Toledo by Martin Wallace

Designer: Martin Wallace

Number of players: 4

Age: 10+

Time: 60 minutes

What’s the game about?

A description from the publisher…

In Toledo players try to forge magnificent swords and bring them into the fortress of the city, the “Alcazar”.

Each player can send his five helpers on the map and on to the roads of Toledo, in order to acquire steel and jewels from dealers. Thus they get swords manufactured at the most famous armorer in the city. Afterwards those swords are to be delivered to Alcazar.

In addition there are two taverns (at which one “refuels” cards) as well as a place where the works of art of the resident painter, El Greco, are available.

There is a lot to discover in Toledo.

Basic idea in my own words…

In Toledo, you are racing against other players to deliver the highest value swords to the Alcazar. You do this by moving your 5 pawns around the board and collecting gems or diamonds and steel bars then stopping by the sword smith to turn those resources in to collect a sword. I really enjoy this game. I’d say in my Martin Wallace game experiences, it’s the lightest in weight and complexity, but that doesn’t mean the decisions are simple. The decisions are tough and will make you think. That’s a key to a great game, in my opinion. Games like this – that are very simple, yet decisions that are tough – based on a framework of rules and integration of theme – make a great game.

The games movement is where the bulk of the game lies. I’ll explain the movement a bit later but you are using cards to move your pawns, and not only that, you can stop movement of one pawn and move with more in one turn. In addition, you will start the game with business tiles that you place around the board to get resources and make swords.

A game of Toledo in progress

How do you play…

The game is based on 1 of 4 actions you can take on your turn. The actions are…

• Take 2 cards – as your action, you may take the top 2 cards off the movement deck. These cards are how you move in the game.
• Move – You may lay down a movement card (numbered 1-6) down in front of you to move that many locations. You must end up on a tavern. El Greco, the Alcazar or on a business tile.
• Move back to the cathedral – As one action, you may move one of your pawns back to the start of the board, which is the cathedral. This is a rarely used move but the purpose of it is when you have passed all the other good business tiles and can’t really do much else.
• Place a business tile – you start the game with a handful of business tiles, which will represent where you may land during movement. As your action, you may place one business tile on an empty spot.

Pawns on a business tile

More on game play:

As mentioned above, the game is somewhat a race, to gather higher valued swords than your opponents, and manage to deliver them to the Alcazar. The board is a linear board in the respect that you start at the cathedral and make your way towards the alcazar, in one direction. So what you want to do, is try to land on business tiles (preferably yours) to gather resources, then turn those resources in to a sword smith and then deliver those swords to the Alcazar, who’s at the very end of the board.

So when you start the game, most people will be laying all their business tiles down that they can. Then its natural after that, that players will start collecting movement cards and   moving. You start the game with 5 movement cards. So as an example if the 3rd space on the board has the steel business tile, and you want to land there, you may throw down a 3 card – move your pawn and then do business. Doing business is not required. When you do business at a tile, you are resolving the action, such as collecting something or getting a sword, etc. If you do business at your own tile, there is no cost, but if you land on an opponent’s business tile, you must pay the required cost to them.

Toledo Board

If you land on a business tile of an opponent and you want to do business there, you must pay the owner of the tile a movement card of at least 1/3/5. The number you pay depends on the level on the road you are in. You also don’t get change. Now, if you wish to continue moving, you can, but you must have a card with the same as the card that you initially laid. If you lay this 2nd card, you may move the same pawn again, or move another pawn. Then you may do business at a new tile as long as you can land on a open spot on the tile.

Some business tiles have two open spots, some one. you don’t count these individual spots when counting movement, but count the tile space. A mistake I made when I first played. As long as the tile has an open spot, you may land there. If there’s not an open spot, you may immediately play another card of the same value to continue moving on, or you may duel!

Dueling: when you want to duel someone, you choose the players pawn that you wish to duel, then start turning over 3 of the top cards in the movement deck, one at a time. The dueler’s are going to have a battle by seeing who will win best out of 3.  There’s the attacker (the person who initiated the duel) and the defender (the person who’s pawn is sitting in the location who’s being attacked).

Movement Cards detailing Duel colors

Above you can see the movement cards, but what’s also on these cards are two men sword fighting under colors in the bottom.

In the game, there’s a business tile that allows you to take a tile to break movement one time a turn or take a dueling tile. These dueling tiles are in colors of purple, orange and brown. These same colors are also on the back of these movement cards, in addition to a neutral color. When these 3 movement cards are turned over, you’ll turn them over one at a time and see what color is on the bottom. If either player has the matching tile of the color in the background of the card, they will win that move/battle…but if both players have that matching color, or neither player has that color, this color scheme won’t count, so then what you do is look at the card detail and see who’s highlighted, the defender, or the attacker. If you’re the defender and the defender is highlighted, you win that one. So play proceeds like this for best out of 3.

If the attacker wins the duel, he can go in the spot of the defending player, as a result, the losing defender must go back to the start (cathedral). Also then, once moving on that spot, you can do business here. If the defender wins, the attacker must go back to start. Dueling is very beneficial when a player is almost at the alcazar and you wish to stop him.  After a duel, you can continue to move using normal rules.

Tavern space: The board also has two pre-printed locations that are taverns. The tavern will allow you to ditch a card equal to the row its in (just like paying someone else), and take 3 cars of the top of the movement deck.

El Greco: The painter, El Greco, has a spot on the board. He provides instant points for getting his paintings. If you land on his space, you can provide a movement card equal or higher than 3 I believe…and you’ll get the top card in the painting stack.

Movement Skill Tile: In addition to the other cards or tiles in the game, there’s a tile that allows you to break movement one time, per move action. This card is extremely powerful but it comes with a cost. At the end of the game, if you still have it, you lose 2 points. How this tile works is, say you move 3 times, with cards with a value of 1. You can now use this ability and choose to move with a card of any other value, but you must now start making other moves this turn with that new value.

To get rid of this tile, you must have all the other dueling tiles (only 1 allowed in each color), then land on the respective business tile again…to be able to take another duel tile (only time allowed) to filter out the special movement tile.

Winning the game: Play in the game continues clockwise until one player lands 3 of his 5 pawns at the alcazar. If you have a sword in front of you and you land a pawn at the alcazar, you place that pawn on top of a sword tile.

Now points are calculated. You’ll receive points that are valued on the sword tile. If you have any swords in your possession and could not deliver them, you’ll still receive points for them, but rounded down and half the value. Also, you’ll receive a point for every two gems you have. Also, you’ll receive points for any El Greco paintings you have, indicated on that card.

Breakdown

Components: 4/5

The quality of this game is great. The steel bars and business tiles are good stock. The gems are multi colored plastic and look really neat. The board is nicely done, a bit cluttered and I don’t care for the color scheme…but hey, this is Spain. The box insert is good too, but the box must be laid horizontally flat or else everything will fall out. Unless you use zip ties and something like hugo’s amazing tape to keep the cards and business tiles together. I know some people like to rip out the inserts but I really don’t like doing that. I think I have only done that in 2 games.

Theme: 3/5

The theme here has more promise than how much its actually applied. Its about swords, right? Well, there’s not a lot of dueling going on. And as a typical Euro…any other theme can be pasted on. But that’s OK. I prefer delivering swords than to say…flowers.

Luck Factor: 3/5

There’s a really good chunk of luck in this. I was almost tempted to raise it to 4 but I won’t. How you move is mostly determined by a random shuffle of the cards.

Strategy: 4/5

I like the level of strategy packed into this game for a game that’s so short. Being efficient with your cards and resisting moving your pawns too much up the road is one of the keys in this game.

Overall Feelings: 4/5

I really enjoy this game. It’s a short game, about 60 minutes that has a good amount of strategy. I love it when you have to think in a game that’s mechanics are simple. The production quality is great, the rules are mostly clear…and well illustrated. It’s a game that my family can play as well as satisfy an itch for a shorter game for heavier gamers like myself. I recommend this game highly.

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Clever Mojo Games does a good job at exploring alien worlds in, Alien Frontiers.

Alien Frontiers by Clever Mojo Games

Designer: Tory Niemann

Number of players: 4

Age: 13+

Time: 60 minutes

What’s the game about?

A description from the publisher…

Do you have what it takes to be a deep space colonist? An alien frontier awaits the brave and daring! This new planet will be harsh, but if you have the skills to manage your resources, build a fleet, research alien life, and settle colonies, the world can be yours.

Roll and place your dice to gain advantages over your opponent and block them out of useful areas of the board. Use Alien Tech cards to manipulate your dice rolls and territory bonuses to break the rules. Steal resources, overtake territories, and do whatever it takes to get your colonies on the map first! Don’t dream it’ll be easy, though, because the other players will be trying to do the same thing.

Basic idea in my own words…

Alien Frontiers is a strategy game about colonizing an alien planet, using dice (I don’t know if the designer would appreciate this or not but I’m comparing this to Kingsburg) as your ships, in the hopes of achieving the most points by the end of the game. The largest thing about the game play that I enjoy, is the sense of racing or urgency, more towards the end of the game. What I mean is, the game ends when a player places his last colony (Half a peanut M&M) on an alien territory, so you will be anxiously watching and playing against your opponents placement of these colonies.

Throughout the game, you will be rolling your dice/ships and depending on the outcome of the dice, you have options of where you’re going to place these ships. Surrounding the alien planet on the board, are orbital facilities that gives the player an action or advantage. And many of these spaces have restrictions on placement, which can be part of the strategy when playing.

Main Board

How do you play…

The game plays pretty simply, which is something I have minor issue with. But on with a summary of the game play.

After first player is determined, play begins with him/her by that person rolling their dice and placing the dice in the appropriate docking bays or blank spaces on the board in the orbital facilities that is legal and desired. As soon as the player places the required dice on a facility, they receive the benefit immediately. For instance, place your ships/dice on the Solar Converter and you’ll receive fuel. So you go around, placing all of your dice legally – you must place all of your ships, if you can’t, the dice that can’t be fit anywhere go into the maintenance bay (which does nothing).

Now, part of the strategy of the game is, is that your dice you placed stay where they are until everyone has taken their turn. So if your not the last player, depending on what you need some of your ships for, you may have the option of placing some of your ships in a way in facilities that will screw over other players.

Also during placement, the player has the option of placing an alien tech card.

Finally, the player must discard an excess of 8 resources.

After placement, the next player can place his ships, and play repeats around the table. When everyone is done, everyone starts this sequence again by rolling their ships and starting all over.

Game setup

Thoughts on the game:

So, in this game, you are utilizing the pip count on your dice to place your ships around the board in the hopes of maximizing your potential, with those dice, on the orbital facilities. There’s too much to explain about each orbital facility in the scope of this review, but to explain a couple, I can detail out the thought process of one path to victory points in this game.

Your goal is to get your colonies out onto alien territories (you start with 6 colonies for a 4 player game), so one facility that allows you to place your colony out is the, Colony Constructor. The Colony Constructor has 6 spaces available. A requirement to place your ships here, is that 3 of the dice have to be the same value. And you must pay 3 ore. So, once you do this, you can place your colony out on a territory. Now, I said 6 spaces. So 3 are taken up, the other 3 are for another set of 3 equal dice. Now tracking back, I mentioned ore. Ore is obtained primarily through the facility…Lunar Mine.

So you need to land that colony, well, to do that, aside from the 3 matching ships, you need ore…3 of them. So to get that ore, you need to land ships in the lunar mine. The lunar mine gives you one ore for each ship docked there. But a rule to place your ships there is that your placed ship, must be a higher or equal pip count than the highest dice currently there. So if there’s a 4 sitting there that’s the highest, you must place at least a 4.

Placement on Territory: So when you finally place your colony on a territory, you may choose any territory you wish but if you have control of that territory, you get the bonus of that territory. Bonuses of territories give you effects such as, pay 1 less ore when docking in the colony constructor.

Controlling a territory means you have more than any other player in a territory. If you lose control, through a tie or worse…you lose the bonus and go down a point. The points in this game are in constant fluctuation.

Breakdown of points: 1VP for each controlling territory; 1VP for each colony placed; 1VP for possession of the alien city card; 1VP for possession for the alien monument card; 1VP for controlling the territory with the positron field

Breakdown

Components: 4/5

One of the best parts of this game is the production quality. The both is smooth and of good stock, the dice are one of the highest quality I’ve seen; the colony markers are nice smoothed wood; my only gripe is the card feel. I’m not complaining about the quality of the cards but for some reason, I just don’t’ like how they feel, so I sleeved them.

Theme: 4/5

The theme is one that any nerd likes…space…alien planets…technology. Of course, I think the theme isn’t one where I’d want to play with my parents, and there may be a bit of a barrier to entry with the theme to some non-gamers but for the hobby, its great. The artwork on this game too is also fitting and it’s a neat retro style. I must mention though, tow of my friends commented that they didn’t feel like they were colonizing a planet (more on this later).

Luck Factor: 3/5

There’s a good chunk of luck in this game based off the dice rolls, but there’s still plenty of options to do with them, so I didn’t often feel that I was screwed based on luck.

Strategy: 4/5

There’s a good amount of strategy in this game. There’s a lot to think about in the dice placement because you have to look at the other players dice rolls and see where you can balance screwing up their placement options and maximizing yours. Trying to anticipate what they are going to do based on their cards, also complicates things. There’s a facility that allows a player to steal a card or resources from multiple players. There’s also cards that let players move things such as colonies or the positron field…which as you know, awards points.

Overall Feelings: 3/5

This is a good game, with a great theme, great production quality and lends a sense of tension. I give the game a 3 because I feel like there could be more though. I feel for the theme, I was itching for more beef in the game. It feels just as light or even lighter than Kingsburg at times. So keep that in mind. I’m sure many will disagree with me but this is my review. I also feel that in the beginning of the game, you really don’t know what you’re doing, especially if you’ve never played before. What I mean is not game play, but what you want to do or should do. So I generally go right for grabbing fuel or ore. Also at times, it was just too quiet between the players. Even though this game has more elements of player interaction through the screwing over elements…it still feels really Euro-ish…but what’s funny is, I love euro’s. I think the game feels like it may not go anywhere for awhile, but as the game progresses, and you look at the number of colonies players have left, you’ll start to feel some tension – is what I love. Also to mention is I don’t know if this was our one game or happens more, but the one player that was ahead, just plowed us over. I felt there was a runaway leader issue. So overall, its a good game and I’ve enjoyed it, amidst some of the issues. If your interested in the theme and want a strategy game that makes you think but has a strong element of dice, I’d recommend it!

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I never knew a lot about Leonardo before playing this game, and after, he’s still an enigma to me. But RightGames got the mechanics of this game down pretty good in it’s simplistic nature.

The Enigma of Leonardo

Designer: Sergey Machin

Number of players: 4

Age: 8+

Time: 40 minutes ? That’s what bad game geek says, I don’t think so. Maybe with 4 players, and with AP

What’s the game about?

A description from the publisher…

In The Enigma of Leonardo, players try to collect keys by creating patterns in the cards before them on the table.

To start the game, deal each player ten cards. Each player takes five of these cards at random, places them in a + pattern, then turns them face-up; the other five cards form that player’s hand. Each card has two of twelve symbols in the upper-left corner.

On a turn, a player replaces one card in his + with a card from his hand, moving the first card into the + of his left-hand opponent in the same location; that opponent discards the card that was in that location. If a player creates a horizontal or vertical line of cards which each feature the same symbol, that player takes a key card showing that symbol. (A player can claim a particular type of key only once.) If all five cards in a player’s + show the same symbol, the player can claim any key card that he does not already have. The first player to collect seven key cards wins.

Basic idea in my own words…

The enigma of Leonardo is an abstract card game that can be considered a filler due to its short amount of time needs to play. The story behind the game revolves around the intricate drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Basically each card has a drawing from Leonardo da Vinci and on the top left of the card are two smaller images, like a face or flower. These small images represent key cards, which are represented in a separate deck of cards that are just laying out next to the draw deck for players to look through. Your goal in the game is to be the first to collect 7 unique key cards. This game is totally abstract. Honestly, the theme has nothing to do with the game play. The key card illustrations could be anything. In any case…

How do you play…

The Enigma of Leonardo (box back)

The game is initially setup so that 5 cards are randomly drawn out of 10 cards from your hand and laid out in the face of a cross or plus in front of you. The other 5 cards you have are your starting hand. The rest of the cards are shuffled and form a draw deck in reach of all players. The smaller key cards are just laid out somewhere also in reach of everyone.

Turn sequence is in 3 steps.

1. Play a card from your hand.
2. Receive a key if your cards allow it.
3. Draw one card from the deck to your hand.

1. Play a card from your hand –  On your turn,  play a card from your hand onto a spot in your own cross. The card that you would have covered, will go on the player to your left’s cross, in the same location. The card on their cross that would have been replaced goes into the discard deck.

2. Receive a key if your card allows it – based on the last card you just played, if you have 3 matching symbols in the upper left of the cards, then you find that matching key card from the key deck, and place it in front of you. At any time in the game, and only once per game, if you have all 5 matching key card illustrations out in front of you, you can take any key card. As a rule of thumb though, you can’t have any duplicate key cards. Also, you can’t take a key card if you get a match by someone else’s placement…you must claim a key card if you deserve one, after you place a card on your cross.

3. Draw a new card – Just what it says, draw a new card off the draw deck for yourself.

Play now proceeds clockwise. That’s the mechanics! Now onto the strategy.

Strategy – The strategy is in the 1st part of the play sequence. Your goal is to collect 7 unique key cards, well you know how to do that now. Well, that alone doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun, but the fun comes in when the tension mounts. Because your placement of your card affects the player to your left, there’s tension in this game. Also, as part of another strategy in this game goes, you can thwart your opponents chances to get key cards – so keep that in mind!

That’s the game in a whole. There’s not a lot to it, but less is more, right?

Breakdown

Components: 1/5

The box and insert is extremely flimsy, but I’m sure this is a very very small publisher, so I give him credit. The game is fun and that’s what counts. The cards are decent stock, not great, and I’ve seen worse.

Theme: 1/5

The theme is totally random. It has nothing to do with the mechanics of the game. I don’t understand why this was picked, but hey, it’s a “euro.” At least the theme isn’t offensive and is family friendly!

Luck Factor: 4/5

There’s a lot of luck based off the draw of the cards.

Strategy: 2/5

There’s a decent amount of strategy here for such a small game. Either thwart your opponents, and or race to be the first one to get all your key cards.

Overall Feelings: 2/5

The game is a middle of the road filler. It’s a pretty good game for what it’s worth. And When I say that, I wouldn’t pay more than $10 USD for it. So far from where I checked, you can’t even buy the game from online retailers. There’s a little bit of tension at least, and that’s my favorite aspect of games!

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I’m mostly against our board gaming hobby hitting the mainstream. Yet, I do hope to see it flourish. I have some thoughts on the subject…

For instance, if these games that we play are produced in higher quantities, I’m afraid they will go the route of Hasbro and suffer from sub par production quality. The titles im talking anout are like Monopoly and Clue. Now this is not true in all cases, for instance, check out Battleship Galaxies or heroScape, but I think lower production quality of games are more prone to happening when economies of scale through higher production output happens. Our games are designer games, most of the companies that publish these board games pride themselves on the quality of their work. When I look at the box for Monopoly, it’s all computer graphics and blah! When I say blah, I mean, the rulebook (often printed on cardboard inserts), the box itself and the components are poor quality.

Another reason why I’m happy where our hobby is, is that there’s room to grow. It’s a small, unsaturated industry. We have room to grow! But let’s not grow too big. I’d like the hobby to be big enough that non-gamers treat us seriously.

Another reason why I like where this hobby is, is that talking to the publishers, designers and artists is not a difficult task. I myself am an aspiring game designer, and it’s great that I can talk to designers (though, probably not too often), and possibly game with them at conventions! The hobby is small, and everything is reachable.

I mentioned I’m an aspiring designer, well, the less games that are out, the more chance I’ll get an accepted game submission. If the hobby gets too large and all the themes and mechanics under the sun are taken, well, my chances of having a game published are even thinner. Selfish reason why I want the hobby right where it is, but, hey, it’s true. And I’m sure some of you aspiring designers feel the Same.

The final reason is, that there are thousands of board games out there and I hardly have time to play one game so many times and truly learn it, because with the amount of games I have I’m always playing new ones!

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I’ve never considered games like Street Fighter to be more than a game of rock, paper and scissors, but they are, and in Yomi, you have a game similar to Street Fighter all wrapped up in a successful card game, by Sirlin Games.

Yomi by Sirlin Games

Designer: David Sirlin

Number of players: 2

Age: 10+

Time: 30 minutes

What’s the game about?

A description from the publisher…

Yomi is a card game that simulates a fighting game. It tests your ability to predict how your opponents will act and your ability to judge the relative value of cards from one situation to the next. Also, it lets you do fun combos and be a panda. There are 10 characters to choose from, each with their own deck, abilities, and style. Each deck also doubles as a regular deck of playing cards with beautiful artwork (the complete game features a whopping 120 different character illustrations).

Basic idea in my own words…

Yomi is a card game that does a good job of simulating a 2 player electronic fighting game, such as street fighter or Mortal Kombat.  Each deck represents a different character to fight with. You may purchase 5 different packs, which contain two different character decks. Or you can get the big $100 deluxe box. But to get playing, all you need are two decks.

The characters in the game are from the fictional Fantasy Strike universe, and if you have read any of my previous reviews on Flash Duel or Puzzle Strike, I have no clue what this Fantasy Strike universe is, as far as it’s lore goes. But the artwork or stories behind the characters is not what interests me in this game, its the mechanism of the game play. I should mention though, that each character has his/her own slant and style of fighting, which helps make the game fun and unique.

How you play…

The front of the Yomi character tuck boxes

In Yomi, there are 4 card types, then the jokers. The core idea in the game is that Attack beats throw, Throw beats block or dodge, block/dodge beats attack.

On each turn, you must try and out guess your opponent (rock, paper, scissors) and throw the better card down. So what I mean is, if you think your opponent is going to throw, then you should throw an attack down.

Each character has a character card which gives info such as strength meters for different attributes, total combo points, special skill and health.  When you start the game, you should write down your characters total health on a piece of paper (yes you’ll need pen and paper), then as you get hit in the game, you will take off that amount of damage…and the winner is the player standing!

A game can last 5 minutes longer. The idea behind this is that you’ll probably be playing numerous rounds in one sitting, and possibly even play in tournaments! To me, this is a perfect filler game. Say I need to fill 5 minutes or 15 minutes, I think I’ll break out a game of Yomi, granted there’s an even amount of players waiting, and I have enough decks. I don’t know if it’s the intention of the designer of this game to be a filler game, but to me, it is. I don’t think I’d be interested in doing serious tournament play but it’s always an option.

Anatomy of a card

Take a look at the picture below, I’ll explain the anatomy of the card a bit…

Midori - a Yomi character

The card above is Midori. In the center of the card its obviously just illustration for theme but at the top of the card is what’s important. I’ll go everything from left to right.

• Standard Ace – Each deck doubles as a standard poker deck, neat idea, probably something I won’t use as I really don’t play traditional card games, but still a nice option. But this also has an effect in the game which I’ll explain later.
• Small red arrow with ‘A’ in it, pointing downward. This means that the other side of the card, is an attack. Right now as the card stands, its a throw.
• Card type – indicates what type the move is, in this case, a throw.
• Final Dragon Buster – name of the card.
• 20+16 – 20 hit points if the hit lands. +16 is an additional hit value that you can get on your opponent if you pay the respective additional card cost. With this card from the text and from the green banner graphic up top, in order to even play the card, you must discard an extra ace (thats where the aces importance comes in), and to actually get that extra 16 damage, you must discard an extra two aces, if you have them in your hand.
• 0.0 in yellow – this is the move’s speed. Each move has a speed, this is important when you and your opponent both throw down the same move type, if you both throw a throw card down, whomever has the quicker speed (smaller number), will land the hit.
• Can’t combo – means that this card cannot be included in a combo…more on combos in a bit.

So that is the anatomy of a card. On your beginning turn, I believe you’ll have 7 cards in your hand then once decided what card you wish to play, you play the side of the card you wish to play, face down, towards your opponent. When you’re both ready, you reveal, and then resolve damage. When you both have finished the attack phase, you may discard a pair in your hand to be able to sift through your discard or draw deck, for 1 ace, 3 of a kind, for two aces, and 4 of a kind for 4 aces. Then the round begins again, with each player drawing a new card off of your draw decks.

Yomi cards

Combos

Yomi is big on combos. Each character has a combo limit, indicated on their character card. It’s the orange boxed section with filled in or not filled in circles. Say your character has 5 filled in circles in their combo limit, well that means you can play cards that are equal or less of 5 in a round.

Some cards will say something such as linker – this simply means it can be chained from or to, or in other words, can be the middle card of a combo.

Can’t combo – can’t use in a combo.

Starter – can only be the starting card in a combo.

Ender – can only be the finishing card of a combo.

You can also combo cards based off a straight. If you attack and land a damage with a 2, well, if you have a 3,4,5,6, etc, in your hand you can throw all those out, after a successful throw or attack on your opponent to land more damage.

There are more details of the game, but for the purposes of this review, I feel what I have presented is enough and should give you, the prospective buyer, a basic overview of the game.

Breakdown

Components: 1/5

I have the single deck versions…I do not have the big set, so for what it is…just cards with tuck boxes, I’m giving this a 1. That doesn’t mean the cards are shoddy. Its also just that my rating scale only goes from 1-5, so I don’t have much room to wiggle. But for what it is, the quality is good. But for what it is, a tuck box, that will eventually get beat up real quick, and cards that just fit in the box with the rulebook and have no room for sleeved cards – I’m giving it a 1. But don’t let this deter you from getting the game.

Theme: 3/5

I like the theme. I used to love Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat but I grew out of those. I have a friend that is obsessed with SF4 and he enjoyed the game. Again, I personally don’t care for anime at all, and the character world, I don’t care about but the character abilities and types are important. And the idea of playing a fighting game, with cards, is just awesome!

Luck Factor: 4/5

I’m sorry, I had to give this one a high luck count. 1 – you are shuffling cards and just drawing whats available to you, and 2 – its your job to read your opponent, but you truly can never know what he’s going to pull, 100%.

Strategy: 2/5

Now, I’m sure the designer and other hard core Yomi players out there will disagree with me, but I don’t find its a lot of strategy. Yes, sure there’s the whole strategy of trying to hold onto cards that could give you bigger attacks by needing to collect aces and whatnot, and there’s the nature of the game, to try and “read” your opponent but at it’s core, to me, personally, this is a filler game, that could or could not last all day, that is simple and doesn’t have a lot of strategy in it. Now I know two of my friends really love SF4, and play it for hours a day, and are involved in discussions of tactics and strategy, but to me, SF and other fighting games, are simple and almost brainless activities…but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun!

Overall Feelings: 3/5

I give Yomi a 3/5. It’s a fun game that can easily fill up time. And for me, that’s what it is. I would certainly recommend it, if you are into fighting games like Street Fighter and or are into anime or are just looking for a fun filler game. But I guess what’s also good about this game, is that it can be considered for serious tournament play – not for me, but for you, maybe. It’s definitely worth checking out though and you can decide if it’s for you.

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When the ground we walk on is too small to inhabit – we need to either move up, or down. In Small World: Underground by Days of Wonder, we moved down and encounter some creepy and familiar characters from nerd culture!

Small World: Underground by Days of Wonder

Designer: Philippe Keyaerts

Number of players: 2-5

Age: 12+

Time: 60 minutes

What’s the game about?

A description from the publisher…

Small World Underground is a stand-alone game set beneath the surface of the same fun, light-hearted Small World universe of epic conquests and fallen empires.

Designed by original Small World author, Philippe Keyaerts, it features all new Races and Special Powers, and introduces Monster occupied regions that protect Relics and Places of great power!

Play Small World Underground on its own or combine it with other Small World game elements.

Basic idea in my own words:

Small World: Underground (SWU) is the 2nd incarnation of the SW universe, only this time with different characters, abilities and setting. In addition, SWU is also an expansion for the original SW game. You are able to use characters from this game in the original map and vice versa *. While there have been plenty of other expansions for SW, this is the first large expansion for SW. But again, in my opinion, the biggest reason why this is a large expansion, is because its really a game on it’s own!

The setting for this SW is the largest difference between this SW and the previous SW. The theme of this SW is that it’s underground and that it has a darker tone of characters and setting which wield their own special abilities. For instance, I really love the references to the Lord of the Rings, Tomb Raider and I think, Monty Python. Oh, I can’t forget, the Cthulhu mythos!

The abilities and badge powers in this game is what really makes it unique. While yes is certainly not unique in its mechanics, as it’s really a 2nd incarnation of SW, the unique characters and goofy-ness gives Small world a refreshing look, especially if your tired of the original.

Small World: Underground

Here’s a close-up of the map…

Small World: Underground map

As you can see in the image above, there’s plenty of weird terrain, from muddy swamps to crystal fields, to fire and brimstone.

Anything new with the mechanics?

What’s different about this SW, compared to the original as far as mechanics and game play goes is the addition to relics and popular places. In the beginning of the game, where monsters are placed (formerly the abboriginals in SW1), randomly selected cardboard tokens are placed, facedown. When you conquer one of these regions, you turn over the token there. The token will from now on, give the occupant of that region, the special abilities. So not only do badges and characters have special powers, but there’s also the addition of these relics and places. It adds to the game, no matter how small. Other than this, there’s nothing too large to mention as far as differences in game play. The game works the same as the original Small World.

Overview of the Characters

The characters in this is really what gives me fresh eyes on SW.

New characters in Small World: Underground

As you can see from the image above, the characters in this game just get weirder and weirder. But that’s a good thing! Take for instance, the gnome with the drill in the lower left hand corner. I really like using him, he has an ability where no opponents abilities can affect you. These are not all the new characters, but this is just a small sample from the Days of Wonder web site.

Brief reminder on how to play

In case you forgot how to play the Original Small World, or you simply never have played it, I’ll give you a brief rundown  of the rules and game play.

The world in front of you, is too small for everyone to inhabit, so it’s your job to try and spread your control around the board by conquering different regions. But the problem is, your not the only one doing so, your opponents are up to the same thing.

At the beginning of your turn, you will be selecting a randomly matched badge with a character chart. The mixture of this character chart and the special badge will give you a number of how many tokens you are to take of the race you have selected. The image below will give you an example of a game in progress…notice the tokens spread throughout the regions.

Small World

On your turn, you place two tokens, to conquer an empty region. If there are other opponents tokens or other “pieces of cardboard” on that region, you essentially must place one extra token of yours, on that region to successfully conquer it. Then you proceed like this, of taking over adjacent regions to your own, until you run out of tokens. Then at the end of your turn, you count up the total number of regions that you occupy. You receive 1 coin for each region occupied. But this is where the strategy is, instead of trying to get just one, you are trying to get more, through special character abilities.

The game proceeds clockwise around the table like this, until everyone has had an equal amount of turns on the last round. The player that has the most coins at the end of the game, wins!

Now, I didn’t mention a lot of the details on conquering and fending off your opponents, so if you want, you can check out my original Small World review.

So there you have it, I hope I have given you a basic gist of what Small World: Underground is like. It’s a very enjoyable game and I’m glad that it has given me a new set of eyes, or refreshing feel, when playing Small World. What I mean is…the new map and new abilities, makes it a pleasure to play.

Breakdown

Note on expansion…

* If you are choosing characters that can’t work in a terrain type as it won’t work or make sense, don’t use that character. You’re not guaranteed every character will work in every terrain type.

Component Quality: 5/5

Everything you’d come to expect from Days opt Wonder in regard to quality, is present here. From the great art, to the rulebook to the box size and quality, to the included guides – the component quality is great. Oh and I absolutely can’t forget to mention, they fixed the token tray! It has rounded bottoms so the tokens can’t fall down and slip away from your fingers anymore!

Theme: 5/5

Just like the original, I’m going to give this game a 5/5 for theme. The theme works well with the game mechanics and game play and the new characters and terrain make this game a joy to play.

Luck Factor: 2/5

Even though the badges and characters are spilled out randomly, you ultimately have control on who you pick. There’s not a lot of luck in this game – except for that darn dice! The reinforcement dice just seems even more annoying than the original, even though it’s the same!

Strategy: 4/5

For such a lighthearted game, this game offers plenty of strategy. You must know when you should go into decline or not and how to maximize your special powers to get that edge over your opponents. Properly beefing up what regions with more reinforcements certainly helps as well.

Overall Feelings: 3/5

Small World: Underground is a very fun game that can be enjoyed by all. The theme should not be offensive to anyone and can offer fun for friends and family. The game play is easy to pick up and master and is by no means overwhelming. The story, characters and map really give this game a setting that is fun to play in. While I have grown to enjoy more heavy strategy games, I will always love and cherish games by Days of Wonder – games that offer simplicity, choice and repercussions for those choices.

Notes: 

I want to thank the members of board game geek that have posted pictures, for which, I have used, in addition to days of wonder.

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I’ve always enjoyed puzzles…but this puzzle sure strikes up a lot of fun! Puzzle Strike by Sirlin Games.

Puzzle Strike by Sirlin Games

Designer: David Sirlin

Number of players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 20 minutes

What’s the game about?

A description from the publisher…

 

Puzzle Strike: Bag of Chips is all that and a bag of chips!

 

Puzzle Strike is a card game played with cardboard chips instead of cards that simulates a puzzle video game called puzzle fighter that, in-turn, simulates the fighting game street fighter that is emulated in puzzle fighter

 

If you don’t understand any of that, that’s ok! Puzzle Strike is a complete game in a box that has the fun of a customizable card game without the marketing scheme of selling you parts of the game in random packs. You build your deck *as* you play the game. Every game is different because the bank starts with a different set of chips each game. Also, there are 10 characters to choose from, each with different gameplay. Between all that, there are over 411 MILLION starting conditions in a 4-player game.

 

A built-in comeback mechanic means that when you’re on the edge of losing, you’re also able to do even more combos than usual.

 

Shuffling cards takes too long and is boring, so in Puzzle Strike you just put your cardboard tokens in a bag and shake them up to shuffle! Plus, it’s pretty ballin’ to play a game with chips. Play it on your yacht, impress potential mates, etc.

Basic idea in my own words:

Puzzle Strike simulates a Puzzle Fighter type video games, in a board game format. These games are the type where you are opposing fighters, such as a Mortal Kombat game and when you hit your opponent or do combos, trash/junk/bad stuff, such as gems or blocks, gets thrown into your opponents container area. That player loses the game when the pile of gems reaches the top. In this game, the winner is the last man standing. You lose, when your “gem pile” reaches a value of 10 or more gems, during your turn. The designer and the game prides itself on being a balanced game, in my plays, it is. It’s a great game that uses similar mechanics of deck building games, but uses chips in a bag instead of shuffling cards.

How do you play?

On your turn you have a sequence you must follow and following it in order is very important, just like all these board games we play.

1. Ante – On the beginning of your turn, you must take one 1-gem chip from the bank and add it to your gem pile – remember, you don’t want your gem pile to be too large.
2. Action Phase – On this turn, you get to resolve 1 action on any of your chips that have a banner on them. Remember, one action but like other deck building games, you want to have the best combo of action chips in your deck so you can string along and chain together actions.
3. Buy Phase – During the buy phase, you can add up the number of value of your gems you drew this turn (not in gem pile), and make as many buys as you want and can afford. The newly gained chips go into your discard pile. During this phase, if you have a value of 10 or more chips in your pile, you lose.
4. Cleanup Phase – Put the chips you used to buy anything into your discard, and any actions, basically everything except your gem pile, then you draw 5 chips, the moment you can’t draw up to 5, put your discard pile into the bag and draw till you get that 5…now wait your turn.

That is what you do on your turn, play order proceeds clockwise. So you play what you drew on your hand and what you essentially want to do, is build up a high gem number, such as a 2/3/4 with the least amount of gems, in your gem pile. Because the higher numbered gem you have, the more junk your throwing at your opponent.

Double Crash Gem

How do you throw trash at your opponent? On your turn, if you use a crash gem as an action, you get to crash one gem chip, no matter the gem value of that chip. So if you crash a 4-gem chip, you send 4, 1-gem chips at the opponent to your left, and that 4 gem chip you crashed, goes back to the bank! So the game revolves around the table like this and a round lasts about 20 minutes depending on the number of players. It’s very fun! There’s a single crash gem, a double crash gem. The double lets you crash 2 gems. There’s also a combine chip, this allows you to combine two gem chips, so if you can for instance, combine your 1-gem chip and 2-gem chip, to a 3-gem chip. This will help in attacking your opponent.

In addition to gem chips and crash gems, there’s puzzle chips. Puzzle Chips are your special actions. There’s 10 randomly selected in a round, and 5 each in a pile. It’s your job to pick these and crash gems the best to string together the best combos.

Chips

Also to mention, there’s wound chips and character chips. At the beginning of the game you chose a character and get 3 character chips for that character. These chips when pulled, are special actions. They can be very helpful and I find some to be a waste.

The wound markers act as fluff or crap in your possible hand of chips. They don’t explicitally harm you, but it’s just a chip that does nothing that clogs up your chip deck.

Review Breakdown:

Components: 5/5

The quality of this game is awesome! I was extremely impressed with the thickness and smoothness of the chips. The Chip insert is great and labeled; the manual has that nice rulebook smell that reminds me of 1992, and cracking open a new SNES game; The velvet? bags that players use are very thick and quality! Great job!

Theme: 2/5

Don’t really care for the characters, again I’m not into fighting anime stuff but the theme that its a video game turned into a board game is pretty darn cool.

Luck Factor: 3/5

Much luck in this game depending on a random pull out of the bag. But this of course is mitigated by you choosing what you want in your deck/bag.

Strategy: 3/5

Good strategy in this game. Again, like other deck builders it depends on your planning ahead of what you increase your chances on pulling!

Overall Feelings: 4/5

This game is very fun! I’m liking it more and more. I’m not obsessed or in love with it. Our first play felt a bit lackluster, but that was with 2 players. But with more plays it got more and more fun.

Notes: Thanks for those on BGG that posted pictures, which I used.

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No, there’s no flashing people in this game…it’s called, Flash Duel…you’re fighting. As as the title of the game suggests – a round can be over in a flash!

Flash Duel by Sirlin Games

Designer: David Sirlin

Number of players: 2

Age: 8+

Time: 5 minutes

What’s the game about?

A description from the publisher…

Flash Duel is a simple, fast card game that simulates a duel between two Fantasy Strike characters. There are 10 characters to choose from (all included), each with three different special abilities. Landing just one hit wins a round, and a game is best three out of five rounds. Games take only a few minutes to play.

The duel takes place along an 18-space linear track. Players draw from a common deck of 25 of numbered cards (five copies of each number 1 through 5), and use these cards to move, attack, dashing strike, block, and push. Each character’s special ability cards add a new dimension to the base gameplay, and create 45 different character matchups.

Flash Duel was designed and balanced by David Sirlin, the multiplayer balancer of Street Fighter HD Remix, Puzzle Fighter HD Remix, Kongai, Yomi, and Puzzle Strike. The core gameplay was inspired by Reiner Knizia’s game En Garde.

Basic idea in my own words:

Flash Duel is a short game that pits two characters from the Fantasy Strike realm against each other in a sparring match. One hit on your opponent lands a win in that round.  A game is best 3 out of 5.

How do you play?

Basic version and Deluxe version movement track

Separate out the cards that represent the track and lay it down with one start end near one player and another start card facing the other player. Use two coins to represent your players and place them on the start spaces. If you have the deluxe version, you have the pawns to use instead.

Both players will pick a character and take the 3 character cards with it. Take the fighting/movement cards and shuffle them all together and lay them in reach of both players. Each player draws 5 cards off this deck and add them to your hand. Choose a starting player and this is where your actions come in…

What you can do on your turn…

• Move – You can move closer to your opponent by throwing down a card from your hand. If you throw a 5, you move 5 spaces up, etc. If you are close to your opponent and have extra movement beyond them, you stop at the space before them. In addition, you can throw down a card to move backwards, if you do so wish.
• Push – If you are standing on the space adjacent to your opponent; if you declare a move, you can push your opponent back towards his start space – which to either of you, is a bad thing. So if you throw, say, a 3 card down, you push that opponent back 3 spaces.
• Attack – If you’re close enough to your opponent, you can declare an attack. If you are 3 spaces away from your opponent, throw down a 3. You can also throw down a pair or 3 of a kind. The purpose of this is because if your opponent can’t match that set, he gets hit.
• Dashing Strike – A dashing strike is a dash towards your opponent, and a strike. What you do is throw down a card for the move forward, then throw down the card for the strike. The card for the strike must be the same number as the space to the opponent. During the strike part of the action, you can again, throw down a pair or 3 of a kind.

How your opponent can fend off the attack…

When attacked, your opponent must be able to block the attack. He can block by throwing down the same numbered card that the attacker attacked with. If you don’t have the match, you lose the round, then move onto the next round. If the attacker throws down a two or 3 of a pair, the defender must match that. Because the defender may have used a card to block, his next turn he starts with less cards.

If your attacked with a dash and attack, you have the option of blocking of retreating. To retreat, throw down any card to move that number backwards. If you’re stuck at your start space you can’t move back and you lose. If you retreat, you must skip your next turn but you still draw 5 cards.

Special Move Cards:

You start with 3 character cards. These are one time use abilities a round. The cards will tell you pre-combat or some other trigger. When the trigger occurs, you can just use the special action on the card. Once you use it, turn it over, that means you can’t use it again until the next round.

Notes: 

Also to note, the discard pile is public information

Review Breakdown:

Components: 1/5

I give the game a 1/5 as far as components because all the game is, is a tuck box with cards and a rulebook. I’d give it a 2/5, but since my grading scale doesn’t have much room to work with, it gets a 1. This by no means is meant to bash the game…it is what it is, it doesn’t need to be any more. But the Deluxe version I have not played with, it’s more expensive, understandably, and comes in a wooden box and comes with pawns and win tokens to indicate who won rounds.

Theme: 2/5

The theme works well with the game, but I’m not at all interested in anime street fighter type characters or lore…and I don’t even know what the Fantasy Strike Universe is…but that’s OK. I wanted this for mechanics and fun not theme.

Luck Factor: 3/5

The game relies a lot on luck as your dealing with shuffled cards. This is fine, but there is certainly strategy in the game as holding onto the right cards and playing them right.

Strategy: 3/5

There’s a good amount of strategy in this game for the complexity of it. You must be able to play your hand and hold your cards for the right time. The lower numbered cards are valuable for attacking.

Overall Feelings: 3/5

I enjoy Flash Duel. It’s a short filler game that can be played with just about anyone. It has a good amount of strategy for the complexity yet has the level of randomness that should be there in a game this quick. If you can find this game for the right price – and need a filler game for two players, pick it up!

Notes: Thanks for those on BGG that posted pictures, which I used.

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Nightfall is a game about dominance in the dark underworld of creatures thought to be merely fantasy – vampires, werewolves and more…please don’t close this window, the game is not about Twighlight – that’s for teenage girls.

Nightfall by Alderac Entertainment Group

Designer: David Gregg

Number of players: 2-5

Age: 12+

Time: 45 minutes

What’s the game about?

A description from the publisher…

Nightfall – a new fast, furious and fun deck-building game from Alderac Entertainment Group. Featuring direct head-to-head combat, amazing art, a new AEG world, and unique mechanics by designer David Gregg, Nightfall will be the deck-building game to own.

Before the game begins, there is a draft to determine which cards are available for purchase, and by whom. During this draft players select two cards from the set for their personal archives, and they also select cards to put into the common area. The cards drafted into personal archives may only be purchased by the player who drafted them.

After the table has been set with the private and common cards, players begin play.

The meat of Nightfall is in the chaining mechanic, which was partially developed with the help of people right here on BoardGameGeek.

Each card has a main color and two linking colors. If you can match the main color of a card to one of the linking colors of the previous card, you can chain those cards together. Once a chain is started, players all get an opportunity to link additional cards onto the chain during that turn.

Cards in the chain resolve in reverse order: first in, last out. Instant effects fire off as cards come off the chain, doing damage to your opponents or bringing characters into play to defend you and attack your opponents.

The object of Nightfall is to put wounds into your opponents’ decks and end the game with the least amount of wounds in your deck. But beware: the more wounds a person has, the more enraged they become and the faster their deck works, meaning more cards and bigger chains will come your way!

Nightfall’s base set releases with starting decks of 12 cards for up to 5 players, and 24 distinct cards (7 copies of each) for drafting during play.

The box contains card dividers, and is in the same format as the much heralded Wrath of the Elements box for Thunderstone.

Basic idea in my own words:

Nightfall is a deck building card game that has the theme of monsters such as vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc. that shines with it’s unique blend of mechanics, most notably the “chain” mechanic.

The game comes in a compact sized box, similar to the expansions to Thunderstone and as you can see, is a very dark theme from the artwork and just general use of dark colors.

Nightfall is organized very well with the foam blocks and card dividers and the rulebook is very explicit how you should setup the game after you first crack open the cards.

“So, get on to the game already…”

During a game of Nightfall you are controlling your own minions and actions to inflict wounds on your opponents. At the end of the game, the player with the least wound cards, wins.

The game is a deck building game, so in the beginning, each player starts with the same starting deck, which is comprised of 12 weak characters. These characters have benefits, but they will eventually get burned in the trash, or “exiled.” One thing that’s unique about Nightfall is the fact that, at the beginning of your turn, you must use all your minions in play, to inflict wounds on players, then like a bee, they hurt, then die (in this case, get discarded). This mechanic, I’m trusting was intentional, it blends, in my opinion, very well with the theme of the game, vampires and monsters of the night, come out, attack, then subside into the darkness.

Throughout the game, your trying to build up a line up of minions to defend yourself and be able to attack opponents. Like most deck building games, you start with weaker cards then build yourself up to stronger ones and try to filter the crap out of your deck. So again, through minion attacks and special effects, you’re trying to wound your opponents and mitigate your wounds. So hows this all done?

Turns…

On your turn, you are following a set of actions in sequence…

1. Combat Phase - during this phase, you must attack players with all of your minions. Attacking is done by targeting a player and using your strength of your minions to attack.
   

   Lilith Lawrence from Nightfall

   The card above, Lilith Lawrence is an example of a minion. You’d use her to attack with. Her attack value is the number in the top right corner, in red…2. Ignore anything else, I’ll explain that in due time. Just know her attack is 2. The player that is defending, declares what minions or cards he’s using to defend with. Again, if you look at the card above of Lilith, you’ll see red hash marks on the edges, these hash marks represent that minions current health. If you’re attacking a player, and say, that player has a Lilith in play, he can use Lilith to defend the attack and essentially absorb any hits. When a player uses a minion to absorb hits, they turn the card around to now show the remaining health, if any. If the card gets killed, it goes into discard (or exile). Any remaining wounds would go directly to that player and that defending player will receive that many wound cards in their discard deck. That is a summary on how combat works. There is of course, more intricacies but they don’t need to be explained here. After you have attacked with all of your minions, they are discarded.

2. Chain Phase- This is the most interesting mechanic in the game. Chaining is what separates this deck building game from others, to where everyone is doing something on everyone else’s turn – which is, bringing out more cards. When the active player reaches this phase, he has the option of laying out a card, this card and any other cards he lays out are considered not in play yet. This mechanic is how players bring cards to the table.
   

   Chaining Cards

   Look in the card above, Sir John Travail, you can see 3 moons in the upper left. These are related to chaining cards and kicker effects. How chains work is, say, you lay out Sir John Travail, you can lay another card down (cascade wise suggested) that has a large purple or yellow moon. So the card your laying down, the large moon has to match one of the small moons on the previous card. This can also mean you can chain off someone else’s last played card. So a wise player will try to think of what you have, and make it so that you can’t chain. Also, there are effects called, Kickers. When a card you lay down has a kicker, if kicker moon color matches the large moon color of the previously laid card, you can resolve that kicker effect. So this revolves around the table clockwise, that everyone can and may bring out cards, one player at a time, until they wish to cease. Then, the player to the right of the active player, can start resolving his chain. Resolving your chain – What this entails is, one by one, that players cards can move from where they are, to “in play” (so now they can be killed and do other stuff), any relevant kickers take affect and any effects where it says, CHAIN. If the text says, your chain, you can only get that benefit if you were the player that created the chain, in this case, you aren’t. When you are done, resolving of cards happens counter clockwise, then finishes with the active player.

3. Claim Phase – This phase is simply, the buy phase. Your influence is the same thing as how much money you have. You always start with 2 influence, and you may discard cards from you hand to discard, you receive 1 influence per card discarded. In addition, certain cards give you more influence. Now, you may buy any amount of cards you can afford from the common archives (decks in middle of playing area) and or your personal archive (every player starts with their own personal decks to be able to buy from (2)). Add these purchased cards to your discard.
4. Cleanup – During cleanup you draw back up to 5 cards into your hand. If your hand contains any wound cards at this point, you may discard them to be able to get their effects, such as draw more cards. But only 1 wound cards effects may be applicable here…you can’t continue to chain wound cards to get yourself caught in some loop.

Game End: The game ends when the last wound card is drawn from the wound deck. The number of wound cards is 10X the number of players. Whomever has the least amount of wound cards is the winner! So, wounds are not only bad as in they are less VP for you, but they clog up your deck. Too bad the priest, Genesis One, is only a starter card.

A 3 player Nightfall setup

Breakdown:

Components: 3/5

I like the box size and quality. The rule book is good quality and looks like it cost a lot of black ink to print . I like the insert and method of storing cards, just like Thunderstone expansions, BUT I don’t like that if the cards aren’t tight with the foam and cards, they tend to fall flat so your digging in there during setup or breakdown to fetch them.

Theme: 2/5

I’m not so hot on the theme as I am with Thunderstone. I just feel this theme came out too in line with the recent obsession with werewolves, vampires and zombies. I don’t like pop culture so I think that leaves a bit of a tainted, eh, in my opinion, in regard to theme. But even Thunderstone I’m not thrilled with the theme, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a very fun game.

Luck Factor: 3:5

Typical deck building luck! In my opinion though, in this game, I feel as if you don’t have as many cards in your deck, so carefully picking will make your luck more so, I feel. I’m still giving that a 3/5 though.

Strategy: 3/5

Not a mathy calculation game, and there’s luck, but like deck building games, it has it’s form of strategy. Trying to mitigate opponents from playing off your colors in a chain, buying the right combination of cards for their powers, and colors.

Overall Feelings: 3/5

I enjoy this game very much. I’m interested in getting many more plays in. It’s not my favorite game by any means, but the art is great, the game play is great, it has its unique elements, and overall it’s fun! I would recommend Nightfall to anyone that’s in our hobby. I wouldn’t recommend it for families that are not in this hobby and young children though, due to the graphic nature.

Notes: Thanks for those on BGG that posted pictures, which I used.

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Origins is my first real con that I have been to and I’m glad I went. I had an excellent time and I’ll tell you why.

Origins is almost a week of gaming, from board games, CCG’s, LARP’s RPG’s and more. The reason I went is for the board games. I did not go to Origins for the steam punk costumes. I must admit though, that I did get some laughs at some of the costumes – which is always welcome!

Thursday:

I drove with my friend Mike and his brother Greg and we met up with my friend, Tim and his brother, Andy. Tim and Andy were already there on Thursday evening, and I left Thursday after work. I knew I was going to have a good time, laugh wise, when Tim texted me saying he just walked by someone dressed like an elf. I for one, have never been around people in costumes in the nerd world.

We finally arrived in Columbus, which I must admit is a nice looking city. Most of the buildings I saw were fairly new looking – I thought any major city in Ohio was going to be smaller, like Buffalo ( 20 mins from me). We found the hotel easily but not the parking ramp, and the parking was a bit expensive.

When we arrived, the clerk at the desk was wearing some rip off of a clerks shirt and there were people all around us playing board games…in the hotel lobby – sweet! We did arrive about 11:30 at night and managed to put our stuff away and walk around the convention. There was people scattered throughout in small groups but there wasn’t much going on. It was too late for me to get my badge but that was OK, we ended up playing Thunderstone in the cafeteria. The hotel that we stayed at, that was attached to the convention center was really nice. The rooms and hotel itself had a modern decor and the convention center is huge. Be prepared to a lot of walking back and forth. I would definitely recommend staying in the Hyatt ( that’s the hotel we stayed at!).

Friday/Saturday:

We regrouped in the morning and went downstairs towards the board room. I wanted to go down there first because I was told that they were giving out free games! I received a copy of Asteroyds. I’m so glad I didn’t receive a copy of Black Friday or The Heavens of Olympus, because I already have those games. I hear they were giving out a reprint and renaming of Ra? Glad I didn’t get that one either. Also very glad I didn’t get a copy of the expansion to Chicago Express because I had every intention of trading that game – which I did.

After that we walked to the dealer hall. The dealer hall is where I spent a lot of time. When you first walk in, you are just slammed in the face with sensory overload from all the people and colors in the booths. One of my first stops was the Mayday booth. I know it took forever for their last green CCG sized sleeves to come in so I wanted to secure as many as I needed. I also spent a lot of time at the Alderac booth, talking with their employees and getting a demo of Nightfall, which I now have.

I had a chance to talk with Tom Vasel and check out the dice tower booth, which was a pleasure. I didn’t realize Tom was so tall!

It was just so exciting being at my first con, and getting an opportunity to talk directly with people from the publishing companies from the companies we love.

After time in the dealer hall, we spent some time playing games in the board room. they had a good system of just taking your drivers license for rental of a game. I was uneasy about it at first though, the thought of giving away my license. We did get a chance to play Star Trek Expeditions that day – I must say, I wasn’t impressed. It seemed to easy and just trivial and agreeing or disagreeing on calculating skill checks.

On Saturday we pretty much did the same thing as Friday, playing games and walking around the dealer room.

I did have a chance to check out the North Market, which everyone talks about, but it wasn’t for me, it was mostly health/green type foods…I want a thick juicy burger. So we found a pub across the street from the convention – which was very good. Unfortunately, I forget the name!

While Tim and Andy spent most of the nights in the werewolf room, I was in the Origins after dark area playing games or up in the hotel room playing Caylus. We all bought a ribbon for Werewolf with the intention of playing but only Andy and Tim did. They’ve played before, I have not, and after I saw people playing, I really wasn’t interested. People are WAAAY too into this game. I recall when getting my badge Friday morning the girl that checked us in got really excited that I had a badge and never played. She commented, “FRESH MEAT” – I’m going to eat you!…okaaayyy…I noticed I ended up standing behind my friends by the time she finished. Thats just one case of “nerd-dom” at Origins…that’s the thing here, people here are gamers. A lot of people were dressed in blacks and dark colors and or were dressed in steam punk costumes…not my thing.

I enjoy nerd things but I don’t act or dress the part. Sometimes it was a bit awkward being around some of these costumes. For instance, I walked past one kid/guy, talking to a publisher and the kid was wearing this plastic/metal looking black facemask. Dude, your talking with someone, just take it off.

Anyways, I wanted to mention that I also took in a board game design seminar with Lew Pulsipher. I appreciate the fact that they have board game seminars as that’s what my dream is, to be a board game designer (on the side of course .

Paying MRSP:

The games at these cons by the publishers directly is always MSRP…some booths charge less for games towards the end of the con. But I wanted to walk away with at least one game. So I bought Lords of Vegas! I’ve played it twice now and it’s great. I’m glad I got it. Mayfair’s booth was HUGE. So many people were playing Settlers. I did not however. I enjoy Settlers but I’m not a huge fan. I also bought a starter set for World of Warcraft: TCG. they were selling them for $10 with a coupon and an extra pack of cards, sounded reasonable.

Anyways, I had a great time at the convention. Got to talk 1 on 1 with publishers, and played lots of games! I would recommend checking out this con. I think though next year, I plan on going to GenCon…but I have heard that I won’t be able to get as much 1 on 1 here…but it’ll be my first time so I plan on going.

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