Keith T

Introduction:

I’m a huge fan of war games. My main war game is Advance Squad Leader. There are times when I want something a bit lighter to play.
One of these lighter war games I turn to is Conflict of Heroes “Awakening of the Bear”.
Setup is fairly quick and has enough to bring out the tactician in you.

Components:

The counters and the maps are gorgeous. I can’t say enough about this, the contents in the box are very appealing.

The Box includes:

•5 beautiful, highly detailed 15 x 19 inch geomorphic mounted map boards.
•210 LARGE 1” square die cut counters depicting rifle and SMG squads, tanks, armored cars, anti-tank guns, mortars, MGs and many more.
•1 firefight book with a full historical overview and 16 firefights.
•1 programmed instruction rule book that teaches the game in small easy to learn steps
•55 action cards, fully redesigned

Game Play:
Game play consists of; a unit is activated getting 7 action points, and can do 1 action – move, fire, and rally. Each unit has different cost to do said action – move, fire, etc, simulating the organization and leadership of each army/unit.
Then your opponent does the same thing.

If your opponent move is very threatening, you may deactivate/flip your unit as spent and then activate a unit that is near the threatened objective or unit.

This occurs for each unit until a set number of action points are spent for each unit. Action points are set to 7 or you can use the optional rule to make it random. This is a D6 roll.

Then there are also Command Action Points (CAP’s), which can be used to add to the Action Points (AP) of a currently active unit, or even to do an action spending only the CAPs. CAPS can also be used to add 1 or 2 to your dice roll.

There is a card aspect to the game too. You get 2 at start of scenario, and 1 added each turn which give some advantage to you – a free action not costing any points, taking away opponent’s CAPs that turn, putting enemy unit as spent immediately, adding to your dice roll, off board arty, etc. The cards are of a kind of an unpredictability/fog of war aspect to the game, they can be used to help you or hinder your opponent’s plans.

Summary:

I really like this game; it has the right mix of game play and complexity but easy to learn system. I recommend this to introduce non war gamer friends and family to the world of war gaming.

“Luke Skywalker” vs. “Mauler Mithel” and “Dark Curse”

A Galaxy Not Too Far Away…

I’m starting this off a little bit different then I normally start when I write my reviews. I hope you enjoy.

Game Play:
“Luke Skywalker” (28 pts)
“R2-D2” (4 pts)
“Determination” (3 pts)
(35 pts Rebel total)

“Mauler Mithel” (17 pts)
“R2-F2” (3 pts)

“Dark Curse” (16 pts)
(36 pts Empire total)

Mission:

Played a free for all with obstacles (Asteroid Field)
Battle:
The 2 tie fighters start off getting into position in the asteroid field. Luke then moves in, scoring 2 hits on “Mauler Mithel”. “Mauler Mithel” returns fire taking out the shields on “Luke Skywalker” X-Wing. “Dark Curse” Joins the fray gets a hit on “Luke Skywalker” X-Wing.
The 2 tie fighters once again maneuver into position, “Luke Skywalker” does the same.
“Luke Skywalker” opens fire on “Mauler Mithel” scoring 3 hits; “Mauler Mithel” evades one hit but still goes down in a fiery ball of flames.
“Dark curse” wanting revenge opens fire on “Luke Skywalker” failing to make any hits.
“Dark Curse” attempts to flee, but “Luke Skywalker catches up. “Luke Skywalker” opens fire scoring 2 critical hit and 1 normal hit. “Dark Curse” evades the 1 hit but still receives the 2 critical hits. “Luke Skywalker” draws 2 direct hits, boom “Dark Curse” is blown out of space.
If you found this exciting, read on…

Thoughts:

Well somehow I gave “Mauler Mithel” a droid, not sure what I was thinking he can’t even take a droid. (Not that it helped) With that aside we had a great time.

Over All:

– Miniatures are top notch.
– Cardboard Components are nice and thick.
– Cards are nice glossy coated, they should hold up to use.
– Rules are easy to follow.
– Expansion to the system allow for more squad and combination building of abilities.

Final thoughts:

It been said many times in most of the reviews the one starter gets you started, buying a second one will give you more options and purchasing more expansion will open the game up to almost limited possibilities. I hope you found this review a little bit different then my other reviews and that you enjoyed it.

Ghost Panzer is the Second in game n the Band of Heroes series. It is somewhat stand alone except for 2 of the scenarios require Band of Heroes: Screaming Eagles for the maps. Other than that the game is pretty much stand alone.

It contains 18 scenarios, 2 of which are training and 16 that are historical scenarios.

Components are top notch, it has the same artwork as its predecessor (plug, you can see my other review for Band of Heroes: Screaming Eagles).

The game system works were players take turns to activate there units. Player activate unit based on scenario specified operations range. For example, a range of 2-4 means you may activate 2-4 units. You must, if possible, activate the minimum number in the range. Units cost one and tanks and guns cost 3 activation points.

When you activate a unit you may either move or fire, Assault Fire it or, you may mark it “Op Fire” (for opportunity fire). Once you move or fire a unit it is used and can generally only do Final Op Fire against units that enter an adjacent hex.

To move or fire, assault fire an infantry type unit, it must pass a morale check by rolling less than or equal to its morale rating on 1d10. Full strength units which are not suppressed have a morale rating of 10, so there’s no roll required. But as they get suppressed you will need to roll. (I really like this effect)

Stacking is limited: two squads or two weapon teams or any combination plus one vehicle, with a gun counting as a squad. In fire combat there’s always only one firer. (So there is no massing of fire power). Anti-infantry fire affects every unit in the target hex. This simulates/encourages the historical practice of dispersion.

There is no Combat Results Table. You roll 1d10 and compare to the firing unit’s firepower, as adjusted. Roll less than or equal to the adjusted firepower and you get a suppression. Each target infantry type unit has a casualty rating (two for full strength units) and if your roll plus the casualty rating is less than or equal to the adjusted firepower you can inflict a step loss or elimination.

There is a rout phase, failure to rout can cause unit to be eliminated.

Melee phase is a deadly in this game, each squad rolls 2d10 and inflicting step losses for each roll of less than or equal to its firepower.

Recovery phase allows units to recover from the level of suppression they are at, Red suppression becomes yellow, and yellow suppression goes and Units lose their used markers.

Oh, I almost forgot there is also has the same decoy and concealing of units as its predecessor game. Concealing comes into play for units that are in say a building, so a conceal counter is placed on them; then there will be negative modifiers for a unit trying shooting at them.

The Decoys come into play based on the OOB for the scenario, these act like units, they move around and get shot at causing them to be revealed.

I hope this better summary of how the system works give you a better understanding of the game.

It’s a pretty neat and tidy system that is unlike other war games.

Also the next game for the series is title Band of Brothers: Texas Arrows, it follows the US 36th Infantry division through Italy, France and Germany during WWII.

Well, this is another review of a game I don’t own but a friend does. This seems to be a trend with me lately. Once a month a group of friends meet up at a local gaming store to play Advance Squad Leader. On this particular day though we setup and started to play and we just didn’t have the mindset to play, beside we had made major mistakes in each of our first turns…so we decided to play his recently purchased copy of King of Tokyo that he bought for his upcoming game night. So without any further babble here is my review/thoughts.

Game play:
Game Type – Dice Game
Play Time: 20-45 Minutes
Number of Players: 2-6 (Best 3-4+)
Mechanics – Dice Rolling, Card Drafting, Conflict
Difficulty – Pick-up & Play (Can be learnt in 10 minutes), a pretty good filler game.
Components – Good, thick card board
Release – 2011

Components:
Game board
66 cards
6 monster boards
6 monster tokens with plastic stand
8 six-sided dice
50 energy tokens
28 tokens (to mark card effects)
Color Rulebook

Monster Cut-Outs and Stands: Each monster is represented using a large 2D cut out that slots into a loose fitting stand. The artwork is cartoonish, which fits the theme well. I’m not a big fan of the cut out slotted thing, but this works well for this game.

Monster Boards: They Consist Two dials are used to allow players to track their Monster’s health and the number of VPs they have gained as they play the game. The artwork matches with the monster it represents.

Dice: The dice are Large. In all there are 8 dice but only 6 are used each turn unless a Power is acquired to gain additional dice. The regular dice are black with radioactive green symbols…of which there are 6 different symbols on each dice.
The additional 2 dice use the opposite color scheme…black icons on a radioactive green background.

Power Cards: The game comes with 66 Power Cards to enhance your Monster and make it more powerful. Each card features the Energy Cost in the top left corner, at the bottom is listed the type of Power (Keep or Discard) and its effect. In regards to the effect of each card, the symbols for dice icons, VPs, Energy and Health are used instead. This helps in reading each card and knowing what it does.
The cards are thin; I think they could have been thicker. I think over time the wear out.

Energy Cubes: The Energy Cubes are transparent green, kind of neat.

Game Board: The small thick square board simply depicts two circles to represent Tokyo and Tokyo Bay and the artwork that adorns the board shows the city being devastated by fire and flame.

Tokens: Some of the Power Cards have effects that must be tracked, these are used to do that. They have some artwork that links them back to their card, making it easier to know which card they belong to.

Rules and Tray Insert: The rule are in color and easy to follow. The rulebook has examples to help explain game play. The box has a tray insert that function well to hold the game components.

My overview/Thoughts:
I’m not going to hash out detail game play, there are a bunch of other reviews here that do that. What this game brings back is the memories of when I was a kid and every Saturday I watch what was called “Creature Double Feature” on TV. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra…Anyways I digress. All of the favorites from Anime and Hollywood are here; although their names have been changed I believe to avoid copyright issues. King Kong is now a mechanical Cyborg called The King, Godzilla is now Giga Zaur, there is The Kraken to cover the ocean realm …to name a few.

Basically the game play consists of players controlling a monster and set about trying to destroy more of the city than their opponents and each other. This pretty much sums up the aim for players in King of Tokyo. Enter Tokyo and destroy it to earn VPs and attack the other monsters to either take them out or keep them down long enough to allow you to win. Last monster standing or first to reach 20 VPs is the King of Tokyo!

I think this game would be great for a family or a filler game for a game night. I can see my kids enjoying this, since I got them into watching the old Monster movies of my hay day. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this short review and thoughts of King of Tokyo.

I got a chance to play this with a few of my friends that own it. We played several games and enjoyed each one of them. The premise was pretty cool, you are a budding fishing entrepreneur looking to score big in the fishing industries. This is card management and bidding, collection game. The game play in summary consist of:

License Auction – players bid for available fishing license.

Launch Boats and Appoint Captains – players launce their boats and then assign there captains

Fish – collect 4 fish and place them on your boat(s)

Process and trade fish – Process your fish, to do this you need a license (hopefully in your hand), players with the licens take one fish crate from each boat that have fish. Trading can also be done in step by removing the crate from the game for the benefit of drawing a card.

Draw cards – All players end the current round by drawing a number of cards and the start token is passed to the next person.

The Game ends when there are not enough licenses to fill all empty license spaces, the game will end at the end of the current round or the game can also end at the end of the round in which the last Fish Crate is taken from the supply.

Points are scored for the number of fish , awards on license, boats and bonus point for king crab license.

Replay value:

Is certainly high and this is a great family game, I can see my wife crushing me in this game. I do think it is better with more than just 2 people due to the bidding aspect of the game, but would still be enjoyable with 2 people.

The game is pretty easy after a few plays, it has great quality components and art work.

Overall:

At first the theme seem a little strange , a game about fishing…But overall this is a pretty nice little gem of a card game.

What’s in the Box:

4 22″ x 34″ back-printed map sheets
5 counter sheets
55 cards
24-page series rulebook
48-page playbook, , 10 scenarios, 1 learning
8.5″ x 22″ track display
Player aids (1 copy of each)
dice: 2d6, 2d8, 2d10, 2d12 & 2d20
10 wooden cubes
1 wooden pawn

This is a Chad Jensen , the same creator of Combat Commander.

Component quality:

The maps are pretty basic/functional they look like the combat commander maps if you are familiar with those. They are double sided.
The counters are pretty clean and functional. Over all I like them.
The cards are of good glossy card stock
The color rule book is awesome, it’s clear and conciseness. It has pages of example game play.
The color playbook is laid out and contains the 10 scenarios and the learning scenarios. (I don’t have the book in front of me, but I think it has history of the Grossdeutschland Motorized Infantry Division)
The track display is made of heavy cards stock it contains the order matrix and the initiative track, all in color.
The Player aids (1 copy of each), made of heavy card stock
The dice are just dice…
The wooden cubes and the pawn are what they are wooden cubes and a pawn.

Game Play:
In this section I’m just going to point out what I really like about this game.

The one thing I like about this game is there no fixed turn or sequence of play but a new initiative based sequence of play. There is an order matrix, which is a chart with one side belonging to the German side and the other side belonging to the Russian side. There is a column down the middle where order cubes are placed based on the scenario setup and once used up is re-seeded.

There is also a sliding initiative track/scale for the German and Russian side which is effective by the initiative based sequence of play.

This is the way you command/order your forces which is fixed into the design of the order matrix(the initiative based sequence), resulting in an irregular array of the effectiveness of leadership for the opposing forces. The player may conduct the order listed beside the cube, or any order lower on the “scale” of orders on the chart. This permits give at the cost of initiative – you can take a high initiative order to conduct a simple move order (lower on the “scale”), but the cost is enormous to just take that high initiative from the opposing player.

This causes the players initiative to shift/move over the opposing players side of the initiative track/scale. There is also a cost of command ranging from 0,1 or 2. Within in zero radius there is no extra cost. 1 initiative is if your are within a friendly radius command marker, 2 initiative if you are outside a friendly command marker. There are other cost to initiative such as for example radio less Russians tanks, where there initiative cost is doubled for moving.

At the end of the command/order, if the initiative pawn is still on his side of the initiative track/scale, the player may take another cube and carries out the order. If it has landed on the opponent’s side of the track, the opponent takes a cube and conducts an order, and so on.

This continues until all the cubes are gone, at which point a short end of turn sequence is conducted and the order matrix is “re-seeded” by randomly rolling for new orders.

The other thing is like is the dice. Not the actually dice but how what type of dice you get to roll. The dice range from 2d6 > 2d8 > 2d10 > 2d12 > 2d20 sequence. The base dice you roll is 2d10, but the can shift either way depending on various cases. Also If either of the attack dice shows a number equal to or less than the hindrance/terrain of any hex being fired through ,the attack immediately fails, there is a also default hindrance of 1, so anytime a die shows a 1, an attack fails.

There are other things that make this game pretty neat, such as reaction fire, Melee, Artillery and air support, oh and Asset cards that can be played as a reaction.

All in all, this is a pretty neat game with a unique initiative mechanic and great components, excellent laid out rules and in my opinion great fun to play, with many replays of the 10 scenarios.

Enjoy !

Contents:

Ten Maps (5 printed on both sides)
90 7/8” Squads/Tanks counters
88 5/8” informational counters
16 Scenarios (+2 more that can be downloaded)
1 Rule book
1 Player Aid
2 Dice

Component quality:

Maps are card thick card stock printed on both sides. Although I think the hex size could have been bigger, it seems crowded once you put the counters on the map. This is not a show stopper, just an observation.

Counters are thick and large, easy to handle. Very readable.

Scenarios are in a book format, I would of like cards. (btw, You can download the scenarios and put them on your own cardstock). Scenarios are balanced and offer interesting puzzles to solve. Replay ability is high.

Rule book is well laid out and offers programmed instructions, meaning STOP here and play scenarios 1 and 2 and when you are comfortable read the next section.

Player aid is thick card stock printed on both sides. I would have been nice to have 2 copies, one for each player. (The player aid is available for download, so you can print another copy)

Dice is 10 sided, nothing relay special here.

Game play:

One thing that need to be said here is that when your read the rules, you must throw out any other war game rules that you are familiar with, It will mess you up if you don’t.

The first thing is the game uses no IFT (infantry fire tables) such as other war games. The game uses a unique varying degree of a suppression system mechanic. By which a unit can perform an action by taking a morale check, the more suppression you unit takes (reduced morale) the less likely they will perform. So it leaves that un-sureness that you unit might be able to do something in there turn.

I find this suppression system very neat and unique.

The other this that is pretty neat is that if a unit want to opportunity fire on a moving unit it has to take a proficiency test, different from a morale test, that is a dice roll.

There is also a conceal and decoy system. The conceal come into play for unit that are in say a building, so a conceal counter is placed on it, there will be negative modifiers for a unit shooting at them. The Decoys come into play based on the OOB for the scenario, these act like units, they move around and get shot at causing them to be revealed.

I think the main thing about the game is that you need to fire and maneuver and spread out your units.

This is the first game in the series, the next one which out right now is Band of Brothers: Ghost Panzer (stand alone), which Is in the Eastern Front following the exploits of the German 11 Panzer (Ghost) division

Summary:
A game by Richard Borg, someone I know about since I owned a copy of his Command and Colors Ancients game. So low and behold he made this fantasy based version with some bells and whistles. Now by nature I’m a war gamer, WWII, WWI, even modern but fantasy hmm.

Well I do like fantasy and war so I picked up a copy of this when it first came out and I was glad I did.

Let’s get onto my review/observations and comments.

Components:
Ok, I have to admit I did not type in all these, there was just too many. But I will point out some of the things I like and maybe don’t like.
All the components are top notch, The little miniatures even have their own try to put them in, well not all of them, only the one that have banner. The other miniatures pile into a square part of the tray. Now this is not the greatest thing, it make set up a bit time consuming. So you might want to make your own storing system.

The miniature themselves are awesome and there are a lot of them. If your into paining miniatures they’ll look even more awesome.

The Map is good hard heavy card board and colorful and is divided into 3 sections, right, left and center. Flip over to be combined to another battle lore map for an epic game. The edge has a place to keep you captured banners.

The dice are cool, but wish they were not wooden with the symbols painted on them. It wears of over time.

The cards are good quality and have nice art work on them. They are of a quality that will last with a lot of use.

The card board pieces are all heavy stock and have nice art work to represent what they represent.

Oh, I almost forgot about the rule book, 80 pages. This might sound like over kill, but this rule book is the best. It’s full color, with immense amounts of examples and illustrations. Many of the pages are simply full color illustrations, and it really is a pleasant book to leaf through.

So over all I’d say BattleLore quality is outstanding.

• 80-page Rulebook
• 24-page Adventure book (10 scenarios) (also serves as a tutorial sequence)
• Reversible Map board
• 2 reversible War Council sheets
• 12 BattleLore dice
• 8 card holder racks
• 2 Lore buckets
• 6 obstacle rectangles
• 46 terrain hexes
• 6 Objective (Victory Blazon) tokens
• 24 Lore Master tokens
• 4 each of Commander, Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Creature
• 54 Lore and miscellaneous tokens
• 60 Command cards
• 18 Tactics Cards
• 42 Section Cards
• 60 Lore cards
• 15 Warrior Cards (all different)
• 15 Rogue Cards (all different)
• 15 Cleric Cards (all different)
• 15 Wizard Cards (all different)
• 42 Summary cards
• 73 Banners
• 220 miniatures (humans, goblins, dwarves, and a Giant Spider)
• 12 Heavy Calvary
• 18 Regular Calvary
• 16 Heavy Infantry
• 72 Regular Infantry
• 16 Irregular Infantry
• 32 Archers
• 4 Heavy Iron Dwarf Swordsman (mercenaries)
• 12 Iron Dwarf Swordsman (mercenaries)
• 4 Iron Dwarf Crossbowman (mercenaries)
• 6 Hobgoblin Cavalry (mercenaries)
• 4 Hobgoblin Swordsman (mercenaries)
• 16 Goblin Skirmisher / Swordsman (mercenaries)
• 4 Hobgoblin Archers (mercenaries)
• 1 Giant Spider (monster)

** I cut down the detail in the list of things that come in the box. I think it might have been to over whelming when looking at the review.

Replay Value:
Ok, replay value huge, I say this for these reasons;
– It scenario based, box game has 10.
– 100 of scenarios are available online.
– Online system for generation your own scenarios.
– Lore system (magic) change up the scenarios. (See below).
– War council. (See below).
– A bunch of expansion packs to bolster your armies.
– Putting 2 BattleLore sets together to have huge battles.

Easy To Learn:
I like these rules, very easy to teach new players. There is some rule complexity, but they are easily picked up. There dozens of reference cards included to aid in remembering what does what in the game.

Update: I left out one thing; in BattleLore moving your units is done by Command Cards. These cards are drawn and are used to move your units in the left, right or center of the board. The fact is that sometimes, you might not have the cards you want to move your guys. This is a pretty neat mechanic which is found in most Richard Borg systems. As always good tactics and correct play of your commands cards will win the day, and a bit of luck.

Some Game Mechanics I like in BattleLore:
So I’ll point out a couple neat things I like about BattleLore. First up is the lore system.

Each player has a different Lore Master and each one has their own Lore cards. These cards let player spend their Lore tokens to make magic attacks. These vary from things like, chain lighting, increasing units movement, healing, rolls extra battle dice during combat and the list goes on. Players can get there Lore tokens at the end of their game turn, either one token and one Lore card or two Lore cards. A player can also acquire Lore tokens when during combat and if they roll a Lore symbol on the dice. So sometimes losing is in combat can have a pays off.

The next is the War Council.
In some scenarios players can take either a preset War Council or create their own. The players get six “levels” to build their council with and can take that many levels of the Commander, the Wizard, the Rogue, the Cleric, and the Warrior. None of the characters can have more than three levels, and their levels affect game play. The Commander is the only one who has nothing to do with Lore; instead, he directly determines how many Command cards a player may have. Normally a player may only have three command cards, plus one per level of the Commander. So a player who takes a level three Commander will have fewer options with Lore but a great deal more maneuvering on the battlefield. The other four members are considered Lore Masters, and the level of the highest one determines how many Lore tokens and cards a player starts with, as well as the maximum number of cards they can have. There is a deck of Lore cards for each of the four members, and they are shuffled into one large Lore deck to start the game. Warrior cards affect battle results and rolls; Cleric cards heal and can do some massive damage, Rogue cards allow treachery and deceit, and Wizard cards are often powerful attacks. Depending on how you want to run your army, it’s very important how a player sets up their initial council.

There are also other things too I like, battle back, Cavalry, mercenaries and monster.

With all this and hundreds of miniatures this is a game that should not be passed up. If you a fan of Command and Colors or Memoir 44 and like fantasy I’d say this game is a must buy to add to your game collection.

Summary:
Well if you read my review on Zombie Dice you’ll see why I went back to my local gaming store and purchased Martian Dice…

This one too I thought would be another hit with the family. What makes this a bit more fun is that you get to roll all 13 dice to start off with!

The one other thing I’d like t point out is my children were able to better recognize chickens, cows or humans.

Watch out for those tanks…

Replay Value:
Repeating this again, replay value is huge and is easily brought out at parties.

Components:
– Rule book is in a color, double sided little sheet of glossy paper that fits inside the stowage cup.

– Dice are black with cool engraved symbol representing tank, death ray, human, cow, and chickens.
-There are 13 dice. Each dice face has a one tank, death ray, human, cow, chicken.

– Container has a cartoonish cover art and can be used to roll the dice.

Easy To Learn:
Super Easy! Roll all 13 dice. Set aside the tanks, from the remaining dice set aside one type, which is a human, cow, chicken or death ray.

One thing is you can’t choose the same type you choose before.

Death rays can be set aside to offset the number of tanks, otherwise if there are more tanks than death rays you will not score when you are done rolling dice, so make sure your death rays are greater than or equal to the number of tanks. If you can’t set aside any dice your turn ends and you move onto scoring or you can choose to end your turn and score.

Scoring is pretty straight forward, 1 point for each, human, cow, chicken and an extra 3 point if you collect at least one of each human, cow, chicken.

The winner is the first player to reach 25 points.

So this is a neat little dice game, my kids loved it of course; it was one of dad’s games. My wife liked Martian Dice a bit better then Zombie Dice, since she wasn’t rolling all shot guns 3 times in a row.

Over all either game is a win win!

Summary:
I was at my local gaming store to pick up some paints for my miniatures and I picked up Zombie Dice on an impulse waiting in line at the cash register.

I figured my children and might enjoy it.

So we played that night. The kids were excited to play a new game that had cool looking dice. They are young, so I didn’t explain to them the whole zombie thing and shot gun blasts were strikes.

We played several rounds; my wife was feeling left out, since she kept rolling 3 strikes every time she picked up the dice to roll.

My children liked the fact they could pick 3 dice and roll them, I put down a dice rolling tray, so dice where hot being thrown all over the place.

Overall everyone enjoyed this little distraction of a dice game with a neat little theme.

So on to the review…

Replay Value:
This is pretty straight forward, replay is huge. It can play with any number of people.

I think it would make a great party game…

Components:
– Rule book Are in a color, double sided little sheet of glossy paper that fits inside the stowage cup.

– Dice are black with cool engraved symbol representing Shot gun blast, brains, and foot prints. There are 13 dice. The breakdown of the dice is as follows.

– 6 Green dice with – 3 Brains, 2 Footprints and 1 Shotgun blast.
4 Yellow dice with – 2 Brains, 2 Footprints and 2 Shotgun blasts.
3 Red dice with – 1 Brain, 2 Footprints and 3 Shotgun blasts

(As you can see the odds are in the color of the dice)

– Stowage cup is a sturdy colorful card board tube with comic like zombies on the label. It has a plastic end with a tab to open it. The cup is also used to draw the dice out randomly.

Easy To Learn:
Super easy! Draw 3 dice roll them. Keep brains and shot gun blast aside. 3 shot gun blast ends your turn and you score no points. Your goal is to collect as many brains as you can before getting 3 shot gun blast. This make the game neat in that you have to decide if you want to keep pushing your LUCK and try to get the most brains before being blasted by the shotguns.

Now the thing is the last player has the advantage, but no biggie it’s a light fun game of brain eating!

Although the stowage/draw cup is cool, it gets a little taxing on the hand to draw the dice out of it, so I recommend that you put them in to draw from instead.

So overall this is an inexpensive little press your luck filler game that involves all the players on who will collect the most brains!

Overview:
Let me start at the beginning. In 2003 a new miniature games came out called WarMachine. It is a steam-powered miniature combat table-top miniatures game published by Privateer Press.
The games premise was that you took on the role of an elite soldier-sorcerer called a warcaster. The warcaster and his army is a formidable force on the battle field, but the coolest ability of a warcaster was to magically control and coordinates the action of their mighty steam-powered combat automatons called warjacks.
So for some time I was content with WarMachine, it was cool and everyone was playing it.

Then in 2006, Privateer Press came out with Hordes. This is where I drop WarMachine and started playing Hordes. The cool thing about it was 100% compatible with WarMachine. I was totally drawn in with the whole monster thing.

In Hordes Instead of warcaster you are powerful warlock that draws power from there beasts instead of controlling warjacks.
As a warlock you take control of fierce warriors and monstrous warbeast. Force them to do you bidding in the battle field. Push them too hard and they can turn and frenzy.
So now we come to 2010, Hordes Primal MK II and my review. Hordes Primal MK II is a reboot of the original Hordes rule book. It has some minor rule and point value structure changes.

Replay Value:
Well there is a ton of replay value, with different missions and 5 different factions and with it 100% compatible with WarMachine and different point sized battles the replay value is endless.

Components:
Well it’s a rule book.
The Hard cover is beautiful. It has a glossy hard cover and full color pages. It is well written and has lots of examples of game play.
The soft cover is beautiful too and the same as the hard cover but just in a soft cover.
Inside you’ll find,
– 248 pages and full color.
– Complete Core rules.
– History of the nations of western Immoren.
– Detailed profiles and rules for the powerful warbeasts and soldiers of the Trollbloods, Circle Orboros, Legion of Everblight, and Skorne.
– Instructional painting and hobby guide.

East to Learn:
The Hordes game is not very complicated, but the strategies are. Don’t let this stop you from playing Hordes. It takes dedication and figuring out which combinations of warlock and warbeast work the best together. The combinations are many and diverse. This in my opinion makes the game clean. It also makes you try new things.

So if you like trying to figure out new strategies and combinations on how different warlocks and warbeast work together then this game is for you. Also, add in that every time you play the battle field and the opposing army is always different. Then Hordes is for you.

Hordes table top miniature game is a lot of fun and it has a degree of simple intricacy like no other miniature game. I would recommend this to anyone as their first venture into table top miniature gaming!

One other thing I’d like to point out that this is a Rule book, along with that there are miniatures that will need purchasing, assembly and painting. You’ll also need dice, 6 should be enough. A tape measure and a 4 ft by 4 ft playing are with some terrain that you can buy or build yourself. So in a sense this makes the games even more satisfying as the simple intricacy.

Game on!

Overview:
Well when Fields of Fire first came out in 2008, I was excited to get it. Let me tell you why, Fields of Fire would be the best solitaire WWII game since my beloved Ambush! series game. (As you can see Ambush! was awesome and still is)
The other thing that drew me to this game was that it was designed by Ben Hull and active duty Marine. How cooler can that be!
But unfortunately the early feedback about the rules sent this to the bottom of my purchasing list.
So years went by and Fields of Fire called to me again when I saw it had reorganized and cleaned up rule book (which can be down loaded from GMT website) and was on the P500 list for reprint at GMT. I placed my P500 order and waited. The wait was too long for me so I got a copy of first edition sealed from Ebay and played with my down loaded rule book. (btw, I left my pre-order up at GMT, I have no problem getting another copy).
So let’s get onto my review.

Replay Value:
Ok, I’m sure how I can say this. Replay value is huge, I mean huge. There are so many variables in this game that no one game will be like the last game you played. It covers 3 periods or warfare, WWII, Korean and Vietnam. It based on the experience of the 9th infantry division for all 3 periods of war.
I can’t stress enough that this game has massive replay value!

Components:
• Action Deck + Hint Cards – 55 Cards
o The cards are of very good quality and stock.
• 3 Terrain Decks of 55 Cards, total of 165 Terrain Cards
o These are what make up the game board. Same quality and stock as the Action deck.
• Rule Booklet
o New version updated and laid out well.
• Mission Briefing Booklet
o Contains all the scenarios.
• Company Log Pad (8.5×11 – expendable)
o Pad of paper for logging and keeping track of your units.
• 1 x 8.5 x 11 Player Aid Card Action Menu Front – Vehicle Info Back
o Just a player aid card.
• 9-12 8.5×11 Mission Cards
o each mission has a card – friendly info on the front, enemy info on the back
• 536 Unit Counters
o Large Size – Two-Sided, nice glossy and colorful.
• 234 Informational Markers
o Lots of these, same quality as the unit counters.

One note about the components, there are decks and counters for each theater of war. I think that this game could of easily been turned in to 3 separate games, but GMT made it so you got it all in one game. I think that’s pretty sweet.

Easy to learn:
Ok, this is where it can get a bit clouded. With the new updated and reorganized rulebook learning the game can still be a somewhat daunting. With that said there are plenty examples of videos game play, one can be found right on GMT website. Examples of game play book and there are plenty of other sites dedicated to fields of fire. With that said with a little work this game pays off greatly once you get the rules down.

I have to admit, my first run through of the game I was a bit put off, but after some reading the examples of game play and a video or 2, I’m not a pro but I can finish a game with a satisfying sigh.

I’ve yet to stray to Korea or Vietnam…But I can’t wait for the challenge.

So in a nut shell, if like to play solo and want to play the role of a captain commanding his troops and your subordinates including staff officers, the company executive officer and 1st sergeant, and your platoon commanders.

More often than not, you have three platoons under your command, each consisting of three squads. You also have other units attached to your company some all the time, such as machine gun teams, and others on a mission-by-mission basis.

And command, control and communication and intelligence are vital to this game.

And you’re interested in history, and the 3 periods of war (WWII, Korea, and Vietnam).

And single US 9th infantry division is used thru out the theaters of war.

And you like a challenge, and then this game is for you!

Summary:
At first glance of this game I was on the fence, come on card driven, no dice. So I turned away from this for awhile, until one day I went to a convention and watch two guys playing it. They let me play it, and then I was hooked.
What make this a cool game are the cards. Why I say that is, CC:P puts you in the role of the commander, your scenario role (attacker, defender, etc.) dictates your hand size. Your nationality determines your discard ability. This represents your training and flexibility. The quality and quantity of your units determine how many cards you can play in a round.
The other neat thing is each nationality has its own deck. Each deck has been configured for that nationalities way of operation.

So that’s what I think that makes CC:P cool is that your hand of cards dictates you commanders capabilities.

Replay Value:
I’d rate replay value on this game very high. The factors would be from:
– 12 scenarios.
– The random scenario generator (RSG) that is included.

Components:
– 352x large counters (5/8″)
– 280x small counters (1/2″)
There about 600 counters in all, packed with information and very legible.
– 3 Decks of cards, 1 for each nationality. They are made of a heavy stock and glossy.
– 6 double-sided 17 x 22 paper maps (twelve maps in total). The maps are very nice and the hexes are large, with this you can lay the counters side by side instead of stacking them on top of each other.
– 3 double-sided 8.5 x 11 nation-specific player aid cards
– 2 one-sided 8.5 x 11 thick paper generic player aid cards
– 1 32-page color rulebook. The book is very well laid out and organized well.
– 1 32-page color playbook. This book contains 12 scenarios. Also contained is the random scenario generator and examples of play.
– 1 Thick paper Track Display, used for keeping track of things like victory points and casualties.
– Dice , wait there are none.

Easy to Learn:
CC:P is rated as a medium complexity and low solitaire suitability. I found that I did not have a hard time grasping the rules. There so well laid out and organized that anyone should be able to read and do a play along and be fine.

Over all, with that said CC:P having a well-though out design, tense game play, lots of replay value and most of all total focus on being in the role of a commander makes this game one you should add to your collection.

Summary:

This is not the PanzerBlitz from the 70’s, but more updated system which uses many of the core concepts of the older panzer blitz, this is what I gather from the advertising and talk among other war gamers and game review web sites. I’ve never owned the original PanzerBlitz so I can’t compare the old to the new.
What drew me to the game was not that it was a re-make, since it really wasn’t, but the map and counters photos were just stunning. The other part that drew me was it was a chit pull system for activating your units, something I hadn’t owned in my growing collection of war games. That thought of uncertainty what will come out of the cup. The price point for the game was excellent, so I figured I wouldn’t lose out.
So when I saw this up for pre-order many years ago, I was like I got to have it. So I placed my pre-order and waited, waited, and one night when I got home from work there was a package waiting for me. I was excited to open it up and devour what was inside the box…

Replay Value:

I’d say replay value is pretty high in this game. There are 8 scenarios and many ways to obtain victory. Scenarios are victory condition driven, but solving a way to meet them makes it for a somewhat challenging puzzle in a sense, and of course with luck and the chit pull system. The chit pull system makes this game shine, the game experience is more reactive and there is less chance for coordinated attacks/maneuvers, because your plans might get somewhat delayed if what’s pulled out of the cup is not you what you wanted…
Also it has a medium rating for solo play; the chit pull system helps here too.
The other things that makes the games replay value even higher is there was an expansion for this that can be gotten out of MMP operations 2 magazine. It adds new units. American troops, Mechanized Infantry, Tank Destroyers, mortars, and German Paratroopers and several new AA weapons. (I’ll do a review on it when it gets on the site)
So the replay value for PanzerBlitz in all aspect of face to face and solo play makes replay ability very high in my book.

Components:

1 22″x32″ map sheet, it’s a paper map and it is very well done and beautiful. I placed my in a poster frame. This makes it lay flat and I can then hang it on my wall. The map is also functional in that it has on it, the direct fire table, Terrain effects chart, Antiaircraft Fire table, direct dice roll modifiers, direct fire column modifiers and natural roll results, and last but least the direct fire table for range modifiers. So there is a lot of information right on the map.
The historical map depicts Hill 112 and the surrounding terrain.
It has depictions of town and cities, woods, streams, orchards; it also contains slope line to depict the hill slopes and different shade of green to indicate the height.

2 counter sheets, the counter are well done and very appealing. The game has over 300 counters all full color and very detailed. They contain pictures of the infantry, armor and ordnance instead of the NATO symbols. British counters are a light tan and the German are a light gray.

8 scenarios, I’ve only played scenario 8, 3 times solo. This particular scenario seems to be the one you want to start with first. Since it has a small unit density and map area that is in play very small. Now some of the scenarios have missing information, there is errata for the scenarios that are missing some of the information, but this did not make the scenarios unplayable. Scenarios range from 2 – 6 hours play time.
Don’t let this stop you, keep reading…

PanzerBlitz rules, this is a 16 page paper stock black and white rule book. Now there is a lot of talk about how bad it was, but overall most war gamers and using common sense you can figure it out. There is an errata too and neither did’nt make the game unplayable. I can tell you that if this worries you, a new version of the rule book can be down loaded from MMP website along wiht the errata.

Player Aid card, this is what it is a thick paper based double sided player aid, functional and useful. I wished that had put 2 in the box, one for each player.

Two dice, a red one and a white one. There is nothing special here.

Easy To Learn:

The game is easy to learn if you have some experience with war games of this nature. If you’re thinking about getting this as your first war game, since it has a lot of value for the buck, I suggest you down load the version 2 of the rules and the errata. The game is rated for medium complexity, but don’t let this stop you. Start off with a small scenario such as scenario 8 and follow the sequence of play and follow up with a read of the rules and take your time. After a few plays you’ll be a pro.

I found that this game is easy to teach once you get the rules down. And it’s always better face to face!

Overall, this game has the right size and complexity to make it playable in one sitting with perhaps even multiple games in one sitting.

Game on.

Replay Value:

Replay value I would say is high with 8 different nationality if you will, France, Russia, Britain, Spain, Austria, Turkey, Prussia and the United states. All the nationality have different strength and weaknesses. There are 24 map boards you arrange 4 randomly to create an 8×8 board. These have depiction of water, houses, trees, etc. So there is a great number of factors that make replay values strong in this game.

Components:

24 map boards. The depictions on them are Clear, Field, Hill, Lake, Marsh, Town, Woods, . (one note on this, they have a tendency to move while playing since you put 4 of them together to make the playing area. I use plexi glass on top to avoid this, but you could always use that special tape that does not mar the surface to keep the maps together.)
The dice, 4 eight sided (blue) , 4 six sided (red) and 4 ten sided (green).
2 player aid cards, this awesome so each player can have their own when playing.
1 rule book , well laid out.
8 nationality cards (activation cards) consisting of 60 cards. These are pretty good quality. One note here is that they micro cards.
The counters for the nationalities are thick and big and not too bad looking. There are 8 counters for each faction, 1 first player counter and 4 redoubt. For a total of 69 counters.

Easy to Learn:
It is very easy to learn, but with that said it has a lot of strategy and luck though. Attacks are made on two eight-sided, two six-sided or one ten sided dice, based on if you have that units card in your hand. The units card tell you what dice to roll and any bonuses. There is a large luck factor in the combat, but the decisions made are also crucial. Also, it can be of benefit to avoid conflict and maneuver your troops (hence the name of the game) to go for control.

To win you either eliminate 5 units or if you control more of your opponents side of the battle field at the end of the day you win. End of day occurs when you both players draw there last activation cards.

As I noted above each country plays differently, other than the United States most cards are balanced. You can win with the United States, but you need to play a hit and run type of game.

I got a chance to play this with one on my friends who owned it. We played 1 three player and then 2 more one on one games. We all had a really fun time playing this. This is Richard Borg game the same guy who did Battle Lore, but the difference is that you roll a set number of activation dice based on the scenario to see which one of your miniatures (called links) gets to activate or draw cards. I have to say I really liked the game and playing with the right kind of person makes the game a lot of fun.

Replay Value:
There are a number of one on one and multi player scenarios in the book, I forgot how many. They are all different and have different mission requirements. I can see that you and fans could probably come up with scenarios. So I see reply value very high for this game.

Components:
Well the board is pretty good.
The weapons cards are ok, one thing is that they should have been the small sized cards, since you lay them on the board to indicate which direction you are shooting at.
The wild fire cards are ok too, they represent the bad and sometimes the good things that can happen to your miniatures (links)
The terrain pieces are ok, they have no function in game play except for blocking LOS. I think in future scenarios/expansion they will be used for mission objective and/or bonuses. This is only a guess, since there are 3 type of terrain, forest, city and Town I believe.
The activation dice, well they are dice, although you have to stick the stickers on them. A bonus is that they give you spare stickers.
The combat dice, well they are dice. But are color coded to the links (miniatures) that should roll them when resolving combat.
The miniatures, well this is where I think most of the production monies went. They are awesome and very detailed. They have a sticker that goes on the back of their base to show there stats and it is color coded to which face of the dice activate them and which combat dice to roll. The font of the base holds the chits for their life value (crystals), take a hit remove them. It also serves as a place to put square chits to remind players that the miniature (link) has a special effect on them.
The chits are good and thick, they are 4 color crystal chits to represent which player miniature (links) belong too. There are special square effects counters that indicate what effect are on the miniature (link), they all have a tab so you can insert it into the front of the base of the miniature.

Easy To learn:

Game play is pretty straight forward.

Roll your combat dice, the attackers lays out his weapon cards to target the defending player. Once the attacker is done the defending player lays down his weapon cards to defend. Then these cards modify the dice rolls for the attacker and defending player to determine the results for the combat. Also depending on the results of the rolls things can often go wrong, which are represented by the wild fire cards.

This game Is pretty easy to learn. It plays fairly fast, the one on one games played in about 30 minutes. The multi player game was about 40 minutes. I’d say this is a beer and pretzel game. Playing it with the right person makes this game a lot of fun. I think the fun part is where you get a good activation roll and have a full hand of weapon cards and you maneuver you miniatures (link) and get setup to blow away your opponent and turns and counters all your shooting with his cards, and dice roll results get you a wild fire card draw. What no…

Overall:
It a fun game! Price point is high, but It pretty much for all the plastic in the box. With 2 or 3 players the game is still fast to play. I’ve not tried a 4 player game as yet. Overall if this was brought out again I’d defiantly play it !

Replay Value:
Each game is different when you build the wilds in the center of the table. So each game is different than the last.

Components:
Collector tin, very neat! All the game components fit back in the tin.
Cards, Artwork is not bad, they have to use a different font for the numbers thought, I thought the Assistant scored 7 glory…
Dice Bag, pretty generic.
Dice, just plain awesome.
Glory cubes , pretty standard , the colors are so dark and close in color for black, blue, green, that I sometimes move the wrong cube on the glory track.
Glory Track, it ok…

Easy to Learn:
This game is pretty easy to grasp and setup and plays very fast. My wife and daughter love and constantly want to play, just to roll those pretty dice and of course crush me. They pretty much can read the cards and ask little questions on how they work.

Overall:
Well it pretty cool and fun mindless little game and it bring the family together. What more could I say!