Game A Week – Fluxx, Innovation, and Infernal Contraption

Every weekend, I host our game sessions.  Everyone comes over to my house. It’s convenient for me, since it is easy for my son Luke to join us, and with one exception, everyone lives close. As a result, I have a lot of games here, and I’m still collecting. A lot of the games I have are card games. They are small, usually inexpensive, and provide a complete gaming experience.  In addition, they are usually pretty simple to teach to new players, and have the advantage of being short enough to play multiple times over the course of a day.

This week is a sort of a ‘bonus’ week.  Today, you get three games, where you would normally get only one.

First up, Fluxx, by Looney Labs.

Fluxx is “The Ever-Changing Card Game”. There are multiple versions available.  We own Cthulhu Fluxx, Pirate Fluxx, Star Fluxx, and Monte Python Fluxx (’cause I’m a Python fan, too).  Other Fluxx’s available include Zombie Fluxx, Stoner Fluxx, and through small packs of cards, you can get Christian Fluxx, or Eco Fluxx.  In the end, the rules are the same, the games all play similarly, and it mainly depends on which theme you prefer.  The picture above is from Star Fluxx.

The rules start out simple: Draw 1 card, Play 1 card.  You do what the card says.  Then the next player goes. There are a variety of card types. Purple bordered cards are played in reaction to something another player has done. Green bordered cards are keepers.  You need these to win. Many keepers have a special effect. Yellow cards are new rules.  These make it so that you play more cards, or can only hold one card in hand.  These are the core of the ‘Ever Changing” appellation. Blue cards are actions you can take through the turn. Purple cards are goals. Each goal card lists two (sometimes more) keepers that a player has to have in play to win.  The goal pictured, for example, requires a player to have the starship keeper and the captain keeper in play.  Whichever player can do that wins.  But, each player can play a new goal on their turn, so you may not get a chance to win. Black cards are creepers.  While you have a creeper in play, you cannot win. You have to play them.

Fluxx is a good way to waste twenty or thirty minutes. When each game is over, just reshuffle the deck, and deal out three cards, and play again. The only real problems with Fluxx are 1) how random the game is, you can’t really plan very far ahead; and 2) you can’t effectively mix your sets.  Each one exists in a vacuum. Mixing the sets dilutes the cards to the point where all it does it make things take longer to finish.

The cards are written and illustrated with a good dose of healthy humor. The game is so much fun, we bought four of them, and might even grab Zombie Fluxx soon.

Next up, Innovation by Asmadi Games. I include this one today so you don’t think that all I do is give positive reviews.  Not that this one will be a bad review, it’s just… I don’t “get” this game.  The premise is promising: you travel through the different ages of history, scoring points, which you use to accumulate various achievements.

As you no doubt know by now, I play a lot of Dominion.  While I was learning Dominion, there was an online implementation called Isotropic Dominion.  Iso Dominion is no more, but they still maintain the servers and have an online implementation of Innovation. I played a couple of games there, and decided it was interesting enough to pick up my own copy.

Each turn, you take up to two actions.  You can draw a card from whichever age you have currently reached, or you can ‘meld’ a card onto the play area (put the card into play), or you can invoke a card’s ‘dogma’ (use the ability on the card), or if you have the points, achieve.  You win the game by scoring a given number of achievements before your opponents.

When you invoke Dogma, players compare their total number of a given symbol they have in play. Whoever has the most either gets to take the action as well (for non-demand actions) or forces his opponents to take the action (for demand actions).

Each achievement costs a certain number of points, so you have to take actions that let you score, but you also have to force your opponents to do things they don’t want to do so they can’t win.  There are also five achievements that can be scored without having points, but they often require complex alternate means to complete. Each card does something different.  Each card also has a different number of symbols on it. The card interactions are often subtle an surprising. The only way to do well at the game is to know all of the cards and how they interact. This takes time. We don’t play it much because of how steep the learning curve seems to be.

In the end, if you decide to check it out, have fun.  There was something there that inspired me to pick it up.  In addition, if you are an Innovation player, and feel you can help clear up some of the mystery, I would love to hear from you.

Finally, there is “Infernal Contraption” by Privateer Press.  It is set in their “Iron Kingdoms” setting for the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, but you don’t need to know any of that to enjoy playing this one. In this game, each player plays a ‘Bodger’, which is a goblin tasked with building the best contraption.

Each player is given a universal power core to start their machine with.  Then the entire deck of cards is shuffled and divided evenly between the players. This is their initial parts pile.  If you run out of parts, you lose. Players draw seven cards.  On the edges of each card is a symbol.  To play that card into their contraption, the symbols must match.  Each device added to the contraption requires a power core.  Each turn, you add parts to your contraption, and then you switch it on. Each device has a different effect, from destroying parts on your opponents contraption, to taking cards from their parts pile, or the discard pile. Others multiply the effects of your devices.

This is a little bit of a tricky game to learn.  You have to learn which kinds of devices are played in a line, and which ones can be played above or below the main line. Sometimes, your devices will backfire, doing something you didn’t expect or fully understand. And of course, there are the sabotage devices your opponent is playing on your machine to really mess things up.

In the end, it’s one of those games that is harder to describe than to play.  Once you are all on the same page, it plays quickly, if sometimes frustratingly.

To sum up, then, my recommendations:

Fluxx: Absolutely pick this one up. Easy to learn, quick to play, lots of evolving complexity to keep you guessing.
Innovation: Pick this one up if you are prepared to spend a lot of time with it to get good at it. You may want to pass on it otherwise.
Infernal Contraption: Another winner. Go get it, you’ll like it.

As always, feel free to leave comments, I’ll do my best to respond.  If you want to share some advice for one of the games I have reviewed, feel free.  If you have a game you would like to recommend I try, leave a comment or shoot me an email: tolenmar@yahoo.com.

If you have a game you would like us to try out and to review, or if you are designing a game, and want a group of playtesters, contact me through email, and we’ll see what we can work out.

A Few More Thoughts On Dominion

A few weeks back, I reviewed Dominion, by Rio Grande Games. Now, it remains one of my favorite games, one I try to play at least once each day. But I suck at it. I’m just not sure why that is. I visit the forums, read the articles over at Dominionstrategy.com. I watch youtube videos of games played by the best in the Dominion gaming world, all with the intention of picking up whatever pointers I can to improve my game.

I have played cumulatively more games of Dominion than anyone else in my gaming group.  Even more than my son, who won’t always play against me. But I came out dead center in the rankings of our mini-tournament. True, there were two others who did worse than me, but that’s beside the point. What am I doing wrong?

Ever since I first picked up the original box set, I have made it a point to play at least once a day. If I have no opponents, then I deal out both hands, and play that way.  I make all of the decisions for each side of the board, and follow all of the rules as if I were two people.  In this fashion, even without opponents, I can learn how cards interact and combo with each other.

But here comes the kicker: I lose. A lot.  How can I lose when playing by myself, you ask? It’s pretty simple. I always consider the hand in front of me to be my hand. I make plays with it based on what I would choose to do if I were sitting across from another player.  The hand across from me is my opponent.  I put as little thought as possible into the plays with that hand. And yet, most of the time, the hand across the table from me is the one that wins.  The one I play on instinct without much thought is usually the winner.  The hand I play, considering my moves, and how they’ll affect the rest of the game is the losing hand.

Ok, you say, so play instinctively, then.

I’ve tried. When playing live opponents, I play quick and with my gut.  And I lose.  Often.  Usually by a large margin.  When I slow down in a live game, I do better.  But even then, somehow I manage to be completely surprised.  I swear I could take notes (which violates the spirit of the rules), and still not know how many provinces my opponent has bought, or how he got to that point.

It really drives me up the wall.  Good thing I love the game as much as I do.

Game A Week: Settlers of Catan

Welcome back!

This week, I take a look at “Settlers of Catan.” Or, as we refer to it, “The game we love to hate.” or “The game that breaks up friendships.”

This game was designed by Klaus Teuber, and is published by Mayfair games. At it’s simplest level, it is a game of resource collecting and negotiation. Each player is a settler on the island of Catan, trying to carve out their own territory and make themselves rich.  You do this by collecting different resources, trading those resources with the other players, and building settlements, cities, and roads.

The initial Set-up for four players.

The board is different each time you play. The nineteen hex shaped tiles are arranged differently each game. The numeric counters are also arranged differently from game to game.  The end result is a different experience for each game, with different resources generated more or less frequently than in previous games.

There are six different kinds of terrain tiles in the game. Mountains produce stone, hills produce sheep, forests produce wood, fields produce wheat, and mud tiles produce bricks.  The desert doesn’t produce anything. It is simply where the thief starts at the beginning of the game. The numeric counters are used to determine which tiles produce their resource each turn.  The dice are rolled, and tiles with the number that matches the total on the dice produce resources.  Of course, to claim those resources, you have to have a settlement on that tile.

From left to right: Settlement, City, Road.

Each player is given a set of tokens: Settlements, Cities, and Roads. These represent the items that a player will build through the course of the game. Settlements and Cities will be connected to roads.  To build a new Settlement, you must first extend your road to the Settlements’ new location. Later, you can upgrade your Settlements into Cities.

Also on the board are ports.  These are important for when you cannot make a trade deal with other players.  At any time, you can trade four resource cards of the same type for one of another type.  Suppose you need wheat, but have four stone.  You can trade those in and get the wheat you need. Ports give you more favorable trade rates. In the picture above, the port on the left (represented by the ? mark) lets you trade three resource cards of the same type for one of another type. The one in the middle lets you trade two wood for one of another type, and the one on the right does the same, but with bricks.  Owning a port can be a crucial part of your strategy. You own a port by placing a settlement on the corner of the hex adjacent to the port.

The board after the players have claimed their initial locations.

Once the board has been set up, determine who goes first.  That player places one settlement and road, then the next player does the same, until everyone has placed one settlement and road.  Then the player who placed last, places another settlement and road, and then the others do the same in reverse order.   There are a few rules for placement.  Settlements (and later, cities) can only be placed on the corners of the hexes, and roads are placed along the edge. In addition, you cannot place settlements on adjacent corners.  There must always be an empty corner between any two settlements.

Initial placement can also be critical.  First, it limits where your opponents can place their settlements.  Getting to place your settlements in a choice location that forces your opponents to take a sub-optimal location can give you a big lead.  In addition, you gain a few resource cards to begin the game with.Your second settlement determines your starting resource cards.  In the picture above, red will get a stone card, a wheat card, and a wood card.  Orange gets wheat, and two sheep.

Reds starting hand.

Your opponents never know for certain what cards you hold in your hand. This information is kept secret. On your turn, you roll the dice.  Everyone collects the appropriate resource cards.  They can only collect cards based on the number rolled, and then only if they have a city or settlement on the corner of the hex with that number.  This means that each turn, it is likely that someone won’t collect any resources. Then you try to negotiate trade deals.

Suppose an ’11′ was rolled.  In this case, on this board, White would get a wood card, and Red and Orange would each get a wheat card. If one of the players had upgraded one of his settlements to a city, he would get two resource cards. Also, if a player has more than one settlement on the hex in question, he would gain an additional card.

Each player has a reference card that shows what is needed to build each items.  For example, a road requires a wood card, and a brick card.  If you have wood and wheat, for example, you will offer the other players your wheat in exchange for their bricks.  No one has to take your offer. Some might want more in exchange for their bricks.  Others won’t have bricks to trade. Sometimes, you’ll just have to use the ports. If you get the cards you need to build something, you discard the proper cards, and then place the token on the board.

The thief is on the move…

When you roll the dice, if a ’7′ is rolled, instead of anyone collecting resource cards, the player who rolled moves the robber token to any other hex on the board.  This has two effects: First, while the robber is on that hex, that hex will not produce it’s resource. Second, the player who rolled a seven gets to steal a card at random from one of the players who have a settlement on that hex.  In addition, when a ’7′ is rolled, anyone who has more than seven cards in their hand must discard half of them.

Between the robber, and players trying to make trade deals that benefit themselves and none of the other players, the game becomes very cut-throat and frustrating at times.  Sometimes you will know a player has the resource you need, but they won’t trade with you. Then, on the next players turn, they trade the resource they wouldn’t trade to you.  This is all because of strategy. Every player is working towards the same goal, and if you are in the lead, expect the other players to become reluctant to help you.

Road building is important for more than one reason, as well.  In the above picture, White has a road that has six segments. Orange has a road that is six segments long.  Orange has a road that is at least 5 segments long, and longer than any other player.  As such, he gets the “Longest Road” card, which is worth two victory points at the end of the game.  If white extend his road so that it is longer than Orange’s, he takes that card from Orange.

In addition to building roads and settlements or upgrading settlements into cities, you can spend resource cards to buy development cards.  There are three types of development cards.  One type is played for some sort of benefit.  The ‘Road Building’ card, for example lets you place two roads free of charge.  Another type is a victory point card.  These are concealed until you win.  Then you show everyone the victory cards you have.  The third are ‘Knights’.  These cards allow you to attack other players.  When you play a Knight card, you move the robber, and steal a card, just as if you had rolled a seven. Whoever has at least three knight cards in play, and has more than anyone else, gets the “Largest Army” card, worth two points.  Just like Longest Road, it can be taken away if someone plays more knights.

Game over…

The game ends when one player reaches ten Victory Points. Settlements are worth one point each, Cities are worth two.  If you have the Longest Road or Largest Army, those are worth two points each.  Any yellow victory point development cards are added as well.  In the above picture, White has two cities, one settlement, the Largest Army card, and two Victory Point cards for a total of 9 points.  Orange has three cities, a settlement, one victory point card, and the Longest Road.  With ten points, he just edges out White for the win.

This is one of the longer games our group plays.  With setup included, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half. It is a lot of fun, but when the negotiations get intense, and you are only one point away from winning, and you just can’t get that last one item you need, it gets frustrating.  If someone takes an early lead, the other players will stop co-operating with him. After all, every trade help both players, and every player wants to be the one to win.  So as the game progresses, trades become more expensive.  Each player seeks an advantage at every turn.  Not only that, but if you are holding a lot of resource cards, and a seven is rolled, it can really destroy your plans.

Sometimes you can be one point away from winning, and you have the cards you need to take the win, and you only have to make it through the other player’s turns to do it. That’s when one of your opponents turns out to be in the same boat, and plays his final move before you get your chance.

Settlers of Catan is most definitely a competitive game. My gaming group is filled with competitive people.  As such, we can’t play it a lot.  Once per session at most, with often several sessions passing before we get it out again.

Don’t let that discourage you though.  It is a lot of fun.  It is one of our favorites.

Normally by now, I’ve mentioned the components.  I saved that for last this time.  Most of the components are quite good.  The Settlements, cities, roads, and robber are wood, and will last a long time.  The cards are a bit lightweight, but since there is little shuffling, they’ll last a long time too. The only complaint I have is with the board. In the edition I have (which is, as far as I know, the latest edition), the board doesn’t fit together well.

You can have a flat frame, or a flat board…not both

I know this is an issue with the set I have.  I know earlier editions didn’t have this problem.

Something else to consider is that the game is for 3 or 4 players.  It cannot easily be played by two.  You need the extra player to negotiate with, so that there are at least two offers on the board during trade phases.  If you want to play with 5 or 6 players, you need to buy the extension set.  It comes with more tiles, more tokens, more cards, and frame extenders so you can create a larger island.

Finally, I would not recommend the “Gallery Edition” that you can find at places like Wal-Mart or Target. The rules are a little different, and they aren’t compatible with the extension packs or the other supplements that are available.

Speaking of supplements, there are several, none of which I currently own.  Seafarers of Catan introduces shipping lanes and pirates.  Catan: Cities and Knight adds in knights (different from the cards), which allow you to attack other players, as well as defend your cities from a common foe.  There are others, but each one increases the complexity.  Also, each one comes in a 3-4 player box, with a 5-6 player extension, so collecting them all can be expensive.

There are also card and dice versions that work similar to the rules as presented above. There is even a simpler version available called Catan Junior for younger players.

Further, there are Catan expansions that represent historical cultures.  The rules are basically the same, but set in Rome during the age of Caesar, or North America during the pioneering days.  There is also Star Trek Catan, which is similar, but has a few extra rules that some say help balance the game even further.

Mayfair Games is a good company to work with, as well.  When I bought my copy of the 5-6 player expansion, I was missing the brown road tokens.  I emailed them, and they shipped a replacement set of brown tokens free of charge. (Most companies will do something similar, but not all, and Mayfair Games were friendly about it, and a joy to work with.)

My recommendation is that you check out the game.  It is well worth the money.  If you can find an older edition somewhere (either at a game store that sells used games, or online like ebay or amazon), I would go for that one just for the map pieces that fit better. I would, however, caution that you need to be sure that everyone who plays can get past bruised feelings.  Anyone who holds a grudge or has a bad temper makes for a bad opponent. I’m not saying that there will be fights, but this is a game that can cause them. Aside for that possible hiccup, check it out!

Game A Week: The Resistance

Welcome back!

This week, I want to tell you about a new game, called “The Resistance.” But first, I promised to let you know how the tournament went.

Five players showed up: Myself (of course), my son, Luke, Ben, Bobby, and Mike.  Aside for Mike this is my usual gaming group. I used an online set generator (Dominion Card Picker).  In order to cut down on the number of extraneous cards that might be drawn, I did not allow any cards from the Alchemy set (so no cards that required Potions to buy).  I generated at random sets of 12, so that each round, the players could each vote not to include one of the cards.  We also started each game with a hand of 4 copper and 1 estate, instead of whatever would randomly come up after a shuffle.

Each player played each other player once, and scored points based on how they did.  If you won, you earned two points.  A draw netted each player one point apiece. Zero points, if you lost.  At the end of the tournament, we totalled up all of the points:

1st place went to Mike, 2nd to Luke, 3rd to me, 4th was Bobby, and 5th was Ben.  I wanted to do better, but I have to admit that Mike and Luke are really tough opponents.

Anyway, on with the show:

The Resistance

Thanks to Wil Wheaton, and the gang at Geek and Sundry, (Yay for season two!), in particular their show “Tabletop”, I saw this being played out.  It looked like a lot of fun, and so it moved to the top of my wish list.  I grabbed a copy this weekend, and after the tournament, we played The Resistance.  We played it a lot.

So what is it? Well, it’s actually a simple game at heart. It is also a party game.  You really need five players, and you can play with up to ten. The Resistance is set in the future, where a band of resistance fighters is trying to take down a corrupt government. Missions are assigned, and teams are selected to go on these missions.  Complete three missions successfully, and the resistance wins.  But…Two of the people sitting at the table are playing government spies who have infiltrated the resistance.  They want the missions to fail.  Who are the spies? Only the spies themselves know.  This is a game of bluffing.  The spies have the ability to make missions fail, but if they give themselves away, they will not go on the missions, and the missions will succeed.  If the spies make three missions fail, they win.

In the box are several components, but the components are mostly just props.  If you wanted to, you could replicate everything with scraps of paper, or coins, or some such thing.  The pieces are very nicely made, though.  The card art is well done, and the different counters look like they will hold up for a long, long time.

At the beginning of the game, a character card is dealt to each player.  Two of these cards (sometimes three or four) are spy cards.  Everyone looks at their card without revealing it.  Then everyone closes their eyes.  The spies will open their eyes, and make eye contact. They close their eyes, and then everyone opens their eyes.

Whoever is the first player is named the current leader, who then selects a number of players to go on the first mission.  The number of players needed is determined by the play mat currently in play (two for the first mission, in a five player game). The leader hands the gun tokens to whoever he thinks should go.  Then all players vote to approve or reject the mission team.  If the team is rejected, the next player becomes the leader, and the process is repeated.  If the spies can get five mission teams rejected in a row, they win. If the team is approved, you move on to the mission step.

While on a mission, the team members each have two cards.  One is a ‘success’ card, the other is a ‘fail’ card.  Everyone who is on the team selects one of those cards secretly, and plays it face down on the table. The cards are revealed.  If a fail card is revealed, the mission fails. The rules for selecting cards are pretty simple: If you are on the resistance team, you must use your ‘success’ card.  But if you are a spy, you can use either ‘success’ or ‘fail’. So just because the mission unanimously succeeds does not mean that the group didn’t have a spy in it.

That’s all there is to it. There are five rounds.  If the spies manage to sabotage three of those rounds, they win.  If the resistance can succeed at three of the five, they win.

This game requires a lot of conniving, bluffing, and convincing. Most of the fun of the game is trying to throw suspicion off yourself, and making the rest of the gang think someone else is one of the spies.  It can be played quickly, too.  Most of the rounds we played took maybe ten minutes each.  If everyone gets into character, and there is a lot of discussion, it can take longer. You have to use the clues that are presented to you to make up your mind.

Finally, the set I bought this weekend includes “The Plot Thickens”, an expansion to the core game.  This introduces plot cards that alter the way the game plays.  To use the plot cards, the leader draws one (or more, for larger groups), reads it, and then gives it to another player.  That player must play the card.  The cards do things like force a player to share his identity with another player, or to steal the role of leader.  One card even makes it so that one player must vote for the mission team before everyone else, so that the others can make up their mind based on whether they think he is a spy or not.

It is a blast to play, and if you have a large enough group, I highly recommend it.

You can buy your own copy through Indie Boards and Cards. There is a version available that takes place in King Arthur’s Camelot, where the players are knights of the round table, and the spies are Mordred’s men. Check it out.

Game A Week – Mid-Week Bonus: Evil Baby Orphanage

Welcome back! I thought I would share with you one of my latest buys: “The World Needs An Evil Baby Orphanage”.

This is not a very complex game created by Wyrd Miniatures.  It was a Kickstarter funded project, and it comes with two decks of cards.  The premise is that each of the players (3 or more) runs an orphanage in the future, when time travel is available.  Each ‘Time Nanny’ adopts babies from our history before they can grow up to perpetrate their famously evil acts upon us.  Through the course of the game, each time nanny will give their own babies toys to keep them calm, and give other player’s babies toys to cause them to act up.  The first one to the agreed upon point total wins.

One deck of cards is the baby deck.  It is full of cartoon style representations of various evil people from history. Al Capone, Bloody Mary, even Hitler.  Most of them will take some sort of action if they aren’t supervised.  You give your own babies ‘good’ toys to prevent them from doing anything.  In this deck are also a few time machines.  Each time machine has a special effect.  You can only have one.

The other deck is the nanny deck.  It is full of toys and various action cards that can be played.  These cards are very much like those found in any card game: some help you, others interfere with cards played by opponents. Good toys are used for your babies, evil toys for your opponents.

Babies have a variety of possible types.  Bullies, for example, push babies out of other players orphanages, while biters run them out of yours. Creepers tend to wander away on their own.

The most irritating part of the game is that you can only win at the start of your turn. So if you adopt a baby that pushes you over the top, you still have to hold onto those points while the other players do their best to steal one of your babies, preventing the win.  This means that you generally need to aim higher than expected, and that once you cross that mark, everyone will gang up on you.

Still, its a quick little game, and a good way to waste twenty minutes or so. Look it up.

Note: In addition to our regular gaming this weekend, we will be holding our own mini-Dominion tournament. When I do my next Game A Week post, I’ll give you a rundown of how it went.

Game A Week: Small World

Welcome back! This week, I take a look at Small World by Days of Wonder. Small World is a wargame, but its mechanics are very simple and easy to pick up. People who normally only play traditional board games or party games have little trouble understanding the rules, and usually come back for more.

The counter tray…

When you first open the box, you will confronted with hundreds of counters.  Everything from victory point tokens to counters representing the races you will play the game with, to fortresses and troll lairs.  The counters are pretty heavy cardboard, and can take a pretty goo beating. The try makes organizing everything pretty easy, too.

Two possible Small Worlds

There are also two mapboards.  Each is double-sided, and you choose which board to use, and which size based on the number of players in the game.  One side of the smallest board is for two players, the other for three as an example.  The biggest differences between the different sized boards are the turn tracks, and the number of possible territories. Games for larger groups of players have more territories, but a shorter turn track.

This is the first of the details that I really like.  The boards get bigger, giving players more space to conquer, but the game takes a smaller number of turns so that it doesn’t take too long to play.  Expect 40 minutes to an hour, though experienced players on a two player board can make it go quicker.

To set up the game, you’ll decide how many will be playing, and set out the proper board.  Some of the territories on the board are mountain territories. You will place mountain counters on these spaces.  Others have a small square symbol on them.  you will place ‘Lost Tribe’ tokens on these locations.  The Lost Tribes represent races that were on the board prior to the start of the game. They belong to no one. Then place the turn marker on the board, and give each player five victory point tokens to start.

Mountains and Lost Tribes

Setup is nearly complete, but there is one more thing to do. You will now take the race banners, and the power tokens, shuffle them, and deal five of them (each) out.  These form the initial choices for the players to pick from. The remaining banners and tokens are stacked together to create a sixth choice, and a pool to draw from as the game progresses.

You are now ready to begin.  The first player takes some of his initial victory point tokens, and chooses one of the visible race/power combinations. If he does not choose the top most combo, he must leave one of his tokens next to it.  The same if he does not choose the second, third, etc…

Fortified Ratmen

In this case, player one chose the fortified ratmen.  Since this was the bottom most of the choices, it took all five of his coins to do it. he took the banner and power markers, revealing a new race combo for later. Each race banner has a number in the lower corner that tells you how many counters of that race you begin with.  The power marker also has a number.  the two are added together. So, for the fortified ratmen, player one takes 11 ratmen counters.

Ratmen have no special racial powers.  There are simply a lot of them, which will let them conquer a lot of territory.  But these ratmen are fortified. This means that until he runs out of fortification counters, he can place one in each territory he conquers.  This makes the territory more difficult to take from him, and gives him a bonus victory point for each one.

To begin conquering territories, you have to choose a territory on the edge of the board. You will then place some of your counters in that territory to conquer it.  Then you do it again to another territory, and another, and so on, until you run out of counters.  To conquer a territory, you must place two counters in it, plus one more counter for every other token already in it.  So, at the start of the game, empty territories take two tokens to conquer, while one of the mountain territories or a territory held by a lost tribe take three. Once players start conquering territories, the number of tokens needed can change dramatically.

It takes three ratmen to conquer this territory.

When a territory containing race tokens or lost tribes is conquered, the defending tokens are removed from that space (but leave mountains, and fortresses, etc.!).  One token is discarded back into the tray, gone for good.  The rest (if there were more than one), are returned to the owning player.  At the end of your turn, he will redeploy those tokens into other territories he controls.

There is one special rule about conquests: If you want to conquer a territory, but don’t have enough tokens left to take it, you can roll the reinforcement die. This special die has three blank sides, and on the rest are 1, 2, or 3 symbols representing counters.  If the number of symbols, plus the number of counters you have left equals or exceeds the number you need to conquer that territory, you do so.  If not, you fail, and deploy the remaining tokens amongst your other territories.  Once you roll the die, your turn will end. After all of your conquests are over, you can move your counters around and redeploy them among all of your territories to make some areas harder to conquer.  You can abandon territories if you wish, but won’t score for those territories.

Once you are done with your conquest, you count the territories you control.  You score 1 victory point per territory, unless your race or power says otherwise.  As an example, the fortified ratmen get a bonus victory point for every territory of theirs that has a fortress on it.

Five territories is five points, and five fortresses is five more.

Some of the territories have symbols.  These represent different types of bonus areas.  Racial abilities or powers might give you a bonus for every mine you hold (for example, dwarves), or for every magical place (like the wizards).

At this point, your turn is over, and the next player takes his turn.  Once everyone has taken a turn, the turn marker is advanced.  Once the turn marker reaches the end of the track, the game ends, and everyone tallies up their score.

On your second turn (and every turn thereafter, of course), you pick up the tokens from the board.  You must leave one token on each territory you control, or you have abandoned it.  These tokens are used for this turn to conquer more territories.  Eventually, though, you will discover that between holding territories and other players conquering your lands, that little by little, you will run out of counters to use for more conquests.  At some point, your race will have to go into decline.  This can be a strategic decision.  Do you go into decline early, and start over again? Or do you hold out for one more turn?

To put your race into decline, you flip over your race banner and power marker.  You no longer get the benefits of the special power (except in a few cases, laid out in the rules). You take all of the tokens of the current race off the board (but remember to leave one in each territory).  Flip the tokens to their in decline side.  You can no longer conquer with this race, but you still score one point per territory you hold. On your next turn, you will choose a new race/power combo, just like you did on your first turn.  If there are victory tokens next to the new race you choose, you get these tokens and add them to your pile.  Then you begin a new conquest, starting from the edge of the board.  At the end of the turn, you score one point territory for your active race, plus one per territory for your in decline race.

So if you have five territories with your new active race, and three with your in decline race, you will score eight points.   You can only have one race in decline at a time.  When you put your new race into decline, you discard all of the old races tokens, and the race and power banner.

I unhesitatingly recommend this game.  Each time you play, you will end up with different race/power combinations to use. In one game, your ratmen are fortified, in the next, they might be able to fly.  There are more than a dozen different races in the core box, with twenty special powers. This is the game that gets consistent replay at my house.  Its easy to learn, but tactically complex.  And it just gets better with expansions. Each one adds three or four new races and a handful of powers that can be shuffled into your set.

Then there is Small World Underground, a standalone expansion (that can be mixed with the core box).  More races, a few new rules (such as relics of power), and new maps.  With the Tunnels expansion, you can even play Small World with above ground and below ground areas to conquer.  A later expansion “Small World: Realms” eliminates the basic maps, and provides geomorphic tiles that allow you to create your own map to play on.

It’s well worth the money. check it out.

Game-a-Week: Dominion

This weeks game is Dominion. It is a Deck Building game from Rio Grande Games.

What is a “Deck Building” Game? In most card games, when you sit down to play, the deck you use is already assembled.  For example, Uno, in which you use the same set of cards every time you play. In Dominion, though (and other deck building card games), your initial deck consists of only a few cards worth victory points, and a handful of coin cards that you use to buy other cards to put into your deck.  Thus, over the course of the game, your deck grows and expands, and is ‘built’ as you play. Other deck building games are similar, even if the rules vary from one to the next.

Wait, isn’t that like Magic: The Gathering? No, it isn’t.  Because while each deck in Magic is different, you show up to play with a deck that is already assembled from all of the cards you have available.  In fact, Magic has limits on how many of a given card you can include, while in Dominion, there is no limit.  Of course, buying too many of a given card can be bad for you, but there is nothing stopping you.

What comes in a box of dominion? Well, cards, of course.  Each expansion adds more cards, and a bit more complexity.  The rules sheets are pretty clearly written.  The game itself, is after all a simple game.  Some of the card interactions can be tricky, though, so the rules also include a card by card description of how each one works. I own all of the expansions, and I can say the complexity does not come from the rules, but from the individual cards themselves (which we will cover a bit, in a bit).  Later expansions include small cardstock mats to keep track of various things with, such as victory tokens, which come in denominations of 1 and 5 points.  In my complete set, I have four different kinds of tokens: 1 VP, 5 VP, Embargo, and Coins.  Each has its uses.  I was surprised when I unpacked the first box to include tokens, and found they were actually metal, as opposed to cheap plastic or cardboard.

The cards themselves are divided into a few types.  There are Victory Point cards, which you need to win the game, plus treasure cards, which you need to use to buy the other cards. There are curse cards, which are negative Victory Points (i.e., they hurt your final score). Then there are ‘Kingdom Cards’.  These are the meat of the game.  The core Dominion box includes 25 of these kingdom cards.  Each has 10 copies (Gardens, a Victory Point card, has 12 copies).

Here we have a ‘colony’ game set up.  Colony games are a type of game, introduced in the ‘Prosperity’ set that includes Colony cards worth 10 Victory points, and Platinum cards worth 5 coins.  Not every game will have those two stacks.  On the right side of the table are ten kingdom cards, and each player has been dealt 3 estate cards, and seven copper.

Before I go on to how the game is played, lets look at setting up.  Dominion will easily play 2 to 4 players.  Once you have Dominion: Intrigue, or the Dominion Base Cards, you can play 5 or 6 players.  I don’t recommend this. Each turn drags along, and there is a lot of down time for each player.  Optimal Dominion play seems to be 2 or 3 players.

Anyway, the ten sets of kingdom cards are chosen, usually at random.  There is a copy of each kingdom card with a special blue border on the back that can be shuffled with the other (blue border) cards, and ten drawn.  You can also simply agree on which ten cards to use.  Once you have more than one or two supplements, shuffling the randomizer cards gets difficult, so there are multiple solutions online that will generate a list of cards to use. I use several of them myself.

For a two player game, each of the victory point card stacks holds 8 cards.  For games with more players, use 12.  5 or 6 players uses even more. For a 2 player game, you use 10 curse cards, 20 for a 3 player game, and 30 for a 4 player game.

The game is now set up.  (Other expansions introduce more new card types, which may require more set up). Each player shuffles his initial deck, and then draws five cards.

The game is pretty simple to play, just follow your ABC’s.  A is for action.  You get to play one action card, and do what it says.  B is for buy.  You can then buy one card from the supply. C is for Clean-up.  After the other steps in the game, you discard every card you bought, every card you played, and every card left in your hand.  Then you draw five new cards for your next turn.  That’s it.  Of course, where the complexity comes into play is when the kingdom cards add to one of those phases.  Its all about the combos.

The Kingdom cards used in this game come from almost all of the expansions.  They are: Haggler,  Hoard, Market, Mountebank, Witch, Chancellor, Great Hall, Caravan, Fortress, and Trader.

Of particular interest in this set up (usually called a ‘kingdom’, ‘board’, or ‘table’) are the witch and mountebank, each of which are attack cards that, among other things, put curses into the opponents deck, and Trader, which can be used in response to turn curses into silver.

This is the core of Dominion: finding different combinations of cards to help yourself, or hinder your opponent.

Each player takes turns (remember the ABC’s), until one of two things happens: If the pile of Province cards runs out, or any three other piles of cards runs out, the game ends.  Once the game ends, each player sorts out the cards in his deck, and adds up the total value of all of the victory point cards he bought (plus any VP tokens he gained).  The player with the highest total wins.

Some cards, like caravan, let you draw more cards and take more actions (play more action cards). Others, also like caravan, have an effect on the turn you play it, and on the next turn (for example, caravan lets you draw another card and take another action on the turn you play it, plus it lets you draw an extra card at the beginning of your next turn, too).

Others will make it so you can buy more than one card on your turn. Some cards affect your opponents deck, or hand of cards. There is not time or space to go into all of them here, but there are several places to go online and find descriptions of the cards, plus ask questions about tactics. The communities are generally good to new players, and you can learn a lot from visiting them.

The game plays in about half an hour.  5 or 6 players will take longer. I find that 2 player games are longer than 3, simply because the piles don’t get bought out as quickly. Set up can take about 5 minutes, and mostly depends on the cards that come into play (some cards will gain you other cards that can’t be bought, for example).

I play a lot of Dominion.  When you have all of the expansions, there are close to two hundred different kingdom cards.  That is a lot of combos to learn.  When I cant find an opponent, I will play solitaire, making decisions for both sides so I can learn. Dominion is a lot of fun. Because you select a different set of ten kingdom cards with each game, each game will play a little bit differently. I like that, it keeps it from getting stale. The only real downside to the game is that shuffling the cards so often (many times during the course of one game) tends to cause them to wear out quickly.  It is worse for the main cards (the VP cards, the coin cards).  One solution is to buy Dominion, and Dominion: Intrigue.  Both have the basic cards needed to play, so you can replace the ageing cards with a new set. (And once you get hooked on Dominion, you are going to want Intrigue, anyway.) Another solution is to buy the “Dominion Base Cards” set.  This is a set of only the victory and coin cards.  It isn’t a complete game, but goes a long way toward stretching the time you can play.

Speaking of ‘not being a complete game’, to use the expansions, you will need a base set of cards.  Again, this comes from Dominion or Dominion: Intrigue, as well as the Base Cards set.  but if you go with base cards, you wont get rules aside for the ones in the expansion.  If I were to make a recommendation, it would be to start with Dominion: Intrigue first, then work your way up.  I would save Alchemy for last. Intrigue had a more interesting selection of kingdom cards, while alchemy introduced a new treasure type – potions. Potions are needed to buy most of the cards from alchemy, and clog up your deck so you get to draw fewer useful cards.  In addition, since you need potions to buy Alchemy cards, it is recommended that you be sure to use 3 to 5 Alchemy kingdom cards when you use them.

I would say that the box has it right: I wouldn’t try to teach this to anyone under 13 years of age. It also isn’t really a family style game, but it is a lot of fun, and well worth the time.  It also tends to bring out the competitive streak in everyone. Check it out!

****************************************************************
An apology: I missed posting this last week.  I promise, I will try harder!

Game A Week – International Tabletop Day

I know, I know.  I promised this yesterday.  I was busy. But I am here today with my first Game A Week post, and it’s all about the fun we had for International Tabletop Day.

As I mentioned in my last post, the folks over at Geek and Sundry, declared March 30th to be International Tabletop Day.  A day they set aside as their own custom gamer/geek holiday.  They put the word out, and invited everyone across the globe to participate, either by finding an event near them, or by hosting one of their own.  The idea was to have fun, play games, and introduce new gamers to some old favorites, or introduce some new favorites to old friends.

Mine was a private event, and I sent invitations out via Facebook.  My attendance was kind of low, it was mainly my regulars (who would have been their anyway, it being a regular game day), plus the new woman in my life, and her daughter.

Gamer fuel…

In the week prior, I procured enough supplies to feed an army, and then pulled out of the cabinets every game that I had an interest in playing, setting them out so that everyone could see and pick without having to remember which ones I owned.

The heap

As you can see, I have a moderate collection of games, most of which are card games of one variant or another. When the girls walked in, and saw the stack, their chins dropped.  They had never seen anything like it.  But it was important to me that they see what I do in my free time, and I was very happy to have them show up.  Especially since I got them to play a few games with us.  And that was the point, introducing new players to some great new games.

Before everyone arrived, Luke and Bobby sat down for an intense game of Chess. Ben and I coached from the sidelines.  Then I got out a second board, and played Ben.  I messed up, badly.  Within the first few turns, I already was so far behind, I knew there was no chance of ever catching up.  But I did the best I could, and toughed it out.

Then the rest arrived. We first introduced them to Castle Panic.  I thought it would be an easy gateway into the more complex games, plus, since it was a cooperative game, there was no way for them to lose individually.  Through teamwork, we overcame the monsters, and we had hooked two new players.

Of course, as our favorite, Dominion saw several plays through the day. My son Luke took Terri aside and showed her how to play Star Fluxx, while her daughter joined us in a game of Munchkin. We played Othello, and Uno, and while that was going on, the guys set up a game of Settlers of Catan, which seemed pretty cut-throat, based on the discussion I was hearing.

The highlight of the day, though, was during Munchkin.  Ben brought a couple of promotional Munchkin Bookmarks with him, and showed them to me before the game.  I read the rules, and told him I wholeheartedly approved of their inclusion.  The reason being that, to use the bookmarks, he was required to tear one into tiny pieces, dance around the table, throwing those pieces in the air, singing “Tra-la-la, I’m a munchkin who will do anything to win!”  I forget what the bonus was if he did so, but it didn’t matter.

I’m a munchkin who will do anything to win!

Of course, I waited until he was tearing up the bookmarks, and was thus committed to it before I grabbed the camera.  I didn’t want to change his mind.

Everyone had fun.  The girls will be back for more games, and it was nice just to unwind for a while.  Next week, it’s back to our regularly scheduled game, and we’ll be playing Pathfinder, where I have a Gunslinger who is trying to deal with a bandit problem.  If he succeeds, he will inherit an entire frontier town, and be in a very good position to repay a large debt he owes.

But for next weeks Game a Week entry, I will show you Dominion, a Deck building card game.  I have most of the expansions, and every game, while using the same rules every time, plays differently due to a different selection of cards.  I’ll explain more next week.  Until then…

Something new is coming…

Keep an eye on this space.

I know I haven’t blogged much of late.

That will change. And soon.

I am thinking of bringing a new feature to this blog, something to kick everything back in gear. I’m going to call it “A Game A Week”, and I will write up either a review of one of my favorite board games, or a new game (if I have gotten one in time), or post a writeup of how the game went.
I have friends over almost every Saturday to play different games. We have a Pathfinder game in progress, a 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons game, plus I run a Hackmaster 4th Edition game.
In between sessions (and when sessions start late, or run short), we play board games. This will probably be a Monday feature, to give me time to actually play the game I plan to talk about, as well as get my notes in order.
While I am normally hesitant to put an actual date on these things, look for the first entry to arrive on April Fool’s Day. This is not a joke. I only just noticed the timing. The reason being that we will be participating at our house in Geek and Sundry’s “International Tabletop Day.” This will happen on Saturday, March 30, so expect my first post on this subject to be a run down of what we did, and how it went.

Of course, part of the time will be spent watching Doctor Who, since the 30th is the day it’s schedule to air in the UK. Don’t ask me how I do it. It’s all a bit Timey Wimey. You wouldn’t understand.

 

Oh, and: I still have traffic here! Cool!  Sorry I’ve been gone gang!

Geek and Sundry teams with ThinkGeek, there is swag on the line!

Right now, and you only have a few hours left, Geek and Sundry are giving away a $50 ThinkGeek gift certificate.  Check it out at http://geekandsundry.com/learningtown-giveaway/