Blaine101

… and welcome to the card game about the great graphic novels written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez.

Components:

The game comes with nearly 200 cards and a cardboard first-player marker. The cards are beautiful. The images of the Strength and Challenge cards come directly from the wonderful graphic novels. The Key cards have the mysterious keys in shimmering foil printed on them which looks fantastic.

Gameplay:

Every player gets 4 Strength cards and one player gets the first-player token. At the start of each round the top Challenge card is revealed and every player gets an additional Strength card. The Strength and the Challenge cards are divided in three colors (white, black and blue) and each has a number on it. Now every player in turn can choose to play, pass or search for a key. Passing means to just draw an strength card and finish your turn and when you search for a key you can trade cards from you hand for a random key which gives you useful abilities to manipulate cards or gameplay itself. But when the player chooses to play he can play up to three cards from his hand face down. If the totaled numbers of his cards (on condition that they match the colors of the challenge) and the cards of all the opponents (again while matching the color) are equal or higher than the number of the challenge, then the challenge is overcome. The player with the highest matching numbers gets the points for the challenge and the first-player token. The player with the second highest numbers gets the second place reward. If the challenge is not overcome, no one gets anything.
Some cards have special abilities and give you a reward when the challenge failed, allow you to steal something from you opponents hand or even count cards to the total even if they have different colors. So it’s a game of permanent bluffing and guessing.

Replay Value:

This is a game that can be played over and over again without getting boring too fast. Anytime you loose you wanna play again and win this time while trying a different strategy and maybe getting better keys.

Pros:

- beautiful cards (especially the keys)
- quick and easy to learn
- bluffing is fun!

Cons:

- there is no punishment for failing the challenges

Last Words:

Nice and fast game. I really like the theme and the game got me started in the graphic novels. Some of the pictures on the cards spoil things happening in the story but it is not as bad as I thought.

Best wishes,
Blaine101

… then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’

-Sherlock Holmes

And that’s what this game is all about. Eliminate every false trail until you find the truth or in this case: Jack the Ripper.

Components:

I love the quality of the components. The “cards” are not made in this thin playing cards style. Instead they used this really thick cardboard for them. Great!
The figures for the different characters are just small discs with stickers on them. But they are made of wood and I’m the guy who likes wood more than this plastic stuff.

Gameplay:

Mr. Jack is a two player game. No more, no less. One player takes the role of Mr. Jack and the other the role of the Inspector. Jack draws a random character card and this is his character on the board. Yes, this means even the great Sherlock Holmes can be Jack the Ripper.
The Game consists of 8 turns in which the Inspector has to catch Mr. Jack. If Jack escapes from the city or does not get caught until end of turn 8, he wins.
Each round 4 of the 8 character cards get laid down in front of both players. Then (in a different sequence each turn) the players can choose characters from these laid out ones and move them around (and use their special abilities). After all 4 characters have been moved the inspector asks Jack if he is seen (or witnessed as it is called in the game). Being witnessed means his character is next to another character or is standing in the blaze of a gaslight. Jack answers with yes or no and the Inspector then can rule out some of the suspects on the board.

Replay Value:

For now after a few plays I think the replay value is quite high. The game is really fast (15-30 minutes) and it’s getting better as the players (especially the Mr. Jack Player) get more experienced.

Pros:

- quick play
- easy to learn
- great theme (I love Sherlock Holmes)
- nice components

Cons:

- seems a little unbalanced
(until now Mr. Jack has never won. He was always caught in the 5th or 6th round even tough he nearly got away one time)

Last Words:

So. What can I say. I really like this game. I love Sherlock Holmes, I love games of deduction (even this is an easier one when it comes to deduction games). I think this will find it’s way on the gaming table more often than other games in the next time.

Best wishes,
Blaine101

and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, began screaming, “Off with her head! Off – “

Okay no. This is not a game about Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts. Guillotine takes place during the French Revolution and the players are each executioners trying to get the most precious heads of the people in line at the guillotine. So let’s keep our heads down and see how this game works.

Components:

The Game comes in a little cardboard box and contains a rulebook, 110 cards (50 Noble cards, 60 Action cards) of good quality and a cardboard guillotine.

Gameplay:

After shuffling the Noble Deck and the Action Deck place the guillotine on the table and then draw 12 cards from the noble deck. These cards or persons get lined up in front of the guillotine. Then each player gets 5 cards of the Action Deck into their hands. One random player goes first and can play one action card and then beheads the first Character in the line to earn points. The action cards may manipulate the order in the line to get better and more valuable characters to the front. At the end of the turn the current player draws a Action card and the next one starts his turn.
When there are no nobles left in the line the day is over and day two begins with 12 new nobles in the line to be executed. This goes on for three days and then the players compare their points to define who is the winner and therefore the best executioner of all.

Replay Value:

I played it a few times now and still have fun doing it. For a short game here and there this game is eminently suitable. But I can imagine that it could get boring when you play it to often.

Pros:

- funny grim theme (surely depends on your humor)
- nice mechanic
- easy to learn
- quick and fast gameplay

Cons:

- unfunny grim theme (surely depends on you humor)
- can get boring after a while
- luck driven

Last Words:

First: I like dark and grim humor and think the theme is funny. To be an executioner and try to manipulate the line of convicts to pick the valuable ones = much fun.
So for people who like quick games for now and then I can really recommend this game. Not so much for Families with small children.

Best wishes,
Blaine101

… the great old ones will return. And that’s exactly where you as a player enter the stage. You are one of the people that investigate the strange events happening in the Miskatonic University Museum. It is your responsibility to stop the monsters and solve the many mysteries that surround this place.
Elder Sign is kind of a smaller and easier version of Arkham Horror. Appropriately enough it does not cover the whole city of Arkham but rather takes place in a museum there.

Components:

The game comes with a lot of different sized cards, a cardboard clock, a bunch of beautiful customized dice and a lot of tokens. The whole content is of very good quality as everything from Fantasy Flight Games. The Artwork is great and supports the flair of the story.

Gameplay:

Unlike Arkham Horror this game does not have a game board. Here you just put down six cards from the deck of adventure cards. These cards represent the different locations in the museum with tasks on it. Each turn you can move to one of the rooms with your character and try to solve these tasks. If you can fulfill them you get a reward (for example: weapons or if you have luck even an Elder Sign). If you fail you have to suffer the penalty effect (most times lose health or sanity). And the end of every players turn the clock has to be advanced 3 hours forward. If it strikes midnight the current player has to draw a mythos card which has an instant effect and an ongoing effect on it.
The investigators have to solve room for room to find better weapons and hopefully enough elder signs to stop the ancient one to appear. If they don’t stop him before he awakens they have to fight the ancient one in battle. But most times this doesn’t end well for our heroes.

Learning Elder Sign is not that hard compared to Arkham Horror but a little harder than the average casual game I guess. The game is partially luck driven concerning the continual dice rolling. But as you can decide which tasks you go for and which weapons, spells and abilities you use the game has enough tactics involved to let you change the games outcome due to your own decisions.

Replay Value:

By the use of 16 different investigators, 8 different ancient ones, 48 different adventure cards (locations) and a whole bunch of weapons, spells and allies there is nearly no chance that you ever have the same game again.

Pros:

- beautiful components (including customized dice)
- design really brings the Lovecraft Flair across
- good balance of luck and tactics
- you can play it solo

Cons:

- spells and weapons could be more creative (not only extra dice on them)
- with that much tokens and cards I would like the box to be better designed to sort and hold all of them

Last Words:

For Lovecraft Fans this game should be a definitive buy (as Arkham Horror is too). It’s quite easy to learn and provides a well themed adventure. If you are just searching for good games to play solo (as I was when I got this game) I can also recommend it. The only ones I would advice not to buy it are gamers who don’t like dice games or games with to much luck involved. I would set the luck/tactics rate somewhere at 50/50.

Best wishes,
Blaine101

Star Fluxx is a variant of a game simply known as Fluxx. The rules are nearly the same (except for the creepers) and just the theme is another one. Where the standard Fluxx had everyday life objects and goals … Star Fluxx has (as the name tells) a funny space theme with lots of references to Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who and much other Sci-Fi stuff. But what is Fluxx or in this case Star Fluxx exactly? … let’s have a look.

Components:

The game comes in a little box with 100 cards and a piece of paper containing the rules. The cards are of good quality and will survive a lot of games.

Gameplay:

For playing the game you don’t necessarily need to read all the rules. Everything you need to know is written on the cards. Just place the starting rules card in the middle and deal everyone three cards. Then start playing. The starting rules are: Draw one card, Play one Card.
There a a few types of cards in this game:
KEEPERS are objects you play in front of you,
ACTIONS are played to do a variety of things like drawing cards, stealing things and so on,
SURPRISES are like ACTIONS but can also be played out of your turn,
NEW RULES can for example force players to draw or play more cards every turn,
GOALS are played in the middle of the table and when someone has the matching KEEPERS (or sometimes CREEPERS) he wins the game.
CREEPERS are bad for you the most times. When you draw one you have to play it immediately and as long as you have it you can’t win (unless the actual goal says otherwise.
So most times the game is just drawing cards and playing cards. Trying to get Goals matching your Keepers in front of you. It’s mostly luck driven with a very, very little amount of tactics.

Replay Value:

As every game has other goals and other card combinations you draw it’s replay value is quite okay. But when you have a problem with games that are playing you instead of you playing them then you will try it once and never touch it again.

Pros:

- funny sci-fi references
- fun to bend the rules and annoy your opponent
- very easy to learn

Cons:

- the game is playing you

Last Words:

I understand why someone can dislike this game. It offers no possibility for tactics and much thinking.
But I for myself kind of like it for playing during lunch breaks. When you know all the cards it’s a really fast game and you can just fight your opponent in a quick card battle. And as a bonus: Sci-Fi Fans will find a lot of fun references.

Best wishes,
Blaine101

… follow any of them. It’s Time for some creativity and story telling! I was interested in this game because of it’s beautiful artwork but I really could not say if that game was something for me.
Then Will Wheaton played it on his marvelous show Tabletop on youtube and the “Wheaton-Effect” got me. I bought the game immediately. So if you don’t want to be forced to buy Dixit just because you watched Will Wheaton’s incredible fun Tabletop video you just can read my review and hope that I’ll rate it average. (by the way: No. I won’t! I love this game!)

Components:

The game comes in a box which at the same time is the game board for counting your points. In addition there are six cardboard tokens and one nice colored wooden rabbit for each player. The only other thing that comes in the box is a package of 84 tremendously beautiful illustrated cards. These oversized cards are the centerpiece of the game and the pictures on them are colorful, creative and ambiguous. Why ambiguous? Let’s see while discussing gameplay.

Gameplay:

Each player gets a bunch of cards to their hand and the one player goes first. He then chooses one card in his hand and tries to describe it somehow. Maybe with a word, a sound, a sentence or a gesture. There are no restrictions. But he should only describe it vaguely. Then he puts it face down on the table. Every other player then chooses a card from their hands which matches the description as good as possible and put it on top of the first players card. The cards get shuffled up and everybody but the first player try to guess the original card. The first player doesn’t get points when everybody guessed his card or nobody guessed his card. In every other case he gets points for each guess on his card. Every other player gets points for other players who guessed their card.
So altogether Dixit is a game of creativity and seeing things in pictures not everybody sees or everybody sees different. And that’s when we come back to the ambiguousness of the cards. There are a lot of cards with pictures that can mean everything. For example: On one picture someone will see an old tree. But wait … the tree has a face .. and arms … and holds flowers in his hands … and looks a little bit like aunt Maggie or uncle Steven (or both .. who knows). So every card can be used with multiple stories behind it and description given. Your task is to find the right one for your cards to get the most points.

Replay Value:

The replayability is quite high because the pictures deliver the potential for so many stories. But maybe when playing with the same group over and over again it can get to this point where creativity is fading and you don’t want to use an already used description again. But for that there are a few expansions available with a lot of new pictures.

Pros:

- beautiful illustrated cards
- very easy to learn (you can explain the whole rules in about 1 minute)
- great use of creativity and storytelling without scaring off the more shy players

Cons:

- replayability with the same group can weaken after a certain time

Last Words:

I played this game a few times with my family and they are not really into gaming that much. But they loved it and even wanted to play it again and again. But it’s equally fitting for every gaming group. So if you are searching for an easy to learn game … take this one. I highly recommend it. And if you are not convinced by now … go and watch the Dixit episode of Will Wheaton’s Tabletop!

Best wishes,
Blaine101

This was the first Deck Building Game I played. Even though I watched a lot of playthroughs and reviews of other Deck Builders Star Trek was one I liked better than the most. First reason of course was being a Star Trek TNG fan in my youth. Second reason was the possibility to have really different scenarios in this game. But more to that in the Gameplay section.
When I bought this game I actually wanted to buy the First Edition of this game but it wasn’t available. So I tried my luck with this one.

Components:

The box comes with 300 cards in good quality and really nice pictures from the TV Show and the movies (First Contact for the Borg Scenario). To sort your different decks of cards there are a few cardboard and foam dividers within the box. In addition you get five 20-sided dice to keep track of your ships damage. Everything is of high value and there is enough room for some expansions left.

Gameplay:

You start with a few common crew members and standard maneuvers in your deck. Throughout the game you will get to buy new crew members and more powerful maneuvers and setups from the Star Base. New ships however you will only get when you start exploring space cards from the space deck and using diplomacy to get these new starships. But beware, most times you will be facing different things when exploring the space deck. Missions, Events or Battles. Be sure to have a good crew in your hand to play when things go bad.
What I really like about the Star Trek Deck Building Game are the different scenarios you can choose to play. The standard exploring and mission solving scenario is one where you can slowly build your ship and crew and then try to go on missions and score points. Ok, you have to be faster than your opponent but there’s not to much pressure there. A different kind of scenario is the one against the Borg. Here you have to work with the other players to fight the Borg Cards from the space deck which strike every turn and get stronger with every Borg Card you defeat. In the last scenario about the reunification of romulans and vulcans you split in two teams. One side tries to reunify and bring peace while the other side tries to sabotage the whole attempt. For now I never played this scenario but it sounds really interesting when playing with more than 2 players.

Replay Value:

Through your decisions which characters you choose to buy your deck will offer you a variety of different strategies. With the three different scenarios even more change comes to the came. This game alone has good replay value but as you can combine it with the first edition with complete different cards and three other scenarios the replayability even gets bigger.

Pros:

- the Star Trek flair really comes across
- nice mechanic to have characters have different abilities and at the same time add different attributes to you flagship
- challenging scenarios (I like the Borg one especially)
- as far as I know the rules are better written and more balanced than in the first edition

Cons:

- no board (you have to play on a blank table or print out your own board)
- strange feeling to only get new ships while finding them “somewhere in space”
- there are only alternate versions of the main characters in this box (for trekkies: the Lieutenant version of Picard or the Major Rakal version of Troi)
- no Enterprise-D in this box

Last Words:

For solo players this box may not really be the best thing to buy unless you have no problem with playing against yourself with two decks. I tried the Exploring scenario for example and without an opponent there is no challenge. You build your crew to perfection and win every mission later. But as soon as you play with two or more players it really is a lot of fun. For my personal playing experience I like co-op better than battling against each other but that’s my opinion in most of the games.

So if you are a Star Trek Fan and/or like Deck Building Games or even just want to start with Deck Building Games I can recommend this game. It’s quite easy to learn and offers fun and variety for a lot of plays.

Best wishes,
Blaine101

For the beginning I have to say: Getting this game here in Germany was really a pain in the a…! Because of the licensing of Upper Deck it is not available in Europe and I had to order it in US with quite high shipping costs, taxes for the import and few weeks of shipping time. But enough of that. Finally it arrived and I was able to play it. An what can I say. It is as good as I hoped it would be.

Components:

Unlike most other Card Games/Deck Building Games it comes with a board which makes playing a lot nicer and more fun. The board of good solid material and not too overloaded with graphics and text. Just enough to know where everything goes and what to do.
The art on the cards is beautiful and as far as I know specially designed for this game. The cards themselves seem to be a little thinner as cards in other games but still very good quality.

Gameplay:

I don’t want to explain all the rules here so I’ll make it quick. In a normal 2-5 player game you choose 5 heroes from the 15 who come in the Box, an evil Mastermind, villain groups and a scheme for the Mastermind. As in all deck building games you start with a bunch of weak common cards in your deck (staff of S.H.I.E.L.D) and as time passes by you can afford and buy real heroes. Every turn a villain card gets turned over an most of the times this means a villain enters the board and starts his rampage through the city. As you get better cards you are able to fight these villains, stop them from escaping the city again and maybe even attack the evil Mastermind controlling these monsters. After attacking the Mastermind 4 times (and of course winning these attacks) you defeat him and victory is yours.
The game comes with 8 different schemes which all have a different influence on the the winning or losing conditions, the difficulty and even the gameplay.

One last thing: Unlike in other deck building games a hero is not just one card. For example Iron Man consists of 14 cards which represent different kinds of his abilities. So during your turn you aren’t playing Iron Man itself as a one card but you are playing different moves he does during a battle. This gives the feeling of a great teamwork when different heroes do “their different things” in the battles.

Replay Value:

Because of 15 different heroes, 11 different villain/henchman groups, 4 Masterminds and 8 schemes which all can be mixed there is an uncountable number (ok, i’m just too lazy to do the math) of varieties to the game. This gives a great Replay Value and no game should be like any other.

Pros:

- great artwork
- gameplay mechanic is a little better than most other Deck Building Games
- really transports the superhero feeling
- great replayability
- insert and dividers for sorting your cards properly

Cons:

- the use of just one picture per hero on the cards
- because every villain has two copies of him in the deck it is possible that one villain (for example: Sabertooth) can be at two different locations at one time
- cost and shipping-time to europe

Last Words:

As you can see in my review I really love this game. I’m a fan of the Marvel Universe and being able to play these heroes and fight super villains is a lot of fun. If you are a fan of Marvel Comics and/or Deck Building Games I highly recommend this game for you.
I hope Upper Deck won’t wait too long until we see an Expansion for this game with more heroes and more great villains.

Best wishes,
Blaine101