tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82522732495734882622023-11-16T02:34:06.702-08:00Board Gamer BluesAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09034004203188640954noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8252273249573488262.post-60731784836379963502017-01-07T01:15:00.000-08:002017-01-07T01:15:02.609-08:00Star Wars Imperial Assault : Jabba's Realm<div style="font-size: 13.3333px;">
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Hey everyone!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Join me as I make my way through this wretched hive of scum and villainy in the new Imperial Assault deluxe expansion Jabba's Realm.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Let's start by talking about Imperial Assault first.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Released in 2014 by Fantasy Flight games, and becoming an instant hit, Imperial Assault has since seen the release of many expansions. The base set rules were designed by Corey Konieczka (Star Wars X Wing, Descent), Justin Kemppainen (GoTh : The Iron Throne, Road to Legend App), and Johnathan Ying. With these guys involved, you know you're getting a well-designed ruleset. If you're familiar with the Descent system, then you already know how this system works, as it's a reimplementation. For those of you unfamiliar with that system, here's a brief breakdown :</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You build modular maps from interlocking tiles as per a certain scenario (or "Mission", in the case of Imperial Assault), and a group of friends, using their miniatures, move through this map collecting treasures and/or meeting other objectives while battling enemies controlled by one opposing player.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Imperial Assault is a little on the heavy side, and the learning curve is daunting but not too steep, so if you're looking for a party game this isn't going to be your cup of tea.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I am, at heart, a Social Gamer. I'm also a <i>titanic</i> Star Wars fan, from the moment I sat in the theater with my parents to see the original Star Wars (before it was re-released in 1981 as Episode 4 : A New Hope. That's right kids, the original release<i> had no episode number or subtitle</i>). </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Like many, that moment transformed my life. Thanks to a love of Sci-Fi, this film instantly became a part of my very DNA, so it's no surprise that I'm likely one of the easiest to sell on a SW themed game. Add that it's a one-vs-many style game implementing miniatures, and I'm all in.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">It might be worth mentioning that there's an app due for release "soon" that takes the place of the Imperial player, giving folks like me - those who can't get together regularly with others for a game - the ability to play the game solo (hehe!). </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I'm looking forward to this, but I greatly prefer playing with my friends. Games are, by their very nature, social animals after all!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Imperial Assault sees you and a group of friends take on the roles of heroes of the Rebellion as another of your friends takes on the role of the Empire, as you try to accomplish missions, battling against the Empire's forces all the while. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This occurs in missions that can be played out as one-off adventures, or, taking on a </span><span style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">role-play-like aspect, can all be linked together to form a larger narrative across a campaign. Ratcheting the role play mechanic up a bit further, you're able to gain money (Credits) and Xp that you and your friends can spend between missions for better gear or to amp up your character's abilities.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Keep in mind that the more experienced player should assume the role of the Empire, as there is a lot of bookkeeping and game set up that falls on their shoulders. Also keep in mind this is the role they'll assume throughout the campaign.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The campaign is driven by both a win/loss result - sometimes funneling the heroes into a specific mission - and the Rebels' ability to choose various missions from a deck that are then put into play. The campaign log also steers the course of events a bit, as occasionally it will call for a mission of a specific type : Either story or side.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">While the base game has a massive campaign that includes both story missions and character-specific side-missions, FFG have gone out of their way to produce some really quality add-on missions that integrate seamlessly into the base. These can be found in the numerous expansion figure packs.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Each of these missions has a timeline coded to it, so you're not really able to mix ages. This is only really restrictive once you start adding in the expansions.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Don't care for missions or campaigns or the Pseudo-roleplay aspect? No problem, as one of the greatest strengths of Imperial Assault is that it <i>also</i> has a built-in skirmish mode, so you and a friend can play a small one-on-one battle!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Where the game really starts to blossom is in all the add on content. And that brings us back to the latest deluxe expansion, Jabba's Realm.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Packed to the brim with fantastic Star Wars goodness, the expansion brings us a new mini-length campaign that will have you navigating the criminal underworld across various planets and small moons full of pirates and criminals.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You'll find interlocking map tiles for Jabba's Palace, the Sarlacc Pit, Jabba's sail Barge, and other Star Wars locations. Simply mix the included tiles in with the base set's map tiles and you have the ability to construct each of the campaign's many maps!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The expansion also includes sixteen new figures to add to your games. These range from Weequay warriors and Gamorrean Guards to a MASSIVE Rancor! Seriously, the Rancor model is titanic, and, thanks to the fantastic level of detail each mini has, this thing just <i>begs</i> to be painted!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Three new Rebellion heroes are also included, and are simply a blast to play! There's the "tank" Onar Koma, who's slow but can soak up massive amounts of damage ; the support character Shyla Varad, who's fast but can hold her own in a fight; and the ridiculously-fun-to-play Rodian gunslinger Vinto Hreeda, who simply Can't. Stop. Shooting, even when he's moving!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You'll also find a wealth of new abilities, missions and other cards to add to the base set.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Alongside the deluxe we get four smaller releases, each containing new skirmish and mission cards, as well as premium miniatures : Alliance Rangers, Captain Terro, Jabba the Hutt (yep, he's not included in the expansion named for his...er...<i>realm</i>), and Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker! Each of these sees a token included in the Jabba's Realm expansion, however, so you're able to play them in the missions. It <i>is</i> worth noting that the figure packs include new skirmish cards, agendas, etc that can only be had there.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Speaking of, lets touch on the components for a moment.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The cards are split between standard sized and mini, and are decently heavier than average card stock. I've talked before about sleeving your cards, and I stand by that here. They're bound to see a lot of gameplay, and thereby handled quite a bit, so you'll want to go that one extra step to prolong their life.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The cardboard tokens and map pieces are - as per usual for FFG - above the usual standard and should hold up very well under repeated plays.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">But here's the real gold : the figures.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">These things are ridiculously detailed and boast some mighty impressive sculpts, considering the price point of the sets. There's some issue with the occasional spear or light saber being a bit bent, as this is a softer plastic, but this is easily remedied by dipping the bent/warped piece in hot water, reshaping it, and then running it under cold water.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The components all fit back in the box really well, including the larger map tiles. I wish FFG would jump on the bandwagon of including a few plastic zip baggies for the smaller tokens and chits in their games as other companies are beginning to do.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">So that's the good news.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">What's the bad news?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Well, the side missions can drag the overall campaign out a little too long. The core set campaign is long already, with many players commenting that it's possibly <i>too</i> long. I've heard complaints of losing the story, spending too much time on missions that really don't affect the overall story-arc, or, worst of all, <i>losing interest in the game entirely</i>!!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Jabba's Realm, at a brisk campaign length of just four missions, could potentially be played through in an afternoon!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Another issue is that the game overall can be "swingy". What this means is that you're doing well, when suddenly your luck bottoms out and all of your work seems to be for naught. It's something that's really difficult to recover from. Right now it seems neither side is immune to this. Unfortunately this expansion does little to mitigate this, as the game can quickly turn into a "run for the objective" affair, denying your Imperial friend any kind of meaningful interaction.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Set up time can really be a problem.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The tiles are all numbered, and each map lists out the tiles required by number. If you don't have your tiles organized in some fashion it can take a bit to sort out the ones you need. I suggest mitigating this by pulling the required map tiles before your gaming session.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Lastly, I sometimes hear grumbling that it's really luck based. This complaint stems from the dice system used for battles, and I tend to agree. One bad dice roll and you can pretty much tell which way that particular mission will go. I will add the caveat that, if you view this from a role-play point of view (as I tend to do, playing it out very cinematically), the drawbacks become just as fun, as thematically the Rebels weren't always winning or even accomplishing their goals. This makes for a far more dynamic gameplay experience, but can be a trifle off-putting to folks who are used to a more traditional "win/loss" mechanic.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Imperial Assault overall is swamped with the SW theme, but never moreso than with this expansion. Returning us to familiar locales, we finally get a real taste of the "scum and villainy" Obi-Wan warned Luke of in Episode 4.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Regular"; font-size: 17pt;">That's it for this review. Thanks for reading and if I'm not chucked into Jabba's Rancor pit, I'll see ya next time!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09034004203188640954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8252273249573488262.post-78037933351927124082017-01-01T09:28:00.000-08:002017-01-07T01:15:56.162-08:00Tokaido<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Konnochi ha, Mina-san! (Hello, everyone!)</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Walk with me a bit as I travel the dusty byways of Tokaido.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Oooooh, this game!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">It's such a pretty pretty thing! Unbelievably beautiful components....I hardly know where to start!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Tokaido, designed by the renowned Antoine Bauza and illustrated *beautifully* by Naiade is a strange animal : it wants to immerse you in Zen as you completely screw your friends over as you make a mad...dash...across Ja...pan....</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Wait.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Hardly a mad dash. More of a loooong leisurely stroll. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">That screws your friends over.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Along the way you'll compete for the best food, the greatest painting, and the greatest souvenirs, amassing points for each. But it's not a race. You <i>meander</i> to your next destination, and if your opponent has arrived ahead of you? Well, you smile knowingly and stroll a bit farther on down the road.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You begin your Journey in Kyoto, traveling along the East Sea road - the titular <i>Tokaido</i> - on your way to Edo (the original name of Tokyo). Along the way you'll stop to admire - and perhaps capture in painting - the surrounding beauty of the landscape. Or perhaps you'll lose yourself in a bustling shopping district, assembling a collection of souvenirs to mark your journey. All the while donating money to various temples, and stopping at inns along the way, enjoying hot springs and the finest cuisine each region has to offer a weary traveler.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And that's the game in a nutshell.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You and your friends assume one of the many included roles, each with a special ability, and line yourselves up at Kyoto in preparation to begin your journey. In a neat twist on turn order, the person who is in last place gets to move their piece first. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This might enable you to actually take two turns in a row, or get stuck in this sort of weird nether region between all the other players' turns as you curse every move each of them makes.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">It's a strange, vying-for-control mechanic that drives this beast, as you attempt to arrive at certain destinations before your opponents. Once at each of the three inns you encounter along the road, you'll all stop and rest for the night. But don't be late, or you may find yourself paying exorbitant prices for whatever food is left over. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I love this game.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">By now it's likely clear I write about games I have a real passion for, games that I <i>love</i>. It's true, but only because I find it so difficult and saddening to write about games that I ultimately don't like. And there will be some, of course, that don't really work for me, but right now I want to talk about the games that do.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">See, board games are a kind of litmus test of our individual psyches, in that the old adage rings <i>very</i> true : one man's garbage is another man's gold. And if you're here reading this then you must have at least a passing fancy for this specific game. Hopefully this review - and my others - educates you and helps in your game purchasing decisions.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I love gaming in general - and board games in particular - so much so that I am loath to run any of them down. I just do not want to be the guy who shifts someone's game-buying decision to the negative. What if a game that didn't work for me would have worked *wonderfully* for that person? I shudder to think of shouldering that responsibility.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">So here we are with a game I adore. Oh, that's not to say it doesn't have its issues, and I'll get to those presently, but for now let's focus on the positives, shall we?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This is one of the neatest games I've ever played.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The board is an abstraction of the journey along Japan's coast, with spaces marked out clearly via artwork appearing in measured marks along the way. Each of these stops have space for more than one character, but, other than the inns, not enough for all characters. This is the "screw your friend over" bit I spoke of earlier.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And sometimes choosing between two of the locations ahead becomes outrageously tense!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Well, as outrageously tense as a game steeped in Zen will allow.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Earlier I mentioned the gorgeous artwork. Wow!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The board isn't super detailed, but it's still mightily impressive ; It's a simple, eloquent layout of the road, the waypoints, the space for donating money to the temple, space for the food cards and the painting cards, and a points track across the top.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">It really is an incredibly beautiful board.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">But the role cards have it beat by miles. Naiade brings the style with artwork that isn't quite surrealist anime, isn't quite cartoony painting, but is all exquisite. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Each card lays out the starting cash you receive, your ability, and your name ; English across the bottom, Japanese down the side</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">A clever device for matching your role card to your traveler meeple (traveeple? Meeveler? No? FINE) is the colored chit matching the color of your meeple that plugs snugly into a hole in the role card.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The card stock is super heavy, and, unless you play with folks who constantly fiddle with their gear, will last a long time.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I mentioned meeples as counters, and these are standard fare, painted to differentiate each from the others.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The colored chits and the in-game currency boast the same hearty design, with the money evoking the Japanese 5 yen coin, only these have a square hole as opposed to the round one of their real life counterparts.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The cards representing the souvenirs, food and encounters are all standard card stock, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and feature more of that stupifyingly terrific artwork.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The box carries an absolutely stunning piece of artwork that manages to capture nearly all of the activities you can perform in-game, and the insert was clearly designed in preparation for expansions. More on those in a bit ...</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The rule book is concise and intuitively laid out, with an easy to understand rule set that's explainable in minutes, and is a joy to simply look at!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Oh! Felicia Day has her own promo role card! How awesome is that?!?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">On top of all the other goodness, I'd like to talk about the expansions : Crossroads and Matsuri. </span></div>
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<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-bold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Crossroads</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">, as far as the art design and layout is concerned, boasts more of the same. Just simply beautiful packaging and components. A level of sturdiness comparable to the base game is apparent as well.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Speaking of the components, this expansion includes a small board that you place near the main board that adds stacks of cards that alter how each corresponding stop works, offering up a crucial decision for you and your friends. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">For instance, instead of painting, your character can simply gain a Cherry Tree. Or instead of visiting the hot springs, you might choose to spend a coin to visit the bathhouse instead, gaining you even more points. You might forego taking money from the farms in exchange for extra luck at the gaming room.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Ah, The Gaming Room.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This expansion also adds a small measure of gambling to the proceedings, in that you wager coins, and, based on the roll of a new specialty die, break even, win more coins, or lose it all.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">At the Temples you can now choose to donate money or buy an amulet. These amulets contain a single-use effect, and can be mighty powerful when played at the right moment.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Lastly the shop is altered in that you now have the decision to buy souvenirs or a legendary object. The objects are big points, and can really sway the game!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Besides the new board and corresponding cards, you get 6 new traveler role cards that integrate seamlessly with the cards from the base set.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Overall a nice addition to an already near-perfect game.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Next there's </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-bold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Matsuri</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Just as with Crossroads before it, the box, artwork, and components all maintain the high level of quality, material and art design.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And just like Crossroads, this expansion adds a new type of card : Matsuri (festival), which are triggered when the travelers arrive at any of the three intermediate inns. This is my one complaint with the expansions, but is one that's easily overcome with time : there's so many different types of Matsuri that you'll find yourself referring to the included rules addition quite often. Not a big deal, but can easily slow the game down beyond its already leisurely pace.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And holy cats ; more travelers! 16, to be exact. These ALSO integrate nicely with those of the base and expansion travelers, allowing for a huge amount of latitude when deciding just what tack you'd like to take for any individual game session.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Lastly, also included are tokens covering various effects afforded by the cards.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Finally, I want to talk about the </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-bold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Collector's Accessory Pack</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">WOW, was this ever a great idea!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">First off is the box art that's evocative of the base game cover art, and is a stunning piece in its own right.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Inside you find a bag of <i>metal coins</i> to upgrade from the cardboard coins in the base game along with a printed cloth drawstring bag to store them in, a new <i>wooden</i> Fortune Die to replace the plastic one in the Crossroads expansion, five new "Furoshigi" (wrapping cloth) counters to replace the points counters of the base game, and perhaps the best set of upgrade components ever : plastic miniatures to replace the meeples. 16 of them! Unfortunately this only covers the base game and the Crossroads expansion, so I'm holding out hope we'll get a small upgrade pack of miniatures for Matsuri as well. There's also these cool little colored bits that snap to the bottom of your chosen figure's base, color coordinating with the role inserts, making it easy to tell at a glance who's who.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">These figures are so damned cool! Better-than-average quality plastic that holds the higher than average detail well. Going through them, I could tell - by comparing them to the character cards - who was who quite easily, despite there being some variance in pose here and there. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And in a genius stroke, also included is a <i>soundtrack cd</i>! </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This nearly hour long cd will transform your Tokaido game session into the ultimate experience, as you enjoy Japanese-inspired music played on traditional instruments. Some of the tracks have other ambient sounds as well, such as birds, waterfalls, or the sounds of folks bustling through a crowded marketplace. It's quite magical.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Give it a listen here :</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/-k5jRghKSOU">Tokaido Soundtrack</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">There's a Deluxe Edition that integrates both Crossroads and the Accessory Pack into the base game available as well.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I can't wait to get a game in with these new components! An already gorgeous board made even more so by the addition of these spectacular upgrade pieces! </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Simply lovely.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">However.....</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Fans of intense interpersonal interaction might be put off by the game overall, as there's very little of it. That's not to say you're not communicating, laughing, etc. What I mean is you take your turn, then your friend takes theirs, then the next friend, and so on, each person waiting to have their go, without any way to really affect any other player's turn.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">My comments earlier about "screwing them over" comes less from interaction, and more from arriving at stops before they do.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">"Oh, you're working on your painting, and only need the last panel? And there's only one more stop before the end of the trip where you can gain that panel? Well, how about if I just stop there instead...?" </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">It's an incredibly fun thing to do, but ultimately you're doing it <i>alone</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This isn't a deterrent for me at all, as I enjoy a wide variety of game mechanics, but some might find it off-putting. Heck, I'd recommend picking the game and it's expansions up simply as a conversation piece, it's all so beautiful.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And there you have it : Tokaido.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Thanks for reading, and if I'm not strolling down some coastal trail, I'll see you next time!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09034004203188640954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8252273249573488262.post-16429201114641494972016-12-27T15:19:00.000-08:002017-01-07T01:16:32.498-08:00Uncharted : The Board Game<div class="p1" style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Hi again everybody!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Today I'll be adventuring through dense jungles and ancient cities in search of treasure, and along the way might have to battle an enemy or three, as I attempt to discover the treasure that lies inside Uncharted the Board Game.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Uncharted was released by Bandai back in 2012, and was designed by Kisaragi Hayato, who also designed the totally bonkers Gamushara Gang.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I'm finding few people knew the game even existed, as it seems Bandai slipped this one out quietly for some reason, and I really feel this under-appreciated gem deserves some recognition and appreciation, even though it's now out of print. However, copies can still be had easily, and for a very decent price, at various places online.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I'm a huge fan of the video game franchise this game is based upon, so getting this to the table was an easy choice for me. Fortunately it also ended up being a really fun, interesting game!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Combining the aspects of a board game and a deck building game, Uncharted crosses this strange line where your deck interacts with the board, in that you're attempting to discover treasure and fight off bad guys while doing it.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">It also straddles another line in that while semi-cooperative, each player is vying for victory points.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And while I called it a deck-building game, that's only sort-of correct.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You see, there's a central shared deck that everyone draws from, and you <i>kind of</i> build the "deck" in your hand and play cards to your play area (or Tableau, as it's now come to be known) directly in front of you apart from the board. So while it <i>feels</i> a little like a deck builder, your entire deck is played open in front of you for all players to see. Any cards in your hand never stay there for long as you can discard cards for myriad effects, and as a payment for the cards you wish to put into play.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The interesting bit here is that each card's art is bordered by a color - red yellow blue or green - and those colors correspond to certain aspects of the game, such as red for fighting or yellow for searching, allowing you to discard them for their specific color's special effect, should you find you have a few cards in your hand you deem otherwise useless.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">So the game goes a bit like this :</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You start with 4 Basic Actions in your play area, and each corresponds to one of the four colors I just spoke of.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">As you move through the game you draw and play more cards from the central Action deck, building your Tableau, allowing you to execute bigger and better actions to take on bigger, badder enemies, or discover any of the game's shiny shiny treasures, as you interact with the various cards played to the board. Oh, and you're only allowed three cards of each respective color in your tableau at any time. This may later lead to some interesting play choices, as incoming cards boot in-play cards out of your tableau.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Speaking of, I can't recall the last time outside of Tiny Epic Galaxies that I've ran across a board - especially one that supports four players - that packs so much into such a small amount of real estate.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Across the top of the board is the VP track, where you and your co-adventurers will move your ancient coin token along as you gain (and sometimes lose!) VP.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Below this is the Action Pane, a 3x2 area where the treasure and enemy cards are played.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">To one side of this is pretty much the whole of the game's rules laid out, while to the other side is where the Action, Special Actions, and Adventure decks are placed.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">As you interact with the board - either by discovering treasure or battling bad guys - cards in the Action Pane will be added or removed as scored by the players.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You score cards by gaining enough search tokens (in the case of treasure cards) or having more attack points (in the case of enemy cards), and those cards are then removed and replaced with new cards from the Adventure Deck</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Each player also assumes the role of one of the main characters from the video game series : Nathan Drake, Sully, Elena etc, and are given a card used to track health that they place in their tableau representing that character. In a neat bit of minor difficulty scaling, these cards are dual-sided, with one side carrying potentially game-altering effects.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Another scaling aspect is the adjustment of the contents of the Adventure Deck. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You can noodle with these contents, increasing or decreasing the game's overall difficulty, as the deck also scales in size to the number of players.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You attempt to gain as many VP as you can while also helping the other players, before either the Adventure Deck or Action Deck runs out of cards.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Getting down to those last few cards really amps the tension up!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I've found that during a game, a player can jump very far ahead in VP, only to have them stripped away later in the game. This lends a thrilling, seat-of-your-pants element to the proceedings as the game goes on. In my last game, as an example, I was really far ahead of the other players in VP, only to have a creature that drains VP from the person in the lead at the end of every round show up in the Adventure pane, with no easy way to kill it. Consequently, as the game ended, I only won by one point! </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The board and components are average quality, not much different than any other card or board game, and might actually wear quickly with frequent plays. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Everything you need to play is included, and I suggest sleeving the cards to help prolong their life.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Let's talk a little about the theme.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The Uncharted series is a <i>massively</i> popular franchise, with four games to its ranks, which allows for the use of a rich, densely populated universe.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This is reflected pretty well in the cards, but ultimately can feel a little pasted on to the ruleset.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">You don't get to keep the treasures you and your friends discover ; you simply take whatever action or execute whatever effect is listed on them, score the VP, and discard the card. Which, now that I think on it, is a little like the games, but I wanted the treasures to mean more than just some minor effects or VPs. A couple had game-altering rules-breaking effects while they were in play, but this led to the dilemma of scoring them - and thereby removing their effect from the game - for the VP or simply leaving them there, clogging up the board.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And fighting the bad guys should have a larger impact on the game as well. That specific mechanic is simply adding up your Attack Points and comparing it to their health, then removing that card and scoring any VP they might allow. Oh sure, doing in a bad guy gains you one of the Special Action Cards, but these are sometimes likely to just be a higher-cost version of a card you already have in play.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Which brings me to my next issue with the game :</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Some of the cards feel "under-costed", while other are too expensive. As I spoke of above, I might have a card that, when I rest it, allows me to draw a card. I might draw a card from the Action or Special Action decks that is the <i>exact same card</i>, but just has a higher cost slapped onto it. It made little sense.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">They tried to mitigate this by giving each color a "special ability" that you can simply discard the card to activate, but that mechanic felt like a tacked-on afterthought, and comes off as simply fiddly.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The final issue I have is a weird one, with the in-game ability to add actions to your turn. May seem really good at first, right? Well read on...</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Play goes around the table, each player taking two actions ("resting" - turn 90 degrees - a card for each action to do so) each time their turn comes around, until everyone passes.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">There are cards that add actions to your turn, but you're limited by the ready cards in your tableau. If you front load your turn too early, you could be removing yourself too soon from the round (as, after passing, you wait for everyone else to finish their turns), which might make for some boring between-turns game time.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">One other aspect I <i>did</i> like is the idea that this game is simple enough to act as a gateway to board gaming. Casual gamers can pick this up quickly, and fans of the franchise might find themselves open to a new aspect of gaming.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">So overall I really liked the game - as did my playgroup - and agreed that it's simplicity and easy set up make for a fun, lite filler or end-of-the-night game, despite the theme and gameplay being nearly mutually exclusive. And since the game can be had on-the-cheap, so to speak, it's a game I recommend adding to your collection.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Thanks for reading everyone, and if I'm not lost in a Peruvian jungle, I'll see you next time!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09034004203188640954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8252273249573488262.post-11256559817211224942016-12-21T23:08:00.003-08:002017-01-09T15:14:07.820-08:00Arkham Horror The Card Game<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFb2p7BpM0smZouCET1Nk5vTIFHUnq9mMGb_dFNvPF1N_Aq4mXPfPbgY6ZGTtA5LOr3s_IpuWO_vhyphenhyphenYpekhrB_SvimEdb9PAtLtY5H_tA4DGY30k0wstCZlW1JJVgUo35DtS5dz6byFNlp/s1600/ahc01_feature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFb2p7BpM0smZouCET1Nk5vTIFHUnq9mMGb_dFNvPF1N_Aq4mXPfPbgY6ZGTtA5LOr3s_IpuWO_vhyphenhyphenYpekhrB_SvimEdb9PAtLtY5H_tA4DGY30k0wstCZlW1JJVgUo35DtS5dz6byFNlp/s640/ahc01_feature.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Hello again and welcome to the first review!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Today I'll be Investigating Arkham Horror The Card Game (hereafter characterized as AH).</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Released by Fantasy Flight Games and designed by Nate French and Matthew Newman, AH was released just this year under FFG's Living Card Game umbrella, and is a stylish scenario driv....wait, what? What's an LCG, you say?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Here's an article - should you care to click through - that explains it far more succinctly than I could. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Believe me, I tried.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Seriously, you would have spent the next 30 minutes or so reading about that distribution model a</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">nd it would have been...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">just...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">awful.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">So go ahead on over to FFG's page on LCGs, and then come on back for the review!</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/more/living-card-games/"><span style="font-size: large;">LCGs at a glance</span></a></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Are you back? Swell!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">As I was saying, AH is a scenario driven card game that...what? </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Yeah that's right, it's not <i>technically </i>a board game in the truest sense of the term, but as I go on you'll see that it kind of, sort of, can be counted among it's board game brethren by sheer dint of how the game is laid out.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">In AH, you take on the role of one of the 5 Investigators included in the base set, making your way through a multi-part adventure investigating weird otherworldly goings-on in the small town of Arkham, Massachusettes. If this sounds remotely familiar, it's because the game is set squarely in a universe clearly influenced - indeed, based upon - the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his expansive Cthulhu Mythos.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Each player has his or her own deck of cards that they'll draw from, playing them as the game goes on, affording your character investigative prowess, weapons or other - <i>stranger</i> - equipment, or even the ability to draw upon otherworldly powers.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">But you have to exercise caution, as everything in the game is either trying to kill you or drive you insane.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And this is where the game starts to shine. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Most games require you to keep track of points gained as a way of measuring victory. In AH, you and your partners are doing your level best simply to stay alive, and sane!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And in another fantastic inversion of game mechanics, <i>you're all working together</i>!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Yes, AH is a cooperative game, in that all the players are not playing against each other, but against <i>the game itself</i>! Whaaaaat?!?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Brilliant, right?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And here's where we get into the meat of the thing : The Theme.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This game is simply <i>dripping</i> with theme, with the story being told across the Agenda cards, the Act cards (more on each later), and little sprinklings of flavor text throughout.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Our first game, we didn't read any of the cards beforehand, letting the story unfold as we played through it. It was, by far, one of the most compelling game sessions I've ever been involved in. I'm a fan of the "Mythos", as it's come to be called, so I'm exactly the target audience and therefore not a difficult sell, but that doesn't mean a game can be lousy and still expect me (or any of you) to enjoy it just because they jammed a theme up its gameside! No!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">AH is a stupefyingly well designed game system that lends itself so well to this sort of story-telling scenario-driven gameplay. We even added some appropriate music in the background as we played : the damn near perfect 4 part H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu Music Ambience project, available on YouTube here : </span></div>
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<span class="s3" style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/tE6fOsAc9FM">Part One</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/eoKsBX_0SiY"><span style="font-size: large;">Part Two</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/p_xIr6ig9sw"><span style="font-size: large;">Part Three</span></a></div>
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<span class="s3" style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/fhgSTf0Zi18">Part Four</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">These particular pieces simply transported us directly into the 1920s time period in which the game takes place.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">It was, as the kids say, creepy as [redacted]!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Included in the cards are various Locations that are laid out as you move around the city, thereby earning its inclusion here by rubbing up against board game status even without a board proper. You could, I suppose, pick up the giant mat they've released with the areas the cards are placed in clearly laid out for you, but frankly, the design of the play area is so elegant you don't need it!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">As your investigator moves through these locations, you'll move your cardboard token to each destination, marking where you are at any given moment. You'll gather clues, interrogate evil doers, and try to gain enough knowledge and evidence to stop the coming of...<i>something</i>. And that's just the campaign from the base set!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This is told via the use of Agenda and Act cards, laid out in two decks across the top of the playing field, and in a nice touch includes artwork that evokes the feel of reading a book across the two decks.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The Agenda deck is the game's way of tracking the terrible things it wants to do to you, acting as a countdown clock, while the Act deck represents the progress your investigators are making as they seek to solve the mystery and stop whatever is trying to crash through and EAT THE WORLD</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Ahem.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Which brings me to my next point : The Campaign System </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Holy cats was this a good idea! </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The base set campaign is broken down into three scenarios, each ramping up the tensions and dangers the investigators face as they go on, building the story to its absolute bonkers climax. </span></div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">But another cool aspect of this mechanic is that you get some breathing room between each scenario, allowing you to spend your gained experience points - yep, a tidy little RPG-like mechanic - to buy new cards or upgrade old ones to include in your deck, thereby shaping your deck to reflect your specific play style, and making it strictly your own.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">On top of this (I <i>know</i>!) there's also a measure of accountability built in, as your decisions during the game can ALSO permanently alter your deck, your health, your sanity, or even <i>how the next scenario is set up</i>, thereby lending a tremendous amount of replayability to the game as your decisions <i>change </i>the way the rest of the campaign might play out!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">And should you think the game is too easy, there's an absolutely perfect difficulty system built in that both allows you to adjust how hard it will be to save the world, and eliminates the need for dice : The Chaos Bag.</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">This is a sack you dump a selection of tokens in chosen from an included large-ish pool based on your desired level of "Oh Jesus we're all doomed!" -iness. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">These tokens include modifiers that will help or hinder your skill checks, such as firing a gun or escaping from some loony cultist who's trying to shank you, as well as other symbols that allow for scenario and difficulty-level-specific influences, such as an Elder Sign (good), or the Tentacles of The Other (bad...so so bad). You give the bag a shake, and reach in drawing out one token at random. It came to the point where we <i>feared</i> reaching into that bag, as if something dark and otherworldly might be lurking there instead!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">"But what about the components?", you might ask.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The cards are standard fare - think normal playing cards - but with a nice finish that holds up to repeated handling well. I've been playing this game A LOT and I've not noticed any wear on my cards. I DID sleeve them, however, in the interest of trying to prolong their life.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">As for the tokens, they're of a fairly hearty cardboard stock, and should last a good long time, apart from the Chaos tokens, as those are shaken together in the bag and drawn on a regular basis throughout the game. I'm concerned this constant banging and handling might cause some wear, but the intarwebs once again came to the rescue, suggesting these slick little plastic "coin sleeves" used to protect rare coins. Apparently there's a size that's a perfect fit for the Chaos tokens.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The two included rule books - a Learn To Play and a Rules Reference Guide - are clear, concise, and intuitive, lending to a short learning curve so you can get playing.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">If you'd care for a taste of the game without having to drop the cash, I suggest heading back over to FFG's support page for AH, where the Learn To Play and Rules Reference Guide have been made available for download, here : </span></div>
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<a href="https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/88/53/88538d11-5274-4b4a-ac8c-e8d758f71132/ahc01_learn_to_play_web.pdf"><span style="font-size: large;">Learn to Play</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/c4/b0/c4b0d66c-d79e-411b-bdb5-b5d8c457d4bc/ahc01_rules_reference_web.pdf"><span style="font-size: large;">Rules Reference</span></a></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The base game, while providing many investigators to choose from, only supports two players (as some of the player deck cards are shared among archetypes), so if you have a largish game group, you might want to consider picking up a second core set. The scenarios are assembled using modular card sets, and these sets are also shared. This causes a slight inconvenience in that you have to tear one scenario apart and re-sort the cards into their respective modules before constructing the next, but I've come to understand that having the second core set mitigates this issue by allowing you to have all the scenarios built at the same time.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">So what do I think? </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I LOVE this game. Love it love it love it!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The design, the component quality, the theme, all make for a ridiculously satisfying game experience that I find is difficult to obtain with heartier, meatier <i>actual</i> board games. The mystical cherry on this otherworldly sundae is the affordable price point : for about the cost of a couple's night out to the movies, you can be horrified again and again.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I even cracked open one of my other FFG Mythos-influenced board games to rob look-alike miniatures to use in place of the character cards. It just added a neat little flourish, and made it far easier to see - at a glance - just where each other's characters were.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">But it's not all rainbows and sunshine. And the few complaints I <i>do</i> have are minor at worst.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Let's have a look at the box itself. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Most game boxes these days are a standard 11.5 ish inches square, with a height of just about 3 inches (which is why the Kallax shelves are so popular as a storage solution), but this game comes packed into a slightly smaller, shorter box.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">While all the cards and components fit nicely back into the box with a little room to spare, I foresee that once a good deal of the expansions are released we'll find ourselves up against finding an alternate storage solution. And that, kids, <i>sucks</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I LOVE the boxes these things come in, and want to keep the game in its original box, but being so expandable doesn't really lend to keeping the original box as a viable storage option. Even if you removed the insert, the box is too short to allow for storing cards on their sides, or very tall stacks should you choose to lay them down. It's really too bad because the box carries such fantastic artwork!<br />I can only hope that eventually FFG will jump into the "Collector's Box" market, and we'll start seeing some handy ways to mitigate this issue.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">My only other complaint is that there's no Chaos Bag included in the box! You get the tokens, but no bag! I had to rob the bag from my copy of Escape : Zombie City. Gah!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Oh, sure, there are themed bags available all over the darn place, but why not just chuck one in? It's a HUGE part of the mechanics, after all!</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Plans for the game include announced chapter packs that each contain a scenario that can be played as a one-off, but, when bought and played in sequence, create another grand campaign</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">I wholeheartedly recommend Arkham Horror : The Card Game, and I hope you get as much fun and satisfaction out of playing it as I have.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Thanks for reading, everyone, and if some Old One hasn't eaten the world, I'll see you next time!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09034004203188640954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8252273249573488262.post-77511214274690522482016-12-19T22:08:00.000-08:002017-01-08T23:11:32.952-08:00Episode One : The Beginening<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Welcome, welcome! Pull up a chair, make yourself at home! But be gentle...it's my first time.</div>
<br />
Recently I've come to the realization that I am an addict.<br />
<br />
Oh, not in the sense of "I'm addicted to these cinnamon candies!", but a full-blown, can't-stop-thinking-about-it, gotta-have-it-now hello-my-name-is-Jimmie addict.<br />
<br />
To board games.<br />
<br />
Over a very short time I've grown what was a modest collection of fairly unique games into a massive throng of space-gobbling artifacts that number in the hundreds. Some of which I've owned for a while now and have yet to see play!<br />
<br />
You see, I stumbled across a Facebook page for the board game database site Board Game Geek, and my eyes were opened to a world where everyone thinks as I do.<br />
<br />
God, that sounds cliche, doesn't it?<br />
<br />
How about "You've taken your first step into a larger world"?<br />
<br />
And it. was. glorious.<br />
<br />
I'd found a place where the virtual guy or gal next to me liked talking about board games, liked thinking about board games, liked buying board games, but most importantly, they all liked playing board games just as much as I do!<br />
<br />
This had two immediate effects :<br />
1) I could scratch my addict's itch almost anytime of the day and<br />
2) I went on a mad crusade to gather as much of the prized boxes of meeple-y goodness to me as I possibly could.<br />
<br />
These folks, they started talking about games I'd never heard of, games that were out of print, Ameritrash or Euro games....but damned if they didn't sound great! So I started researching the games being talked about, and the ones I liked I started hunting deals on. When I next looked up, I realized my board game storage required a far better solution than the one I had in place. Again I jumped into the online community and was absolutely schooled on what I should acquire.<br />
<br />
And that's when I bought my first Kallax shelf. Kind of the proud board gamer standard.<br />
<br />
I then found myself immersed in online shows about board games, because it still wasn't enough! I started spending all my non-playing free moments watching these shows, and after a time it hit me : I could write about the very things I am addicted to!<br />
Not just inspired, but compelled!<br />
<br />
So here we are now, you and I, about to tumble down the rabbit hole of reviews, game night write-ups, and any other geeky nonsense that strikes my fancy or claws unfettered from the jumbled warehouse of useless trivia that is my brain!<br />
<br />
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