree that Jon will probably like it.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at a new one from Osprey Games - The Lost Expedition. This is a very satisfying game, when you get the win! This one really is a fun and challenging platform. It offers collaboration, tactical decisions and an epic satisfying win if you can get it (this game is tough to win).
Well, one down and 51 to go. We're a week into 2017 and it's been a bit of an odd one, at least for me. No single day was "an average day," really. Whether I was working from home or had to go to the
Well, one down and 51 to go. We're a week into 2017 and it's been a bit of an odd one, at least for me. No single day was "an average day," really. Whether I was working from home or had to go to the repair shop, or just had the day off, I'm somewhat looking forward to just a "usual routine" next week. Anyway, that's as may be. Right now, it's time to get you the reviews you so desperately desire.
Today we have: Lift It, Figopedia, Codenames Pictures, Dungeon Roll, A Fake Artist Goes to New York, High Treason!, Roll Player, Fief: France 1429, Age of War, Betrayal at House on the Hill: Widow’s Walk Expansion, and Colt Express iOS.
Lift It by USAopoly is a great family and party board game! We have had a lot of fun with it since it came out in 2015. So grab a mini head crane and go to work building and stacking as your friends and family laugh! Its truly a head to head battle!
As the year draws to a close The Painting Frog has published a review of Jérémie Bonamant Teboul's Figopedia book. To mark the ocasion the blog is also giving away two copies of the book for two lucky readers. Read on to find how to participate.
The idea behind the game is to take a team of adventurers in to a dungeon to loot for treasure and fight mosnters (and occasionaly dragons). In your team you have the options of 5 different hero’s and a scroll, the scroll can be used to re-roll any ammount of active dice you wish, except dragon dice! With the dungeon dice you have the options of 3 different monsters, a treasure, a potion and a dragon. The monsters you can fight one on one with any hero, how ever if you use a hero who is strong against that certain monster, then that hero can destroy and number of that monster type in one go! So use your heros wisely in battle! The potion dice can be drank by any hero, and also the scroll, this enables the hero player to bring a hero back from the graveyard (where the heros go once they have been used to defeat a monster previously) and come back to the active dice section to fight again. When a hero is revived you may place them in your party of heros on any side of the dice you wish!
A Fake Artist Goes to New York is a drawing and social deduction party game for five to ten players. Players collectively draw a picture that the gallerist chooses, but one player doesn’t know what is being drawn. The real artists win if they identify the fake artist; the fake artist and gallerist win if the fake artist goes undetected (or is able to guess what the drawing is).
To begin, each player chooses a color of pen. One player is the gallerist and is given the dry erase marker and clue tags. The pad of paper is placed in the central playing area. The gallerist secretly writes a word on one tag per player, except on one tag, the gallerist writes an X.
In Fief: France 1429 players control noble families attempting to garner ecclesiastical titles and political influence. You can exert this influence by building massive armies or partaking in some cunning diplomacy. Various titles will award you victory points and if you have 3 victory points at the end of the turn, you win. You can also share the victory with an ally, but you’ll need 4 VPs between you…and you’ll have to be married.
By playing cards to various colored piles, also known as Kingdoms, players take control of lands from the medieval world. By building cities and castles, mustering armies, and attacking opponents players attempt to control a certain number of kingdoms to achieve victory.
Widow’s Walk comes with a few new components to play with. First, there are the new room tiles. 20 in all and it also includes a new floor, the roof landing, leads to and from the upper landing. Any room that can be placed on the upper floor can also be placed here.
In Colt Express, players are trying to acquire the most loot over the game’s five rounds. Each round is divided into two phases: Schemin’ and Stealin’. During the Schemin’ Phase, players take turns playing cards into a communal pile, one at a time. Different actions include: moving, shooting, punching, looting, and moving the Marshall.
Once all the appropriate number of cards have been played, the Stealin’ Phase takes place. During Stealin’, the cards that were played in the Schemin’ phase are revealed, one at a time, with their action being carried out. As some of the cards during the Schemin’ phase will be played face down, a player’s plan will not always go smoothly.
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