Ladycovichi

This is a neat game that plays quickly and adjusts well to different numbers of players. Each player takes a character (or two if there are only 2 players: the player playing the good side will play with Bilbo and Thorin).

Game play
Depending on the number of players, they will be dealt a different amount of cards. These cards can be yellow, green, red, blue and purple and have numbers from 1-12. They can also have symbols such as a white star, an orc helmet or a brown pipe.
In each turn, the first player (Thorin in the first turn or the one who won the trick the turn before) plays a card. The other players have to play cards of the same color, if possible; the highest card of that color wins the trick. However, purple cards always win (they are trumps). This is basically how the game play goes; it is quite simple and common in traditional card games. The most interesting part of the game comes next. The player who won the trick has to deal the cards obtained. The characters in this game grant different abilities to the players controlling them:
– Gandalf and Smaug have the same ability: they can assign one card to each player, including themselves, but may also choose to discard any cards they want.
– Bilbo must assign one card to himself, one to another player, and discard the rest.
– Bolg assigns one card to another player and discard the rest.
– Thorin (poor thing) has to shuffle all the card and randomly assign one card to each player.
What’s the point of this? Well, this is where the symbols in the card come into play. The white star allows players in the good side to either do one point of damage to a character in the evil side or heal one point of damage from any character in the good side. The orc helmets do the same with characters in the evil side. The pipes allow players to receive an additional card per pipe symbol if a second round took place.
When all the characters run out of cards, the first round ends. If the winning conditions are met, the game ends. If not, another round is played.

My opinion
It is really easy to explain and very quick to play. From my experience, it is common to play more than once, changing characters each time and then summing up the number of victories, regardless of the side in which each player was. There is quite a great deal of player interaction and team work, and a lot of thinking: which card should you use? is it good for your time that you win the trick given the ability from your character? Thorin’s ability adds some randomness but players should be able to work together and take advantage of it in those occasions where the damage could be minimized and any outcome would work.

The drawings on the cards are beautiful and reflect characters/object/other stuff from the book. However, the same drawings are associated with different numbers and different colors and they are not really relevant during game play (except for the fact that characters from the good side usually grant white stars and viceversa). Other than that, this is a really good game for the price for those who love merchandising from Tolkien’s creations.

What I like the most is how small it is. You can carry it around and play almost anywhere while you wait for a friend, for food, for an appointment, whenever you want to, just take it out of your pocket!

The game play is quite simple:

The order is chosen randomly placing the character tokens on a special board which also shows the number of rounds left.

Then, players do the following actions in each turn:

Programming: they have to choose two actions and which one will be their first and their second action. There are four possible actions: look (which allows a player to check an adjacent room), move (which obviously allows to move), push (which allows a player to push another character into an adjacent room), and control (which allows players to move an entire row of tiles in the complex one space in any desired direction as long as that row hasn’t moved yet).

Action : After all players have programmed their actions, they all resolve their first action in order; when everyone has resolved their first action, the first player resolves her second action and all the others do the same following their turn order.

Countdown: When everyone is done, the first player’s character’s token is moved to the final position and now the turn order changes and the board shows the number of turns left.

I really like all the possibilities that this game offers, as it adjusts to different types of gamers’ tastes. ROOM-25 allows for different game modes:

Cooperation Mode: everyone works together to find a way out the complex. This mode can be played with any number of players: if there are less than four players, each player will play with two characters; if there are four or more players, each player will manage only one character.

Competition Mode: this mode is only available with 2 or 3 players. In this case, each player controls two characters, as in the Cooperation Mode. However, the goal now is to have your team leave the complex while the opposing team is left behind to die in the complex.

Team Mode: Similar to the Competition Mode, but now each player controls one character each. The objective is the same but the set up changes slightly.

Solo Mode: Controlling four characters, you need to find a way out but in this case, you don’t need to program your actions.

Suspicion Mode: With 4 or more players, each one takes one character + 1 guards/prisoners tile. In this mode, the goal for the players who got a prisoner tile is to leave the complex before the end of the game while the player(s) with the guard tile need to prevent prisoners from escaping. Depending on the number of players, the number of guard tiles changes. There is always an extra guard tile, so the total number of guards in play is always a mystery.

If you like cooperative games where everyone works together to accomplish a goal, then you can just play the Cooperative Mode but if you want to add an extra difficulty, you can play Suspicion Mode. If you just want open competition, you also have a mode available. By having players control two characters, the game adjusts quite well to different group sizes. I’ve played Competition Mode with just two players and it is really fun.

The game plays really quickly, so it is common to play two or three games in a row. The complex changes every time, so there are always surprises each time you move/check another tile, leaving aside the fact that, when players start moving rows, it is really hard to keep track of what you had checked. Also, depending on the game mode, the tiles used to create the complex change.

This game is never too easy. If you find the exit room early in the game, the alarm is activated, and all the players’ tokens are moved on the board to indicate that there are only 5 turns left!

One thing that could be improved is that characters do not have special abilities. That would probably make the game even more interesting, as playing with different characters would change the game considerably. Other than that, this game is, in my opinion, a must have. Everyone will like it, even people who are not used to playing games, because we are all familiar with movies, books and TV shows with this theme and it is really easy to get involved. The question is: do you dare to enter the complex and find Room 25?

I played Dice Town for the first time six years ago. At that time, I didn’t own it, it was my friend’s copy and for a period of time, we used to play it every weekend. Then, the owner of the game started to get tired of the luck component of the game, arguing that everyone is luckier than him and that everyone goes against him, trying to steal his properties or his higher value cards. Anyways, my husband and I always liked this quick game, its components and the theme and we finally decided to buy it, hoping to introduce it to our family, since we believe it is easy enough for our parents or the younger people in the family to play. Let me explain how the game works:

GAME PLAY
Each turn consists of two phases:
1) Put together a Poker Hand using the 5 Poker dice that each player has
2) Depending on the nature of the hand, taking control of various places in Dice Town that allow players to do different actions

Putting together the Poker Hand is very easy: Players roll the dice and choose one die to keep it aside. Then, they roll the remaining dice and choose another one until they have five. However, players can also keep more than one die or none, paying cash as a penalization (a dollar per extra die kept/removed). When one player is done rolling dice, then the rest of the players have one last roll.

Once everyone has a Poker Hand, the actions that can be done in the city are resolved in the following order:
9’s: the player with the higher number of 9’s receives as many gold nuggets as the number of dice showing a 9.
10’s: the player with the higher number of 10’s steals the bank, where the money that was paid the turn before has been stored
J’s: this is the general store: the player with the highest number of J’s takes as many cards as the J’s rolled and choose one. Players can find Equipment cards, which award victory points (from 1 to 8 VP), or action cards, which allow players to take an action twice, to change a die when rolling, and other different actions
Q’s: the player with the highest number of Q’s goes to the Saloon and is allowed to look at other player’s cards, as many as the number of Q’s in his hand, and keep one.
K’s: the player with the highest number of K’s receives the Sheriff title and is thereon the person in charge of resolving ties.
The Town hall: the player with the best Poker Hand receives the first of the three Property cards revealed. Then, for each Ace, a player may take the next Property card. Property cards also provide victory points, from 1 to 5.
Finally, if a player has not been able to complete any action, she can go to Doc Badluck and do one of the three possible actions depending on the dice rolled.

Turn after turn, players do the actions that their hands allow them until all the gold nuggest are taken or all the property cards are acquired. Then, players can finally add their victory points. Victory points can be obtained from different sources:
– Property Cards
– Equipment Cards
– Sheriff title in the last turn: 5 VP
– Gold nuggest: 1 VP each
– Money: 2 dollars=1 VP

CONCLUSION
All in all, and in my opinion, this is a fast-paced game in which luck plays an important role. It probably plays better with 4 or 5 players, since it becomes harder to keep track of which player has the highest value cards. Also, the more the players in the game, the highest the chances of ties happening, which makes the role of the Sheriff more important. This game can be a great filler for hardcore gamers and a favorite for family gamers. I haven’t tried it with kids yet, but I am sure they will love it, especially when it comes to rolling the dice or stealing cards from other players. The most difficult part, being able to understand what the best hand is, can be overcome thanks to the summary provided in the back of the property cards.

I got this game for 3 euros, so I can’t complaint too much about it. I wasn’t expecting much either, I just wanted a game that I could play whenever I had a few minutes to spare before dinner or in between games without having to think too much.
The game features the key elements that we all know from the board-game version but instead of getting them from the field that is adjacent to your town, you just get them every turn after you roll the dice. You have the opportunity to roll the dice three times and go for the result that will help you get the most points either on the short term (by building a town/city) or in the long term (building a road or a knight). Each town/city/knight gives you a different amount of points: the further they are from the starting position, the more points they give you. However, there is a rule that forces players to build the element with the lowest value first.
The luck that you have when rolling the dice is determinant in the success that you will have in the game and even if you have a strategy, the dice may not play in your favor. In addition, the rule that imposes that the town/city/knight with the lowest value be built can make things even more frustrating when you are not getting the results that you need, since you start to fall behind your opponents. I feel like, if you at least get the chance to build the road that leads to elements with higher value, you should be allowed to build them (I haven’t play-tested this, but I will definitely do it and if it works, post in the house rules section). The lack of luck, however, can also be overcome (slightly) thanks to the knights, which allow you to change as many dice as wanted to the result that you need once per game after you get them. Besides, the sixth face in the dice, gold, allows you to get one of the goods whenever you get two of them by changing one of them to the face showing the material needed and discarding the other one.
In conclusion, this version does not replace the board game and it will not satisfy those players who hate the luck factor in games but it will definitely entertain those who want to get a taste of this popular game without taking it too seriously.

As some of the other reviewers mentioned above and as it was said in the tips, you really need to create a story as you play. Otherwise, you will not enjoy this game. There are both positive and negative modifiers to the cards you can play, and some of them have an effect on the person the card was played on. There are some really good game tips regarding this aspect of the game as well.
In my opinion, this game is more about having fun while going crazy as you create convincing enough stories as you play a card. You will obviously try to keep your family as miserable as possible while your opponents’ families are satisfied (as satisfied as they can get in a world such as the one in which our families live) but even if you lose, all the laughter that you will get while playing will help you overcome the defeat.
One of the downsides of this game is that the stories can get a little bit repetitive, especially if you play with the same groups of people all over again. Playing with newbies may be hard at the beginning, while they get the hang of it, but if they are creative and shameless, you will be surprised to see what they can come up with. You definitely need to be feel comfortable talking about serious injuries caused by wild animals or scatological stuff.
I only have the basic set of cards and I would like to see what the expansions add to it, especially in what comes to replay value.

I really like this game: it is the type of game that I usually buy. The first thing that caught my eye was how cute everything is. It is very easy to play too. The only problem that I see is that the extra round that the first player to finish all the objectives has ensures that this person wins and usually by far. However, this rule can be ignored so, no big deal. Cool game for beginners and lovers of cuteness and simplicity.

I really like this game. I haven’t played the board game yet but I feel like playing with the app makes everything run smoother. I can’t imagine counting all the points after each turn… The fact that I can play face to face with someone else is really cool too: I don’t even need to buy the board-game (really expensive, by the way). I also enjoy playing online, although it is hard to find opponents sometimes.. All in all, I think this app is worth the price if you like this type of games!