GMS Magazine Unboxing Video – BattleCon: War of Indines

GMS Magazine Unboxing Video – BattleCon: War of Indines

GMS Magazine Unboxing Video – Puzzle Strike

And another GMS Magazine Unboxing Video – Puzzle Strike

GMS Magazine Unboxing Video – Power Grid

Paco does an unboxing video of an older game, Power Grid

GMS Magazine Unboxing Video – The Road to Canterbury

 

We are offering a new series of Unboxing Videos starting with – The Road to Canterbury

 

Latest GMS Magazine podcast featuring an interview with Backspindle Games

Latest GMS Magazine podcast featuring an interview with Backspindle Games

One of the cool games that came out in 2011 was Guards! Guards!, the Terry Pratchet inspired extravaganza.

Paco and I talk to the two minds and talents responsible for bringing you a game with chaos, tons of characters, spells, dragons, back-stabbing action, racing, pox and, most importantly The Luggage!

In this interview we bring you details on how the game was created, how long it took, and many details that you’ll find most interesting.

But don’t let me delay you any longer. Enjoy the show!

http://www.gmsmagazine.com/podcasts/the-gms-magazine-podcast-27-boardgame-ed

Victory Point Games Press Release – Paul Koenig’s Market Garden: Eindhoven Bridge released!

Victory Point Games Press Release – Paul Koenig’s Market Garden: Eindhoven Bridge released! 

Eindhoven Bridge: September 17-19, 1944

http://victorypointgames.com/details.php?prodId=199

Paul Koenig’s Market Garden is a series of small-format, competitive introductory-level wargames covering the critical first three days of Operation Market-Garden, where the Allies attempted to seize a series of bridges in Holland and end WWII before Christmas. Each game in the series covers a separate bridge: Arnhem, Nijmegen, and Eindhoven.

Eindhoven Bridge is the second game in the Market Garden series, covering the events happening at this vital fiver crossing from September 17th-19th, 1944. Each player commands their German or American forces so as to capture key objectives on the board while keeping your casualties down (and your opponent’s casualties up).

With plenty of decision making and Optional Rules to extend gameplay and realism, the very collapse of Germany is at stake as you make your stand and bring your enemies down at Eindhoven Bridge!

Click here for all the details and to order Paul Koenig’s Market Garden: Eindhoven Bridge.
- Victory Point Games

Review – Eruption from Stratus Games

Review – Eruption from Stratus Games

Designer – Chris James

Art – Andy Kurzen and Matt Plett

Thanks to Stratus Games for providing a review copy of this game

Ther are plenty of family board games out there and it certainly takes something special to stand out from the crowd in the crowded marketplace pitching at families. Getting shelf space and the attention of the masses is challenging for sure. What’s interesting about Stratus Games is that they make no bones about their target audience which is families and those who prefer rather simple board games. So you may not see games from them which will suit hobby gamers.

As you should be able to tell from previous posts, I am attracted to these type of games, primarily due to time constraints. They generally don’t take very long to learn, nor teach and they don’t take very long so they are good for introducing new or social gamers as well as families for the most part.

Eruption, a game for 2-6 players, age 10+ fits the bill here, at least on paper. The basic premise of the game is that each player has to defend their village from the on-coming lava flow from an erupting volcano as well as divert the lava flow so it attacks your neighbours’ villages.  Is Eruption worth your time and hard earned cash? Let’s dive in and find out.

Unboxing

Eruption comes in a sturdy box and you will notice that the board, tiles and cards are all nicely done. The cartoony artistic stle on the cover and components sets you up nicely that this game is meant to be fun, not a scientific venture about volcanoes. I found the whole package to be very attractive and very well made.

Inside the box you get -

1 game board – clearly showing the erupting volcano and surounding villages on the island as well as a victory point track. I really appreciated that space was also used to place a reminder of the game turn actions.

40 Lava tiles – used to control the direction of the lava flow

2 Eruption tiles – nasty problems are caused by these

48 wall pieces (straw, wood and stone) – used to try and slow the lava’s progress (yeah I know, straw isn’t going to stop much lava is it? But its a fun game, so go with it…)

36 Action cards – giving you a number of options to help yourself or hinder others and adding to the games replayability

6 scoring markers

2 dice

Gameplay

As Eruption is aimed at an audience who wants easy to learn and play games, you won’t be surprised to find that the rules aren’t very long. They are relatively easy to digest and it shouldn’t take you long to set up and get to playing.

Each player starets with 3 Action cards, one of each type of wall piece and the lava tiles are stacked and placed face-down on the volcano center. the 3 Explosion tiles are placed beside the board and points markers in the starting position. Depending on the number of players, players choose their village and matching points marker.

The Objectives are -

Prevent your village from being burned by incoming lava

Direct the lava toward other villages instead of your own

Each turn consists of the following steps, in order:

1. Assess damage for any lava flows in contact with your village

- Here you add Burn meter points to your score for each lava contacting your village (burning it)

2. Draw and place a Lava Tile

- you will look to steer the lava flow away from your own village if possible towards the other villages

3. Play as many Action Cards as desired (maximum hand is 3 cards)

- these can be very helpful in specific actions or to trade in for walls to stem the tide of the lava flow

4. Build a single wall, if desired

 - Hmmm… do I try and block a flow or build my village resources? And which material? Obviously stone is best but I only have straw!!!

 The turn steps move along quickly and there are a nice amount of choices for you to consider without burning your brain so definitely good for non-gamers and families.

As the temperature rises and enters a danger zone, the exploding lava tiles are triggered which can be placed to cause mayhem in the best strategies of your opponents who carefully protected themselves. I love this dynamic. You always have a chance to have a go at hurting another player. Tile placement is regulated with simple rules that call for alignment with other lava flows. Blocking walls are overcome if the die roll goes against you. The stronger the material, the better your odds of blocking. Obviously straw is barely helpful.

The game ends when either of the following events occurs:

1. A village burns up completely by reaching the last space on the Burn Meter and remaining there at the end of the player’s turn. The stack of remaining Lava Tiles is then removed from the board and all other players take one last turn.

-or-

2. The stack of remaining Lava Tiles is depleted. When the last tile is placed, the current player finishes his turn and every player takes one last turn, including the player who placed the last Lava Tile.

The player whose village is at the lowest temperature on the Burn Meter wins!

All in all, the whole process moves along well, is easy to get into and works very well.

Did it work for me?

Stratus Games has a very nice game with Eruption. The design has just enough meat for an entry to board gaming beyond a lot of overly-simple games out there. There is loads of replayability as the random choosing of tiles and cards as well as the luck element of the dice (which brings just enough luck to the experience) but isn’t too dominant a feature. You have to think about tile placement and minimise the threat to your village which isn’t easy at times as you are stuck with whichever tile you’ve picked.  The tension increases with the temperature of your village and the incoming threats. Interesting and fun, yes indeed.

Another aspect which is a both challenging and frustrating is that you can only pull more Action cards after you enter the 2nd danger zone and the cards then become a dominant feature through the last phases of the game. I didn’t have a problem with this really but it can swing things late in the game in particular, so if you are a planner and don’t like randomness you may struggle with Eruption.

Be aware , that this is an agressive game with loads of interaction and “gotcha” tactics required. Eruption is all about hammering your competition and burning them to the ground. So, some people may not like the in-your-face agression. Also, It is easy to feel picked on as you can be ganged up on quickly, and painfully. Over the long hall you can get your own back to a fair degree , however it may be a case of too little, too late if you are picked on early. Not a problem in the 2-player game but could get worse with more players, so this is an issue. One really nice remedy to that though is to play in teams and I think that this is where the game is at its best. In teams, you can always support and help each other and I think the team game is my preferred version and will be less threatening to those who don’t like “gotcha” games.

Very nice production and a fun game for sure.

Boardgames in Blighty rating 7.5

Family friendly?

Yes, but only if the kids are ok with the strong “gotcha” interaction.

For more information go to – www.stratusgames.com

Review – Singapore from White Goblin Games

Review – Singapore from White Goblin Games

Designer – Peer Sylvester

Art - Alexandre Roche

Many thanks to White Goblin Games for providing a review copy of this game

Guest Reviewer – Alan Hatcher

Singapore is a strategy game for 3 to 4 players, ages 12 and up.

I have to say from the outset that this was one of the games that caught my eye from the word go ahead of Essen 2011, simply because of the fantastic artwork and design of the game. But it was not one that I immediately picked up because of the limited player range; most of my gaming is either in a larger group or two player. So I was very exited when Mark gave me the chance to review Singapore and I was not disappointed, when I eventually found the right number of players.

Unboxing

The components are very nicely done. The exterior artwork carries through the game very well and fits the theme perfectly. All the components are high quality, as you would expect from White Goblin Games, and my only gripe is the small player screens that kept falling over.

In the box you will find:

A start tile and 6 land tiles, together with 42 building tiles,

55 wooden Streets and a black hut,

80 Goods cubes in 4 colors representing tea, brick, textiles and opium, (yes that’s right opium)

1 Victory track and 4 markers,

8 Colored pawns, two for each player,

4 player screen

56 lot markers, 14 for each player in their own colour

Money and a black bag in which goes 16 black chips and 2 white chips

Gameplay

Singapore is set in 1861 at the time Sir Raffles was assigned to set up an outpost of the East India Company and is an interesting game of balancing up legal and illegal trade, and hence risk taking, to ultimately be the most successful land owner.

From the outset Singapore looks like a fairly simple game and the rules only run to three pages but there is hidden depth to this game. Players start by building up the board from the start tile, which has four buildings on it already, and the 6 land tiles. The land tiles have 6 lots on each and vary in price from £0 to £4 and so the aim of the game is fairly simple; players buy up the land, build buildings and move their worker pawns around to gather, sell and trade for victory points; all standard stuff you say but there are a few interesting twists.

The first player is determined by the player furthest back on the player track and is designated the Raffles player. Building tiles are turned up from a stack, as many as there are players plus one more and then the raffles player takes a lot marker from each player and places them on separate lots, connected to previously filled lots, around the board. This is an interesting mechanism; there are plenty of games that use the last on the track first player mechanism, but by allowing them to influence all the players’ actions is very powerful and actively makes players try to move themselves backwards or force the other players forwards, which they can doing by using another player’s buildings.

The next stage sees players taking their actions, which as you can imagine is playing buildings and moving workers to take actions. A worker can move up to three spaces and use up to three buildings including the one they started on to take/buy goods trade, sell and gain victory points. To start with you have one worker until a tile comes out that allows you to add a second one. The second nice twist to this game is the use or placing of illegal buildings with darker colored back grounds; these of course involve opium in some way. Every time you place or use an illegal building you take a chip from the bag, if it is black then you simply place it in front of your player screen but if it is white all players are raided and the person with the most combined black chips and opium must pay £1 for each chip and cube of opium. This was one of the nicest elements of the game and added a nice element of luck set off against the risk you are taking.

The game ends when you can’t lay out another set of tiles and the winner is the person with the most victory points.

Did it work for me?

In a nutshell, yes it did. I have played Singapore several times now and each game felt different enough to keep it interesting. I like the Raffles and illegal building mechanisms that set the game enough apart from all the other tile layer worker placement/movement games to make it worth playing. Nice artwork a very nice theme and a little piece of history I know more about now. The whole game is played out in about two hours for 4 players.

I think the 3 to 4 players in very restrictive and I think that it is very hard for a worker placement or tile laying game to shine out, with so many in the market, and so I doubt that this will become a classic but I think it could be one that people starting thinking of as a hidden gem. Only time will tell.

Boardgames in Blighty rating – 7.5 out of 10

Family Friendly?

Some people may be concerned by the use of opium in the game but it is historically what happened in Singapore; out of its massive growth in legal goods also came a boom in the opium trade. So put in historical context I don’t see it as a problem. Certainly family friendly but for older children.

Alan Hatcher

For more information go to - http://www.whitegoblingames.com/

Desert Island games – So I asked my Twitter friends which game would they prefer to be stranded with on a desert Island if they could only have one…

Desert Island games - So I asked my Twitter friends which game would they prefer to be stranded with on a desert Island if they could only have one…

My choice would be Space Hulk as it scales from solo play, has variety and potential for loads of diy scenarios

 

@Geekinsight said -I think I’d go with Sentinels of the Multiverse. Co-op and extremely replayable.

 

@benny275 said - Le Havre for the desert island.

 

@dicehateme said -Originally,@monkey238 and I came up with Stone Age for its versatility… talked up in this podcast:

http://dicehateme.com/2011/07/the-state-of-games-episode-11-the-one-about-the-last-game-on-earth/

 

@SirRocket said – Chess, because of it’s endless depth

 

@VanRyderGames said -gosh I think I would take Arkham Horror. This game isn’t fair though I want MORE!

 

@slaqr said -I’d have to go with my nice Crokinole Board.

 

@MattWordenGames said -Tigris & Euphrates would go along to the island with me

@wartrader said - Settlers of Catan would be a good choice.

@liquidindian and  @ChrisChuaoo7  said - Cosmic Encounter, because of its variety.

 

So what would be your choice, hmmmm????

Review – Rallyman Dirt Expansion for Rallyman, from Rallyman.Fr

Designer – Jean-Christophe Bouvier

Art – Clovis, Stephane Gantiez

Yeah I was just a LOT excited to meet designer Jean-Christophe Bouvier at Essen and pick up a review copy of his new expansion for Rallyman called Rallyman Dirt.

You need a copy of Rallyman to use the Rallyman Dirt expansion. So, here is my earlier review of Rallyman -http://rivcoach.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/review-rallyman-from-rallyman-fr/ so you can see that I am a huge fan of this wonderful game. I’ve rated it a 10 out of 10 which is rare for me.

With Rallyman Dirt, we find the Rally racing goes off-road and onto a variety of terrain to give you even more Rallyman goodness.

Unboxing

As with the original game, the quality of components and artwork is excellent and fully compatible with the base game.

You get -

- 4 new double-sided game boards adding new road surfaces including dirt/gravel and snow

- scoring pad

- 2 orange gas dice

- 8 tire dials

It all looks great and with the rulebook in 8 languages will please its global fans. The instructions for the tire Dials could have used more than just images as I struggled a bit but eventually figured out how to put them together. And boy are they useful as you now have 4 different types of tires to choose from.

Gameplay

A number of additional rules are now available which bring you more options and variety making for loads of replayability  including-

- further Drift options on gravel/dirt tracks as you would expect. The new gravel and snow boards are excellent with even more variety of tracks.

- Double  Downshifting – can be performed on gravel or snow with the right tires but it is risky although it may make the difference between winning and losing

- Sweeping – Being the Lead driver now becomes a double edged sword as although you can kick up debris on the main road by taking shortcuts, you now have the problem of less traction than the cars behind you which means you use the new orange gas dice which have a greater rik of causing damage to your car

- Late Points – a very interesting addition is the ability to give yourself a penalty  in time to try and prevent yourself from having the starting position on the next leg of the race

- Rivers – an extra terrain feature which adds to the feel of an off-road rally

- Tire choice – You now can choose from Asphalt, Soft (for mixed road surfaces), Gravel and Snow (2nd generation) and the brilliant Tire dials make it all very easy to keep track of in terms of the type and number of dice, whether or not you can double downshift, and how much damage you can take before losing control of your car which is nicer than the damage cards from the core game.

Did it work for me?

Woo Hoo! What a brilliant addition to the Rallyman game. Rallyman Dirt adds just enough extra to take you off-road to give you a fuller Rally experience. The extra rules are simple enough, are easily implemented and the Tire dials take away the need to look in the rules as the key reminders are right there. The additions work well, and are easy enough to understand and you will have them down after the first play through.

Very simply, this is high quality and I love it. If you haven’t tried a racing game, try Rallyman and for that extra Rally experience Rallyman Dirt.  If you are a racing game fan, especially Rallyman, what are you waiting for? Rallyman Dirt gets the checkered flag!

Boardgames in Blighty rating – 10 out of 10

For more information go to - http://www.rallyman.fr/