Review 9: Lifeboats

Lifeboats is a game that should come with a warning.  For those of you who do not do well with being singled out and targeted to actively be taken out of the game may want to avoid Lifeboats.  I would say that it is the game that you would least like to play with a particularly stressful relative or friend, consider this your warning:

Name: Lifeboats

Players: 3-6

Playing Time: 90 minutes

Suggested Ages: 12 and up

Awards:  None

Game Setting:

Each player is taking on the roles of sailors who have escaped from a sinking ship onto life boats.  The boats are headed towards a collection of desert islands, each one with its own scoring value.  The winner of the game is the player who can score the most amounts of points depending on the island and type of sailor that they are able to rescue.  All is not plane sailing, all the other players are looking to save their own sailors as well and this means that throughout the game some sailors are going to have to leave the lifeboat!

Game Play:                              

Each player chooses a colour to play.  Each player then takes the coloured pawns that match their colour.  The pawns come in two in sizes, one slightly larger than the other.  The smaller represents sailors who will score less points at the end of the game and the larger represent Officers who will score more when or if they reach the islands at the other end of the board.   Depending on the number of players, the board is then set up with coloured boats that match the players and then one more boat coloured in black.  Then the players take cards to match the colours of all the players plating the game in addition to the black card.  Finally the players take three Captain cards.

Once all the players have collected the initial items for the colours that are in play each player then takes it in turns to place their sailors and officers into any of the lifeboats.  Importantly the colour of the lifeboat is only to determine the boat chosen during the voting phases.  It is only if there is a draw at the end that the colour of the boat will produce a win for the player.

One player is selected as the start player and for the whole of that turn; they will have the ultimate decision on any ties.  After the round has been played the start player marker is moved on to the person sitting on the previous start player’s left.

Once all the pawns have been placed in the boats that game is ready to be played.  In the phase of a turn the players all vote to see which boat will spring a leak.  The players use their coloured cards to secretly choose which boat the leak is going to appear in.  Once all the votes have been placed face down, they are then all revealed at once.  The colour that has the majority takes a leak token and places it in an available space.  During any voting phase a player can choose to use one of their Captain cards.  When a Captain card, the player who played it can have the final decision on the vote.  However if two or more players have used their Captain card, then they are all cancelled out and the majority colour takes the leak.

When the leak is being placed there are instances where there is no room for the leak.  When this is the case the players who have sailors in that boat are required to vote for which colour will need to sacrifice a sailor or office.  After the votes have been cast in the same way above, the influence of the voting is worked out.  Here the total of the sailor who are worth one point and the officers who are worth two are added together for each colour.  Where there is a draw the result of the score over rules.  Captain cards can be played during this voting road.  The colour that was voted out removed one of their pawns and that sailor is removed from the game, lost to the seas!

If at any point the number of leaks in a boat outnumbers the sailors the whole lifeboat sinks and all of the sailors and officers are removed from the game.

Once the voting phase for the leak has been completed, all the players then vote on which of the remaining boats is to move forward.  The colour boat that gets the majority of the votes will move forward and again any player(s) can play a captain card to try to take control of the voting.

The winning boat is moved forward one space and the final phase then begins.  In the final phase the players must remove one of their sailors from one of the boats and place it behind the boat.  Once all the players have done this, in reverse order the sailors must choose to swim to another boat.  They are not allowed to enter into the boat that they have just left and if this is the case the sailor is removed from the game.  Once all the swimming sailors have picked their new boat the game continues with phase one again.

This continues until the last boat is lost to leaks or arrives at one of the islands.  Once this has happened the players total up their scores depending on which island their sailors and officers have landed on, as each of the island have different scores for each of the pawn types.  The winner of the game is the person how has the most about of points.

My Score:

 

Game Play:  2/4

Components: 2/2

Replayability: 1/2

Theme: 2/2

Total: 7/10

My Comments:

I really enjoy playing Lifeboats although admittedly I end up being the person who takes the battering during the voting process and I struggle to persuade others to move the boat I want them to move on.  I’m obviously not diplomatic enough!

The stress levels in this game can get quite high and when someone becomes the target of the voting, they are often left being the person who ends the game sooner rather than later.  This is usually me but the game is still enjoyable.

Lifeboats requires careful thinking and planning and well-constructed.  The playing pieces, boats and leak tokens are all wooden and that artwork is perfect for the game.   This is the reason that the components get the full two marks.

Replayability is a difficult one, as there will be a number of people who, after playing it once will never want to play it again.  Being the target for everyone else’s voting is not a comfortable feeling especially when there is clearly and obviously another option that should be chosen but it will never happen because the other players are out to get you.  

The debating and persuading features heavily and is what gives this game some great mileage points in future replays, but only if you enjoy that kind of thing.

I’ve dropped the two points in gameplay because it is a game that some people will play and some will definitely not play. The gameplay is OK however sometimes the voting, especially where there is not enough room in the boat, in my opinion, gets in the way of the flow of the game.

Overall though I think that this is one that most households should have.  It steps outside the normal games that most people play and is one that a lot of people will enjoy coming back to time and time again.

Give it a go and let me know if your thoughts on the game.

Review 8: Mice and Mystics

Mice and Mystics is relatively new, published only in 2012.  It is the first solo playing game that I have reviewed and it falls into the category of co-operative play.  This is a review that I have really been looking forward to writing; it’s a game that lots of people have really enjoyed playing:

Name: Mice and Mystics

Players: 1-4

Playing Time: 120 minutes

Suggested Ages: 8 and up

Awards:  2013 Games Expo Best Boardgame Winner

Game Setting:

Mice and Mystics is a story based adventure game.  After one of the players reads to the Prologue and the start of Chapter One to the other players the game is ready to start.  Each player then takes on the role of one of six different mice characters, adventuring through the castle of King Andon. 

Game Play:                              

Six mice can be played throughout the game and the players control one or more of them depending on the number of players and the number of mice needed for the chapters.  The players can play through a total of twelve chapters in Mice and Mystic. 

Each player chooses whether to be Prince Collin the Leader, Maginos the Mystic, Nez the Tinker, Filch the Scamp, Tilda the Healer or Lily the Archer.  Each mouse has its own ability, health level, movement amount, lore level, defence figure and attack figure.  Each mouse also starts with its own equipment.

The equipment is one of the best parts about the game and is complete keeping with the mice that the players will be using.  Button Shields, Walnut shell armour, thimble helmet and a scorching wand from a burning twig and more all add to the amazing feel of the little world that the players will find themselves in.

Using this equipment the players then embark on battling roaches, rats, spiders and centipedes in under floor tunnels, all the while following the story of the game.

Players roll custom made dice to move and search, attack and defend.  Whenever a cheese is rolled the mice collect a cheese token that they can use for their special abilities. 

The clever part of this game is the minions that the mice find themselves fighting against.  It’s the minions that enable the game to be played solo as the game defines the rules for moving and attacking with Minions.  This means that one player doesn’t need to miss out on the action of being one of the adventurers.  It also means that the players all get to work together towards a common goal.

The game is also cleverly put together so that the players are encouraged to keep going rather than hang back and spend lots of turns searching for items that they want.  Every turn that the mice are on a board sections where there are now minions the chance of failing the chapter increases.

The game ends when either the players collectively achieved the objective or the game wins and they fail to achieve their adjective.

My Score:

 

Game Play:  4/4
Components: 2/2
Replayability: 1/2
Theme: 2/2

Total: 9/10

My Comments:

The artwork is amazing.  The miniatures are amazing.  The components are well constructed.  The gameplay is well balanced.  The story is suitably atmospheric.  I really enjoy Mice and Mystics and having played it both solo and as part of a group it works well in both instances.

By no means is this game easy.  In fact I’ve lost the first chapter almost as many times as I’ve won it.  I’ve played the first chapter a number of times and it’s still great to play because the same minions are not always going to appear in the same rooms and the side quests are also optional. 

I love the fact that there are lots of different abilities that the players can choose for their mice and that due to the need to roll the dice to attack and defend, it’s not always guaranteed to go the players way.  The decision to search rather than attack puts the players in a challenging position as the equipment is useful but the minions can in just two turns capture the mice and put them temporarily out of the game.

Rather than dying the mice are considered as captured until there are no more minions on the board.  This was the players do not feel completely at a loss for losing all their wounds.  With even the weakest enemy causing a potential two wounds on a turn and the majority of the mice having only three wounds, losing combat is a serious business.

Another great feature is that if the players want to continue their adventure onto Chapter Two and beyond the mice are only allowed to keep one of the items that they have found in the previous adventure.  This means that the second chapter continues to be challenging.  The players also have the chance to level up during a chapter by collecting and not using six cheeses.  When a mice levels up they can take another ability to help them in the game.

I have played this game with my four year old daughter and she loved it, even the lengthy story at the beginning.  It’s one that most of the family can enjoy and is certainly one the family can work together on.

For me Mice and Mystics loses its point because of the continual story element.  If you have a regular gaming group then this would not lose any points and you’d probably give it a ten, however I do not and therefore I currently have six different games on the go, most are only on chapter two.  This is the sticking point, although my own solo game is moving on.   This is a minor point and if I were giving half points then I suppose Mice and Mystics would have got nine and a half out of ten.

Team games give a complete sense of achievement and all players feel that they have won or lost together.  Mice and Mystics delivers on this front in a brilliant way and in through a well-crafted story.  It’s played across beautifully detailed board and supported with superb artwork.

Give Mice and Mystics a go and enjoy the wonderful world rodent adventuring.  So pick up your coin shield, tighten you old shoe leather armour, roll up the scroll of levitation and scurry forward into the dark.  

Player Aid 1: TableTop (Web Series)

This is the first of my short ‘Player Aids’.  This short blog is designed to give gamers a chance to get a bit more information about gaming.  Whether it be a link to a website that gives lots of information about games or a website that sells unique gaming tools to pimp up your games; I’ll be writing up some thoughts on some features that I think are worth sharing.

Name:  TableTop

Weblink:  http://tabletop.geekandsundry.com/

Summary:  TableTop is a Web Series created by Will Wheaton and Felicia Day and is published on Felicia Day’s YouTube channel ‘Geek and Sundry’.  Presented by Will Wheaton, each episode brings together a group of Will’s celebrity friends and people of the board game industry to play a board games and show YouTube viewers how they work.

Uses:

This web series has been both hugely entertaining and informative.  As a result of watching Will’s show a number of games I didn’t know about have been added to my overly long list of games to ‘acquire’. 

Each show follows the same format starting with Will introducing the basics of the game that he is playing that week.  Then he and his group of fellow players play the game in an edited half an hour show.  At the end the winner receives an award for winning and the losers are left to sit gloomly on the losers couch. 

The games he presents are varied, from board to card games and cover a range of different themes.  During the shows, rule references pop to support the explanation of what is happening.  Each show gives a really good insight into what the game is like and how it plays out over the course of an evening.  As the show is edited to half an hour they are easy to watch, without investing too much time in seeing the whole game from beginning to end.  There are a couple of games that have been given a two episode feature due to the length of game play but generally each episode covers one game.  

Every other episode is a ‘Gag Reel’ and there are extended interviews with the guests on separate Youtube videos. 

Currently in its second season, Will Wheaton has presented 18 games in the first season and is currently on the tenth game at the time of writing this in its second season. 

The following is a full list of the games in the order of the shows as they appear on TableTop:

Season 1:

Smallworld

Settlers of Catan

Tsuro, Zombie Dice & Get Bit

Ticket to Ride (The Board Game Compendium: Review  1)

Munchkin

Castle Panic

Gloom

Fiasco

Say Anything

Elder Signs

Dixit (The Board Game Compendium: Review 5)

Wits & Wagers

Pandemic (The Board Game Compendium: Review 7)

Last Night on Earth

Star Fluxx

Alhambra

Chez Geek

Dragon Age

Season 2:

Formula D

The Resistance

Once Upon a Time

King of Tokyo

Forbidden Island

Star Trek Catan

Star Wars: X-Wing

Lords of Waterdeep

Shadows Over Camelot

 

International TableTop Day:

On March 30^th 2013 Will Wheaton introduced the first ever ‘International TableTop Day’.  The purpose  of the day was to bring people together for a day of gaming.  There were thousands of private events at people’s homes and hundreds of public events at shops and gaming centres across the world.  Will Wheaton hosted a special live TableTop Day live streaming video to show more games being played and to talk about the events going on throughout the day.  I am hopeful that there will be a similar bigger event next year.  I am certainly hosting another event following the success of my own games day.  My brother won the Player of the Day trophy and a good uni friend of my won the coveted International TableTop Day Trophy for scoring the highest number of points over the whole day. 

Downsides:                          

There are really no major downsides to the web series.  The language at times is a little ‘blue’ which means watching the show needs to be done when younger ears are not around.  However that is part of the feel of the whole show which I recognise doesn’t want to make board games any more inaccessible than they sometimes appear to be. 

I’d like to see more shows with games featured , having to wait fortnightly for the next instalment is a little frustrating but it’s always well work the wait.

Overall:

A funny, useful and well-constructed insight into board games that you may not have come across before.  I’d recommend having a look at the videos for yourself, especially if you want to see more of on the games that I have reviewed already.

For me, watching people genuinely enjoying coming together and playing some really great games really bolsters the appeal of board gaming.

Click the link and have a look and let me know what you think.

Weblink:  http://tabletop.geekandsundry.com/

Review 7: Pandemic

This is the first co-operative game review that I have completed and in truth I couldn’t wait to complete it.  This game is brilliant to put it bluntly.  Any game that you can play as a team against the game itself, where you are all the winner or the looser gets a big thumbs up from me:

Name: Pandemic

Players: 2-4

Playing Time: 60 minutes

Suggested Ages: 13 and up

Awards: Numerous – most notably 2009 Spiel des Jahres Nominee & 2010 Australian Games Association Game of the Year

Game Setting:

Each player takes on the role a specialist who is trying to save the people of the world from four deadly viruses that are spreading through the major cities of the world.  Working together as a team the players must use their abilities to treat the viruses, share knowledge on how to find the cure and finally discover the four cures and save humanity.

 After the players have chosen their character cards are used to place cubes to represent the level of infection in certain cities around the world. 

The players are then dealt a hand of cards that form the starting point for finding the cures. 

Game Play:

On a players turn the first thing they do is take up to four actions.  These include moving around the board, either by moving directly between adjoining cities, taking a flight to a city from a card they hold in their hand, taking a flight to any city in the world from the city that they are at and matches a card in their hand or by travelling between research stations.  Each one of these costs an action.  As well as moving, players can carry out a number of other tasks for one action.  They can build research centres; find the cure for a virus by handing in 5 cards of the same colour, share knowledge but giving or taking a card from a player in the same city as them or treating the virus and removing a cube of the virus from the city that they are in.

Once the player has completed their four actions they then collect two cards and add it to their hand.

Finally the player completed the infection phase by seeing which cities are going to continue to be infected by their virus.

The players win Pandemic in only one way, they discover all four cures.  The players lose Pandemic in three ways!  The first is that there are no more cubes of a certain virus left when they need to be added to the board following the infection phase.   The second is if they have no more cards to draw from the supply deck to add to their hands.  The third is when there have been eight outbreaks of the viruses on the board.

During the part of a player’s turn when they are drawing cards to place in their hands, there are occasions when an ‘Epidemic Card’ is drawn.  This is what makes the game more challenging.  When this even occurs the player reviews a new city that is going to have three cubes placed on it.  Also the deck of cards that have been growing during the infections phase are then shuffled and placed back on top of the pile of infections cards.  The last step is to increase the infection rate.  The infection rate indicates how many cards are drawn from the infection deck when adding a cube to the board during the infection phase.

When a city has three cubes on it and a fourth is required to be added, an outbreak of that virus occurs.  All adjoining cities that received one cube of the virus and the outbreak marker is moved down one space.

To counter balance the difficulty of the virus each player’s character has a unique ability.  For example the Medic can remove all the cubes of one virus type in a city for one action rather than one action for each cube.  The Scientist by comparison is only required to hand in four cards at a research stations rather than five to discover a cure.  The Operations Expert can build research stations for free and Dispatcher can move other players as if they were their own.   Using these abilities effectively can make the difference between failure and success.  

My Score:

Game Play:  4/4

Components: 2/2
Replayability: 2/2
Theme: 2/2

Total: 10/10

 

My Comments:

This is firmly one of my favourite games.  Now that the artwork has been updated in a reprint this year the game, my opinion, now looks as good as it plays.  The reprint also comes with more characters given even more variants to the teams that can be set up.

What makes this game so good?  A host of reasons really.   The game is played as a team and so there is no feeling of any one person knowing that they are always going to lose.  The games is modern, it’s not set in the past, it doesn’t involve dragons or elves, castles or trains and so it has a setting  that most people can relate to.  The game has a great theme; who wouldn’t want to be part of the elite team that saves everyone from four deadly viruses spreading across the world? 

It’s a completely balanced game.  Even on the ‘introductory’ level where only four ‘epidemic’ cards are dealt into the player deck you’re not guaranteed to win.  I’ve found it’s still about a 50/50 chance of success just at this level.  The real brilliance comes when you’re sitting confidently in control of all of the viruses and then suddenly two cities outbreak and you find that while you’ve been busy in China and Japan you’ve turned your back on Washington, London and Essen where there is an explosion of the blue virus and no-one there to treat the disease.

There are three different levels of play with heroic at the top end where six ‘epidemic’ cards are dealt into the player deck.  I’ve yet to win a game at this level it’s that hard!

Inevitably you’ll get one or two people in the team who end up telling all the other players what they think needs to happen next and I’m trying to hold back from being that person (it has been known) and let the other players make the decision (even when I know it spells doom for mankind).

This is most definitely one for your Christmas list and I’m please to say that with the reprint it’s made its way into mainstream shops including Waterstones and Toys R Us.  This exposure should put it squarely into the hands of more families.  Just imagine the joy of Christmas afternoon when everyone is happy after the joys of the morning and then as a family you work together to save the world! Afterwards everyone then celebrates with mince pies and mulled wine!

If there are no other games from my reviews that you give a go, try this one.   It’s now an iOS app so you can give a try before even buying the board game (still buy the board game though – it’s far better than just looking at a screen).  Borrow a copy of the game if needs be and try it that way if you don’t want to commit, or even better, find one of us secret lot of gamers and ask us to let you give it a go with us!

Enjoy Pandemic and let me know what your thoughts are.

Review 6: Kingdom Builder

Kingdom Builder won Game of the Year (Spiel des Jahre) in 2012 and in my opinion deserved to do so.  It is one of the simplest games to play and teach but has high level of replayability due to its unique set up and points scoring system:

Name: Kingdom Builder

Players: 2-4

Playing Time: 45 minutes

Suggested Ages: 8 and up

Awards: Numerous – most notably 2012 Spiel des Jahres Winner

Game Setting:

Each player is trying to create a kingdom made up of growing settlements.  The aim of the game is to play settlements in the best position to score the maximum amount of points.    The board is made up of four segments which are placed as a rectangle but can be placed in any order and in any orientation.  On each board segment there is a special building that will grant players who build adjacent to it an additional ability on their turn.  Each board segment also contains a city which when players build adjacent to it score an addition 3 points at the end of the game.  Three points scoring are picked at random from a supply of different scoring criteria and are revealed to all of the players.   Each player is then given a card from the terrain supply ready to use on their turn.

Game Play:

Each player takes a supply of coloured wooden houses.  On their turn a player places three of their wooden houses on the board.

The placement of the house must be on the same terrain type as the card that they have in their hand.  Each house that is played must also be placed adjacent to an existing house on board.  The existing house does not have to be on the same terrain type as the card that is being used, however the house that is being played must still be placed on the terrain of the card.

When placing the buildings the player considers the three scoring cards that are on show to pick the best place to score.  For example if the ‘Miners’ scoring card has been chosen from the game the player will be looking to build as many houses as possible next to the mountain terrain type. 

Once the player has placed three houses the player then draws a new terrain card and play passes to the left. 

The special buildings on the board grant the players extra abilities, for example, the tower allows the player to build an extra house on the edge of the board, the harbour allows the player to move one of their existing houses to a water terrain space and the Oasis allows a player to place an extra house on a desert terrain space.

The game ends when the first player has placed all of their houses.

My Score:

Game Play:  3/4

Components: 2/2
Replayability: 2/2
Theme: 2/2

Total: 9/10

My Comments:

I’ve only recently dropped the score for this game down from 10/10 to 9/10.  It is a great game and I think a strong contender for first time players.  It is a really simple game to play.  Each turn you only have two actions, place the housed and then pick a new card.  The genius aspect to the game is the amount of variation.  There are 8 different board segments to choose from and they can be placed in a multitude of different combinations.  As each board segment has a different special building, the bonus actions change each game also.   Finally, with 10 different score cards and only three being selected each game, the strategy that is used to maximise the score changes. 

For me it’s this diversity to the game that makes it a solid game.  I think it’s better with more players because the terrain spaces on the board get filled up quicker which makes the scoring more challenging.

I’ve taken the game down a point from the maximum score and that’s due to the level of complexity.  For those people who are looking for a real challenge, this game is slightly limited.  The card you draw for the terrain type will tell you where to place your houses and this means your decision is limited.  For experienced gamers I see Kingdom Builder as being a filler game as I’ve not played it where it’s taken 45 minutes.  As long as the other players are planning their turn whilst they are waiting then the game is quite quick. 

The artwork is great and I love the fact that the terrain types do not conform to the normal;  Desert, Forest, Grassland, Canyon and randomly Flower Field!  It has a great feel and a depending on the scoring criteria, even the look of the kingdoms that the players create look different.  One game will have long sprawling settlements other will have one really large settlement and another will have lots of tiny settlements all over the board.

In my opinion it’s a game that people will go back to time and again and is relatively easy going of an evening.