Gamer Reviews

As the title says is version of Azul has the strongest element of play of all 3 versions of the game. The game is played over 6 rounds. You have 5 to 9 cardboard discs on the table and start by placing 4 tiles blind drawn from a bag on each disc. Each round 1 color of tile is designated as “wild” that is it can count as any other color when played. Each player has a designated score marker that starts on the score track at 5 points. On your turn you draw all of 1 color plus(if there are any) 1 wild tile from any disc or from the center of the game area if there are any there. Then, if you took from a disc place the unchosen tiles from that disc in the center area of play. Place the chosen tiles next to your playmat and the choice moves to the next player’s turn. Continue this process until all tiles have been chosen. The first player to choose from the center will score negative points(move the marker back but it can not go below 0). You then take turns placing 1 tile on your playmat. Each “flower” has 6 petals with a numeric value of 1-6. To place a tile on a matching petal requires that number of tiles 1 of which is placed on the playmat and the rest are discarded into a cardboard tower. You must have at least 1 of the color you want to play the rest of the needed tiles can be that color or the tiles designated wild for that turn. You will immediately score 1 point for the tile played and 1 for each tile that connects adjacent to it. i.e. if you place one on the 3 space it is 1 point. If you then on a future turn placed one on the 2 or 4 space it is 2 points, however if your 2nd placement was on the 6 space it would only score 1 point. If you maintain the adjacency when you place the 6th petal on a flower it would score 6 points. There is a dark blue flower in the center of the playmat which allows you to place 1 of each color tile as a petal. At the end of the round you may save 4 tiles as unplayed for the next round. At the end of the game any unplayed tiles are -1 point each. For final scoring you get points for each completed flower and for having all of the 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s which will be 7 of each. Additionally, there is a bonus tile board which has extra tiles on it. When you have played the 5s and 6s of a flower you will get to choose 3 tiles from the bonus board and those spaces are immediately refilled afterwards with blind draws from the bag. There are 2 other figures on your playmat-statues which are surrounded by a total of 4 petals from 2 flowers and when those petals are filled you get to draw 2 tiles; and circles that are also surrounded by 4 petals from 2 flowers and give you 1 bonus tile from the bonus board, but be careful because you can’t choose to refuse your bonuses you must take them and if you end up with unplayable tiles they will be negative points.

This is a rarity. A game designed for 3 players that overcomes one of the main stumbling blocks for 3 player games-one player vs. 2 that leads to 1 being beat up the whole game or running away with the game. The game mechanisms deal with this problem. The game will be played at least 4 hands and usually 6 or 7 or occasionally longer. the play is as follows: Shuffle the deck and 1 of the players who is not the dealer(choose your own method of selection) cuts the deck and then flips the top card from the lower half face up and places it on top of the top 1/2 of the deck and then places bottom half on top 1/2 of deck. Then deal top 3 cards from deck into a pile face down and set them aside. This is the “Chimera’s Nest”. Deal out all remaining cards into 3 piles 1 for each player. After looking at your cards you can bid 20, 30 or 40 or pass. Passing does not eliminate your chance to bid on future rounds. If the bidding passes all players twice the cards are turned in and re-dealt. On this second round of bidding if everyone passes the dealer has to then make a mandatory 20 bid. The bid winner adds the “nest” cards to his hand and plays first. The object of the hand is to be the first person to get rid of all of his cards. If the player who made the bid goes out first he gets double his bid plus points for all 2s and 11s captured as well as certain special bonus points. If he doesn’t go out first he gets negative points for his bid but still gets 2s and 11s. There is a reference card for each player on what are legal plays and you must follow the type of trick played with a higher trick of that type. There are also traps-which are 4 of a kind are playing the 2 special cards in the deck together. The other 2 players win the round if one of them goes out first(doesn’t matter who) and both get 20 points for “setting” the bid winner and points for the 2s and 11s they capture, but none for the traps played.

The base game focuses on birds of the Americas and has excellent art and is a fun engine builder. This expansion continues by adding the European birds. You still have the same excellent art work. In addition to adding the birds you also get new bonus cards, and new game mechanisms. You can now get birds that have end of the round bonus scores and once per turn bonuses such as “once per turn if another player takes the lay eggs action this bird will lay 1 egg in an X type nest of another bird”. This can give potentially higher scores and new engines to build during the game. If you enjoyed the original game I believe you will enjoy these new possibilities.

Saddle up! Because today we are talking about Western Legends by Kolossal Games. It’s a choose your own play style Wild West centric game. You can play a variety of characters; some start you out on the lawful side, others the lawless side. You can still decide to go bad on all characters, but once your bad there’s no going back as they say. While choices did seem a little limited on what actions to take it did help streamline things that could normally bog down similar style albeit Heavier Titles such as Xia: Legends of a Drift System by Far Off Games.

Gameplay:

You start off the game as a Famous or sometimes Infamous, Wild West Character. You are seeking Legendary Status and you must choose between two paths. Marshal (Lawmen) or Wanted (Outlaw). Each path provides multiple ways to earn Legendary Status (Victory Points) while limiting you on how you can interact with the world. Being an outlaw provides quick and easy Legendary Points every round, but you have to watch out for the Sheriff (A NPC) who is roaming the Country looking to bring Justice to the West. From robbing banks, stealing cash or cattle from your friends the West is not a safe place. As other players may be working with the Law trying to stop your nefarious deeds and bring Frontier Justice by way of creating their own Legend. Which bring us to the Lawmen. Fighting off countryside Bandits, transferring cattle safely to the train or arresting outlaws the lawmen life was never easy, and it isn’t about to get any easier as legendary points do not come as quickly but are much less risky.

You can also just entertain yourself with poker, both with other players and the house if no one else is game. Each player looks at his hand of poker cards trying to make the best possible set with the river cards, all while staring your opponent in the eye trying to read his bluff. These cards are not only used for poker, but combat as well, so keeping that ace up your sleeve might be more valuable later.

Combat is straight forward and not a long-drawn-out affair or a dice fest. You and your opponent both lay down 1 poker card to decide the winner, high card wins. Most cards have other abilities, some are reactions to being played and others are actions themselves, which adds some fun and variety to combat. They do a good job of balancing the cards, lower value cards which are not good at winning fights, tend to have better reactions, thus giving some balance.

Quick, easy and stress-fully entertaining. The world does give other options that you can follow. Let’s not forget after working in the mines digging for gold, you can always sit back with a brew at the Local tavern and play some simplified Poker Mini-games or stop at the Local brothel to unload some of that extra cash. The west sure did have its perks.

Components:

The biggest complaint we had about this game was the component quality. Western Legends comes with a handful of miniatures. These are barely up to board game quality. Maybe if this game was made 15 years ago it would be amazing. But with other companies doing such a great job with miniatures these days like Fantasy Flight Games and CMON. I really think they need to up the quality on this one to justify the hefty price tag. The game comes with ALOT of cards. Standard card stock, while not bad, again I do feel this game especially the poker deck should have hard paper quality upgraded to linen finished cards. Also included in the game is a little cardboard general store, which is basically a tray that holds all the things you can purchase/upgrade. I’m not sure if the board thickness was not where it needed to be or if the quality of board, but it seemed flimsy, my guess is the later.

Final Thoughts:

Western Legends provides some great story elements that change every game through a relatively simple card system. Cards are activated after a certain action or when ending your turn on a certain type of location. Mature Minded Gamers, encourages you to check out Western Legends by Kolossal Games. Grab some brews, slide a few aces up your sleeve and just ask yourself one question……… You feeling Lucky?

You have 5 minutes to cooperatively escape from a dungeon by playing the necessary card combinations to defeat the baddies.

Pros: Fun and fast-paced, creative and well-done art, different play every time, an app available for a timer, cooperative – you all win or you all lose!

Cons: Fast-paced (which was frustrating while learning the game), not for casual play (you have to pay attention during 5-minute play and do not have time for chatting and have conversation unrelated to the game.

I have only played it twice and while it was fun, it was so fast that my friends who are not big game players were frustrated. I think I would give a little extra time for beginners. If you are playing with people who are up for some frustratingly fast gameplay and are willing to lose a few times to learn the game, it will be a better experience than what I had. Now, my husband, who is not always a great sport about all the new games I foist on him and our friends, refuses to play this one. :-/ I will try it at a game night with my pro-gaming friends and see how it goes.

There are other 5 Minute games out there now. I purchased the 5 Minute Marvel for my sister. It’s the same game but with Marvel characters.