Reviews

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Title Title Comment Post date Rating
Rampage Reservation

Corey and Tina plan to play if room allows!

Sun, 2014-09-07 09:29
7 Wonders Great gateway game with plenty of depth for experience players

This is a fantastic game for introducing to people who are new to the hobby. The layout of everything is bright and glossy, the iconography is clear and simple, plus all on the quick-reference guide, there isn't any text or required reading on the cards, and the theme is accessible but not overbearing. There isn't a better game for introducing someone new to the drafting mechanic.

The other sweet spot for this game is playing a large group of experienced gamers who are already familiar with it. It may lake the depth of other longer games, but once everyone knows the rules and cards, this game can fly, almost entering filler territory, with games just taking 10-20 mins., but still having plenty of strategy.

Sun, 2014-09-07 08:53
0
Concept Pictionary for the artistically challenged

The concept of this 2014 Spiele des Jahres nominee is super simple. Instead of drawing your clue like in pictionary, or acting it out like charades (or sculpting like clay mania or creationary), you put markers on a board with dozens of illustrations on it to try and mark out ideas or concepts relating to your clue. There are different pieces to show your main idea, modifiers relating to that idea, or subconcepts that aren't necessarily related to the main idea, but still related to your clue. There's a wide enough difficulty spread that anyone can play and enjoy this. Quick, easy to learn, and tons of fun, there's no reason not to try this at least once.

Sun, 2014-09-07 08:34
0
Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game Not just another zombie game

This semi-cooperative zombie survival game mixes elements from at least two of my other favorite games into a rich blend teaming with theme, suspicion, and desperation. Anyone familiar with BSG (or Shadows over Camelot) will understand the betrayer aspect, where one player is working against the group from within, trying to blend in, maybe casting suspicion on others, and preventing the group from accomplishing their goals. Like in shadows, there is only the possibility of there being a traitor, but since everyone has their own goals the need to pursue, it can cause a delicious amount of accusations and defenses every game.

The "Crossroads" cards, or the event cards that flesh out the story, are one of the biggest highlights of this game. The thematic depth these add, and difficult decisions they can lead to remind me a lot of the events encountered in Robinson Crusoe, but what sets the crossroads cards apart is the unknown triggers for them each turn, and how that relates to events of the card.

Other positives for me are the sheer number of different survivors, which you can sometimes control several of each game, the fact that even though this is a zombie game, there really isn't much focus on them, and the way you can play through each of the scenarios in order to form an over-arching narrative, or campaign, as told by diary entries in the back of the rule book.

Negatives for me are the dice rolling, the ease of which you can lose characters (which is also related to die rolling), and the difficulty balance of some of the survivor and betrayer goal cards.

This is a fantastic game everyone should try, but for fans of BSG, Robinson Crusoe, or the zombie-survival genre (e.g. Walking Dead fans), this should be a must-play.

Sun, 2014-09-07 08:20
0
Lost Legends Not quite what I expected

My first surprise playing this fantasy-themed drafting game was that it wasn't a cooperative game. Maybe it was just the theme (band of standard fantasy heroes vs. monsters), or the artwork on the cover that made me think it was co-op, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Everyone is out for themselves with plenty of screw-your-neighbor mixed in.

The second knock against it was how hard it is to catch up once you start falling behind. Usually I'm not a big fan of artificial catch-up mechanisms, but if you have a little bit of bad luck in the first round (or really any round), not only are you no longer competitive, but it can be really frustrating after you get knocked out in a round to not be able to play while watching the players already in the lead pull even further ahead. Looking at some of the other comments and reviews for this game on board game geek, I found that was a pretty common complaint.

But even after all that, I still look forward to trying this game again. It is a lot of fun to play, but you should know what to expect going in.

Sun, 2014-09-07 07:50
0
Samurai Spirit Reservation

Antoine Bauza's new game? I'm in.

Sun, 2014-09-07 07:31
Eclipse Dangerous Galaxy

It can be a dangerous galaxy, especially when half of everyone playing ended up becoming a traitor. Thanks to James, Marcus, Steve, Ashley, Kaleb and Tseyu for sticking around and playing this epic game to conclusion. Congratulations to Tseyu on her galactic domination, and I hope the four players who just learned Eclipse are looking forward to their next game.

Sun, 2014-09-07 07:28
Caylus Reservation

We have 1 spot reserved!

..by someone who didn't want to log on here himself. Not by me. I am happy just to teach and be available for questions. Just wanted to make that clear. ;)

Sun, 2014-09-07 00:20
HeroQuest Dibs!!

Save me a spot

Sat, 2014-09-06 22:31
Concept A Graphic Designer's New Happy Place

As a graphic designer, this is probably both aesthetically and conceptually my new favorite game. It's basically charades in a box without the acting out part. Because it's so visually based, you can pretty much get the game up and running within 10 minutes or less on your first time playing. It's really entertaining to see the different ways other players lay down the clues for you to guess. This game is also really fun because I think there could be dozens of ways that you could deviate from the rules and add your own (which the instructions semi encourage you to do), so it's very customizable in a way.

Creative, fun, conceptual, simple. I highly encourage it.

Sat, 2014-09-06 15:05
5