tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50007795326852498672024-03-13T19:00:28.564-04:00Boards & BrewsAn Awesome Board Game Couple in the Indianapolis Area, reviewing board games weekly and drinking exceptional beverages. Want to join us? Email us at boardsandbrewsblog@gmail.comBoards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-79514577021049276002017-07-30T18:06:00.001-04:002017-07-30T21:29:28.373-04:00Origins 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Well, we're finally back after taking a little break from the blog. Our schedules have become more complicated in the last several months and other priorities in our lives have taken precedence. After driving a few hours through many cornfields, and then followed by a few more hours of cornfields, we arrived at Origins once again in Columbus Ohio to celebrate the 5 best days of board gaming. This is our second convention of the 2017 season and this is when things start to pick up before continuing on to the massive convention that is GenCon. As always, GAMA has delivered and improved upon a few things this year and just like last year, the convention went exceptionally well! From June 14th through the 18th, The Greater Columbus Convention Center welcomed thousands of guests from all over to bask in the strategic, fun, and family focused environment of tabletop gaming that Origins has to offer. The theme this year was dragons so we anticipated large groups playing D&D. Come with us once again as we venture fourth within the walls of the Columbus Convention Center for one of the best board gaming conventions there is. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Claire and I were very fortunate this year to meet up with family and bring them with us to Origins. They are fortunate to have such a great convention right in their back yard, and we were very fortunate to stay with them while in Columbus. It's just as enjoyable when you can introduce and play new games with people that are new to the board gaming hobby. The power of tabletop gaming doesn't just create a more sociable environment for gamers, but it provides a strong bond for families to share with one another. We enjoyed bringing them to their first board gaming convention and we hope when we return again next year, that they will be right by our sides.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Anytime we stumble upon any newer two player games we love to report about it. Granted Holmes is not a new game. It was released in 2015, but it's a new game to us that is essential for this blog. Holmes is a card-drafting, set collection and worker-placement card game where you have 7 days of investigation <i>(7 turns) </i>to utilize character extracts from the books of Arthur Conan Doyle that will appear in London. During each players turn, you will take 3 actions utilizing the allotted tokens at your disposal allowing multiple moves from one character card to another, understanding that each player cannot have two tokens on the same character per round. The end goal of Holmes is to gain evidence from your cards and reaping the benefits for more clues equalling more points to each player. The effects of the cards stem from gaining and then spending investigation markers, which act as your currency for purchasing more clue cards. Whoever has the most points from their set collection of cards by the end of the week, is the winner. The game is beautifully illustrated and fulfills the satisfaction of light-weight, strategic gameplay in under 30 minutes. Holmes is a perfect filler game for game nights or just a quick round with another friend. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">While on the topic of two-player games, another one that we haven't played before was Onitama, an abstract, grid-movement, strategy game from 2014. In this game, players will place their statues on a 5x5 grid according to two open cards that they draw and place in front of them. There are a total of 5 cards that are drawn from the deck of cards for the duration of the game. These are the only cards that will be used in the game. Each player takes two open cards and places them in front of their play area, leaving a fifth card face up to the side of the board. On the active players turn, he or she will choose one of their cards for movement, and then make that move according to the chosen card, and then replace it with the fifth card that is laying to the side. The other player performs the exact same actions and this process repeats until the players either take the other players main pawn or move one of their pawns to the other players main pawns' square. Once this is performed, that player wins the game. This game is designed to be very straight forward and very fast. Most games that Claire and I played against each other were over in 10 minutes. The box specifies that it plays between 10 to 30 minutes but I don't know how this game could take up to 30 minutes. Both of us play abstract games quite well, and Onitama ended up being a game that I was especially good at. The combinatorial movement makes the game very interesting since all of the cards rotate very quickly between each player, elevating a procedural type of strategic gameplay. I love the quality of the game components, but the game actually played too fast for us. If we owned this game, we would roll it out and play a few rounds in only 10 to 15 minutes and I don't believe it has a lot of replay ability. This isn't to say it's not a good game, it is a very good little game, it's just not one that we could easily see making it into our collection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Claire is constantly asking the question "why aren't there more animal themed games!?!" so when we saw a banner with "Rabbit Island" on it, we had to stop. The premise is simple, you explore the island, build up your camps and villages and score victory points. Each player starts with a small stack of map tiles and places 2 on their turn. They then move their Rabbit meeple and resolve the effect of the tile they are on. These effects vary depending on tile type, but are often to pay the building cost and build a camp or obtain carrots. Building a camp means you will place your building token on the tile, thus gaining control of it. However, other players who land on a tile with a camp can pay to upgrade the building and take back ownership. Gaining carrots is beneficial because they are the main currency of the game and many actions cost carrots to play. Once each player is down to one map tile, the exploration phase of the game is over and you enter the build phase. You use Movement cards rather than placing tiles, but you are still following paths/tunnels and seeking to upgrade your buildings. This phase also introduces Action cards, which can provide both benefits to the active player (additional movement, building for free, extra carrots) and damage to their team mates (moving other players meeples, increasing carrot costs for opponents, etc.). Play continues over 20 "years" that are tracked on the included score pad and when you reach year 20 play ceases and the game is score. The modular board provides great replay ability and the beautifully detailed art really draws you in. At first the games seems pretty straight forward but soon you see there are strategies to where and when you play your building tokens. Grouping your buildings provides harvest groups, which help make you stronger and tunnels help you move around the board in different ways. Overall a very enjoyable game with a unique theme and interesting mechanics! </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Like other Kickstarter games we've reviewed, we will not be providing a meeple score for Rabbit Island as this was not their final product. However, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">it ended up successfully reaching its goal so we were very happy to learn about this not long ago! We look forward to seeing the end consumer product releasing as we may consider purchasing this one later on. </span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">CGE continues with it's releases of the well known Codenames series, but we had a chance to play one of their latest games that debuted at Origins this year known as, That's A Question! Carrying on with the animal theme, Claire noticed the squirrel meeples on That's A Question! by CGE games and had, well, questions. It is a quick, ice-breaker style game where you try to figure out the other players. Each player gets a small hand of hexagonal cards, 2 voting tiles and an acorn tile. Each hexagon has 3 questions on it, categorized as What would you choose?/Which would you miss most?/What is worst? The question asker chooses a person to question and takes their acorn. They then take 2 of the question hexes from their hand and ask their question. For example, Which would you miss most, Pretty Flowers or Flush Toilets? The questionee then votes (face down) which they would prefer, but the other players also vote on which answer they think will have been selected. 1 point is scored by the questionee regardless of what they pick, 1 point is scored by the other players who guessed correctly and 1 point is scored by the questioner for every other player who guessed incorrectly. The number of rounds depends on player count, but it generally lasts about 30 minutes and whomever has the most points at that time wins. That's A Question! is a fun little party game that keeps players engaged throughout. The potential for new combinations makes replayablity pretty solid as well. The version we played was a prototype so there may still be some changes before it makes it's official debut at GenCon, but we found this to be a quick, enjoyable little filler game and would recommend checking it out. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">GAMA continues to deliver every single year and it shows with the growing numbers. Unique badges rose nearly 10 percent, from 15,480 in 2016 to 17,001 in 2017. Turnstile attendance increased just over 12 percent, with a count of 52,561 in 2016 to 58,958 in 2017 showing an upsurge in attendees returning to the show each day. Origins 2017 featured over 7,000 events, a 24 percent increase in events from 2016. The show offered major tournament play, with the return of the WizKids World Championships, national tournaments for IELLO, Catan Studios, Konami, and the Catalysts Battletech Open. The Greater Columbus Convention Center had also completed it's new food court project which attracted a lot of attendees. This was an exponential increase to their facility from last year! Origins continues to see growth while maintaining it’s relaxed, family-friendly vibe. Every year, the show expands its range in entertainment, offering events varying from fandoms to award ceremonies. It’s a convention that is welcoming, personable, and takes pride in its inclusivity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Everything this year was also a lot better with family by our side! We were very happy they accompanied us this year to their first board gaming convention, and we envy them for having such an incredible convention held in Columbus Ohio. As we temporarily bid farewell to Origins until next year, we now prepare for it's bigger brother, and our last stop for Con season in our back yard here in Indianapolis at Gen Con #50. Thank you GAMA for all of your efforts in bringing a solid tabletop gaming experience to thousands of gamers every year! See you in 2018!</span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Ratings:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft 7/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Onitama: 6.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">That's A Question!:
6.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>
Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-185562443738442122017-05-29T21:26:00.000-04:002017-07-30T23:00:02.931-04:00Boards & Brews at Home: XCOM The Board Game<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For this home segment we are reviewing the 1 to 4 player real-time co-op game, XCOM: The Board Game. Neither Claire nor I have played the video game version of this, so our first and only exposure has been the board game. To keep the theme of the game going, we had two Alien Brain Hemorrhage shots. They consist of 3/4 Oz of Peach Schnapps, 1/4 Oz of Irish Cream, 1 dash of Blue Curacao, and 1 dash of Grenadine. We tossed them back, and neither of us liked them. We agreed that they tasted like creamy cough syrup mixed with Alcohol. Definitely not the finest shots we’ve had, but they were fun to try at least one time. For those of you that are unaware, the XCOM app on the iPad is essential and the board game cannot be played with out it. The app can be downloaded for free on any smart phone or tablet. The world is needing saved once more, so the fate of mankind rests on your shoulders. However, this time it’s not from viral outbreaks and world-wide disease epidemics, it’s an alien invasion to end all humanity. See if we save the world or if life as we know it is toast.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In XCOM: The Board Game, you and or up to three other players assume the roles of the leaders of the elite, international organization known as XCOM. Where the world’s militaries have failed, It is up to you to defend mankind, keep threat levels low so the rising panic is maintained, and eliminate the alien invasion.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As mentioned before, the game is entirely app driven and can be played from 1 to 4 players. In this game, Claire and I each took on two separate roles so that the amount of required roles was properly utilized. Claire took on the roles of the Chief Scientist (responsible for researching technology and upgrading the XCOM forces), and the Commander (responsible for auditing the XCOM budget and deploying interceptors to repel alien UFOs). I took on the roles of the Central Officer (responsible for controlling the app and relaying important information to other players), and The Squad Leader (responsible for leading the XCOM forces on missions and defending the base). The real-time aspect of this game comes in once the game is all setup and the app begins the round. At that point, a continuous timer is running in order to keep you accountable to your tasks during each round. The players still have to make decisions based on research to make, how many soldiers to compromise in defending the base and going in missions, where and how many Interceptors to send, etc. etc.. The app is designed much more as a player aid and timer to eliminate AP (Analysis Paralysis), the alpha gamer, and thus keeping the game moving more swiftly. The gameplay consists of two parts per round, a timed phase and a resolution phase. The timed phase is the first portion of the game and is essentially where the decision making takes place for each of the players. It’s also the placement of the enemy on the board. The resolution phase are the actions to carry out to see if your decisions were in fact wise or not. It’s vital in this game to understand the proper executions of the chief scientist and central officer. If you can manage to do that, this is one of your key components to winning the game. Using the extra scientist card during the timed phase for exhausting the Crisis cards is absolutely necessary. It’s just as important for the Central Officer to have research to use his remaining satellites to mitigate and help the team.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This is a really good game. Anyone who plays cooperative games knows how annoying the alpha gamer can be. The fact that it eliminates the alpha gamer as well as analysis paralysis is HUGE for us! The co-op aspect of the gameplay is unique for each of the 4 players because there’s more than just individual character abilities. The actions taken by each character are specific to their role and cannot be completed by other players. The interconnectedness between the roles coupled with the time shortage means you have to be engaged constantly throughout the game or everyone will suffer.
The theme is well integrated into the design and game play, providing an immersive experience that is enhanced by the fantastic app. The app is visually pleasing and has fantastic music. Another visually pleasing aspect to the game is the overall production quality of the components like the miniatures, cards and tokens. I would absolutely recommend that 4 individual players are at the table for this game. It’s harder to assume two individual roles per player especially during the timed phase where you need to make decisions but also keep track of your other abilities that can be utilized during the initial phase and how missions should be considered when selecting them. The instruction book is not really an instruction book as much as it is a set up guide. While many of the instructions are explained well in the app, it didn’t used to be anywhere near as good with the earlier versions back when we first purchased the game. We only recently updated the app in order to get more important details that weren’t even included in the instructions before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The game takes up a lot of space and the board feels a lot more cluttered. With all of the contents of the game, it’s harder to maintain cleaner structure with all of the components scattered about. We had to use our dice tower to compensate for the lack of space just to be able to roll for our actions. This wouldn’t be so bad if each player didn’t have a bunch of cards they needed to place in front of them, which makes the game play area inevitably crowded. We did manage to save humanity though! Some of our views about the drawbacks in XCOM are not so bad that we would shy away from this co-op game. It’s just different, but in a very good way. We definitely need to play it more, but we are easily able to recommend this one to anyone who loves co-op games!</span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">XCOM: The Board Game</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 7.5/10</span><br />
<span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="21" data-original-width="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrcDf0blWR3Tps2VmleDrSBWH8fe7CzQPDjzu32KLit1BepGljTl-A1gEq8A6egrXmJYU0F1csESo7NkyLHCCTYKwprz3xp-jrczifQSF4yGU5CyFjCGdYSD_ySz8Mh7xUDm0Mbxj647A/s1600/7.5meeples.png" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">1) Cooperative</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">2) Dice Rolling</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">3) Hand-Management</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">4) Press Your Luck</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;">5) Variable Player Powers</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-65830332066484861442017-05-14T11:29:00.002-04:002017-05-14T11:29:15.613-04:00Tiles & Tales<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Today we are reviewing a game that is still not up for release for another 2 weeks. We want to give a special thanks to Osprey Games for sending us this little co-op game for review. Hop over to their website <a href="https://ospreypublishing.com/store/osprey-games" target="“_blank”">here</a> to check out all of the other games they have for release. With as great as they’ve been toward us, we wish we could say the same for The Well. When we’ve attended The Well in the past, they were better then but after today, for whatever reason, we see that their service has taken a drastic nose dive. Weak, lukewarm tea was given, when iced tea was requested, the amount of food was severely lacking, I had more tortilla wrap than actual food. I guess my gratuity was not high enough for them when we had to pay on their Square scanner for our already overpriced items. Well, going forward there's plenty of other coffee shops and establishments that want our business. After shaking off that poor experience, it's time for this weeks review as we look at Shahrazad a micro co-op tile laying game for 1 - 2 players. Read on to learn more of this Arabian Tale.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><i>This game takes its title from the storyteller in One Thousand and One Nights. In this story, The king was terrified his wife would cheat in him, so each day he would marry someone new and kill the wife from the previous day. Shahrazad was remarkably intelligent and well read in topics from history to science, poetry and art. She volunteered to spend one night with the king, but asked to first say goodbye to her sister and tell her a story. The king overheard the story and was completely enthralled, but Shahrazad advised him that he would have to wait until the next day to hear the ending. This went on for 1000 nights, with each night a new story, even better than the last. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In Shahrazad, you can either play solo or up to two players where you are wanting to play tiles in as much of a sequential order as possible in order to tell the perfect story for the King. We must be careful though, as it is possible to take too many risks in your storytelling, and tell a story which makes no sense, which will vex the king. We need to achieve balance between the competing aims in order to do well. The tiles are placed in columns, and can be played anywhere as long as it is touching one existing tile. If placing to the left or right, the new tile is offset half-way up or down the existing tiles. There is a maximum of three tiles allowed in a single column for the two-player variant of this game. If solo, you can play up to four tiles, and there is no limit to the number of columns allowed. During the game you can also swap/replace an existing tile with one from your hand. You must put the new tile in the same space the replaced tile just came from. If you have replaced a tile on your turn, then you must place two tiles on your next turn, and cannot replace any additional ones on that turn. Once the draw deck of tiles is depleted, the first round ends, and it's time to score your points.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Before you can score points, you have to see if your story made sense. You have to check two things in this order: 1) Check each column from left to right. If any tile is touching a lower-numbered tile in the column to it's right, you flip the higher-numbered tile face down. 2) Each face-up tile should now be part of a path from left to right, starting from the left-most column, and touching a face-up tile in the next column until you end in the right-most column. If any tile cannot form part of a valid path, flip it face down. This means that if any entire column is face-down, no points can be scored for those tiles. You then identify each grouping of colors and gain 1 point per tile in the largest group of each type. Flipped tiles and empty spaces are negative 1 point. For round two, you remove all face-down tiles from the game, and place them back in the box. The player/s will then chose one column of tiles to keep, pushing the tiles together if it has any gaps. This becomes the startup for the next round. Shuffle the remaining tiles together to form a new draw deck, and deal two more to each player. The play continues as before, you then add the score for both rounds to receive your final score for the end of the game!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This game is something of a puzzle. The production quality is top notch. Beautiful art, the tiles are substantial and have a nice finish, and even the box art looks lovely. The images on the tiles are clearly influenced by fairytale, folk-stories, classic books and tarot. However one can't help but feel that it is odd to have a game about story telling, with pictures from stories, that is about...numbers and colors? The theme just seems to clash with the mechanics, which for such a lovely game is a real shame. This isn't to say that it ruins the game, it only seems a little offset for an Arabian theme to encompass artwork from Pinocchio, Cinderella, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rapunzel, Peter Pan, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Little Red Riding Hood, etc. etc. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Claire found the solo version to be much more pleasant. You are allowed columns of 4 rather than 3, which helps considerably. However, since there are no special skills or roles that the players take on, the two player game has the feel of two people playing a game intended to be solo. Neither of us really play solo games, but if you enjoy them, this is worth a play to see if you like it. The components and art are so nice and truly enhance your game play. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Shahrazad</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 6.0/10</span><br />
<span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFwtq6nXm-cEPFhdDhy1-NdTbtT9EwJwdV4Vyp28hXrOgNDs8wYwesNCt09pzTSWn0U8FlzGKC8VCvxd0fGs3jlOOthrY3Hom798MovwdP4cW8ALDIM8SygTiNusLKow4bJ_1oUhILebM/s1600/6meeples.png" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Cooperative</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Tile-Placement</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span><br />
<br />Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-82525506231916633082017-05-07T18:24:00.003-04:002017-05-07T18:33:43.999-04:00Meddling Mochas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This week we find ourselves north of our normal territory, so we took the opportunity to visit our favorite coffee shop in Muncie, the Caffeinery. Whenever we visit, I find myself wishing they had a location in Fishers as their coffee & food offerings are consistently delicious. Today was no exception, with Claire enjoying their signature Steve Albini, a maple cinnamon latte that was just the right level of sweetness. Chad had a white mocha, as is his tradition, and greatly enjoyed it as well. While sipping our coffee, we snuck in a round of Fidelitas, “A Game of Medieval Meddling.” Keep reading to find out our thoughts!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In Fidelitas, the objective is to complete hidden objectives by wielding your influence and maneuvering citizens into key locations around the city. This is done over a series of turns, each player managing their hands and scoring points as they complete their secret objectives.
While it does come in a small box, Fidelitas does take up a fair bit of space as you can see. Five location cards form the city and they each have a unique Guild symbol on them. Set up is fairly simple and at the beginning of the game, each of these locations is assigned a random Virtus card, and each player is provided with 2 Virtus cards and 2 Missio (secret mission) cards. The Virtus cards have a character and guild on them. During the game you will be moving these characters throughout the city in order to complete the objectives on your Missio cards. Each objective gains you points, depending on the difficulty of the mission. For example: “Gather 4 different Guilds at the Warehouse” will get you 1 point, but “Gather characters from 6 different Guilds across both Academic locations” will get you 3 points.
The turns are simple: each turn you play a Virtus card, score Missio cards (if able) and draw replacement cards. In addition to the character and guild, the Virtus cards have an ability such as “Swap 1 card with any other card in a different location”, “Discard 1 card from your hand. Draw 3 cards” or “remove any 2 cards to the discard pile.” The Virtus cards must be placed in the location that matches their guild. The Butcher & Baker must go in front of an Artisan guild, the Shopkeeper & Broker in front of a Commerce guild, etc. Throughout the game you will be playing, moving and discarding the Virtus cards at the different locations in attempts to compete your Missio cards while your opponents do the same. This certainly poses a challenge the more players you have, and even at just 2 can sometimes be a bit pesky.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">One of the standouts in Fidelitas is the Disney-esque art. The characters are interesting, well drawn and more diverse than you often see in tabletop games. Clean, cohesive design makes games so much more enjoyable and Fidelitas is no exception. The abilities/actions of the characters on the Virtus cards are well balanced, as are the point values of the Missio cards. We have played this games several times and one thing worth noting is that if you have players with directly conflicting missions it can start to become tedious. For example, one player is trying to accumulate X amount of cards in a location another player is trying to clear, etc. This doesn’t happen every game, but it is a possibility. Some cards enable you to draw new Missio cards, but not many, so this can loop for a bit and become taxing.
Overall, Fidelitas is an interesting little game with beautiful art and constantly changing strategy that keeps you on your toes!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Fidelitas</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 6.5/10</span><br />
<span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2QoLj5tc_ttgLF3uhTbBxz23GskfpGYXrAXEIXYCaxdMyZAX5swuMAvakmfnaef8pTM18n9sfsFDPIGETsbgOeoZnPgRtwE6FHAUDeERZ7MkzZxjroGdSK7s9zg-aL-9p9vcft9_bnCs/s1600/6.5meeples.png" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Hand Management</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Set Collection</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-80628483860574063822017-04-29T14:12:00.000-04:002017-04-30T14:06:17.759-04:00International TableTop Day 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">International TableTop Day is here again and we have returned to Redemption Alewerks, as has been the tradition every year for TableTop Day. Claire had the Taxman SpinOff, a dry-hopped Sour Saison with boysenberry and ginger, while I had the Cream Ale and the Sooey Saison, a Blind Pig Confessions pale ale, with subtle hints of orange peel, coriander, and peppercorns. A great combination of farmers ales from great local breweries. While we are enjoying our beverages, this year we’re reviewing a silly farming themed game called Farmageddon. All the farming are belong to us! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><i>Farm fresh produce is in higher demand than ever! There's just one problem, well....several. Higher demand means more yay-hoos trying their hand at the soiled science. There are also rampant dust storm, errant robotic threshers, and... Frankencrops? No worries. As they say, the early bird gets the worm -- and any taters attached to that worm.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Farmageddon is a lightly-skilled game of hand-management for 2 - 4 players that takes 30 minutes to play. Choose when to plant, what to fertilize and with a little luck, you'll be the master of the farmer's markets when the dust settles. The goal of the game is to earn the most money by the end of the game! This is done primarily by planting, fertilizing, and harvesting crops. But watch out, as you cannot harvest your crops on the same turn you plant them, and other players will want to steal your crops when they can and destroy them when they cannot. The final round is triggered when the last crop card is drawn, and when the player who drew the last card finishes their turn, the game is over. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The quirkiness of Farmageddon is fun, a little silly but not crude. The fact that it is a hand-management game where the point is to plant, and harvest for money, reminds us of another game we just reviewed recently, but so, so much better! There's actually cards that have varying effects on them that do different things and have consequences. We aren't simply planting and harvesting for the sake of only planting and harvesting. There's not just point value like Bohnanza, we actually get to perform other actions and do things in this game. I wouldn't say it's one of the top 5 hand-management games that we own, but we like this game! It's very small for transporting, the artwork is quirky and fun, the end goal of the game is more interesting with the type of variety that we are looking for in a light-weight hand-management game. The theme may not be for everyone, but it worked well for us and we look forward to playing this one again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Farmageddon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 6/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Hand-Management</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Take That</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-19506305394006626432017-04-16T21:45:00.001-04:002017-04-18T15:11:39.975-04:00Who's Yer Con 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Once again, Con Season is here! Just like previous years, we are kicking off 2017 with one of our local conventions held at the Wyndham West Hotel in Indianapolis known as Who's Yer Con. For any that are unaware, this is a free tabletop gaming convention put on by <a href="http://whosyergamers.org/" target="_blank">Who's Yer Gamers</a>. The convention has been continuing to grow every year. The hard work, dedication and passion for the hobby shows at the convention, along with the staff, and other personnel from Who's Yer Gamers that continue to bring awareness of the hobby not just to the city of Indianapolis, but branching out to the entire state of Indiana each year. Let's take a closer look into what this year has brought us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Claire and I are always fortunate to come across friends in general, but it's all the better when they're open to learning more about tabletop gaming! Our friends, Jackie and Sean were able to experience their first board gaming convention with us at Who's Yer Con. One of the great things about Who's Yer Con, is that while it's growing, it's also very relaxed compared to its bigger brothers like Origins and Gen Con. Easing people into the hobby can be a delicate process and Who's Yer Con provides a wonderful environment and assortment of games for every type of gamer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Speaking of games, Who's Yer Gamers has continued to expand on their game library from last year and per the data from their library personnel, they're up to 612 games! I would not have expected that many by glancing at their shelves, but apparently it's climbed even bigger this year. Not only that, but this year was also the first year they applied purchased games from other conventions to their library through a filtered system of requests.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The first game of choice for review this year is Mice & Mystics. In this cooperative, dungeon-crawl style, role-playing, miniatures game of dice rolling and adventure, you and your fellow comrades are the last group still loyal to the king but are seeking to escape the horrendous grasp of Vanestra. As a role-playing game, there are various stories that you can choose from, and we chose to play Flight To Barksburg. You must escape the castle by getting all mice to the old gnarled tree space in the courtyard before the hourglass marker reaches the chapter end marker on the chapter track. The victory conditions are met when you clear the courtyard tile of minions and get all uncaptured mice onto the tree entrance space on the courtyard tile and the game is over. Due to the fact that Mice and Mystics is a miniatures game, you can expect the components to be higher quality. The art has great depth and detail, I love the setting of the game and thematically it's just awesome! Mice and rats fighting with swords, can we say The Secret of Nimh? This game is much more fantasy based than that movie, but I couldn't help but think of one of my childhood films when playing through this one. Mice and Mystics carries enough weight that you and the other players would be able to integrate some intermediate level strategy without being too overwhelmed. The game is highly intriguing and engaging. It's an adventurous role-playing game that we would absolutely recommend to anyone who loves Fantasy themed tabletop games. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Well, it's time to plant some beans in our field, and hopefully sell them for profit. Bohnanza is another game we played this year that has been held off from our blog for a while. We know it's been somewhat popular in the board gaming community ever since it's release back in 1997. We do not own it, and there's a few good reasons for that. You draw cards, play them and then over a short time, you harvest them for profit. This is said to be a set collection and hand management game. The set collection aspect comes from having to plant multiple beans of the same type, but the "hand management" portion of this game is harder to pin point. Each card is played sequentially in the order that you draw them in, so there isn't as much hand management when you are not allowed to re-arrange any of the cards in your hand. You're literally just drawing and playing cards. You and your opponent/s have the option of trading cards, but again, no matter how you attain the cards in your hand, you have to place them on the "bottom" of your hand so it may take a while before you can use it. You have to play a card regardless of whatever you have in your hand when it's your turn. You also have the option to donate your cards to your opponents if you wish. Why would I offer to help my opponent by donating them cards they could use??? They won't accept a donation if it doesn't help them, so why would I want to donate my cards to give them the upper hand? Gameplay aside, some of the content of the cards lends itself to crude artwork through childish humor. The reality is that children deserve better than this game and so do adults. The only thing that made us smile in this game was when it was over. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">We love worker-placement games and Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calender is one that we were very glad to see in Who's Yer Con's game library this year. The Mayan people were a highly developed civilization known for its unique art, complex architecture, sophisticated mathematics and advanced knowledge of the stars. At the heart of their society was a mysterious calendar – Tzolk’in. With a length of 260 days, it could predict the right time to plant seeds, the time to build monuments, the day a new baby would be born as well as the movement of the planets. It was the centerpiece of the Mayan cycle of life. The board depicts various actions that can benefit your tribe. On your turn, you will either place workers on the gears or pick up workers placed on a previous turn. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The game presents a new mechanic referred to as dynamic worker-placement. This is performed by the</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> workers performing actions when you pick them up. After everyone has had a turn, the Tzolk'in gear advances one day, causing all workers on all gears to move one position ahead, which changes the actions they can perform. Corn is the basic commodity, serving as food for your population and as currency. Actions allow you to produce food, extract resources, construct buildings, and develop technologies. Some actions please the gods, others displease them. You track your standing with the gods on the three temples on the board. The most devout tribes receive the best rewards and the game ends after one full revolution of the central Tzolk'in gear. Tzolk'in is not just another worker-placement game though. Aside from the dynamic actions that are done through the rotating gear, this particular game carries more weight than your average worker-placement game. You have to think three steps ahead in this game in order to attempt to stay on top of strategizing against your opponent/s. Tzolk'in is by far the heaviest worker-placement game we've played. I've only ever played this game one other time, but I can safely say that if you're looking for a bigger challenge in a worker-placement game, this is it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This year I had been putting off this segment as I was hoping I would be able to provide some turnstile stats of the attendees. Unfortunately, after multiple attempts at contacting various personnel at Who's Yer Gamers, I was unable to get any numbers this year. Even after checking the website numerous times, at the time of posting this segment, I still saw no updates there either. As every year that we attend Who's Yer Con, they continue to deliver, but there are definitely changes that need to start taking place. While it's great to continue to see the number of gamers growing, parking has become worse than ever. Unless you arrive to the event much earlier on, by 11am you'll find yourself driving around attempting to locate a spot without having to leave the premises. This means the Wyndham West Hotel is starting to become overcrowded. Based on the various conventions we've attended in the past, this one doesn't seem like it could be more than 2,000 people. Regardless, the convention personnel that are in charge of the statistics, should still be able to get the appropriate information to people that are requesting it. While the convention is growing, it is not so big that the people that are working for Who's Yer Gamers can't provide useful data such as turnstile attendance. This is why there are specific people that are in charge of specific details of the event, and the number of attendees is very important information to keep track of. With 2 weeks passed and still not receiving any information on the event, it's disappointing to witness the struggle of such a small event when it really shouldn't have taken this much time to gather smaller numbers that should already be readily available. It's not Origins or Gen Con after all, and their personnel are able to report this kind of information within 72 hours for conventions that are considerably larger. For a free convention, Who's Yer Con is still a great choice to gather with friends for gaming, but there are things that need to start changing for the better, if the event does in fact continue to keep growing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Ratings:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Mice & Mystics: 7.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Bohnanza: 4.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calender: 7.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-85294992183225403502017-04-01T09:18:00.000-04:002017-04-01T09:19:42.924-04:00The Winner Of The 2nd Blogiversary Contest is...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Our winner of the 2nd Blogiversary Contest is Jacqueline Ireton and we're not foolin even though it's April 1st! Congratulations on winning a brand new copy of Buy The Rights! Everyone enjoys movies, and we hope you will enjoy creating your own hilarious films to pitch to the producers in this wacky little card game! We appreciate everyone who took part in this contest and be sure to stay in touch with us on Instagram and the blog to find out more about upcoming contests in the future!</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-80760389049449845982017-03-19T12:10:00.000-04:002017-03-19T12:24:11.566-04:00A Latte Fun!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Today we ventured over to Carmel to Soho Cafe & Gallery. Our drinks of choice were a White Chocolate Mocha and a Leprechaun (Amaretto & Irish Cream). They were lightly sweet and very creamy with properly frothed milk. Unfortunately, Claire thought the coffee lacked flavor, and felt that the espresso was much fainter than expected. I personally love their coffee and I know I’ll be back many more times as they also have great breakfast food and sandwiches. The cafe itself has an open feel, with nicely spaced sturdy tables and a diverse selection of artwork for sale. If you appreciate art as we do, you should stop in to look at their art gallery and have some coffee! We appreciate the friendly, professional staff they have at Soho and look forward to returning again and again! As for this week’s game of choice, we’re in a rush to have a latte fun so read on to learn how we made our coffee. </span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Caffeine Rush is a fast paced matching game with a theme we just couldn't resist. Each player has a stack of Ingredient cards and uses them to fill the Order cards in the center of the play area. Everyone plays off of the same orders, but the player that places the final ingredient gets the credit. This is a quick, fairly simple game that gets much more lively the more players you add. It can be fun to rapidly play your cards, racing against the other players to see who can complete their orders the quickest. It obviously helps if you're a coffee aficionado that loves to drink it as well. As you make your way through your draw pile (only using one hand), you may encounter the supervisor card. If this happens, all players immediately clean off their discard area and re-shuffle into the Ingredient Cards OR sort all matching Ingredient Cards into piles and arrange next to each other. If you come across the Latte Art card, you set it in your prep area. Then when you are close to filling an order, place it next to the order you wish to fill prior to placing the final Ingredient card. If you are the one to place the last Ingredient, you gain double the points for that completed order. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Once you either cannot play any more cards from your hand or discard piles, or there are no more orders to fill, the game ends and you tally up your completed coffee cup orders and the player with the most completed, and/or with the most points, is the winner of the game. To us, this game is okay. It's certainly above average, but that's also because we really love coffee! The main problem with this game is the iconography. The ingredient cards do not match the order cards and thus require each player uses a reference card. There is zero reason the ingredient cards couldn't have an icon and their text abbreviation. The necessity of a player aid in a game this basic is bad design, plain and simple. That aside, there are aren't that many abbreviations to learn and you can probably pick them up in a game or 2. Adding more tackiness to the game, (per the instructions) when you complete an order you're supposed to shout, "Order Up!" and then take the cards into your supply. Since that's dumb, we don't shout anything out. We simply mention we completed an order and take it into our supply. Generally speaking, we aren't big into speed games or games where your opponent gets credit for your work because they placed the last card, but this game was surprisingly fun! It's quite difficult for us to turn down a game about making coffee. It keeps the player engaged and lasts just the right amount of time for a game of its weight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Caffeine Rush</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 6/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Simultaneous Action Selection</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Pattern Building</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-30775490427985056882017-03-14T20:04:00.003-04:002017-03-14T20:23:43.830-04:00Boards & Brews 2nd Blogiversary!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Happy Pi Day everyone! It’s officially our two year blogiversary! Two years ago today we started our board gaming blog and have been blogging at least once a week ever since! For this year's post we are doing another giveaway contest for the successful Kickstarted party game known as Buy The Rights, created by Literally Wizards, one of our very own local Indianapolis residents. Read on to learn more about the giveaway contest and our celebratory 2nd year Blogiversary post! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For those of you who are unaware, Buy The Rights is a movie pitching party game for 3 to 10 players. There are 4 card types you will use each turn : Genre, Descriptor, Hero and Plot. One player each turn will be The Producer and the others are Screenwriters. The goal? Coming up with the best movie pitch using each card type and a lot of imagination. The Producer has a budget of $20 million to spend on the movie ideas they like the best and it can be split up however they choose. This game really lends itself to storytelling, but also fun player interaction. We <a href="http://boardsandbrews.blogspot.com/2015/12/lights-camera-laughter_5.html" target="_blank">reviewed it here</a> while it was still on Kickstarter and have found it to be a lot of fun to play with friends.
It felt like a good choice for our giveaway because it combines 2 of our favorite things- supporting local creators and games that encourage player interaction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">We addressed several questions from last year and there weren't really any new ones since then. Therefore there isn't as much to cover this year, but we are grateful for the interest that each reader puts into our blog.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">How about a quick look back on our favorite games ever since our 1st Blogiversary from last year? The following are our top 5 favorite games that we reviewed since then:<br /><br />
<b>Chad Claire</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Blood Rage 1) Blood Rage</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Roll For the Galaxy 2) Euphoria</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Tuscany 3) Ticket To Ride: Rails & Sails</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">4) Mystic Vale 4) Sushi GO! Party</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">5) Lanterns 5) L.O.T.R. The Deck Building Game</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If you're interested in entering into the contest <i>(within the US only unless you're attending Gen Con)</i>, to keep this thematic with Buy The Rights, all you have to do is either:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Email us at boardsandbrewsblog@gmail.com and say your favorite movie of all time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">or</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Hashtag your favorite movie of all time in the Instagram Blogiversary post.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The contest will remain open until March 31st at midnight. Like other contests, we will randomly draw from the pool of submitted names and contact you requesting your shipping address. We thank all of our readers once again for your commitment to our blog and we hope you've enjoyed reading as much as we've enjoyed posting our reviews.</span><br />
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Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-91565678183849156952017-03-13T21:15:00.003-04:002017-03-13T22:46:50.599-04:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Well of course this would be our #1 expansion, after all we are boards and brews. In our number one spot for our top 10 list of expansions that we own is the Tuscany expansion for Viticulture. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">What if you’re tired filling wine orders? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In this expansion we have a lot more than just wine orders to fill. What if we were to expand into apples, tomato sauce, olive oil, or perhaps some cheese? All of those ingredients are optional in Tuscany depending on which expansion you are playing. We have some more interactions throughout our adventure that delivers a lot more content to the game. Through the utilization of a tiered system, this allows us to <i>uncork </i>a lot of new mechanics in the expansions providing an almost legacy-style Viticulture game. This one is packed to the brim with boards, meeples, and cards equalling 12 small expansions in all! While Viticulture is still noteworthy, Tuscany is a whole new beast. Read on to learn more about this incredible expansion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Just like Viticulture, we have a double-sided board for Tuscany with one major change. Tuscany includes Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 expansions and one side of the board has the base level cards that you used in Viticulture like the Vine cards, the Spring and Winter Visitor cards, and the Wine Order cards. The other side of the board includes all of that plus a placeholder for the Structure cards. The base side covers most of Tier 1 and Tier 2 expansions which is convenient if you don’t plan to delve too deep into the game. If you wish to play normal Viticulture on this board, you have the option. In general, any Tier 1 or Tier 2 expansion can be added to the others, but the new buildings must come after you are using the new board. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">We see a lot of new cards in Tuscany and one of the nice things about the new cards and workers are the ones that interact with the progression of your visitor cards. One of the new additions in the Tier 1 expansions, are the Advanced Visitors in the Arboriculture pack. Realistically though, these are just updated versions of some old Summer and Winter visitor cards. What makes these different is that when drawn, they provide new options that make them more useful. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Tuscany comes with 11 new Special Certified Workers. Each of these workers have a special ability that gives a bonus or changes the gameplay somehow. For space reasons we will not list them all, but rather highlight some of our favorites. Chef – The Chef “bumps” an opponent off of an occupied space and back into their pool. This adds a bit of spice to what is generally a very non confrontational game.
Professore – The Professore lets you retrieve a regular worker from an action space in the current season and use it again in the same year.
Messenger – You can place the Messanger on an action space in a future season, allowing you to snag that one extra space you needed that year.
Traveler – The inverse of the Messenger, the Traveler lets you place on any open space in a previous season, regardless of player count and immediately take the action.
Soldato – The Soldato allows you to gain 1 Lyra from each player that wants to place on the action you have placed it on. Your opponents may place workers on the same action even if there are no remaining spaces.
Mafioso – This special worker enables you to take the non-bonus action of the space you selected twice. Wait….Mafia!? That’s right! We’re now working with Wine + Italy + Mobsters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Stonemaier did a fantastic job with these. All 11 are solid choices, but some are certainly more advantageous than others. Balancing your workers through the seasons and wishing for just one more worker or action space is a continuous challenge in Viticulture. These work to alleviate a little of that stress, while offering new ways to strategize. This expansion has been described by the wise and elder gamers as the game that saved Viticulture. I still think Viticulture all on it’s own remains a great game, but Tuscany is absolutely for the more intensely driven, thirsty gamers out there that want a significant increase of meat in their game. Tuscany delivers for sure, but we would highly recommend you acclimate yourself to the base game of Viticulture first before taking the aggressive leap if you're still adjusting to worker placement games. There is so much to this expansion with so little time in the day. I may add more to this post later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Tuscany (Viticulture Expansion) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 9/10</span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">New additions:<br />1) 12 small expansions</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) 11 new meeple workers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6 new player mats</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Structure cards</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-29694115457370838772017-03-07T21:28:00.001-05:002017-03-07T21:28:24.916-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It’s the game that I describe as D&D meets Dominion. Well, now with the Numenera universe combined, there’s more RPG aspects than ever mixed into Thunderstone. Coming in on our #2 spot is Thunderstone Advance: Numenera. Anyone who plays Thunderstone knows that even though there are standalone versions, nearly every version released is interwoven in such a way that you can utilize the cards with each release of the game. Thunderstone Numenera follows this same concept. It is a standalone game, but it is also an expansion. As far as the Thunderstone series goes, this is a very different approach in a way that no other Thunderstone game has been implemented. Like all of it’s predecessors, it still maintains a fantasy theme, but now with the implementation of the Numenera universe, we’re combining a lot more science fiction and technology into Thunderstone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><i>In a strange, alien world of creatures, powers and relics, Numenera is referred to as the ninth world which is set 8 billion years into the future. You are the heroic adventurer seeking the Thunderstones, and ancient relics of evil power. Your plan is to turn their own power against them, banishing their corruption from the world. You begin by assembling your band of stalwart heroes willing to brave the hazards ahead and equipping them with fearsome weapons and powerful spells. Once prepared, you will lead them into peril, slay vile monsters, and recover the Thunderstones.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In this release of Thunderstone Advance, we have a two-sided board, one providing the classic dungeon hall, and the other being the wilderness dungeon hall. The darkness conditions are different for each hall. Just like the earlier versions, we have the regular dungeon halls which has a rank of 1 to 3 requiring more light penalties the deeper you delve. The other side of the board which provides the wilderness path. This side provides an additional rank, but lower light penalties. Other than the alteration of the dungeon halls, it’s the same on each side of the board. I do like double-sided boards so while it doesn't impact the game too much, I appreciate it none the less.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Setting Cards have returned, but they've added a new variant to the game in a new format. These cards are oversized cards with pictures of Numenera locales with text that describes their effects. These cards add variety with a touch of chance to the game. Before play begins, all players must agree on which setting card will be used throughout the game. The chosen card will represent the festering collection of danger that the players will encounter. Each card has a trigger that when activated during the game, the D20 is rolled to determine an outcome of one of the effects on the cards. Triggers can activate every time the first player starts his turn, or every time the active player has a Monster in hand. Other triggers can occur every time a player gains a Level 3 Hero. Other times there may be no effect for rolls from 2-16. Effects include gaining diseases, cycling through the Monster deck faster, or saving destroyed cards. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Since this is a standalone version, we see a lot of the original cards along with a lot of new cards. Treasures (yellow outlined cards), which were reintroduced after the Thunderstone Advanced base set, appear in Numenera. When a Treasure is revealed in the Dungeon, it is equipped by the closest Monster. The Treasure boosts the Monster in some way, and then is “looted” when that Monster is defeated, getting added to the player’s deck along with the Monster. The artwork on the cards carries great depth as all Thunderstone cards do. In the Numenera version of Thunderstone Advance, you can really see the futuristic weapons which add new abilities and effects. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The XP tokens have really altered as well. For the Dragonspire expansion of Thunderstone, the XP tokens were used to keep track of how many experience points you were gaining throughout the game, but the XP tokens are used to track the experience points your heroes gain during your quests. The multi-colored XP tokens are used as cyphers to add different boosts during gameplay. One Cypher effect may be used per turn, and requires discarding one XP. XP tokens come in six different colors (what color you get when earning XP is random), and the color of the discarded token determines which effect you get – draw a card, destroy a card, gain physical attack, gain magic attack, gain gold, gain light.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The increase of danger always puts players on the edge of their seats, especially if they have to roll for their fate. The role playing aspect with the D20 really increased our appreciation of Thunderstone.
I have to say, theme matters a lot to me in board games and I really love the standalone expansion of Dragonspire. That particular incarnation of Thunderstone remained my favorite for a long time. I honestly didn’t even see the need to get many other expansions with that one in our collection. It’s definitely a close second to Numenera for me, but Numenera just adds too many new variants that make the game more interesting and unique. It doesn’t carry the same fantasy theme that Dragonspire does, but it doesn’t have to. It delivers enough new mechanics while still maintaining it’s roots of the base game. Numenera is also a standalone game, so if you want to play it by itself you can, or you can really mix things up and combine it to another standalone version of Thunderstone Advance. For all of the right reasons, Thunderstone Advance: Numenera belongs in our top 10 list. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Thunderstone Advance: Numenera</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 8.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">New additions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Numenera Universe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Double-Sided Board with Altered Dungeon Hall</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Cypher Tokens</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">4) </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Altered Setting Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">5) </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">D20</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-86176231630838932492017-02-26T15:47:00.004-05:002017-02-26T15:52:43.929-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Of course we could not do our top 10 list without adding one of the expansions to our favorite game ever released! How could we not? It's Blood Rage! For this review, like many of the others, it was a close choice, but for our number 3 spot, we decided to go with the Gods Of Asgard expansion for Blood Rage. Odin knows that death is inevitable with </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ragnarok</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> coming, but he wants to forge his strength with us, so we can go down fighting as one. To it’s right-hand side sits the Mystics of Midgard expansion. Both of these add variances and alterations that assist the base game in some way. It’s good, but are they good enough to considerably alter the game? You’ll have to read on to find out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">God's of Asgard comes with 6 new miniatures and corresponding cards with an explanation of the god's powers. While only 2 of the 6 god's are in play during a game, the way they impact their provinces gives interesting variety to the game. Each time you pillage a god's province, you move them to different available province. This results in continuous change throughout the game and can certainly influence your strategies. In a 2 player game this is stymied slightly as you have fewer active provinces to choose from. There are also some god's abilities that are better suited for higher player count for maximum impact. The instructions say to select 2 god cards at random, but you may find that it is more interesting to select 2 based on player count and contrast/compatibility of the god's abilities. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The cards that come with the Asgard expansion will each correspond to the miniatures that you place upon a province. Each of the gods influences the province they occupy in a unique way, affecting the basic rules of the game. The Asgardian gods: Odin, the god of thunder, his son Thor the victorious warrior, Tyr, the Lord of battle, Frigga, the Mother Protector, Loki, the Trickster, and Heimdall, the Watcher Guardian. Each of these gods are prepared to assist our battalions in their eternal fate and their influence will surely change the way strategize our battle. The artwork is exceptionally well done! The dimensions of the cards are a little tall, but the emphasis being played on individual, and small numbers of characters doesn’t need to be as small I suppose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Mystics of Midgard provides new miniatures with special powers. While it is always fun to have new additions to a game you love, the new figures do not add much beyond a bit of variety. The set comes with 10 Mystic figures, 2 for each player (up to 5 players). However, just like the monsters in the base game, you need a card to access the figure. While we are used to this method, it doesn't make a lot of sense here because there is only 1 playable card per age. (2 in 4/5 player games). As a result, you have 10 figures, but only 6 can be used within a game. This doesn't make a lot of sense from a value perspective. Making 6 unique miniatures with individual powers would have provided much more interesting dynamics and variety. This is one of the main factors that led us to choose God's of Asgard as our favorite of the two expansions as it provides the most opportunity for strategic change. Both expansions come with beautiful miniatures that are on par with the excellent quality of the base game. They also come with instructions and cards in 6 languages. This means that there are a LOT of unused cards and instructional leaflets. It feels wasteful to just toss them, but unless you have a base game in any of the other languages, they are pretty much worthless. Do you really need to purchase these expansions to make Blood Rage better? No, not at all. Blood Rage is a phenomenal game all on it's own. The expansions add little variances, but most of all, some small additions, but honestly that's about it. They're still note worthy though because they are manifestations of one of the greatest tabletop games to ever be released. If you had to choose one, our recommendation is the Gods of Asgard expansion. So if these did not add very much to the base game, why did we choose to do a segment on the expansions? Because....<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>BLOOD RAGE!!!</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Blood Rage: Gods Of Asgard</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 7/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">New additions: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) 6 New miniatures</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Asgardian effects cards</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span></div>
Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-60307626001295325282017-02-19T21:41:00.002-05:002017-02-19T21:44:03.204-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Everyone loves that tantalizing sound of money in their hands. Realizing that you’ve prospered from those days when you toiled in the fields wearing your straw hat just struggling to make ends meet. Now, after years of hard work, you’ve risen to great heights and you’re moving forward to conquer a world that you once feared, but now envy’s you. Coming in at our number 4 expansion is Dominion: Prosperity. This is the 4th expansion to the deck-building game, Dominion. It adds 25 new Kingdom cards to the game, plus 1 new base Treasure card, and 1 new Victory Point card, both of which allow you to build above Gold and Province. Your central theme is wealth. There are treasures with abilities, cards that interact with treasures, and powerful expensive cards. Read on to see more. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">When it comes to any card game deck-building or not, we look at what kind of new cards come with the expansion. After all, it’s the newer cards that make all the difference in the expansion. As mentioned above, most of this expansion will revolve around wealth so that means most of the cards will: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Cost more but do a lot more </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Provide more opportunities for gaining more currency </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Hoarding treasure in order to trash and discard unwanted cards </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">4) More buy opportunities<br />There is a lot more opportunity for hoarding items and utilizing some of these cards to trash or discard unwanted cards and that hasn’t been as heavily used in its predecessors like Seaside, and Intrigue. Philosopher's Stone and Harem dealt with areas of the game that we new before (combination cards and simple value adjustments). This set, however, brings a whole new equation to the game: treasures that effectively perform actions during the buy phase without taking up any action slots in your turn.
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In addition to the newer cards, another change that Prosperity brings to Dominion are the Platinum Treasure cards, and the Colony Victory Point cards. These cards made a big impact on Dominion, as the option for higher currency and victory points is always a welcome change. The extra victory points could even be used to prolong gameplay if so desired. Using them in addition to Province cards provides the desire to aim higher which is always better. In terms of the actions, there are some new concepts and some revisions of old ones. Some of the cards are simply overpowered versions of things that we have seen before: King's Court, Grand Market and Expand are upgraded versions of Remodel, Salvager, Throne Room, and Market, respectively. These cards in particular, while very expensive, tilt the balance of the game significantly and give the player many more interesting things to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Prosperity also introduced the VP tokens! Up until this point, the previous expansions like Seaside introduced the gold tokens, but Prosperity introduces the 1 and 5 player tokens for additional points at the end of the game along with more gold tokens. The small VP tiles act as a place-holder for VP tokens (the silver shields). There is a single tile that is only reserved for gold tokens and it directly correlates to the Trade Route card. The Trade Route card is an action card that trashes a card and gives money proportional to how many different Victory cards have been gained. As such, it becomes stronger when there are more different types of VP cards in the Kingdom. Depending on which way you look at it, Trade Route is either a useful card throughout the whole game, or a card that anti-synergizes with itself. The forced trashing ability is quite valuable early but a pain in the late game. Although, it doesn’t provide any money until the late game, and the +Buy is equally useless unless you have enough money to make it worthwhile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">All of this to say, these are some of the primary reasons why I chose Prosperity as our best expansion for Dominion. Seaside is a close, <b style="font-style: italic;">very close </b>second and anyone who has played Seaside knows why that is. Seaside introduced the Duration cards which was huge, but Prosperity introduced the Colony and Platinum cards. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I still maintain that this is one of the most important upgrades to the game.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> Intrigue was also essential for a while, but that's primarily because Intrigue is a standalone and expansion. Prosperity does require either the base game of Dominion or Dominion Intrigue to play. When I look at Prosperity, I just can't say no to those awesome little metal tokens both the gold and the silver VP tokens. Its high caliber components and superior diverse strategy speaks for itself. This particular expansion just carries more quality and multitudes of options during gameplay for me to put it any lower. It belongs on top. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Dominion: Prosperity</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 8/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">New additions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Platinum & Colony Base Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) 25 new Kingdom cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Engraved Metal gold and VP tokens</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">4) Placeholder VP token tiles</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-46064625165901042112017-02-12T22:46:00.000-05:002017-02-12T22:46:41.605-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Diseases are spreading into epidemics of massive proportions, creating outbreaks much worse than before. Your chances of epidemics are considerably higher, and the intensity at how they spread is much greater than before. Was saving humanity too easy in the beginning? It’s time to greatly increase the weight of Pandemic with new roles, events, and challenges. Coming in at our #5 spot is Pandemic: On The Brink. This is the first expansion for Pandemic and in my opinion, it’s still the best one I could recommend. Read on to see why.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As any other expansion generally requires the base game and components, we have several new aspects to this expansion. Looking at the new additions, we have 8 new Event cards, 8 Virulent Strain Epidemic cards, 2 mutation cards, 2 mutation event cards, a new cure marker, 7 new role cards with 7 pawns, and 1 new epidemic and reference card. The new cure marker (purple vile) is a matching color to the mutation disease that has been added to the game which also comes with purple disease cubes in its own petri dish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Speaking of petri dishes, how cool are these? This was the first revealing of petri dishes to Pandemic. Before ‘On The Brink’ was released you had to simply place them in a small pile on the table or in some other generic container during gameplay. This is so much better, not only from a more efficient standpoint, but from a purely geeky one! They’re even color coded to match the disease cubes for the different regions. We had to place the stickers, but due to my high levels of OCD this proved to not be a problem in carefully placing them on the containers. I was surprised to not see any of these within the ‘In The Lab’ expansion. One would think that of all expansions, they would have included petri dishes in that kind of expansion, but apparently not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">How about those newly added character cards? Complete with 7 new matching player pawns! The Containment Specialist and Generalist are probably the two that I would reach for in most games if they are available to me. Because this is an expansion, you can mix all of the role cards from the original with this expansion if you’re wanting even more options. The base game of Pandemic goes up to 4 players and ‘On The Brink’ goes up to 5 so that is definitely a nice new addition as well. There is nothing wrong with adding more players and in a game like this, you will want all of the help you can get.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This game is an absolute beast! The biggest reason to purchase ‘On The Brink’ is not necessarily just the extra role cards, or those cool little petri dishes. This expansion approaches you not with open arms and a smile, but with a big smack in the face and the order to strap yourself in. There is no pity granted to you in this version of Pandemic, it’s only designed to be much harder than the base game. This is partially what makes this game so great. If the initial difficulty is still not enough for you, you can play the virulent strain challenge, the mutation challenge, or the bio-terrorist challenge to add a little more intensity or variety to the game. I understand why adding the Bio-Terrorist challenge could really add a twist to the game, but I don’t personally think that Pandemic needs an antagonist aspect included since the foundation of the game is designed to be cooperative. The Bio-Terrorist does come with a large pad of paper that the bio-terrorist is able to use to secretly record their movements around the board to try and spread more diseases which is pretty cool, but I still don’t care for that antagonist aspect in a game like Pandemic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">You can also add multiple challenges together which makes this expansion even more intense. The fact that you are even provided an additional epidemic card seems suicidal to me if you’re already going to be playing with the 6 epidemic cards from the base game. Is the price point worth it though? This expansion was only a few dollars less than the base game, but it does add a substantial amount of options and weight to the game. In my opinion, the answer is yes, but that also depends how much you like the base game of Pandemic. In The Lab is not as challenging as ‘On The Brink’ is, and that may be better if you’re still adapting to Pandemic. You may want to play some other expansions first, unless you are bored with the original and are looking for a real challenge. At that point I would say look no further because you’ve found it. As for me, even as much as I love this expansion, I wouldn't say you really need this expansion because the base game is no good without it. The base game of Pandemic is an excellent game by itself, and there's already other methods that you can use and adjust the difficulty from the beginning if you really want to make it harder. It will all come down to what you're looking for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pandemic: On The Brink</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Overall Meeple Rating: 8.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">New additions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1) 8x New Event Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2) 7x New Role Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3) 8x Virulent Strain Epidemic Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4) 1x Epidemic Card</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5) 2x Mutation Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6) New Mutation Disease</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7) New Challenges</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8) 5th player added</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9) Petri Dishes </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10) Antagonist (Bio-Terrorist) Player Option</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-33208758840237541762017-02-04T18:29:00.003-05:002017-02-04T19:02:49.844-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The newly discovered outer worlds, with their rich, untapped resources, are tempting targets for those seeking to expand their power. Now, the scramble for control of these unclaimed territories begins. Will you outwit your opponents and claim victory in the Colony Wars, or fail and see your Star Realm lost? Coming in at #6 is Star Realms: Colony Wars. Everyone that knows about this game, understands that the expansions are typically small, including 12 new cards in each expansion. Colony Wars is a full standalone/expansion for Star Realms and this is one of the primary reasons we have placed it in our number 6 spot. There are a lot more cards in this expansion so read on to get a brief rundown on the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">With a complete count of 128 cards, and an all new 80 card trade deck (20 new cards per faction), this review is only going to show several of them. In Colony Wars, you receive 20 New Star Empire cards, 20 New Trade Federation cards, 20 new Machine Cult cards, and 20 new Blob cards, each providing multiple new effects and self synergies that aid you in a whole new diverse and aggressive approach to eliminating your opponents. Because this expansion is also a standalone version, you can mix it with existing releases of Star Realms, combine other small pack expansions, or just play the game by itself. All of the new cards seem evenly distributed amongst each other so there shouldn’t be one faction that proves superior over another. Your strategy will most likely change based on the card types, or you may focus your energy on one type of faction. I can safely say this expansion combines more effects from varying factions across the game, rather than merely focusing on one type of faction on each card. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In other words, one faction may have a multitude of effects from other factions on a single card which vastly enhances the diversity of options, technically making it somewhat easier. However, there are now more cards that will cost you less trade for higher effects. The Machine Cult also includes a lot more scrapping of cards so your chances at filtering out the lesser cards from clogging your deck has been greatly enhanced in this version compared to the base game. The fire power for the Star Empire is more powerful in Colony Wars. Everything has really been more enhanced. While other cards from the base game were considered good, the replacements in Colony Wars (in my opinion) significantly increases speed and playability. Whether you purchase the Gambit, Cosmic Gambit, or Crisis expansions, they’re all micro expansions which are definitely good at enhancing the gameplay for the base game, but what players really need are more cards in a single pack with a wider range of effects. Colony Wars delivers that for you. There are a lot more cards included in Colony Wars than my brief review provides, but if you’re a fairly big fan of Star Realms, you most likely already own it, but if you’re still curious about what all Star Realms has to offer for a fast-paced deck-building game, you should really consider Colony Wars into your collection if you don’t already own it.
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Star Realms - Colony Wars<br />
Overall Meeple Rating: 8/10
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;font-size: 16px;">New additions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;font-size: 16px;">1) First standalone expansion</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;font-size: 16px;">2) 80 new trade deck cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-29588244696687611692017-01-28T14:39:00.000-05:002017-01-28T14:41:29.115-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #7<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I as well as numerous others have referred to it as the next Monopoly. 30 years from now, while others will fade away, this game shall stand the test of time. As we look at number 7 in our top 10 expansions list, we’ve chosen the 1910 expansion of Ticket To Ride. A good way to describe this expansion would be, there’s little going on in this small box, except everything is bigger and better. Little time has passed in the timeline of the original Ticket To Ride game, except many new routes have been built, the new mega game, big cities, and a new reward! All packed into one small box to complete what should have been included in the original game. The bottom line is it was released into an expansion, and it’s time to show you why we chose this expansion over the others we own for Ticket To Ride.</span><br /><br/>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">What’s that? Full size playing cards?! You mean we don’t have to hold those dinky little base cards with our fingers anymore? Sarcasm aside, the fact that the base game cards were considerably smaller from the beginning did not bother me too much. Mostly because that was the only thing that existed at the time so we had no other choice. However, after playing with full size cards, you’ll never want to handle the small cards again. I can thumb through my cards at a normal, faster pace and sort much quicker without the worry of dropping anything. The texture on these cards are an embossed linen texture so they are much less slippery than the base game cards. We love the larger playing card sizes and this is only one of the advantages to owning this expansion for your base game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">We also have 35 new Destination tickets! You can always use more routes in Ticket To Ride, and this small box packs a lot more of these cards for more strategic plays. It’s important to note that you still get all of the original routes included in this expansion as you had in the base game too so you wouldn’t have to worry about combining tiny cards with larger cards. Days of Wonder already had this in mind for this expansion. You can distinguish the new destination cards from the old ones by because the year 1910 is printed in the upper right hand corner of the card. Some of the cards are labeled with Big Cities just above the point value. Use all tickets that feature at least one Big City. The big cities are Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Seattle. There are 35 of these tickets in all. 15 from the original set, and 20 new ones, including one from the Mystery Train expansion. Essentially at the beginning of the game, you shuffle all the Big City cards together, and deal 4 out to each player; and each person must keep at least two (or more if they feel brave). During the game, whenever you draw tickets, you draw 4 and keep at least 1.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In the original game of Ticket To Ride, you have one bonus of 10 additional points awarded to the player who completes the longest route. That is still the case with the 1910 expansion with one new bonus card known as the Globetrotter Card. This 15 point bonus card is for the player who completes the most routes by the end of the game. You can also play The Mega Game by having both bonus cards in play. You shuffle all 69 tickets together and deal 5 out to each player at the beginning of the game. Whenever you choose to draw tickets, you draw 4 and keep at least 1. As always, the discarded cards go back to the bottom of the ticket draw pile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The decision to choose 1910 was not exactly an easy choice to make for us, as we thoroughly enjoy the United Kingdom & Pennsylvania expansion. The UK/Pennsylvania expansion provides two new maps, multiple new mechanics, with excellent potential for highly increasing points on your routes. That is also a great expansion that we would highly recommend, but it still remains to be a close second spot for our TTR games. One of the main reasons we chose 1910 is because it is so small it could easily be transported to game nights and it exponentially increase the enjoyment of the original Ticket To Ride the way it was meant to be played. You cannot play 1910 without the base game of Ticket To Ride since 1910 is only cards. Plenty of newcomers are still waiting to play these games. Only two weeks prior to me writing this post, I had spoken to a co-worker who owns Ticket To Ride, but he had not opened it yet and had never played it prior to owning it. This example tells me how many people are still just getting into tabletop games like Ticket To Ride and how the 1910 expansion absolutely has to be on your list if you are to purchase the base game of Ticket To Ride. In the past when we’ve taught Ticket To Ride as a gateway game, as well as going forward, we will not under any circumstances, play the base game with anyone without using the 1910 expansion. If you own the base game of Ticket To Ride, you absolutely must own the 1910 expansion! At only 20.00 extra dollars, you will not regret what you are combining with the original game. 1910 adds what the base game needs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Ticket To Ride - 1910</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 8/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">New additions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Full Size Playing Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) 35 New Destination Tickets</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Globetrotter Bonus Card</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">4) Big Cities & Mega Game option</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-48764974023266752612017-01-23T10:30:00.000-05:002017-01-28T15:07:19.328-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #8<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For this weeks review we look at our number 8 spot of our top 10 expansions that we own. Claire and I don’t always see eye to eye on all of the social deduction games we own, but Coup is definitely one that we both thoroughly enjoy. In the story of Coup Reformation, the resistance has gained popular support and entire regions are in open rebellion. In a desperate attempt to stay in control, some government leaders are publicly supporting the reforms demanded by the resistance. However, allegiances are constantly shifting, and can be bought for the right price. The opportunity for intrigue and bluffing has never been greater. The cost of failure couldn’t be higher. Even with talk of reformation, only one can survive.</span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Reformation is an expansion to Coup, but the base game is required in order to play. This expansion comes with two additional character cards from the base game and with one new character known as the inquisitor for a total of 15 character cards. The inquisitor can exchange a card with the court deck, <b>OR</b> examine/force another player to exchange, and it also blocks all stealing. The inquisitor role is very good to take the place of the Ambassador especially with a higher count of players in a game. With this card you can generally declare the Contessa earlier on in the game, and the Assassin is more likely to leave you alone. This also allows for more mind games, because you could allow Foreign Aid to go through even if you are the duke, or allowing the Inquisitor to look at your cards even though you are the Contessa. Then, in the likely event that an Assassin tries to kill you, you then claim Contessa. They won't believe you because you didn't use it before. With all of these extra cards and the addition of the new Inquisitor influence, the expansion still relies on the tokens from the base game. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Allegiance cards are a nice new addition to the game. Players are either in support of the government (Loyalists) or the resistance (Reformists). Each player begins with an Allegiance card and places the corresponding side face up in front of them. Going clockwise, each player alternates allegiance from the previous player, placing their allegiance card in front of them. A player cannot Coup, Assassinate, Steal or block a Foreign Aid attempt by another player of the same allegiance unless all players are the same allegiance. Conversion can take place if you pay 1 coin to change your Allegiance or pay 2 coins to change the Allegiance of another player. The coins that are payed for these actions are placed in the Treasury Reserve. There's also the embezzlement action. Unless you have the Duke, you may take all of the coins on the Treasury Reserve card. However, anyone can challenge that the player attempting to embezzle has the Duke. If the player does have the Duke, they must concede and lose the challenge, thereby returning the coins to the treasury and lose an influence card. If the player does not have the Duke, (and does not concede) they must show their influence card, the challenger then loses and the revealed influence is shuffled back into the deck and a new card is drawn just like the base game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">While there are some enhancements in this expansion, there is one drawback that stands out to me. This game does not scale very well. The base game went up to 6 players, and this expansion allows up to 10. Eight players tends to drag out too long depending on the group, but 10 players? I've never played with 10 players in this game, but I can only imagine the amount of time that would take. This game plays best with 5 to 6. The length of time is 15 minutes on average, but that does not happen when you have 8 to 10 players at the table. Reformation is a lightweight social deduction game and a good little expansion for Coup. We both really enjoy Coup and while the expansion is a very good game, I wouldn't say it necessarily makes the game better, it just adds a few new add-ons that make the game a little different. For some games, the expansions are required to either make or save the game, but Coup is already a very good game by itself and Reformation is a game that is very affordable and portable like its predecessor, and certainly one of our favorites, but not required in this case.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Coup - Reformation</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 7.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">New additions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Inquisitor Influence<br />2) Allegiance cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Supports up to 10 players</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">4) Treasury Reserve card</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">5) Conversion and Embezzlement actions</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-86920265123657132342017-01-15T22:46:00.000-05:002017-01-16T19:05:32.199-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #9<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Coming in at #9 for the top 10 game expansions that we own, is the 2nd expansion for Settlers of Catan, Cities & Knights. Let’s face it, Settlers of Catan is the quintessential gateway game for newcomers to tabletop gaming. It released in 1995 and has been a fan favorite for many gamers everywhere. Since it’s release, there’s been several different manifestations of it that add new environments and mechanics that provide the base game what it really needs to enhance the overall experience. It’s time to expand the cities and the knights on the outskirts of town will guard the towns people from the invading barbarians. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In this expansion, we have several new aspects that make this one the best expansion for Settlers of Catan. The two primary focused changes in this expansion are creating the knights to help protect your cities and improving building structures that benefit the builder. With these various new aspects to the game, players can increase tactical planning, and length of gameplay. It is vital to your victory to create knights. Without them, barbarians will certainly pillage your cities and completely hinder your chances at victory. Knights are placed at the intersection of 3 hexes in much of the same way as settlements. However, knights do not have to observe the two-space rule. Knights can be placed to obscure construction of other players, and they can be used to break the longest roads of other players.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In order to make said improvements to your cities, you will rely on the use of commodity cards. In the base game of Catan, you have 5 different types of resources to manage, but Cities & Knights comes with 3 commodities of cloth, coin, and paper. These materials are treated very similarly to the resources from the base game, but they also differ in a couple ways. Commodities are produced only by cities and only in forests, pastures, and mountains. When commodities are produced, they become added to your hand of resource cards. Like resources, they can also be traded freely among other players. They must be attained if you wish to make city improvements. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Another new set of cards are the progress cards. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Progress cards replace the Development Cards from the basic Settlers game. You don’t purchase progress cards like development cards; instead you draw them with the right combination of the event die and the red die. These come in three different types; trade, politics, and science. When you want to play a progress card during your turn, <i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(after you have rolled the dice)</i>, you may
play any number of progress cards in any order. You may also play them between other actions taken during your turn. When you play a progress card, you resolve all of its effects, then place it face down, under the progress stack of the matching color.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The game ends the moment one of the players accumulates 13 victory points or more. This player becomes the Lord of Catan, and receives the utmost praise from his or her people of Catan. There's a lot more to this expansion than what I've typed here. Like our other reviews, it's informative, while giving a quick and brief run down so you can gather the general idea of the game. If you have never played this expansion, you can rest assured that if you chose to purchase it, you would significantly be adding onto an already decent game and extending it to a considerably better overall experience for everyone at the table. This would mostly be the case considering the tactical complexity that Cities & Knights offers you. Seafarers was good and we always love nautical settings, but Cities & Knights delivers a lot more game compared to the other expansions for Settlers. Settlers of Catan has not seen our table in some time now, and that's probably due to our current gaming groups since most of them haven't wanted to play Settlers in quite a long time. This game has understandably fallen by the wayside, but there's a vast number of people who are still coming into tabletop gaming that would appreciate it. This is one of the reasons that Mayfair Games decided to re-release the game in a new format. I for one, am glad we own the older versions of Settlers along with the expansions. If you are one of those people that have not been playing tabletop games very long and are much more curious about tackling a classic resource management game, I would highly recommend you add this expansion to your experience if you feel the base game is waning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Catan - Cities & Knights:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 7.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">New additions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Commodity Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Progress Cards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Metropolis Figures</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">4) Knight Tokens</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">5) Barbarian Track w/ Boat Figure</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">6) Development Flip Charts</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-35831124000121758592017-01-08T22:13:00.001-05:002017-01-08T23:32:00.885-05:00Top 10 Expansions We Own: #10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Greetings all faithful readers and tabletop enthusiasts! For the next 10 weeks we will be doing our top 10 Expansions </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><i>that we own</i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">! This list in no way reflects our opinions of the greatest expansions ever released, only the expansions we have purchased. Since we only review games that we own, we will therefore only review the best expansions that we own as well. Our number 10 is Machi Koro: Millionaires Row. While the base game of Machi Koro is a good game, it needed more variety and one specific, vital change in order to fix a broken mechanic. Read on to see why.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Machi Koro as a whole has a variation of options, but just like all expansions for games, we get more variety with them and Millionaire’s Row provides just that. This expansion provides players with 14 new establishment cards, (20 major establishment cards, and 60 regular establishment cards in all), 28 renovation tokens, along with one other very important change in the setup. Instead of laying out a grid of cards for all players to choose stacks of the individual establishments, all cards are now shuffled together and laid out to make a single row of 10 unique cards which makes up the marketplace. If you draw a copy of a card that is already in the marketplace, you simply stack the new card on top of the old one. This eliminates the old marketplace that allowed anyone to simply purchase however many cards of one type that they wanted. Now you can’t buy all of the bakery’s and win nearly 98% of the time by using that simple strategy. This is excellent considering it wasn’t hard to break the original Machi Koro game.</span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The cards in Millionaire’s Row seem to add to a slightly more aggressive approach to the game. I wouldn’t say that they add a substantial amount of weight, but they add enough to make the game much better, and in my opinion much better than the harbor expansion. Just like the base game, we have new cards that assist in cooperative ways, but also take away from each player. The renovation tokens are a new addition to the game. Some of the cards refer to being ‘renovated’ and this means a renovation token is placed over the card indicating it is temporarily inactive due to being renovated. In order to get this removed, you wait until your next turn is active, and you roll the dice, earn income, and remove the token. The renovation process does add a new alteration to the players progress during gameplay. To date, Millionaire’s Row is definitely the best expansion released for Machi Koro and changes the game enough that it lands a spot in our top 10 list!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Machi Koro: Millionaires Row</span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 7/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">New additions: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Marketplace Row</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) 14 New Establishments</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Renovation & Renovation Tokens</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-760551450994193902017-01-01T22:35:00.000-05:002017-01-02T14:53:09.867-05:00Boards & Brews at Home: Blood Rage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Well this is it, the creme del a creme. A game so incredibly well made I could just weep. To further the viking theme of this game, we also have our mead that we picked up from New Day Meadery in Fountain Square. A little over a year ago we met up with one of our local gaming groups and played a game called Blood Rage. At the time I had only read about it and I was highly intrigued so when I saw it at game night I was thoroughly excited. The fact that it has a viking theme was the first selling point for me, and second it’s a miniatures game, and finally it had a unique array and splice of mechanisms in such a way that I had never seen combined before. At first glance the game appears more overwhelming to some, but it’s really not that bad. We purchased this game about 6 months ago, before it briefly went out of print and have played it just about 40 times since then and it hasn’t worn down a bit for us! Life is fleeting, but glory is eternal. Now is the time for rage!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In Blood Rage the end of time is upon you, and Odin always knew Ragnarok would come. He never found a way to prevent the destruction of Midgard, but you will not cower and wait for the end. You are the viking leader of a proud, ancient clan and even in the face of final doom of the world, you will command your warriors on the field of battle, conquering and pillaging as you were born to do. The gods are generous in their twilight hours, bestowing gifts and boons upon you. Even the most monstrous creatures of Midgard seek to find glory in the little time they have left, and so they too may join you in your assault. Before each age begins, all players at the table will have a drafting phase which you will allocate various types of cards into your hand that will assist you through that age. As you march across the land, everything is sectioned off by portions which are color-coded. You have so many various methods to gaining massive amounts of glory in this game so even if you fall much further behind your opponents, the opportunity for many types of strategic play is still at your fingertips. You can account for the most strength of your warriors by covering the vast majority of real-estate over Manheim, Alfheim, or Jotunheim. Within these districts are smaller sub-divisions of territory that you can try to pillage, and your opponents can challenge you and battle for the land. If you successfully pillage, you can gain the ability on that territory which can advance one of your tokens on the stats tracker. You can also gain glory for winning, and other abilities as well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The cards in this game will heavily assist you in your strategic planning throughout each age. In some instances, your opponents can optionally choose to pillage with you if you call it out, and then the battle between everyone begins. Each player will choose a card from their hand and play it in front of them. You will gain glory through victory in battle, and dying valiantly at the feet of your enemies. The goal in this game is to achieve the greatest amount of glory before the world finally comes to it’s fiery end. The game progresses through three ages, as Ragnarok slowly consumes the world. Whoever has the most glory by the end of the game is the winner. Claire and I have been playing tabletop games for a while, even before we latched onto the tabletop revolution trolley of modern board games. We’ve played numerous resource management, area control, social deduction, worker-placement, programming, deck-building, tile-placement, dungeon crawl, cooperative, card-drafting, abstract games and so much more in the span of several years. Yet, through it all we have not come up against something anywhere near this good. I could lose in this game numerous times over and it would still never take it’s toll on me. Blood Rage is one of the only games we own that once we complete it, we don’t move onto a different game, we simply sort everything, and then start another game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">We own 8 different miniatures games, and 6 of them are not pre-painted. The detail of the miniatures in Blood Rage will certainly prove to be the most challenging and time consuming set of miniatures that we end up painting. Everyone appreciates attention to detail and since this is a Cool Mini Or Not game, you can expect great things out of their miniatures, but this one in our opinion far surpasses any other game put out by them. Aside from the miniatures, the overall artwork of the game has good depth. Everything about this game is logically integrated, and it scales beautifully. As a 2 - 4 player game, it compensates the setup well between any of those numbers but is the most enjoyable at 4 players. It plays on average between 60 to 90 minutes, but after you’ve played it as many times as we have you’ll be able to run through it in well under an hour if playing with two people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A game like Blood Rage can only be explained so much. You have to play this one for yourself to truly appreciate it and understand all of the different avenues that the cards can take you through. The combination of various mechanics is not one that we’ve ever experienced, and the fusion of these various mechanics exponentially increases the intensity and enjoyment that you get out of the overall gameplay. This game has everything that we need in an intermediate level strategy game. Normally in past reviews I speak of considering many different games if you gravitate toward them thematically, but in the case of Blood Rage, anyone who is an avid enthusiast of tabletop gaming, needs to play this one. I don’t know what kind of game could possibly come along and knock this one down into my second place spot. It would take a lot. I think Blood Rage is very possibly going to remain in our #1 spot indefinitely which is why I'm giving this one my highest rating yet, and quite possibly the highest rating I will ever give to a game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Blood Rage</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 9.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Area Control/Area Influence</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Action Point Allowance</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Card Drafting</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">4) Variable Player Powers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">5) Area Movement</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-33090634300753896452016-12-24T20:26:00.002-05:002016-12-30T16:06:04.768-05:00Boards & Brews at Home: Dimension<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Even on Christmas Eve we’re releasing posts for our blog! However, we’re keeping it light with a game we gave a micro review to last year at Gen Con in 2015. Since that time, we decided to purchase it and we figured a more detailed closer look would be good. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our Mead provided by New Day Meadery in Fountain Square, along with our abundance of cheese and meat that we purchased from the Cheese Shop in Keystone. Our bodies are filled with much happiness and it’s time to jump into a somewhat dexterity-like, abstract puzzle game for 1 - 4 players.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Dimension is an abstract, spacial reasoning/pattern building game in which players stack various colored spheres. 6 cards are dealt face up in the middle with different rules on them that instruct the players each round. Some may say no black sphere may touch an orange sphere, or no green sphere can have another sphere on top of it. A timer is used so everyone has a limited amount of time to form their grouping. When the time is up, each player scores one point for every sphere in their structure, but penalized for the cards they did not complete. It sounds simple, but many of the cards interact in unexpected ways. That, combined with the limited time and you have an interesting, and somewhat challenging game.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Taking a closer look at these cards, we know that they are drawn randomly for each round, and since there are many different kinds of cards, this picture is only one example of the tasks that you have to complete. So the question is, what happens when you draw two or more cards that cancel themselves out? In that case before flipping the timer, the players simply take those cards, discard them, and then draw that many cards back up so there are 6 unique cards in a row. You will always have 6 unique drawn cards in a row and for this round, this is one example of what we had to perform for our stacks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Dimension has it's challenges, and these are definitely more lightweight challenges. This is a fun, family game that has good spacial reasoning. While it is lightweight, this game can play tricks on your brain when you're racing the clock to stack multi-colored spheres with strict guidelines. The quality of components is definitely a notch above. The sphere's are most likely the first thing you'll notice. They're thick, well weighted with a nice texture. The containers that hold the spheres are made of cardboard with rubberized feet that hold the spheres above the table. The timer is just your average 60 second plastic timer, the point tokens are a thicker cardboard with a sleek specular finish which is nice. The game can be played in no time at all, it's designed to be very fast, which could make it an excellent filler or warmup game for game nights. The price is understandably higher because of the components, but we lucked out with this one about $30 cheaper from the ding and dent section at Gen Con due to a tiny dent in the upper right hand corner of the box. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would recommend that anyone spend between $50 and $60 on this game. It's an enjoyable game, but in my opinion only for the right price. On behalf of Claire and I, we wish everyone out there a safe, and very Merry Christmas!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Dimension</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 6.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Spacial Reasoning</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Dexterity</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">3) Pattern Building</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-19903624854234724522016-12-17T21:37:00.001-05:002016-12-18T11:15:31.802-05:00Have Fun Stormin' Da Castle!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For this week, we returned to The Well off of 116th St. in Fishers and partake in caffeine to assist us in building more castle walls. We seem to be building lots of walls lately. This will be no exception in this review either because we are playing the popular yet out of print tile-laying game, Carcassonne: The Castle. It's always nice to play in public locations, as we generally have strangers who approach us asking about the games we are playing. This happened with a few people today and we are always glad to see others taking an interest in tabletop gaming. As far as the beverages, we both enjoyed the spicy snowmen which were white mochas with spicy cinnamon. They were sweet and had a pleasant kick of spiciness to them. Very recommended if you stop in! While there are obvious parts of this game that overlap with the original Carcassonne, there are some differences that separate it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Just like regular Carcassonne, we are still building roads and walls, except this time within a castle parameter, along with markets, rooftops and wells. One fact that most people know about Carcassonne is that it has a large plethora of expansions, but The Castle is no expansion. This is a stand-alone version with similar Carcassonne mechanics, but specifically adapted for two players. You and your opponent will make your way around the castle wall, which also happens to be the scoring tracker. Along your way you can also collect items off the wall which can aid you as the game progresses. This is certainly one thing that I really like about The Castle version compared to the base game. As you continue to increase your movement along the scoring wall and building the castle, whenever the last tile is drawn, players will count out their scores and whoever has progressed the furthest after all scoring is accounted for, is the winner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If you’ve played the base game of Carcassonne, you know that it’s anyone’s game and people can take the lead or catch up in a heart beat. It all depends on where you land and what you draw. This round Claire ended up being the victor and beat me 99 to 79. While I do like the score tracker along the walls, the enclosed game area doesn’t make for as much diversity and unique map layout since you remain constrained inside the same walls every game. It’s up to the tiles you draw that will assist in making the game slightly different every time. Because of this more condensed area, it makes scoring at the end of the game a lot easier for people who become overwhelmed by the vast scoring details. We do like how the bonus tiles can quickly add a twist to the scoring whether you can double your score on a completed structure or score for a single, uncompleted structure. The players keep (largest house built during the game), scores points for the largest contiguous undeveloped area (empty tile spaces) at the end of the game. These variants do add a new approach to Carcassonne and in my opinion do help compensate for some of the more minor drawbacks. The artwork is what you would come to expect from Carcassonne just as the box is a minimal size for easier transportation. It’s a little confusing how you are allowed to direct roads straight into the castle walls depending on the tile and how many you have placed in a single area. Something like that is definitely not allowed in the original and it tends to throw me off almost every time I come back to playing The Castle version of Carcassonne. All in all the game is very good. We love Carcassonne in general so this will find its way into a fairly good rating for us. The Castle won’t rank quite as high as the original for us, but for all of the right reasons, we would recommend this one for you if you’re a Carcassonne fan and if you can manage to find it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Carcassonne: The Castle</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 6.5/10</span><br />
<span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz1zHzAiZN0LH8RMUMH52qU1_Nx9gc4oxLiCGfiOMstgcWarBllCTb-2NXd1J_Rz3uPlXglpYzkUOS2s4Zo7eB5OBel6XmMVHKMyuIM1eDC1I2c1EiUrp0UB6ItqIFF2ZrXsgHuUpwiow/s1600/6.5meeples.png" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Tile Placement</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Area Control</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-52488673605823566322016-12-11T22:00:00.000-05:002016-12-12T00:35:47.593-05:00Component Corner: Ep. 6 - Dice Decor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In this segment of Component Corner we discuss a couple of uses for dice beyond the table. Whether you enjoy board games, D&D or other RP’s, a lot of gamers understand the necessity of dice and the enjoyment of it’s visual appeal. There’s all types of dice ranging from standard to premium to polyhedral. No matter what we’re playing or what game calls for a specific type of die, we have a little bit of everything. Compulsive tabletop gamers like us could practically make dice collecting a hobby all by itself. Read on to see that there’s more than one use for these colorful eye candies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The various types of polyhedral dice come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and materials. Some are made of clear plastic, others are translucent colors, some are wooden, and others are metal. No matter what kind you have, if you own an array of dice, they will add plenty of color to any room and always be in easy reach when you need them. You can use them as point counters to increase or decrease your hit point status or other numbered methods if you aren't wanting to use an abundance of tokens. You could use them to determine player order or active player marker, or you can just collect them because of how unique and fun they are to have in your collection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Consider how nice a colorful and geeky center piece is when you have your gaming friends over they will spout out words of envy and praise when they see such colorful taste in your decoration skills. Not to mention, easy access to dice for when it comes time to bust out a game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This D20 pendant white perl necklace is just one of many dice jewelry options from an Etsy store known as <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/122014151/d20-dice-pendant-white-pearl-dice" target="_blank">MageStudio.</a> Be sure to check out their other necklaces. The owners of this page use premium dice and it gives you a feel for the caliber that they strive to create from. Why stop at necklaces? Why not go with earrings too? If you wanted to make your own, you would need a very small drill bit and a vice or other very strong tension clamp to hold the die firmly in place before drilling. It wouldn't be difficult to create yourself, but would only be advisable under the control of an adult that knows what they are doing and how to safely and properly operate power tools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It's not necessarily a bad thing to continually purchase high quality dice, just as long as it doesn't become an addiction and end up eventually covering your entire dining room table and cause you to compulsively purchase more allowing them to completely overthrow your entire home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span><br />
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Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-71083223052299012282016-12-04T22:09:00.000-05:002016-12-04T22:31:28.200-05:00Boards & Brews at Home: Wise and Otherwise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">We’re back with another at home segment to play Wise and Otherwise, a bluffing party game for 2 - 6 players. Do you like to stretch your creative and witty thinking to bluff your way through a game? How much do you know about old proverbs and phrases throughout history? How good are you at deceiving others around you to believing that something sounds convincing, but is entirely false? Are you a wise individual or just a smarty pants? You’ll have to really prove your creativity in this one to get to the end first, so read on to see our thoughts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In this game we are trying to bluff our way to victory by throwing the other players off with witty and creative quotes. It is a mixture of truth and deception. The active player draws a card that has an array of quotes from all over the world. One side the card has the beginning of multiple quotes, and on the other side are the remaining portions of the quotes, each corresponding to their respective country. Once the active player has secretly chosen a one of the five phrases to use for that round, he or she will first state the country of origin and read the beginning of the old saying or proverb from that corresponding region. Next, all other players using paper, pencil, and a creative wit, will create their own ending to the phrase. They write down their answer, and hand it to the active player (reader). The reader then writes down their answer for the correct ending found on the back of the card. Once everyone has turned in their answers, the reader mixes up the submitted answers with the correct answer. The reader will read off all answers and provide a number to each of the answers. Beginning to the readers left, the players will start guessing which answer they think the correct phrase is. The reader reveals the correct answer and points are awarded based on a 2 and 3 point criteria, with some instances of bonus points. Whoever makes it to the end of the board (the 20th space) first will win the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This game is interesting and somewhat fun. I wouldn’t say it’s like Balderdash where your sides will hurt from laughing so hard. Wise and Otherwise is designed to be more sophisticated. The creators really put in a lot of effort for the phrases on the cards. The game itself is not difficult, and really requires more creative minds at the table. You have to come up with something convincing to really throw the other players around you, and if it’s too obvious that one of the answers is not the correct one, the game will just drag and become lame and boring. Other players can use various tactics by voting for their own cards in the hope of throwing others off. The game itself is not much to look at, but it provides the entertainment and slight humor that you would enjoy in a bluffing game. I think we're going to hold onto this one for a longer term because with the right group, this game excels quite well. It's not the kind of game that I would do backflips over, but it's a good game to have in the mix if you are wanting to go beyond the more in depth strategy games and just enjoy some light weight bluffing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Wise and Otherwise</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Overall Meeple Rating: 6.5/10</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Game Mechanics: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1) Bluffing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2) Simultaneous Action Selection</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span>
Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000779532685249867.post-79961772622513237372016-11-26T19:53:00.000-05:002016-11-26T19:57:24.506-05:00Kickstarter Review #3: Mythic Wars: Clash of the Gods<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">On this review we return to Books and Brews for another Kickstarter release called Mythic Wars: Clash of the Gods which can currently be found <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/603868199/mythic-wars-clash-of-the-gods-and-cthulhu-rises" target="_blank">here.</a> We would like to thank <a href="http://excalibregames.com/" target="“blank”">Excalibre Games</a> for sending us a copy of their prototype for review. On this visit Claire had the Ace Perry Pear Cider which carried a pronounced pear flavor, sweet and tart with a dry finish, while I had the Grinch That Stole Thanksgiving which was a gingerbread spiced ale with a warm, tasty finish. Come with us as we compete in battles of mythic proportions!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><i>The old divisions of the pantheons have been shattered, and new factions are forming. Soon, the gods and goddesses will wage war amongst each other. But to do so, they will need advocates: fearless mortals who can empower them to fight. And so the call has gone out across the infinite realms, seeking mortals with the strength and skill to lead their factions to victory.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Mythic Wars: Clash of the Gods is a card game designed for 2-8 players, ages 12 to adult. In the game, each player takes on the role of an advocate, supporting a faction of four deities (gods and/or goddesses). Each round, the advocate chooses which god or goddess to invoke and bring into the battle, and what attacks (or other actions) the active deities should perform. After each god and goddess in play has been empowered with a chance to perform an action, the round ends. This continues until only one faction remains. In order to play Mythic Wars, each player needs a deck of 4 cards, representing their faction of deities (gods and goddesses); at least one six-sided die for resolving rolls; and enough tokens (or assorted dice) to clearly represent each entity’s current energy point total and various other effects.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Setup begins with each player setting their 4 cards from their faction deck lying face down (uninvoked) in front of them. The players determine which player’s faction will invoke first. This faction is referred to the “Prime Faction” (for the first round). The game is divided into rounds, with each round lasting until all entities in the battle have been empowered. One round consists of up to 4 phases: 1) The start of the round phase which is starting with the prime faction, and continuing clockwise, players resolve any abilities on active (face up) entities that occur at the start of a round. 2) If there is at least 1 uninvoked deity in any faction deck, there is an Invocation Phase. When this happens the player declares which of the uninvoked deities in their faction they will invoke, flip over the card for that entity, read the chosen entity’s scores and abilities aloud and put a number of energy points on that entity’s card equal to it’s power score. 3) Once the Invocation Phase is complete, the Empowerment Phase begins. The advocate player for the prime faction must empower one entity from within that faction. When the entity is empowered it may either attack another entity, activate their energy ability (if they have one) or do nothing. The entity is then turned sideways to indicate that it has been empowered. 4) Finally, the round ends with the End of Round Phase. Starting with the prime faction, and continuing clockwise, you will resolve any abilities on entities that occur at the end of a round. In a nutshell, that’s the basics of how a players round are handled.</span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWPO3pWsfCbYtmjgDDZ2PQmhcHAJo4k8xEXzuQwT80ZVumMM-V-eZGXK1EXi3dkc6ZddDWzlJf4QxnM7mlo2IDgK7RNxwJeZSSrT2KPNI168-iF3BGKvKLIm5TVe3tpuQRmlvgikmZE8/s1600/MW2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWPO3pWsfCbYtmjgDDZ2PQmhcHAJo4k8xEXzuQwT80ZVumMM-V-eZGXK1EXi3dkc6ZddDWzlJf4QxnM7mlo2IDgK7RNxwJeZSSrT2KPNI168-iF3BGKvKLIm5TVe3tpuQRmlvgikmZE8/s320/MW2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Looking at the artwork on some of the various cards, some appear to be actual pictures and others are drawings so there’s an inconsistency there that we aren’t crazy about. We like the idea of combining lots of different mythologies, but we would have liked to have seen original artwork because this does feel a little sloppy, but I believe they did credit the sources that they used. It was nice how the inner casing inside of the box also acted as a dice tray. However, for this prototype there were two sections for components, but only one was holding the main deck of cards, and the other was completely empty. There were no tokens to use as energy point counters, or a six-sided die for rolling during combat. We are guessing that the full version will come with actual tokens and possibly upgraded to a high quality but for now, we had to find our own substitution for the point counters. Luckily for us, we have hundreds of extra dice stored away for situations like this. There was no shortage of D20’s or six-sided dice for us. The instructions seemed to be a little convoluted in different areas like when specifically we would be allowed or if we were to draw more cards from the main deck or not, but most of the explanations seemed to make sense. The game play works pretty well, there’s a lot going on in this game. The printout of the instruction booklet was 20 pages, and there was a lot within that booklet to follow. I’m not an expert in greek mythology, but this game is enjoyable and packs a fairly good amount of detail to keep track of. If you like this type of theme and a more weighted approach to hand to hand combat and player elimination, you should check this one out. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />Again, the Kickstarter page for their project can be found <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/603868199/mythic-wars-clash-of-the-gods-and-cthulhu-rises" target="_blank">here.</a> and to learn more about the game and the company, be sure to visit their website <a href="http://excalibregames.com/" target="“blank”">here.</a> We wish Excalibre Games the very best in all of their ambitions and success! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Mythic Wars: Clash of the Gods is a strategic card game of combat and variable player powers created by Eric Woodward. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Have any thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below.</span></div>
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Boards and Brewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573264941679983214noreply@blogger.com2