MikeP

When a member of my board game group pulled this out a few weeks ago a collective groan came from round the table. Invariably games with a theme developed from popular media are dissapointing at best and we expected no better from Firefly.

Boy were we wrong. This game not only captures the feeling of the series perfectly but is also well designed (game play and components) making the game highly enjoyable and extremely repayable.

The rules are easy to follow to most players. Very casual gamers may need a couple of reads of the rulebook, but should be fine after that. Game play follows you a captain of a firefly class ship travelling across the galaxy to do jobs from a number of contacts. Will you stick to the straight and narrow doing low paying but safe jobs for Hakan or try for the more lucrative illegal and immoral jobs from other contacts such as Niska or Badger. But beware if you get caught by the Alliance, fines and confiscation await you. Also beware the reavers, whatever jobs you do they will come for you. Both cruiser and reaver are controlled by your adjacent players meaning that most players remain engaged throughout the game. Additionally bettween jobs you can visit supply depots to buy upgrades or hire crew, pick up additional cargo or resupply yourself with parts and fuel needed to move quickly across space.

This game has quickly become a group favourite and is played at nearly every session

Eldritch Horror – A game of strategy and co-operation that is guaranteed to kill you most of the time.

I would like to start this off by mentioning that I am a big fan of the Lovecraft mythos, but have been put off from playing the major mythos game ‘Arkham Horror’ by the sheer size of that game. Therefore I was pleased to see Eldritch Horror at my local game store, as it seemed to be a more compact game to play. I was not disappointed.

The game components are beautiful and really well made. The components allow you to immerse yourself into the mythos and elevate the game to a must have for any gamer. The game mechanisms are fantastic, they are not novel but work really well with either two or six players. The rules are simpler to follow, which should make the game easy to play for most people. Be warned however, this is not an easy game! I usually lose the game 75% of the time, but I find that this is the allure of the game. You will get so into defeating the old one that defeat means something more than a standard game loss, which of course makes those rare situations when you win all the sweeter

One thing to point out is that with the full compliment of people the game can take a very long time; with 4 people the game should take roughly 3 to 4 hours, more than 4 needs to have a devoted afternoon. Therefore if you are going for a quick game, this is not for you.

Conclusion: I strongly recommend this game, however I suggest you avoid it if all you like are quick competitive games. A must have for the disciples of Cthulu!

As the winds whips the sand dunes in ancient egypt the ancient Gods rise up to do battle for the dominion of Egypt.

In Kemet, you take the role as one of the ancient Gods, having control of one of the cities on the map, which changes according to the number of players, always resulting in a small claustrophobuc environment which ensures lots of interaction

Gameplay:
The game works on a cylical procedure of night and day, were during the night phase resources such as prayer points and divine intervention cards are distributed, while during the day phase various actions as proscribed by your player card can be carried out. This includes praying for more prayer points, moving armies to do battle, constructing pyramids and purchasing technological advancments. The game is a fine balance of buying the right technolgies (which requires ownership of the right level of coloured pyramid [red, blue, white]) and brute force. Technologies are divided into three, spirtiual, defensive and agressive. Technologies are unique and what you purchase will change your game significantly. Combat uses a combination of troop numbers, technology bonuses (including any mythical creatures they may give), combat cards(which are common to all players) and the occasional Divine intervention card. Combat is not luck based, but requires strategy and bluff, were sometimes accepting a defeat which can wipe out your opponents army is a better choice than retreating.

Victory comes in the form of victory points (8 or 10 depending on whether you wish for a short or long game), that can be permanent (from combat victory, sacrifice or technology) or temporary victory points (obtained from occupation of temples, which are transferred as armies occupy and retreat from temples). The fast paced movment, using teleportation, mythical creatures and divine will make for a beautiful highly replayable game.

Pros
– Beautiful atrwork and high quality pieces
– Strategic game, does not depend on luck
– High replayability, no two games are the same
– Game plays smoothly, though has gone into mechanics design

Cons
– Units are unpainted (not really a con as it depends if the gamer likes to paint his own figures or not)
– A bit tricky to understand at first, but after a couple of rounds players soon get the hang of this

First of all although the Dungeons and Dragons logo is prominent on the outer box of this game, you need not be a fan of the franchise to play this game. There are no mechanics that lend to the D&D dungeon crawl, the association is purely thematic.

Game-play:

This is a worker placement Euro game. You start off by selecting a secret Lord of Waterdeep card which gives you a secret quest to do througout the game. During the game you may place agents on different areas of the city and recruit adventurers, set up quests, carry out intrigue or build buildings. Resources allow you to finish quests and score points, with some quests having long running effects or bonuses, such as an extra agent to play on your turn.

Pros:

– This is a beautifully laid out game. The insert is of very high quality and well thought through. You may think it’s a bit surreal for a review to go on about the box insert but the way it is laid out, with specific push areas to lift cards and round trays to organise adventurers makes the setting up and clean up after the game a breeze.
– The rules are simple. First time players are usually well in grasp of the game by round two. In my group last week, the newbie won the game!
– The game is quick and clever. You can have an easy game where everyone just goes for it trying to accumulate points or you can apply more subterfuge to the game by trying to trip up your opponents.
– The randomness of the Lord of Waterdeep card adds a certain element of uncertainty as you try to figure out what your opponents’ strategy is.

Cons:
– Adventurers; the are just coloured wooden blocks. This doesn’t matter to me, but based on the D&D marketing some gamers may be expecting painting figurines. Be warned.
– The D&D theme is very thin, this could be a bonus it really depends on the player

Who would enjoy this
– Family Gamers
– Avid Gamers
– Casual Gamers
– Strategy Gamers

Enjoy the Game!

Rarely does a game make me laugh so hard that I cannot breathe. This is one of these rare games. Without fail, with Gloom the evening will descend into side splitting laughter as the most awful things happen to your family. With the right crowd you may need oxygen – you have been warned!

First of all the quality of this game is superb with strong well made cards and the process and rules of play are beautifully simple.

You each start off with a family with different family members (Mr Giggles!) and play transparent cards over your or other players’ characters. Each card is transparent with negative (good) or positive (bad) points and a starting sentence such as ‘savaged by poodles’. It is up to the person laying down the card to come up with the narrative, i.e. why Mr Giggles was savaged by poodles, and so each game will vary depending on who you are playing with. My gaming group is dark so I am unable to repeat why Mr Giggles was savaged by poodles….. Playing cards to ruin your opponents score adds to the mirth, the only rule is that the narrative must flow. People who are into role-playing will love this

The game ends when you kill (yes kill) all members of a family, not necessary yours. Killing an opponents family member is a good idea if they have positive points.

All in all this is a fun game which can be awesome with the right group, that is really easy to play and easy to learn. Be warned however, this game can be a bit dry if played with people that are not into storytelling. The game is still playable, just not as fun!

Intro

Small Worlds was the very first game I bought and has been my Gateway to the wonderful world of board games. The set-up and mechanics of the game are so easy to grasp that even game-weary partners of my game group enjoy joining in. We have even managed to convert one into a board gamer!

Gameplay

The idea of the game is to control provinces on a small world map with your chosen race. Map sizes change based on the number of players meaning that the experience is similar regardless of group size. Character races are randomly generated using a race and special ability token which increases playability as no two games are likely to be the same. The clever part is that your race is doomed to over-extension, this is a inevitable part of being a successful conqueror. Once this happens you are forced into decline, where your race no longer is able to conquer but can still generate points. You then select a new race and begin conquering anew.

This means that while at the surface this appears to be a fairly simple game, it does involve a subtle strategy in the form of selecting the right race and knowing when to put your race in decline. Therefore although this can be classified as a Gateway game, it has the ability of making even the most avid gamer come back for more.

Summary (Pros)
> Flexible board size makes for a similar game experience regardless of group size
> Random character generation makes all games different
> Simple to learn, yet has subtle strategy
> Hilarious!

(Cons)
I honestly can’t think of any, this is one of those rare games that really is a must have.

Enjoy the Game!

Arabian Nights is a storytelling game for both avid and casual gamers. Based on the 1001 nights fairy-tales from the middle east, the game puts you in charge of a character (Aladdin & Sinbad for example) in order to tell his story.

Utilising a period map of the ‘known world’ your character can freely move across land and seas based on his/her wealth level. One arriving at your destination, based on a die roll, your current position, a card selection and amount of points gathered you have an encounter. Based on your choice of response your story progression. Due to the multiple variations that can occur due to dice rolls, card changes depending on time of day and lingering story effects, no encounter is the same. Outcomes are so varied, from sex-changes, to beast transformation, to treasure and the stumbling across rare places of power that after two years of playing the game regularly, I have never felt as though I was repeating a story.

The game is regular fun, to a unique point that when meeting in an non game environment we regularly laugh at what happened to our characters. We still laugh about crazy stories months after happening, how often does a game have that long-lasting effect.

One small point though, this game is not for power gamers. Although there is a point scoring system that allows you to win, we regularly ignore that to continue storytelling as this is the selling point of the game.

Enjoy the Game!