Kris

I can’t speak for the First Edition but Descent Second Edition is a lot of fun.

While it can be played with 2-5 players, I think that 4 – 5 is ideal. One player plays the “bad guys” and is the Overlord and the other players are the “good guys” or heroes. Once you play the introductary quest the other scenarios are designed to be played in sets of 2.

You can make your own quests, but there are a bunch that are ready to go and look to be very well balanced. Each Quest has specific victory conditions for the Overlord and the Adventurers. Both players and the Overlord can “level up” and get new items, spells, abilities or cards(for the Overlord).

Once the group decides what quest they are playing and choose the Overlord player then you set up the board according to the Quest Guide. Each Quest shows you which tiles to place and what goes on them. The Overlord gets a deck of cards that can be used during the game for special effects or abilities. Some are made to slow down or hinder the party’s movement, cause them damage, and some help give the monsters some extra cool things to do.

The number of monsters varies based upon the number of players and is indicated on the back of the monster cards. Most of the Quests give the Overlord the option to pick one extra set of monsters that they want… in addition to the other monsters that are part of the scenario. The back of the cards for the monsters show what traits they have and the Quest indicates what traits are best for the Quest. This helps add depth to the game and allows you to replay Quests and still have a totally different experience each time.

The players choose which character they want to adventure with – there are plenty to choose from. Each character has special abilities and items that they can choose from. The characters have basic abilities to start out with and can advance into new ones as the game progresses from Quest to Quest (if the optional Campaign Rules are being used – which I highly recommend). Choose a character that you think is cool, but there is a limit on how characters can be from each archetype.

Once the players are ready the Overlord will reveal the Quest, lay out the board and place the monsters as indicated. The players place their adventurers on the board as indicated and the journey begins.

Players go first and can each typically do two actions: Move, attack, use a skill, rest, search, revived a hero, stand up, open/close a door, and special.

They can go in any order and must work together in order to accomplish the objective.

Once they have all finished, the Overlord gets to activate their monster groups: move, attack, open/close a door and special.

The Overlord also gets to play cards – sometimes on their turn and sometimes on the Adventurers’ turn.

Combat, ability checks and actions are al performed by rolling the dice that come with the game. The dice are really cool and compliment the game very well. Each one is designed with a certain purpose: the red, blue, and yellow are used as attack dice and the gray and black are used for defense. Each of the attack die have either a number, some hearts or a lightning bolt. These are used to attack, initiate special abilities or determine range. If hit, the grey or black dice are used to lower the amount of damage taken.

I don’t think that I can do this game the justice that it deserves… you will have to play it for yourself. We only got through the intro. game and a couple of Quests and I can’t wait to play it again soon. I was the Overlord BTW… -Good Gaming

I see from the news that several conventions made their way onto the site and I would love BoardGaming.com to have a place where we can go and see what Cons are coming up soon. Currently I have to go searching for them in several different places, but I would rather find them here. The pictures and videos were great and I can’t wait for my next Con to come around the corner. U-Con may be next, but I have a Halloween party to attend…

I am trying to get some of my friends and family to use the site because they always want games for gifts – especially at Christmas time. It will be so easy to shop this year… once they have their own accounts I will just jump on over to their Wants page, see what they want vs. what they have, make a few notes, check the prices, and order up some games…

BoardGaming.com is awesome! I have found several games that I would never have stumbled upon without this site. I like the game reviews and love the tips and strategies. Look back in the News for some hidden Gems – that’s what I did.

…I have no real Cons so say about BoardGaming.com… Good Gaming!

Tsuro is very simple to play and can easily play with more than four players. Most or our games run under 30 minutes and some are done in less than 15.

1. Play a tile
2. Move your marker
3. Draw a tile

The game ends when the last person has a marker on the board.

Even though the game is simple to play it is difficult to master. Just when you think you have the best strategy in mind, an opponent plays a tile, and you are out of the game. Not to worry, the games don’t take too long and you will be back in again.

Once I convinced several people who “don’t play those kind of games” to play Tsuro they were hooked. The game appeals to strategy gamers, but you don’t have to be a strategist to play well. It’s great when a six year old totally destroys the chessmaster.

Each tile that you play has a different design of lines that once placed will create a wide variety of paths. If a marker is on one of these paths, the marker will be moved forward until it 1) can’t move any farther because it’s at the edge of a tile 2) moves off the board (that player is out of the game) 3) runs into another player (both are out of the game).

There is a Dragon Tile that helps you keep track of who’s turn it is to draw and will help determine the winner. It comes into play when tiles are not available and a player needs to draw – they would instead draw the Dragon Tile. If another player is eliminated their tiles become available and the Dragon Tile holder gets to draw the first tile. They then set aside the Dragon Tile for the next player unable to draw a tile.

It is possible to have a tie, but we don’t run into it very often.

Tsuro is a game for almost every taste…

Smash Up is a fast and exciting card game.

Basically you are fighting to take base cards using the cards in your deck – a combination of two factions. The great thing about the game is the racial combinations that you can play. The possible combinations that we played were Pirates, Aliens, Ninja, Dinosaurs with Lasers, Zombies, Wizards… eight factions total.

Each Base that you fight for has varying rewards and only pay out to three (sometimes less) of the four players trying to smash the base by having the most minions points on that base. Each faction has a different mechanic that allows them to fight for the bases in different manners and smash the minions of the opponents.

The game can be played with 2, 3 or 4 players but is best with four.

It took us just over half an hour to play with four players.

The first couple games we played had too many players to get a good feel for the game. The rules were a little vague on some issues. We had so many monsters on the board we quickly go surrounded and could not move – let alone get to the spawning portals. We tried to balance out the game by limiting the number of portals that could spawn enemies to one, but then the party walked over the monsters. We couldn’t find a balance and I wasn’t about to put the game up for good. The minis were awesome and Erika and Julie spent so much time painting them…

We put in a few rules variations to balance out the play and it worked out pretty well. We decided that only one monster portal would spawn each turn after the first, but it was too easy for the party. Starting the party in different locations and adding to their movement speed helped a little, but they still rolled over the boss. Everyone ran past the enemies, teamed up and stomped on the monsters. We didn’t want to put this game into retirement yet, so we made it a rule that each character was locked in their area until they killed at least one monster. This gave the monster player some time to come up with a strategy and put a few blockers in the way. The game went much faster because the monsters weren’t churning out in record numbers and the players got to use their abilities more.