This week’s Explorable Favorites (Mar 9)

@BitBot Happiness to you on tricking your beautiful wife 🙂 (but not on the food poisoning) Giant flies attacking bits of Europe is definitely a tale for the cardboard campfire. (Although giant bugs! BLECH BLECH! I would have flipped the table like a swatter!)

@Stratagon Contrary to Jack the Downgrader – I think your comparison shopper comment was a helpful addition to the site information pool and worth a bronzing and review case display – so I’m glad you made the transfer and can get some street cred for it. It is definitely information curious-minded people might seek out and would just be lost in the comments threads and more than a mere tip. (Comparison Shopping is a form of review anyway.) Now that it is long buried I plan on reskinning my Imperial Assault as a greatest hits of the FanFli dungeon crawl mechanics history comment (or non review review as @inmarg called it) as review fodder. Not all ‘reviews’ need be conventional mechanic walkthrough fodder and after a half dozen bouts of that a fresh voice, fresh eyes, and fresh format are always welcome. Unconventional doesn’t mean unnecessary.

I started a Student Bodies review last night and didn’t even consider bothering to discuss mechanic details when someone could just click the BGdot button above to get that with pictures. Instead I started addressing what makes it stand out in the Horde of the Cult of Zomb. Especially since a certain talking box reviewer made a scrunchy face from atop his Tower and said ‘it was nothing new’ and I made a scrunchy face of ‘what are you talking about’ in return.

Here’s my brief rundown of the three one-versus-many hidden movement/catch the bad guy games that I own.

Scotland Yard – Lightest of the three; Least amount of theme; Safest choice for family gaming, content completely kid friendly; Easy enough for children to play, but deep enough that adults will still enjoy; Mechanics mostly about the chase and deduction, with resource management as secondary game device; Fastest play time.

Letters from Whitechapel – Not many more rules than Scotland Yard; Theme present on components and lightly worked into mechanics; Theme most offensive of the three, would be difficult to use with family and many adults are put off or at least have qualms getting into the Jack role; Mechanics almost completely deduction oriented. Really convey feeling of sweeping the dragnet across the map and narrowing down the hunt. You know that scene in the detective movie where they use pushpins to narrow down the murderer’s hideout? This will give you the exact same feeing!; Play time not too extensive as long as analysis paralysis kept under control.

Fury of Dracula – Heaviest amount of rules, including easily forgotten once-a-game technical rules; Strongest theme of the three, to the point where rules are created just to satisfy it; All components and game mechanics dominated by theme, making this one the Amerithrash lover’s hidden movement go-to game (and yes, it has DICE! and MINIS! and COMBAT! too); could work for family gaming as long as horror theme doesn’t create nightmares; Mechanics have the least focus on the hunt of the three games. Semi-random encounters and powerful effects from cards, add another layer of strategy while often stripping away from the deduction element. The innovative combat system makes the game a “hunt and kill” game instead of just “hunt”; Longest of the three games, partially due to checking on rules that are not easily remembered.

Yikes! went longer than I intended. Should I transfer this to a review so it doesn’t get lost in the news archives? If so, which game do I put it under? I could conceivably list it in all three just for access, but not looking to spam the site. Opinions?

@Stratagon That was quite the cardboard campfire tale – I did get shivers!

@Harry You are right on both accounts – Fury/Letters have the same hidden movement hunt vibe and A&A is an evening killer. (I don’t use “killer” as derogatory termage. I don’t mind the long game, although I know some avoid them. Killers are just pretty much a 3-4 hour gaming session. Twilight Imperium being aptly named as the sun will be going down before you kiss the Mecatol Rex if you start at noon. That’s a ‘Day Killer’!)

I believe @Stratagon owns both Fury and Letters so he might be able to give some comparison shopper tips. 🙂

@ Stratagon

If you had picked up all those you would almost be set for life now 😉

@Lozmoid Congrats on being The Sacred Shelf spotlight 🙂

@Strat Wow! You ninja tipped before you could ninja tip! You out ninja’d yourself! 🙂 Inshō-teki!

@Akden FanFli has spoken of a reprint for a few years and then stopped. I guess they lost the license. Perhaps Asmodee will dig up the coffin. *toes crossed*

Oh Fury of Dracula – I just want to play you some day so I can touch the hem of your opera cloak and be healed. You are whispered about in the dark corners of the kingdom with whispers most legendary. The Boy tells tale of how he saw you on the FanFli Winter Sale list years ago and never stopped to flash the plastic. He then quietly walks out of the room and goes to have a cry.

Just remember BGdotters: Come December always stop by the FanFli Winter Sale. If you see a deal too good to be true – it is. The warehouse is being purged. Next for the chop is Tannhauser it seems. Wise to the Winter Purge – I was able to complete my precious Runebound collection the other year.

I have both these games! How cool is that? Thank you BG

I have never played the original version of Fury Of Dracula but I love this version, the visuals are excellent and you can paint the minis for the hunters and Dracula himself (as I have done).

As for Axis & Allies 50th Anniversary Edition… this has to be the best version out there in my opinion. Not too complicated, with lots of optional rules that can be introduced gradually as new players get used to the game concepts. An outstanding WW2 strategy game!

I don’t mind if the featured game is light on reviews sometimes. It stimulates the site by encouraging some brave soul to step up to the plate and contribute. When they do, they are guaranteed an audience.

Speaking of guaranteed audiences, anybody out there with Smirk and Dagger game plays should really whip up some reviews. They will be Critic Quest gold if you do.

So many different versions of Axis & Allies! 1941, 1942, Revised, 50th Anniversary, etc. I need a good explanation about how each one is different, it’s all quite confusing. The only one I’ve played is the original (1984 version!), I can only assume all of them are an improvement from the original, not that the original is terrible but there is certainly room for some good changes.

Please If you expect us to complete the Exploration how about games that have enough reviews to complete the Exploration.