Coal Baron

Well, now that you've gone and gotten your name on the list to get your copy of the new edition of 40k, let's get down to business with the regular affairs for Saturdays. That is, the Review Roundup.

Today we have: Carcosa, Pandemic, 12 Realms, 12 Realms: Ghost Town, Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China, Imperial Settlers: Aztecs Expansion, Space Invaders: Dice, Coal Baron: The Great Card Game, Saga of the Northmen, Wettlauf nach El Dorado, Get Rich Quick, Critters Below, and Honshu.



Toucan Play That Game:

Carcosa Preview

In this paid video you can find out about Carcosa by One Free Elephant.

Pandemic Review

In this video you can find out my thoughts on Pandemic by Z-Man Games

12 Realms Review

In this video you can find out my thoughts on 12 Realms by Mage Company.

12 Realms: Ghost Town Review

In this video you can find out my thoughts on 12 Realms: Ghost Town by Mage Company.

Learn to Play:

Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China

In this video I will teach you how to play including: Card breakdown, player and board setup, player turn, final showdown, and scoring.

I will also give you my thoughts and opinions on the game, but I would also like to hear what you have to say drop me a comment below on what you thought of the game.

Board Game Quest:

Imperial Settlers: Aztecs Expansion Review

Imperial Settlers: Aztecs comes with a 60 card faction deck for this new group. Not only are the standard Production/Feature/Action cards here, but Aztecs also incorporates concepts from the previous 3 expansions. Notably, the sets from 3 is the Magic Number, the Open Production locations from Why Can’t We Be Friends, and the Gear resources from The Atlanteans. So full backward compatibility here.

Space Invaders: Dice Review

Space Invaders: Dice offers a number of different modes. You can play solo or multiplayer. There are also variant multiplayer rules which add a drafting element. Regardless, the gameplay is similar, you roll dice and destroy aliens of the matching colors on your sheet.

However, just like Space Invaders, you have to shoot from the bottom up, so it’s important to get the right colors at the right time. You take damage for any dice you can’t use and try to score points by destroying the most aliens.

Coal Baron: The Great Card Game Review

In Coal Baron: The Great Card Game (yes Great is in the title), players act as managers of coal mining firms in mid 19th century England. Using cards-as-workers, players will take actions related to mining coal, building transport, and delivering coal to fulfill orders. Each order has a particular destination and players can also gain bonus points for those destinations or aim for more general objectives for more points. Hopefully it’s obvious that most points at the end of the game wins.

iSlaytheDragon:

Saga of the Northmen Review

In true Viking fashion, the goal in Saga of the Northmen is to vie for control of Norse kingdoms throughout Dark Ages Europe (and a little bit of Africa and Asia) and then launch raids from your holdings to capture plunder and establish trade routes.

This saga is an unadulterated area majority design resolved through two phases. In the first, players contest influence in the seven major Viking kingdoms through back-and-forth card play. Afterwards, you’ll use any realms you control as bases to march and sail your armies into vulnerable neutral territories. Along the way you’ll earn infamy, or cash it in as a sort of Machiavellian currency. After three rounds the Viking Era ends. But will your story endure?

Wettlauf nach El Dorado Review

Wettlauf nach El Dorado is a deck-building racing game for two to four players. Players are explorers trying to be the first to reach the lost city of El Dorado. The first player to reach El Dorado wins.

Get Rich Quick Review

Fortune is the name of the game, or rather, Fortune Points. Accrue 25 of them to win the game!

Each player has a hand of 7 cards, the same 7 cards that every other player has. From these cards, each player simultaneously and secretly chooses 3. When everyone is ready, the chosen cards are flipped up and resolved in order from 1 to 7

Polyhedron Collider:

Critters Below Kickstarter Review

You’re in a room. It is dark. You’ve been eaten by a Grue.

Ok, not that last bit, but two out of three isn’t bad. For those of you who may wear tinfoil hats and are obsessed with the impending dawn of war, then you may quite enjoy the subject of my latest peek-a-boo as it’s set in a bunker during a war. Whoever chose to build this bunker clearly hadn’t heard of basic requirements like medicine or lighting. Perhaps they were cut from the budget during construction.

It’s hardly surprising that amenities such as a light bulb were missed as the inhabitants of this Stone-Age bunker are a bunch of woodland animals, the Critters, trying to survive a particularly hefty war involving a lot of bombing of a rather unspecific nature. The world is warring whilst our protagonists must wait it out in their concrete cocoon below ground. And thus we arrive at the name of the game in question: Critters Below from Antler Games

Drive Thru Review:

Honshu Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:01); final thoughts and review (07:35)

And once more, we have made it to Saturday.
Isn't that just grand? I certainly think it is. Hope you've got yourself some gaming lined up, because... I mean, that's the way things should be, amirite?
Anyway, let's get to those reviews I know you so desperately desire.

Today we have: Manaforge, Magmeda Monsters, Menu Masters, Coal Baron, Model Box – The Monthly Subscription Box for the Miniature Hobbyist, City of Kings, Saboteur, Morocco, They Who Were 8, and 7 Wonders: Duel Pantheon Expansion.



Toucan Play That Game:

Manaforge Preview

In this paid video you can find out about Manaforge by Mystic Tiger Games.

Magmeda Monsters Review

In this video you can find out my thoughts on Magmeda Monsters by Rapid Leaf Productions.

Board to Death TV:

Menu Masters Review

It’s a fine dining frenzy! In Menu Masters, you are a world-class chef, brimming with ideas for the greatest menus ever crafted, but the only way to become the Menu Master is to beat the other chefs to Market Street for the freshest, most delicious ingredients! You may choose to open a store to earn some money…or just grab your shopping basket and be the first in line at the market. It’s the only way to get the best selection! But beware of the other chefs as they drive up demand and increase prices! Earn your stars in this deliciously fun race to gourmet supremacy, proving you are the greatest of menu masters!

Drive Thru Review:

Coal Baron Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:07); final thoughts and review (12:44)

Meeples & Miniatures:

Model Box – The Monthly Subscription Box for the Miniature Hobbyist Review

Model Box is a monthly subscription box designed for wargamers, collectors and painters. Similar to other subscription boxes (like Loot Crate), each month’s box is based on a theme. Our boxes contain at least 1 miniature, paints and a mixture of other accessories for our hobby such as brushes, scenery, terrain materials etc.

Polyhedron Collider:

City of Kings Kickstarter Review

Thankfully, I am more than happy to say that City of Kings is actually pretty damn good. There, I said it. I don’t even feel dirty. Well, no more than usual. Frank was good enough to take me and the rest of the motley “Polygon Colander” crew (nice to see we left an impression on him) through the game at Airecon. Approaching the game, it’s very visually striking. The artwork is fantastic and it’s obviously got a lot going on. Frank had partially set the game up as we sat down, assuring us that he’d not spend ages telling us the rules and how to play, we’d just learn it as we went along. He then proceeded to spend ages telling us half the rules and what each of the counters was for. Nice one Frank.

Magmadea Monsters Kickstarer Review

We recently received Magmeda Monsters from Andre at Rapid Leaf Productions; a card game centred on a galaxy containing a lot of Monsters in the Magmeda Galaxy. Pretty self-explanatory really and in keeping with the complexity of the game overall. The aforementioned monsters are sat on two sides of a war – the Liberation side or the Oppression side, each represented by their own deck. If you can hear the resonance of a Star Wars-like theme, you’re not the only one, although the two sides is about as far as this likeness goes provided you don’t count the Force powers…er..I mean magic.

iSlaytheDragon:

Saboteur: The Duel Review

Saboteur: The Duel is played over three rounds. The object of the game is to be the dwarf with the most gold at the end of the game. To find all this gold you must skillfully deploy your cards to build pathways through the maze, while also blocking your opponent’s movement through the maze.

Board Game Quest:

Morocco Review

In Morocco you are a trader in a market. I guess. To say the theme in this game is thin would be giving it too much credit. So, for starters, if you are a theme-first gamer you may want to look elsewhere. In Morocco, you get cubes and try to put your meeples in areas to control them and score points.

That isn’t to say Morocco isn’t exciting. The way you gather resources is unique. Those resources restrict which areas you can place your workers. And when sections of the market close, the workers “overflow” into adjacent areas changing how those areas are populated. There is a lot going on in a relatively simple game.

They Who Were 8 Review

A game of They Who Were 8 features multiple player partnerships with each partnership trying to become dominant through the playing of cards for victory tokens. However, the winner of the game is the player who is the weaker partner of the partnership. All of this is overlaid with a theme of ancient gods acting heroic or deceitful.

7 Wonders: Duel Pantheon Expansion Review

7 Wonders: Duel Pantheon expands the game environment of 7 Wonders: Duel to include a new board for placing gods of varying cultures, cards for god powers, additional Wonders, new Progress tokens, and alternate Age III cards representing Grand Temples to the gods. As the players progress from one Age to another, additional choices can be made as to which gods are available and then how they are utilized.

And once more, we have made it to Saturday.
Isn't that just grand? I certainly think it is. Hope you've got yourself some gaming lined up, because... I mean, that's the way things should be, amirite?
Anyway, let's get to those reviews I know you so desperately desire.

Today we have: Manaforge, Magmeda Monsters, Menu Masters, Coal Baron, Model Box – The Monthly Subscription Box for the Miniature Hobbyist, City of Kings, Saboteur, Morocco, They Who Were 8, and 7 Wonders: Duel Pantheon Expansion.



Toucan Play That Game:

Manaforge Preview

In this paid video you can find out about Manaforge by Mystic Tiger Games.

Magmeda Monsters Review

In this video you can find out my thoughts on Magmeda Monsters by Rapid Leaf Productions.

Board to Death TV:

Menu Masters Review

It’s a fine dining frenzy! In Menu Masters, you are a world-class chef, brimming with ideas for the greatest menus ever crafted, but the only way to become the Menu Master is to beat the other chefs to Market Street for the freshest, most delicious ingredients! You may choose to open a store to earn some money…or just grab your shopping basket and be the first in line at the market. It’s the only way to get the best selection! But beware of the other chefs as they drive up demand and increase prices! Earn your stars in this deliciously fun race to gourmet supremacy, proving you are the greatest of menu masters!

Drive Thru Review:

Coal Baron Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:07); final thoughts and review (12:44)

Meeples & Miniatures:

Model Box – The Monthly Subscription Box for the Miniature Hobbyist Review

Model Box is a monthly subscription box designed for wargamers, collectors and painters. Similar to other subscription boxes (like Loot Crate), each month’s box is based on a theme. Our boxes contain at least 1 miniature, paints and a mixture of other accessories for our hobby such as brushes, scenery, terrain materials etc.

Polyhedron Collider:

City of Kings Kickstarter Review

Thankfully, I am more than happy to say that City of Kings is actually pretty damn good. There, I said it. I don’t even feel dirty. Well, no more than usual. Frank was good enough to take me and the rest of the motley “Polygon Colander” crew (nice to see we left an impression on him) through the game at Airecon. Approaching the game, it’s very visually striking. The artwork is fantastic and it’s obviously got a lot going on. Frank had partially set the game up as we sat down, assuring us that he’d not spend ages telling us the rules and how to play, we’d just learn it as we went along. He then proceeded to spend ages telling us half the rules and what each of the counters was for. Nice one Frank.

Magmadea Monsters Kickstarer Review

We recently received Magmeda Monsters from Andre at Rapid Leaf Productions; a card game centred on a galaxy containing a lot of Monsters in the Magmeda Galaxy. Pretty self-explanatory really and in keeping with the complexity of the game overall. The aforementioned monsters are sat on two sides of a war – the Liberation side or the Oppression side, each represented by their own deck. If you can hear the resonance of a Star Wars-like theme, you’re not the only one, although the two sides is about as far as this likeness goes provided you don’t count the Force powers…er..I mean magic.

iSlaytheDragon:

Saboteur: The Duel Review

Saboteur: The Duel is played over three rounds. The object of the game is to be the dwarf with the most gold at the end of the game. To find all this gold you must skillfully deploy your cards to build pathways through the maze, while also blocking your opponent’s movement through the maze.

Board Game Quest:

Morocco Review

In Morocco you are a trader in a market. I guess. To say the theme in this game is thin would be giving it too much credit. So, for starters, if you are a theme-first gamer you may want to look elsewhere. In Morocco, you get cubes and try to put your meeples in areas to control them and score points.

That isn’t to say Morocco isn’t exciting. The way you gather resources is unique. Those resources restrict which areas you can place your workers. And when sections of the market close, the workers “overflow” into adjacent areas changing how those areas are populated. There is a lot going on in a relatively simple game.

They Who Were 8 Review

A game of They Who Were 8 features multiple player partnerships with each partnership trying to become dominant through the playing of cards for victory tokens. However, the winner of the game is the player who is the weaker partner of the partnership. All of this is overlaid with a theme of ancient gods acting heroic or deceitful.

7 Wonders: Duel Pantheon Expansion Review

7 Wonders: Duel Pantheon expands the game environment of 7 Wonders: Duel to include a new board for placing gods of varying cultures, cards for god powers, additional Wonders, new Progress tokens, and alternate Age III cards representing Grand Temples to the gods. As the players progress from one Age to another, additional choices can be made as to which gods are available and then how they are utilized.