Tatxu

The mechanics have been already discussed, so i want to add this is a great game for two players. In our case it has become a favorite to play with my gf.

When playing two players is really quick, wiht almost no downtime between turns, and become more strategic as it is easy for watch which engine your opponent is building and so try to interrupt some how (which i find a nightmare in 4 players game)

The bad point on the 2 players is that each one becomes the unique target for the agressions of the other, but this is also an added factor to take care of. We have anyway made some tweaks on the shields mechanics for our two player sesions.

So, if you are looking for a two player consider seriously this game, while be quite sure if you are thinking to play with four: in this case i find the downtime too much, as well as being too difficult to follow your opponents makes that most probably you will end up playing on your own and feeling like 4 guys at a table each one playing its solitaire game.

I have always liked the Zombie theme, so i have been chasing the opportunity to add to my collection this one as well as Zombie15′ and Dead of Winter. For the moment only the last one is still on wishlist (and hopefully will be on my collection on February)

I have the feeling about this games that wether or not you like its mechanics, the three add up some fresh air to the Zombie theme, in which since Last Night on Earth really blast me i though i was found the forever fav zombie one.

Now LNoE is needing to fight to retain his place.

The mechanics of RFoD has mostly already being explained:

– You start the game with a character and a sheet to place the zombies coming to you in zones 1 (closest) to 3 (farest)
– You throw your dice, including an event die which will trigger some effect after your first roll, then you have two rerolls for your 5 action dice to look for your needs or strategy.
– Your resolve your actions according to the results of the dice:
o Bat: kill two zombies on zone1
o Gun: kill one zombie on any zone
o Run: step back 1 zombie 1 zone
o Book or Search: depending on the number of these take some followers, locations, events, loot…
o Zombie: Ups! You cannot reroll this die and it will make it an extra zombie to appear at the end of turn. Once in your turn you are allowed to add all the zombie dice to your next reroll by taking one Fleeing card, which will have some penalty anyway (could be worse or less than the zombie dice you already had…)
– After resolving all your actions, all the zombies advance 1 step. The ones going from zone 1 upon your character damages you. Then 3 new zombies (+1 for each zombie dice you kept) appear on zone 3

For winning you need VP, and they come mainly from taking followers with you, each having it own VP value from 1 to 6. If the value is low the follower will have some advantage, if the value is high the follower has some penalty.

For me the great issue about the game is that you will spend most of your time and resources trying to stay alive! Hitting, shooting and running from the zombie horde slowly and rentless coming at you. While none of all this stressful activity is giving you any VP, so not putting you in the road to win.

If you want to get some VP, eventually you will have to take some risk, give up worring about those zombies and stopping in your way to enter some location, take some event of directly rescuing a follower. And normally making this on one of your turns will cause an increase on the number and a decrease on the distance of your hunters: the next turn you will have to FIGHT! RUN! or…. DIE….

Finally i have to say that there are different events that will trigger the end game. In our case it has been 100% the dead of one player… Point in our feeling is that this dead could come from a lot of unexpected events (we completely dislike for example the event die result of taking one wound) and the game is becoming ‘ok, up to now i am the one with the most VP, so instead of continue working for a direct win i will focus on staying alive waiting for another player death’ Probably we will be house ruling some issues to avoid this kind of play.

This game is very hard to find up to day, but i had the opportunity to play it during the last summer in a Game convention, whith some guys i was introduced to… My gaming life is not the same since that…

Gameplay is quite difficult to explain in detail, but the main point is that this is the best competitive/cooperative game i have found. Having only played one time and without the rulebook in my hands i will not enter the complex part of the game, but i will try you could take a glance at what astonished me.

Yes i said this is a competitive/cooperative game. You will have a secret identity belonging to one of the two political groups confronted. You cannot show yourself unless that cause an end game condition (of course you can lie, and you must!), so you have to play with your team trying to guess who is your mate and who is your enemy, at the same time you want your mates to know you are in their cause but you do not want your enemies to know for whom you are working.

During the game there are different ways to earn victory points, and your actions can make you win inmediate VPs, or move certain situations that will come up to added victoy points for all the members of a team at the endgame. One nice mechanic is that your agent cannot be the target of an assasination until you have earn some personal VPs. At that moment you will be ‘known by the authorities’ and could be targeted, so plan carefully.

The actions that give VPs are depending on your role, but while this is secret (so until the end of the game) you will be scoring all of them, no matter your side. This are so ‘fake’ VPs: when the game really ends all the players will come back to zero and calculate the REAL VPs they have win.

And here is where your mind has been trying to realize during the game: am i winning? is my team winning? The final winner is calculated expectacularly:

– First totallize all the VPs for each player according to the team he is really playing on.
– Now find who is the player with the lowest number of VPs: he, along with all (yes ALL) they party mates have lost the game.
– The one in the other team with the highest VPs has won the game.

Of course you could have some feeling of the victoy being on the wining side, but at the end only one guy is the real winner.

All those mean that you REALLY NEED to guess who are your colleagues: if you are running for the most VPs you have to work also to ensure that none of your mates would be the one with the lowest VPs at the end, cause if it happens all of your hard work would have been for nothing… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

The game took three hours for us, and i have to say that is was a pleasure cause the other 4 gamers were real good gamers. I was on the winning side, and i was not the lowest VP just for 1 point!! cause i was working on issues that will grant VPs for all my team while following very close another player i was sure he was an enemy and keeping him below me on personal VPs. It was really impresive remembering a girl who maintained me and the other gamers completely lost on his alliegance until the very end of the game, when finally other member of my team fired the end game condition taking the risk: if this girl is on our side I have won, if not we as a team are lost…

I feel sad i will difficult have an opportunity to play again in a near future… So, if some of you have the chance to try it, do not lose it!

It is the only game for now i have rated a 10.

My sister gave me this game as my last Birthday present, and i really enjoy it. I am specially charmed by games with good visual aspect, and this one is gorgeous. I take a pair of the minis in my hands and feel like a child once again.

Said that, behind this incredible art, a deep strategy game is found. Like other miniature games, you have to join a team, but not of dozens of units: just a few expert warriors. This is done quite quick and easy, but do not think it does not matter, it is where the first important decisions will appear!

AS the gameplay has been already explained, i will not enter into it, but i will talk about two other issues:

1/ONLINE GAMING

The game is up for organized competition. You really like it and want to enter in a league? With your copy of the game a code for entering the online version will be given to you.
It is as you will expect a good implementation of the game, but be sure to play some physical games firts, cause the automatizacion of the mechanics will not be so clear for you if you are not used to the game.
Online you will have available the same guys you have a physical miniature, using the codes you always get when purchasing them.

2/COLLECTIBLE GAME

Usually i do not like collectible games unless, and in this priority:
1 – They are controled like LCGs
2 – They are very good
I can value good collectible games, but sorry i will not buy anithing blindfolded.
So, in Krosmaster you will buy the miniatures you will like to add to your collection in packs, knowing what you are getting. Also you can check on their web site all the stats related to each mini before buying it, so this is perfectly controlled.

BUT, Spanish gamers!! WATCH OUT! In the spanish edition the basic box is the same as the original one, but to improve your collection instead of selling controlled packs they have decided to use the ‘Surprise Box’… YES, you will by the miniatures one by one without knowing what is it in the box, which is completely crazy for this kind of game (do you imagine making a Warhammer army buying by ‘Surprise’?)

Do not be afraid, spanish colleagues. I recommend to buy online or on local stores that are enough reasonable to understand that the spanish edition has killed the collectible aspect of the bame, the english edition packs. The mechanics of the game are very well understood on the icons of the cards for each character, and you will need to understand the special abilities which anyway come from a list of the rules in the basic game.

Finally them… Who is up for a game against my Kromasters Team!? ENJOY

This is a very quick and easy game, perfect to use while you are waiting for some late friend to join the group, or anytime just to have some quick fun.

Set up in two minutes: a small map divided in regions, a deck of cards and a handfull of coins. Every player gets their color of wooden cubes (armies) and a number of coins depending on the number of players. Place three of your armies in the starting city, draw 6 cards face up, make a bid for starting player and go for it!

This is an area control game. At the end you will score 1 victory point for each area in which you have the most armies. The map is divided in some continents and you will also score 1 victory point for each continent in which you have the more controlled areas.

Number of turns also depend on the number of players (the more players the less turns) Each turn you will buy 1 of the face up cards, cost in coins left to right 0/1/1/2/2/3, move them to the left a place a new face up to the right (on cost 3). The card will have printed the action you will made that turn, basically:

– Place new armies
– Move your armies through land
– Move your armies through sea
– Place a new city (new armies always appear on starting city or in any of your other cities)

Sounds easy? Beware, your starting coins are all you have for the entire game. Run out of them and you will be forced to take the 0 cost card, wether useful for you or not.

Finally, the cards have also a resource printed of them, between a few different types. At the end you will score also some victory points depending on the groups of resources you have bought.

Again, this is a very simple game, but quite fun to spare time, and also a good option to introduce newcomers to boardgaming. 8 minutes could be quite optimistic, but for sure is possible to play in 15, and the most of them would be spend on your 1-2 last turns, when you will realize maybe it wasn’t as easy to play as to become the emperor!

I bought this game without knowing nothing about it. The reason? Cause a live in a place with a long tradition of coal mining, so i feel it needed to be on my collection!
It was a good surprise, with a good and simple mechanic but enough to burn your brain for an hour. The game is quite quick, as it only last three turns, but on each turn every decision you made is so important.

The game play starts with each player taking an identical coal mine, with its elevator to access the 4 levels. Each level contains 1 type (color) of coal, and starts with one unit available to extract on it. The lower the level, the higher the value of the coal and the cost to improve your mine (note that not the harder to take the coal out) Then you will get a number of workers and starting money depending on the number of players, some initial contracts and you are ready to start.

OK, the target is to get victory points, so contracts need to be explained, but fulfilling them is only the first source of points. At the end of each round other victory points will be scored as i will explain later. Each contract requires you to take out your mine some quantity of 1 type of coal, or a combination of types, that you charge on a transport defined by the contract. When you have the right quantity and ship the package you get some victory point and the contract is done.

Lets start playing: this is a worker placement mechanic, having several areas where you can put you people at work, and in each area different levels or options. The most important is that you can place workers in an already occupied place allocating one worker more than the ones on it, and you can make this even in places occupied by you, so repeating the action. Workers already present would be moved to the pub (in order to take a rest of course), so the cost to make an action start on 1 worker, then 2, then 3, etc…

Which actions can be done?

1. Get some money: you have four options to acquire more money, different values each (yes, here start the brain burn: i use two workers to get 8 dollars cause it is already occupied, or only 1 and get 6 dollars)

2. Get new contracts: always there would be 4 contracts at sight, and you can send you workers to acquire a new one, that would be immediately replaced with another one (and yes, if this new one is interesting it would cost 2 workers). This is for free.

3. Improve your mine: there is always 8 improvement options at sight, which you buy to put on the appropriate level of your mine. They could come with one or two units more of coal in its wagons to extract. Whenever you extract you available coal, it is depleted, so you continuously need to improve your mine to get new coal units. And this cost you money.

Both 2 and 3 have an added option to place your worker, allowing you to take 5 contracts of 5 improvements from the deck and select none or one to purchase.

4. EXTRACT YOUR COAL: i really like this mechanic! You have 4 spaces that gives you a number of movements: 10, 8, 6 or 4 that you will use to mine. With each point you can:
– Move the elevator to any other level.
– Take one unit of coal from you mine and load in the elevator (5 unit’s maximum capacity)
– Take one unit of coal from your elevator and, if it is at surface level, load it into a contract or store it on your warehouse.
– Take one unit of coal from your warehouse and load it into a contract.

5. Ship your contracts: there are 4 spaces each for 1 kind of the 4 different transports. You place workers in one of them and all your fully loaded contracts which must use that kind of transport are delivered, and victory points earned.

In each turn each player takes round allocating his workers, until all the players spend all them. There is one last option, if you cannot make nothing useful with your last workers, you can send them to get 1 $ for each worker.
And now, at the end of each of the three turns, the players will get additional victory points, scoring different added objectives each turn, which ask for some numbers on your complete contracts and finally about your mine status. All work scoring some victory points for the player with the most asked items and a lower quantity of victory points to the second.
ROUND 1: delivered units of each kind of coal
ROUND 2: number of contracts completed for each kind of transport AND again same condition than in round 1
ROUND 3: number of wagons for each kind of coal in your main (depleted or not) AND again all the previous conditions of round 1 and 2.
Some last adjustments on your leftovers will be converted into positive or negative victory point also after round 3, and then the player with the most points win.

I love this game, because been a quick one to play; you will be constantly thinking and burning your brain. Even being short you need to have a long term strategy and you really need to be aware of your opponent actions and strategy.
I recommend the game for the guys who like resources managing and worker placement mechanics. You will not see an incredible innovation, but you will see a good working mechanic that even allows you into the mining theme.

I wanted to love this game as a fan of the Mythos and all the related literature, games and so on. Recently while in bussines travel i visited a local store and found it by surprise, so i feel compeled to buy it, without having researched it so much. I take my final decision by the look of the Elders miniatures, they are awesome!

Sadly, after a couple of games, for me that miniatures have get the only good point on my purchase. On the bright sight they are a very good adquisition anways and will be present on our games of other Mythos realted play sessions.

The game for me and my usual gaming group is too much about the dice: movement is on the dice (ok, you can modify it from some sources, but still is highly random), combat is on the dice, and destruction is on the dice. Making some jokes about Monopoly could be even funny, but not for so much time, when some one is without resources (houses, cultist…) and lands on the banished square, cause your movement is random.

Anyway i can understand the game could be funny for some players, but i have to say that i can enjoy playing Mumchkin for example, and with this one not so much jokes are about to arise…

I cannnot understand also the mix on the design. The components are good quality, and as said you have 8 gorgeous Elders miniatures, and nice colored drawings of each one on your player board… to then find caricature drawings on the cards in a completely different style.

The price would be far than adecuated if not again for the miniatures. So i would say, if you are thinking to invest on it, be quite sure about the gameplay or on the other side do not think about it but you really really want the Elders on your table.

A friend of mine opened the box of Automobile the last weekend, being a totally unkonwn game for me up to that moment. As i work in automotive industry i was gladly interested on the game and so we started a game for 4 players.

I have to say that the art on the game is quite nice, and completely ok with real history, as you will be playing with important personalities of the start of the automotive industry (Henry Ford of course) and the models you will manufacture and sell are also real ones.

Also the game is quite quick to play, as it is only 4 round, with three actions for each player in a round. But soon enough you will be facing hard decisions according to the strategy you want to develop. The target, of course selling your models in bigger quantity than your oponent or at least with higher profit, according to the market demand. Yo start only with an amount of money to invest, and the winner would be the one who has more money and the end of the game.

Each turn you will choose a personality to play with, which will give you some special bonus for the round and also will mark your play order. After choosing players start to take their actions one by one, which could be:
Develop a new car model, opening new factories for it
Increasing your manufacturing capacity on one model, building more factories and/or automatice one of your factories to lower down your cost for manufacturing that model
Close the manufacturing of one model and so closing those factories
Send sellers to offer your models at the market
Manufacture cars on your factories (of course)

On last stage after your three actions will be made, in which you will have to take corporative decisions, which could be:
Again closing one of your models manufacturing
Make commercials to improve your sellings on one model
Lower the selling price of one of your models to increase the number sold.

After your actions then the selling of the manufactured cars start, and here the strategy of the game is very nice and innovative. Cars are splitted in three categories: cheap cars, medium cars and luxury cards. First your will put your sellers at work and start to earn money for each car sold, but be carefull: it could happen that not all the sellers are able to do it, and in that case you will start to have loses.

After the sellers, the cars are sold by the market demand, which changes every turn and you only know a little part of it at the begining of the turn. In the starting turn there is only demand for medium cars, on next turns there will be also for cheap and luxury, evolving up to the known point: cheap cars will have a higher demand but less profit, while luxury cars will have lower demand bur higher price. And then, newer models will be sold preferently to the old ones, where it has to be explained also that the older your models the more loses you will take each turn (and that is the reason you will be wanting to stop old models manufacturing joined to that you will recover most of the investment made so you can have the money back for new investments)

Briefing, i feel it is a great economy game, which some innovative mechanics that in this case are fantastic to get the feeling of the automotive market. Normally i like economy games but dislike that the theme could be anyone other and have the same game experience, but in this case the demand/sellers/market/model made me feel like a big CEO of the automotive industry.

I guess that your first game, and your first turn, would be quite stressful as you will have lot of decisions to take from the very begining, but quite quickly you will get into the mechanics.

So a great game to play for the economics guys!