Ring Side Report-Board Game A.D.A.P.T.

February 4, 2016 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-A.D.A.P.T.

Producer-Gate Keeper Games

Price– Free via print and play, but on kickstarter now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnwrot/adapt-the-card-and-dice-game-0

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20-30 minutes (2-3 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light/Medium

TL; DR-Evolve for dominance in the sea! 96%

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Basics-This here ocean isn’t big enough for all of us….A.D.A.P.T. is a simple card game where players all take the roles of different fish. Every players is attempting to be the last one standing in a free-for-all. Play starts with each player rolling on a percent table to find who goes first and what extra options the other players gain to make up for that. Next, is the basic turns. First players gain experience points. Then you have five options: adapt, buy, attack, special, and wipe. Adapt is where players place a new evolution cards on your fish over any current cards in that slot. These cards come in several types from fins to organs, but the most important cards are body cards. Body cards provide a hit point total as well as a body level. Your body level plus two is the max type of card you can place on your board, but you can only buy a body level one greater at a time. Buy is spend experience points to get new cards. If your body level is high enough, you can immediately place this card, but otherwise you can set this card to the side and upgrade via an adapt action. If no cards are bought after any turn, then remove the oldest card and place a new one. Special is use a special actions provided by your new, evolved fish cards. Wipe is remove all three current cards, gain extra experience points, and then place three new cards. Attacking is the meat of the game. Each body provides a die type (four-sided die to twelve-sided die). When you attack, you roll the die indicated by your body and add you current ferocity score and compare against the target’s survival score. If you beat the survival score, you deal damage equal to the difference plus your lethality score. If you match you do one damage plus your lethality score and gain two experience. If your score is lower than the survival score of the target, you gain experience equal to the difference of the scores. After a player takes an action and the available cards cycle, the next player takes his or her turn, and this continues until only one fish remains swimming!

Mechanics-What you read above is enough rules to open the box and start playing. Sure there is some nitty gritty, but overall the rules are sleek and simple. Nothing is wasted here, and everyone gets to have fun right away. The actions you get always give you something to do, so I never felt like I was wasting a turn. Combat is the most complicated part of the game, but it’s pretty simple. Some abilities feel somewhat less useful like hiding. Taking an action, you can force an opponent to roll a die to see if they can target you. The die value starts at a 1 or higher on a d8. I’d like some options to be a bit more viable right out of the evolution gate. If you focus on it, it’s powerful, but nothing you could splash into a fish. Overall, it’s a more complex Munchkin that isn’t overburdened by its own rules. 4.5/5

Theme-This game also feels like a more complex version of Munchkin that is all screw your neighbor card game. The only way for me to win is for you to lose. That theme might throw a few other players, but it also is much more inline with biology. Only one fish gets to be the top of the food chain. I did feel like a fish struggling up the chain, so that was a fun addition. The evolutions feel more like Pokemon evolutions then true evolutions, but it’s fun none the less making frankenstein fish as you randomly evolve new body parts. If you are ok with a pure combat to win a short card game, you will have a blast! 5/5

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Instructions-The instruction currently are pretty simple with little art, but that’s because it’s a print and play game. The kickstarter will have fancier rules, but currently they do the job well if a bit wordy. It gets you playing quickly, and the currently available guide cards really help you understand how to play the game quickly. I’d like more pictures and art for the rules, but for a kickstarter and print and play rules, this is a well done write up that will get you into the game with ease. NOTE-i’ve spoken the the creator and the rules will indeed have more art, so makes them even better. 5/5

Execution-I was provided a kickstarter pre printing, but honestly I’ve seen a lot worse from current production games. The cards all look great and have simple icons to tell you what they need. The boarders tell you where they socket, and that really help you know what you’re doing. The art is fun, and the pieces looks like the fish they come from. The player mats all look great and again help you play the game. The only things that are keeping this game from being out now is some of the cards only had base words on them instead of art. But for a game that’s almost in kickstarter, the only thing slowing this down is some art and printing! Well done! My own problems were some of the symbols were a bit small. The body score is listed as a number of concentric highlighted fins. It’s a bit hard to see. The attack die is also the same way with the die being a bit small in the circle. If the fin level and attack die had a faint number or sided number to make things a little more readable, I’d be tickled pink. Want to see the preproduction parts? Check out our unboxing video here: https://youtu.be/-blQE4UB0YA NOTE-I’ve also spoken to the publisher and the final will make the die and fins easier to read as well! 4.7 5/5

Summary-If you want a more complex Munchkin game of ocean dominance, then you can’t do better than this. It plays in about 30 minutes for three people if you know the rules. Nothing here feels off or breaks the game. Some options are a bit better than others in terms of cards to take, but I never felt like I was going to lose from the cards I got. This game does use lots of dice, but as an American style game, luck and randomness will be an important factors in your win or loss. The theme feel spot on, but that’s an acquired taste-you will only win if you’re the last person standing, so killing the other players has to be something you’re ok with doing. You can’t let the game do that work for you. As a veteran of these kinds of games, that’s something I found fun in this game. As for where the game is in terms of being ready, this game just need a bit of art and a fresh coat of paint for the rules, and it’s ready for the road. I can’t wait to hit the water and decimate the other fishies in my sea! It’s currently on kickstarter, so right now is a great time to hit the waves! 96%

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-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-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-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-Board Game Review of Space Cadets: Away Missions

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

Product-Space Cadets: Away Missions

Producer-Stronghold Games

Price– $ 100 here http://www.amazon.com/Space-Cadets-Away-Missions-Board/dp/B01068EDBW/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1446045035&sr=1-1&keywords=space+cadets+away+missions

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 60 minutes per scenario (1-6 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Simple, Sci-Fi Fun! 96%

Basics-And now another thrilling tale of the ROCKET PATROL! Enter the worlds of 60’s Golden Age Sci-Fi with Space Cadets: Away Missions. In this game, the players take the role of different members of the Rocket Patrol as they undergo some of their most famous missions. At the start of each game, a scenario guide instructs the players how to set up the game, what parts to use, what aliens will be necessary for this adventure, and an intro paragraph to set the mood of the game. After set-up, turns are pretty simple. First, players decide the player order, and then they take the tokens to signify that order. Next, players perform actions based on their available actions on their player board. Once all players have acted, the monsters all act in order of intelligence typically attacking the closest player and then attacking close players in reverse turn order. Each player has a different member of the Rocket Patrol who has a number of health and oxygen, action tokens, a IQ score, and a special ability. If ANY Patrol person runs out of health or oxygen, that player dies and all players lose the game. A player’s action are: move, attack, subdue thrall/brain-in-a-jar, heal, open/close/lock hatch, and some scenario specific actions. When you attack, subdue, heal, or do scenario specific actions, a player rolls a number of dice equal to the weapon strength at that range of the enemy (attack) or IQ (subdue, heal, som scenario actions) and counts the 1s, 2s, and 3s. Monsters attack in the exact same way. The key mechanic of the dice is overkill. For any action to succeed, you only need one success. However, if you roll more successes, you can spend these overkill successes to activate extra abilities such as one patrol person being able to take a free move action and another can attack another adjacent enemy. The enemies even have some overkill options that can be activated based on who the player hit. But, when the enemies score overkill, the also have options they can take to hamper the heroes. Play continues in these rounds until the heroes achieve the scenario goal or one player dies!

Mechanics– As you saw above, the rules are not complicated. They might even be a bit too simple, but that also means a much larger audience can play the game. I’ve already seen a six year old play this game and have a blast. In terms of difficulty, I would place this game solidly in the company of Mice and Mystics. That’s a good place to be! However, I do have one semi-serious complaint-this game doesn’t really do a campaign mode. There are some connected scenarios as they tell the story of the Rocket Patrol, but no real character progression and building. The items you get at scenario start are dictated to you (with some wiggle room), and you won’t really get a chance to keep anything cool you find. That does enhance a story a bit as you don’t have the crazy random events in some other boardgames, but you won’t find awesome stuff to carry with you or have a way to better your character over time. But without that, each scenario feels a bit like an old school Star Trek episode-you can jump in at any point, play, and not have to know an absolute ton of background to be involved. It is a double edged sword to not build character progression as the easy of jump in play and play, but hampers the hard core set as they lose a bit of their involvement. I’m a hard core RPG player, so I need my character improvement over time. That said, it’s a more minor thing. What is here is phenomenal and a blast to play through 4.5/5

Theme– This game oozes theme. You have awesome cards, sculpted figures, great tile art, and just enough rules to make things work. You feel like some old timey announcer will read out the intro paragraph to each adventure. Everything looks amazing, and that really puts you on board a old school rocket driving through the galaxy. The game itself feels like it should. Everything works together well making you feel like you’ve been sent out on an away missions to save the universe or destroy an alien menace. It feels like I’m riding shotgun with either Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon! 5/5

Instructions– This game has some great instruction with lots of explanation, but the length will intimidate a few people. What’s here is great, but then again, the rules don’t really need to be the complicated. The game has an absolute ton here, but it’s mostly compartmentalized. The rules explain it all, and that depth might put a few people off. However, don’t let it! The rules are honestly covered by two amazing inserts that the players use as a reference. If you can get past the fact that there is a ton of rules, you will see that it’s mostly clarifications of the fine points. There are enough pictures to help you understand how to play as well. I like what I see here. 4.75/5

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Execution– 100 bucks for 100 minies is a price Reaper can’t match. Now throw in an entire game beside that. Add on top of that the art is great, the materials well constructed, and sparkly dice(!), and you have an amazing product. Heck, FOR THE MINIS ALONE YOU’RE MONEY AHEAD! The one minor criticism I have is I’d like a few more colors than green. Maybe a blue for thralls? That’s such a minor point, it’s barely a whisper. Even the brains-in-a-jars are green, but they come with some awesome plastic around them so they look like a brain-in-a-jar! Furthermore, this game put so much thought into the game that you don’t even realise when you start to play. Overkill is the big, cool mechanic for this game, so you need to know what dice came from whose attack. Normally you’d have to roll all the dice pairs separately, but in this game you get five pairs of differently colored dice. So, you can roll your dice pool and look to see if red hit you twice, once, or not at all. It speeds up the game in such a smart way, you won’t even notice it if you’re not careful! If you’d like to see all the part of this game, I did a unboxing of the game here:https://youtu.be/J4igYLjvVzU 5/5

Summary-I’ve never been a miniature gamer. Sure, I do like the co-op games out there, but I don’t like getting bogged down in a ton of random rules (I’m looking right at you Warhammer 40K!). This game has just enough rules to make it fun. You don’t need to break out some string to find range or if your shot is blocked. You get to take quick, fun turns to attack the alien menace as a team. This game doesn’t need a GM so everyone can play and be on the same side, and that right there sold me on this game. Everyone get’s to play, try to win, and have an awesome time. It has an amazing theme and a beautiful execution. My only real problem is a bit with the rules and no real progression. I’d like to build my character like in a RPG, but that would take away from the plug-and-play nature of the game. The problem I have with the rules is that some players will get frustrated before they begin, but if you crack the cover of the rule book, you clearly see that 70% of the rules clarify sticking points about otherwise simple rules. Overall, if you’re in the mood for an awesome, simple, and retro sci-fi game, Space Cadets: Away Missions is a great game to bring to the table. 96%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Skull & Shackles Adventure Deck 6: From Hell’s Heart

October 7, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Skull & Shackles Adventure Deck 6: From Hell’s Heart

Producer-Paizo

Price– $ 20 here http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-Shackles/dp/1601256949/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444228580&sr=8-1&keywords=From+hell%27s+heart

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 60 minutes per scenario (1-6 players, 5 scenarios)

Type-American

Depth-medium

TL; DR-The ships paid off! 98%

Basics-Do you have what it takes to take the crown? From Hell’s Heart is the conclusion of the Skull and Shackles Adventure Card Game, and it’s a doozy. Players have to contend with an invasion from the devil worshipers from the north, then fight it out to become rulers of the Shackles. To play, you will need the base Pathfinder Adventure Card Game as well as the first five adventure decks.

Mechanics-SHIPS! If you’ve played the first five adventure decks, you keep getting ships. From the outside, they just look like another way your character can level up as you become increasingly awesome. However, when you get to second scenario in this pack, you get to fight all the ships you DIDN’T take as they are invading the Shackles! That right there makes everything completely forgiven. This adventure pack has many of the same mechanics you’ve come to expect, but the crazy sea battle is just phenomenal. It’s quickly done, easy to pull off, and an absolute blast. This pack isn’t a slouch by the way. No monsters will pull their punches here. You have to earn the crown, and it feel glorious when you do! 5/5

Theme– I keep complaining that this isn’t the most theme orientated American style game out there. However, the mechanics really drive home some of the more awesome points. Sure you don’t get a full introduction of all the people, but the varied encounters and the setup of each scenario really provide the atmosphere that will keep you in the game as a pirate. It’s not perfect, but it’s as good as you’re going to get without a guide. 4.5/5

Instructions– The game has set itself up well, and at this point is just taking a victory lap. All the previous adventure packs and base game set up the pieces and instructions, and this one just knocks it out of the park. All the rules are easy to follow, and the scenarios fall into piece from there. 5/5

Execution-I like the art to this game, the cards are in good shape, and I don’t have to destroy the packaging to get at the components. That’s all I can ask for in a card game! 5/5

Summary-Paizo had me hooked a long time ago when I bought this adventure path’s starter set. Once you’re in for $60, unless something is completely horrible, you’re going to pay the additional $100 across five other packs to get the whole game. Since I was $80 in before the last pack, this one could have been absolute crap and I’d most likely still have bought it to complete my set. However, this one is the best part of the whole path. You have ship battles, you have mass naval combat ( something I didn’t think i’d see!), secret missions into the heart of the fortress, a stalking dragon (that makes the blessing deck a terrible, mind numbing, scary ordeal!), and an epic final battle with the pirate king. This is everything I wanted this AP to be, and I got more. If you were not sure about playing the Pathfinder adventure card game before, this is the reason you play this game. I promise you will enjoy it! 98%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Wordariffic

September 20, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Wordariffic

Producer-Gorilla Games

Price– $ 15 but not available yet SOON! http://gorillaboardgames.com/our-games/wordariffic-the-partyword-game/

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20 minutes (3-9 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Boggle and Cards Against Humanity’s baby. 98%

Basics-Do you find Scrabble too easy? Do you want a party game that has the challenge of a word game and the fun of Cards against humanity? Then, try Wordariffic. This is an amazingly simple game that combines the two beautifully. Players start with 10 cards. Each of these cards have a letter in the corner and a list of 10 words. Then, one player will flip a card from the draw deck face up and roll a 10-sided die. The flipped card’s word that the 10-sided die rolled is the word of the round. Next, players scramble to create a word that best describes the word of the round using the different cards from their hand of cards. When each player finishes, they yell “WORD!” to show they are done. Last player to do that is the judge for the round and is ineligible to win. A player can also simple opt out and just discard cards to get new cards instead of trying to win that round. The player with the longest word is awarded one chip, and the judge will award three chips to the best created word describing the round word. Players discard the cards they used for the round, draw back up to 10 cards, and play continues until the pile of chips rounds out. Player with the most chips wins!

Mechanics-I’m not a word nerd, but with this game, you don’t have to be. Words can’t be longer than 10 letters, and for most words and rounds, the winner only spelt a four letter word. That levels the playing field in a big way. Also, the overall mechanics are simple enough that your average fourth grader could easily play this game, making this a surprisingly educational game. Randomness and luck will determine the day, and just like Cards Against Humanity, the judge’s opinion might sway the vote far more than the word you put down. But, this is a party game that plays in 20 minutes, so even a game that goes badly doesn’t necessarily mean a game that won’t be fun. 4.75/5

Theme-This is a party game, so it doesn’t really aim for a theme.-/5

Instructions– The rules are a page, not even a two-sided page. What I described above is about as much as you need to know. It’s easy to read, quick to understand, and fast to play. 5/5

Execution-I made an unboxing video of the parts here https://youtu.be/r1DCS1LvMPA. Overall, it’s top notch. What you get in the box is amazing. The cards are good quality. The chips and dice and nice, and everything fits back in after you open the box and components. Also, THE GAME COMES WITH A BAG FOR THE CHIPS! I can’t stress enough how much that makes me happy to see the components have a bag to put it away quickly. 5/5

Summary-I love this game, but a good chunk of you won’t. Not because it’s a bad game, but because it’s a word and party game. If you love Scrabble, want a party version for a ton of players, and the silliness of Cards Against Humanity, then this is the game you need to get. If you don’t like Scrabble, Boggle, or especially Cards Against Humanity, then you will loathe this game. For me, this is a great game. I’m not a word nerd ( I love books, but I’m not an English PhD), but this is short enough for me to enjoy what’s here, and not long enough to overstay its welcome. It’s a great addition to any party game line up. 98%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Nefarious

September 5, 2015September 5, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Nefarious

Producer-USAopoly

Price– $ 30 here

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20-40 minutes (2-6 players)

Type-Euro

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Production issues hurt a decent game. 86%

Basics-What are we going to do tonight? TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! In Nefarious, players each take the roles of different mad scientists trying to each take over the world. The game starts simply enough with each player getting some starting gold and invention cards. Each turn, players secretly selected one of four actions, reveal them at the same time, and all actions of the same type happen simultaneously. The actions are: espionage, invent, research, and work. Work simply earns you more money. Research earns you a bit less money, and you get to draw a new invention card. Invent is the meat of the game. When you invent, you pay money and reveal one of your invention cards. These cards have a cost that you pay, a victory point total, and possibly some effects like gain money, cost your opponents money, or gain more invention cards. Espionage is an investing mechanic. When you do espionage, you select an action and place a meeple on that action on the main board. When a player on your right or left takes that action, you gain money equal to the number of meeples you have on that action. Once all four actions are resolved, players then select new actions, and play continues the same way. What makes this game a little deeper than it seems are the twist cards. Each game two twist cards are secretly drawn from a deck of cards. These cards provide new twists on the game like giving you strange new abilities, taking away some actions, or just removing some money from some of the actions. When a round ends, a player has at least 20 points, and that player has more points than any other player, the game is over and that player wins and conquerors the word!

Mechanics– This is not a complicated Euro, and that works for and against this game. The simplicity of the mechanics works as a great introduction to the gaming hobby. You will know the rules of the game in under five minutes. The simplicity works against the mechanics as I didn’t feel as challenged as I could be if this game had multiple resources to track. However, the multiple resources would have made this game that much harder to teach, learn and play. Overall, it’s a good, simple Euro. Think of this as an excellent sushi appetizer to the gaming industry-it tastes great, but you might want something a little more filling as you learn to love this acquired taste more. 4.5/5

Theme– This game has some good theme, but something gets lost along the way. The theme of inventing new items to conquer the world comes through. And the fact that most items have some side effects also keep going with this theme as you’re battling it out with other mad scientists. However, some of the theme get’s lost along the way. I’m fine with most of the actions but some things don’t translate well. The work actions seems like a misplaced opportunity in that vain. All of my other actions are downright nefarious, but work feels like I clock in at Amazon to fill packages; even the work action looks like a shipping company. Why not something like Extort with the action picture being a man/woman in profile with some sort of atomic raygun getting money from a generic civil leader. It’s those little touches that cause this game to lose some of its theme. You will still feel like a mad scientist inventing crazy machines, but maybe one who moonlights as a DHL driver. 4.25/5

Instructions– The rules a simple, sleek, and short-all great descriptors for a board game’s rules. This game isn’t as hard as Twilight Imperium, but the rule book does explain the game in simple terms that gets the point across quickly and well. 5/5

Execution– Here is where I think things need a bit of work. Overall, everything is serviceable. That said, there are some issues. The cards for the game are printed on very thin cardstock. It’s not bad, but it will tear easily. The art in the game is awesome and has that retro-science feel to it. The worst part of the game is the coins. The coins are printed on sheets of several cardboard pieces pressed together, but the cardboard didn’t adhere to itself properly, so the cardboard is spongy and bows. The coloring of the cardboard is a single sheet of sticker. That’s not horrible, but the cutter for the cardboard didn’t cut the cardboard and stickers well, so when you punch out your money it will have all these random bits of extra sticker attacked like flaking paint. USAopoly has acknowledged the problem, and future print runs will be better. But, for right now my copy gets a C overall. If you want to see the components, I’ve made an unboxing video where you can see all the components here http://youtu.be/Qdtz9YQDKHA 3.5/5

Summary-This is a good quick Euro. It’s a great game with lots of replay. I like the mechanics as I can teach random people how to play quickly, and they get autonomy in a short game. Also, this game has some meat on its bones as it’s a Euro with some decent thinking power behind it. You can’t go into this game hoping for Kanban or another four hour Euro though. This is excellent at what it wants to be, and you have to know that going in. I think the rules are great, but I’d like some minor, cosmetic changes to help the theme a bit. The production quality is ok. It will be better, but if you get a first print run, expect a few, minor problems. But, if you’d like a good game that will have you thinking for 20 minutes with your friends, then this a great game of world domination to pick up! 86%