David

Descent is a dungeon crawler that allows both the players and the GM (who becomes the evil overlord) to play. The game offers a few different modes of playing: single quest, epic play (basically single quest with a bit of skill and item customization) and the great and truly epic campaign mode (where you build up your character over a series of many quests). The campaign mode can last over 10 hours so it’s expected to be played over many sessions, which is why the game includes a pad which allows you to record both hero and overlord progress.

The game is fun. Heroes will encounter many monsters and locations over the course of the campaign (both indoor and outdoor locations). There are regular monsters and master monsters, and also lieutenants (which are somewhat like heroes, but on the overlord’s side) and quest specific monsters. The amount of monsters scale with player, although it is generally harder with 2 heroes, and easier as you increase the amount of heroes.

The Overlord also gets to have fun. He gets to control the monsters, but also play his Overlord cards to hinder the progress of the heroes (some are traps, others boost his own monsters). The Overlord cards can also be upgraded over the course of the campaign.

The balance is fine. Perhaps some quests may favor one side, while others favor the opposite side, but generally they are fairly balanced. In fact, if you check out the boardgamegeeks forum, you will see that some players have compiled polls and spreadsheets allowing other players to vote on the difficulty and win rate for different quests, and statistically they are quite balanced. Of course, it’s is important for both sides to remember the win conditions and read the rules properly. A rule incorrectly understood or a bunch of heroes too keen on killing rather than completing quest objectives will tilt the favor to the other side.

The components are also great. The figures are well made and detailed, while the cards, boards, and tokens are of great quality (as is usually the case with FF games).

Overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in the dungeon crawling or RPG genre.

King of Tokyo is a fun little casual game with a good amount of depth. In this game, you are trying to be the King of Tokyo by either getting 20 stars first, or killing all the other monsters. While there is a victory condition, the game is best played light-heartedly, perhaps even with a little role-playing thrown in.

In King of Tokyo, each player starts off outside of Tokyo, and they take turns rolling 6 dies. Each players get 1 roll, then 2 re-rolls (such that they can re-roll any or all of the dies they rolled on the first roll) for a total of 3 rolls. Getting 3 or more of the numbers scores you some stars (and additional benefits if you get certain upgrade cards), the claws allow you to deal 1 damage per claw to all monsters either inside or outside Tokyo (depending on where you are), the lightning gives you the in game currency Energy, while the heart heals you (but only when you’re outside of Tokyo). After resolving your rolls, you have an opportunity to buy upgrade cards.

Of course, not being able to heal in Tokyo must entail that there is some sort of benefit for staying in there. Well there is: you get 1 star for entering Tokyo and an additional 2 stars per turn that you start in Tokyo.

The game is simply to teach, but there is a surprising amount of depth. The upgrade cards can change the game significantly (and some of them combo very well with each other), while having 2 re-rolls mean if you are low on health and rolling for hearts exclusively, it’s very unlikely for you to not get a single one (although it is of course possible). Which means while there are significant elements of luck, it is more of a game of risk management. You are constantly managing your energy, stars while avoiding the depletion of your hearts.

The above paragraph, however, likely completely misses the point of the game. This game is meant to be fun, and if your idea of fun is only to win, then perhaps you can carefully plan out your moves. However, for most, the fun will likely come in trying to roll 4 attack claws so you can finish off 2 monsters, even if you only have 4 hearts left yourself and are taking a huge risk! The great thing about this game is it offers something for everyone. You can play to win, or you can play to laugh. And the game is easy enough to teach, and the game lasts short enough that almost everyone can easily learn and play it at any time.

In conclusion, I highly recommend King of Tokyo to almost everyone since there is a little bit of everything for everyone in this game.

Power Grid is what Monopoly should have been. The goal of the game is to supply power to as many cities as possible when a player expands his network of cities to a certain point (dependent on the number of players). The result is a game where players have to carefully manage their network of cities (which in turn affects when they buy resources and add cities to their networks), their power plants, their resources, and their money.

The element of randomness is relatively low. There are no dice rolls and resources are resupplied according to a resupply chart. The only randomness comes from what power plants are being auctioned, and even then, because 4 plants are constantly in the “Future market” (plants that are not available to bid on, but will be as the Current Market gets sold) for the first 2/3 of the game, therefore this game rewards careful planning and anyone willing to do lots of math. This is the caveat: If you want to win in this game, you will need to do lots of math. Have a calculator ready.

That said, if you do not mind doing the math or extensive planning, then this game is for you. The game’s theme matches well with the mechanics. For example, resources increase in price as demand exceeds supply, and some resources become more commonplace while others become scarce as the game progresses.

There are also lots of player interaction in this game. You cannot play in solitaire mode if you hope to win, since you must look at what plants others have in order to determine what plants you should hope to obtain. How they expand their network will also affect how much you will have to pay to expand your own.

The components are high quality, and the board has two sides (One USA, the other European) so you can change it up a bit if you’ve played one map too much. The game plays well whether it’s for 2 players or 6 players.

Overall, I highly recommend the game to anyone who does not mind doing the math and planning. It cuts out everything illogical and random about Monopoly, and creates a great economic-strategy game.

Pros:
– Rewards careful planning and mathematical prowess (Just like if you were a business man!)
– Mechanics fit the theme
– Good quality components
– Good replayability
– Plays well from 2-6
Cons:
– Math intensive, might not even feel like a game to some