Gamer Reviews

Artifacts Inc. is a nice dice placement that packs into an easy to carry box. Good for trips where you might be looking to kill an hour

Gameplay/Replay

In Artifacts Inc. you race to get to 20 points first and then have the most points after all players have taken an even number of turns. Players do this by gathering various kinds of artifacts like fossils or idols or gems or parchment. Each player starts with 4 cards that give them 3 different locations and 3 dice per turn to roll. The 3 locations give players 2 expeditions and a place to purchase upgrades to their artifacts for hire company. Money can be made by selling artifacts in amounts to various museums or by selling them to a public space where you can get 1 dollar per artifact with a bonus per extra unique type you sell. This money can be used to buy upgraded buildings which give you points. All points are tracked as you buy which can make the game seem to end sooner than expected, but it is often a tight race where having majority in things sold to a museum (the only end game bonus) can make all the difference. Every game the buildings are randomized so each play is different, though the dive mechanic will remain the same every game.

The Bad

This game can be prone to AP for some as you get more and more to do with upgrades giving yo u more dice, rerolls, or the ability to increase/decrease a die roll. More options means more thinking about what the best move is. Also it isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing game yo have ever looked at and at times you will not have enough cubes (you can use a site that sells cubes to fix this however.)

All that said for what it costs MSRP wise this is a good little middle of the road dice placement game

Much more replay value than checkers or chess since you have the strategy of placing your own pieces and certain parts of the board are inaccessible. My wife and I played a 4-hour game on our first go-around, but I don’t think that’s necessarily how each game will be now that we understand the mechanics better. Depending on what version of the game you buy determines the quality of your components. We opted for the cheaper and easier-to-find version which comes with plastic pieces which you have to manually place the stickers on the first time you play. But do it once and you’re set for life, so it’s not that big of a deal. Simple gameplay, easy to learn, but fun and replayable due to the various setups and tactics you can employ. Plus it’s a great 2-player game, which can be hard to come by. We are excited to have finally got our hands on this game!

This is a fantastic, though simple, pirate themed game. I bought it in college and took it home over the holidays back in 2009 and it was a huge hit with the family. It oozes theme, and has some top notch components.

The What: This is a pirate themed game in which the players control a pirate ship and move from port to port raiding, trading, and fighting with other pirates. All of these mechanics are simple dice rolls and very easy to learn. There are no stat sheets or loose leaf paper to track. Players are trying to amass the largest treasure horde before the “timer” runs out. This is a simple move and do actions game. There are some “advanced rules” that add wind, and cards to cause random occurrences (both good and bad) to keep the novelty going.

The Who: Dread Pirate is not a highly strategic game, but it never tries to be. With it being big on theme and easy to learn, it will appeal to a large audience in age and experience. This is suitable for children 4th grade and up.

The How: The components are phenomenal! The board is a cloth treasure map laid out with grids for sailing and islands to visit. The Gems are glass and the dubloons are a gold metal. The players pieces are cast metal ships in varied colors (black, silver, copper, and gold). The cards are a bit on the flimsy side, but the dice are a beautiful dark wood and the wind control die is 3x larger than standard dice.

Pros: Great theme, easy to learn, exceptional components, decent replay value

Cons: Cheap feeling cards, low level of strategy, hard to find retail

I broke this game out this week after many years of not playing it and remembered why I liked it so much. The video game was one of the first popular Real-Time Strategy PC games (like Warcraft), and the board game does a great job of following the theme.

Deck Building: This game had the deck building mechanic before Dominion! You use cards from your Combat Deck for battling, and you can add more cards to your Combat Deck by researching new cards from your technology deck.

The board game is not real-time like the video game, but it has a unique way of assigning Move/Build/Research orders that adds a very fun strategic element to the game play. You get to assign 4 orders per round, but you place orders one at a time and other players can interfere with your plans.

3 Alien Races: Up to 6 players, 2 of each type of alien race, including Terran (Human), Zerg (biological Alien), and Protoss (Tech/Psi Alien). Each of the 3 races has a unique set of units based on same units in the video game, and the board game does a good job of translating the unique abilities into mechanics that work for the board game.

Base-Building and Unlocking Abilities: Just like the video game, to build more advanced units first requires building up your base to create those units. What you research and build depends on what your opponents are researching, because some units are only able to attack air or ground units.

When I purchased this years ago, I was looking for something epic, with a lot of fun pieces. This fit the bill nicely, and it also helped that I loved the video game.

Not Terribly Long Games: Unlike many epic strategy games (think Axis & Allies or Twilight Imperium), Starcraft games don’t need to take longer than 1.5 hours after you’ve learned the game.

Works Well for 2 Players: The game scales very well to make sure that players will clash. Unlike a game like Scythe where you don’t need to ever battle anyone, or Settlers of Catan where you might never clash with somebody in a 2-player game, Starcraft is designed for battling and the win conditions almost always force you to face your neighbors in battle.

Complicated, yes! And that makes it fun – many different ways to win and choices on what to build and research. A person who enjoys more complex games can get the feel for the game by playing it. That might mean the first game is 3 hours long, but it’s fun.

I wouldn’t recommend the game for casual or social play (too much strategy to have distracting conversations during the game). But, if you know somebody who has the game and you enjoy a shorter type of epic strategy war game, ask them to break it out.

Sushi Go is a fun fast card game that is a pick pass and play style so strategy is based on collecting what you need, but also paying attention to stopping your neighbour from completing a set. I enjoyed playing it, until I was invited to the Sushi Go Party! This expansion improves the game 8 fold! Not only can more players join the feast, but the ability to mix up the cards you use means the expansion has much more replay value.

The game suggests several combinations that work well, but we’ve found randomly selection is also a treat.

A fun game for adults and children (fair warning some of the mechanics for points might be confusing to the littlest in your group) Some of the ‘special’ cards can be confusing to first time players, regardless of age, but most everyone catches on quickly in the first round.

The art is delightful, and the style of the board and components are sturdy. My only complaints are the scoring track is narrow if you’ve got more than four players and the vacu-form insert for card storage does not allow you to keep cards sorted, we all wish it was more like the dominion inserts.

Really the only downside is that playing makes me hungry!