Capt.Pegleg

What is it about?
In Arkham Horror the city Arkham is overrun by monsters. A Demon opened Portals to other dimensions is flooding the city with hordes of enemies. You have to close the portals together with your friends to free the city.

How does it play?
Arkham Horror is a Coop game. every player selects on of the many characters. In every turn you can gather special markers that you need to seal the portals or you can fight the monsters so the city is not overrun or you can go through the portal and try to close or seal it.

What do I think?
Arkham Horror is not easy to learn. And it can be quite challenging. Personally I never have won the game so far and I played it quite a few times. The Theme is nice and I am sure there are a lot of people that like this game. My Issue with the game is that it does not feel like a Coop game. Player interaction is quite difficult because everybody is trying to get rid of the hordes of monsters by himself. Gathering the portal closing markers and giving it to other players is also not easy because traveling takes some time.

Do you want it?
For the power gamer out there that likes Coop and the theme this game could be interesting. For the casual gamer the game is too complex, not rewarding enough and quite long. One game takes about 2 – 3 hours.

Dominion is a card based game where you have to buy new cards by using the ingame currency. Also called deck building game.
Your goals is to get the most victory points. Because these Victory points can by quite expensive you have to build up your deck to have enough money on your hand.

In Your turn you play some of your cards, buy new cards and draw cards again. You can explain the rules in I think 10min to the casual gamer. There are some nice cards like militia or the witch that make the live of your opponents a little bit harder.

The fun about this game is, that you have a lot of different cards. I play it only with randomized playing decks (10 randomized cards out of 20+). This way every time I play Dominion it feels different.

Because of the neutral Theme this game can be played by everybody. If you are looking for a (card) game with light player interaction and that is easy to learn, then check out Dominion. I am sure you will like it.

Earth Reborn is a 2 – 4 player war game. I think it is best played with 2 players. It plays similar to round based tactic shooter like Jagged Alliance (PC) because you move step by step, you have a line of sight, action points and so on.

I like the game because of the theme you almost feel as if you are part of the game. The possibilities you have are also great. But the complexity makes it very difficult to find somebody that is willing to play with you. It takes a lot of time to get used to the rules. Explaining the rules to others is like a game in the game itself.

This game is definitely nothing for casual gamers. If you have somebody who is willing to invest a lot of time into a game and you like complex war games then maybe you should check this game out.
For my personal taste it is a little bit too complex.

Lord of the Rings the Living Card Game is a Coop card game based on the Lord of the Rings universe. Your goals is to fulfill a quest, defeating monsters and explore locations.

I was eager to get my hands on this game as a complex replacement for Pandemic. But After some plays I found it extremely difficult and…boring. I don’t feel drawn into the game. Defeat monsters, go questing (if you have left some characters) and hope that you have some willpower left to continue the quest. It reminds me of Battlestar Galactica. Easy to loose, hard to win. As for a Coop game I found the player interaction very basic.

As for now I can not recommend this game. If you are looking for a Coop game check out Pandemic, Battlestar Galactica or Defenders of the Realm. If you are looking for a LCG then have a look at Game of Thrones.

In comparison to the original Small World there are some nice new things. I really like the new relics and location based bonuses. There are some nice new races but personally I like the ones from the original Small World more.

If you already own Small Word I am not sure if you should buy Small World Underground, because you will get only the relics in addition.

If you do not own the original Small World I suggest you by Small World Underground instead of the original one.

I played quite some game games of Pandemic. At first you are a little bit overwhelmed because you don’t know what to do. But after you understand how to cure the diseases and the more effective ways of traveling the game gets quite interesting. It is always nice to get most out of your team (team composition changes with the games).

What I like is that you can modify the difficulty level. What I did not like is that if you are unlucky and get two outbreaks in succession that is extremely hard to survive another outbreak. If you like Co-Op games then you try this one out. Because of the neutral theme is is also interesting for to more casual audience.

Starcraft is a board game conversion of the PC game. You play as one of the three races (Human, Zerg, Protoss). Tasks to be done are collecting resources, building units, researching new technologies and keeping you opponents at bay. The fights are solved without using any dice what I really appreciate. The three races feel different enough to have a different experience depending on what race you play.

If you like complex war games and science fiction then you should check out this game. But don’t be surprised if you play 3 – 4 hours.

When I played this game I felt as if I play a card based first person shooter. Mow down dozens of enemies move forward, mow down dozens of enemies…

What I am missing here is a goal that makes me wanna kill every last of these genestalkers. Instead I felt like kill me so it is finally over.

Munchkin is like an card based RPG game. It is fun but later on it gets very annoying because everybody is bashing the (almost) winning player.

At the beginning you are nothing but a normal human. Later on you can switch races (dwarf, elf, etc.), classes (mage, priest, etc.). The overall game is quite funny and the items are responsible for most of that fun (e.g. chainsaw of bloody dismemberment).

Overall the game is fun but the issue with the bashing at the end of the game breaks it for me.

My first game of Cosmic Encounter was a 6 player game. And it rocked. It felt a little bit like Munchkin. First everybody is helping you but as soon as somebody seems to win the game tides change and everybody will go against the “winning” player.

In Cosmic Encounter your goals is to own settlements on other players planets. The main way of getting these settlements is by force, meaning invasion. Because of the limited amount of spaceships you can use for invasions you always rely on the favor of other players. That being said the game only seems to be average. What the game really makes it shine are the special abilities your player race has. Most of them can change the game in an instant. The most fun is to surprise players with your special abilities when they think all is won.

If you like battling other players and have a bigger group of players (4+) then you should try out this game. The ridiculous amount of different races (about 100) makes no game as the one before.

The first time I played Power Grid it was a little bit underwhelming. It takes some time to understand everything. In the second play I could concentrate on what I want to to do instead of learning the rules.

What I liked was the way the resources (Oil, Cole, Nuclear) are handled. Demand defines the price. So do you go for expansive atomic power plants or more versatile plants. The power plant auction is also very good implemented. I always asked myself to buy a new shiny plant or save some money for the resources.

I know a lot of people that don’t like SciFi or Fantasy themed games. If you are one of them and like strategy games then this game is the right thing for you.

The best thing about this expansion are the goals. They make they game by far more interesting. A must have for everybody who liked the base game.

I hoped the lack of player interaction will be gone with this expansion. But the requirements for taking over other planets are ridiculous. In our games it happened maybe once per game if at all.

I played about 10 games of Race for the Galaxy and after that I don’t think I will play it soon again. I am missing player interaction and creating a plan on what to concentrate is almost futile.
My issue with this game is that you have no idea what cards you will get. Do go down the alien artifact road or something else?
To me the game felt like I am not really in control.

I played some LCG from Fantasy Flight now (Warhammer Invasion, Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones) and I must say Game of Thrones is by far the best. Yes, it is not easy to learn, but if you like player interaction this game is the right thing for you. Do you kill some of the opponent’s character? Or do you try to steal some power from opponents? While doing that you still have to take care of yourself.
I don’t know Game of Thrones – The Board Game, but the card game is challenging and is a lot of fun.