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Bastille (2018) ReviewThe French Revolution is a period rich in events of the History of France. Yet, quite surprisingly, this is a subject that has not been too emphasized in the board game realm. Worse, the majority of the games dealing with this period come from foreign authors. A lack of interest or imagination for it ? Not enough good mechanisms to approach the best of this atmosphere? A lack of interest in this period? A difficulty to treat this event playfully? I admit that when I saw that the theme of the game Bastille was about this period, neither one nor two my curiosity was peaked. Bastille therefore offers to dive a few weeks before the events of the capture of the famous French prison (and the shift from a society led by royalists to a society led by the bourgeoisie). Each player embodies a revolutionary faction that is preparing for this famous day. But for that, you will need support, weapons, money, recognition of the land. Bastille is a game released in 2018 by Christoph Behre published by Queen Games. The arts are by David Cochard. He shows us that he can have a fairly wide range of art styles. The game's turns are played in two stages. At first, each player has four influences tiles. Everyone will play their tiles on the different places available. Each location can only accommodate a certain number of tiles on the locations indicated above. Once the spaces are filled, no one can no longer settle in this area. Each slot can only receive one tile. As soon as all the players have played their tiles, you’ll move on to the second phase. The second phase corresponds to the resolution of the actions. This is done in the order of the spaces. Then, depending on the power of the tiles influences present and in case of a tie, it’s the leftmost tile, the players will perform the actions indicated on the different places. Queen Game takes the opportunity to make you travel through a revolutionary Paris. You’ll start with the Bank of Paris. This allows you to make money based on the power of your played influence tile. The first player to resolve the action receives the right to become the first player. Continue with the Notre Dame de Paris. This area helps to improve a tiles influence for the players. The tile played on it is replaced by a tile of higher level. This action is essential and knowing how to use it at the right time without spending too much time can tip the game. The bonus for the highest token is a victory point. Heading this time Versailles. Here, at each turn will appear tiles offering two possible bonuses to the players who have settled there. The first player will choose first, the second will take what is left. Each bonus varies depending on the tile revealed. To infiltrate the capital, nothing better than to prepare for an invasion from below. The "visit" continues therefore through a forced passage of the Catacombs. There are only two slots available. The first player to perform the action will put two henchmen in a bag, the second will put only one. These goons occupy a special place in the game and will be used during the scoring. Neglecting them can make you lose the game. Place Louis (named after the french "good king") is a zone of perpetual conflict between the various factions. It is here that you will recruit influential characters found in the form of cards. The characters are divided into three groups: peasants, soldiers and nobles. Each card has different characteristics but also a purchase cost which is more or less important. To recover a card, you have to pay for it in gold. This value is lowered depending on the influence tile played. Example: You play a tile worth 3 to buy a soldier with a gold cost of 7. You will then pay only 4 gold to acquire him. In addition to the number of flags, diamonds, crowns and victory points, the characters have a weapon box. If it is white, the character is already armed. If the box is red, you must acquire a corresponding weapon before the end of the game at the risk of losing points. There are also monks who will serve as a joker in the composition of groups. The choice of characters is important especially to best resolve the objectives on mission cards. Recovering the right cards before others can quickly becoming crucial. To finish the visit of the Paris of the time, we propose to you come to the main location and recover weapons within the Bastille itself. Capital building but mostly symbolic, this royal prison is full of ways to arm your faction. But the places are expensive. The first to resolve the action will move their marker the same number of its influence tile plus a bonus space. The second will advance only the amount of the influence expended. The further a player is on the track, the more victory points they will score. Giving them the priority on the choice of weapons available. Apart from the last player (who will collect only one), the others will win two weapons among those visible. The positioning on the track of the Bastille is very important. Neglecting can cost you the game. But that's not all. There remains a last place to visit. Center of power after the king, the States General where the wealthiest members of the three orders of the Kingdom gather. This place allows players to collect mission cards. These objectives resolved at the end of the game will more or less guide you during the game, especially in the choice of recruitment of character cards. Fulfilling its objectives brings you a lot of non-negligible points. But it's not so easy. Each mission is in duplicate. Thus, the competition will be even more enraged between the players, especially in the choice of buying characters. At the end of a turn, players check who has the most flags. These are present on the character cards. The player with the most number of flags will win the end-of-round bonus. The second player with the most flag wins the second prize. Without changing the course of the game, the flags are absolutely not to neglect. If you let a player recover all the bonuses alone, it will give them a significant advantage. Always be careful not to get too far behind. The game is played over eight rounds. Half way through the game, so at the end of the fourth round, you’ll proceed to a first scoring round according to the characters and their icons on your possession. Five henchmen will also be taken from the bag. The player, whose color matches, has the right to choose a bonus from those still available. Players also collect weapons based on their position on the Bastille track. A second count will take place at the end of the game, ie at the end of the eighth round. To be honest, I was really pleasantly surprised by this game. Mixed between the game of influence and placement of workers, Bastille is a surprising game that hits the mark. When you read the rules, you have the impression of being faced with a basic game. And yet, once inside, one quickly realizes the constant tension. Every decision is important and the timing to achieve it is paramount. It is necessary to know how to moderate each action, without necessarily arriving too late, because speed is a key notion in the game. For example, Notre Dame is an important zone in order to increase the value of your tokens of influence. But if you perform this action too often, you will only waste time. You need to know how to juggle the need to increase your capacity for action without unnecessarily losing action in other places on the board. Having the biggest is not always the best way to win. As you can see, a lot of actions are needed. But of course, you can not do everything. You will try to balance your choices to achieve as close a possible to a perfect route. The choice of your recruitment is one of the most important mechanisms of the game. Guided by your mission cards but also the desire not to distance themselves from the flags, not to mention the fact of winning victory points, the choice of cards will be done drastically. Choosing first becomes the important thing, but it will not be so easy. Places will quickly become expensive. Do not forget to equip your characters well. Getting into the Revolution without being armed can be very costly. Indeed, you will lose points based on the number of unarmed characters you have at the end of the game. And the negative amount increases very quickly. Bastille is not a game that invents or reinvents its style of play. However, it works particularly well. The game has easy-to-understand rules that read very quickly. Once read, do not go back. The iconography is extremely clear. Everything is indicated on the board precisely and efficiently. Everything is fluid and the rounds are linked precisely. The game manages to create a special atmosphere, a constant tension between the players but also between themselves. The choice of actions seems simple but is rather complex in the sense that everything is important. Players must not leave large margins for others, try to respect your initial plan while adapting constantly to the evolution of the game. The interaction is ubiquitous. At any time, a place where one thought to be immune in the choice of its action can switch following the choice of an adversary having a stronger value of influence. One can regret finally, as often in this type of game, the absence of a strong theme. The illustrations, and the way the game unfolds, try to get as close as possible to this period and get us into it. Unfortunately, we are still a bit too close to the German style gameplay. However, this does not spoil the fun. This is thanks to a dynamic and steady pace from the beginning to the end of the game. The number of players also limits the possibility of the release but for the more adventurous, a variant two players exist on Boardgamegeek. Bastille offers a non complicated game at the level of rules but with a hidden depth that is strongly pleasant. There are several ways to score points, several ways to play, ensuring strong replayability. The game does not seem to script and varies a lot from one game to another depending on the situation. It mixes well known mechanisms while managing to keep the players in suspense. More than a nice surprise, a real success for its category that I can only advise you. Technical note 9/10 Everything is legible and everything is clearly indicated on the board making everything extremely fluid. The rules are short but well written. The material without being exceptional, fulfills its role well. However, we regret the lack of plastic bags or efficient storage in the box. My score BGG 8/10 (Very good, enjoy playing and suggest it) A very nice surprise. A game that despite a classic coating offers constant tension. The interaction is ubiquitous. The game manages to provide an effective mix of mechanisms while remaining fluid and simple. A family / family+ game more than deserved to benefit from more exposure. We can regret the fact that the theme passes a little in the background despite an obvious willingness and high level illustrations. Combined Rating 8.5 / 10 And now it's up to you to play.
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Camp Grizzly (2013) Review We are in 1979. As every year, the Grizzly Camp opens its doors. You do not know the famous Grizzly holiday camp? It’s picturesque wooden cabins, lake, fun activities, Jody and his guitar, the serial killer, ... wait what? But that's not on the brochure? Ah yes anyway, I will have to look out for that next time I want to send my children on vacation ... Good ... Good luck children. Dad believe in you! Camp Grizzly immerses you right in the heart of the most famous Slasher and the ubiquitous references of Friday the 13th. The game was financed by Kickstarter in 2013. It was created by Jason Topolski and published by Ameritrash Games. Because of the theme and the general atmosphere of the game, this is not a title directed towards the youngest ones. Camp Grizzly allows you to embody monitors of the famous colony. While everything seems to be going well, a mysterious teddy bear killer (yes, you read that right) is here. Nobody seems to be able to compete with him and no one is safe. He kills his victims indiscriminately, whether they are monitors, visitors or charming children. Fortunately, you will be able to try to fight against him thanks to ingenious plans, straight out of your imagination (horror films you know, no?). During the game, you will have to make some choices to try to survive as much as possible. In the face of a relentless killer the best survival is often to think of your own survival. But will you sacrifice the others for this? This is a cooperative game. You win together or you lose together. You will have to act in harmony to succeed, at best, in repelling the incessant attacks. If unfortunately some of you disappear (it's sad ... but you must see the bright side of things), it will open up more spaces and with luck, Otis (the name of the killer) will be slowed down. The installation of the game is done fairly quickly. Each player chooses a monitor. Each monitor has the same number of health points but different abilities. Camp Grizzly is proud of its instructors. Let me introduce you to our team: the beautiful Jody and his guitar, C.J. our local sports champion, the beautiful Tracy who is ... Tracy, Kevin the lifeguard, the nature specialist Sherry and the talented Karen. With them, your children will have a summer they will not forget. Here, there are no figurines. The characters are represented by standees. Each player also starts with Survival cards. The principle of the game is simple. Four ideas are available to you. To survive, one must succeed in bringing one of these to fruition. Final cards represent the plans of the ideas.You can choose to escape to a Van, take the boat, call for help at the Ranger Tower or hide in the barn. Each plan consists in first finding specific objects that are scattered throughout the camp. Of course, you do not know exactly where they are. You have only a vague idea but there is always the possibility that it is something else. It's up to you to find them. Once you have found the three required tiles, you start the second phase of the game: the final step. Just like in a movie of the genre, you thought you won but the evil is everywhere. Once the objectives are in hand, you then return the chosen card. The finale gives new activities to complete in order to really survive this night. It is only at the end of these new goals that you will know whether you have won or not. Not so easy to escape the horror. The game starts with the monitor. Starting with the first player, each instructor performs their turn normally before moving on to the next. The first thing you can do is move yourself. The number of possible spaces is indicated on your profile. You can of course move where you want if you can. For example, you can only go to a locked bungalow if you have the key. Or if you go through a box with Otis, he takes the opportunity to try to hit you. Not nice the ugly sir. But movement points are also used for actions. You can also, during your turn, pay a travel point to pick up objects, equip weapons, save campers (if it is possible), move you in the side roads (faster but it is at the risk of your losing). Once your movement point / action quota has been spent, you will need to draw the first Cabin card. Sometimes it's good things like weapons, objective pieces or objects to better heal or defend yourself. Other times, these are not always favorable events. Otis can sometimes take the opportunity to break in and eat you (uh!) or attack you. Once the card is resolved, we move to the end of your turn. You may be able to equip items or weapons that are in your backpack, pick up things on your space, or trade with other monitors. Then, once all the heroes have played, comes the turn of Otis. Otis is a good guy. Very resistant, very sporty, very muscular, very many things but he is clearly not nice. Nobody really knows who he is, but he is not there to butter the sandwiches. Otis has only one goal: to make a massacre and exterminate you. Of course, his primary target is the animators of the colony. But if by the way, some children slide on his blade, it will not disturb him too much. He's like that Otis. A good guy who does not speak much but who acts quickly and well. Otis moves the number indicated on his reference card. Sometimes he will be hidden in the woods and may come to a place where no one is waiting for him. Otis still has some ethics. He primarily targets spaces with the fewest people. Then, in case of a tie, the space with the monitor who is most scared (which happens ... often). Still equal? He then heads for the most wounded. After that it's random. He does not waste time scratching his head. If by chance, he goes through another players space, he stops and tries an attack (sacrificing a child or a cameo to slow him down and all that ...). Once he has played, you'll start again a turn, if there are any players surviving. Otis does not worry about locked doors, he smashes everything if necessary. I often told you that Otis was trying to make an attack. Indeed, it is not necessarily automatic. If the killer stops on a box of a cameo, well there no contest, he goes directly there. By cons, if a monitor is in the corner he can try to protect everyone in the household. A monitor has the choice to fight Otis or run away while panicked. If the facilitator has a weapon they can try to push Otis while fighting. For this he rolls a die, and another player rolls a die for the teddy bear killer. If the defender's number is higher, the attacker is pushed back. Otis disappears in the woods. If not, all the characters in that cabin take damage. If a monitor becomes panicked, not only do they take as much damage as Otis's strength, but they also have to run as many squares as their panic value. The teddy bear is invincible and immortal, you have no hope to kill him. There is another thing to note about this surprise guest, Otis. The more people he kills, the more powerful he becomes. The sight of blood seems to have an invigorating effect on him. As the number of dead on the corpse trail increases, Otis will become powerful. He can increase his movement and his attacks with more and more effective dice (d4-d10). If the number of victims reaches thirteen, you have no hope. The game ends with a beautiful defeat. The game components are not consistent. On the other hand, everything breathes the theme. Cards, ambient black humor, illustrations, texts, abilities. Camp Grizzly plunges us with pleasure directly into a Slasher style films. This is also one of the reasons why the game should not be put in all hands. Violence and sexual allusion may be present throughout the game. Otis is relentless. You can not kill him, just run away. And again only if you can do that. Weapons are scarce and time is running out. This constant pressure is really well transcribed. At every moment the fear of failure invades us. The play area is ultimately quite small. Nobody is safe and there is no hiding place. Otis can also arise at any time. As a result, your decisions will have an impact on the future. And at the same time, this desperate atmosphere allows players to embark on heroic actions. Sacrifice for the common cause or play individually and increase the risk of dying faster. There too, you can make groups of one and separate yourself with each new death. The ability to choose between the different plans is a good thing in terms of replayability. Even if in the first part of the game it comes down to not necessarily finding the identical objects, in the second part the final stage changes completely from one mission to another. And of course, you'll find all the "ingenious" plans that young victims try, as a last resort. A treat for those fans, with references and winks dissimilated everywhere in the game. The game is very heavily based on its theme. You have an allergy to randomness? Flee right away. Dice, cards,tokens face down, luck is everywhere. The game is however clearly enjoyable in its mechanics. Simple, there is no need to return to the rules, the explanation is done quickly like the immersion. The idea, for example of the choice between moving on longer safe roads or trying the adventurous shortcuts at the risk of getting lost is excellent and adds to the pleasure of the theme. Even if Otis is not played by a player, his performance is really well done. Simple, not superfluous. But it allows to feel the tension related to the chance of his appearance or his destructive force. You can very well say that you have time to spare, letting him move slowly and kill some NPCs on the way, thinking that it gives you time. However, remember that the more he kills, the more powerful he becomes. And the more powerful he becomes, the more he becomes unmanageable. Of course, do not expect a game with a huge dose of strategy. We are clearly in the Ameritrash style of play. Replayability is quite important as the game is hard to win. By cons, for those who are less fan of the theme, a certain repetitiveness can be felt once the main missions tried. For fans, you will enjoy playing and replaying. Camp Grizzly is above all a tribute to films of its genre. And with it, it's a success. Everything is there. Finally, one of the biggest faults is that it is very hard to find. I do not even speak of expansions. It's a shame because in the genre, it ranks among the best. Technical Score 8/10 The material of the game is functionable but nothing extraordinary. The atmosphere is well transcribed and there is a lot of winks or references to the genre. Everything has clear iconographie, despite a rule a little vague at times. My BGG Score 8.5 / 10 (Very good, enjoy play and would suggest it) The theme is omnipresent. Otis puts pressure on players who are constantly trying to escape death. The game is simple to play, easy to explain. Replayability is important if you love the theme. The difficulty is present, which is even more pleasant for a cooperative. Combined Score 8.25 / 10 Now it's your turn... a song of ice & fire miniatures game |
 | Designer: Cédric Lefebvre  |
This is a first impressions of a game that a friend owns. Therefore, I have never read the rules and will not be using the correct terms of Space Gate Odyssey in this article. But this is the impression that I got from playing it. A game where you will be building a space station from a control center somewhere on another planet. And your goal is to populate other planets with your colonists, using a Stargate system. Beam em up, move em about and zap them out there. A worker placement, construction, puzzle, go forth and multiply game.
The games main mechanic is worker displacement. There will be a control room board depicting five rooms, each with a 3D table in it. Each room has its own action and each player has a number of scientists in each of these rooms. On the players turn they will take one of their scientists and move into another room to perform the action they wish to take. Each scientist in that room, of the same players color will be able to perform the action. Move a third scientist into the teleport room and you can teleport three groups of colonists onto your space station. Which can be great for you. It's a party in the teleport room. Woopie! But what the bummer will be is moving a scientist into a room where they are alone, meaning you perform the action only once.
And to add a downer to the bummer is if another player has three or four of their scientists in that room, they can perform the action on your turn as well. Three or four times, depending on their number of scientists. So you are basically allowing the other players a free pass to do what they want as well. This means you’ll have to plan your actions carefully and either space out to your scientists or group them together for powerful actions. At the same time you’ll need to think about if you want to help out the other players or not. This lends itself to a nice back-and-forth between the players and also lots of interaction in the game even when it’s not your turn.
Each player will have their own individual space station in front of them made up of a number of tiles. A teleport room will provide you with some colonists that will help build the station and colonize other planets. You’ll be expanding this space station with the help of your scientists in the control room, as one of the actions will allow you to draw tiles. Think of it as building an ant farm or creating a route for the lovable Lemmings (Oh No! pop). These tiles come in three different colors and have three different functions.
The functions include Teleporting rooms, where your colonists will arrive at your space station. Corridors, that when constructed will allow you to recruit more scientists in the control room, or robots (which are non-moving scientists) or upgraded scientists (which have the power of doing an action twice). And finally for lack of a better turn, the Stargate tiles, which when half full of colonists will zap them to one of the planets chosen at random at the beginning of the game. The color of the tiles is very important as you build your labyrinth of a space station. As three of the control rooms match those three colors. Moving a scientist into the green control room will allow one of your colonists to move from an adjacent tile into a green tile. Whether it be Corredor, Stargate or Teleport room. Again the more of your scientists in that room the more colonist can move about the space station.
The game seems to be about efficiently constructing a maze for your colonists to run around in and then finally get out of, to score you points on planets. And it does this, and I have found it interestingly enjoyable. But then you have the planets. Each of the planets are chosen at random at the beginning of the game and only a certain amount of planets are used per game. Each planet has its own way of being scored once they’ve been colonized. Some score you points just for the number of colonist you have on that planet. While others will score points for majorities on separate islands or sectors or if you were the first to reach a certain space on the planet.
There is an intriguing balancing system to the game, to stop runaway leaders. As your score goes up, the amount of colonists and scientists at your disposal goes down. You’ll be using these meeples to keep track of the tens of units of your score. This hurts a little when you have to use a colonist. But it hurts a great deal more if you have to remove a scientist from the control room.
There is also an added scoring section at the end of the game which can be adjusted by certain spaces on the planets. Placing a colonist on this special space will allow you to change two tiles on a track on the home planet. This track is the end of game scoring and you will score points on whether you have the most tiles on your space station of a certain color or if you have sets of colored tiles. And obviously each position on this track will have a different amount of points. Moving the green tile to the furthest right space will give the player with the most green tiles on their station, a large chunk of points. Building your entire station of green tiles might be great for those points, but will it be effective moving your colonists around?
Once a planet has its complement of colonists it is removed from the game and scored. And the Stargate moves on to another planet. If there are no more chosen planets left, the Stargate moves on to the home world and colonists which go through that Stargate will score points directly. When there are no more planets to explore and all the Stargates have been placed on the home world the game ends. You’ll do the final scoring which also includes a penalty for any open doors on your space station, a little like Galaxy Trucker (in space, everyone knows who left the door open). So constructing this in an adequate manner is important, not only to be efficient but also to be complete.
The game is small and cute but still takes up a lot of space. Control room, planets, piles of tiles, everybody's space stations sprawling everywhere. With mini meeple colonists which can be a little finicky and meeple sized scientists that have suits that they slip in and out of accidentally. It’s sad to say but it’s all a little bit too miniaturized. Yes the game takes up a lot of table space and fits nicely in a ticket to ride size box but it suffers with the finicky components. Plus there are very small icons on the space station tiles. This can sometimes lead to forgetting that you have a teleporter or a Stargate portal on the tile. And in a game where there is this much player into action, it would be useful to look across the table to see your opponents station and easily discover what they have built.
But apart from my slight component dislike, I really enjoyed puzzling this game out. As I have said the interaction between players keeps you fully engaged in the game. You are always constantly planning or doing something even when it is not your turn. There are different planets to use each time you play, and they work differently for the different number of players. You’ll hardly notice the art of Vincent Dutrait’s handy work, but you will notice the robots resemble Dr Who’s foes. It’s enjoyable to see your labyrinth space station, live and work how it’s supposed to work. A little bit like watching Simcity and seeing where the traffic jams are and where the freeways make traversal of the station fluid. This is a game that merits replaying, just to see the different types of planets and to try out different combinations of a space station.
tested - liked -want to play again
Catch The Moon (2018)
Let’s start by saying that dexterity games are not my bag, baby. Although I do own one, that I got as a christmas present many moons ago. Wobbally is it’s name and I find it amusing because it’s a tower constructed from coloured marbles. And like Jenga, you’ll need to remove one every turn, without knocking the tower over. I have adapted the rules from the different variations that came with the base game to create my own fun version. But, all in all, I don’t hold dexterity games with any great esteem. I prefer to use the muscles in my brain than the muscles in my finger tips.
So why am I reviewing a dexterity game?
Well, number 1) I have demoed this game a lot for Bombyx and have found it fun to teach and also amazing to see the smiles and strange structures created. And 2) I do find it an interesting and elegant little challenge.
The story for the game (yes, this is a dexterity game with a story) is that the moon is feeling sad and lonely. And you, the players, want to cheer him up by paying him a visit. The only way to do that is to stack up all the ladders you can find and climb on up, without knocking any ladders over. Doing so will cause the moon to cry. A sweet, poetic story. Cute and adorable for families, but also serves to explain a little bit about the rules.
Players are going to take turns rolling a die and then add a ladder to the existing pile of ladders. The die will dictate the restrictions to how you add your ladder. It may be allowed to touch only one other ladder, or maybe two. Then again, it may have to be the highest ladder in the structure. If after letting go of your ladder, if it falls or others fall or the ladder breaks the restrictions of the die, you make the moon cry. Boo-Hoo! By doing this, you’ll collect one of the seven wooden teardrops that act as points and timer for the game. The game will end when a player takes that final teardrop and they will also be eliminated from final scoring for making the moon very, very sad. Whaa-Haa! The remain player with the least amount of tears wins the game.
Simple rules that make for a quick explanation and then your friends at the coffee table can jump straight in and play. With its small box it makes it very transportable and great for taking on holidays or just round a friend's house. The box insert can even host the game It suggests that you remove the gamebase from the box and place the ladders inside the insert. But equally you could leave everything in the base and place the ladders in the lid.
Another thing that makes this game stand out is the fact that you can manipulate the other ladders by using your “chosen at random” ladder. Wiggling it into place. Tipping another stack of ladders one way, so that you can touch two ladders instead of three. But if something falls or touches the the table or the cloudbase, you end your turn and collect a tear. Before the next play continues to enlarge the structure. Yes, even if you know most of the ladders over, play continues as does the construction on the remains for your carnage. Keeping the game fluide and interesting. And then it comes down to that last tear, which is the game changer. Do you place your ladder in a simple fashion, or tempt fate...
It also has an elegant look to it. From the fluffy looking cloudbase that you stack the Salvador Dali style ladders, to the cloudbase itself. Which has various holes that you can place the starting ladders in to, therefore making the difficulty level for the start player a little bit more interesting, instead of giving them free reign of a simple placement. It is these ladders which are the key element to the strategy of the game. Admittedly, on my first game, I stacked the ladders in a very simple fashion. And totally missed the intricacies of sliding ladders in between other ladders or hooking them in such a way that created beautiful sculptures. Pictured in the last page of the Rulebook are examples of these beautiful types of combination of ladders and how to hook them together. This one page opened up the game to me.
The game is all about being careful and gracefully placing your ladders. Tempting fate and forcing players to use your previously placed ladder, which is not stable is amusing and satisfying when at least one ladder falls. Plus having a good idea about balance and gravity will help out play your opponents. And that's about it. A very simple dexterity game that has an underlying strategy and has a dreamlike elegance. After playing you may feel the urge to replay. That's one of the bonuses of a quick playing dexterity game I like this. As well as being a good physical dexterity game it is also a cerebral aesthetic game. The only thing missing is a larger version which you can place in your garden come the summertime and a few little variants, that will turn it into my favourite dexterity game.
| Technical score 9.5/10 Solid whimsical components compiled into a elegantly packed box. A well composed rulebook which tell a simple story of how to play. My BGG score 8/10 (Very good - enjoy playing and would suggest it.) It's no stairway to heaven or to making me like dexterity games. But it is light and fluffy with some nice twists in this genera. Easy to get anyone to play to pass a happy 5-10 minutes Combined score 8.75/10 Now it’s over to you... |
Alone (tested)
(Tested is a format that I use to give a first or second impression of a game. Therefore, this article is not a final review, as I like to know all the ins and outs of a game before I score it. And this should be treated as giving you an idea about the game.)
Dungeon Crawlers have always been a one sided affair. A team of gallant Heroes would stand off against one evil play or dungeon master and their minions. Alone turns that on it’s head and has a team of devious masterminds hinder a lonesome Hero from achieving their objectives. It’s a nice twist in the genera. Placing it is a sci-fi setting also makes it stand out from the other board game counterparts. Giving a fresh feel and making my wish that is had the Alien licence thrown in. Even Dead Space from EA games would have been nice too. But luckily, if you know nothing of these two titles, the game feels like it’s own beast.
Let’s start with the set up, which is a little time consuming as at first. The Hero player will need to choose what suit their character will don. Each suit has its own special ability, from the Medic Suit that lets you recover a life point and mind point, to the Captain Suit that lets you reroll a die in combat. Added with that, there is a detailed miniature of each suit to represent the Hero on the main board. And a nice nod to Dead Space, instead of creating a doctor character called Ash and captain called Sheridan. Another nice touch is that all the suit not chosen may possibly be used in the game as companions that you may encounter in the quest. As you can just play a basic game (which is what I have done twice) or from a scenario from the scripted campaign book (something I haven’t looked at yet). In a basic game, there is the random drawing of the three mission cards, that are the objectives of the Hero. Kind of like what Riply did. Set the self destruct, grab the cat and get out of Dallas.
Each mission must have a different destination, so if two are in the laboratory, for example, you would redraw until you have three different ones. Two of these missions are primary missions. One will offer an upgrade for the Hero while the other gives the Hero a penalty to one of their normal actions and a reason to get this neutralised. The Hero needs to complete one of these before they can go directly onto the final mission, and win the game. Final missions consist of escaping in a pod or killing a boss creature. The 21 mission cards give a good mix to the replayability of the game. And with this Kickstarter (coming back in February 2019), there were some bonus mission added too. The Hero will then fill up the data sheet/player board with tokens, recording life and mind point, round tracker, locations for missions and turn tokens.
It’s at this point that the Evil players will stroke their evil beards, then be able to start setting up, as they now need to generate the two levels of the dungeon. Sorry, spaceship map. These are two, double sided small boards, that have corridors and room spaces layed out in different formations. And the reason that the Evil players have to wait this long to set up is so they know what locations the Hero is searching for, as they have to place the room tiles onto the map. They’ll also choose which part of the ship the Hero wakes up in. Obviously, the further apart you can place the Heroes destination, the harder it is for them to complete their missions. After placing these locations strategically, you get to add few nastie creatures from your pool of worms, parasite, hybrids and cultists. And all this will be concealed behind a screen from the Hero player, until they discover it while exploring the dark desolate vessel. And the final thing the Evil players do before the game can begin is select two of four decks of card to play with. Fury, Speed, Terror and Traps. Each give a benefit to either combat, speed of your creatures, mind damage and damage in general. These cards are reaction card, because the Evil player doesn't really have a turn. It will be the Hero who takes all the actions. The only way that the Evil player can disrupt the Hero is to play a card that says you can play it if the Hero moves. Or operates something. Then... WHAM!
The game contains a vast amount of components, from boards, cards and tiles, to more tokens than you’ll ever need. Oh, and a handful of mini’s. In the games that I played, there were never been a swarm of enemies on the main map, which I believe justifies only having 23 minis in the game. They are well detailed and again, we have hardly used many in the games we have played, lending an air of “Alien”, and not “Aliens” to the game. There are some nice “in the box” trays that you can pull out and place next to you. This lessens the burden of sorting out bits from baggies and speeds the placement of everything on the table immensely. And your going to need a big table to play this on. As well as, situate the two sides in the right way, so all the Evil players can see the minimap and relay everything the Hero encounters onto a main map area. While having the Hero, not to far away, so they can see this main map and have space for the items they collect. Depending where the Hero goes and how ever far they go, this main map could take a vast amount of space, as it stretches out with each exploration. This is until the Hero swaps floors or more likely, at the end of each round. When a round ends, any parts of the map that are not in the Heroes line of sight, are removed. Making this a memory game for them. Luckily, there is a segment on their board that they can use to trace their steps, using some of the myriad of tokens at their disposal.
Now let’s get to the nitty gritty of the game play. The Hero will wake up in their location, not knowing where they are and have to complete two of three objectives to win. The Hero player will perform all the actions that you come to expect from a game of this ilk. Mainly move, fight, search and interact. With every action announced before it is performed, the Evil players then have the chance to play a reaction card and move the world around. Each card can be used in two ways. If the Hero player claims they are going to search, card marked with the search icon can be played against them. These may say that an item found is damaged and not working correctly. Or, while searching, a distant creature moves closer. Very “take that” in essence, but of course, very thematic at the same time. Hero and Evil players then do these actions in the order indicated on the card and then it’s the Heroes next turn. Do this eight times and it then it’s the end of the round.
There is a limitation of two cards maximum that can be played each turn. Because bad shit doesn’t happen in one chunk, unless your me. It is spaced out. Building up to the climatic finally. And depending on your playing style, you could create the classic “little bumps in the night” up to the “mass attack.” Or mix it up with a loud, aggressive attack in the intro to shock your Hero and then recoop before the final onslaught, like a modern horror film. These cards go onto a track above the Hero board. Once the track is full, no more cards can be played. This has another interesting limiting device, as if two cards are played on a turn, one of those cards if placed horizontally to take up two spaces, filling the track faster. But you may have stunted the poor Hero enough to justify this risk. Filling up the track will unfortunately stunt you as the Evil players. At the end of every round, a collection of danger tokens are given to the Evil players, depending on the number of spaces left open on this track. These danger help the Evil player immensely. They active a bonus power on the reaction cards, if they are played when the Hero is in a zone with a danger token. As well as give a bonus to combat.
Now I mentioned a second use for these cards. You can spend one or two of them to spawn or move one of your existing creatures. Again, these cards go onto the track, clogging the amount of actions, you as Evil players can take. But this is a nice way to mitigate bad cards in your hand. Discarding them, so to speak. Every movement and spawn will have to be communicated to the Hero. Whether it be a “Sluuurping” sound, 4 spaces from their west or a “Haunting Gurgle” from the other floor. And all the while, the Evil players will be trying to communicate with their team, in code. Pointing. Humming. Making words up. As your not allowed to see the other players cards and you don’t want to tell the Hero what you have planned. But you want to convey the plans you have concocted in your head to the rest of your team.Giving some interesting aspects to the Evil teams play. Unless you are playing ALONE. This is a nice roll reversal on the discussion front from games like Descent, where the heroes talk about how to take out the tribe of goblins.
So with the Hero taking actions, the Evil players occasionally interfering with those actions. They are also responsible for doing the bookkeeping of the game. They adjust the hidden mini map whenever they or the Hero does something. They also update the main map for the Hero to see where they are and what’s about. Whenever a unseen creature spawns or move, they inform the Hero or move them if they are visible, while making strange noises to insight fear. All this storytelling is meant to enhance the Hero players experience. And I kind of felt that after two times playing on the Evil player team, this game is exactly that. The Hero is playing a game and the Evil players are reading the story. Although playing as the Evil player made it easy to explain the rules to both side...While playing. Which is a bonus.
For our Hero, they are having to use the items that they have collected. They are having to use their memory, to map out the ship. They are mainly going to have to use the actions wisely, because there are not many of them. Eight actions per round and only four round, which is enough to move and map out the entire ship, but you’d fail the mission. But our Hero has a little bonus in adrenaline tokens that can be used on a turn, to either heal a point of damage or go into bullet time. This lets the Hero perform two actions instead of one and prevents the Evil player from interfering with a reaction card during those actions. A little advantage for Mr No-Friends. This can be very useful when scanning for a location, in which the Evil player will tell you how many spaces away that room is and can’t react, which will allow them to lie about this information. Or even where a monster is. Knowing when to switch lights on and in which direction is also important. As the ship is in total darkness and the darkness is your enemy. It makes the creatures attacks stronger and it also makes you crap your pant. If ever a creature jumps out on you in the dark, you can kiss you mind points goodbye. Knowing when to search and after you have found an item, do you upgrade it, burning a component from another item you own? Which is again thematic and cool. And should you fight or run? Running can be a good option, as time is against you. But fighting is also a bonus. Defeating two of the same type of creature gives you a special ability. Seeing a door means there is a room. Could it be the one the Hero needs? And will there be any surprises behind it? Lots of choice for the Hero and tons of good ideas in the design that seem to balance out nicely.
Lorenzo Silva is fastly becoming a designer who’s input in any title seems to be a fresh twist to any genera of game. From Steam Park to Dragon Castle, there is always some little nuance in the rules that I like. And the same is true with this co-design here. There is a lot more to the game that I can explain here, like the combat dice that have three results. Hit, miss and a possible hit, depending if it’s dark or light. Some many nice little ideas that convey the sensation of one of the greatest horror films ever, but I’ll leave that for a final review. Everything I encountered in the game was thematic and fitted in this world of lost in space. Ever rule and mechanism, while being slightly chunky and clunky, fitted into the experience of the game. And I’m sure with more plays that it will get smoother, and timing issues will disappear, like a xenomorph out an airlock. As I mentioned earlier, this may feel one sided, where the Hero is playing a game and Evil players are story telling, but I still haven’t played as the Hero to confirm this. And I have played with two different groups, and I have trouble getting a feel for a game while teaching it. But so far from what I have played...
Tested - Liked - Want to play again soon
(Just needs a cracking soundtrack to play with ;) wink)
Cuzco - Tested (2018)
(Tested is a format that I use to give a first or second impression of a game. Therefore, this article is not a final review, as I like to know all the ins and outs of a game before I score it. And this should be treated as an giving you an idea about the game.)
Tile placement and world building is the name of the game here. Just like in Carcassonne, you and the other players at the table will be generating a landscape, from which you will profit in the form of points. But so will the others, using the stepping stones that you have already created to boost their scores.
Cuzco is the 3rd in the “Mask Trilogy” from Kiesling and Kramer, that has been rejuvenated by the team at Super Meeple. Although this game has not kept the same name of Java, it still has a small component upgrade just like Mexica and Tikal had before it. And having never played any of these game before, I will be coming at this with a fresh perspective. I can’t tell you if the games rules have been changed or improved, but I can obviously see that the has been a facelift done on the temples and meeples, that are physical improvements to the aesthetics of the game. And man, the game looks more and more beautiful as the game develops. So let's talk about the game.
As an Inca dignitary, you’ll spreading out your tribe over virgin soil to cultivate and develop the villages you construct into cities. Constructing temples will earn you prestige points as well as being the tribe that offers the most gifts to the gods at a temple, when a festival is held there. Irrigating ponds to water crops will also give big points too.
The land on the main board will terraform very quickly as each player has six, sometimes seven actions points to use on their turn, if they decide to use one of three bonus tokens. Most of your action points will be use to add a tile to the board. You’ll have a personal reserve of special tiles, made of one and two hex’s, but you’ll mainly draw from the general pool. This pool consists of a three hex tiles, each has one village hex while the others are fields. You can place these on any of the spaces of the main board and even go off the main board, as long as one of the hex’s of the tile sits in a space. Which is an interesting prospect that can change the game, when you think all is lost in the closing stages of play. Tiles can also be stacked, giving you a 3D terrain, that is not only pleasing to look at, but also gives the games main strategic mechanism. Connecting the village sections of tiles together, make a village bigger. The bigger the village, the bigger a temple can be constructed inside it, transforming the village into a city. Which mean the architect of this monument reaps a bigger chunk of prestige points.
But to be able to construct, you need to have control of the village. Having one of your Incas on the highest village tile, gives you this control. And it’s this control mechanism that is the main strategic mechanism I mentioned earlier. Adding an Inca of your colour to the board will cost an number of action points, depending if they enter the map from the forest side of the board or the mountain side. Which doesn’t sound like much, but as the game goes on, the Incas will stop entering from the cheaper forest side of the board and start coming from the action point eating, mountain side. As it may be quicker or cheaper in action point spending to get your Inca to where you want them. Your Incas can move about freely on one type of terrain, field or village. But as soon as you cross over from one type to the other, that eats up an action point. Seen as your opponent's Inca’s will block routes, you may have to weave in and out between them. Or it may be more beneficial to move one you placed earlier to get to where you're going. Having your Inca of the highest level tile in a village, gives you the right to construct a temple, or enlarge one that is already there. Giving the 3D meaning to the game and leaving you fighting for this higher ground. Or terraforming for.
Building costs an action, but will give you those much needed points. The larger the village, the larger the temple you can construct. And the stone like pieces of the temple components look stunning as you build here, there and everywhere. Adding depth to the board, with its colours and shape, making for a easy reference in the game. As do the little flame tokens that are place on top, when a festival is held there. With the increments of the temples at 2/4/6/8/10, which also tie in with the village size, you will find yourself following a pattern on each of your turns. You’ll start by making the village sections as vast as you can, getting an Inca to the higher ground of said village, before finishing your last action on the construction. And possibly hold a party after, gaining bonus point. See, burning the candle at both ends does pay off…
Then the next player will come along, enlarger that city, insert an Inca and add levels to the temple on their turn. Receiving a larger chunk of points than you did previously. Maybe have a better party than you did too! Before the player after them, maxes out the city, sending the temple to its highest level and parties like it’s 1999. Which at first will make you think that this is just a rinse and repeat game. And it can be that for lazy players. Or you could “PLAY THE GAME.” It’s always advisable to get in the other players way, while helping yourself to the largest piece of cake. That’s where the pleasure of the game comes. Placing tiles out that make your opponents think “what are you doing!” Or getting to a temple, just to finish it off, amassing the largest score possible. Even block main routes with you Incas, forcing other players to use more actions to get to where they want to go. And even just simply, laying the foundations for your next turn. And even though there is this slight nastiness between players, it is hard to see, but occasionally felt.
Many Inca’s in the same village may jussel about to get the privilege to build. As ties can be a frequent occurrence. If players are joint on the highest level, the deciding factor goes to the one who has the next highest Inca. So on and so on, meaning a village may be swarming with players Inca’s, which can be a good and bad thing, as a village can be cut into parts. A strategically placed tile can replace that one village hex with a field, making that once larger city/village into two smaller ones. Again, having a Inca in the right place can play havoc on this possibility, retaining this man made settlement in it’s form.
Yes, villages and cities can be reduced as well as be enlarged, as long as there is only one temple in that zone. And as long as the tile placement rules are followed. What’s that? More rules? Well, nothing overly complicated. But something else to carefully plan as you play. If you play a tiles on top of another, it can not stack in the same way as the one beneath it. So in the case of a three hex tile being played, it can not be directly placed on top of another of the same size. Meaning that it has to be placed on top of different tiles. Although placing a smaller tile on top of a larger one is permitted. This prevents a back and forth of, “this was a feild, now a village, now a field, now a village…” And lends itself to a deeper way of thinking, as the tiles need to sprawl out and not stack like a two year old stacks the same size Lego blocks together. This cuts down on the “I’ll just place these willy-nilly on the board” moments that unthinking players do. You may find that you will have to place two or more other tiles on the board before placing the one that you need to fulfill your dream. As you can see, there is a little more to this game than in other tile placement games, due to this 3D aspect. As 1) being higher allows you to build temples and basins, 2) let’s you shape the map and 3) make for a sexy tabletop experience.
Not only can you build temples, cities and villages. Small and large basins of irrigation water can be created. These can gain you a small or large chunk of points in one fail swoop, if you pay attention. These basins can only be created on the board itself and never on top of tiles already placed. If while placing tiles, you leave a hole of empty board spaces, totally surrounded by tiles, for an action you can transform them into these water pools. Collecting three points for each single irrigation tile placed. That can sometime be a large chunk of points. Again, as long as you are have the highest Inca adjacent to this body of water when you build it, you will get these points. So being careful not to give points away or lose them in a tie is always a think to look for.
As I mentioned early, the game can follow a repetitive formula of, place a few tiles, move an Inca into a village, build the temple, score point. Added to this simple pattern is the prospect to earn extra points by using a free action at the end of your turn, holding a festival in a city. Any city on the board that you have an Inca in, can be used. If there are other players, with Incas in the same city, they also can participate in this mini game. Players will start the game with a few cards in their hands, depicting one or two gifts for the Gods. More cards can be collected by spending one or two action points to receive one or two cards, each turn you take. And these are always blind from the draw pile. With only three types of gift on these cards, you could draw the same thing every turn. That can be a benefit and a curse where festivals are concerned.
Some of these cards are spilt, holding two different gifts, so they can be used as one or the other. The discard pile will dictate which gift or gifts the Gods hold as the flavour of the month. These images are of statues and masks, but it’s the colour of the background that makes them easy to distinguish. When a player holds a festival in a city, they play a card that has the same colour background as the card on the discard pile. Each other player, in the same city may also offer the same gift to the Gods. And so on around the table, until all players are fed up with giving or can not give any more. That’s when you count to see which player has offered the most gifts. That player then earns some bonus points, depending on the size of the temple and if there were other players at the festival. Before all played cards are discarded and a new card from the draw pile is place on top of the discard pile, create the next fashion that the Gods wish the Incas to follow. This mini game breaks up the play a little and adds a little layer of marzipan to the already nice simple icing covered sponge cake. You may feel that wasting an action to draw a card is a pointless affair, but it is one you should not forget. Festivals can be frequent occurrences and other players will get fat on the juicy points that are left behind. No sugar rush included. And after the festival is finished, a touch is lit on that temple, signifying that another festival can not be had there until the temple has been developed to a higher level.
The game comes to an end when the general pool of tiles is empty. From then on, each player has one more turn to scrape up any point that they can get, plus move their Incas to prominent positions in each city. Because after you have used your last action point, it is time to do your final scoring. A simple case of looking at each of the cities and seeing which ones you have control over. Remember, control is the Inca that is on the highest level in that city. For each city you have in your control, you win the points indicated by the size of the temple there. As you can see, you may have control of a city at the end of your turn, giving you points, but then the next player can then take control, scoring from the same city. This makes for an intriguing last turn. You may just try to take as many points as you can or try to make it hard for others to claim control over the cities, by dividing them or moving one of your Incas to a hex, that makes players spend more actions than they should. Oh, so sweet, when you can reduce someone's potential final score from 55 points to only 30.
All in all, this is my type of euro style game. The rules are relatively simple, with a few exceptions. Like Carcassonne is simple to explain and then you get to the Farmer scoring rule. But once you get your head around all of the little intricacies and start playing, you’ll take to it like a duck to water. This is a game that could be classes as just one of those classic euros, with very little variety and small replay value because it’s the same thing over and over. Much like Splendor and Pastiche, games that I can see myself playing many time, adapting my strategy and learning new ways to get the most points. This is definitely a game that an experienced player will walk away with, in regards to final score. And there is no sign of luck helping you. You’ll just have to use your keep eyesight, imaginative perception and mathematical calculation to be a master at this game.
Tested - Liked - Want to play again soon
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