Queen Games

It's feeling a lot like Saturday 2: Sat Harder (editor's note: rework that title before publishing) here. Yesterday I spent much of the day at home, hanging out and working on my friend's Guild Ball minis. He moved recently and a bunch of his stuff got jumbled and busted up. Plus, there were some new kits he'd gotten in that he wasn't sure when he would be able to assemble them. Putting figures together is arguably my favorite part of the whole hobby, so I've offered to fix his busted minis, assemble his new ones, and even move some of his other figures over to sculpted bases he'd gotten. There's ~35 minis that are getting some kind of work on them, from assembly, to those bases, to fixes, to green-stuffing the slots. It's been a fun project. Certainly kept me busy. Plus, next time I see them on the other side of the pitch, I don't have to see a bunch of half-assembled and busted figures. :P
But I'm currently taking a break (my hand's cramping from using a pin vice all morning) to bring you those reviews I know you all so desperately desire.

This week we have: Storm Hollow, The Mysterious Forest, Pandemic Legacy Season 2, Vengeance, Gloom of Kilforth, Spoils of War, Santorini, Kerala, Mini Rails, Armageddon, By Order of the Queen, NMBR 9, Coded: Card-Time Strategy, Legend of the Five Rings, Woo-Hoo!, AquaSphere, and Cities of Splendor.



theMCGuiRE review:

Storm Hollow Review

theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Storm Hollow the adventure Storyboard game. There is a ton of content in this system and I am impressed with its smooth mechanics, simple game play, and high level of quality components. It really is a fantastic gaming system for the family and I highly recommend this if you are a RPG'er or have considered getting into something like this with the family. All fairy-tails and stories from this realm are a reality in Storm Hollow. You will go on awesome magical adventures both fun to tell, as the game master, or experience as a player. The introduction is quick for the game master and players will be ready to play and start quickly. It also features a co-op board game experience as well - so if you simply want to set the adventure story mode aside and play a board game like experience, you can do that as well.

The Mysterious Forest Review

theMCGuiRE review takes a look at The Mysterious Forest from iello games. This is a great kids game which offers memory, group collaboration and tactical execution skill building. Its got a great theme, super high quality components and a low price point. Its a definite recommend from me for the kids and family gaming experiences.

Toucan Play That Game:

Pandemic Legacy Season 2 COMPLETELY SPOILER FREE Review

In this video you can find out my spoiler free thoughts on Pandemic Legacy Season 2 by Z-man Games.

Board to Death TV:

Vengeance Review

Step into the shoes of a hero that has been bashed and tortured by one or more of the four gangs in the game. You win by building up your hero, scouting gang dens to find the baddies who wronged you, then taking bloody revenge through action-packed fight sequences made up of dice based puzzles.

Gloom of Kilforth Review

The land of Kilforth is a perilous domain filled with nefarious monsters, mysterious Strangers and treacherous Locations, and dominated at its centre by The Sprawl, a huge city where intrepid Heroes begin their journey to fame and fortune. Throughout the land various factions vie for power over each other, such as the supposedly noble Order of the Rose or the terrifying Doom Guard. And presiding over the world outside Kilforth is the ever-present Overlord, Masklaw. Over the coming month, a deadly Gloom will descend upon Kilforth,which the Heroes must Battle through to prove their worth, defeat an Ancient evil, and save the land from darkness.
Gloom of Kilforth is a card game of high fantasy with a Gothic edge, playable in 1-3 hours, where 1-4 players, working individually or together, must take their humble adventurers on a journey through a dark world of magic and peril. They will visit strange places, stranger people and overcome powerful enemies in their mission to discover mysterious artefacts and mystical Spells. Players follow their Hero’s tale from modest beginnings through an epic story to an exciting climactic battle for the fate of the world. Gloom of Kilforth takes about 45 minutes per player to play.

Spoils of War Review

The raid is over, and the victorious Vikings gather in the chieftain’s tent to divide the spoils of war! Piled high on a massive oak table are the best treasures taken during the raid: gleaming gems, shiny swords, fine armor, and magical artifacts! Once strong allies, the Vikings are taken by greed, and soon a heated debate ensues — who will get which spoils? Fists pound the table, insults are made, and tempers rise!

Spoils of War is a fast-paced and exciting game of bidding and wagering for 3-5 players. Each round, players roll their dice, then cleverly bluff and bet to outwit their fellow Vikings. The winners of each round get to claim fantastic treasures to add to their collection! With lots of twists and surprises, no one knows who will win until the last treasure is claimed and the spoils are counted!

Santorini Review

Santorini is a re-imagining of the purely abstract 2004 edition. Since its original inception over 30 years ago, Santorini has been continually developed, enhanced and refined by designer Gordon Hamilton.

Kerala Review

Welcome to the elephant festival in the Indian province of Kerala! Colorfully decorated elephants roam everywhere, and naturally players want to participate and make the most magnificent fairground with as many elephants as possible.

In Kerala, each player wants to take at least one tile of each color, and all tiles of one color should be joined together, but of course the players are constantly getting in the way of one another and grabbing the tiles that someone else wants.

Mini Rails Review

Mini Rails distills the essence of the stock-buying and track-laying game genre into a tight experience that can be finished under an hour.

The game includes only two types of actions — “Buy Shares” and “Build Tracks” — and you must carefully decide how to best use them. You must do each action exactly once per round, and which company you choose affects the turn order on the next round.

Armageddon Review

In a post-apocalyptic world, players try to rebuild society. Using the debris, they build new towns for the remaining survivors to live in — but these friendly folks aren’t the only ones still out there. Marauders want to pillage your town and see it burn. Scavenge what you can and build new structures to help you defend against the marauder threat. While you can get more things done in town when you house more survivors there, they all have to have a space to sleep or they might turn against you and join the marauders.

Armageddon is a strategy game that offers many tactical choices and different strategies to claim victory.

By Order of the Queen Review

By Order of the Queen is a cooperative 2–4 player game with a fantasy role-playing game theme. Players take on the role of one of the Guilds of Tessandor, working together to dispatch Heroes to important quests, to combat monsters and to complete the Queen’s Orders themselves.

By Order of the Queen is designed to give players a full fantasy campaign in one 90-120 minute game, by giving players just the highlights of a role-playing adventure.

Players must work together to keep the kingdom from falling apart while trying to complete three Queen’s Orders to win the game.

Board Game Quest:

NMBR 9 Review

In NMBR 9, players are trying to earn the most points by stacking different numbers. The game comes with twenty cards numbered 0-9 (twice) and enough tiles for 4 players.

Each round, the top number card is drawn and each player collects the matching number from the tray, placing it on the table. After the first round, each newly placed number must touch a previously played number. Players can also build up to higher levels, as long as it is fully supported by at least two numbers below it.

Coded: Card-Time Strategy Review

In Codex: CTS, each player starts the game with a set of heroes (one to three), a starting deck, and a binder… err… Codex… of 24 cards per hero. Each turn, a player’s workers generate a certain amount of gold that can be spent to build up a player’s draw deck with the cards from their Codex.

The Legend of the Five Rings Card Game Review

Players construct a deck using cards from one of seven clans, splashing in cards from another clan and generic cards. Each player has four provinces that serve as the staging area for cards coming into play, and are the target for attack by their opponent. Cards on provinces can either be characters, attachments that enhance characters in play, or attachments that enhance the province they are on. Each player also has a stronghold province that provides players with fate tokens each turn and is more difficult to defeat.

Woo-Hoo! Review

Woo-Hoo has two modes of play to choose from to cater to the kids you are playing with, but both share a fairly similar structure. Players will take turns rolling a die and moving the appropriate numbers of steps up of the elephant slide. Once your pawn reaches the top, you can slide down into the sand box. Yelling Woo-Hoo at this point is optional, but encouraged.

Then in the easy version, you will choose one toy from the box and place it in front of you. If you play with the slightly advanced setup you will roll a different die to determine how many toys, between 1-3, that you will collect.

There are 20 toys, five each of four different colors. The game ends when all of the toys have been collected. If you are playing with the basic rules, you can choose the number of toys to include to shorten the game if you’d like. In the advanced game you can also win by collecting all 5 toys of the same color.

iSlaytheDragon:

AquaSphere Review

Aquasphere is a point-salad Euro game for two to four players. Players use their engineer and scientist to program and use robots aboard an underwater station. The player with the most knowledge points after four rounds wins.

Cities of Splendor Review

I was a latecomer to the Splendor love train. When it came out, I looked at it and thought, “That’s it?” Bear in mind, I was in a place in my life where I had time and energy for heavy games and something as light as Splendor was easily dismissed. But life changes. Not long after, everything did a 180 and I found myself with far less time and energy for gaming. I began seeking out lighter games which still possessed some depth, and that search led me back to Splendor.

I fell in love (or at least heavy like) with the base game, yet when I saw there was an expansion on the way, I thought, “Is it a good idea to mess with the simplicity of the original game? Isn’t the simplicity what made it great?” So with some trepidation, I took the plunge into expansion-land. So the question is, did Cities make things better or worse?

And we find ourselves deposited here again in the weekend.
Booyah.

Well, we've got a lot of reviews today, so let's not waste any time and just get to it.

In this installment we have articles on: Tides of Time, Far Space Foundry, Spookies, Odin's Ravens, Xenon Profiteer, Medieval Academy, Liberty or Death, Signorie, Treasure Hunter, Abyss: Kraken, Colt Express, Tiger Leader, Heldentaufe, and Archaeology: The New Expedition.



iSlaytheDragon:

A Rising Tide Lifts All Cards (A Review of Tides of Time)

Tides of Time is a card drafting game for two in which each player builds and expands a civilization as the “Tides of Time” move along. The goal is to earn the most victory points by acquiring suits and combining cards in order maximize their powers and points. Some cards give straight victory points for each one you have of a certain suit in your hand. Others give you victory points if you have the majority of a suit, while others give you points if you have one each of specific suits in your hand. One card settles all ties in your favor. There are more abilities/combinations, but you can see how you need to collect cards that “go together” in order to score points.

Mining the Stars (A Review of Far Space Foundry)

Humanity has conquered earth, tamed the seas and taken to the skies. Reaching for the stars was an inevitability. What would will we do when we start colonizing the universe? The same thing we always do: strip it for natural resources and make robots and lasers! Far Space Foundry isn’t about exploring the vastness of space or adventures with alien species. It’s about the dirty work that keeps the galaxy running. It’s about the people behind the scenes, keeping the cogs spinning. It’s about space rocks.

Meddling Kids (A Review of Spookies)

Spookies is a dice game where you push your luck venturing further into a haunted house. The more you risk going further up each floor the greater number of “spookies” you can earn. But you also risk a bigger fall when failing – and then it’s you who goes bump in the night…and down the stairs!

Toucan Play That Game:

Odin's Ravens Review



Drive Thru Review:

Xenon Profiteer Review

Xenon Profiteer Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:39); final thoughts and review (12:29)

Medieval Academy Review

Medieval Academy Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:11); final thoughts and review (10:40)

Liberty or Death Review

Liberty or Death Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:58); final thoughts and review (21:46)

Signorie Review

Signorie Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:17); final thoughts and review (16:33)

Treasure Hunter Review

Treasure Hunter Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:14); final thoughts and review (08:21)

Board Game Quest:

Abyss: Kraken Review

Bruno Cathala had two fantastic games come out in 2014. One was the award-winning game Five Tribes. His other title, while overshadowed by the excitement of Five Tribes, was a great underwater themed game called Abyss. We reviewed it last year (spoiler alert: we loved it) and it has made its way to our tables countless times since then.

So when an expansion for Abyss was announced, to say I was excited would be an understatement. Eager to see what Mr. Cathala had dreamed up with Abyss: Kraken, I quickly dove into what’s new in this expansion.

Abyss: Kraken includes four new modules that can easily be incorporated into the base game. We’ll first take a look at what’s new in the expansion and then discuss if it’s worth your gaming dollars.

Colt Express Review

Winner of the prestigious 2015 Spiel des Jahres gaming award, Colt Express has players taking on the role of bandits pulling off a train robbery. With some accessible mechanics, great components, and engaging game play, Colt Express has certainly gotten quite a bit of attention since its release. Is Colt Express deserving of the Spiel des Jahres it won? Let’s board the train and find out.

Colt Express is an action programming game for 2-6 players that takes about 30 minutes to play. Colt Express plays best with 5-6 players.

Play Board Games:

Tiger Leader Review

Tiger Leader puts you in charge of a battalion of German tanks, infantry and artillery during WWII. You must choose your units and defeat the allied opposition.

Polyhedron Collider:

Heldentaufe Review

You may not believe it but reviewing Kickstarter games can often be a stressful affair. Getting sent the game a few days before the Kickstarter begins, trying to schedule in a few games and then furiously typing up a review while there's still plenty of time left on the project. Heldentaufe is a little different, as instead of a playing a physical version of the game around a table, this Kickstarter review is based on an online implementation that you can play right now.

Shut Up & Sit Down:

Archaeology: The New Expedition Review

Archaeology casts 2-5 players as the worst kind of 1930s archaeologist, rummaging through a central deck of Egyptian antiques, collecting sets of cards and selling them to museums back home. You’re absolutely not the good guys. You’re burglars with diplomas. But if it’s any consolation, you’re going to be stressed out of your tiny mind.

As I mentioned before, this week really seemed to go by fast. At least I thought so. Here it is, Saturday morning (well, it's morning when I'm working on this post, anyway), getting ready for a full day of cooking (pot roast and banana pudding cheesecake pie) and thinking, "wasn't it just Tuesday, like, yesterday?" Anyway, as my day is full of cooking, I hope your day is full of gaming. But what games should you play? Well, how about a list of reviews to help you make your choice? Seems like a good plan.

Today's topics include: Arcadia Quest, Star Wars Risk, The Voyages of Marco Polo, Dominion: Adventures, Dragonwood, Treasure Hunter, Isle of Skye, Hocus, and Caylus.



Play Board Games:

Arcadia Quest Review

Arcadia Quest is a campaign-based miniatures skirmish game. You must complete quests and fight off monsters and your opponents’ adventurers to win.

Star Wars Risk Review

Star Wars RISK reenacts the final part of Return of the Jedi. The light side must disable the shield on Endor and hit the Death Star. The dark side must eliminate the rebel fleet. But who will reach their goal first and win?

BoardGameKing:

The Voyages of Marco Polo Review

The Voayges of Marco Polo was published in 2015 by Hans im Glück and Zman Games. The game was designed by Simone Luciani and Daniele Taschini. Illustrations were made by Dennis Lohausen.

iSlaytheDragon:

Call of the Wild (a review of Dominion: Adventures)

Dominion: Adventures has the same basic rules as Dominion. There are, however, a few new twists.

The major twist in Adventures is the use of tokens. Tokens allow for changes in the game state (for example, the -1 card token signals that the next time a player draws cards, he or she draws one fewer) or for permanent alterations to cards (for example, adding a +1 buy or +1 action to an action card or adding an effect to an estate card). Each player has their own set of tokens.

This Wood Does Not Drag-On (A Review of Dragonwood)

In Dragonwood, players compete to capture creatures in order to score points.

Each player takes their turn in sequence. Turns consist of two options; either reloading (draw an adventurer card) or capturing one of the landscape cards (which include enhancements and creatures).

Board Game Quest:

Treasure Hunter Review

Treasure Hunter, published by Queen Games, is the newest drafting game to make its way to our tabletop. Fresh off its successful Kickstarter campaign, Treasure Hunter was designed by industry titan Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering). Did Mr. Garfield use some of his magic design dust to create an engaging drafting game? Let’s find out.

Treasure Hunter is a card drafting and set collection game for 2-6 players that takes about 40 minutes to play. In our experience, Treasure Hunter plays best with 4 players.

Drive Thru Review:

Isle of Skye Review

Isle of Skye Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (00:52); final thoughts and review (10:28);

Hocus Review

Hocus Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:08); final thoughts and review (08:15)

Caylus Review

Caylus Review

Intro (00:00); game overview (01:42); final thoughts and review (19:33)

Hello there, beautiful TGN readers. And welcome once more to Saturday. Hopefully you're getting some gaming in, or are going to be getting some gaming in at some point today. It seems only right.
Let us know what you've been getting up to with this great hobby of ours.

Being Saturday, we have our batch of review articles we've found over the week.

This week we have reviews of: Trajan, Warmachine/Hordes, The Witcher Adventure Game on iOS, Fidelitas, Parfum, Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King, Gripping Beast Plastic Saxon Thegns, Quantum Gothic sci-fi Terrain Pieces, and Letters from Whitechapel.



Shut Up & Sit Down:

Trajan review

Buckle up, boardkids! It's time for Team SU&SD to tackle the Official 38th Best Board Game of All Time: Trajan. A game of thrashing as many victory points as you can out of Ancient Rome.

Don't believe what you've heard. Shut Up & Sit Down can still handle heavy eurogames.

...or can they?

Warmachine/Hordes review

Eric: Welcome back to our survey of the world of miniatures wargames. This week, our game is Warmachine and Hordes. “But wait,” you might be thinking. “Eric, aren't those two games?”

Well, my imaginary interlocutor, sort of. Warmachine is a game about steam powered robots with smokestacks bigger than their legs, where wizards shoot spells out of pistols and your “warcaster” channels their willpower to bend the battlefield to their plans. Hordes, by contrast, is a game about lumbering monsters with fists bigger than their heads, where wizards shoot spells out of staffs and your “warlock” channels their rage to bend the battlefield to their plans.

Board Game Quest:

The Witcher Adventure Game iOS Review

At Gen Con 2014, Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) showed off their upcoming board game The Witcher Adventure Game, based on the books and video games of the same name. Shortly thereafter, the board game made its way to our gaming tables. Overall it seems like The Witcher Adventure Game received a warm, yet still mixed reactions. Personally, I find it enjoyable, even if it does have some flaws.

At the same time as its cardboard release, FFG set The Witcher Adventure Game loose on our iPads for some digital gaming goodness. Today we are going to take a look at this digital release and see if it’s worth an investment of your gaming dollars.

Fidelitas Review

The government has gone corrupt (shocking right?). No, not those clowns down in the state capitol, I’m talking about The Crown. They have finally taken things too far and the citizens in this Medieval city are preparing for a rebellion. Time to see if we can extend our influence enough throughout the city and lead this coming revolution.

Today we are going to be looking at Fidelitas, the first offering from new publisher Green Couch Games. Designed by veteran game designers Jason Kotarski (The Great Heartland Hauling Co, FrogFlip) and Philip duBarry (Revolution!), Fidelitas seeks to have players maneuvering citizens around town to achieve their hidden objectives. Is this quick playing game of medieval posturing fun or should it be given the axe. Let’s find out.

Fidelitas is a hand management card game for 2-4 players that takes about 20 minutes to play. Fidelitas plays best with 2 players.

iSlaytheDragon:

Distilling the Essence of a Game (A Review of Parfum)

Creating perfume was once a highly valued art form. Gifted perfumers often catered to the great and the good in society. They knew their customer’s favorite fragrances and took care to create exactly what those customers wanted. Those were the days before large commercial enterprises and modern technology started churning out mass-produced, lab-created fragrances that the perfume-wielding salesperson tries to hit you with every time you go to the mall. Parfum takes you back to that simpler time and lets you attempt to become that valued, master perfumer.

Play Board Games:

Super Dungeon Explore Forgotten King Review

The Forgotten King is a stand-alone expansion for Super Dungeon Explore. It introduces a new fully cooperative play mode, new heroes and enemies for the new environment and some changes to the original rule set.

Battle Brush Studios:

Gripping Beast Plastic Saxon Thegns Review

Battle Brush Studios have put up an in-depth review (including painted pictures as usual) of Gripping Beast's hit plastic set Saxon Thegns (for Saga and the likes).

Graven Games:

Quantum Gothic Radar, Cannon, and Missile Launcher Review

Today we review the Cannon, Missile Launcher, and Radar/Comm dish from Quantum Gothic, a company producing Sci-Fi Gothic wargaming scenery and miniatures set in a time where the multiverse of mankind is engulfed by endless bloody wars. Here you can see the 3 kits we ordered, each arrived in blister packs as shown below. We chose these as they look like they’ll fit right into several of the our wargames we play, especially Warhammer 40k with its gothic theme.

Gettin' Higgy With It:

Letters from Whitechapel Review

We take a look at the co-operative deductive board game, Letters from Whitechapel, by Gabriele Mari and Gianluca Santopietro. Distributed by Fantasy Flight Games. Letters from Whitechapel is for 2-6 players, age 13+ and takes about 120 minutes per game.

We've got another Saturday here on TGN and that means a collection of the review stories we found throughout the week. What are others saying about the games you're interested in playing? Read on to find out.

This time we've got reviews (and a couple previews) for games/models like: Rivet Wars, Eight Minute Empire, Kromlech's Orc Warchief, Witness, new Nachtjager releases for Flames of War, Scoville, Wizard Dodgeball, San Juan (the game, not the location. Though one is based on the other), Xia: Legends of a Drift System, Out of Dodge, Hoyuk, the 5th Edition Monster Manual, Amerigo, and King of New York.

That should keep you busy for a while.



Gaming Trend:

Rivet Wars Eastern Front Review

As you might expect in Rivet Wars, the Allied and Blight combat each other on a battlefield made up of tiles. Each tile contains nine grids, and each grid holds four squares. The grids tiles forming the battleground differ depending on the scenario played. Each side has deployment areas on the grid, with bunkers, strategic objectives, minefields, traps, and barb wire strewn about. Ten scenarios are included, with most of them using eight or nine of the tiles.

The Board Game Show:

Eight Minute Empire

Who could resist a game with the title, Eight-Minute Empire? It’s intriguing to me on a number of levels. First, who would dare put — what appears to be — the apparent playing time on the cover of their game box, as part of the title no less? Is the title a dare? Is it a challenge? Is it a taunt? And then there’s the word “Empire.” An empire isn’t just a country, it’s a vast group of states and peoples under a central authority. An empire implies incredible depth, expensiveness and complexity. Pairing that with “8-Minutes” is surely an oxymoron. Surely Eight-Minute Empire is a title to pique one’s interest.

Follow the link to read the full review.

Scoville Review

Imagine you’re a resident of Scoville where everyone is crazy about hot peppers, so much so that the city hosts an annual chili pepper festival in honor of Wilbur Scoville, who developed the pepper hotness index. As the game’s rulebook says, “The festival lasts one day and the grower that can generate the most heat will take home this year’s trophy.”

Or another way to put it is that Scoville is an awesome resource management and collection game revolving around different-colored peppers. Not only do I like games that are awesome, I also happen to consume a bottle of hot pepper sauce each month, and I grow hot peppers in my garden. Who better than to review a game all about hot peppers? Just sayin’…

Graven Games:

Orc Warchief in Juggernaut Mecha-Armour Review

Waaagh!!! When it comes to Orcs and Orks, bigger is always better, and this offering from Kromlech doesn’t disappoint. Today we are reviewing the absolutely huge Orc Warchief in Juggernaut Mecha-Armour, a hulking Orc which looks like it will make an excellent alternative Ork Warboss in Mega Armour for Warhammer 40k players.

Play Board Games:

Witness Game Review

Witness is a cooperative game of deduction, communication and memorization. Can your team solve the case and score the most points?

San Juan Review

San Juan is a card game version of the board game Puerto Rico. Like in Puerto Rico you select roles, build buildings and produce goods to score Victory Points and win.

Model Dads:

New toys for Nachtjäger

With the most recent Flames of War supplement Nachtjäger just around the corner you might be wondering what new toys have been planned for you so soon after Christmas. If one of your New Year’s resolutions was not to buy any more lead (or plastic) then you might as well stop reading now…

Polyhedron Collider:

Wizard Dodgeball Preview

Combining sports and fantasy elements is becoming a bit of a mainstay in tabletop gaming, especially if that sport is American style football or rugby. Bloodbowl did it first but games like Dreadball, Guild Ball and Chaos Ball all take a similar approach, but why not other sports? Would you be interested in Orc Cricket? Troll Tennis? Or how about Wizard Dodgeball? Well the last one is a reality as Peter Newland at Mind the Gap Studios has added a fantasy element to a game about dodging balls.

Shut Up & Sit Down:

Xia: Legends of a Drift System Review

It's big, it's as colourful as a bag of sweets and it wants YOU to become a space-faring superstar. Xia: Legends of a Drift System was one of the Kickstarter success stories of 2013, and a retail version is finally upon us, complete with pre-painted ships and metal space-coins.

Quinns has buckled himself into the driver's seat of this board-behemoth to deliver the official SU&SD verdict.

Out of Dodge Review

Out of Dodge is a game that understands one of the golden rules of the criminal genre: a botched heist is a good heist. As four outlaws on the run from a job that went terribly wrong, there is room here for hi-jinks, comedy, seriousness and treachery. It is a short, one-shot RPG from Jason Morningstar of Fiasco fame and it has a dastardly fun set up: you arrange four seats in the shape of a car (or use an actual real-life moving car), get in and argue about what went wrong while you speed away from the crime scene with a bag of loot much lighter than you expected.

Oh yeah, and watch out for all the blood because one of you is dying.

Board Game Quest:

Hoyuk Review

When I learned about the Kickstarter campaign for the release of a game called Hoyuk, which also uses tile placement as its main mechanic, I was instantly interested. I was also cautious about becoming a backer too quickly. As much as I enjoy tile placement games, I wondered if Hoyuk would bring anything else new and exciting to the table. I ultimately decided to take a chance and back the project. Was my money well spent? Read on, and I’ll let you know how the game plays, and some of my thoughts about it.

Hoyuk is a tile placement/area majority/set collection game, designed by Pierre Canuel. It supports 2 to 5 players and plays in about 60 minutes.

5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual Review

Today, we are going to climb further down the rabbit hole as we jump to the other side of the screen and take a look at the Monster Manual. A solid collection of creatures is critical for any on going RPG campaign. While crafting your hero is fun, every warrior needs someone, or something, to oppose him. So lets dive in and see if Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has continued this edition’s excellence with their new 5th edition Monster Manual.

Board to Death:

Hoyuk Anatolia Review

The world is moving into a new era, and now more than ever the clans work for the progress and the evolution of their community. Everyone tries to find new ways to improve their lives, new means to grow their lands and new constructions that create an easier life. In Höyük: Anatolia, you must prove your quality through three different Achievements: build a Water Supply System for your village so the water can reach your land, throw the best Fest in the valley, and finally, build two Artifacts!

Amerigo Review

In Amerigo, the players help Amerigo Vespucci on his journey to discover new land. The players explore the islands of South America, secure trading routes, and build settlements.
The actions available to players are determined through the use of a specialized cube tower, which has appeared in the Queen titles Im Zeichen des Kreuzes and Wallenstein. At the start of the game, this tower is seeded with action cubes, which come in seven colors, with each color matching a particular type of action. During the game players will drop additional action cubes into the tower – but some of these cubes might get stuck in the floors of the tower while other cubes already in the tower are knocked free. Thus, players need to play both tactically – taking advantage of the actions currently available in the best way possible – and strategically – using their knowledge of which actions do what to play well over the course of the game.

King of New York Review

King of New York is a standalone game from designer Richard Garfield that keeps the core ideas of King of Tokyo while introducing new ways to play. As in KoT, your goal is to be the first monster to collect 20 victory points (VPs) or to be the last monster standing. On your turn, you roll six dice up to three times, then carry out the actions on those dice. Claws cause damage to other monsters, hearts heal damage to yourself, and energy is stored up so that you can purchase power cards that provide unique effects not available to anyone else.
What’s new in King of New York is that you can now try to become a star in the big city; more specifically, you can achieve “Fame”, which nets you VPs, but superstar status is fleeting, so enjoy your time in the spotlight. The game board for King of New York is larger than in KoT with each monster occupying a district in the city and everyone trying to shine in Manhattan. When you attack, you can displace a monster in another district, whether to escape military forces or to find new smashing opportunities. Yes, smashing because you can now destroy buildings and get bonuses for doing so, but the more destruction you cause, the more intense the military response. The monsters from King of New York can be used in KoT and vice versa, but the power cards are specific to this game.

Club Fantasy is here to tell us if they agree with Gordon Gekko. Is Greed good?



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From the website:

Greed is the latest offering from Donald X. Vaccarino and if you’re a card gamer you’ve most likely played and loved his extremely popular Dominion series or you may know him from the Kingdom Builder series that he also designed. The game is for 2-5 players and is set in the late 1960’s as gangs are re-emerging in a powerful way, prior to the Gun Control Act of 1968.

This was a Kickstarter project that funded this past March and arrived to backers over the summer, I received my copy in early July which is very much on time for a June released Kickstarter.

The goal of Greed is to own as much share of the city’s wealth by any means, legal or otherwise, by the end of the 12th round. The game seats 2-5 players equally well and uses 12 card draw piles from which to draft, these piles are then passed clockwise after each draw until they are exhausted in the final round. With 80 cards in the box even a full 5 player game will not see all of the cards provided in play and this helps keep things fresh even after multiple games.

Board to Death takes a look at Lost Legends from Queen Games in their latest video review.



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From the website:

Lost Legends is a fantasy card game by Mike Elliott that combines a streamlined Euro game design and card drafting with an interesting fantasy theme and battle mechanic. Players take on the role of heroes trying to assemble an arsenal of equipment in order to vanquish a series of monsters that they will encounter.

The game begins with all players choosing one of five heroes each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Each player fights their own monster; this is not a cooperative game. The monster each hero will likely face is revealed to them before players draft cards for their equipment. An interesting aspect in this game is you may, if the conditions are right, evade a monster in front of you, and pass it to the hero next to you. But be aware if you do this you have to fight the monster you draw next!

Queen Games is in their final week over on Kickstarter for their Orcs Orcs Orcs board game. They're around 6x funded, so check out the stretch goals and extras.



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From the campaign:

Orcs Orcs Orcs is a game for two to four players, ages 13 & up, that combines two excellent game mechanics that have not been paired before (deck building and tower defense) and has players casting spells, squashing orcs and rolling up the score in the Orc Squash Tournament. The theme and game come alive with the outstanding art and components that you have come to expect from Queen Games.

Why 13& up? One of the orcs is unhappy that he is part of the Orc Squash tournament and is making a gesture that may be offensive to some people.

Board to Death has a new review article up. This time it's Greed.
Is Greed good? Gotta read to find out.



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From the post:

In the card game Greed, crime lords (the players) try to earn more money than anyone else through clever use of their cards.

At the start of the game, each player receives a random hand of twelve cards from a deck of 80. Players draft one card, pass the remaining cards left, draft a second card, pass again, draft a third card, pass again, then the game changes; players simultaneously choose and reveal a card, carrying out its effects, then they draft another card, pass the remaining cards, play again, and so on until ten “playing” rounds have passed, at which point the game ends and players tally their holdings.

Queen Games has been running their Kickstarter campaign for their new horror survival board game, Dark Darker Darkest.



From the campaign:

A cooperative board game where 2-5 “survivors" explore the secured house of Doctor Mortimer, working to stop the zombie apocalypse.