Tag Archives: Reviews

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader by DVG

January 16, 2020 5 Minutes

When it comes to the genre of historical simulation games, I’m about as wet behind the ears as you can get. I know virtually nothing about this entire world of gaming, yet I have always had a passing interest in trying one of these games out but never really had the time to do so. When I finally decided to a few weeks back I was shocked at the brevity of this genre, just the sheer volume of games made simply choosing one a major research project. Ultimately I settled on a solo game so that I could pursue what I expected to be a very complex gaming experience at my own pace. My choice was based on both recommendations by some of the community leaders promoting these games as well as my own passing interest in World War II aviation.

Overview

Final Score: (4 out of 5 Stars)

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader by DVG games is a game that is part of a series of “Leader” gamers. It’s not exactly a system, but a kind of core concept. The basic principle behind these solo games is that you are a commander, in the case of B-17 Flying Fortress Leader in charge of a division of Bombers flying missions over Germany between 1942-1944. Other leader games have similar concepts in other historical periods and in some cases not even in aviation, for example there is one about modern tanks and another featuring submarines. Some of these games have tactical components, others like B-17 focus more on the strategic and planning part of the story.

There is a lot going on in this game, but even as an amature I can say that it’s a lot less complicated than it looks and I have played lots of mainstream board games that have a much higher learning curve.

As the commander of this division of bombers you are tasked with successfully running the air war over Germany. You manage resources, purchasing planes, outfitting them, hiring on special pilots, planning, running intelligence operations and executing bombing missions. There are many other auxiliary things to deal with as part of the war at large as well which can affect your efforts, like other war fronts, various historical events, even the weather itself can impact your efforts.

One interesting aspect of the game is that it’s effectively a game of preparation and planning. Once you give a mission a go, the mission executes based on your plans but you have very minimal tactical control over your bomber squadrons, they have their assigned tasks and go off to execute your plans. Their success or failure is dependent on two things, primarily on your planning which mitigates but does not eliminate the other part, lady luck.

These campaigns are part of a larger campaign where you manage these resources both in the short term for individual missions, but also in the long run over the course of the war.

This only leaves us with the question, is the game itself any good? Lets find out.

Components

Score: (3.5 out of 5 Stars)
Tilt:

Pros: Good Quality Components, sturdy, made to last and beautifully illustrated adding to the theme of the game.

Cons: Despite the good quality the cost of the game is so extreme that it’s hard to justify it for what you get in the box.

I was not really sure what to expect when it came to component quality for a game like this, in fact I wasn’t even sure if it was appropriate for me to judge it based on today’s modern standards. These historical simulation games seem to me at least to focus a great deal more on gameplay and visceral simulation experiences rather than visual candy, but I was actually pleasantly surprised regardless.

The gameboard is very spacious, beautifully illustrated and very thematic giving you the feel of a commander sitting in a command tent planning out missions. It’s sturdy and made to last with a nice gloss finish.

The chit components where also considerably better quality then I had imagined they would be, also gloss finished, clearly labeled, easy to handle and just the right size. Somehow I expected them to be cheap cardboard cutouts, but they were effectively the same quality of tokens you would get with any other modern quality game.

These are thick, clear and gloss finished components, they are made to last.

The cards I felt were a bit flimsy, it’s clear that their dark colors will eventually cause edge ware that would come out white, but they are stiff, glossy and very nicely illustrated supporting the theme very well.

The rulebook itself got quite a few complaints in other reviews and I was apprehensive about it in particularly as I was anticipating a highly complex simulation game which would very clearly require very good instruction, but apparently I got the second edition of the game where those problems, including all the misprinted cards are already corrected. Quite contrary to what I read online about the rulebook I felt it was incredibly well done and usable at the table in a step by step fashion allowing me to learn the game as I went along. In fact I would say it is one of the nicest, well constructed and clear rulebooks I have read in quite some time, I found little to complain about it and looking at some of the components I can only imagine there is a big difference between the first and second printing. I suppose an index would be nice, but because of how it was laid out, things were very easy to find anyway. I love the fact that they didn’t try to make the rulebook part of the theme of the game, it’s printed on white glossy paper with large easy to read fonts and lots of pictures to use as reference. Please for the love of god developers take note, you don’t need to make the rulebook part of the game design, make it easy to read and use like this instead!

All and all I felt the components where excellent but still I have to complain to some degree here. This game cost over 900 Swedish crowns which is roughly 100 American bucks, I have paid for Miniature Game Starter kids for less than that with some of the best and most high quality components in the history of gaming. I was half expecting this game to have a solid gold d10 given its cost. I understand that small companies who sell fewer games have to charge more for their design efforts, its in part why I didn’t mind shelling out the money but damn, for what you pay, this game should have 30 highly detailed miniatures in it. I would not normally reduce a component score on price, but this was such an extreme in my opinion that I had to shave some points off it. I definitely think cost will be a major point of contention when considering a purchase of this game and the developer might have shot himself in the foot as its likely he would sell more copies if the game was cheaper.

Theme

Score: (5 out of 5 Stars)
Tilt:

Pros: Captures the theme of being a World War II strategic commander with perfection, outstanding atmosphere and mechanically connected theme.

Cons: There are some, but not worth mentioning.

I think when it comes to a solo game about a historical period like World War II and a subject like flying bombing missions over Germany, ensuring that this theme comes across through the mechanics and art is absolutely vital. In fact, I felt strongly that this was going to be one of the most important elements of this review.

Thankfully B-17 Flying Fortress Leader does not disappoint, It’s a game about you being a strategic commander of World War II squadrons and it delivers on that promise.

There are a lot of contributors to creating this visceral experience and while certainly the layout and art of the gameboard, cards and various components certainly delivers on the look of this theme, where this theme really bursts out is in the details of the mechanics and decisions linked to the subject matter.

I was really worried as I opened the box that I would be overwhelmed by an endless stream of strategic choices that would make a lot of assumptions about the type of gamer I was. I know this was a kind of “fear” I had that may not have been entirely rational but I was so happy to see that not only where the choices easy to understand, you could right away get a sense of what impact they would have on the game and how that tied into the theme of being a strategic commander.

You chose your bomber groups, picked special pilots to fly your missions, outfitted their loadouts, picked their targets, chose their flight path and sent them on their way. These choices are important and have great impact on how the mission will play out, but they weren’t overwhelmed by a lot of complicated, task oriented activities. They were just great, simple to understand options which you had to consider for the mission and larger strategic plans.

Front and center is the map of Europe where the various targets and enemy squadrons call home. This is your field of battle, where you do a lot of your mission planning and a big part of what makes this game feel very authentic.

What you discover after running a couple of weeks worth of missions is the impact of those earlier choices on the campaign at large and this is really where the theme comes through because while you are thinking about the current missions, you really have to think about the campaign as well. Your choices have benefits but they can also have consequences and I found it especially interesting how their was this feeling of a high power, those ranked above you, that could bring those consequences. For example if your campaign was going really well but the war on other fronts goes poorly, you could suddenly discover that some of your squadrons get reassigned to other fronts where they are more needed.

The reverse could also happen, which meant that while you had your job to do, your commanders had there’s. It was amazing to see how the game responded to my success and failures over the course of my campaign.

Some of the auxiliary stuff, though I call it that, actually plays important roles in the game is also chalked full of flavor. For example if a German commander appears that brings U-Boats with him, you will have a whole different series of problems to contend with then a German Commander that brings special technologies with them. Event cards can turn what appears to be a easy routine mission into a disaster. The feeling of rolling for the German response is also this great unknown, it’s sort of like your planning your mission but you don’t fully know exactly what the Germans will do.

I realize a lot of this stuff is decided with dice, which one might say means the game is random and to a degree its true, but thematically these events and reactions the game comes up with, though driven by the cast of a die create a believable setting, a sense of time and place.

The way you feel sitting in front of that strategic map is uncanny and though you can’t control many of the events, you kind of have to plan for the unexpected and this is really part of how the game plays out and I imagine probably how it felt to the actual strategic commanders in World War II.

Does it all make simulation sense? No. Yes there are definitely a few places where clearly a mechanic is just a mechanic for the sake of balance and playability. These abstractions however don’t really detract from the experience, in fact they are such minor things I hardly see any point in naming them or docking the theme score for them, though I might consider it when discussing mechanics. I hadn’t even noticed them until I read a few other reviews that pointed them out and kind of went.. aha.. yea I suppose it’s true but who cares!

From the stand point of theme, this game just nails it, though I would definitely recommend using some of the optional rules like weather, recon missions and veteran bandits because it adds even more atmosphere to an already atmosphere rich game without really doing much to make it more complex. Recon missions I in particular I felt really fit the game and seemed like it should just be a standard part of the game. I was actually surprised that this was left as an optional rule as it adds so much to the theme.

Absolutely fabulously executed theme’s, captures the intended experience with perfection in my humble, albeit inexperienced opinion.

Gameplay

Score:
Tilt:

Pros: Well orchestrated mechanics with high level of connection to the theme and lots of player choices that both work into the short and long term strategies make this game a blast to play.

Cons: Some missed opportunities, a bit lackluster event cards and a relatively docile enemy can be a bit of a let down.

When evaluating a historic simulation game, I have to admit that I’m a bit out of my element and so I really just decided to evaluate the game on the same basic premise and methodology that I do any other game. This may or may not be fair to the publisher, but to me, a game is a game, so I suppose I don’t really see why one would get a different treatment over the other, historic simulation or not.

It’s really because the theme is so strong in B-17 Flying Fortress Leader, that the mechanics become a bit of a chore to evaluate, in part because mechanically there is a lot of high level of abstractions that are driven by a single cast of a die, yet can potentially have great impact on the game.

For example the combat mechanic of rolling a d10 for each bomb you drop with some minor modifications is a very simplistic mechanic. There really is not much more to it than luck, you either roll well and do well or you don’t. On the surface I would not consider this a particularly inventive or immersive mechanic, but in the scope of the theme and everything that came before, that is exactly what the mechanic should be. The important events are all those things that lead up to that final moment when you drop the bombs. If you have planned well the odds are in your favor, but the idea here is that its war, you have sent your boys on the mission and there is no guarantees and this mechanic really brings this uncertainty to a conclusion quickly so you can get back to the fun stuff of planning your campaign. It breaks up the anticipation of the result so it feels great, but it’s not a focus of the game, hence handled quickly and efficiently.

Airfields are one of many targets you will go after. There is a wide range of game effects every target in play has, destroying airfields for example can reduce the amount of enemy squadrons on the map which can make running future missions less risky.

Which is exactly how most of the mechanics in the game feel. There are numerous examples of moments being resolved in a simple way and efficient way of a single die cast, because what your really doing, where the bulk of the fun and strategy of the game is working on the plan around the results from these mitigatable but often random outcomes.

In general the activities of building your plan and strategy take shape in a wide range of ways. Chief among them is the managing of your precious SO (Special Operation) points. These are used to get new bomber or escort groups, hiring on special pilots, outfitting your loadouts for the missions, purchasing recon assets, sometimes upgrading or replacing bomber groups and more. There are a number of ways these SO points can be affected both positively and negatively via different events in your campaign, so you will often make strategic strikes against targets that might impact your SO point production or pursue missions that earn you extra points. Suffice to say being low on SO points can limit your options and having a lot can allow you to create havoc for the Germans.

Other important decision are driven by the strategic situation on the map. There are sorties and mission sites all over the place and you will be planning your targets and routes on that map. Some weeks you might choose to strike deep into enemy territory so that you get an opportunity to take out bandits and that hidden airfield, other times you might go for doing lots of damage to several targets at once to try and soften up the enemy for more decisive strikes later in the month. Time pressure can be a big factor, so there is considerable precision required to your choices of targets and how you approach them. If using the weather and Intel options which I highly recommend you do, those can allow you to create advantages or cause problems in what feels like a very authentic way.

Often your decisions can be forced, perhaps you took a bad beating this month and in the last week of the month your bomber squadrons are in bad shape, so you hold back a bit, while other times still you have to take big risks to take out targets that can cause devastating problems in the next month if you don’t. You also always have the pressure of trying to complete your mission and win the campaign, getting those victory points and completing your victory objectives should of course always be first and foremost on your mind, but this requires long term planning to manage successfully.

There are also external factors that impact decisions. There are other war fronts that can affect your resources in your air war with Germany. Event cards in particular can really impact a specific mission, while the other war fronts can create sudden shifts in strategies for the Germans that can surprise you.

In the course of play there are a lot of moving, dynamic parts that will cause you to make constant adjustments to your strategy and of course its always about doing the most damage against your targets while taking the fewest casualties possible.

Gameplay in B-17 Flying Fortress Leader is a constantly shifting and adapting thing. I find that early in a campaign you tend to think in terms of “what are my best odds”, but as the campaign gets going there is far more that drives your decisions and your options, forcing you to take greater and greater risks. The crux of the game is really many mini decisions that are lead you to the success or failure of the campaign and because the game is thematic, the experience is that much more engrossing. You can really lose yourself in this game as your imagination runs wild.

It’s a game that feels great and I will often say that a game mechanic doesn’t have to be good, it just needs to feel right and I think that is what B-17 really does here. I’m no game designer and my minimal experience with these historical simulation games leaves me with little to compare it to, but if through gameplay and theme there goal was to make me feel like a World War II strategic commander in charge of a fleet of B-17 bombers, they have wildly exceeded my expectations. I really was expecting this game to leave such an excellent impression on me.

Enemy commanders add unique properties to campaign and will definitely change the battlefield and outcomes of your missions. Adding photos of historical figures is a nice thematic touch.

There are a few chinks in the armor of course and I would be remiss not to mention them, but I think I would qualify these as minor quirks, rather than real mechanical problems.

One thing is that it feels like when planes got destroyed that there should be more drawbacks and consequences for the particular bomber group. There is the whole Shaken mechanic, where if a group takes enough damage they become less effective, but as you lose planes there is no impact on the quality of the unit long term. It feels to me like Bomber groups should level up and level down, so that there is a thematic sense of veteran pilots getting killed and new rookie pilots joining the team. It’s kind of a missed opportunity to add yet another layer of theme to the games gameplay and it’s one of the first house rules I added to the game.

What I did here is simply make it that anytime you lose 16 planes in a single group over any amount of time (16 is the starting strength of a unit) your bomber group is reduced one level down in experience. The effect is that over time, your bomber groups that do well rise in experience but eventually they will take a hit down as pilots are killed in action. It feels right and thematic but the impact on difficulty is minimal, it’s just one of things that just feels right.

I also felt there should have been more event cards. Really, its a minor thing but on a typical 3-4 week month where you run typically 2 missions per week (at least you try) you are effectively drawing 4 event cards per week. That means in a 4 week month you could draw 16 cards, that’s actually almost all of them as the deck is quite thin. I also felt that too often the event cards, in particular on return trip had a no effect, effect. Meaning nothing would happen as a result of drawing the card. I think more thought should have been put into ensuring that drawing event cards was always a stressful and eventful thing but rarely is the impact of these cards really significant. This is a bummer because when it is significant, when the impact of the card is really felt, the game really shines. These event cards really help to tell a story of the game, but they come out feeling a bit weak.

Event cards are drawn on the way to the mission and on the way back. These can create a lot of excitement at the table, but just as often as they are exciting they can be really boring with no impact at all.

Now this last part I’m not really a hundred percent sure about, but so far I have not found the game to be particularly difficult, at least not to the point where I think I will “lose” the war. I might not get as many victory points as I want or fail to meet the objective of the campaign, but I definitely feel like at least to this point, I’m totally dominating the Germans. The occasional disastrous mission aside, I’m usually coming out ahead. Now the caveat is that I have only done a couple of campaigns, the early years one so I don’t really know at this point if the games difficulty ramps up, I’m definitely far from done playing this one, but I’m hopeful that the Germans are going to put up more of a fight as I work my way through the campaigns.

Replay ability And Longevity

Score:
Tilt:

Pros: Very dynamic campaign setup, lots of campaigns to run and even a couple of mini games all contribute to this games longevity.

Cons: There is a definitive routine to the playing this game, a process that may become monotonous after a while.

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader is one of those games that you set up on a table and play over several sessions. Some of these campaigns are really long, there are several campaigns included and because the setup is dynamic as well as there being many dynamically changing circumstances, each time you play any of these campaigns, they will be very different.

The end result is a game with a considerable amount of Longevity, I’ve been at it now for several weeks and I have barely scratched the surface, yet I’m still drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

There is kind of a routine to the game however and I think eventually even with all of the dynamics this game will peter out at some point, get shelved for a while and after collecting some dust you might get the itch to bring it back. In fact I fully expect that to happen because even though the game is very dynamic and certainly has lots of replayability, its fairly robust and lengthy game.

There are also several other mini games included in this package, none of which I have had a chance to try yet so I can’t speak to their quality, but I definitely see some potential in there. One scenario for example has you flying missions with a single plan in a more tactically detailed way. This is really an entirely separate game included in this one which definitely adds to its longevity assuming.

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader certainly earns its stripes in this department, maybe even standing out a bit, I would call it a pass+.

Conclusion

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader has definitely exceeded my expectations and has made for a great first foray into the world of historical simulation games for an amature like me. It’s greatest strength is the execution of the theme which comes through wonderfully giving you the experience of being a World War II strategic commander of the British Royal Air Force. It has also peeked my interest in other “Leader” series game which is I would imagine exactly what the designer and publisher would want.

There are several “Leader” series game that cover a wide range of subjects, if you like B-17 and want to explore other themes, there are quite a few to choose from.

It’s a very expensive game and I think of all the detractors here that is going to be the biggest hurdle for a potential commander. Coming in at around 100 dollars US, this game competes for your money with some of the best and most expensive games on the market, ones notably with extremely high production values and as a board gaming fan I can only say that in that field, B-17 Flying Fortress Leader is a tough call.

Still I think for board gamers looking for a great solo experience, B-17 really is a fantastic choice. It has it in all the places it really counts and aside from the high cost of entry, it definitely gets a recommendation from Gamersdungeon for anyone looking to break into the Historic Simulations genre of games. For me personally this has been one of the best games I have played this year, grant it, its early 2020, but hey, for the moment its true.

Board Game Reviews

Re-Review: Looking Back

March 11, 2019 5 Minutes

For the past five years I have reviewed quite a few games and for me, usually this is a fire and forget kind of a thing. Today however I will look back on a few select reviews and reconsider my scoring and update them based on further plays of the games since those reviews. Now generally when I do reviews I feel strongly about them, which is what prompts me to write the reviews in the first place. I normally only do reviews when I feel really confident that as part of that review I’m offering a fair assessment of the game and can help players make a decision about them. After a while though you start to realize that there are a few games in your review history that perhaps you were a bit tough on, or in some cases a bit too kind. Today is going to be all about resolving some of that regret.

Great Western Trail

I scored this one a 3.10, which is a pretty great score for a game, I consider any game of a 3 stars or higher to be worthy of my personal library but I have come to appreciate this game a great deal more than this score reflects today.

For one, I think I underscored the theme of this game which after many more plays I think is a lot stronger than the 2 stars I gave it. I really find the theme of this game is key to making sense out of the gameplay and its perhaps to the surprise of no one, that Cowboys are pretty popular so I find getting this one to the table because of the theme is quite easy. The concept of moving cattle, in the deck building mechanic and how it comes together when you arrive in Kansas City really works well in presenting the game and I really feel strongly that at the very least it deserves 3 if not 4 stars for the effort there. I really love the feel of this game, building up stronger and better hand of cards and the strategy of trying to consolidate your efforts over several turns of coordinated strategy that pays off is something that really brings this theme together.

Gameplay wise I think this game definitely deserves at least 4 stars if not 5. Its greatest strength is the games very deep, strategic gameplay that I can’t say enough about. It takes time to really get the nuts and bolts of this game which may be why I initially reviewed it at 3 stars but its definitely a lot better than that in my book. Great Western Trail has grown to be one of my favorite crunchy Euro games, the more I play it the more I want to play it as I see room for improved strategy and alternative ways to win. The replayability of this game is definitely a lot stronger than the 3 stars I gave it originally as well, over a year later I’m still playing it and excited to get it to the table.

A wonderful game that deserves a much better review then it got the first time around from me, I think if I were to re-calculate the score today it would break 4 stars which would put this among a small group of games to break 3 stars in my library and deservingly so.

Russian Railroads

Russian Railroad is a very pretty game and while it has a week connection to the theme, mechanically its very deep and interesting.

I gave this one a 1.6, which is a shit score and while everything I said in this review I believe to be true, I do believe that it deserved a bit better score none the less.

I think I was particularly harsh on this game as it came during a time when there were many Euro games claiming certain types of themes like Trains, City Building and Fantasy, but delivering what are essentially themeless Euro game victory point smorgasbords. Now to be fair to the original review, this is true about Russian Railroads, this game has claimed a theme it does not represent in gameplay in anyway shape or form. It could be a game about making turkey sandwiches and the mechanics would make no more or less sense than they do applied to trains and in particular Russian Railroads. That said, its mechanically quite strong and its here I think I would alter my review.

For one, assuming you have never played a typically heavier Euro point smorgasbord game, this one I believe to be a considerably better one than many of the games being waved around these days. It certainly blows Terra Mystica and Terraforming Mars out of the water and while I would like to see more interaction in the game then it offers, it certainly has more strategic depth than either of those two games. For me personally despite the lack of connection to the theme here, it is a far better game mechanically and this should be far more important.

I suppose if I were to say anything about the game in terms of improving the score I would say that it deserves a 4 star score in the gameplay zone. I regret scoring it so low, it earns its stripes here and I think it’s disingenuous to score it any differently.

Stone Age

There is no denying its visual appeal, its bright, colorful. Its easy to get gaming goggles.

Stone Age is a game that landed in my library simply because I found that despite reviewing it based on many online plays at boardgamearena.com, I continued to play it over the last couple of years and when I spotted it on sale I picked it up.

Since then I have racked up an astonishing amount of plays in particular with my daughter who considers this “a very complicated game” at 10 years old, yet loves playing it and does quite well at it.

I think in terms of replayability this game definitely deserves better than 2 stars that I gave it, in fact, I would rate it 4 stars and perhaps closer to 5 as I find it despite relative simplicity of the strategies it just seems to make the table very often and I still often play this one online.

This is a great family game that works wonders in getting everyone to the table, yet is crunchy enough for an old vet like me to enjoy. Today I would probably recommend this one above most games as an introductory to board gaming game.

Le Havre

This is one of the games I feel I was a bit too generous with, in fact at a 3.25 stars, that’s seriously overselling it.

I think the main issue with the game is that after repeated plays it got very boring very fast. I can’t quite put my finger on it but this one hasn’t seen even a single play at the table since I did my review playthroughs and it’s become one of the biggest dust collectors of my collection. Its a bit of a dud, I think today I would score it somewhere around a 2.5 stars on its best day, even though everything in the review I say is true, its issues with replayability really hurt this one.

Seven Wonders Duel

There is strategy on many levels in this one with a lot of dynamics, it really has that infinite replay-ability thing going for it.

This is one I definitely would re-score much higher today after rediscovering it with my daughter it has become easily one of the most played games in my collection. I would easily add a star to replayability and gameplay to this one if I were to review it today.

This is a really fantastic two player game that I think should be a staple of every gamers collection, both casual and vet alike. Great strategic depth, lots of great decisions and fairly tough to win consistently thanks to its quick learning curve.

Board Game Reviews, Gaming Articles

Board Gaming Super Weekend III

July 22, 2018 5 Minutes

This summer just like the last two my gaming group got together for a 2 day board gaming super weekend, no kids, no wives, just endless snacks, beer and board games. Its without question my favorite gaming event of the year, it inspired two of my favorite articles from previous events on this blog so I thought I would write one again this year.

Board gaming weekends like this are usually an opportunity for me to test out some new games, fodder for the blog articles but unfortunately this year we played it very safe with our picks playing mostly games we have played before. Still, there was some really great games on the Agenda, here are some of the highlights.

Hero Realms

My buddy and I got to the gaming cabin first and despite the sweltering summer heat while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive we went head to head in a game of Hero Realms.

Now while I have always loved the concept of deck builders, one aspect of a great deal of games in this genre is that they are often a rather benign competitive or sometimes cooperative experience, most deck builders are focused on scoring points rather being a direct duels, which leaves the game feeling a bit flat. I find games like Dominion have really fallen out of favor for me, in fact I culled Dominion from my collection a couple of years ago. Star Realms and now the fantasy version Hero Realms flips things in the genre a bit and lets you actually build decks designed to combat each other in a direct confrontation and to me this is a much more interesting and a lot more fun way to do deck builders. I think I prefer Hero Realms fantasy theme a great deal more than Star Realms, mostly for the theme but also because each player is represented in the game by a character with special powers if using the expansion which I think is the only way to play Hero Realms. Strictly speaking however Star Realms and Hero Realms are basically the same game with different themes, so this is just a matter of theme preference.

This is a pretty fantastic filler that works really well as a two player game, but actually works amazingly as a free for all multiplayer game with up to four players as well. Great art, simple mechanics, fast pace yet clever enough to offer a pretty wide range of strategies and approaches to winning. We played this one last year at our yearly meet up as a group as well and like last time this one fired on all pistons, it definitely deserves your shelf space. It’s a really tight card game and if you enjoy deck builders like Dominion or Thunderstone for example, this one is going to be right up your alley if you like games with a bit more take that, it may even prompt you to do as I did and replace those old point chasers games in this genre on your shelf.

Coup

While this game has been around for quite some time, this was the first time we ever played it in our group, in fact we unpackaged the shrink wrap right at the table for our first game. We were told that it was something akin to a Love Letter or Avalon The Resistance during the introduction, two games I personally love so I was pretty excited to give this one a try.

After a single game we were all hooked and we ended up playing several rounds back to back, it ended up being the only game that got cleaned up during the weekend and pulled back out later for a second round of several rounds.

Mechanically speaking this is a very simple game, after a couple of rounds everyone had the rules memorized. It’s a game of nothing short of trying to pull the wool over your friends eyes and lying about it. Trickery, mind games, bluffing, calling peoples bluff and just trying to catch people on a lie are all part of coup, all activities our gaming group relishes. It registered with us and was without question in competition for one of the highlights of the weekend. Before I even got home from the weekend I had already ordered a copy for myself, rightfully described as a game similar to Love Letter and Avalon the Resistance, If you like those types of games, you are going to love Coup.

Dirk Henns Shogun

The contrast between the quiet, contemplative planning phase and the outrageously chaotic execution phase make this one of the most memorable Euro games I have ever played.

Shogun is a staple of my collection, it has been in my collection since its release a decade ago and remains one of my most beloved games I own. I will admit that it’s an acquired taste and while it has always resulted in a positive experience every time I pull it out, not everyone takes kindly to a game posing as hardened area control strategy game with an almost comic, Vlaada Chvatil like nuance ,reminiscent of classics like Galaxy Trucker.

Yes its a strategy game and smart decisions, clever gameplay, good planning, good resource management and all that good stuff you expect to be in a good war game are there, but it also has the dreaded tower of chaos, not to mention the nearly impossible to predict and plan order system that gives this game an atmosphere of hilarity that you can get mad about or you can simply embrace. It’s a nutty experience and luck plays a big role in this game, you can get screwed, the games battles swing wildly and no plan you put together is going to survive first contact with the enemy. Some might argue that it’s a far more realistic representation of warfare, most would argue that it’s too random. To me, it’s in the spirit of gaming and I always say if it’s a fun experience, even if it’s not what you expect, that is a good game and Shogun definitely qualifies for that category.

People will scream, cheer, throw down fists in anger and burst out in laughter as they watch all of their plans ruined by that maddening cube tower and the interaction of chaotic plans scraped together by all the players at the table. I would imagine some will simply hate the fact that you can barely control anything in the game. To truly enjoy Shogun you really have to embrace the experience the game is trying to create, rather than trying to get it to meet the standards of a serious war game, which notably it appears to be upon opening the box and laying out the pieces. Do that and you will love this game, but if too much silliness is not something you want in your war games, I suggest skipping this one.

For me personally, this is exactly what I look forward to in a gaming Spencerian, fun and Shogun has it in spades. . I adore this game, my copy is almost worn out and without question I will be replacing it with a new one when the time comes.

Raise your Goblets

This one debuted at last years big board gaming weekend event and it was no surprise to me at all that it found its way back this year. A game about trying to poison your friends while making sure you don’t get poisoned in what is effectively a game of memorization with a lot of screwing each other over, something that is right in our sweet spot as a group. My gaming group loves take that style games in general and Raise Your Goblets is exclusively about just that, doing it in a more fun rather than mean way.

This is really a party game, It toats the more players the merrier, but I think 5 to 6 players is where it is at its best.

Really fun, this is one of those games you really have to measure against your groups preference, but I think it’s a really great family game as well so if you have some kids at home and can get the whole family to the table, this makes for a very fun evening.

New Angeles

I have talked about New Angeles several times on this blog already since we first discovered it this year, though I’m yet to review it (it’s on my list). For me personally and I think I speak for most of my group, this is probably the game of the year. We have played it several times now on a number of occasions and it has hit it out of the park every time.

To me the most surprising aspect of New Angeles is how little attention it has gotten as a game in particular given that games like Shadows over Camelot, Dead of Winter and Battlestar Galactica enjoy so much praise. New Angeles is really a evolution of those games and really this cooperative/betrayal genre. It takes that concept of cooperative, competitive gameplay with a betrayer element and really perfects the gameplay. It’s an amazingly balanced game, giving way to the psychological games this genre is famous for, yet streamlining the whole into a well oiled machine of mechanics making this without question the best in the genre in my humble opinion.

One core aspect of this betrayer genre of games is that they border on the fringes of being social deduction games and I actually think if you bring this out during a dinner party with non-gamers, if you can get them past the science-fiction theme this would make for a really great party game. Mechanically its very simple, in fact considerably simpler and less involved than most games in this genre, yet it treats the audience with dignity and intelligence without making any presumptions about the players being “hardened board gamers”. Strictly speaking no game should ever do that, but many do so it’s nice to see a science-fiction game being more approachable.

I think it’s not hard to read into this depiction of the game to know how I would review it, it’s absolutely brilliant and belongs in the collection of any fan of the betrayer series of games, yet it has all the qualities of a great introductory game as well. I think it’s much easier to teach than say Dead of Winter or Battlestar Galactica. I fully expect New Angeles to break into my top 10 this year, it comes with my highest recommendation, if you are only going to buy one game this year, this should be it.

Formula D

At last year’s event we went out on a limb and tried several new games, some of which landed flat resulting in us having a few “duds”, so this year we made a lot of safe picks and Formula D is without question one of our old reliable’s when we have a bigger group. When our 6th player arrived part way through the weekend, this was one of the first games we reached for and for good reason.

Formula D is a very simple racing game, pick a gear, roll the dice and move your car up the track. The rules for the game can fit on a cocktail napkin and while the new modern versions of the game have come with some additional optional rules weight to spice up the game, playing it the old classic way is just as fun as it has always been.

I personally think this is more of a “casual” gamers game or a family game, than it is a sort of “gaming group” game, if for no other reason than that I find it’s a bit of a longer game and the mechanics start and remain simple throughout. I always enjoy Formula D with my gaming friends because they are a great group of guys and we can turn just about anything into a hilarious shit show, but strictly speaking as a gamers game I find it to be an odd mix between its simplicity and its length. It’s just a bit too long for how simple of a game it is and when I’m with my gaming group I have a preference to reach for the more complex games that I simply can’t play with non-gamers or the wife and kids. Or if we are going to play something that is simple, it should be relatively short.

That said Formula D has always landed well with every gaming group we have ever tried it with, whether they are non-gamers, casuals or serious gamers. It’s a pretty game, a simple game and a fun game. It captures the intensity and anxiety of a indy car race and while I find it a bit long for what it is, I still highly recommend it as a staple of a board game collection. I would go further and say that for a family with kids or for casual social circles this game is in particularly a great choice.

Sheriff of Nottingham

The best and most tense moments are when the Sheriff is looking at your sealed bag and you know its full of red cards. Thankfully Bribery is allowed.

The Sheriff of Nottingham to me is a game in a genre all on its own, it’s an extremely simple game that when placed into the hands of a social group with a sense of humor will create fantastic table atmosphere. It’s not hard to imagine however that if played seriously, without a layer of silliness it might land flat. There is not much “game” here, it’s really more of a social activity, than a game. You take some cards, put them in a pouch, tell the Sheriff what you claim to be smuggling and he decides whether or not he believes you. Making that a fun experience with bribes, lies and silliness is really up to the group.

That said in our group its a cluster fuck of lying, bribing, shifty eyes and hilarity. While laughing out and poking fun at each other is something we do constantly pretty much in any game, Sheriff of Nottingham sets us up for so many funny situations we spend almost the entire game laughing our asses off, so for us it’s always a hit.

This time we played it with 6 players using the Merry Men expansion which in my opinion vastly improved the game creating a lot more interactions thanks to the two deputies who must decide together which pouches to inspect or not.

This a staple family game night game if there ever was one, its rules are simple and there is no reading involved so you can play this with kids or adults of any age. In fact, if I were to pick a single game for families, this would be it, it’s really tailor made for family board game nights. The fact that it works great with veteran gaming groups is just a bonus. Always fun, always hilarious, Sheriff of Nottingham is unique and wonderful.

Game of Thrones the board game

This is a game that is played in the minds of the players, the board and pieces are mostly distraction.

Game of Thrones has been on the top of my list of top 10 best games of all time for as long as I have had the list. It’s a more serious game, with a fair amount of complexity both in the rules and in the depths of its strategies, while housing one of my favorite franchises making this a triple threat, gameplay, strategy and theme.

What I love more than anything about Game of Thrones however is how it draws out true raw emotions of the players (me in particular), creating a sense of attachment to the board presence, testing that human condition while challenging you to overcome the many obstacles that both the game and the other players present. It is a deep strategy game that is played on many levels ranging from the manipulation of mechanics to the manipulation of people, all things required to successfully navigate yourself to victory.

That said I do find the games static starting conditions to be a bit dry after you have played a few times. There are certain opening moves with certain factions you must make, certain struggles between factions that are almost scripted and certain events relatively predictable that will happen in every game with experienced players. It really doesn’t deflate the experience but if you are looking for a game that your group will play repeatedly I think you will find the more you play the more these things might bother you.

It’s also a very long game and one that although it can be played with fewer players, is really at its best at 6. Now complaining that a game designed to be a long game for 6 players, is long and for 6 players may seem silly, so don’t consider that a complaint, but in the modern age of board gaming today, games like Game of Thrones the board game can feel a bit dated and out of touch with the modern approach to streamlining common among today’s games. To me personally some streamlining goes overboard and something is lost, when it comes to Game of Thrones there is a near perfection their in this regard. The fact that its long and for 6 players is simply a fact that requires you to play it at an appropriate time, in other words its a limitation on the game likely resulting in a considerable reduction in how often you play it. Which I think is a good thing because as mentioned, playing this game to often will likely result in the game feeling a bit scripted in certain places, so for our group that probably plays this only once or twice a year, its quite perfect.

Its as streamlined as a game like this can be in my humble opinion, but a 4+ hour game is a 4+ hour game, you really need to know what you are getting into here. It’s important to note as well that this is not a game for casual dabblers or inexperienced gamers. This is for those hardened vets who are looking for a challenge, not that I’m discouraging anyone from trying it but this is not Small World, this is Game of Thrones, its complex, its long, its strategically deep, it’s a cluster fuck of mind games, it’s the definition of a gamers game. It’s one of the best games in this genre and in my humble opinion a masterpiece in the world of boardgaming.

Galaxy Trucker

At this point I have mentioned Galaxy Trucker so many times on this blog I almost feel silly writing about it again. I have a love affair with Vladda Chivatil’s games, to me he is one of the most diverse, unique and adaptable designers in the business. His games are all Masterpieces and you will find every single one of his games in the top 50 on boardgamegeek and several of them in the top 10.

The staple of Chivatil games is that each one is designed to create an experience, in a sense, every one of his games is genre defining and Galaxy Trucker in my humble opinion is among the best of that example. I have never played anything close to Galaxy Trucker, though it’s important to know that calling Galaxy Trucker a “board game” is a pretty loose term. It’s a chaotic adventure through madness, essentially a test to see how much chaos and randomness you can fit into a single game, spoiler alert, it’s a metric fuck ton, but its all done with a quirky sense of humor. A game designed to create funny moments pure and simple.

Galaxy Trucker is along the lines of “activity games” where players attempt to speed design and build space ships that will be put through a gauntlet of horrible events to see if the ship or any of its crew can survive to collect some coin at the end of their galactic trucker journey. On top of that it’s a competitive race against other players, which means you are pushed further into attempting to take risks in hopes of capturing that first place glory. Simply surviving the game with any money at the end makes you a winner, another spoiler alert, most people won’t make it.

With its many expansions things get even nuttier and while I fully understand that many gamers “don’t get the point”, its because they fail to remove the filters which under normal circumstances we put all other games through. You simply can’t do that with games like Galaxy Trucker, you must embrace it as the silly exercise that it is. If you do that with a group like minded friends, Galaxy Trucker is not only a unique gaming experience, but it’s Monty Python like fun in a box.

Conclusion

Well those are the games that were in the line up this year and I have to say, while we played it safe pulling in only games we were fairly certain would register with our group resulting in a weekend without duds, I do wish we would have taken a couple of risks on some new ones. It was none the less an amazing time as it always is with my friends, I think it was Will Wheaton that once said that “Games are the mortar that keeps our friends together”, something I can wholeheartedly agree with. Board gaming in our modern digital age where people can’t seem to put the cell phones, Ipads and computers down is really the saving grace of the human experience. It brings people together, reintroduces the concept of eye contact and lets us enjoy each other’s company in the real world. I think given the troubling times we live in today, our little blue planet needs a whole lot more of that than anything.

If I had to pick a single of these games as the game of the weekend, I think I would have to go with Game of Thrones. Its raw energy, complex strategic gameplay and endless mental games not only bring the theme together but make this one of the purest board games I can think of. It defines everything I love about boardgaming and brings it together in a single game. Without question in my mind, one of the best board games ever made.

Board Game Reviews

Star Wars: Destiny By Fantasy Flight Games

April 11, 2018 5 Minutes

While I had initially passed on it, Star Wars Destiny the collectible card game landed in November 2016 with a bang on the gaming scene and its clear over the last year it has gained momentum globally. It celebrated its 1st birthday in style, enjoying a top 5 spot on the ICV2 most sold collectible card game on our little blue planet. While I have been slacking on reviews the last few months (work, life, etc.) and the result of a very RPG focused agenda, I could not ignore this one any longer, I had to take a closer look. Destiny has enjoyed a very quick road to success as far as collectible card games go, though it should come to the surprise of no one given that FFG was behind it.

It really just seems like Fantasy Flight Games doesn’t know how to fail and while it took some leg pulling to get me to shell out for a CCG (more on why that is later), I finally got behind the wheel, albeit belayed, to give this little Star Wars bird a thorough whirl.

Overview

Final Score: (3.9 out of 5 Stars)

Star Wars: Destiny is a classic formula for a CCG dueling game on the surface. Two players build decks and face off against each other trying to knock the other out to win the game. Like all FFG games however, Destiny takes the theme, in this case Star Wars and pushes it a bit closer to its roots. By making it about special Star Warsy signature characters with special powers and throwing the entire thing on its head by adding specialty dice the game entered into an entirely different CCG genre than most card games fall into. While not a white elephant, the genre today is quite thin competition wise.

The DCG (Dice Collectible Game) is a new genre that was only recently established, Destiny has really confirmed that this is going to be a thing now.

We have seen this emerging genre before in games like Dice Masters (its primary competitor), which has also been very successful (enjoying the no 9 spot of top 10 collectible games on ICV2 as of this writing). Star Wars Destiny however boasts a powerful IP, the stupidly high quality components and original art work of FFG and two of the most successful designers at FFG Corey Konieczka and Lukas Litzsinger. Suffice to say, it has a lot going for it out of the gate. Today we look under the hood of this year old stud and see if it earns all of its accolades.

Components

Score:
Tilt:

Pros: High quality components made to last, dice in particular are extremely well done, awesome visual appeal that gets you in the mood.

Cons: The box and storage are poorly thought out, the extra storage binders sold separately are not a whole lot better leaving you on your own to find a storage solution.

Star Wars: Destiny follows the very high standard that we have grown accustom to for games coming out of Fantasy Flight Games. The card stock is the best you can get, the dice quality is amazing and the entire thing has a spit shine on it that will get you excited to play with the pieces.

It wouldn’t be Star Wars without a good Darth Vader card, FFG has done a great job with the art enhancing the experience and confirming that they are the best in the business.

The dice deserve particular mention here, I already mentioned Dicemasters which is the only point of reference in this rather small genre, but by comparison, Destiny blows it out of the water, it may just have the best dice I have ever seen in a dice game or any game for that matter. The dice are big, colorful, clear and of the absolute highest quality. They are a joy to roll, just the feel of them in your hand is going to get your gamer juices flowing. Compared to Dicemasters which, well lets just say it, was a big disappointment component wise, FFG really invested in Destiny’s signature component and it shows.

I love the fact that FFG understands what is important to gamers, if you are going to make a dice game, make sure the dice kick ass!

If there was any disappointment for me it was in the packaging, which I consider a “none review-able” item in terms of scoring a game, but I’m going to bitch about it anyway. The absence of a storage solution will annoy you. Booster packs are obviously a “rip them open” situation, which is fine, but there really is no good “box” to put your stuff in when it comes to Destiny. The two player box has a very flimsy box that rips easily, which won’t last and it uses the side opening boxes all gamers loathe as do the pre-built expansion decks. While the plastic casing inside was pretty good, giving you a place to put some of your dice and perhaps some hope of a solution to store some what you will ultimately collect, quite simply after opening the game and opening some boosters I was left with a mess of cards and dice with no where to put them.

The dice binders sold separately by FFG are pretty, but the design was poorly thought out.

FFG does offer Dice Binders, which would have been great even if sold separately, but I found the choice of being able to store 40 dice but only 44 cards only further fueling my frustration. Basically a single deck has 10-14 dice in it, while having exactly 30 cards. The binder is way too big for a single deck of dice, but far too small to have more than 1 deck because a lack of card storage. It’s not a terribly smart accessory, leaving everyone trying to scramble and figure out an alternative storage solution. It’s kind of lame enough to put things in a non-reusable box, but offering a pointless accessory is pouring lemon juice on the wound. Suffice to say I was pretty disappointed, but luckily this component has nothing to do with the quality of the game so I mention it more out of frustration than any impact on the games score.

Theme

Score:
Tilt:

Pros: Fantastic artwork, quotable cards and familiar characters will delight the senses and give you that Star Wars feeling.

Cons: Some might find the blending of eras and lack of cannon annoying, for the record, I do not.

The big advantage of using a big IP like Star Wars is that once you throw some pictures of Darth Vader on the cover, you already have a built in following to the theme. When I judge a games theme however I’m trying to make a connection between the setting and the mechanics. Does the theme influence the mechanics and shine through while you play, does it fuel the imagination or impact your sense of the experience, is there some sort of concept of time and place, does it tell a story through play. All of those things help to enhance a game and are important if you are buying into a game hoping to get some replication of the Star Wars universe. Does Destiny provide this?

The short answer is yes and no. Its not exactly what I would call a storytelling experience. The combinations can get pretty weird as the entirety of the Star Wars universe is blended into a single game. You will see content from the Phanthom Menance, the old trilogy, the new trilogy, the cartoon and a bunch of stuff you probably have never heard of unless you are a die hard consumer of everything Star Wars. While it maintains what I would call “The Star Wars feeling”, there really isn’t a sense of a story, time or place, but rather a kind of scramble of everything into a single game. Now I would imagine most people will not really care, but the first time I built a deck I had Nute Gunray, Boba Fett and a Tie Pilot all in the same deck and that is only a slightly weird combination in terms of what is possible. If your sense of cannon is easily offended and throws off your sense of Star Wars continuity, this game will abuse that to all hell as you mix and match characters, equipment and locations from pretty much every source and era of the Star Wars universe to make your decks.

Quotable cards like this, paired up with great art will put a smile on your face, but the effects don’t always connect mechanically to the theme.

To me personally this was more a quirk than a problem, everything in the game is definitively Star Wars and belongs in the theme as a whole and the whole concept of trying to maintain cannon in a CCG is far fetched anyway. The theme shines largely through the fact that every card in the game is universally quotable and as a Star Wars fans playing cards like “He doesn’t like you” instantly takes me back to the movies. That with the amazing art, is more than enough to give Star Wars: Destiny a well deserved passing grade. Its very clear that the designers of the game were Star Wars fans.

If you are looking for a more thematic experience, one in which the cards mechanics are linked up to a thematic story and experience, I would venture to guess Destiny is probably not that game. While it certainly houses Star Wars as an IP under one roof, its really more of a game about gameplay than trying to accomplish some sort of thematic tale of events, for that you might need to seek out the Star Wars LCG. Even there however I think you would find that there is a general blending of “everything”, as this is really how most card games are, this one is no different.

Gameplay

Score:
Tilt:

Pros: Streamlined, easy to teach, easy to learn mechanic. Robust card pool with a wide range of deck building options make this dueling game a winner.

Cons: It’s a small game with big investment requirements, in particular if you plan to compete. Casual players should approach with caution.

I think without argument when it comes to dueling card games, gameplay is without question the single most important element that needs to be done right for it to be successful, a moot point when one does a review of an already successful game, but none the less. For any collectible games unfortunately there are many external factors that can really affect the gameplay experience, in particular ones like Destiny that use the random booster concept. While I won’t dwell here, I will say that I prefer the now well establish FFG Living Card standard which alleviates a lot of the anxiety and potential gameplay or balance issues randomness and investment differential can create. When buying into a CCG this really comes with the territory and in many ways is an extension of the games “pre-game” deck building concept. I will talk a bit more about my feelings about the CCG concept later, but let’s first talk about the gameplay in general.

Center stage in a CCG is always going to be deck building. Great thing about Destiny is you can grab a card, see what it does and immediately go off on a tangent on potential ways to build an entire deck around it.

On the positive side, the mechanics of the game itself and how it incorporates dice in particular is really well thought out here. Destiny is a very tight and streamlined game, cutting out a lot of the nonsense of old school CCG’s like the “I can’t do anything” turns or “Mana screwed” issues, or “not enough cards dilemma”. All that is eliminated and in a fashion that is both fair, consistent and reliable. Each turn from the first to the last round is going to have you contemplating your plays one action at a time, rather than complaining about some shitty game state you find yourself in. There is always something you can do, in fact, most of the time there are hard choices and tactical decisions that you must choose between which really fuels both deck building (the pre-game, game) and the constant re-assessment of the in progress game. There is constant tension throughout, your always trying to solve some puzzle at every stage of the game. You are rarely out of options.

I especially liked the fact that there are very few “no result” dice results, which is great given its a dice game and a part of your success will be affected by how well your roll. You might not always get what you want and depending on how you built your deck you may or may not have things to control your dice, but because you can discard a card to re-roll dice and most dice generally have only positive results (something), your getting benefit from them most of the time in some way. Its interesting as well how despite a pretty massive card pool, each card/dice combination brings something new to the table. There are no “bad” cards really that I found, there are just cards that are clearly designed with certain types of deck builds in mind. Sure, one can say that clearly some cards are more competitive than others, you will of course see the emergence of a meta where certain cards see more play. That said however I found that when I zeroed in a character, a piece of equipment or even a certain mechanic, there was a deck waiting to be built out of it. This creative pre-game deck building element of CCG’s in general is arguably one of the most addictive parts of the game, though your collection will dictate how much flexibility you have here and unfortunately this will also affect how balanced your experience will be.

The point here however is that there is a lot of design space when it comes to deck building assuming a robust collection and let’s face it, when it comes to card games like Destiny or really any collectible game, even miniatures, the concept of list building or deck building is a game in its own right. You will spend countless hours contemplating “builds” and when discussing the game you will always be talking about it in terms of deck building. This is part of the fun and really part of the gameplay of Destiny, trying to find that perfect combination of cards and tactics to win more than you lose. On a competitive level you’re always working on trying to outsmart the meta and in a sense in competitive play I imagine this becomes an entire new level of gameplay where you know what people will play and your trying to build decks that can beat those decks. This stacking of concepts gives Destiny many layers of game to explore but aiming to play competitively isn’t going to be the only driver to trying to find that perfect deck combination. Its a built in feature of the game, serious, casual, competitive or not, you are going to be trying to build the best decks you can.

On a ground level there is much to like about Destiny but my favorite really has to be the hero design. Each hero card has a two costs, a one die cost and a two die cost. With only 30 points to spend on heroes, it means you are not going to have this “put the best you have in a deck” approach. The cost is a huge limiting factor ensuring the most powerful heroes come with the drawback of limiting who you can partner them up with. This tender balance is well done and while their are certainly some pretty great combination that formulate the competitive meta, the game really isn’t won or lost on heroes alone. The deck you build that supports them is far more critical, in particular the equipment that brings in additional dice. A seemingly innocent 10 point hero can be turned into an unstoppable machine of death with the right combination of gear and this both plays into the strategy of the deck building and the tactics at the table. This all in turn helps to bring that tightness of play to the game. Contemplating the possibility feels endless, even with a small investment you will discover countless combinations to try out, driving both the addiction to collect and to play.

Its unfortunate however that to get the most out of pretty much every hero you will need to collect both dice for him. The way the cost works out, if you buy 1 die for say 11 points, getting the second one might only cost you 3 or 4 points more. Hence building decks with heroes for who you don’t have 2 dice for is extremely inefficient and doing so will definitely result in a sub-optimal deck that in turn will affect your rate of success in particular when facing more optimized 4 dice, dual hero decks. This makes collecting a sizable collection that much more important to deck building and in general to your success in the game.

You have already spent 12 points on a character with 1 die and it will cost you 4 more to get the other die. It’s clearly the optimal decision but you can’t make it if you don’t have a second copy which puts you into that awkward space of either making a sub-optimal build or simply not use the card.

Many cards have zero cost, or are low cost, which means your success isn’t really driven by resource availability during a round entirely. In fact you will spend most rounds with very few resources or sometimes even none and it does not prevent you from participating aggressively in the events of the round. I love the fact that the game goes back and forth with each player getting a single action you, the end result is that you always have an opportunity to respond to the changing state of the game based on your opponents last play. This fuels the game tactically as it ensures that while you can plan, you must constantly adjust. Pulling off those deadly combos isn’t just a matter of fact, there is a counter to everything both in terms of cards you can field in your deck but also what order you make your plays, the timing of them and of course the always important results of the dice. Battlefileds are also a part of the overall strategy of the game and can sometimes offer significant advantage to getting your timing right. All this amounts to a consistently interesting and ever changing state of affairs on the table. You might have a plan, a player takes one action and you find yourself completely re-assessing the entire round. Things turn on a dime and I absolutely love that.

In short, the game-play is absolutely fantastic from a mechanical stand point, you have a lot of control over your destiny making this without question one of the most aptly named games in the FFG lineup.

There are low cost, 1 die cards like this one, but these are clearly meant to be paired up with the more expensive heroes, suffice to say 3 die decks are not completely out of the question and certainly designed into the game as an option.

A big part of your success in any match is going to be in the pre-game deck building, really a game in its own right and a core part of CCG’s in general. You have a lot of choices to make here including which characters to use, what equipment, upgrades and support cards to add to your deck which in turn defines what dice you will have available in the course of the game and of course the all important event cards which is really where much of your subtle strategy comes from. In many ways this is also the flaw of the CCG model because what cards you have available is a limiting factor of your collection, one that is largely randomly done through the booster concept. Its particularly a problem when you are on a tight budget and you find yourself facing opponents with a more flexible income. This differential can and probably will create some imbalances. You might not have those 2 dice heroes, so you may find yourself facing 4 dice vs. your 2 or 3 from your limited collection and that is a major unbalance in the games structure. In fact I found even after buying all of the starter packs and 2 of the big booster boxes I only have 5 heroes for who I have 2 dice, significantly reducing not only what parts of my collection I can make but in particular what types of decks I can make that are optimized. Most of my decks are made up of 3 heroes 3 dice, simply because I have no other option and when facing a 4 dice deck I’m at a pretty severe disadvantage.

Suffice this is just part of the CCG model, for better or worse. The question of course is, should this affect the games score and the answer is a simple no. I can’t count being a CCG against a game if a CCG is exactly what it intends to be. It’s a collectible game, collecting is part of the game, an expensive part and if you think that’s unfair than you should definitely skip this game, but it does not make Destiny any less of a game. Mechanically speaking I have to rate the game with the assumption that I have the entire collection and in that capacity this is a fantastic game.

The caveat for me in the model is the 2 dice hero model balance of the game. Essentially the game is designed on 30 points worth of heroes, however the average cost of a 1 die hero is about 8-12, and the average cost of a second die for the same hero is 3-5. This means that if you spend points for 1 die of a hero, if you don’t buy the second die you have locked your deck into being a 3 die deck in all but the rarest circumstance with no way to work out the math any differently. This creates an inherent problem with how collecting works, but more importantly it impacts greatly the global balance of the game where effectively a player who has a set of 2 die heroes of every sort will always be able work out decks to have 4 dice, but a person who does not have 2 dice heros to work with will be locked into the less optimal 3 die decks constructed from either 2 or 3 heroes.

To me the decision to balance the game this way hurts it. Only including 1 die in a booster, not to mention making all heroes “rare” or “legendary” at the least means that you will struggle to make use of your collection even if its fairly robust. I for example don’t have any 2 die yellow (good guy) heroes in my collection which means all yellow hero (good guy) cards are effectively not used at all unless I want to play with a sub-par, 3 die decks which frankly after a few frustrating efforts I know well enough that it’s just not fun. The disadvantage is too great against a 4 die deck. Effectively these 3 die types of decks feel incomplete and can create a frustrating experience to say the least when facing a player who has a complete 4 hero deck.

I think this pain point is significant enough to affect the score of the game, to me, this is more a design decision problem than a CCG model problem. Grant it, it can be overcome through collecting but personally I think there is a limit to how much a CCG model should impact the balance of a game based on collecting and how much a CCG model can demand before you can make use of your collection. I would say right now, after 200 dollars spent, perhaps 10% of my collection is viable to be used in a deck thanks to this awkward hero/die pairing issue. Most of the cards I can’t use are great and I would love to use them but the lack of the 2 dice hero pairings I need to do so means I have to build those less effective 3 dice decks. After a fair amount of testing it’s abundantly clear to me that 4 dice vs. 3 dice is more than just a disadvantage, it’s a serious unbalance, its not game breaking but not easy to ignore either. In short, you need the pairings, its really not an option in most cases.

Still, from a stand

Replay-ability and Longevity

Score:
Tilt:

Pros: The robust nature of CCG’s combined with FFG’s commitment to the product means this game likely has a long and bright future ahead of it.

Cons: To really get the full experience you are going to have to dive knee deep into this, with a constant push to expand your collection driving your replaybility.

The really nice thing about collectible card games is that we can generally rely on the publisher to continue to put out expansion after expansion for their game, in particular with FFG. This in its own right gives Destiny a huge advantage in this category as we know it will be heavily expanded. For CCG’s, expansion is also one of the most important categories as decks get old, cards get old and you are always going to be chasing a refresher.

There are a great many unique and interesting event cards that can significantly alter how events play out in the course of a game. Much of the longevity of this game will rely on FFG constantly creating new cards that continue in this tradition.

Still lets assume for a second you don’t make a major investment in the game, how much can you replay that same 2 player starter deck before it gets boring and loses its polish. The answer is more than you expect, but probably not enough. Considering the two player box is 30 bucks retail, I would say you get considerable bang for your buck, but CCG’s like Destiny beg to be expanded, its assumed you will deck build and it really is about finding new and clever ways to beat your opponents. I think the 2 player set is a nice, cheap way to find out if you like the game, but in the end unless you expand your replay-ability is going to be fairly limited.

Personally after a few plays I was ready to start deck building and needed cards to do it with. I think I got the 2 player set, played 4 or 5 times and ordered 2 booster boxes in the same week. I managed to get it on a discount but by the time I was done ordering stuff I was a good 200 bucks into it. The question now is how far will this take me? The answer is not nearly as far as I had hoped. Part of the problem is the dependency on 2 dice hero pairings. As mentioned before after 200 bucks I still don’t have pairings for the vast majority of my heroes, in some cases entire sections of the game, for example I don’t have 2 dice for yellow heroes so my yellow hero cards really don’t have a home in any decks right now. That was disappointing. Suffice to say you will need to collect, trade and/or buy off the 3rd party markets to really get that replay-ability and deck construction possibilities going that this game is capable of and that is going to be a significant investment of your time and money.

Each time you add to your card and dice pool you are going to see worlds opening, new deck possibilities, new approaches and in turn more replay-ability. Really this is typical of collectible games, their longevity generally relies on expanding your collection and Destiny is no different, but in my opinion its far more difficult to do with Destiny, due to the way the model is setup.

In general though I think the replay-ability is very good, there are significant variations in the different sets and new mechanics are introduced in each set that shake things up and refresh certain elements of the game opening up the reusing of cards you might have previously overlooked. I also think with each new set the 3 hero, 3 dice combinations become more viable and competitive than before. I noted that when building decks “digitally” with online deck builders with cards I don’t have yet I was able to construct some 3 dice, 3 hero decks that I believe would be a significant challenge for a 2 hero 4 dice deck. Suffice to say I think some of these collection vs. balance issues can be resolved through mixing the sets and opening the door to more ways to replay the game.

I have high hopes for the longevity of the game, but CCG’s need to establish large card pools for that longevity to really stick. Destiny remains a question mark in that department, I’m not 100% sure how far I will take the game, but certainly FFG is going to tempt me with the constant expanding. I think Destiny has a bright future for the dedicated player.

Conclusion

Star Wars: Destiny is a challenging, varied and robust game that takes this genre to an entirely new level. Its got the chops to be a great competitive game and its design streamlined to a point of near perfection. It really is an absolutely fantastic game.

Unfortunately it’s CCG model not only comes with the standard economic trappings and overhead of a collectible game but is burdened by a core balance issue if you are not fully committed. If you want to make reasonably competitive decks, even more so than typical CCG’s, you are going to have to invest heavily, perhaps more so than other CCG’s out there.

I would say for experience CCG players looking for their next challenge this is definitely one you should not pass up, but for casual gamers I think this is one to skip. The 2 player game is too limited and getting into it uncommitted is going to be disappointing. Its an all or nothing game in my humble opinion.

Gaming Articles

Winter Hibernation Reviews

February 5, 2018 5 Minutes

It’s been a while since I have written anything for the blog, which tends to happen around winter time. Here in Sweden, winter is a cold, dark, bitter experience that leaves one lethargic and unmotivated. It’s a kind of hibernation where bringing up the strength to do anything but eat and sleep is difficult. By February however the light comes back, the snow fall makes everything bright and you start to get your energy back.

Now even though I have been in my winter hibernation that is not to say no gaming has taken place, in fact there has been quite a bit. I thought it would be great just to do a single article to get myself caught up by doing some mini reviews and drop some tips for a few games my group and I have been playing. This is going to be a real mixed bag however because while we played quite a few new boardgames, we actually rotated back into some miniature gaming and role-playing games as well.

Lets get right into it.

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

While there has been plenty of board gaming, this winter D&D 5th edition really took center stage for my gaming group as we put together a weekly wednesday night game that has become almost a religion for us. Our campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms and has after over 20 sessions already reached many of those classic D&D heights like fighting dragons, giants, hobgoblins and much more all the while ranging the gambit from city life, dungeon crawling, wilderness adventures and everything in between. It’s been an absolute blast.

Its new but feels classic, 5e got it just right!

For me personally D&D is a staple of role-playing, really my go to game for a great RPG experience and it has been so for nearly 30 years. I have played every edition ever put out extensively, really you could say from a perspective of experience I’m about as veteran as you can get. I was playing D&D when Gygax was a young man. That said however, despite 30 years of D&D I have rarely ever enjoyed the game as a player, which is why this particular campaign has been so much fun much for me. Not being a GM not only gives you a very different perspective on the game, but allows you to appreciate the rule system in a very different, very personal way.

One thing I can say about 5th Edition D&D is that its probobly one of my favorite versions of the game from a strictly non-nostalgic perspective. Meaning that I love it for what it is, a fun RPG, while being the fuel for what I consider a classic D&D experience. It finds a kind of middle ground between classic/old school D&D and modern game design, while simultaneously remaining rules light enough not to throw role-playing under the bus, but rule-sy enough to keep you interested in reading the books and exploring its nuances. I still think 1st and 2nd edition offer the most in terms of the spirit of the game as Gygax intended it, not everyone would agree with me, but a fact doesn’t require you to believe it (burn!) but as a modern system, 5e is close enough to that old school method that in the hands of a good DM you can still get those nostalgia moments reminding you of your childhood.

The classics in their original form can still be enjoyed thanks to the Wizards of the Coast reprints.

For anyone who has never played a role-playing game before, I highly recommend 5e as a place to start. The rules are simple and streamlined, while the writing is done well enough to inspire your imagination. If however you’re a 1st or 2nd edition player that has skipped all of the modern, post Gygax versions of the game, if there was one to try, it would be 5e. Definitely a fantastic game, it gets my stamp of approval.

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition

When FFG announced that they would be putting out a new edition of one of my all time favorites after nearly 10 years of 3rd edition, my body was ready. I certainly owe this blog a much closer and deeper review than what I’m about to do here, but suffice to say that like always Christian T. Peterson and his team do not disappoint.

This is the epic upgrade you have been looking for.

Twilight Imperium 4th edition takes the established formula of the 4x epic classic and brings it one step closer to perfection. It remains the robust and dynamic experience we have come to expect while smoothing out some of the rough edges from the previous edition. It still comes with all the same flaws inherent to a game like this, namely its nearly unbearable length of play and rules weight. I personally however accept and embrace it as is, the depths of this games tactical and strategic lengths is well worth the 6+ hour investment you will need to make to play it.

I still believe that its a 6 player or nothing type game, you simply do not get the full experience with 3, 4 or 5 players, each suffering from various balance issues. For the inducted veteran, 4e is well worth the coin for the upgrade and like always my suggestion to the uninitiated but interested is, tread carefully. TI4 is not a board game, its a hobby and the price tag and time investment is too high to have the 5 kilo box sitting on your shelf collecting dust. Be sure that you have the 6 man gaming group ready to dive in with you, if your twisting arms to get people to play, my suggestion is skip it. This is a game made for hardened veterans and fans of heavy science-fiction board gaming, everyone else is going to hate it.

All that said, for TI fans, this is another step towards that ultimate science-fiction gaming experiance.

New Angeles

By far this years smash hit for me is New Angeles. I fell in love with this game after a single play as did my gaming group and for good reason, its fan-fucking-tastic. Definitely a contender for game of the year, New Angeles is a negotiation, backstabbing joy ride that dare I say has effectively created a new genre of board gaming.

This is probably one of the best FFG board games since Twilight Imperium 3rd edition.

Its populated with some clever mechanics, it looks amazing on the table and its driven by a really cool science-fiction theme, all things that speak to me, in on itself enough to recommend it. This however is really just the icing on the cake, the real meat of this game is how it establishes the feel of a political drama that plays out in discussions and debates driven by the very difficult to predict motivations of the players. This is almost a social experiment of sorts, where much of the fun of the game is trying to deduce what the hell people are really up to, what their goals really are and who they are actually playing against and for.

Absolutely love this one, I haven’t played something this fresh since the perfect Blood Rage. This is one of those games that belongs on every gamers shelf.

I will be doing a full review of this one sometime in the future.

Star Wars Armada

My gaming group has a tendency to cycle in and out various types of gaming, we will go through board game, miniature game or role-playing game phases at unpredictable intervals. When we go in however, we go big and hard like porn stars. Star Wars Armada for quite a long time was THE game for us, in fact its one of the few games we have as a group participated in official tournaments, something that was entirely new to us. We even have a store and regional champion in our midst.

Just as quickly however it fell out of favor, but not because we stopped liking it or anything, its more that we simply got into something else and like yesterdays news Armada got set aside. Well recently Armada made a comeback and suddenly we are buying into the new wave 7 ships, building lists and planning events. Why? Because Armada remains without question one of the best miniature games on the market today. Yes its a bit heavy and I totally understand why it doesn’t compete in popularity with the likes of X-Wing and 40k, but from a perspective of game design, mechanics and sheer epic size and feel, it is among the best there is. This is the gamers miniature game, its far less about rolling dice, painting mini’s and list building and far more about planning and execution.

FFG has done a great job of keeping each wave relevant, but it’s far from perfect.

For me personally the fact that there is no fussing about with painting and assembly is a huge plus, but really of all the selling points of Armada, capital ship combat in the Star Wars universe has to be at the top of the list. It shines thematically as much as it does competitively. It’s a game of layers upon layers of depth, a game of strategic and tactical subtlety which results in an endless stream of lessons as you get better at the game and gain a higher understanding of its nuances. There is already so much strategy to explore in this game with what has already been released and with each new wave they throw in the next curve ball that has everyone scrambling and re-assessing everything to find that new key strategy that brings them the wins. Its a fantastic experience that no miniature game fan should miss.

Now it comes with a disclaimer label and I’m not going to sit on a pedestal and tell you everything is rosy, there are some issues. Like all miniature games it kind of suffers at the hands of the competitive meta math mining where certain combinations one can say are at the very least stupid, if not outright broken. In the case of Armada these combos are effective but not overwhelming, yet sufficiently irritating to kick of more than a handful of forum debates. Combos often abused by the masses creates this effect of negativity that can let some of the steam out of the game. Right now in Armada I’m a bit cranky about the activation spam lists and mechanics like Relay which I don’t think really fit the games core premise. This sort of thing however is quite normal in miniature games and in local groups like mine its a none issue. In our group people create clever lists, but they always maintain that the premise of the game is about capital ship combat and fun is always paramount. So long as your gaming group adheres to some restraint, these mechanical loopholes are usually not a problem.

X-Wing remains the king of the hill for the general masses, its light nature, simple rules and quick gameplay is hard to compete with.

All and all I think Armada remains the best option for gamers looking for a proper miniature gaming challenge, but generally I tend to still recommend X-Wing for most gamers over Armada. X-Wing is quick to play, easy to learn and maintains that fun spark, though like Armada is has a few rambunctious nuisance upgrades and ship that can really throw a wrench into the ferries wheel. Armada I find is a bit too heavy for most as well, like I said, its a gamers game, even I burn out on it eventually as it requires a lot of thought and energy to stay competitive, but if you strand me on an island with one miniature game, I rather it be Armada over anything else.

Sid Meier’s Civilization: A New Dawn

I was really excited for this one, in fact I bought it kind of blind without really reading reviews or investigating the game much. This was mainly because it was FFG at the helm and the game was from the same designer that brought us the amazing New Angeles.

It looked good from a far, but ended up being far from good.

I don’t want to say I was disappointed, it was a considerable improvement over FFG’s previous lackluster attempt at bringing us the classic PC game to board game form, but I was not blown away by it either. Far more Euroish than is good for it, the game while streamlined and a fairly straightforward experience lacked that feel of building up a civilization you might be seeking in a game with the word Sid Meier in the title. It lacked epicness if I can invent a word and for a game that takes you from the stone age to the future age, you think this would be the one focal point for the designers.

It’s kind of a typical Euro fair with rather obtuse mechanics and abstracted to the point where you realize it could just as easily had a different theme entirely. You don’t really build much in the game, the differences between nations and their strategic choices is quite benign and, like FFG’s previous attempt, they failed to produce a good combat system which is also a key feature of Sid Meiers game and it should be here as well. Oh and I really hated the art style of the board game with as much disdain as I have for the art style of the new PC version.

It was an ok, one might say below average game. for me the search for the ultimate Twilight Imperium like epic for the civilization building genre continues, this was definitely not it. It fell short of expectation and I don’t foresee it getting a whole lot of table time in the future. Through The Ages and Nations remain the two reigning champions of this genre even though neither is played on a map.

18XX Series (1830 Railroads & Robber Barons)

One thing I got really into this winter is the 18XX series of games. These economic railroad and business management games really sparked my nostalgic love for classic PC games like Railroad Tycoon, Transport Tycoon and Capitalism. Now I will say this up front, this is not a genre of games my local gaming buddies are into so I have to scratch this itch outside of my normal channels, hence it has hindered my efforts but I can say without reservation that there is real magic here.

If it looks complicated, its because it is. I would rate it at a 10 out of 10 in terms of complexity of rules, so be sure your up for it, there are far simpler train games out there for the less initiated.

The 18XX series has you running transportation empires, building them from scratch and over decades of time you slowly but surely develop your railroad business with a keen eye on the economic fluctuations of the stock-market and the cut throat competition of the other players. This is definitely what I would call ”High Complexity” gaming, its rather slow and requires a general love for the genre and perhaps a bit of nostalgia seasoning. Still it has this great attention to thematic detail giving you a really authentic sense of time and place. I ended up picking up several of these games including 1830, which is among the first and perhaps most famous in the genre.

I recommend this title with a caution that there is nothing ”easy” about getting into these games, its definitely and absolutely for hardcore veteran gamers with a specific economic simulator itch to scratch. You will read the rulebook several times before anything clicks and you need to play several games before the lights really come on, then you can spend a few years playing the virtually hundreds of titles in the genre each with its own take on the same premise. But in the right group, games like this are truly a gamers greatest reward, a unique experience on a level of gaming most games never even come close to. If you love railroad economic games, this is the final frontier in the genre, but be warned its not for the feint of heart.

Seven Wonder Duel

This is a game that I introduced to my 9 year old daughter in hopes that I might turn her into a proper gamer. I failed with my son who went the cool route becoming a guitar jamming rockstar but my daughter is a lot more like me and took to Seven Wonders Duel like a moth to a flame. Sometimes you love a game because you love the people that play it with you and Seven Wonders Duel definitely falls into that category for me.

My daughter and I probably play this game at least 3 or 4 times each week and I give no quarter when I play her. She beats me frequently, fair and square and that in itself makes me love this game even more. Its not complex by any stretch of the imagination, but far more complex than I would have expected a 9 year old to grasp. True, my daughter is smarter than your average bear, but I actually believe this game to be quite kid friendly. Its colorful, the rules are fairly simple to remember and because you don’t actually count up the score until the end, it keeps their attention as they ”hope for the win”.

I definitly like Duel better than the original, it has a quaint family game quality and the fact that its specifically designed for two players means my daughter and I never have to beg the none gamers in the family to join us.

Great game, highly recommend it, in particular if you are trying to induct one of your kids into the board gaming hobby or trying to turn your wife into a gamer.

Legend of the Five Rings

This FFG reboot of the classic CCG is born out of one of my favorite fantasy settings of all time, so upon its announcement I pre-ordered without hesitation. It found its way on my most anticipated games of the year list and its one of the few that did not let me down.

In Legend of the Five Rings you take control of one of the many uniquely themed clans with different flavors of stereotypical medieval Japanese samurai from the world of Rokugan. Its a very unique and rather specific setting that might not speak to everyone but in terms of a dueling card game it does a fantastic job of setting up a very engaging head to head match. For me the theme is everything here however and I absolutely adore the art in this one.

Maybe its just my love for Japanese themed art, but Legend of the Five rings gets a 5 out of 5 stars for theme adaptation from me based on the art alone.

I can’t say for sure that I will become a collector, I may just stop at the core set, but I think this is a really thinky game that is easy enough to teach that you can just spring it on someone, yet has that almost expected depth we have grown accustomed to from FFG card games. Its always my hope that I will show it to someone who falls for it giving me a chance to drive deeper into the game, but so far no one in my group has really taken the dive. Its not surprising, among my gaming group most of us have our preferred go to card game, so its more common for one person to collect rather than everyone getting into it. Among my gaming group we already have Star Wars The Card Game, Game of Thrones 2nd edition and Lord of the Rings. In each case there is just that one collector that supports the game for everyone elses enjoyment and I think Legend of the Five Rings will fall into that same category.

All and all though, of all the FFG dueling card games that have been put out over the years, this one is right up their with Game of Thrones for me. It has that tightness of gameplay that ensures every match is really close, while also producing that ”lets play again” feeling that you get from a great game. So far everyone I have showed it to enjoyed the game, but it hasn’t exactly blown anyones doors of.

Sometimes it really does just come down to theme, if you like that medieval Samurai theme, this is definitely the game for you, it handles the material wonderfully.

Arkham Horror

My love for Lord of the Rings the card game goes quite deep, but unlike 99% of the games on my shelf, I have bought this one for entirely selfish reasons as I play predominantly solo and that’s the way I like it.

Arkham Horror is the new cooperative card game from FFG and offers that same solo opportunity as Lord of the Rings, so I very naturally jumped at the chance to explore it.

If your a fan of Lovecraft, this is an absolute must play. Easily one of the best games in this setting I have played and that includes all the board games.

Right out of the gate I was captivated by how richly the gameplay captured the pulp horror theme, between the locals, the types of cards the limitation and tightness of resource and the really imaginative scenario’s. The one complaint I always had about Lord of the Rings was that the campaign mode was a bit lackluster and linear, I absolutely adore the handling of campaign mode in this game as you can effectively play through the entire story-line with the same characters. Upgrading equipment and cards as you go, tracking stats between plays and experiencing different branching of the same story or repeat plays.

The card play itself is very good, I still prefer Lord of the Rings over this one, but that’s because I think Lord of the Rings is more of a deck builder. Its more focused on strategies and overcoming obstacles through the act of preparation in constructing card combinations that are designed for a specific task. In Arkham Horror deck building is kind of a afterthought really, there is some, but your mostly focused on playing the game and making clever use of the resources you have rather than trying to out smart the scenarios with clever deck building.

I also prefer this one more in a group as compared to Lord of the Rings which I play almost exclusively solo. This one works well with 2, 3 or even 4 players and if you pick up the expansions you can really make a whole night out of it. Still its actually quite fun and quite challenging solo, I have definitely burned quite a few evenings hunched over the table trying to unravel the mysterious of the underworld.

Great game, highly recommend it, another hit by FFG who are quickly gaining a reputation for producing some of the best collectible card games in existence.

Conclusion

And with that you are caught up. That was more or less my winter. We of coursed played many of the games I have covered in previous reviews, this certainly wasn’t everything but definitely among the most notable. I have quite a few reviews to write and I definitely want to get back into some What Makes It Tick articles. The hibernation is over, time to get back to some writing.

Overview

Components

Theme

Gameplay

Replay ability And Longevity

Conclusion

Share this:

Great Western Trail

Russian Railroads

Stone Age

Le Havre

Seven Wonders Duel

Share this:

Hero Realms

Coup

Dirk Henns Shogun

Raise your Goblets

New Angeles

Formula D

Sheriff of Nottingham

Game of Thrones the board game

Galaxy Trucker

Conclusion

Share this:

Overview

Components

Theme

Gameplay

Replay-ability and Longevity

Conclusion

Share this:

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition

New Angeles

Star Wars Armada

Sid Meier’s Civilization: A New Dawn

18XX Series (1830 Railroads & Robber Barons)

Seven Wonder Duel

Legend of the Five Rings

Arkham Horror

Conclusion

Share this:

Dedicated To All Things Gaming