Numare

So, I love Summoner Wars. Its one of my top games, and its actually my wife’s favorite game as well. So, of course, getting this app was a no brainer for us.

We downloaded it both for the ipod and the ipad. The ipod version isn’t so great. The screen of the ipod is too small to get the full scope of the game without zooming in, and even then it feels a bit uncomfortable to play with. A lot of reviewers have complained about this version, and i agree – it just doesn’t work so well for the ipod.

As for the ipad, its fantastic! The screen of the ipad is big enough for you to play the game without any difficulties. The controls of the game are very easy to learn, providing you know the rules, and the game itself plays well. There are a few abilities/card interactions that just don’t work for some odd reason. For example, one of the events I played didn’t work and some movement rules don’t work as well – but for the release out of the gate, its work wonderfully.

Buying expansions and additions is not too bad. Overall, its a solid app for those who love the game and its a great app for those who want to play it more often.

Let’s be honest – the market is flooded with deck building games. Its hard to not see all the different games coming out onto the market this day that involve a deck building concept. So, its becoming increasingly difficult to find a game that offers something unique. I can honestly say that Nightfall offers some very interesting mechanics.

Mechanically speaking, you start the game with a fixed deck. Each player starts with the same deck, so you can guess to a certain degree what the opponent COULD be playing at first. When you play cards, you start a chain. First you get a chance to play cards, then the opponent can play cards. The way this works is that you play a card, then you can play another card if its moon matches the color that the previous card creates. I know, that’s a bit hard to say – so let’s use an example. I play a werewolf that creates a yellow moon. The next card I play must cost a yellow moon to play. As you build your deck, you need to focus on how the cards can interact with one another to make the most out of the deck building process. Also you need to read the timing for the chain as well, as sometimes playing a card is not the best option for you – I’ve run into a few times where I hurt myself by playing certain cards at certain times. The game goes until all the WOUND cards are removed from the stack, with the player who has the most WOUND cards loosing.

I really like the idea of how you play cards using the chain system. It offers a lot of thinking because you need to time things right as well as how the synergy of the cards can best serve you. I also like how the game has a lot of teeth to it, no pun intended. It has a very aggressive feel to it and I can honestly say that it really does appeal to me – even if it may be a little too aggressive for some players. On the flip side, I feel that the game with just its base set is a bit limiting and the cards don’t always synergize as well as they should. I also think the game is a bit complex at first go, and it would take a few games for some players to get into the groove of the game.

Who would like this game? Well, card floppers for one. I think anybody who enjoys deck building games or who are coming from a CCG/TCG/LCG background they may enjoy this game. Its aggressive and in your face, and that’s what those kinds of games are built on. People who like an aggressive play style would enjoy the game, and people who enjoy a little more depth to their DBGs. Who would not enjoy it? Its a bit more aggressive, so players who don’t like confrontation in their game may shy away from it a bit. People who don’t like card games, and people who don’t like the dark goth-like theme of the game may not enjoy it either. I would definitely suggest trying this game as least once or two, it does provide a terrific game night I can honestly say.

Ghost Stories, I want to start out by saying, is a very fun game. Its a game, however, that you have to play an expect that you will very well lose!

Ghost Stories is a co-op board game where players assume control of different Taoist monks, each one with a little bit of a different ability. Each turn, new ghosts will enter the field of play and cause all sorts of different mischief – from haunting the villagers to making you lose life points to cursing you to locking you out from additional abilities, etc. etc. The object of the game is to defeat the final ghost, Wu-Feng, and while you the players have one way to achieve victory – the game provides several ways for you to lose the game – so the game itself is very stacked against you. In a way, I think that the game being against you is a good flavor of good against evil in a way – but that would be for a different kind of writing.

The games components are fantastic and very crisp. The art work on for the pieces is very nice and better than what I’d have expected for a game like this. As you could probably imagine, the game is based around an Asian art style and imagery. The gameplay is easy to pick up – I would say you can understand the basic rules quickly, but it’d take a couple of games to really get the feel for what you can do and what you shouldn’t do. Gameplay is fairly quick, and by quick I mean that the ghosts will probably eat you alive very quickly! When you try to defeat a ghost you will roll some dice. Each ghost has a different value that you need to roll – and the dice work by matching the colors to that colored ghost. Combat is actually pretty intuitive and easy to understand, actually, but it sucks when dice hate you.

Overall, I enjoy the game even though I’m a loser and haven’t beaten it yet. I have only played the solitaire version, however, as I haven’t gotten a chance to get my wife into the game (she says it looks a little scary). Its one of those games that continually beats me so I have found it to be my quest to force myself to beat the game somehow and someway.

Who would like this game? Well, the solitaire play is very good and strong – its very challenging, which is something I think solitaire games lack at times. So, if you play by yourself often – that’s a possibility. If you enjoy an asian theme in your games, or in general, you may enjoy the theme of this game. However, I think its strongest aspect is that its very co-op driven and that the challenge value of the game is amazing is one of the best features for it. Who would not like it? I know some people may be turned off by it being a co-op game. I know several players who want to play against others players and not WITH other players. It may be a bit too difficult, so the people who don’t like to lose may be turned off by it as well. Finally, combat is somewhat luck driven as its resolved with dice – so if you don’t like luck driven games or games that use any form of luck, then it may not be for you.

Ultimately – I love this game and I am playing it very often at the moment. Give it a try, its a very solid game that offers challenging gameplay that will be rewarding once you finally are able to beat it!

In Core Worlds, you assume the role of one of five different factions vying for control over the galaxy. To do this, you will play for 10 turns – each turn you will recruit new units, invade planets and just generally build a deck of cards for you to use in your quest to become the new leader of the galaxy. The premise behind the game is simple, and let’s be honest – we don’t play a deck builder for its story, most of the time.

From a game play perspective, this is relatively standard game for deck builders go. You can recruit 1 card per turn from a shared central area, but you have a pre-set number of actions that you can take based on what part of the game you’re in. With that said, there are a number of different ways that the game is different from other deck builders. First off, you don’t discard your entire hand at the end of the turn. Instead, you are able to keep one card. This allows for some deeper and more complex strategies to come into effect. Another thing is that once you put a Unit into play from your hand, you won’t discard that unit until you go around and invade a planet. So, the game does offer a few different things than the other deck builders offer.

Starting with what I like. The gameplay for this is really fun and addictive. I think that the idea of essentially having two different attacking values in its Fleet strength and its Ground Strength scores makes it really fun and diverse, and you need to essentially keep both fairly well balanced to be successful. I like how the game is presented into different stages, with more powerful units, tactics and more difficult locations as you go deeper and deeper into the game, which really makes the power level of the game get bigger and bigger. While not last, but the last I will list here, I love how simple the game is to learn and teach. It took me only a moment to learn the game and it took my wife just a couple of minutes actually playing the game to learn how its played too – the mechanics of the game are just very intuitive that you are able to hit the ground running pretty quickly and easily.

Not a whole lot to say about bad points, but there are some. I think that the cards themselves are rather poor quality in its stock. The cards felt like poker cards to me, in all honesty. Which is a shame because the art and design of the cards is really impressive. I think that the card design is A LITTLE bit confusing at times, and I found myself getting the numbers wrong at times because I looked at a different spot. But I think the one part that I felt the game was lacking is that you really don’t attack the other player. Sure, you are able to mess with their gameplan a little bit – but you don’t attack the opponent, and for a game like this I feel that the game really would be better if it had some teeth.

Ultimately, this is a fantastic deck builder and a good one to introduce somebody to this kind of game. Who would like it? If you enjoy a sci-fi theme, then its a great fit for you. If you like deck builders, then this would be a natural fit for you. Also if you want a light strategy game, this would be pretty good as well. Who would not like it? I think the game has enough to it to appeal to most audiences, but if you’re a power gamer then it may not be the best fit because you will probably end up playing the same way each game after a bit. I think that aggressive players, meaning the people who like to just eliminate others, may not like it for its lack of teeth as well. Other than that, I think most people may find something fun out of it, just to differing values.

So, I had heard about Battlecon sometime last year. At the time, I had looked at the game and was a bit torn by it. On the one hand, the premise of the game sounded very nice. A fighting game, different characters, each character playing differently – these are all great things in my book. Then, I looked at the art and was nearly turned off completely by the game. It looked gosh awful in my opinion and it was bad to look at, at least to me.Since then, I’ve played a few sample games of it and I think that is easily one of my favorite games on the market today just by the few samples that I have played.

Battlecon is set on the fantastical world of Indines. The setting mixes fantasy with light sci-fi and a little other pop cultural influences to create the setting. Here you have people in armor and using swords fighting with or against guys with guns and so you have the idea that the setting is rather varied and diverse. The game plays as a fighting game between two or more players, depending on what variation or rule set you work with. Each character has 20 life and the objective is to bring them down to 0. You do this by matching your character’s Style cards (cards that reflect the individual techniques and personalities of your character) with universal Base cards (generic techniques that all characters have) to create a unique attack that’s limited to your character. The game takes into account different aspects such as range, stuns, defenses and so forth and so each game can be very different and very interesting, even if you play the same character.

I honestly really only have great things to say about the game. The only thing that I really don’t care for about the game is the art, which even now is a rather big turn off for me. The art design is so varied in the game and lacks any real form of consistency. Everything from styling to colors to the inspiration behind the art, there just seems to be no consistency at all. Also, while I think it ends up being ok in the long run, I would have rather had more than a little bit of generic art used for the universal Base cards. Using generic pictures is rather bland and boring, however if we look at it as the idea that they are universal techniques than I feel that its ok since you don’t want to have them isolate single character or two for the attack.

Gameplay wise, it was extremely simple and easy to pick up. My wife and I had picked it all up really very quickly and within just a couple of minutes of explaining the game to her we were off and slugging each other. The gameplay is deceptively complex, and you have a lot of tough and interesting choices you have to make in your attacks – something is not easily seen by just looking at the rules or the cards themselves. Also, the characters themselves are interesting and built to be fairly different, so all in all a very good combination of things.

Who would I recommend this to? Well, if you are fans of any of the Fantasystrike games (Puzzle Strike, Yomi or Flash Duel) then you may like this game. There are some rather heated debates online as to which is better and people will have their opinion, but I feel the games are very similar in their feel and approach and that’s a good thing. If you enjoy fighting games on a console, then you may like this as well. If you want to try something different and unique you may enjoy this game too. Who would probably not like this game? Well, while there is a lot of strategy involved – I think power gamers may abuse the game to the point where they have their own set of rotations which can create some really tough dilemmas for their opponent, ultimately making the power gamer bored. Also, if you can’t stand inconsistent art work on cards – then this game may bother you as well.

Even with that said, I think this game has a great place in any collection. For only like $30 or so you get a huge assortment of characters, making this game giving players a lot of game for a pretty low amount of money. If you are on the fence with this game, then I also recommend going to the website and printing out the PnP demo decks like I had done – and decide if it fits your play style or not. I definitely am digging the theme and the gameplay that’s for sure. As a side note, one of the things I had found by accident is a testing for another game that the designers are working on to some form or other set in the Indines world, the Champions of Indines. Its more of an action, fighting tabletop RPG from the looks of it that I am going to try out at some point, but if you want to look at that you can also head to: http://champions.lvl99games.com/ and check out what they have to test out so far for that game. Again, try Battlecon – you at the very least will not regret it!

I just got Wiz War in the mail the other day and had a chance to run it through a couple of games. It really is a fantastic game, I think. It offers a lot of game play value, thinking, decent strategy and effects that can be a lot of fun.

In Wiz War, you are a wizard who is trying to either steal your opponents treasure or to kill the other wizard. You do this by moving around a maze-like dungeon, playing spells and just using your magic for fun trickery. Players will select at the start of the game 4 different magic schools. You will then use the cards from those schools of magic in a deck that you will draw from. The basic idea of the game is really quick and easy to understand, and if it was just that then I think the game would have suffered – but the variety of card effects you see within the game is flat out amazing.

Let’s start with the components. The box is a reasonable size for a board game – its neither too big or too small, but rather just right. The inside of the box seems to be your standard FFG flavor – from the inside construction to the cards being in ziplocked bags and a HUGE selection of tokens to punch out. The game boards are rather well constructed and have an eye catching design. The plastic sculpts for the game are really pretty good. Will the win an award for design? No, probably not – but the sculpt design is pretty good, especially for the transformation figures. The tokens are also pretty good and have a good image to them, just think there are too many of them. The best part of them, however, I think are the cards. The cards are very pretty, the art on them is very well put together. I love the art, which is a bit cartoony in its approach. Also, the card stock on the cards is pretty good too.

Gameplay wise, the game is very simple. Players of all ages can pick up the basics of the game quickly and easily through one discussion of the rules before hand and a play through or two. My wife was able to pick up the basics of the game rather quickly as we were playing through it, and was able to do pretty good once she had the feel for how it plays out. The cards work out beautifully with the game, adding variety of the experience and a lot of other neat things. One of the cards my wife really liked was a card that literally moved the board around a certain amount of degrees. Seeing how it was my board that moved, I can honestly say that it made me a bit dizzy and disoriented when it happened – it was great. The flavor of the cards also adds for some interesting encounters and experiences too.

With that said, I have to say that I really like the game – and can see it coming out on the table pretty often. Is it my favorite game? No, not really – but its still a really good game and I think definitely a good addition to my collection. Who would like this game? If you enjoy magic and wizards and such then this should be a no brainer I think. The game play offers some puzzle situations in the way you move, so if you enjoy a little bit more thinking to a rather light game then its a good choice as well. Its also a light enough game where younger players would be able to get into it fairly easily, so if you want to play a game with your children then this could be a decent choice too. Who would I not recommend it to? If you don’t enjoy a cartoony art style, then you will be turned off by the art of the game. The gameplay, while offering a decent amount of strategy, is still fairly light. If you enjoy intense games, then maybe you will want to try something else – but you could still find something of value here. The only problem we had was that my wife’s reading ability is not the best and the cards can, at times, have a rather HUGE wall of text – so if you have children who are still working on their reading, or just don’t want to read what a card says, then you may be a bit detracted from the game.

So, my final verdict? I like it a lot. Its a great game offering solid strategy and gameplay that would please anybody. Its a game that can be played well by most age groups and interests and really is a good fit for most collections. My wife felt it was a little complex, but I think it was just due to the wall of words on the cards. Overall, I would recommend it for most people!

I think that its a bit fitting that as I write this review, my eyes are looking for little ants that may be crawling on my desk. I absolutely hate ants, hate them beyond something words can describe. *Ahem* Anyway, we are talking about a different Hive.

Hive is an abstract board game in which the objective is to surround the opponents Queen. This can be done with a combination of your pieces and the pieces of the opponent. Gameplay works by moving 1 piece of yours onto the playing field, and then later moving things to try and surround the Queen.

I’ll be honest, this kind of game just doesn’t really appeal to me in the slightest bit. In general, I find most abstract board games to be rather dull and lifeless – with the possible difference being Go. Hive doesn’t do much to actually change this in general. Its nothing against the game so much as its just the type of game that I don’t tend to like too much.

With that said, who would like this game? If you enjoy games like Go or Chess then you will definitely love this game. There is a lot of strategy to be had in this game if you want to sit down and work it out, I suppose. Most avid and casual gamers may possibly enjoy this game too, because its fairly easy to pick up and learn – and it doesn’t take an amazing amount of time to play either. Who won’t like it? That’s hard to say really – my immediate assumption is that gamers like myself, who just don’t like the more abstract board gaming feel, may not terribly like the game too much.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy the game too much. Its more than likely due to me not liking abstract games much in general, but if you don’t like games like Chess or Go, then you may want to take a pass on this one – or just play a version that your friends have.

Let me begin this by saying that this review, while based on the game, is going off of the digital edition of the game available on both the iPhone and iPad. So, unlike my other reviews, I can’t really talk about the actual components of the game or the packaging.

In Ticket to Ride, you begin the game with a set of tickets. These tickets tell you what stations you will need to try to connect. You connect these lines by drawing, and then using, the same colored train part that equals the color you need to go from one station to another. The longer your train line is, the more points you will score. The game itself is pretty simple, but it still provides a great deal of strategy.

The rules for the game were easy enough to grasp that my wife was able to pick up the gist of the game in just a matter of minutes, and after that was really enjoying the game entirely. Its a game that’s pretty light and easy, but still provides a great deal of strategy as to what directions you will take the route and how to kill two birds with one stone.

Who would be interested in this game? Well, as said before, its a terrific gateway game. If you have a friend, child, wife or so forth that are not terribly into games – then you may want to try this one out. Its easy to pick up, and colorful too, so that people who tend to be non-gamers, or who are new to the hobby in general, may find it more appealing. People who are casual gamers will definitely want to check it out as well, as it provides a quick and easy evening with your friends and family. Avid gamers will like it because it can be a good game to play for the busy nights that you can’t get to the game store or hang with your group to play, either. Who is it not for? People who are very serious with their gaming may not like it because its not something that you can play hour upon hour playing. And while it has a good degree of strategy in it, its again more of a family game and so because of that the strategic depth is a bit more limited than you would find in other games.

With that said, this was one game where my wife wanted to play again right afterwards – something that this game shares in company with Summoner Wars. Its quick, its easy and its fun – what more can one look for in a casual game?

I got my Lord of the Rings Core set in the mail the other day and instantly was excited. This was one game I was looking forward to playing for a while now because, at my heart, I am a CCG player. The problem I’ve always had with CCGs, however, has been the cost to stay relevant in the game – and my lack of having anybody to play where I am. So, for me, the Lord of the Rings LCG offers something in both of my problems. The non-random nature of the packaging of the game is great for my wallet, and the solo play of the game is great for me who doesn’t have a consistent gamer to play these types of games with. So, how did I think of the game? I think its fantastic, and has lots of room to grow better and better.

Again, I want to say that these observations are based on the solo game rules. So, the experience may change based on having more players around. First off, the packaging! The game comes in a rather big box – smaller in size than the Summoner Wars Master Set, but fatter than that one too. Inside the box comes two sets of cards in a ziplock bag, sorted more or less into 4 different starter decks and your Encounter deck, which serves as the bad guy. The box also contains pop-out pieces for damage, influence points, quest tracking and a threat tracker that you need to put together. The threat tracker was not hard to put together, but it was a big annoying to put it together too. I had to look under a card-board insert within the box to find a group of plastic pieces that are used to fasten the numbered dial to the card board tracker piece. Like I said, it goes together relatively easy – just takes a moment to put it together. The pieces are well put together, really, and the cards are printed on your standard CCG card stock – so they are pretty resistant. Maybe a little less durable than a Magic the Gathering card, but not by much. The art work on the cards are really very good, even if they are your standard fantasy art work. The layout of the cards are really visually appealing as well, which is great. Overall, the packaging for the game is pretty good. I also found the rule book to be really easy to read and very accessible as well.

The objective of the game is to complete your Quest – a set of 3 ( at least in the Core set) Quest cards that have a Questing objective attached to them. As you and the other players are trying to complete the quest, a side deck called the Encounter deck will try to stop you by summoning Locations, Monsters, Events and such to try and kill your Heroes and prevent them from succedding. One thing that is interesting about the game mechanics is the Threat system, where the monsters will attack you based on how much threat you are putting out. If your threat is high, then monsters will be more likely to attack you than if you keep a low threat. You start with threat equal to your Heroes, and then you add threat by failing a Questing challenge. Heroes come in four flavors – Tactics, Lore, Leadership and Will (its late, I’m tired and so I can’t remember the last group easy at the moment). Each sphere has its own strengths and weaknesses. As such, if you play solo you’d want to try and mix-match spheres and if you play in a multiplayer format, you can build a solo sphere deck that much easier. The rules are pretty easy to understand, but look a bit more complicated than they actually are.

The game play really is full of flavor, which I love. It reminds me, of all things, of Warcraft with the threat mechanics built into it. Having the Encounter deck trying to kill me is a neat addition to card gaming, I think, and there were a couple of times that I had a character get close to death in the easy mode Quest. Glancing over at the other quests, I can see how they can get harder and harder – with one quest even putting one of your Heroes in prison. I’ve only run through the easy starting quest so far, so I haven’t tried the more complex/difficult quests, but I do see how they’d get harder. Having the pre-constructed decks is great to open the game with, helping players who don’t understand the full system of the game yet. I love the way everything really is put together really, but with that I DO see how some players say the game can get redundant. I don’t see that happening for a while, but I think if you just go through the same quest by yourself over and over again it’d be getting old after a little. Luckily, the expansion packs come out regularly – giving you new quests and cards to play with to keep things fresh and interesting.

In all, this is a great game that really scratches my CCG itch. The LCG nature of the game makes me interested in trying the other LCGs that the company produces (Game of Thrones, Warhammer and Cthuluhu) and that’s pretty good I think. The art and gameplay is top notch for the game and I really don’t have much bad to say at all. Who would I recommend this too? Well the easy answer is fans of CCGs who are burned out over the marketing/packaging structure of the game. Fans of fantasy and Lord of the Rings may be interested in the game as well. If you like card games, then definitely check it out and if you are a lonely player then check it out for sure for the solo play of the game too. Who wouldn’t like the game? The game plays with up to 4 players ONLY IF you buy 2 Core sets, but that’s something you can probably get around with a little extra help outside. This makes it less assceible to larger gaming groups, because the cost of 2 core sets may be a bit pricey and having to come up with extra outside stuff without a second Core set could be annoying too. That’s about it really, I think there’s something in it for pretty much any kind of gamer and its definitely worth a look at if you want to try something that’s fun and interesting.

Of all the purchases that I’ve made recently, this was the one that I had the least real idea of whether or not I’d like. The idea was sound and it seemed like something that I’d like, but would it prove to be that? Anyone, because of the good word I’d heard of it, I decided to check it out – and I am extremely happy that I did.

First, let me explain the game. Summoner Wars in many ways reminds me of an LCG meets miniature wargame. In Summoner Wars, players take the role of a summoner – someone who uses a special magical stone that allows them to summon armies from out of no where. The objective of the game is really simple, to kill the other players Summoner. Both players start with a pre-defined board set up based on your faction – some set ups are more offensive, others more defensive and still some a bit more balanced. Players will summon Units, play events and pretty much move around the board in their goal to kill the opponents Summoner. Why I say it reminds me of an LCG is because the packaging is set in pre-constructed decks that don’t need any additional cards, and the extra packs serve to enhance strategies with cards that are all pre-determined. It reminds me of a miniature wargame because of the combative nature and its emphasis on mobility and units attacking.

From a packaging perspective, this is pretty good. Opening the box up, and its a rather large box btw, you have some damage counters, the rule book, the cards and some dice as well as two large cardboard boards. The boards are really good quality for cardboard boards, really. Inside the box, where the cards and dice are, is plenty of room for the six armies featured in the box, but also plenty of room to add more armies in the future – easy easy storage for them. The art on the cards is a minus, in my opinion. Its not bad, but its kind of an artistic/realist approach that I just don’t prefer. The unit cards are ok, but all the Event cards feature the same portrait of your faction’s Summoner – it would have been nice to have some difference in their art, I think. However, compared to the imaging I saw on my laptop – the art printed on the cards is much better. Also, the cards themselves are pretty good quality card stock. Not as strong as you’d see in, say, Magic:The Gathering, but good quality all the same. Which is funny, because I bought the Vanguard faction pack with the Master Set and the card stock for them is cheap and flimsy when compared to the Master set. From the component side, the game is pretty good.

Gameplay is extremely fun and easy. I taught my wife the basic idea of the game in like about 5 minutes, and after the first game she was moving around the board with much more ease and comfort than she did with other games. She compared the game with a Chinese board game Xiangqi, which is Chinese chess, and I’d say that comparison is pretty solid. There are a lot of tactical decisions that you are making and the game can change tides pretty quickly and easily.

All in all, the game is terrific and one of our favorite already. I love the simple rules, and the deep strategy involved. I am not a big fan of the artwork, but that’s perhaps my biggest complaint of the game. Who would I recommend it to? First off, people who are moving to Board Games from CCGs. Its a pretty easy jump with this one. People who are interested in trying out a miniature wargame would want to try it because the gameplay is similar, if done differently. Also anyone wanting to play a good game would want to give it a try. Who would probably not like it? If you don’t like card games, then stay away from this. The cards being moved are fine for me, but if you just don’t like them for one reason or another, then this may not be a good match for you. Also, someone who doesn’t like to make the deep, tactical decisions that come with a war-game type environment may want to avoid this one too – because it offers a lot of decision making. Lastly, while I can see a house rule set up for multi-player, the game plays better as a 2 player game no matter how you see it. So, if you like to play with a big group of people then this game may disappoint some players in your group. All in all, I’d definitely recommend this one to pretty much anybody who likes a good game. Give it a couple of tries!

I’ve been playing quite a few different card/dice games lately, and as I have been introducing my wife to the wonderful world of gaming, I decided to add a little bit more to her arsenal of games by playing Small World. To be honest, this was the first time I’ve played an area management game like this and I have to say that I have had such a wonderful time playing it.

First off, I want to preamble this by saying that the edition I am playing is the iPad edition, so this review won’t touch base on the actual packaging or components of the game in and of itself, and will talk about a couple of other different things. First off, the objective. The person who has the most victory points at the end of the game wins, so its relatively simple. You gain victory points by having your race control spots on the map, each spot giving you at least 1 victory point. At the begining of the game, a race/adjective(?) in which you would then put on the board. As the game goes on and you gain more territory, you will be running out of units because you must keep 1 unit on your territory at all times and through your opponents invading your territories, so you will be able to put your race on decline. When you do this, you get to choose another race and continue.

The gameplay is super easy to understand and explain, but with lots of depth that makes it interesting. Ever since getting the game, I’ve played about 11 games of it against the ai on the Ipad so that I can get a feel for the game, and I can win only about half the time or so. The reasoning for this is through bad placement on my part, but the randomness of race/adj. makes for good and horrible pairings. There is a bit of luck in this randomness, but it offers a lot of strategy. I find one of the reasons I’ve kept playing was to see what combinations would appear.

The art in the game (from the race design to the map design) is really good. Its has a light-hearted fantasy feel to it, with some bright and cartoony colors that would appeal to some people. I can see that the art stylings may not appeal to everybody, especially for a fantasy genre, but I found it to be quite terrific to my own tastes.

My verdict? I love the game more than I thought I would actually. My first few play throughs we are a bit difficult (I got my rear end handed to me my first game) playing through it shows that it has a real intuitive play style. Its definitely a keeper game, I think. Who would I recommend it to? People who enjoy the kind of area management/strategy games like Risk would definitely want to check this game out. Its quick and easy to pick up and doesn’t take a huge chunk of time like most games of Risk I have played. People who are new to the hobby would like to check it out because its not very intimidating in the least. I think people who want a serious game would want to avoid it, and perhaps the hard core gamer wouldn’t enjoy it. The randomness found in it could possibly make them dislike it simply by virtue of the fact that you can’t plan ahead so easily. Overall, being an avid gamer that I am, its definitely a keeper and one I would love to introduce to my friends and family down the line.

In my review for Quarriors! the initial game, you could see that I really like this game a lot. The mechanics of the game are fantastic, the art on the cards are superb and the feel of the game is just so fun in my opinion. When I bought the game, I’d also bought the expansion pack, Rise of the Demons, and while my wife and I didn’t use the expansion for the first few games we played so that we could get the feel for the game, last night we added it to our game.

First off, I’ll go into what you are buying. The expansion pack comes in a rather small box that contains one plastic tray with cards, dice and a small rule book that talks about how to incorporate the new cards/dice and so forth. This expansion adds 1 new creature, 1 new spell and a new form of dice Quiddity (money) to the game. Furthermore, the game introduces a new class of the existing creatures to the game as well, the Corrupted class. The dice are a bit easier to look at than the base set, in my opinion, and the cards and art work are on par with the first set – meaning they are pretty good on the whole.

Rule wise, the game introduces a few different new rules and conditions. The new Quiddity (Corrupted Quiddity) could end up rolling 0, so its fun to find ways to put the dice into your opponents bag to mess them up a bit. You can also make players lose Glory Points too, something that I think is a fantastic addition to the game itself.

The problems I have with this expansion are that its a bit difficult to add to the base game. The rules don’t explicitly call for the corrupted quiddity to start with players, so unless you want to add a house rule to it, then its possible that they just sit there and do nothing (kind of like what happened with the games we’d played last night). The games we played only had 1 of the new corrupted creatures in it, which didn’t have any real effect that was new to the game itself, and so the expansion felt like it really was just a part of the base game – with just a bunch of new dice sitting on the table that can’t be touched. While I like the abilities of the new creatures, I think it’d have been easier and less confusing to a degree, to have had NEW creatures in it instead of just Corrupted versions of the existing ones.

Is Rise of the Demons a bad expansion? No, not really. I just feel that the expansion was a bit weak and a little half-hearted when you consider the game as a whole. Its perfectly fine and with a few house rules tossed in the game could even be really enhanced by the expansion itself, but its out of the box rules are a bit lackluster. However, with that said, I’ve seen some previews for the next expansion to the game, Quarrmageddon (I may have completely killed that spell by the way) in which the game fixes a lot of the problems I have had with this expansion, by adding new creatures and spells, so I feel that while this expansion may have been a little bit (and I mean a little bit) of a miss, the game will still be really healthy by the time the new set comes out.

So, I’ve finally done it. I’ve finally been able to play several rounds of the father of all deck building games. While I think the game is fun, I have some relatively big problems with the game which prevents me from enjoying the game fully.

First off, let me introduce the game for those new to this. Dominion, and all of its expansions, are a deck building game. As such, players will be buying cards from the a shared card pool to add to their deck. The objective of the game is pretty simple, have the most Points at the end of the game. You score points by buying pieces of land and playing certain cards throughout the game. During your turn, you can play 1 action card and buy 1 card from the center. With that said, the cards from the shared bank will allow you to draw more cards, play more cards, buy more cards or mess up your opponents strategy in some form or fashion. The deck building choices are pretty limitless, and you can focus your deck on any number of different things. Another unique part is that when you buy points, the points go into your deck and act as dead cards – if you buy too many small points then you load your deck with lots of dead stuff. So being able to build a deck that works well and functions smoothly is a key part of the games strategy.

The art of the game is ok, pretty standard flavor in my opinion. Its not bad, per se, but its not something that I find incredibly breath taking either. The card designs are really easy to look at and fairly intuitive to understand when you get the core of the game down as well. The rules o the game are incredibly simple too, making it easy for people of all ages and gaming backgrounds to pick up quickly and move on with.

Before I get into what I dislike about the game, I want to say what I enjoyed. First off, I love all the strategic options when it comes to building your deck. I have found that working all the angles of the game, you can really customize a deck to fit your needs and general play style fairly easily and comfortably. I also like how winning is also loosing in a sense, by adding the points to your deck. This makes the choices you make in buying points all the more important and makes it advantageous to buy appropriately instead of buying just to score more and more points. I also really enjoy the multi-player format, especially with an attack heavy set of cards in the center. The chaos that comes from it makes for a lot of exciting games really.

One of my problems with Dominion is that its really not much of an ‘interactive’ game. Sure, you could develop some of the center cards to involve more of an interactive quality, but a lot of the cards just don’t seem to encourage it – at least with the variations that I’ve tried. This makes the game feel like a solitaire game against the clock, at least to me. I’ve found the replay value to, while being heavy, not be as impressive as other deck building games I’ve played because of it. The lack of a ‘in your face’ mode may appeal to some gamers, but I tend to enjoy games where I am interacting with my opponent, at least a little bit.

I’ve played the game in both a 2 player and a 4 player mode, and the 2 player mode (while fun) seems to be lacking where the 4 player mode is more fun, even with the solitaire feel of the game. When you put a lot of heavy attack cards in the bank, you really start to feel chaos with a 4 player mode – where you are just waiting to be screwed over somehow. However, with that said, it places more value on certain cards in the 4 player mode than they have in 2 player mode. Moat, a card which protects you from attacks and allows you to draw 2 cards, is essential to buy early if you have it available in your bank in a 4 player game, whereas in a 2 player game you don’t really need it as much.

The last thing that I disliked about the game, is also one of its strengths. The game has many turns where you can just end up with simply having the most dead hands imaginable. Sure this can happen with other games of its genre, and its something that happens in almost every card game I’ve ever played, but something about the lack of real interactiveness of the game itself makes for these dead hands to be even more painful and boring than in other games, at least in my opinion.

With that all said, the game does possess a lot of replay value. I’ve played the game a lot of the past few days, and while I find the game fun, I don’t personally find it to be the next best thing to sliced bread. I feel that the lack of heavy interactive qualities make the game less than it could be, and I feel that for this game to really thrive you need to play it in the multi-player format. Its a fantastic game for fans of deck building games, I think, as well as new gamers or gamers who enjoy a less brutal approach to their games. It offers enough strategy and tactics to make more veteran gamers to continue enjoying the game over and over and I can genuinely see why many people keep coming back to the game, and comparing other games to it, on a regular basis.

So, I’ve finally got the darn game in the mail today. People all over the internet proclaim how amazingly easy it is to play, and it really is to be honest. I watched a video and read the book real quickly to get the rules, and in about 5 minutes or so I’d gotten my wife (who speaks a language other than English as her first language) to know how to play the game. So, when people day that it takes about 5 minutes to learn they really are not kidding.

On first glimpse, the game comes in a very nice dice-like tin. The tin is pretty well constructed all in all and the art work on it is rather pretty nice. The components fit rather snugly in the tin itself, and I haven’t tried to put the expansion in it yet, but I figure it MAY be a tight fit. Again, I haven’t tried this yet – so we will see in a little bit. Opening the box, you get bombared with dice and cards and such. Its all neatly put together, and easy to figure out what’s what.

Gameplay wise, the game is rather fun. You start the game with 8 white dice, which represent money, and 4 brown dice – which represent potential money or a potential tiny creature. The objective of the game is to score Glory points, you do this by starting your turn with your creatures in play. After you find your dice, put together your field. You start with the Assistant card, Quiddity card and a Portal card for sure. After that, you flip over 3 random spell cards – placing any spells that share the same art work to the bottom of the deck. Then you flip creatures over, putting any creatures with the same art work on the bottom of the deck.

A turn consists of drawing dice, rolling them and doing a variety of effects based on what you roll. If you roll a creature, pay its level cost and put it to your active field. If you roll a spell’s effect, do the effect on the spell. If you roll money, well – you have money to capture quiddity (dice) from the field.

I won’t go too much into the gameplay, but suffice to say its rather simple. Overall its a very fun game. Unlike other deck building games, you still have a bit of luck no matter what cards you end up buying. In our first game, I had OWNED more creatures in my deck than my wife did, but she rolled HER creatures more than I did. This led to her just beating the snot out of me. The second game was much closer, but the randomness factor makes the game more interesting I’d say.

My gripe with the game is a bit small, really. Some of the numbers and pictures on the cards are a little too small or distorted to see clearly, something both my wife and I had some issue with. My other problem is clean up. With so many dice flying around the floor/table clean up, and putting them into their bags, could be a bit troublesome. The art work on the cards is cartoony, but fun and the gameplay itself is really simple and very interesting.

So, if you can’t tell, I really enjoyed the game. Who would I recommend it too? That’s pretty easy – most people. Non-gamers will enjoy the simplicity of the game and the nice colorful artwork on the cards. People who enjoy Dominion-style games will enjoy that each card they buy essentially is a few more cards than just one. And the randomness makes for a good equalizer I think. Altogether, I give Quarriors! two big thumbs up.

Pathfinder is based off of the old, D&D 3.5 ruleset. As such, it does offer players a wide variety of customization options and such. The problem I have is that, compared to 4E D&D – the game is relatively confusing for new players in terms of character development. I had some difficulties putting together a character because the rule book itself is not terribly clear in some places, and the system is just not very intuitive. I found myself looking at different characters created online to try and reverse engineer the process a bit.

Furthermore, I find that although characters have plenty of customization options – I feel personally that most of the characters seem more or less the same, and kinda flat, at the beginning stages. In 4E, you could have two characters of the same class play very differently – whereas in 3.5, the mechanics are relatively the same and their is a lack of actual ability to be had.

With that said, the game does provide some interesting mechanics for the different classes they have, and truth be told I actually wish some of the class ideas from this game were in 4E D&D. The art work in the book is, in my opinion, gorgeous.

All in all, the game’s not bad – but if you’re newer to PnP RPGs like I am, then you definitely will want to have an experienced player around to help guide you in the process, something I just did not have. While I may favor 4E rules, the 3.5 rules do still provide some fantastic things for people who are wishing to try something different.

This is actually the first deck building game I’d ever played actually. Coming from a TCG background, however, the idea of building a deck and how to go about it is more or less second nature for me, so once I had a grasp of the basic rules and concepts of the game, it was pretty easy to develop a solid deck on the fly.

In this game, you will be buying different cards by playing cards and so forth. You can achieve a couple of different victory conditions, and depending on how your opening hands are and the first few cards that are revealed – you will be able to decide fairly quickly what your strategy for the match will be. The art work for the cards are pretty good without being fantastic.

The biggest thing I have with the game is that, with at least the base game, after playing a handful of games – the game becomes more or less the same. You begin to know what you will buy and not buy and be able to run around the different strategies a bit quick. It has a high replay value still, but for some gamers it can become a bit redundant in how it approaches everything I believe.

Is it the best deck building game on the market? Probably not, as it has a bit of weakness’ in how the game plays out in the long term. Is it a fun game? Heck yeah. Who would I recommend the game to? I’d easily recommend it to TCG players who are burned out on buying cards over and over again, card gamers in general and as a good entry level game to the genre. Hard core gamers will either love the game or hate the game, however. Still, one of my favorite games that I go back to fairly often.

Bang is one of those games, in my opinion, that is easy to play for pretty much anybody, but can offer hour after hour of solid entertainment.

In this game, players will select roles at random. Each role has a different victory objective. The one role that everybody will be able to see is who the Sheriff is. The Sheriff (and the Deputy) win by killing the two Outlaws and then the Renegade. The Outlaws will win if the Sheriff dies. The Renegade will win if the Outlaws die and then the Sheriff. However, since nobody knows who the others are – it becomes a guessing game as to who is who. Are you shooting your friend or your enemy? Because of this, the game requires a little bit of deductive reasoning and observation skills to try and figure out who is who.

Gameplay wise, its fairly simple. The cards are pretty straight forward, and the interaction of everything is pretty good on the whole. It may not be something that can provide a gamer who is in for intense strategic thinking a good outlet for their tastes, but if you are looking for a game that is easy to pick up and play as well as lots of fun, then I’d recommend Bang! Its also a fairly good gateway game, getting people who may not be otherwise interested in board or card games to be involved with the hobby.

Coming from an MMO background in RPGs, I found that DnD 4E provided me with the ability to come to the game and understand the basic mechanics of it easily and quickly. I know that some players have found the MMO feeling of the game to be a tad bit horrible, but the fact is that I think if DnD is to continue to survive in the coming years they need to encourage MMO players to come and play it, making the system speak to them a bit more to do this is a good thing.

The range of classes and flexibility of the classes is tremendously good, and one can make a character that is unique to them in many ways. I am currently playing a Halfling Storm Sorcerer – a character that uses lightning and such to do damage. The personality I gave him is one that likes to burn and blow things up and takes offense to people whom he thinks calls him short (as he is just under 4ft in height). Also he is an Arcane Merecenary, somebody who works for people who could give him something magical or the like. That’s just an example of a character you can create and really, its up to your imagination as to how complex or shallow they are.

Inspired by the many different fighting games that people can play in arcades and on gaming consoles around the world, Yomi is an incredibly simple and fast-paced game of wits and strategy that pits your character against an opponent.

In Yomi, players will choose a character and their pre-constructed deck. You are not able to mix and match cards from one deck to another, so the deck construction is pretty straight forward – you get what you buy and you don’t need anything else to play that character. Each character has their starting health and an ability that can range from things that help you attack, defend or draw cards or more. In its initial release, Yomi has something like 10 (I think) character’s that you can choose from – each with their own unique play styles, strengths and weaknesses.

For example, you have Satsuki whose charactter ability allows you to draw cards from your deck until your hand equals a certain number if you have 1 or less card, or Jaina who allows you to take damage to keep your face cards.

This leads me to the actual gameplay for Yomi. What I like about the game is that the gameplay is extremely straight forward, while still having lots of tricks that you can play. With the game, players will place a card face down, then flip it. You compare the type of card with another to decide who wins. The basic mechanic of the game is a lot like Paper-Rock-Scissors on crack. You have five card types in essence – Attacks, Throws, Blocks, Dodge and Jokers. Blocks and Dodges beat Attacks, Attacks beat Throws and Throws beat Dodge/Blocks. While the basic design is fairly straight forward, card effects will allow for a greater deal of variation and strategy to be tossed in.

Each card can be played for two different effects (usually). You can play a card for one effect or another, and then some cards have additional effects that allow for more decision making and play consequences. Do I want to Attack or do I want to block? Throw or Dodge? To play effectively, you need to be paying attention to what your opponent is playing and find a way to essentially counter their play style with yours. Some match ups are good, others are bad – but the overall game is very strategic.

The art work for the characters themselves are a wonderful anime-video game inspired style. The face cards (which represent the most powerful cards for your character) along with the character portraits are very well done in my opinion, but then again I really enjoy that kind of art style. The gameplay is something I really enjoy too – a fast, aggressive and in your face way of playing with minimal space needed.

Who would I recommend the game to? The game rules are easy to grasp for anybody, really, but I think that the aggressive nature of the game may be a bit off-putting for some newer players. If they have a background in some games or are not offended by being attacked and having to attack, then I think they’d enjoy – but if they enjoy games where you don’t need to attack other players to win, or to be attacked, then it may not be something they will look forward too. Also, it acts as a great gateway game for gamers who come from maybe a video game background, as the rules and the gameplay mirrors traditional fighting games fairly closely in my opinion. Lastly, I’d recommend the game to people who enjoy card games that offer a great deal of strategic thinking – where you need to pay attention as closely to the next five turns as you will the turn you are playing right now.

This is an amazing game. It offers a lot of unique strategy, game play effects and every game is pretty much a different one. One of the best games I’ve ever played and I find it to be one that I play very often.

This game resembles the many different Bejeweled-type fighter games you see for various handheld gaming systems (PSP, DS, etc.). Players each select a character chip, a little money and your characters three unique chips. After this, you will go about buying chips from the bank to add to your deck, while you try to crash gems that are sitting in your gem pile. At the start of each round, you get 1 gem. The objective, of course, is to fill your opponents gem bank to 10 or more gems.

The game offers a lot of unique customization, and your play strategy will change with different bank set-ups and different character chips. While definitely not for everybody, it provides a unique spin on the Deck Building Genre.

I love Mtg a lot, its the first CCG I played back in High School many, many moons ago. However, the game’s taken a significant dip in quality over the years and it doesn’t terribly feel the same. Plus, some of the players can be total idiots. Still, if you’re looking for a great game to play – then I’d recommend it to pretty much anybody.

One of the best CCGs out today, the game possesses an incredible gaming experience, but also an innovative, interactive and living story that really brings another layer to the games attractiveness.

In this game, players will select a Clan at the start of the game. The clans reflect the different strategies, characters and abilities that you will generally be able to use during the game. Each player has two decks, a Fate deck which consists of your action cards and the like and your Dynasty deck, which consists of your personality cards and gold-producing locations.

The amount of victory conditions in this game are amazing. You can win through Military, by destroying your opponents four provinces. Enlightenment, a victory condition that consists of getting your five rings out (the game’s namesake). Honor, by scoring an amount of honor. And Dishonor, by making your opponents honor get to a certain amount.

The game is alive in the sense that the designers regularly produce stories for the game, enhancing the flavor of the game and its characters and how the story progresses. Furthermore, different story elements are selected by players by participating in different storyline tournaments held throughout the year.

All-in-all, if you’re looking for a TCG that offers complex strategy, diversity and uniqueness then this is a great game for you. The Asian setting may not be for everyone, but the mechanics of the game are definitely solid enough for veterans and new players alike. As a side note, if you’re not interested in getting involved in a TCG – but like the setting of this game, check out a spin-off game called War For Honor. Its the same setting and largely similar rules for the most part, but is a packaged board game that can be enhanced by simply buying some cards from the TCG if you so choose, but is complete in and of itself.