Game-Loonacy

Price-$15

Producer-Looney Labs

Players-Two to Five

Set-Up/Play/Clean-Up- Five minutes (YEP!  FIVE MINUTES)

TL;DR-SLAM DOWN CARD FUN! 93%

 

Basics-I usually do long, drawn out, complicated games, but here goes a quickie.  Loonacy is a quick shape matching game.  Each card has two shapes dividing the card in two.  If you play Fluxx, you will recognize all the shapes are former card art from all the different Fluxx games.  There will be between four and one piles of cards.  Players rapidly SLAM cards onto piles where at least one shape matches.  There are NO turns, and no quarter given!  Can’t play a card?  Then you point to the draw deck, and when all players are pointing, you draw, and start again.  No turns, not long thought process, just slamming cards down as quick as possible.  AMAZING!  First one out of cards wins!

 

Theme-There is no theme here, but then again, there should never be theme in this kind game. 0/0

 

Mechanics-The game is quick and simple.  It’s not bad, but for my crowd, some of the hard-core Eurogamers got in fights over how to draw cards.  REALLY GUYS!?  It’s fun, but a bit simple. 4.5/5

 

Instructions-The instructions cover one side of a page.  That’s it.  But, you don’t need any more instructions than that! 5/5

 

Execution-Cards are nice, and the art is good.  BUT, I really hate recicled art.  This product is ONLY recycled art as it’s all the art from every fluxx game out there.  It’s not bad art, but it’s recycled.  If you can get past that, it’s a great product. 4.5/5

 

Summary-Want a card slapping game you and your friend can play at Burger King at 4AM after a marathon DnD game?  Here you go!  Want a game you will spend weeks organizing at making sure all the players can make it?  This is not it!  This is a fun, simple game designed to get players having fun quick.  Honestly this is Uno if all the players just played at the same time and all the offensive cards were removed.  If you like the Fluxx team, buy this.  If you want a quick family game, buy this.  It’s ~15 bucks.  For a simple, quick game, that’s a good value. 93%

Product– Pathfinder Player Companion Alchemy Manual

Producer-Paizo

Price-$13(PDF)

System-Pathfinder

TL; DR-Lot’s of alchemy types, but not much depth. 87%

 

Basics- Let’s Cook!  Alchemy Manual is a splat book in the truest sense.  This book moves at a rapid fire pace presenting over 10 different types of alchemy traditions in the Pathfinder world.  Each tradition gets two pages to introduce the story behind the alchemy type as well as a few potions or poisons that distinguish one from another.  In addition, numerous items, small additions to spells/alchemical items, and new ways to craft alchemical items are presented.

 

Mechanics or Crunch- First things first, alchemy has always been somewhat tricky in the 3.X systems.  You end up with things that are two broken for the rules or underpowered to uselessness.  This book tends to be closer to underpowered.  The items presented are on par with the standard alchemy items, but those items tend to be useless as the player has better options with spells or abilities.  The book does introduce some nice new feats and items, but those same items may not be the first thing a player will grab for when looking how to battle a problem.  Also, the book introduces several different types of alchemy.  That’s nice from a flavor standpoint, but no one type gets enough of a foundation to stand alone.  Each tends to get 3/4 of a page of items, so you left wanting more for each one. 3/5

 

Story of Fluff-While this is an item book, I was honestly impressed with the detail each type of alchemy was given in its presentation.  Readers learn a lot about several different types of alchemist in the Pathfinder world.  The stories do make for some rather interesting reading.  I enjoyed this far more then I enjoyed the mechanics of the book. 5/5

 

Execution-This is a Paizo book.  I have a tradition of giving them high marks, but that’s because the consistently know how to may a book look nice and be readable.  I’d like the text bigger, but I mostly read on an IPad, so the page is smaller than the print version.  Great art and a well done layout lead to excellent ease of reading. 5/5

 

Summary-Alchemy is always a touchy subject in Pathfinder and 3.X games.  To powerful and all the players use it.  To underpowered and it’s a waste of time to introduce it.  This book is an ok.  Honestly, it won’t change your opinion of alchemy.  It’s well done for the story aspect, but if you are deciding if you want to buy a mechanics supplement, you really have to ask yourself “Do I like alchemy already?”

Game-Eminent Domain

Price-$40

Producer-Tasty Minstrel Games

Set-Up/Play/Clean-Up-1 Hour

TL;DR-Only a few faults make this game great instead of excellent. 87.5%

 

Basics- Compete for the Galaxy!  In Eminent Domain, players take the roles of different groups trying to conquer the most locations across the galaxy.  This is a deck building game with a twist.  Each turn players do three things in order.  First, they can play a card from their hand as an action.  These actions either build fighters, settle planets, produce resources, removes cards from your deck, or other things.  Then, players draw one card from the central board as their role.  This new card goes into the players deck, hence the deck building aspect.  These roles produce/sell resources for points, settle attack or settle planets for points, research advanced cards with new actions, or search for new planets.  Here is where things become interesting.  When the first player selects a role, all other players may follow that role doing the exact same thing as the lead player.  For an example, if the lead player searches for more planets, they draw a card from the center and play as many cards with the search for planets symbol as they can from their hand to draw planets to settle/conquer.  All other plays may play as many cards with search for planets symbols from their hands to draw planets off turn.  After role selection, then the lead player discards as many cards as they want and draws up to five cards.  Play continues until one or two of the role card stacks is empty.  Player with the most points wins the galaxy.

 

Mechanics-As I mentioned above, this is a deck building game.  I like those games, but this one has the novel twist of letting all players do the same action as the lead player.  Now, if you’re lucky/smart, you can take an action each turn instead of just waiting for your turn like in Dominion.  Also, the mechanics are very simple.  Play a card, draw a card and play cards that match symbols for more results, and discard/draw.  Easy as pie!  But, don’t let the simplicity of this game make you think that the game doesn’t have some depth to it. 5/5

 

Theme-This game has a decent theme, but I don’t think it oozes out of every pore.  The different ways to capture planets have diverse enough mechanics that you do feel you’re doing something different when you do them. The art brings you into the game universe as you play cards.  However, the game doesn’t really hammer you over the head with space conquest.  It’s very subtle. 3.5/5

 

Instructions-The games instructions are fairly well done, but an extra page or two would really help.  You can start playing this game in less than 10 minutes after opening the box for the first time without having played it before.  However, even I, an experienced player, still have to check board game geek if some things are allowed or intended.  The major issue has to do with symbols.  Advanced cards and planets have symbols on them.  Lots of people have questions if the advanced cards count as symbols for play.  Adding a discussion on that would have really knocked these instructions out of the park. 4.5/5

 

Execution- This is well put together game.  The game has nice plastic ships!   In fact they are exactly the same ships as Eclipse.  They are as awesome here as they were there.  The box is nice, and the main play board is well done.  I like the art and card quality.  What I would like would be a bit larger play board with spaces for the advanced cards, the points, and the ships.  A little bit more would have really made this game excellent. 4.5/5

 

Summary-This is an awesome game.  It’s a quick deck building game that is easy to learn and play.  This game gives me a 4X feel without the 4X time or rules depth.  This game won’t replace Twilight Imperium, but I promise you will play Eminent Domain far more often than that game!  This is another well done game from Tasty Minstrel Games.