We all hate hiatus', and blog posts about them. Unfortunately, this is one of them.
Hello, everyone. To put it simply, I'm one semester away from graduation, and as such, this blog will have to be put on hiatus until the end of the semester.
Honestly, I'm kinda sad about it. I complain to my friends that I don't have enough games to review every few weeks or so, but I always managed to find something and enjoyed it when I was done. This doesn't make any money, and has such little consistent traffic that I'm afraid that I can't review and post every week.
Thanks for being understanding, and I'll try to start back up as soon as I can.
Analyze and review unusual tabletop games. Updated (Mostly) weekly. (Art by animefox52)
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Autumn Falls to Winter (Indian Summer)
With autumn close to ending, the forest comes together to bask in the last days before winter. The squirrels gather their nuts, the birds begin their flight, and the children run through the leaves, stumbling upon secrets and treasures. This day is exceptionally warm, the day before the chill. It is Indian Summer, the warmest day in fall, and full of life and wonder.
BACKGROUND: Indian Summer is a board game for 1-4 players. It was created in 2017 by Uwe Rosenberg, with art by Andrea Boekhoff, and published by Edition Spielwiese. It is the sequel to Cottage Garden. Each player attempts to be the first to cover their board with leaves and squirrels, while finding treasures.
GAMEPLAY: During their turn, a player may either take a leaf tile from their supply, or a 1 space squirrel from the supply and place it appropriately on the board (no overlapping other leaf or animal tiles, and completely in the board). Some leaf tiles have holes which can be used to collect treasure tokens by placing the holes over the appropriate spaces, with any other tile not giving the player a treasure. Whenever a player runs out of leaf tiles, they refill from the Common Path surrounding the game board.
TREASURE: Treasures are collected when the area (3x4 grid) is fully covered, giving the player every treasure token they have placed holes on. They may also be collected by placing an animal tile over a unbroken matching pattern of holes. Treasures can be spent in addition to the players action, to do effects such as refilling the players leaf supply, to taking leaves from other players, to playing a squirrel or another leaf tile. Treasures may be exchanged according to their value.
WINNING: The game is finished once a player has filled their entire board with leaves and squirrels. Each player exchanges all treasures for nuts according to the rules, and attempts to finish up their board in their last turn. If more than 1 player finished filling up their board, the player with the most nuts wins.
CONCLUSION: Ah, Uwe Rosenberg. Only you can take the idea of autumn and gamify it in such a way as to not be focused on gathering things, but rather the falling of the leaves. This is such a simple concept on a simple game that boils down to something akin to a turn based version of Ubongo. The idea of the leaves falling lends itself to a tetris-like pattern centric game that feels fun and cohesive rather quickly. It's a puzzle game that is two fold, to gather items to break ties and be the first to fill up the board. There's very little to dislike about this game, but no game is perfect for every player. Obviously, this is a slower game, even though its faster than most slow games. The treasusures can also feel one-sided if a player lucks out and spams through them quickly enough. The most frustrating thing to find is the tiles. Man, does it hurt to have the wrong pieces, and having to use up squirrels just to finish an area and lose out on a good strategy. Still, these are minor nitpicks and the game is quite delightful if you can take the time to slow down and enjoy puzzles like this. This is one delightful walk in the woods.
BACKGROUND: Indian Summer is a board game for 1-4 players. It was created in 2017 by Uwe Rosenberg, with art by Andrea Boekhoff, and published by Edition Spielwiese. It is the sequel to Cottage Garden. Each player attempts to be the first to cover their board with leaves and squirrels, while finding treasures.
GAMEPLAY: During their turn, a player may either take a leaf tile from their supply, or a 1 space squirrel from the supply and place it appropriately on the board (no overlapping other leaf or animal tiles, and completely in the board). Some leaf tiles have holes which can be used to collect treasure tokens by placing the holes over the appropriate spaces, with any other tile not giving the player a treasure. Whenever a player runs out of leaf tiles, they refill from the Common Path surrounding the game board.
TREASURE: Treasures are collected when the area (3x4 grid) is fully covered, giving the player every treasure token they have placed holes on. They may also be collected by placing an animal tile over a unbroken matching pattern of holes. Treasures can be spent in addition to the players action, to do effects such as refilling the players leaf supply, to taking leaves from other players, to playing a squirrel or another leaf tile. Treasures may be exchanged according to their value.
WINNING: The game is finished once a player has filled their entire board with leaves and squirrels. Each player exchanges all treasures for nuts according to the rules, and attempts to finish up their board in their last turn. If more than 1 player finished filling up their board, the player with the most nuts wins.
CONCLUSION: Ah, Uwe Rosenberg. Only you can take the idea of autumn and gamify it in such a way as to not be focused on gathering things, but rather the falling of the leaves. This is such a simple concept on a simple game that boils down to something akin to a turn based version of Ubongo. The idea of the leaves falling lends itself to a tetris-like pattern centric game that feels fun and cohesive rather quickly. It's a puzzle game that is two fold, to gather items to break ties and be the first to fill up the board. There's very little to dislike about this game, but no game is perfect for every player. Obviously, this is a slower game, even though its faster than most slow games. The treasusures can also feel one-sided if a player lucks out and spams through them quickly enough. The most frustrating thing to find is the tiles. Man, does it hurt to have the wrong pieces, and having to use up squirrels just to finish an area and lose out on a good strategy. Still, these are minor nitpicks and the game is quite delightful if you can take the time to slow down and enjoy puzzles like this. This is one delightful walk in the woods.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
A Bone Chilling Experience (Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game)
The blizzard blinds you, freezing you to your bones. Your feet crunch the snow, each step slower and slower as you put your arm up to block the incoming flurry so you can see. The faint groan makes you stop. You have a choice, do you continue and hope to find food so your colony can survive this nightmare, or do you retreat to avoid whatever that was? You pray that it wasn't a zombie as you press on, the need for survival strong. The groans get louder, and you move faster. You hope you can outrun them, but you fear the worst. This is the zombie apocalypse everyone was warned about, horror made real in the Dead of Winter.
BACKGROUND: Dead of Winter is a co-operative board game created Jonathan Gilmour, Isaac Vega in 2014, and published by Plaid Hat Games. Take the role of the last survivors of a zombie outbreak, with starvation, traitors, and frostbite as a few of the many threats throughout the game.
GAMEPLAY: Starting with the first player, each player takes their turns in order. The player to the right of the starting player draws and reads a Crossroad card, reading the italicized to themselves to check if it applies. If at any point the italicized is true during the players' turn, they read the card out loud. If its a numbered option, the player chooses, but if it's thumbs up/down, all players vote to determine the outcome. If the italicized text is never true during that players turn, it goes back to the bottom of the deck.
ACTIONS: During their turn, players may play any amount of cards from their hand, or put them in the crisis deck, move once per turn to an available location by rolling an exposure die to determine if they get a wound, request a specific item type to use immediately and not into the Crisis deck, give equipped items to a survivor in the same location, spend food to raise the value of a die, or use any of the players survivors that do not have a number. A player may also choose to vote a player to exile, preventing that player from returning to the Colony.
ACTION DIE: These actions require moving a die from the pool to the unused pool. A player can remove the top 3 waste cards, barricade a location to prevent zombies from coming, move 2 zombies from a location to that survivors location. By spending specific numbers, players can use certain survivors abilities. By spending a die equal to or higher that the Search rating or Attack rating on the survivors card, the player may respectively search a location they are at by taking the top card or placing a noise token to keep searching, or attack a zombie or survivor at their location.
COLONY: At the end of all players turn, the colony turns happens. First, the colony, if possible, spends the food in the supply equal to the number of Survivors and Helpless Survivors in the colony divided by 2 (rounded up). If not possible, the colony instead adds a Starvation token into the food supply and morale decreases by the amount of Starvation tokens. Every 10 cards in the waste pile decreases morale. Shuffle and reveal all the cards in the crisis deck. Every card meeting the crisis requirement adds 1 to the success, every card not meeting it subtracts 1. If the number is matching, the crisis is averted, but if not, the effect on the crisis triggers, and in both cases all cards contributing are discarded.
ZOMBIES: Zombies are added to the colony for every 2 Survivors and Helpless Survivors there, and are added to each location for every Zombie and Noise Token there. If there are more Zombies than locations, it's discarded, and the survivor with the lowest number in the top left rolls the d6 for each additional Zombie being added. If the roll is 3 or less, that survivor is killed. Then the round tracker goes down by 1.
DEATH: Death is real here, and punishing. Survivors die after 3 wounds or 1 bite, with equipment shuffled into the deck of the location they're at, or just dropped in the colony. That player loses a die, until they are down to 2. If a player loses all their survivors, they discard their hand, draw a new survivor and place the character on the board in the colony. If a survivor is bitten, they lose that survivor, the Morale tracker goes down by 1, and the player with the lowest influence on the board rolls to either survive or die and keep the spread going in that location, or die to end it.
EXILE: If a player is exiled, they draw the top card of the Exile deck and reveal their secret objective if they weren't the Traitor, and are given a new secret objective. If they were, they don't reveal, and their secret objective is slightly altered. All of the exiles survivors are moved immediately to any available location, rolling the exposure die. They cannot add cards to the crisis or Helpless Survivors to the colony, move to the colony, or use food tokens to adjust their die, only using food cards in their hand in the same manner. Any cards added to waste by the exile are removed instead, exiles cannot vote, and the morale doesn't go down if their survivors die. Morale drops to 0 if 2 non-traitors are exiled.
WINNING: After the zombies are added, the game ends if the Main Objective is cleared, or the Morale or Round tracker hits 0. In addition, each player is dealt a secret objective to complete before the game ends to win, some of which are traitors to act against the party. If the player completes their secret objective, they win. If not, they lose.
CONCLUSION: Ho boy, that's a lot of explanation. I usually try to summarize the rules for background, but this time was harder to do without losing the idea of how things worked. I feel like this game kept saying "but what about this situation". This is an interesting game about team-work, unity, and sacrificing for the betterment of the group. However, while I find the game fun for its strategy and cooperation, it's also nerve-wracking and mentally exhausting. Not only are the rules deep and complex, in game they are just as difficult to master. I like this game as I like This War of Mine, it's interesting, and there's some choices that make it 'fun', but this is easily a game that can split opinions, and a game that leads you to a crossroads makes it difficult to recommend to all players. This is for a specific group that can make it fun and be focused on it, but due to length and difficulty, it's really only for that group.
BACKGROUND: Dead of Winter is a co-operative board game created Jonathan Gilmour, Isaac Vega in 2014, and published by Plaid Hat Games. Take the role of the last survivors of a zombie outbreak, with starvation, traitors, and frostbite as a few of the many threats throughout the game.
GAMEPLAY: Starting with the first player, each player takes their turns in order. The player to the right of the starting player draws and reads a Crossroad card, reading the italicized to themselves to check if it applies. If at any point the italicized is true during the players' turn, they read the card out loud. If its a numbered option, the player chooses, but if it's thumbs up/down, all players vote to determine the outcome. If the italicized text is never true during that players turn, it goes back to the bottom of the deck.
ACTIONS: During their turn, players may play any amount of cards from their hand, or put them in the crisis deck, move once per turn to an available location by rolling an exposure die to determine if they get a wound, request a specific item type to use immediately and not into the Crisis deck, give equipped items to a survivor in the same location, spend food to raise the value of a die, or use any of the players survivors that do not have a number. A player may also choose to vote a player to exile, preventing that player from returning to the Colony.
ACTION DIE: These actions require moving a die from the pool to the unused pool. A player can remove the top 3 waste cards, barricade a location to prevent zombies from coming, move 2 zombies from a location to that survivors location. By spending specific numbers, players can use certain survivors abilities. By spending a die equal to or higher that the Search rating or Attack rating on the survivors card, the player may respectively search a location they are at by taking the top card or placing a noise token to keep searching, or attack a zombie or survivor at their location.
COLONY: At the end of all players turn, the colony turns happens. First, the colony, if possible, spends the food in the supply equal to the number of Survivors and Helpless Survivors in the colony divided by 2 (rounded up). If not possible, the colony instead adds a Starvation token into the food supply and morale decreases by the amount of Starvation tokens. Every 10 cards in the waste pile decreases morale. Shuffle and reveal all the cards in the crisis deck. Every card meeting the crisis requirement adds 1 to the success, every card not meeting it subtracts 1. If the number is matching, the crisis is averted, but if not, the effect on the crisis triggers, and in both cases all cards contributing are discarded.
ZOMBIES: Zombies are added to the colony for every 2 Survivors and Helpless Survivors there, and are added to each location for every Zombie and Noise Token there. If there are more Zombies than locations, it's discarded, and the survivor with the lowest number in the top left rolls the d6 for each additional Zombie being added. If the roll is 3 or less, that survivor is killed. Then the round tracker goes down by 1.
DEATH: Death is real here, and punishing. Survivors die after 3 wounds or 1 bite, with equipment shuffled into the deck of the location they're at, or just dropped in the colony. That player loses a die, until they are down to 2. If a player loses all their survivors, they discard their hand, draw a new survivor and place the character on the board in the colony. If a survivor is bitten, they lose that survivor, the Morale tracker goes down by 1, and the player with the lowest influence on the board rolls to either survive or die and keep the spread going in that location, or die to end it.
EXILE: If a player is exiled, they draw the top card of the Exile deck and reveal their secret objective if they weren't the Traitor, and are given a new secret objective. If they were, they don't reveal, and their secret objective is slightly altered. All of the exiles survivors are moved immediately to any available location, rolling the exposure die. They cannot add cards to the crisis or Helpless Survivors to the colony, move to the colony, or use food tokens to adjust their die, only using food cards in their hand in the same manner. Any cards added to waste by the exile are removed instead, exiles cannot vote, and the morale doesn't go down if their survivors die. Morale drops to 0 if 2 non-traitors are exiled.
WINNING: After the zombies are added, the game ends if the Main Objective is cleared, or the Morale or Round tracker hits 0. In addition, each player is dealt a secret objective to complete before the game ends to win, some of which are traitors to act against the party. If the player completes their secret objective, they win. If not, they lose.
CONCLUSION: Ho boy, that's a lot of explanation. I usually try to summarize the rules for background, but this time was harder to do without losing the idea of how things worked. I feel like this game kept saying "but what about this situation". This is an interesting game about team-work, unity, and sacrificing for the betterment of the group. However, while I find the game fun for its strategy and cooperation, it's also nerve-wracking and mentally exhausting. Not only are the rules deep and complex, in game they are just as difficult to master. I like this game as I like This War of Mine, it's interesting, and there's some choices that make it 'fun', but this is easily a game that can split opinions, and a game that leads you to a crossroads makes it difficult to recommend to all players. This is for a specific group that can make it fun and be focused on it, but due to length and difficulty, it's really only for that group.
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Maybe He Was Just a Dragon (TROGDOR!! The Board Game)
Deep in the heart of the peasant kingdom of Peasantry, there exists an order. And though they may be few in numbers, the Keepers of Trogdor (The Board Game) are mighty in power. They keep the mighty dragon alive and well, full of Majesty and Consummate V's, so that when Trogdor (The Board Game) awakens, the knights and archers of this land will not be able to slay him. So, join the order, and help Trogdor (The Board Game) burninate the land and destroy the land of Peasantry.
BACKGROUND: Trogdor! The Board Game is a co-operative tile game for 1-6 players. It was created in 2019 by Boardelectrix (Mike and Matt Chapman), James Earnest, and written with Loneshark Games. All players work together to burninate the countryside and cottages, eat or burn the peasants, and avoid letting Trogdor perish.
GAMEPLAY: Each players turn consists of 2 phases, their actions and the boards actions. On their turn, the player draws and uses 1 of the 2 Trogdor Action cards, which determine how many AP (Action Points) and ability the player has that turn, or they may discard it for 5 AP. AP is spent to have Trogdor either move orthnologically, Chomp and eat a Peasant, Burrow through a tunnel to the other tunnel tile, Hide in a mountain tile to become impervious to damage, or Burninate the tile. Players don't have to use all their AP, but it's lost at the end of the turn. Players may also use their Keepers of Trogdor abilities or Item cards once on their turn, unless otherwise stated, and items must be recharged to use it again, as indicated by the card.
PEASANTS: Once a player has taken their turn. the board takes its moves. The turn player draws a Movement Card. Place Peasants in un-Burninated cottages according to the Peasant meter in the top right corner to equal the amount on the board. Then, the Peasants move according to the peasant arrow.
KNIGHTS: Finally, the knights and archers move according to the movement path on the right. If a knight moves into Trodgors space, he takes damage. The archer shoots both directions of the last direction he moved (if he moves west, he shoots east and west), except in his own space. If Trogdor takes damage, a 3rd knight spawns, the Troghammer. He acts like a Knight, but can also move if one of his cards is drawn. Peasants, Knights, and Archers have "wrap-around", so if they move off the board in one direction, they appear in the appropriate tile on the opposite direction.
BURNINATE: The goal of the game is to Burninante all the tiles. When a tile is Burninated, it's flipped over. Cottages can only be Burninated if it and all surrounding tiles are Burninated. If a Peasant is on a tile that is Burninated, they are drawn and given a movement path, and go into the void afterwards, Burninating any tiles along the way. Knights can repair any cottage along their path, and Peasants sometimes can repair tiles according to their movement.
WINNING: The players win if all tiles and cottages are Burninated, and no more Peasants are on the board. However, everytime Trogdor takes damage, he loses a Peasant from the Trog-meter. If he were to take damage while no Peasants were in the Trog-meter, he has FIERY RAGE! The player draws 5 Movement cards, and follows their paths, Burninating every tile and cottage along the way. For this action, Trogdor has Wrap-around, and immediately sends all Knights and Peasants into the Void. If all tiles and cottages are Burninated, and there are no Peasants left, the players still win. If not, the players lose.
CONCLUSION: Oh man, this one is crazy. First off, note that there are 2 major points of criticism, the decks and the cooperation. There's an amount of luck that goes into co-op games that can frustrate a lot of players, and some players just don't work together well. So, now that that's out of the way, I can talk about the positives, and there are a lot. First, it's FREAKING TROGDOR! Obviously, if you don't know the theme, you won't be as excited as I am, but that's okay. This game plays incredibly well for those who aren't aware of the theming. In addition, even if you don't, it's easy to see that a lot of care was put into the theme of this game. Now, the gameplay. If you have ever played the original Trodgor, there's some inspiration from that, such as Troggie not getting the Wraparound, but the other characters do. The game feels great, being able to control 1 character amongst the party, but due to his level of strength and abilities, it nevers feels too broken or ridiculous. Actually, like most co-op games, it's really hard to win, but you never feel like it's because you can't do something, it's more like you are either just unlucky, or (more likely) you didn't plan ahead. So go and visit this pleasant kingdom of Peasantry, I know I will again sometime soon.
AFTHERTHOUGHTS: For a bonus, I'll link the original source and some additional flavor for the game:
DRAGON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90X5NJleYJQ
RULES SONGS: http://trogdorboardgame.homestarrunner.com/rulebookEP.html
SOUNDBOARD: http://trogdorboardgame.homestarrunner.com/soundboard/
BACKGROUND: Trogdor! The Board Game is a co-operative tile game for 1-6 players. It was created in 2019 by Boardelectrix (Mike and Matt Chapman), James Earnest, and written with Loneshark Games. All players work together to burninate the countryside and cottages, eat or burn the peasants, and avoid letting Trogdor perish.
GAMEPLAY: Each players turn consists of 2 phases, their actions and the boards actions. On their turn, the player draws and uses 1 of the 2 Trogdor Action cards, which determine how many AP (Action Points) and ability the player has that turn, or they may discard it for 5 AP. AP is spent to have Trogdor either move orthnologically, Chomp and eat a Peasant, Burrow through a tunnel to the other tunnel tile, Hide in a mountain tile to become impervious to damage, or Burninate the tile. Players don't have to use all their AP, but it's lost at the end of the turn. Players may also use their Keepers of Trogdor abilities or Item cards once on their turn, unless otherwise stated, and items must be recharged to use it again, as indicated by the card.
KNIGHTS: Finally, the knights and archers move according to the movement path on the right. If a knight moves into Trodgors space, he takes damage. The archer shoots both directions of the last direction he moved (if he moves west, he shoots east and west), except in his own space. If Trogdor takes damage, a 3rd knight spawns, the Troghammer. He acts like a Knight, but can also move if one of his cards is drawn. Peasants, Knights, and Archers have "wrap-around", so if they move off the board in one direction, they appear in the appropriate tile on the opposite direction.
BURNINATE: The goal of the game is to Burninante all the tiles. When a tile is Burninated, it's flipped over. Cottages can only be Burninated if it and all surrounding tiles are Burninated. If a Peasant is on a tile that is Burninated, they are drawn and given a movement path, and go into the void afterwards, Burninating any tiles along the way. Knights can repair any cottage along their path, and Peasants sometimes can repair tiles according to their movement.
WINNING: The players win if all tiles and cottages are Burninated, and no more Peasants are on the board. However, everytime Trogdor takes damage, he loses a Peasant from the Trog-meter. If he were to take damage while no Peasants were in the Trog-meter, he has FIERY RAGE! The player draws 5 Movement cards, and follows their paths, Burninating every tile and cottage along the way. For this action, Trogdor has Wrap-around, and immediately sends all Knights and Peasants into the Void. If all tiles and cottages are Burninated, and there are no Peasants left, the players still win. If not, the players lose.
CONCLUSION: Oh man, this one is crazy. First off, note that there are 2 major points of criticism, the decks and the cooperation. There's an amount of luck that goes into co-op games that can frustrate a lot of players, and some players just don't work together well. So, now that that's out of the way, I can talk about the positives, and there are a lot. First, it's FREAKING TROGDOR! Obviously, if you don't know the theme, you won't be as excited as I am, but that's okay. This game plays incredibly well for those who aren't aware of the theming. In addition, even if you don't, it's easy to see that a lot of care was put into the theme of this game. Now, the gameplay. If you have ever played the original Trodgor, there's some inspiration from that, such as Troggie not getting the Wraparound, but the other characters do. The game feels great, being able to control 1 character amongst the party, but due to his level of strength and abilities, it nevers feels too broken or ridiculous. Actually, like most co-op games, it's really hard to win, but you never feel like it's because you can't do something, it's more like you are either just unlucky, or (more likely) you didn't plan ahead. So go and visit this pleasant kingdom of Peasantry, I know I will again sometime soon.
AFTHERTHOUGHTS: For a bonus, I'll link the original source and some additional flavor for the game:
DRAGON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90X5NJleYJQ
RULES SONGS: http://trogdorboardgame.homestarrunner.com/rulebookEP.html
SOUNDBOARD: http://trogdorboardgame.homestarrunner.com/soundboard/
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