Connnr

“Betrayal at House on the Hill” is a great game, imagine a more advanced version of Cluedo where one player doesn’t just turn out to be the murderer, but is also trying to open a portal to ****, or is an alien trying to take everyone in the house to another planet.

“BatHotH” starts as a simple exploration game opening rooms in a large house and seeing whats inside, it might be a gun, it might be a dripping tap, or it might be three men hanging from nooses who then turn to dust when you get to close. Half way through the game the ‘Haunt’ will start, one of 50 scenarios based on the room that it started in and the ‘omen’ that triggered it. This feature gives the game huge replay-ability even if you end up playing a few of the haunts more then once before you’ve played them all.

The rules are contained in a 20 page rule book, which does mean that this isn’t a game you can just pick up and play. But I found as long as one player has read (most of) the rules then your fine to have a great time. The other thing to note is that the game takes a lot of room as you expand out the three floors of the house so don’t try to play this one on a coffee table.

All in all, this is a great game for players who are more experienced with table top games and can lead to endless hours of fun as you play through all 50 scenarios that this game comes with. A great value for money investment if ever there was one.

Epic Spell Wars is a great little game that creates a good casual balance of Skill vs Luck that makes it a fun warm up game for a games night or for when your and your friends don’t have enough time to jump into anything too time consuming.

The game mechanics though simple are actually quite clever, players play several rounds of creating spells and blasting other players. These rounds then make up a match that ends when there is only one wizard left alive, the surviving wizard gets a point and a new match begins. However what makes this simple game really clever are the dead wizard cards that players draw at the start of each round once they die these cards then provide the player with advantages in the next match. This mechanic helps to decrease the chance of a player being ganged up on and wiped out early into the match as it would only increase his or her advantage at the start of the next one.

Epic Spell Wars boasts some great art that looks like it came out of shows like Rick and Morty or Adventure Time, one of the great pleasures of this game is seeing what each card looks like and how the spell will look when it’s all put together.

Epic Spell Wars is fun, quick, and easy enough that players can learn the rules in a few seconds and definitely worth looking into next time you want one of those games that can inspire yours and your friends sense of humour.

Magic the Gathering is the most successful CCG in the world, I love playing it with my friends. But can never get to serious about it, because the nature of collectable deck-building games is that the person who spends the most money has a big advantage. Though many will argue that a really good player can win with a deck that is only ok, I’m just not to keen on the idea that money is a factor in how likely you are to come out on top. So for me Magic the Gathering will always be an awesome game to play with a few friends using store bought decks and I’ll always come back to it. But it’s not a game I’m willing to get too serious about.

Munchkin is a great game that let’s you enjoy D&D combat without the role playing. What I must love about this game is trying to level up other players enemies and then offering to help them slay it… for a price.
The core game comes with some great cards and the many expansions and spin-offs are all compatible with the main game meaning that you can have some really unique and interesting matches for years after buying the initial set. Definitely worth a go and a good way to ease people in to RPGs later on.

Monty Python Fluxx is another fun addition to the Fluxx franchise, though it fails to make it clear that cards focus on Holy Grail only, and not on other Python works. This version of the game is good fun, however if a player has not seen The Holy Grail then they will likely feel left out as many of the cards call upon the players knowledge of the film. With a great many references to a classic of British comedy Monty Python Fluxx is perfect gift for anyone who calls themselves a lover of The Holy Grail

Dixit is a great game that I’ve loved playing with different people, based on describing beautiful illustrated cards, so that some but not all other players guess yours the game is very simple in it’s mechanics. However Dixit thrives where other easy to learn games quickly become tiresome because of it’s encouragement of players imagination and own personal view on each card. I’ve loved seeing what different people think of when asked to describe certain cards and some have become great stories and links in themselves. I recommend this game as a great way to encourage people who are net yet into board games and for those who want to play a game where it really doesn’t matter if your winning or losing.

A fun little game, the theme of space is an improvement on the original Fluxx which felt a bit to bland. I like to use this game at the start of game-nights with people who don’t tend to play games very often as it’s easy to explain and it’s luck based mechanics meant that anyone could win it. Less enjoyable for those who didn’t get the references but I enjoyed the ‘similar yet legally distinct’ references including “Intergalactic Travel Guide” and the “Disposable Crewman”. However for more seasoned gamers Star Fluxx may feel to basic and become bored by the mainly luck based game.