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 Ragnarok 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.
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.
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!
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.
Today we return for another home segment with big box games and numerous small components to play the first edition of Mission: Red Planet. Since this game has a steampunk theme, we had to incorporate Dieselpunk beer. The refreshing honey amber flavor provides a sweet, and light taste to enhance our gaming experience. In the year 1888, steam technology has advanced to prodigious heights. Automated probes have been sent to Mars, and transmitted their latest reports back. These reports unequivocally reveal the planet's ground is composed of resources of immeasurable value. The first resource known as Celerium, a new element for the periodic table, and a combustible energy to increase 1000 times the power within a single engine. The second known as Sylvanite, is a material denser than anything found on earth. If we can locate ice, we can use this to create an atmosphere, which would allow the planet to be colonized. As the leader of a mining company, you must control the deposits hidden underneath the surface of the red planet in order to exploit these new resources. Our trip to Mars cannot wait any longer. Read on to learn how this process will unfold.
This week we are coming to you from Cornerstone Cafe in Broad Ripple. After standing in line for many hours down at Luna music for Record Store Day, we certainly welcomed sitting down with a relaxing game and a hot beverage. Unfortunately, it ended up feeling more awkward and uncomfortable than anything else. They clearly have a batch of regulars that they are used to serving and if you are not one of them, your service suffers. The food was an odd mix of temperatures and had an unpleasant, old taste. Our coffee and hot chocolate did not fair much better. It was maybe 1/8th full, but our waitress ignored us and there was an overall unwelcome vibe to the place, so much so that we were glad to quickly finish our game and leave. With as unfortunate as that experience was, this review is about to get much better with Kodama: The Tree Spirits. Read on to learn about this great little game.
In this segment we returned to Sure Shot Coffee for delectable iced mochas and americano's to explore multiple galaxies and colonize planets in Tiny Epic Galaxies. Through our discoveries we will find resources, score points and gain abilities as we expand our colonizations. Follow us in this 1 to 5 player journey of dice rolling, area control, resource management, and movement programming to see how great things can come in small packages!
