Shadowski

Powergrid is a great game in that you will be at odds with your opponents for control of various cities. It is very cut-throat and can be somewhat vicious as the cities and good power plants become scarcer.

You gain powerplants through bidding wars, which is a favorite mechanic of mine. You have to decide if you can bluff your opponents out of bidding, or if you really feel like spending a lot of money on that expensive plant. But remember, every plant (except wind) takes fuel, so you will have to pay for the fuel as it become scarcer… and of course, more expensive.

Plan ahead and wait to see who is using what kind of fuel. Then use the opposite and try to be the only one using it. Then you will make out by not having to spend so much on it, giving you the ability to buy the higher capacity power plants for more money that your opponents don’t have anymore.

Strategy is the key to playing powergrid. It’s extremely enjoyable to play through and while I would not play it constantly, it is a great game for every once and a while.

In a gaming group such as ours, the magic number is always 7. When exactly 7 people are there, we all have to look around and say “It’s time to play 7 wonders” because so many of us have a copy.

It fills a nice gap in that it will play very well from 5 to 8 players with expansions. And when you have an odd number of people that want to play something, most games will give you 4 or maybe 5, or perhaps 6. But then you leave somebody out. Seven wonders fills that gap nicely and is flexible enough and short enough to fill a very nice hour gap with an odd number of people. This is a big reason it has become so popular with our group.

It’s an extremely easy game to play with a variety of strategies that will allow you to win. One important thing to remember is that you only directly interact with the people to your left and right. Everyone else competes with you, but you never have to directly worry about them for things such as your military, or for trade goods.

Plan out your game accordingly and take note of who has what to your left and right, and you will be just fine.

I would not recommend playing this with less then 4 players though, as it looks like it will get very predictable and stale. You need to be able to not directly deal with at least one person each to make it an interesting game.

It is a very well thought out design, and while most games will be “similar”, they will all vary to enough of a degree to remain very enjoyable.

The best advice about this game is to NOT take it seriously. I mean come on… a robot dinosaur with a laser beam on its back, or a ninja zombie!?

It’s just pure and simple fun to play this game, especially with more people.

The game play feels strategic, but it’s not the end of the world if you mess up a play. You can recover from bad mistakes or crippling damage very fast, and every combination that you can think of has an advantage of some sort over everyone else, so it works out really well.

This is a fun and fast card game with a lot of replay value just because it’s so much fun. You will be glad you played this, so grab 3 other people and go at it. It’s one of the most entertaining silly games I’ve been able to play recently.

While this game may not have the best components or board layout, for what you pay for it, it’s a great value. The game flows nicely and has enough aspects to make you have to strategize when dealing with three other players.

It does seem however, that the game will not have a strong replay value. Every game should more or less flow the same, with your opponent’s actions being the only difference between plays.

That being said, this is not an expensive game and does give you a lot for your buck, especially if you happen to find it on sale. It is a game that if you can get at a really good price, you should. Because it’s a nice four player game that will take around a hour to an hour and a half to play.

The Europe map makes for a very tight environment when playing with 4 or more players. This makes it a much more cutthroat game then the Eastern or Western US maps.

You will find yourself fenced in and unable to access several major cities in western Europe if you are not careful.

That being said, this is a very fun map to play if you love the Railways series. It involves a little more strategy then other maps, since in Western US for example, you have a lot of room to stretch out and try other options for deliveries, but in Europe you have to get creative to outmaneuver your opponents. Bidding for turn order here affects the game even more then before since the map has so many contested hubs.

It’s a fantastic map to add to the game, and highly recommended.

Eclipse can be aptly called “Twilight Imperium Junior”, but is its own well made stand alone game.

I say this because it is a long game, but not too long. Maybe 3 hours with 6 people and an hour and a half or less with 2.

The game flows nicely and the mechanics are sound. The races are balanced, so are the tiles. You still get a feeling of an epic space empire, but without the extras and massive depth of Twilight Imperium. This is not a bad thing, because you don’t always have time for or want to play a massive game.

Eclipse is definitely a solid mid-line space empire game that is perhaps a bit daunting at first to some, but very easy to learn if you give it a fair try.

The only potential let down is that by the time you build a respectable fleet and tech tree (most of the time), there are only a few rounds left in the game. So you can almost always expect a Round 6 or 7 invasion somewhere on the board. Perhaps earlier if somebody gets lucky with their discoveries and has an edge.

As a side note, I highly recommend going to BoardGameGeek and downloading the official extras from the developers. There are a number of extras that they did not include in order to keep the cost down, such as a compact tech tree for print out with only the tech track and round marker on it. This is a fantastic option if you do what I do and store your ship part tiles in a plano box pre-sorted. It’s a huge space saver.

This is by far the most in depth sci-fi empire game you will ever find. It is a bear to learn properly, and it is almost mandatory to have a veteran player with you when you play this the first time. But the true epicness of this game is hard to parallel.

Space battles, ground battles, colonization, politics, deception, and greed are just some of the aspects that TI3 has to offer.

If you want an epic full day game (10 hours) and love sci-fi, then TI3 is your game. Plain and simple.

This game will regularly kick your butt if you are not prepared. It’s a very evil game in that it will cause your best laid plans to spiral out of control quickly.

The rules say that you can not look at each others cards during the course of the game, but you have to in order to win. After all, you are all working together as part of the CDC, so why shouldn’t you be able to know what the other person knows?

Nonetheless, it’s a good challenge, and we have found that sharing card knowledge is key to winning. Otherwise your odds are purely luck based, and come on… it makes an already very difficult game 10 times harder then it needs to be, and less fun.

Strategizing with each other based on where to move and what to play are the big selling points for me, and I enjoy playing this game with other members of my gaming group.

The game is quick, fun, and has a decent amount of strategy involved. It’s also easy to learn and a great game to teach to others in less then five minutes.

It was not difficult at all to get the hang of the characters and movements, and once you start understanding it, you can set up some very nice situations to give your opponents a bad day.

All in all, it’s a nice game that can fill time while waiting for others to finish a game, such as at a group board game night. Recommended!

The most interesting aspect of this game is the way that you compete with each other in more ways then in some other games. Players bid for turn position at the start of each groups 3 rounds, can sabotage potential routes other players were going to build via environment cards, and can exploit the fact that others need to go through a specific city by buying a hotel there that gives them bonuses.

It’s the system of laying out the tracks, trying to beat your opponent to the punch, and planning far in advance of your turn that makes this a very strategic game.

For a first play, I had quite a bit of fun and it kept building from there until the end. In a group of 6, I came in second to last but I didn’t mind a bit. It was just simple fun.

While many people might say this game falls flat, I am a huge fan of it.

The Star Trek theme itself plays a large part in the game, and if you are a big fan of the franchise, this game will give you a lot of smiles as you see the cards and encounters.

Each play through is almost like its own episode, and it’s easy to tell a story based on how the game goes.

But many people will focus on the mechanics, so that’s where I will focus this.

The modular board with hex tile cards was the main reason I considered this game. Even though I was already a big fan of the series, I was interested in the idea that it allowed you to explore a “new sector” of space each time. I generally like that in a game, which is probably why I am a fan of others such as Eclipse and Civ where the board is new each play through.

The combat can be very straight forward, but the decks you choose make it varied enough that there is a genuine strategy to it.

The components, however… fell far short of expectations. The ships are made well, but the clix bases gum up far too easily straight from the mold. I had to disassemble most of them and file down some burrs inside to make them run smooth. The cards are on linen paper and are far to thin. They begin to fray within 4 or 5 plays, so you really need to use sleeves right away. If you are a person who generally does not use sleeves, use them for this game. As for the hex cards…. that’s a bit harder. Just be careful with them, and maybe consider laminating them. They they are fine.

And honestly, the dice that come with this game are far too tiny. They are like little peas. Get your own pair of D6’s to use.

All in all however, if you are a Star Trek fan, you will like this game a lot. Even with its failings, I still give it a 10 because I just love the game play so much and the replay value is extremely high. No two games will be exactly the same. Keep in mind that I have been a fan of the series for about 15 years now, and I play it with other fans of similar backgrounds. So if you can call yourself a “trekkie”, this game’s for you.

I have had the chance to play this several times in groups of 4 or fewer, and once in a 7 person setup. Every game has been its own epic story. The components are very well made, the cards are well printed and feel like they will last, and the miniatures are highly detailed. Some of the moldings can come bent in odd ways, but it’s fixable.

The game play is fantastic. The movement system is very intuitive, using the movement templates, and trying to guess what your opponent is doing to set yourself up right is truly a game of chess in itself.

While fun in its own right with 2 players and a starter set, this game gets better and better as you scale it up. And there’s practically no limit. Others can bring their own sets and build and build on the starter set, or you can get as many additional expansion pieces as you want. It all fits together perfectly and scales beautifully for some truly epic battles with 20+ ships on the field.

This game is well worth the price of admission. If nothing else, get a starter set and play with your friends. You will quickly want more, even if you are not an avid Star Wars fan. The game play mechanics more then make up for any lack of knowledge about the Star Wars universe that a person may have.