Woolin

You better try Civilization: The board game.

Civilization is a really unique experience, played in pc. It simulates the building of a civilization and really makes you feel like this whole giant machine is yours to carry. The actions that you’ve done like a thousand years ago (game time) really affect the remainder of the game. Civilization: The Board Game really manages to recreate that feel, but has some serious pros over the PC game.

Firstly, what I believe the computer game lacks is the deeper interaction between players. I mean, come on. We’re playing board games because they offer us something that computer games are still not able to – A memorable experience with our friends. Really interaction simply does it better. Civ:TBG encourages this type of interaction, there is a nice conversation above the table. Lots of alliance-establishing and backstabbing. I only wish trade wasn’t occurring only during a specific phase of the turn (as in, for example, Twilight Imperium 3ed. where you can pass on Trade Goods between players at any given time in order to affect other people’s decisions). This can be solved easily with a house rule but I trust FFG that there’s a good reason behind it.

As for the down time – as weird as it may sound, in comparison to the computer game there’s actually LESS downtime. I never feel bored during play. The board game allows players to play certain stages of the turn simultaneously and more importantly – almost anything that happens on the board is in some way relevant for you in the military aspect, while in the PC game you simply don’t care what happens on the other side of the world.

It should be mentioned though that I feel like there aren’t enough clashes which evolve around resources. The game doesn’t really encourage direct conflict, you can attack another player but mostly you’ll mind your own business, as there’s no good excuse to do so. there are enough resources for everyone and real borders between cities don’t exist in the game. Sometimes it feels a little awkward and I believe there is simply too much space in the board.

Note for wargamers: If you’re looking for a deep, strategic combat in your games – this game is not for you. In it’s long play time there won’t be too many battles, and the battles themselves are abstract and not involve tactical decisions.

Besides that the game is really a lot like the original PC game. There are different nations to choose from, there are technologies, culture, trade and armies. I won’t cover all of the mechanics, as other people have already done that (and the rules are online) but I will say that it feels like a lot of thought was invested in every single aspect of the game, and they are working together beautifully to create a rich and memorable experience.

The expansion adds a lot more of the same (which is great) with some new twists like the ability to invest in different aspects of your civilization, the special great people powers and cool new technologies. Also, the new nations are really fun to play with so I strongly recommend the expansions if you liked the base game.

No doubt one of the best civilization games out there. If you like your games medium-heavyweight and enjoy the idea of creating a civilization from dust you want to make sure that you try this game.

As a simulator of WWII this game does an excellent job, but for me the rules are just too complex. Don’t get me wrong, heavy rules doesn’t scare me a bit (I’m a huge fan of Twilight Imperium 3ed.), but in Tide of Iron there is simply too much ‘dead time’. There are too many things to check during the game, too many chips to handle, too many dice to roll. This game has the scent of micro management that will suit well a video game like the known ‘Company of Heroes’ (well, they kind of reminded me of each other), but for me it doesn’t work in this specific board game.

Moreover, the dice rolls are serious game changers when compared to the strategy involved in the game. It almost feels like your choices aren’t going to matter as long as you’re lucky enough to get the right result. But of course, this is the nature of wargames and miniature games, and I’m probably not hardcore enough in this field. 🙂

While some might not, I think people may relate to the next statement: The appearance of games really affects my perception of them. Actually I might even accidentally get a game simply because I really like the way it looks. I tend to filter those that does not appeal to me and have (sometimes unjustified) crushes on those which the best artists were involved in the making of (plus FFG are **** awesome at marketing).

As a person who adores art (and consideres himself an artist) don’t let the *TOTALLY MIND BLOWING!* artwork and overall design of Tide of Iron affect your choice of getting or not getting this game. If you can’t stand things like too much randomness and wasting gameplay time for the sake of ‘cleanup phases’ which leads to some more randomness – don’t get it.

(But seriously, if I had more money would have bought it only for the show off involved)

But it’s a really good game!

This is for people who have played Starcraft before and consider buying th board game because of the PC game’s experience that they had. (assuming that it was good!)

Starcraft: the Board Game isn’t a lightweight board game by all means, which creates a dissonance as Starcraft is a worldwide known trademark. If you’re really enthusiastic about the theme you better have some background in boardgaming and a few gateway games under your belt, just before you jump into the deeper water.

Thematically there’s all that’s in the related PC game – the 3 races with their special characteristics are very well presented in the game, and it manages to recreate the feel of each army. The artwork is a blast and the components are top-notch. With all these high-quality miniatures – from the Terran’s marines to the epic Zealot’s Ultralisk – we often find ourselves playing with them as if they were action figures. No kidding. Once again FFG proves itself as one of the best producers in the industry.

But in the meaning of gameplay – it’s not quite the tactical micro-management game which SC is. Instead you’ll find here a more large-scaled game, which mechanically I would define as a highly interactive competitive brain-burning puzzle with resource management, area control and battling which involves deck building and hand management. Sounds complex? Well, it takes a little time to grasp the rules, but I really appreciate the way in which all these mechanics are integrated with each other.

The scenarios are a little awkward in my opinion. It’s understandable that nothing can be Starcraft related without the story aspect, but it feels like in FFG they tried jsut a little too hard, as mechanically the story aspect of the game can’t be taken to the edge.

I believe that this game deserves a try from anyone who is familiar with the universe of Starcraft and is also a medium-heavy gamer. Go check it out!

Probably the best dungeon crawler out there, with pre painted miniatures and unbelievable replayability – with the amount of scenarios, modular board and special rules that make every game look different. there’s just so much inside the box, and the gameplay mechanics are some of the most innovative I’ve seen in a game. Look out, with the expansion it shines even more!

A game that I enjoy playing almost any time, but even before the fun factor – it’s a game that I appreciate because of it’s design level. It is simple at its core but is able to lead to unobvious and interesting choice making.

The base scenario is a simple race of the human team towards the exit of the unknown maze. The board which is created is modular and looks differently from play to play, as the demon player tries to slowly constructs the dungeon in a way that will allow him to keep the humans inside for as long as possible, while gaining power and attacking them with his army of monsters.

The game uses a special mechanic of dice allocation which functions differently, depends on if you’re playing the Humans or the Demons. As the human player, you’ll get to roll a number of dice equal to the amount of living characters that you have. You’ll then allocate the results to each of them in order to determine how much Attack, Defense and Movement every character is gonna have this turn.

As simple as it may sound, this is one of the hardest decisions in the game. As your people get wounded your options for allocating the dice will become more limited, so you have to decide very carefully how you manage the hits that your pack takes. When your people will die (eventually…) your amount of dice rolled will shrink as well, so you basically try to manage your luck the best you can.

Should I move my team as a pack to maximize their survivability? Should I move as quickly as I can, giving the demon player more options to summon his monsters? The experience of playing the human is nerving, it feels as if every choice you do matters – and it really does.

The demon player, while not playing with a fixed amount of living characters, has a much more powerful options of using his horde of little minions called the Troglodytes. He uses his pool of dice to decide in which way he prefers to play – do I want the ability to break the rules of the game to summon my minions wherever I want? Do I want to save up power for later turns? Will I bet on the even card deck? are 5 Troglodytes better than 1 summoned demon?

As I said, this game is very unique – firstly because its a-symmetrical nature which makes it feel like 2 different (utterly balanced, in my opinion) games, and second because in about 15 minutes you can finish learning the rules and start playing a game that is really simple to learn but hard to master. When it’s all wrapped with the magnificent art and design all I can say is – buy it. Get it. It’s worth every penny. Every game is like a story to be told.