Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Pixel Tactics Deluxe

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Pixel Tactics Deluxe

Producer-Level 99 Games

Price– Can’t buy just yet!

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20-30 minutes (2 players)

Type-American

Depth-Medium

TL; DR-A NES, an anime collection, and Final Fantasy Tactics in a card-shaped blender. 91%

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Basics-Are you ready to old-school Anime rumble!? In Pixel Tactics Deluxe, the big box expansion to Pixel Tactics, players take the roles of rival armies attempting to kill the leader of the opposing unit. Let’s start by describing the cards, and then the rest will fall into place. Each card’s face has a leader half and a unit half. The leader is the main character that the enemy will try to defeat. Each leader has an attack value, hit points, as well as providing either a special action or a special ability for your team. If you rotate the card, you see the generic unit half. This side has fewer hit points, an attack, and four different colored rectangles. These rectangles are the main thrust of the game; each unit has a red, green, and blue rectangle as well as either a tan or purple rectangle. The red, green, and blue rectangles are what this unit can do or powers it, or your army, gains depending on where it is in your army. Units in the vanguard (red areas), get some powers, while units to your leaders sides (green or flank), or behind the leader (blue or rear) had different abilities. The purple boxes are one time game effects (orders), and tan boxes are trap cards that you can place on the board to activate on an opponent’s turn when some action occurs.

With that, we can get into the meat of the game. Each player starts by drawing five cards from a deck of Pixel Tactics cards. From these first five, each person will select a leader and place that character in the center of their board. After selecting who gets to go first, players take turns taking two actions for section or wave of their unit (vanguard, then flank, and finally rear). The actions a player can take is recruit (place a character in that section), attack (range or melee), spell (the rectangle says spell:some ability), issuing orders, laying traps, clearing corpses (removing fallen characters), or moving characters to different locations. After both players have taken two actions for a wave of a unit , then play moves to the next wave. Once all three waves have taken actions, the play moves back to the vanguard and the next player takes over as first player.

I’d like to expand on attacks quickly. Each unit has an attack value. When a unit attacks, it does that attack value in damage to another enemy. Unless a unit has a ranged attack, that unit cannot attack a unit behind another unit or if one of your units is in front of it. Therefore, position is important. Corpses do not block combat, but corpses do block placing new units, so unless you removed them with an action, your army will quickly be unable to place new fighters! If a unit has damage equal to its health at the end of a wave’s actions, that unit is defeated and flipped over and is now a corpse. Combat is just that simple. The game continues with each player taking turns until one player has defeated the other player’s leader and reigns supreme!

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Mechanics-I like the quick nature of this game. Thinking of similar card games like Magic, each card is a spell (order) or a unit, and that opens up a range of tactical options. It’s fast, fun, and not a rules slog as different orders can’t do infinite combos or other such craziness that can build up in other games. It’s just a quick game of fun tactics that you learn in under 10 minutes and feel smart when you discover combos in the cards. It is a bit limited as this box only has two 30 card decks, and both decks are exactly the same. It’s fun, but you can see why there are five other Pixel Tactics expansions besides this one. However, to open new fun, this box also comes with drafting and league rules. If you and your friends want to open up a tournament, this box and the other expansions give you the experience you’re wanting. Well done! 5/5

Theme-This is a hard one. There is NO real story in this game box, but it also drips theme in a strange, Frankenstein combination of genres. I don’t have a clue what the heck any of the factions are or why they are fighting. However, there is a ton of theme here. Each leader has a full name and title. These titles get all kinds of fun and the powers reflect it. The generic unit side also provides you with some fun flare as the various cards have powers that all reflect exactly what you would think a card of that type should do. Honestly this game feels like a smoothie made by blending the NES game catalog, Final Fantasy Tactics, and an anime collection. What comes out is tasty and flavorful, but might not always make much sense, like green tea-flavored kit-kat bars. 4.25/5

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Instructions-The rules to this game are thick, but if you just want to play a two player game of it, you will use about ⅕ of it. The rest of the rules are for alternative game modes and how to use league rules and expansions. That said, the thing reads well. It’s a bit wordy because the rules need to explain how you kill your friend and your friend has to see how that is fair in detail, but overall it reads quickly. It could use a few more pictures, but it’s not bad by any means. 4.75/5

Execution-This box serves two masters reasonably well. On one side you have players like me-I’ve never played before and this is an excellent jumping on point. Here is a full box with dividers for your growing collection and two starting decks so you can play in five minutes. On the other side you have full avid collectors. Here is a box where you get new cards, new common cards for drafting games, and dividers to make you colection fit in one well-constructed box. I only have two minor problems with this game: the leader cards in the deluxe box and card icons. Leader cards are chibi art cards of the leaders without having the basic unit side. You get several beautiful cards, BUT you don’t get cards for all the units you get in this box. Why? That makes me mad–I have toys I can’t use! The card icons help you quickly figure out how a card works. And that’s great, but they can be a bit busy. The overload of icons isn’t on all the cards, but maybe a few less would help improve readability. These are only slight annoyances and not nearly enough to completely detract from the beauty of this game. Want to see all the cards in the box? Check out our unboxing video here: https://youtu.be/uHSQNmhsFVo 4.5/5

Summary-I’ve never been much of a card gamer, but this one does win me over. I can’t stand the pay-to-win mechanics of Magic, but this game gives me enough strategy and evolving gameplay that I can have a blast for a one-time cost and in a way where I don’t have to spend days learning the complex rules of the game. I’d like a bit more theme as I don’t know why I’m killing the other player, but It also doesn’t really matter-The cards feel like they should. The rules are streamlined, if a bit wordy, and the execution of the deluxe box is amazing. My biggest problem with this box is I want more, which is always a great problem to have. If you are looking for some classic NES nostalgia, your anime fix, and a fun 20-30 minute strategy game, then this is the game you’re looking for! 91%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide

System– DnD 5e

Producer– Wizards of the Coast

Price– $36

TL; DR-A doughnut-great fluff, but no crunch! 87%

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Basics-Welcome to the Forgotten Realms! The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is the first player and dungeonmaster book for DnD5e. It focuses on the world of the Forgotten Realms and more specifically the Sword Coast. The book builds the current Realms and provides the standing of the world, as well as giving players some new backgrounds, class archetypes, and race options.

Mechanics or Crunch-The best description of the mechanics in this book is “What mechanics?” Most of the crunch in this book is confined to one chapter. It’s a decent chapter, but it only supports a few classes with some classes not receiving any new toys. They do get some Forgotten Realms specific story, but no new crunch/mechanics to drive it home. This book also only has one feat in it, and that is an optional feat. There were high expectations for this book, and I feel it didn’t meet them. What’s here is good, but there is just not enough here to really make this worth it for every crunch heavy gamer. 3.75/5

Theme or Fluff-I love the Forgotten Realms, and this is a decent introduction to a part of it. As the title suggests, this book focuses on the Sword Coast. What the book focuses on is great! Each area gets a great description really building out the world in interesting ways and telling how the Realms have changed since 4th edition. However, it mentions the rest of the world. That’s good, but they don’t provide a map the the rest of the world. That’s my main problem with what is here. There are parts mentioned in a sentence that are not shown. The previous editions’ Realms books showed me the world,gave it a one line description, and then left it at that. This book doesn’t even give me the geography past the coast. This wouldn’t be a problem except the novels, adventures, and the Adventurer’s League all take place in the parts of world not covered in depth by this book. 4.75/5

Execution-This book covers a ton of ground, and it does it reasonably well. Everything has pictures, which is awesome, so the book sufficiently breaks up the text. There are a few walls of text though. The art is good, the font is nice, and the maps are amazing. I’d like this book to be a bit thicker to give space for more breaks and more information, as well as to justify the price a bit. However, I liked the way this book was laid out and built overall. 4.5/5

Summary-I wasn’t thrilled with this book. The theme is great. New players in the Realms will get a ton out of this book. Even people from 4th edition will have a lot to learn about the new realms. The overall execution of the book is great, if a tad pricey. However, the biggest problem is the lack of mechanics. This is the first real expansion to the system, and it doesn’t do or provide much expansion to the system. This book isn’t bad, but stacked up against the core books, I wasn’t impressed with this book. 87%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Seekers of A Hidden Light (Shadows of Malice Expansion)

January 7, 2016 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product–Seekers of A Hidden Light (Shadows of Malice Expansion)

Producer-Devious Weasel Games

Price– $25.00 here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0146Y8HDC/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687502&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00NAG5YCK&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=165FDTXJBT8THFCG5PQT

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 1-3 hours (2-8 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-More depth for those who want it. 90%

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Basics-Need more from your Shadows of Malice game? This is the expansion for you! This game doesn’t fundamentally change the nature of the game, but it does add new options. Mystics get two new important abilities: quests and lures. Quests require an avatar to enter an area to either get one resource (via a luck roll), kill a particular monster type, or do both at the same time. When a quest is completed, the players get to return the quest for new potions, soulstones, and lux. Lux can be spent to buy super powerful potions or new runes which are engraved on weapons increasing their power. Lures are new ways to cause monsters to fight your character instead of having to fight in lairs. These lures provide a luck bonus to the roll to determine the monster encountered as well.

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Mechanics-What you read above is pretty much what’s in the box, and that’s not bad. This expansion isn’t here to completely change the nature of the game, but it does bring some fun extra parts to it. Fighting monsters in lairs can be tough, but lures provide a way to fight monsters with much less power. The new quests are a fun addition as well. You can only have one at a time, but they do provide you with some goals and will cause players to go off and look for specific fights. Overall, it’s an added layer onto the game that you’re used to playing. It’s not overly risky in terms of expansion to the game, but it’s also something that fits well into the game 4.5/5

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Theme-This game has some great theme, but some interesting choices as well. The new lux mechanic is worked well into the story. Now players are given quests by mystics who also extract lux from the objects they desire. That works well and builds the world around it. Players get some awesome stories from hunting monsters to find light in the world. But, players also get some weird moments as now not only do mystics heal you, send you on quests, but they also operate the bait shops of the world. Players get lures from mystics as well as from monsters themselves. That’s a little bit off as I would think the towns would have the bait shops. It’s only a small misstep though as the expansion adds on the the game in fun ways. 4.5/5

Instructions-This expansion shows some growth from the base game. This book reads much better and really helps players to add the new elements quickly to their game. Players also get an appendix to help them find where each topic is discussed. The rules are still a bit too wordy, but they don’t take long to read. It does plug quickly into the game and won’t take long or be hard to figure out when you do so. 4.5/5

Execution– If the base game is like Arkham Horror, then this expansion is a small box expansion like The King in Yellow. This box has new full cards, new half cards, and tokens. Compared to Fantasy Flight Games, it’s fairly priced. I do like all the pieces that come in this box. Heck, the box itself is well put together as it’s made with solid cardboard. I’ve even made an unboxing video which you can view here https://youtu.be/Wiku-FDMmvQ 4.5/5

Summary-This expansion is a fun addition to the Shadows of Malice world. Now players can undertake epic quests to gain the power of light while building up their own abilities, use bait to lure monsters out of hiding, and use the power of light itself to gain epic upgrades. The expansions doesn’t bring anything out of place in the game world. However, this expansion doesn’t tack on much to the game beyond what was already working here. If you don’t like the base game, this expansion won’t do much to sway your opinion. However, if you are looking for a solid expansion to your Shadows of Malice games, then this is a great way to build more replay into your Shadows of Malice game. 90%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review ofDemon Lord’s Companion

December 10, 2015December 10, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Demon Lord’s Companion

System– Shadow of the Demon Lord

Producer– Schwalb Entertainment

Price– $ 10 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/168258/Demon-Lords-Companion?src=slider_view&affiliate_id=658618

TL; DR-The best DLC I’ve downloaded all year! 100%

Basics-OPTIONS! Have you already gotten tired of all the options in the core Shadow of the Demon Lord book? Odds are not, but here is a new book with races, master and expert paths, new items both magical and mundane, magic traditions, and even more rules for parts of the game not covered in the basic book like vehicles.

Mechanics or Crunch-This is an amazing book for what it adds. Every one of these pages is crunch. From the new spells to the rules for how to drive in this game, no space is wasted that doesn’t add to the world. New races are added such as halflings and fauns, new traditions such as alchemy are added, and tons of new items are brought into the world. This might be one of my favorite splat books to a system I’ve read in a long time. 5/5

Theme or Fluff-Now I don’t expect much from a splat book in terms of theme, but this one delivers! Let’s look at two things to drive home this point. First are story complications. These are new character additions that provide a detriment and a bonus. They almost function like zero-level feats. You get horrific problems for bonuses that directly come from this problem. An example is you might be ever-so-slightly possessed, but you can also talk to that demon to get bits of lore and knowledge. That’s pure Demon Lord’s Shadow right there. Second, let’s look at azeen. Azeen are foot long worms, that you place in your face or another large orifice and let it crawl/tare inside you. It gives you a whip that you can spring from your hands as an attack. Randomly, in the next 20 days you will crap your pants as the worm violently dies and is violently shot from your body. This is a new forbidden item with strong benefits, horrific complications, and a corrupting influence. Again, this is mainline Shadows of the Demon Lord with full descriptions of horror building up the mechanics with solid storytelling. Absolutely beautiful! 5/5

Execution-This book only comes out as a PDF currently. However, what makes this interestingly is the price, pictures, and writing. Comparing this book to other splat books, DLC is hands down the best I’ve seen in awhile. This book is 50+ pages for 10 bucks. That blows Paizo out of the water! I get a book full of character options, game rules, and monsters that is layed out properly, reads quickly, and is fun for less than half of some other books. 5/5

Summary– I didn’t ask for more options for Shadows of the Demon Lord, but I have wondered about some specific content. And this book delivered on all of it. Want some more steampunk? Well we’ve got airships and even guns now. Want more magic? Well now there is fauns and other magic traditions. Heck, you want to get some Kung Fu in your Demon’s Shadow? Now you can. Crouching tiger, hidden demon away! Everything fits in this book. It’s all from the very mouth of the Dark Hobo himself. It’s a great value, full of pictures to inspire, and quick pleasure to read. This book is well worth your time and money. 100%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Tales of the Demon Lord

December 9, 2015December 9, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Tales of the Demon Lord

System– Shadow of the Demon Lord

Producer– Schwalb Entertainment

Price– $ 10 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/163527/Tales-of-the-Demon-Lord?term=tales+of+the+demon&affiliate_id=658618

TL; DR-Lean, mean adventure! 90%

Basics-Starting with a small series of death in the far flung town of Crossings, this adventures takes players from starting, zero-level character to master character who have to ultimately face down and prevent the arrival of the Demon Lord. This adventure is a whole campaign in itself introducing a section of the world called Crossings to the players and the GM. Will you be able to face the horrors of things touched by the Demon Lord’s shadow?

Mechanics or Crunch-Shadow of the Demon Lord is it’s own system through and through, and this self contained campaign has the math for the system clearly down. What’s here works well. However, the campaign doesn’t give too much away to the novice GM. I like what’s here in terms of encounters, rewards, combats, and exploration, but I’d like a bit more behind the game’s curtain. This is the first full campaign, so this adventure will serve as the game’s best guide. However, I’d like a bit more to help me get all the expertise I and other GM’s need to better run this system.4.5/5

Theme or Fluff- Schwalb writes an awesome story from the ground up. The book starts by building its own town called Crossing and then builds out. In terms of story, it’s a swift story that’s a great way to get players into the world. Also, this book has a ton of variety from simple go here/kill people, small hex crawls, and even hardcore roleplaying. Every player will get a bit of fun out of this adventure, and every GM will have a blast running this one. 5/5

Execution– Of all the good stuff in the book, the execution is the most lacking. The execution is by no means bad, but I may be a bit to spoon fed by other publishers when it comes to published material. There is almost no box text. Have gamed with the master himself, I know he writes awesome descriptions, but this book will ask you to write most of your own. Furthermore, Shadow of the Demon Lord adventures are short. From the get go, SotDL adventures are designed for about a four hour experience after which players level. That is not bad by any stretch, but the transition and the brevity of the writing is strong change for some GMs. There are breaks in the text. But, I’d like a bit more art, and I’d like the art that’s here to be a bit larger. It’s hard to get those maps to the table and make them a size that looks nice. The adventures do read quickly and easily, and the simple descriptions are enough to get you gaming quick. But, keep in mind that the simplicity of the write ups are there to make the games run fast and with no down time and limited prep time. 4/5

Summary– Tales of the Demon Lord is a phenomenal adventure for SotDL. It’s a full campaign unto itself that covers several different adventure types and play styles. It’s well written, and simply executed. However, this is not a hand-holding product. Tales of the Demon Lord aims to be a campaign, not your paint by numbers GMing guide. It’s several adventures that tell a story, but it doesn’t teach you how to write or design adventures if you’re only passively playing or running this adventure. It’s fun, but don’t expect verbose, cookie-cutter explanations for you to read your players. Expect a lean, mean adventure that you can run quickly and efficiently with minimal prep, memorization, or GM brain loading time. If you get past a bit of shock of how spartan SotDL adventures are presented, then you will really enjoy what’s here. 90%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Sheriff of Nottingham

December 6, 2015December 7, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Sheriff of Nottingham

Producer-Arcane Wonders

Price– $30 here

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20 minutes (3-5 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-A Good game of who is the best liar. 91%

Basics-Who’s the best liar in Nottingham? In Sheriff of Nottingham, players take the roles of different merchants trying to smuggle goods into the Nottingham market. Each turn starts with players discarding and drawing cards. These cards can come from a facedown pile or from one of two face up piles where the order is publicly known. Players set asides some cards, draw up to six, and then discard the set aside cards to either pile. After drawing, then each player except that Sheriff for that round, chooses up to five cards, and places them in a bag with a snap. The cards come in two general types: basic and contraband. Basic goods are chicken, bread, cheese, and apples. Contraband are better types of basic goods, weapons, pepper, or other random items. After a player chooses what to put in the bag, that player must then announce to the Sheriff the number of cards in the bag as well as say one type of good (obviously you should not say contraband!). The Sheriff has to decide if you are lying, to trust you, or to try to take a bribe. Brides could be future favors, money, or even bribes from other players to look in the bag! If the Sheriff let’s the player pass, then the player places goods around their play mat for the different basic goods or places contraband facedown in front of their player board. However, if the Sheriff opens your bag, then things get interesting. If you were completely truthful and had played no contraband, then the Sheriff pays you the penalty value of all the goods in your bag. If you had some other basic goods, then you have to pay the Sheriff the penalty value for each good you didn’t declare before, but you still get to keep the goods as before. And lastly, if you had contraband, you pay the Sheriff for the contraband, pay for undeclared cards as before, and then the contraband is placed in one of the discard piles. After each player except the Sheriff player has had a chance to be inspected, then the next player becomes the Sheriff, and the game continues as above until each player is the Sheriff twice. At the end of the game, the players with the most and second most of each basic good score extra points, and then the gold value for each item you have, basic and contraband, are added together along with any remaining currency you still have. The player with the highest score is the winner and best merchant/smuggler in Nottingham!

Mechanics-This game is as simple as they come, and that’s not a bad thing. Sheriff of Nottingham is completely social. You do get some cards, and to make some choices, but overall, the game’s main focus is social deduction, risk-management, and a good poker face. It’s quick, fun, and something you don’t have to have a strong game background to play. But, you do need a poker face and a group of people who do like these kind of games. There is no self correction for the leader. If you don’t work together against the leader, you will lose. 4.5/5

Theme-There is a theme here, but honestly, it’s not very strong. You have art driving home Robin Hood, but the gameplay itself isn’t tied to that world. You’re just sneaking a thing into a place. The bags are awesome, and they do drive home the theme of anxiously trying to avoid customs. That’s fun. Nothing beats the feel and sound of the snap on the bag to let you know the game is up. But, don’t expect to fly deep into the game work like with Mage Wars.3.75/5

Instructions-The rulebook is well laid out, and the rules are not complicated. As you saw above, it’s pretty simple. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to have fun and the rule book knows that as well. 5/5

Execution– SNAP! The game is amazing. You get great bags, cards, art, and cardboard coins all look great. however, the star is the snap on the bag. It brings awesome theme and tension to the game. I absolutely love that. What’s more the game itself has a divider in the box that holds all the piece and comes out of the box to assist in gameplay. I’d like the dividers a bit higher to better contain the coins, overall, The signs of a great game. To see all the parts, here is a video of me unboxing the game: https://youtu.be/NB6syVc3imE 5/5

Summary-This is another great game that a solid chunk of you won’t play. This is a pure social game. If you can’t read people, then you will not enjoy it. There are no Euro-elements to grab on here. However, if you’re trained to spot a liar, then you will enjoy this game as you get to flex those muscles. The only real challenge ihen is the randomness. You have to adjust your strategy on the fly for this one. This is a American Style game through and through that is a great, quick social game. 91%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–22: Out of Anarchy

November 29, 2015November 29, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–22: Out of Anarchy

System– Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $ 4 here http://paizo.com/products/btpy9cu1?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-6-22-Out-of-Anarchy

TL; DR– Too many ingredients spoil the soup! 78%

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Basics-The society never leaves a man behind-they just might take five years to help him…and it might be someone’s pet project as well…. In this adventure, the Pathfinder Society sends in new recruits to find a long forgotten Pathfinder in a blockagged town in Cheliax. There, the young Pathfinder have to navigate several different rival groups, find their target, and get him out…all while not starting the third burning of the city! This adventure is designed for level first to fifth level characters.

Mechanics or Crunch-What’s here is good, but there is just too much here! This adventure has some serious roleplaying opportunities (which is great) and some serious combats (there are over four!). That is too much for a four-hour time slot! Each part isn’t bad as the roleplaying characters get some time to shine and the combat monkeys can take center stage at different points, but in a four hour adventure slot at a con, this adventure simply is too long. GMs will have to drop part to keep this one going fast enough to cover all the ground. 3.5/5

Theme or Fluff-So, not only is there a lot of mechanics, there is also a lot of story to cover as well. It’s not bad, but it’s too much! First is a missing Pathfinder. Then,there are four factions to contend with. Next is trying to get out and get help. And lastly is dealing with other enemy groups in the city. That is too much talking! I love good roleplaying in a Pathfinder Society adventure, but with so much going on here, it’s hard to make all the pieces shine. If you don’t ham up each group, then players don’t notice them. If you do, then it takes too much precious time that you won’t have for the fights and talking to the different groups later. It’s too difficult a balance to walk-especially for a 1-5 level, four-hour scenario. 4/5

Execution-Overall, this adventure has the Paizo polish. Lot’s of pictures to help describe things, lot’s of included information to make running this easy, and a decent amount of breaks to make the text flow better. However, the organization isn’t perfect. This adventure is about 40 pages! Some pages are copies of Bestiary books to help run the adventure, but I would like a few more breaks and a table or two detailing how different groups interact with the players at different locations. Those little things would help speed up the pace of this adventure and possibly get it out close to the four-hour runtime. 4.25/5

Summary-If I had eight hours with a single table, this would be a great adventure to put them through. They could really dig deep into the roleplaying, and the combat-crunch players would have an absolute blast as well by being able to paint the town red with their enemies. But, this is written with the goal of four hours. For that time limit, there is just too much here! It’s written well enough, but will all the twists, turns, and fights, you CAN’T get this adventure done and be on time. And any adventure I can’t run in a time slot at a con, written for a con, isn’t one I run a second time. 78%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of New Dawn

November 29, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-New Dawn

Producer-Stronghold Games

Price– $60 here http://www.amazon.com/Artipiagames-ARP01008-Dawn-Board-Game/dp/B00QHJCUE2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1448827799&sr=8-5&keywords=New+Dawn

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 90-120 minutes (2-4 players)

Type-American

Depth-Medium

TL; DR-Eclipse by way of Among the Stars. 90%

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Basics-We’ve gone Among the Stars, Expanded the Alliance, sent Ambassadors, and now have a New Dawn for the galaxy. In New Dawn, players take the roles of the same alien races from Among the Stars, but now have moved from the joint space station to exploring the galaxy for resources.

In terms of overall play, New Dawn plays a bit like Eclipse. This game has three resources that players must spend to dominate the galaxy: economic, science, and military. Each race/player starts with a player board with 15 bases in their color. Each base covers up a resource of that type with the fifth base covering up a resource and a victory point. Players choose one base to uncover and place on the central alliance start point. Then, each turn goes as follows: 1) draw up to four tiles to explore 2) place one tile and get its placement bonus 3)buy a research card 4)Move one of your military headquarters to any space 5) take three actions in turn 6) Send aid to the alliance. The tiles are the different sections of space to explore and are split between science, military, economic, and hostile (a mix of all three that is high risk/high reward). Each tile has a placement bonus which ranges from getting resources, placing more tiles, or attacking a tile for free. Research is interesting as each race has its own deck of cards that allows each player to customize how each race plays in each game and allows limited responses to other race’s/player’s actions. Military headquarters are the main movement pieces of the game. You start with one and use it to buy or conquer other tiles. You never lose them, but you can buy more to give you extra power and points. This all said, the main game itself is the actions. Actions are as follows: gain one resources of any type, buy a tile, seize a tile, use an ambassador, or buy a new military HQ and move all the HQs you have. The resources are self explanatory, but the ambassadors are new. Ambassadors are tokens that you place on any tile and then do the ambassadors action. These actions are all written on the cards themselves, but are mostly better versions of the actions discussed above. Of the actions you have, the two biggest and most important are the buy or seize a tile. Buying a tile is simple. Each tile has a cost in economic resources and a victory point cost. You just pay the economic cost. Seizing is more interesting and MUCH more random. If a tile is is not controlled, you add the victory points and the cost and then roll dice according to where your Military HQ’s are. For each military HQ’s on a tile you roll the yellow die (a d6 with numbers 2,3,4,5,5, and 6) and for each military HQ adjacent you can roll the white die (a d6 with numbers 1 through 6). Some powers and abilities give you a green die (a d6 with numbers 0,1,1,2,2, and 3) or the RED AWESOME DIE (a d6 with numbers 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, and 6). The attacking player must beat the defence, not tie. If he/she wins, then that player places a base on the tile of the same type as the one from his/her player board. Combat against a player works exactly the same way with a base on a tile giving you a yellow die in addition to all the Military HQ on or around the tile as above. This can lead to some epic dice roll offs as player can also get rerolls and bonus dice from other powers as well. If the defender loses, the he/she takes his/her base of the tile and covers up the right most resource on the player board and the winners get to place a base as before. In addition, at the start of the game four random bonuses are placed around the board. These bonuses range from extra defence, free movements of Military HQs, to rerolls and extra dice. Each tile typically has some arrows on it. When a tile is bought or seized, the player gets to change the direction in which it is facing, and the arrows the tile points to give a bonus to the owning player. The last action of each turn is to send aid to the alliance. This is buying victory point cards using the three different resources as printed on the card. After five rounds, the points for bases, aid, uncovered resources, and purchased tech and military HQs are added up, and the player with the most has conquered the galaxy and provided the most aid to the alliance!

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Mechanics-First thing first, let’s deal with the elephant in the room-Eclipse. Eclipse is a great game, but not my favorite 4-X space game. This game and Eclipse both have the multiple bases and resources concept, tech trees, exploration, and color-based dice combat. And all of that is done a bit different but well by each game. However, Eclipse goes about one turn too long. This game is MUCH shorter, easier to recover from some early game problems, and actually provides much more player control. AND, this game at it’s highest price is $60 while Eclipse still retails for about $100. How New Dawn handles everything is fun, fair, and a great way to manage a galaxy. It’s something that new gamers can handle, and older gamers will enjoy. It’s not perfect as the randomness can honestly destroy your enjoyment of a game and combat is a bit more powerful than other strategies, but if you play American-style games, you know that pain all too well! Don’t let those minor problems keep you from this game. 4.75/5

Theme-This game changed a few key things that I think hurt the game a bit. The theme of the first game was alien races working against each other, but not on an overly aggressive scale as the war was fresh in their mind. This game is all about combat. It will be extremely difficult to win the game without conquering a single base or engaging in combat. It’s a massive departure from the first game. The second is the race descriptions. The first game Among the Stars is a pretty simple drafting and tile laying game, so the designers spent the second half of the rulebook describing the universe and the races within. This game is a bit more complicated, so the rules need a bit more description. But the races and world only get about a half pages description on the first page. I really miss the world building of the first game. The game itself is well done and you do feel like you’re conquering space and your friends’ bases. But, I’m not sure that’s exactly what I wanted from the second game in this series. 4.25/5

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Instructions-I mentioned in the theme section, the rulebook doesn’t have as much description as I would like, but overall the rules are well explained by the book. There are a few problems that I think need a tiny bit more explanation like the arrows on location cards. The rules tell you about the different cards placed on the board at the game start, but they don’t give you as deep a working description of that mechanic. You will figure it out on your first play, but it’s a slight problem. If you can apply your best logic to the game, you will do fine with the rules in the box. 4.5/5

Execution– This game doesn’t come with a ton in the box, but what’s there is done reasonably well. To see all the pieces in the box, see my unboxing video here: https://youtu.be/EnMeLhB9Ods The board is two sided with a simple and complex game, which is a nice added layer of gameplay and replay-ability. The tiles all look like the same tiles from Among the Stars which is a nice call back to the first game. I even like the new plastic tokens in the game. What I don’t like is that the gameboard isn’t big enough. There are spots for some tiles but not others. I’d like one more row on all the sides to give enough places to place all the parts that game has. Also, I’d like the box to be a little thicker cardboard. Stronghold Games typically makes their game boxes of a lighter material which is nice when I carry five of them to a con to demo them, but the boxes don’t stand up to too much punishment. These are minor quibbles, but there are things to consider. Overall, it’s a beautiful game that has some good parts to it. 4.5/5

Summary-This might not be my favorite 4x game, but it’s quickly made a spot in the top few of them. It’s got all the things I love in a game: strategy, depth, speed, and ease of learning/teaching. I’d like a bit more story and cardboard, but that isn’t any reason to not pick this one up. If you like Sci-FI games, 4x games, or simply want a good game to play at any gameday that won’t eat the whole day, then this is an excellent game to buy. I can’t wait to play this again and to see the expansion that will come and further develop the ideas that came out of this game. 90%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Coup: Rebellion G54

November 15, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Coup: Rebellion G54

Producer-Indie Board and Cardboard

Price– $30 here http://www.amazon.com/Coup-Rebellion-G54-Card-Game/dp/B010HEZHII/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1447554861&sr=1-3&keywords=coup

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 10 minutes (3-6 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Simple, social, dystopian fun! 96%

Basics-Who will reign supreme? In Coup, each player uses their influences and perceived influence to do various actions in an attempt to outmaneuver and out right eliminate their opponents. Players are dealt a number of cards that indicate who they have guaranteed influence with. These cards are dealt face down. Each turn a player chooses one action to take among the seven different actions available. Two of these actions are either gain 1 credit or spend 7 credits to hurt a player. When a player is hurt, they reveal one of their cards, and that card no longer counts as under their influence. The other actions are all represented by different personalities in the world, and you can select any of those actions to take However, any player may challenge who you are. If you can show that you have the face down card for the action you took, the challenger loses a life, you reshuffle the displayed card into the deck of remaining cards, draw one, and take that action. If you can’t show the card or won’t, then you lose a life! If there is no challenge, then the action occurs. Play continues with each player taking one action each turn, possibly resolving challenges, killing other players, until there is only one man or woman standing!

Mechanics-Coup is a quick game! You only have seven actions to consider each turn, so it moves really fast, and you have to stay on your toes as players challenge one another. But it works well. The game comes with a ton of different roles, so few if any games can really be the same. How the different roles play together and apart is a really an interesting dynamic. I normally don’t like elimination games, but this one plays in under 10 minutes even with high player count, so a new game is about four minutes away at any given time. It’s not perfect as players have to balance the game itself. Victors can run away really fast in this one! But that is a problem of all social games. 4.75/5

Theme-This version of Coup is set in a cyberpunk dystopian setting, and it works really well! Players vie for power under the watchful eye of an all powerful government, and you constantly feel like you’re on shifting ground. Getting called out on a role you have feels like you called in a mark and now they might not help in the future. Bluffing feels like you’re using smoke and mirrors to intimidate your opponents into thinking you have more power than you do. It feels like a compact political thriller-watching House of Cards at 90x speed since you get done in 10 minutes or less! 5/5

Instructions-The instructions to this one are not that bad, but it buries a few leads. Something really important to note is how challenges work if you reveal a card. If you have the role card in your hand, and you show it, you shuffle and redraw a new role card. You may get that card back again. That’s really important because it’s a one off line in the rules, but it’s one of the most important parts of the game’s mechanics and theme. Overall the rules are compact enough to explain the game, but not large enough to be intrusive for a game that will take you more time to open than play. Maybe a tad more detail would help, but in general it’s done well enough. 4.5/5

Execution– This game gets a five out of five for a few reasons-most of them for being smarter than me. When you open the box, there will be two cardboard hunks you won’t know what to do with. These hunks are card dividers. It took me a few minutes, but once I understood their brilliance, I was amazed. The game has solid, chunky cardstock to divide the randomizer cards from the role cards. That is absolutely simplistic smarts that many much more expensive games leave out. Also, this game is set up for expansions to fit in one box. If you’ve seen base Coup, then you know the astounding number of expansions it has. And, Indie Board and Card built this game to be ready for more. Aside from that, the art is amazing. I like what I see here. Want to see all the pieces in the box? Here is a full unboxing of the game: https://youtu.be/UwFf7454gMs 5/5

Summary-So here is the rub-this is a phenomenal game that some of you will only despise. This is a great game, but it is a social game. If you don’t like social manipulation, then you will absolutely hate this game. I had amazing games of Coup, but some people have left the table because they can’t manipulate others well. If you like social games, but want a bit more strategy than “Are you a Werewolf?” this is a great, short, and cheap game you should get to the table. 96%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Out of the Abyss

November 3, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Out of the Abyss

System– DnD 5e

Producer– Wizards of the Coast

Price– $ 50 here http://www.amazon.com/Out-Abyss-D-Accessory/dp/0786965819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446560418&sr=8-1&keywords=out+of+the+abyss

TL; DR– A few rough spots on a great piece-88%

Basics-It’s going to be a bad day when the players find themselves prisoners of the Drow, and that’s the high point! The players find themselves at the tender mercies of the drow, and eventually undercover that the underdark just became an even deadlier place as demon lords now roam the caverns. Will you be able to save Faerûn and yourselves from the creatures Out of the Abyss?

Mechanics or Crunch-What is here is a bit of a mix. DnD 5e has a bit of a problem serving two masters: 1e sensibilities of life doesn’t come always in achievable pieces all the time and 3.5’s challenge rating so the players survive setup. Some of those parts crash into the PCs early on, and that can make a DM have to dance a bit to avoid a TPK. That said, overall, it’s a well designed adventure with lots of fun new mechanics, great exploration and team management options, and some fun fights to keep the PCs on their toes and enjoying things. The struggle is a bit real, but a good DM will be able to keep the game going. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff-This is an amazing adventure for it’s story, but almost eight levels until you hit the main story stride is a bit much. I’m not spoiling anything when I say that demon lords prowl the underdark. However, you don’t really get to deal with them until you are about halfway to the max level of the campaign. Then, this adventure turns into a classic Bioware game. Players then find out about a plan to fix things, chase down items in any order across several different set piece locations, put out underground fires, and save the day. That part is amazing! Getting there is a bit boring. But, every group of players I’ve run this game with have found their most favorite NPC of all time in this adventure, so it has some phenomenal high points along the way. 4.25/5

Execution-I like what’s here, but there are many pages with walls of text. The art that is here is amazing, but I want/need more of it. The text is written well, but there is so much it’s not as much fun to read, since this isn’t just a fantasy novel, but a gazetteer and a bunch of stat blocks as well. Overall, it’s good, but not my most favorite RPG adventure layout. 4.5/5

Summary-I like what’s here, but it needs a bit of work to really be a knock out. The starter town is a good example of the amazing and the problematic. It has a great description, introduces some amazing adversaries, and provides a place for the PCs to cut (some of) their teeth. However, it’s also got some fights that a DM will absolutely have to pull their punches on to keep the adventure going. After the players escape, the chase rules are good, but the players will most likely end up doing the same fight again in a few days regardless of their choices. That one area kind of give some of the amazing and off putting that define this adventure. It’s close to being the greatest things a player and GM will get to play, but has a few rough spots that keep it from a smooth performance. 88%