Judicator

Sentinels of the Multiverse is an excellent card-driven game. Each player takes the role of a non-licensed superhero through a specific deck of cards. A villain is chosen, also played through a specific deck of cards. Finally, an environment in which the epic battle takes place is chosen, also played through a specific deck.

Game play is actually quick and fairly simple. The Villain deck cycles and bad guys attack. The heroes get to draw a card, play a card, and use a power. Finally, the Environment deck cycles and effects occur.

The devil, as they say, is in the details. The interaction between the Villain effects, Hero powers, and environment cards is where a fair amount of book-keeping is required.

The goal is to get the Villain down to zero hit points before all of the heroes fall in battle.

I suppose that given enough time, the game could be mathed-out and “solved”, but the puzzle-like nature of the game is dwarfed by the evocative and well-drawn artwork. The game was practically created to have expansions, as all you have to do is add decks of Heroes, Villains, and Environments.

What Brings This Game to the Table?

The hero decks do not change, so it is fairly easy to hand a new player a deck of cards and briefly describe the feel of that particular hero.

Knowledgeable players will be able to pick the decks to give to which players, and which villains and environments to face.

Play occurs fairly quickly, and everyone gets involved. There is a sense of helping each other out, and trying to cover for each other’s weaknesses.

Victory! Good Sentinel games come down to the wire, with most heroes only having a few hit points left, and wins are exciting.

What makes people *not* want to see this game again?

Playing the *wrong* hero. There are a few heroes (like Visionary) that simply aren’t going to appeal to most players. For first time players, go with heavy hitters.

There is a chance, as in most co-ops for “alpha player” syndrome; that is, one player impressing their decisions on other players. Let them do their own thing!

Picking too hard of a villain. If playing with new players, don’t go foe the hardest villain in the box.

Should I Buy the Expansions?

There is a lot of game in the initial box. If you get at least 20-30 plays out of it and still want more, I would definitely consider purchasing an expansion. Each expansion adds exactly what you would expect: more heroes, more villains, more environments. The sets go in and out of print and are fairly cheap, start from the first and go from there.

Monopoly Deal! is a fun little card game that tends to make gamer’s ears perk up. No matter what kind of gamer you consider yourself, chances are you have probably played the somewhat mediocre game of Monopoly. While this card game won’t take you days to complete a game, it is missing a feeling of completeness in the ruleset.

The gameplay itself is simple. Each turn you play three cards from your hand, and draw two. When you run out of cards, you get to draw back up to five cards.

There are only a few kinds of cards: Property, money, and action cards. The goal of the game is to collect three property sets from the popular board game. Money cards are used as a buffer to stop people from taking your properties through charging you “rent”. Action cards provide the “meat” of the game, and are also the source of some of my bad impressions.

Let me say this first: the game is fun. There are moments of groans, and triumph, and generally the game last 15-20 minutes and then you want to move on to something else. It takes 2 minutes to teach the game, and set-up/cleanup is instantaneous. Basically the perfect filler.

The bad taste in my mouth comes from a flaw in the rules. Whenever a card is played on the table as either property or money (and every action card can be played as money), it’s taken out of the game forever. Technically, every single card from the entire deck could be placed on the table with zero intereactions between players. There could be no winner.
On the more realistic side, what happens if there is no quick vicotry is that all the property and money comes out of the deck. Then, the game becomes a search for the overpowered actions cards that instantly steals property or whole property sets.

In summary: This is a fun game that perfectly fits its filler trope, but don’t look at this as any kind of game to think serious thoughts over.

As a strategic board gamer, I love long, involved, and intense games. However, it can be hard to get friends together or make time for those lengthy gaming sessions. This is where Bohnanza, an early work of famed game author Uwe Rosenburg (Agricola) comes in. The game takes about 5 minutes to teach, and last between 30-40 minutes. I have personally played this game about 15 times.

This game of “bean economics” has two major elements: set collection and dynamic social trading. The overall point of the game is to collect sets of beans, then exchange them for coins (Victory Points) at the appropiate times. Sets of beans are generally worth between 1 and 4 coins, depending on how many of the beans you have collected.

Here is a quick overview of a turn in the game:

First, you *must* plant the first (and can optionally plant the second) card in your hand. Your planning is hindered because you can’t change the order of the cards in your hand. On top of that, you can only collect two sets at a time (expandable to a third), thematically handled as your available “bean fields”. If forced to plant a new kind of bean in one of your fields, you must sell the beans you have collected thus far. Even if it nets you zero points.

Second, you draw two cards and place them face up in front of you. You must either plant them in your own fields, or trade them away to other players. You may also trade card from your hand, clearing out the cards you don’t want in hopes of collecting the beans you are working on. This is the main focus of the game, as trading is the main component of the game and the key to victory.

Finally, you add a few cards to the back of your hand depending on the number of players in the game.

There are several things that make this game interesting play after play.
First is the differing value of beans. It takes a few plays to really grasp the value of the beans, but over time you’ll find yourself agonizing a bit over which beans to plant.
Second is the social dynamic that comes up between the player themselves. The trading is left open, so alliances, future trades, and backdoor deals happen naturally over the course of a few games. For me, this adds a huge fun factor to the game. The social aspect makes the game different with each group of people.
Third are some of the minor intelligent design aspects of the game.
a. The game ends when the deck had been completely drawn three times. It seems slow through the first run, but as beans are sold and become coins the deck thins and suddenly there is a rush to the finish.
b. As the beans themselves become coins (the back of the cards is a picture fo a coin), groups of beans are permanently taken from the deck, changing the value of beans during each game.
c. The beans themselves have simple, but memorable names. Each group of people I played with have their own nicknames for the cards.

Overall, this a must-have for anyone that likes games you can play with anyone. It is a perfect game for “non-gamers”, fun to play drunk, and generic enough to not scare anyone away.