Jeremey Byrne

We’ve all had fried chicken(well a lot of us have). Fried chicken with crumbs alone gets a bit old and you need to throw some new things in to add a little spice. This is exactly what Fantasy Flight has done with Rune Age. They have added their own secret ingredients to the deckbuilding genre.

Scenarios, Co-operation, Factions, Influence and Attrition are just a few of the new things Rune age brings to the table. Scenario driven deckbuilding is just plain awesome sauce. Each new scenario gives a definitive goal to achieve. A few different neutral cards to buy with influence which will aid in your quest to either dominate your opponents, defeat enemies, defend your home realm or help you on your road to glory. Each scenario will also force you to build significantly different decks for each faction and the Co-op scenario will have you build different decks depending on what role you are going to take in the coming challenges. Will you start slow and build influence first so you are a late game behemoth while your ally rushes a strong military deck clearing the early enemies and events away to buy you time? Will they turn on you in the last moments brother against brother?

Each Faction has their own set of mechanics that set up fun combos to take advantage of. A Footman heavy early deck from the Daqan Lords faction will quickly build military strength with little cost as each Footman allows you to look at the top card of your deck and put in your hand a Footman if revealed if not you can choose to discard or place the card back on top. Combining later with Knights who allow you to reveal the top card of your deck and as long as it is not a unit card of 3 strength or more draw it into your hand this allows extra chances to draw more Footmen out find Tactic cards or gain gold for purchasing new units.

Influence is used to purchase neutral cards and gold and is a new currency that can be gained via conquering cities and securing stronghold’s. Influence cards stay in play and can be exhausted to pay for the card or cards of your choice. They refresh at the beginning of your turn ready to be used again.

Each battle against an Enemy card is never a sure thing, the attrition die is rolled and up to two of your units can be destroyed and their strength will not be added to the final battle sometimes thwarting your attempts to defeat your enemies.

There are a more new things going on in Rune Age and I will not try to cover them all, but suffice it to say that if Dominion is getting a little old, your Thunderstone games are taking a bit too long or Nightfall’s all out warfare is not your groups style Rune Age is going to offer you a new flavor that your sure to enjoy.

Some people may complain that there are not enough cards to choose from or that 4 scenarios are not enough. These are very valid complaints but must be weighed against the cost of the game and the amount of play you will actually get out of the base set along with the new and exciting combat and currencies Rune Age brings to the table. Along with the great possibilities for very inexpensive expansions. Here in Australia I managed to get the game for the price of 2 movie tickets and that’s not counting food and drink, granted movies are expensive down under but the amount of gaming goodness I have experienced so far greatly outweighs a night at the movies and there is a lot more to come.

All in all I can heartily recommend picking up Rune Age to anyone who enjoys deckbuilding and wants to add a little spice to the genre.

The object of this game is to rid yourself of a stack of 20 – 30 cards in front of you. You do this buy playing cards from your hand and discard piles into a shared group of up to 4 piles in the middle of the table in ascending order from 1 – 12.

This game is an exercise in patience. There are multiple times during each game when you can do nothing for several turns in a row whilst waiting for one card for your hand to go off. You are also constantly not playing cards to avoid helping your opponents further slowing the game down.

The amount of cards in your pile that you have to get rid of is a double edged sword you need more cards to even out the randomness that occurs. Quite often you will get just the card you don’t want several times in a row and then get 5 cards all out in one turn. But then having 30 cards prolongs the game for me to an insufferable length. And any less cards then its just the luck of the draw and if you are going to play a game of luck better to find a fun one.

There are a lot better card games out there to fill this time slot. I advise giving Skip – Bo a miss.

Monopoly Deal is a lot more fun than its big brother. This quick and easy set collector will get brought out quite a bit. You get the joys of buying properties, building houses and hotels and charging your friends absurd amounts of rent all in about 15mins.

You can build up combos to charge up to 32 million dollars in rent, totally devastating your opponents or have you beautiful Mayfair and Park Lane Stolen out from underneath you at the last moment for a devastating loss.

Make sure to keep your bank well stocked and watch out for those sly deals. Monopoly Deal will have you hanging onto the edge of your seat to the last moment. Or at least onto the No Thanks card.

Uno is a fast playing easy to learn game. There is not a lot of depth here but it is a great game to play with the kids. They will often ask to play it.

The special action cards add a bit of take that. Everyone loves to slap a draw two down on their neighbour. It is even sweeter when you reverse the direction of the game just to be able to take down someone that is about to win with a draw four to their face. And skipping a player who is on their last card is also fun. But probably the best moment this game has to offer and it does not happen to often is when someone foolishly forgets to say UNO! and then without even playing a card you can force them to pick up two.

This probably is not a game for “serious gamers” even as a filler because there are far better alternatives. I will play it with the kiddies grudgingly. I recommend Archaeology over this, the kids will love that too.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game will kick your butt. It takes no prisoners. If you want to sit down and get beat down multiple times before discovering the correct deck build to beat a given scenario then this is your game. If you are looking for a solo game be warned, playing one deck and trying to win is absolutely brutal. You almost need 2 players or decks to have a chance at the harder quests.

I can easily recommend this game to any who love cool combos and devising decks to crush their adversaries. It will have you thinking and planning out strategies and you drift off to dream about Spiders and Trolls crushing your party underfoot as they carry out the will of the Dark Lord.

This game is not for the feint of heart. You have been warned.

Let me first preface this review with a little information about my gaming experience. I have played designer games for less than a year.

I think that I might be able to offer a good perspective, that of a bright, wide eyed gamer initiate.

Cargo Noir is fun, cut throat and calculating and is just as entertaining with 2,3,4 or 5 players thanks to great modular board design. Do you like stockpiling goods? Love to push your luck and gamble it all on the last few turns of a game? How about the ability to build different point scoring engines that have to take into account other players choices and resource availability? Like snatching certain victory from the grasp of your competitors? Do you enjoy games that end in 3 way ties where the most longsighted and steel nerved player comes out on top? If You do You will enjoy Cargo Noir too.

This game will make you smile as you open it up for the first time with the quality of its components and the excellent artwork. Days of Wonder’s reputation for quality is well known and I am beginning to see why.

The theme is good, it may not quite feel like you are a goods smuggler but you will probably use a fake accent a few times. The game is very easy to learn, when teaching new players just run through a few turns and you are ready to start buying Yachts Nightclubs Banks and Principalities. Or maybe Dive Bars, Militia and Cronies are more your style?

The genius is that Cargo Noir’s simplicity belies the amount of tough decisions you will have to make every turn. Constantly keeping an eye on others ship placement, cargo, gold on hand and calculating the ever changing value of cargo as others collect their sets. Do you head to the Casino to get some gold? Should you press your luck for random cargos or calculatingly swap your illicit goods at the black market? How much are those four cargos in Rotterdam really worth? At what point do you stop building your engine and start going for those Victory Spoils? Do you cash in early and block people late in the game? Do you wait patiently, building a set that makes your opponents tremble? There are a lot of hard choices to be made. Whether to grab Cargo Noir should not be one of them.

If you want an easy to learn, fun, competitive game that can easily take a nasty turn when you least expect it, do yourself a favour, go grab Cargo Noir.

Remember to enjoy the game you are playing for what it is, do not lament for what you thought it might have been.