So, the other night we got together for another board game night. This time around we decided to try a new game (to us) Horrified as well as yet another game of Sentinels of the Multiverse. The game features many of the classic Paramount monsters from the 30's, 40's and 50's.
So, another board game night. This time we tried out Hamlet, prior to playing our usual Sentinels of the Multiverse game. I have a lot to say about Hamlet, but I am not certain that I want to waste that much time on this game, as I already wasted enough time playing the game. One thing I can say is that at least it was better than Darkest Night!
So another board game night, another disappointing evening, well maybe just not that great... We played Sentinels of the Multiverse and Darkest Night. The Sentinels game worked out to be another slow slag as the villain git some lucky card draws that stymied our attempts to defeat her. However we are nutters and kept playing even though it was going nowhere very slowly. Ultimately we called it a day after 3 out of the four heroes were knocked out of the game.
For no good reason we selected Darkest Night (1st ed) for our second game. Never having played this before there was a learning curve involved not aided by the rule book. The rule book is a mess and much of the rules and the enemy counters are not really all that intuitive. The game is for 1 to 4 players. Regardless of the number of players you always use four characters. We each selected our two hero characters, selected our powers, placed our standees in the starting space (the monastery) and settled back for what worked out to be a painfully slow death.
The game has simple mechanics and apparently lots of optional powers for your characters (I only got one power boost for one of my characters but I did have two decks that promised more powers) So I went through the game pretty much as I started. There is a lot of dice rolling in this game, a lot, rarely for good reasons, usually to avoid death. These dice rolls have a target number which all too often is 4 or 5 (many 5+) Often you will find yourself rolling only 1 die which all too often will result in a failure. Each turn you will encounter a random event (which is usually bad) Then you get one & only one action. With this action you can move one space, search, attack, rest etc. Then your turn ends. This worked out not to be all that satisfying. Each turn the evil necromancer tries to track you down to attack you. He also places random nasty encounters like vampires and spies. The pressure is on the players and we never felt that we had a chance to defeat the evil.
In the end we failed. The necromancer placed four encounter tokens in the monastery and mercifully the game ground to an end.
I had heard good things about this game, but in further review it seems it is a good game if you have the add-ons. Well it is not a good thing that the base game is so bad that the only way it is fun to play is by spending more money.
Apparently there is a second edition that includes all the expansions and while it fixes a lot of problems I think I will give it a pass.
So a couple of nights spent playing boardgames this week saw a new game for us played and the return of an old favorite.
From the late 1980's it came, never played by me back then but I did see it at the club a lot. Well I picked up this copy cheap at a bring and buy a few years back just cause. Well, now I have played it and, well, it was not that bad (not that great either)
So, we finally got around to playing this game and it is an excellent game, which is a good thing because I also own the North African version, the reinforcements set and Stalingrad set. I really should be more careful about buying expansions or new versions of a game before I have even played one game of the original. In this case it worked out!
Full proper reviews are available all over the web, but I will throw in my own two cents.
The base game is for two players, one controls the Germans, the other the Americans. The game has a scenario booklet that tells you what forces to assemble and how the battlefield will look. The game comes with 18 double sided terrain tiles that are placed on the table based on the instructions in the scenario book. The setup also tells you what troop to use, where to deploy them and what other markers should be placed on the board.
Finally played another boardgame, it has been a while! This time around we tried out Alien Fate of the Nostromo, a cooperative game for 1-5 players. Now, I had heard some unenthusiastic reviews of the game, so my expectations were fairly low but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a easy fast play appetizer type of game. The game box indicates a 45-60 minute play time and I have to say that seems to be accurate even the first time out. Now we were only two players, so I am sure that had an impact on game length, it certainly almost cost us the game as the randomly determined ending conditions were tough for only two players to complete. In fact the rules state that this particular ending should not be used for a 1 player game, two players gave us a better challenge.
The board has a map of the Nostromo on it (two levels) along with a morale track. Run out of morale and you lose the game. At the start of the game, each player selects one of five character cards and places the associated plastic figure on the galley space of the board. Each character card shows the number of actions that the character can take in their turn, the unique power that the character has and includes spaces for equipment and scrap counters.
Each player will, in turn, activates their character and moves about the ship. Their task is to gather up 'scraps' which they will convert into useful items like a flashlight, an electric prod or even the ever handy incinerator. Along the way they may encounter a 'concealed counter'. These counters are revealed when encountered and will be revealed to be one of three things; nothing, Jonesy (the cat) or the alien. If it is the alien the alien token is immediately move to that space causing a morale loss and forcing the character to retreat 3 spaces. If it is the cat it freaks out the crew member causing a loss of 1 morale before then running away.
After a character has had their action turn, the player then draws an encounter card and follow the instructions on the card. No card is drawn if the character encountered the alien. The cards usually indicate where to place more scrap tiles and a concealed counter. The card also tells the player how far the alien will move (1-3 spaces)
At the start of the game objective cards (# of players +1) are drawn and displayed. These are the tasks the players must finish before the end game mission can start. Each objective card indicates a location and an item that must be matched up by the players. Once these objectives have been achieved the final mission card is revealed, this is the mission that must be completed to win the game. In our case it was the "Cut off every bulkhead and every vent" card. The mission alters the standard rules giving the players new rules and new requirements. In our case a 'concealed counter' was first placed in every named area on the board. Then our mission was to remove every marker before the self destruct system counted down to zero, 4 turns later. The alien of course was still in play and thank goodness he was because we were able to springboard off of him whenever he was encountered. Each time we were forced to retreat we used that 3 space retreat as a was to move around the board a little quicker.
This was a social cooperative game which created some constraints on the game play. Most notably, no one can die the worst that can happen is morale loss. It kind of takes the tension out of things, but is a better plan than forcing players to sit and watch as the survivors continue to play. The alien was not a major factor in the game and we seemed to equip ourselves with a fair amount of stuff that negated most of the negative consequences of alien encounters. I do think this game will play out better with more players where we will see more encounter cards being drawn and thus more alien movement. Also there is an option to include Ash into the mix. At his basic level he removes scrap markers. If the final mission card is "You have my sympathies" his powers change.
Overall it was still a fun game. It was certainly not a deep thought game but it was a pleasant diversion. Sometimes it is nice to play a fun simple game without stressing on strategy/tactics all the time. As I said at the start I would view it as an appetizer game, something to play before the main event. It would also work as a friendly game to play with people who are not pure board gamers, you know social gamers.
So, I recently joined the Facebook page for the game Fantastic Battles. You may have noticed that I had posted a brief synopsis of the game, really just my first impressions of it back in February 2021. I liked what I read, but I confess at the time I had some reservations. Well I have recently decided that I would like to start gaming again and that some of that gaming will involve fantasy armies fighting it out. So I pulled out a number of different fantasy games and this one made it to the top of the pile.
Now it may be the lack of gaming in my life, I may not be completely myself, or it may just be that they are not that bad a set of rules but I am interested in them! Your troops are assigned traits, traits that define what they can and cannot do. What traits you select are entirely up to you. There are no preset lists of troops, not preset army lists build what you want to do emulate the type of troops you want to field. There are 50 different traits to use, some are mutually exclusive (for good reason after all you cannot be both fast and slow) but most can just be blended together as you see fit. You can select up to four traits for any given troop, one being used as a racial trait (mindless for undead for example) while the other three slots further define your troops. The racial trait is a nice touch to add some thematic cohesion to your forces. If selected at least 50% of your forces must have that trait/be of that race..
This of course can be both bad and good. Sometimes when confronted with too many choices you can wind up in analysis paralysis. With only being able to choose three there is a certain amount of trade off required you need to select the best traits to represent your vision. But the fact that you are not constrained by someone else's interpretation of how best to define something is a good thing.
To help you out the author has included sample historical and fantasy army lists as suggestions. Nothing is codified so they really are just suggestions, his idea of how one might build certain units. Technically there is no right or wrong way. So that being said I submit these sketches of what dwarf warriors might look like, some taken from the authors list. I whipped these cards up very quickly more of proof of concept. As such the points may be off but I do think they look nice.
So, new year, new game, actually played!
Picked this up after Christmas on a whim with no knowledge of what to expect. Well there is not much to the game, simple rules, needs only a pencil and a single 6 sided die and you get to play either the Allied armies or the French.
The book is laid contains 24 maps, 12 with you commanding the French, and 12 where you control the allies. There are 3 levels of difficulty for each option (4 maps each) with a 'bot' controlling your opponent. As you play the game you mark off items on the map in play to keep track of what you have done in each turn. There are limitations on how many times you can command a unit to act, and units cannot act two turns in a row. Should you run out of activations for a given unit, you may still activate the unit by using your commanding general. You also have access to a limited number of combined actions that allow you to launch an attack with infantry or cavalry in the lead, and include support from whichever arm you did not use as the lead, or artillery.
Throughout the game random events may happen such as the arrival of the Prussians. When enough of them arrive they will attack the French right flank.
Bad image here, but this would be the view from the Allied side. At the bottom of the page are your command options, the small white boxes indicate the number of time that you can command the unit to activate. Each unit has a limited choice of options all related to their placement on the battlefield. You do have reserves that you can deploy to either flank and the French have the Imperial Guard who have more flexible options, but fewer troops.
As your corps take damage you mark off one red or blue box/unit. Mark off all boxes and the Corp is eliminated. Lose two Corps and you lose the game. The elimination of enemy Corps offers new options. For the French, should they eliminate the British right flank they can then attack the British reserves. If the French attack the British right wing without first taking Hougoumont they will do so at a disadvantage. Taking Hougoumont can be done, but is not an easy thing to do, much like the actual battle.
Overall rating
The game does not take long to play, so for me I did not have that empty feeling that I had wasted a lot of time for nothing. It is deceptively challenging, the limitations built into the game can frustrate (in a good way) your plans. A single die to roll gives you a randomness that can be frustrating (in a bad way) or maybe that is just my bitterness over a series of attacks that I launched as Napoleon that saw the French lose unit after unit without causing any damage to the British.
It certainly has re-playability, at each level, just make certain you use pencil to mark your maps. The bot worked well enough to cause me problems. I suffered from counter cavalry charges against my planned cavalry charge, and I had Wellington retire behind slopes just as I opened fire with my artillery. Certainly there were times where the bot did not stymie my plans, but the times the bot seemed to react to my moves were much more memorable and adds to my positive feeling for the game.
In closing, I enjoyed it, the game did what it was supposed to do and I had fun playing it. I am not certain it is worth the price, only time will tell if I get my moneys worth in play time but I do know I will play this again!
I felt these deserved a better showcase than my unboxing/review video. So, I managed to clear off some space on one of my tables, dug out my old harbor/bay scenery (first seen here back in 2016's Pulp Alley Lagoon of Terror) and set up some trees and bushes.
Well another unboxing video, go figure! This time you are there with me as I open boxes, and move paper to reveal...
Some truly excellent pieces of scenery from Crescent Root Studios.
