Craig

Let’s start this off by saying that I love Quarriors. It might even be my favorite game. A deck builder with dice, fast set up, and even deep but understandable strategy? Perfect. I’ll play that all day.

Now there’s a 2 player version? With combat you say? It’s based on Marvel superheroes?! Hold all my calls and start up the party bus, my life is complete with a Marvel themed Quarriors.

Oh wait. I need to buy booster packs? They’re only a dollar, I guess that isn’t terrible.

I can just buy a box for the discount right? Only 50% of boxes even have the super rares. I was particularly unlucky when BOTH boxes I bought didn’t contain a super rare.

Want to actually play in tournaments? Better have all of the super rares, because this game suffers from the rarest stuff being strongest by miles. I went to my first tournament after only getting the starter pack and 20 boosters, and got crushed every single game by people who bought the rarest single cards for upwards of $60 a piece, and then got laughed at for not having them. I’m not made of money.

This is essentially Wizkids trying to turn Quarriors into Magic the Gathering, and they succeeded, which means I hate it. You basically pay to win.

However, playing it casually at home with a friend for funsies? Total winner. So just do that.

I was able to get my hands on this a while ago thanks to backing it on Kickstarter. I liked the look of it, and it sounded like there was a good amount of civilization building in that easily portable box. Turns out, that’s exactly what it is.

This is a game of resource collecting and territory control. On your turn, you chose an action, like move a meeple to an adjacent territory or other player’s land, trade your resources, or research new abilities. All other player’s then chose to copy your action, or just collect resources from the areas they control. Forests get you magic, fields get you food, mountains get you bricks. You spend these in war to take areas from your opponent when you move onto a territory they control, to research, and get victory points.

The game proceeds like that until someone has built or researched everything, and then victory points are tallied.

There’s even a 2 player variant that works really well, and is what I have played the most. A 3rd land is put down under control of NPCs. Whenever you move onto their areas to start a war, your opponent spends resources to support the poor meeples and stop you from gaining the territory.

The kingdom cards do feel a little low grade, but since all they do is sit on the table and have meeples placed on them, it doesn’t bother me. I really enjoy the art, because it makes it look like a very talented child did all of it, and that’s pretty adorable.

I recommend picking this one up and having in your collection. It deserves all of the table time you give it, and will be a solid mainstay for fans of civ building that are pressed for time.

I really do enjoy this game. I first played it with a customer in the FLGS I work at after a shift. He gave me a quick run down of what each card does, the actions available on your turns, and what you needed to do to win. Within a few minutes of opening the box, we were off and playing.

On your turn, you take two actions. Your three choices are:
Discard cards and redraw up to 6.
Play a card to you action area and resolve effects. (As long as a card doesn’t match one in your Guildhall or action area already by color or type.)
Buy a Victory Points card.

After playing cards to your action area they are placed into your Guildhall. If you’ve made a set of all 5 colors of the same card type, you “close the chapter” and flip the pile over.

Play continues with players taking their turns until one reaches 20 Victory Points.

Strategy comes in very quickly. Card effects get stronger the more of the same you have in your Guildhall, but you cannot play duplicates, so playing the last one or two you need is hard to come across. Sometimes you will give swap cards to other players Guildhalls so you can replay one from your hand. Sometimes having a couple of your guys assassinated isn’t so terrible, because you’re holding spares in your hand.

Turns can go very quickly, and can sometimes take a while. I’ve played four player games with experience Guildhall players that took 20 minutes, and ones that have taken 45.

There’s some spite moves in the games, and some quite fun “Ah Ha!” moments that keep things fresh. The game sets up really quickly as well. A quick shuffle of two decks, pass out some cards, and get started.

Overall, this is a game that I have a lot of fun playing every time it hits the table. I play it whenever I get the chance to, and it’s usually ready and waiting in my car. It’s a game that quick to teach and great to play, and so I never let it be too far away.

If you’re ever in my store, ask me to play. I’m always ready to show how much my Guildhall is better than yours.

For those who have played BANG!, then you know how most of it works. Someone plays as the Sheriff, while others play as the Deputy, Outlaws, or Renegade, but you only know who the Sheriff is. The other roles are a secret. Each role has a different goal. The Sheriff and his Deputies must kill all the Outlaws, who need to kill the lawmen. The Renegade needs to be the last man standing by helping to eliminate the Outlaws and then the lawmen.

Each player is given a character card which has a special ability, like getting an extra health for Beers, or using the Gatling Gun with only 2 symbols. These also determine what your starting and maximum life total are.

The dice have 6 different symbols on them. Dynamite, which can’t be re-rolled. Arrows, which makes you immediately take an arrow from the pile. Beer, which will heal you. A target with 1 or 2 inside, which allows you to damage someone either 1 or 2 spots away. Three Gunshot, which lets you damage everyone if you roll a set of three. Aside from Dynamite and Arrows, everything resolves at end of turn.

On your turn, you roll all your dice. You have two more rolls of any number of dice you want. Once all your rolls are over, you resolve the results.

If you take the last arrow from the pile, then the Indians attack! Everyone takes a damage for each arrow they have. If you end up with 3 Dynamites, your turn is over, take a damage, and resolve any results you have.

The game overall is a bunch of fun and fast moving. Even in the larger 7 player games I haven’t noticed any of my players getting bored while waiting for their turn to roll. Everyone is invested what the others are doing, and trying to determine who is what role.

The components are of good quality too. The dice are larger and very solid. The bullets for life totals and arrows are made from a nice and thick cardboard. The character and role cards feel great, and I’m not worried about them getting messed up too easily.

This game is a fantastic, more portable option to BANG! The Card Game. My set of BANG! is quite large now with all the expansions out, but BANG! Dice is all snug in a nice little box. This game will be used for all my BANG! games except for my more hardcore crowd of players.

This game is currently an open demo at the store I work at. I learned to play it to teach others, and didn’t expect to care much for it, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’ve now played it at least a dozen times, and that’s not counting the times I was teaching customers.

You start by picking your color / character, and randomly placing the temples, of which there are three colors (Purple, Blue, and White). Blue Temple pieces give victory points, Purple Temples give special one time use powers, and White Temples give a passive permanent bonus but you can only have one White Temple piece at a time. Everyone starts at base camp, and the game begins!

The mechanics are simple. Move, then Explore. You get two movements, Uneplored and Explored. Unexplored means you move a long a path you haven’t place a pathway on. Explored means you move along your already placed pathways, for as long as they are connected.

Once you stop moving, you can Explore. This means you spend a ration and flip the top token of the place you are on. Ruins let you place pathways, Temples give you special abilities.

Once the pile of three Ruins, or the entire Temple, has been explored you place a Relic. Green Frogs go on empty Ruin spots, Blue Birds on Blue Temples, White Skulls on White Temples, and Purple Statues on Purple Temples.

Once there are two of the same Relics on the board, you can do a Relic Run. Start your turn at one, and if you can Run all the way to the other, you collect it for 5 points! The game ends when a certain number of Relics based on player number has been collected.

Overall, this game is rather simple, but incredibly fun. The randomization gives it an incredibly high replay value. Each character has a special ability, but none are too strong as to break gameplay. It also plays well with any number or players, but four makes it the most hectic and fun.

While I still don’t own it, I will certainly be purchasing it as soon as my store stops displaying it! And hey, if you’re ever in my area, I challenge you to out Relic Run me. 😀

My friend and I picked this up from our local gaming store in 2006, looking for a strong two-player strategy game. Something to play when our girlfriends who hated heavier games weren’t around. A game for MEN, INTELLIGENT MEN, with a long running board game rivalry. The store owner turned us onto this, and we still play it to this day, at least 5 times a year.

Each character has their own special ability, and there are items all around to help out. Some disarm traps. Others more efficiently twist the dungeon rooms (hence the name). A couple are ranged combat, most are melee.

The character stats are easy to memorize, and are listed on their cardboard standees for those who haven’t memorized yet. What the items do are obvious, but can make a real difference in combat.

The object is to get 5 Victory Points. You can try to run all your guys out your opponents side of the board, or maybe you get the treasure out. You can try eliminating all your opponents characters, or combine them all for faster victory.

The theme isn’t all that strong, but I play it not for theme, but strategy. Early on there was a lot of thinking pauses and what not, but now a days our games go pretty quick, with a single wrong move costing you the game.

I feel this is a definite buy for the long-term, best friend rivals.

I’m gonna keep this short and sweet, because I’m assuming if you’ve hit this page then you own Legendary, and given that truth there’s not a lot that needs to be said.

There are two new masterminds, Galactus and Moleman, and five new heroes, being the Fantastic Four (duh) and Silver Surfer. As a large Marvel Comics fan, this is the expansion I’ve been waiting for. Silver Surfer is in my top 5 superheroes of all time, and the Fantastic Four play like you’d expect.

The new keyword here is Focus, and it works well, and is also completely necessary. Legendary players know that getting over 20 attack power with the base and first expansion is doable, but Focus makes it much easier. Which is good, because Galactus needs to be defeated with 20 attack power.

It all boils down to this: Do you own Legendary? If yes, then this is an immediate buy. It’s a nice, small, inexpensive add-on to an already great game in your collection.

This game finally allowed me and my three closest nerd friends to finally figure out who was Nerd King. There was a movie nerd, a comic book nerd, a video game nerd, and a board gaming nerd, but all of us had vast knowledge outside of our main realms as well.

The game is fun, and addictive, and the table talk for us got wildly out of hand quickly, but we’re a passionate, angry bunch, so it might not happen to all. The system is easy. You roll the dice to find out your category, and get read the item off the card. Maybe you need to name six characters Stan Lee created, maybe you have to name 2 Elves of Middle Earth, or 5 named spaceships.

The bidding aspect adds an extra layer of fun. I might have been asked to name 8 alien races from video games, which I could, but the video gamer among us bid out that he could name 10. Should we all try to push our luck and bid him higher, hoping he couldn’t name more? What if he backs out and dumps it on me and suddenly I have to name 15?

The components are pretty well made. The dice on the box showed it as being a white plastic with color stickers on the sides, but I got a wooden one. Normally I’m really happy about wooden components but the white and yellow sides are really hard to tell apart when surrounded by wood’s color.

We had a great time playing it, and if you have a group of nerdy friends that are will to trivia battle, then you certainly will too. My copy will definitely see a lot more play.