Game nite magazine issue 9 by Game Nite Magazine

Game Nite

Issue # 9

the magazine of tabletop gaming

e e r es

ag p 94

GAME REVIEWS “BOARD GAMES THAT TELL STORIES 2” IGNACY TRZEWICZEK

MATT LEACOCK GAME DESIGNER

CHAD HOVERTER SCULPTOR

GREG ISABELLI BOARD GAME ARENA

“ENTER THE BATTLEFIELD”

MAGIC THE GATHERING DOCUMENTARY

IN THIS ISSUE:

REVIEWS

HISTORY 04

Boardgame History

Part VIII Noddy, Solitaire, Blackjack

Vintage Games

Stop Thief

BOOK REVIEW 08

Boardgames That Tell Stories 2 Ignacy Trzewiczek

EDUCATION 88

Games in Education Game Events pt.1

INTERVIEWS 20

Chad Hoverter

Matt Leacock

Greg Isabelli

Sculptor.

Game Designer.

Board Game Arena Founder.

SOLO GAMING 82

Flash Point Jeff Rhind

Foragers Dr. Finn Eurogame.

The Shadow Over Westminster

Scoville Spicy Gameplay.

Valeria: Card Kingdoms Fantasy Tableu Builder.

Onitama Dice Tower Essential #2.

Knit Wit Party Game.

Worlds Fair 1893 Mensa Select Winner.

Flip City: Reuse Flip City Expansion.

The Broken Token Game Organizers.

Gruff Battlinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Card Game.

The Walled City Canadian Area Control.

Empires at Sea High Sea Adventure.

Comics Game Night comic strip.

DOCUMENTARY 24

Cuisine a la Card Delicious Deckbuilder.

Cataclysmic Deckbuilder.

SPECIAL FEATURE

COMICS 91

CONTRIBUTORS 92

Enter the Battlefield Magic the Gathering Pro Tour

Online Game Sites Pt.1 Board Game Arena.

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Game Nite Contributors

FROM THE GAMING TABLE

Game Nite ISSUE # 9

s I sit here writing this, I can’t help but notice that our peak readership is currently at 9,995 readers for an issue! When I first started I thought that maybe 500 people might be interested. I am stunned at the level of support that we have received and I would like to thank each and every one of you!

Cover Photograph by Serge Pierro. Onitama © Arcane Wonders

In this issue, Eric Devlin reviews the MTG Pro Tour documentary “Enter the Battlefield”. This video provides an insightful look into the upper echelon of tournament players.

Editor in Chief/Publisher: Serge Pierro

John Anthony Gulla continues his popular series on “The History of Tabletop Games”. In Part VIII, he covers early European Combination and Matching card games .

Editor: Eric Devlin

Bill Braun reviews the card game “Gruff”, as well as two Broken Token game organizers. Jeff Rhind continues his series on solo game playing and this time features “Flashpoint”. David Niecikowski’s begins a three part series on Game Events. This should prove useful for those looking to run an event. I’d like to thank Matt Leacock for taking time from his busy schedule to share his thoughts with our readers. Thanks to both Chad Hoverter and Greg Isabelli, for taking the time to be interviewed. Congratulations to Shimpei Sato and Arcane Wonders for winning an “Editor’s Choice Award” for their excellent two player game, “Onitama”. As always, if you are a writer, photographer, etc. and feel you have something unique to contribute to the magazine, feel free to contact us. We’d love to have you on board!

Serge Pierro

Contributing Writers: Bill Braun David Niecikowski Kevin Lauryssen John Anthony Gulla Kevin Cox Jeff Rhind Photographers: Serge Pierro Bill Braun Jeff Rhind Follow us on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/GameNiteMagazine

Editor in Chief

Visit us at:

www.gamenitemagazine.com

editor@gamenitemagazine.com

@GameNiteMag Issue #9

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History

The History of Tabletop Games

By John Anthony Gulla

Part VIII - Early Europoean Combination and Matching Card Games c.1580 - 1800 England, c. 1589:

n addition to the popular trick-taking card games of the era (which we covered in the previous article in the series), Europeans of the day also enjoyed another type of card game that is still widely played in some form today: Combination and/or matching-style card games. Some sources, both old and new, brand this grouping as a “matching” game, due to the goal of matching up either suits or sequences of cards for points, while others see it more fit to name this style of play a “combination” game, since many games in the genre maintain a focus on creating the right combinations of specific cards or values in one’s hand to score points. Still others insist that, while the two genres share some qualities, they should remain distinguished from one another when classifying them – except when specific games employ both mechanisms. For the purposes of this article, we will refer to them as one genre and explore the slight differences in the rules of each particular game to better understand this label. Perhaps the first popular matching/combination card game in European history was referred to as Noddy, where it was played throughout England and adjacent territories as early as ~1589. The deck used closely resembled that of our modern card deck, with 52 cards divided equally among four suits (typically using the French-suit system), including Ace though 10, the Knave (i.e. Jack), Queen, and King face cards (Ace low). The name Noddy, an English synonym for “fool” at the time, was first used as the moniker for the knave of the trump suit that was first turned up in play and was referred to in this way throughout play. Over time, the entire game adopted the name. We’re told through various period sources that Noddy was mainly played with 2 players, but allows for 4 players, presumably in teams of 2. Games were played up to a certain score, typically 31 (but not

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always), which is recorded either in writing or possibly on a pegged board that would sit nearby the playing surface.

in order to score points. In addition, players may score points for having combinations of cards that equal or exceed a combined numerical value of fifteen, twentySet up for Noddy begins with each player being dealt five, or thirty-one, with more points being awarded just 3 cards. Thee dealer then turns up one card onto the for the higher values (face cards always count as 10). table to discover the “trump” suit for that round of play. Lastly, if a player has the Knave-Noddy in hand – that Should the dealer turn over a Knave, the non-dealer player is, the Knave of the suit of the card dealt to the table immediately scores 2 points, as this is the “Noddy-knave” during the round set up, they may score 1 point for it mentioned above. Players then simultaneously use the during the announcement phase. card down on the table and the 3 cards in their hand to make matches of either suit or rank, or runs of a sequence

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History (Cont.) The following is a breakdown of possible scoring:

it to the existing card(s), and announces the combined value. Play continues in this way, with each player Point-counts (numerical value combination) playing one card down on the table and scoring points Fifteen (two or more cards totaling 15): 2 points as best they can manage, until the combined total down Twenty-five (three or more cards totaling 25): 1 point on the table reaches 31. If a player is unable to play a per card card to the table without causing the combined total to Thirty-one, (four or more cards totaling 31): 1 point remain under 31 (or hit it exactly), he or she announces per card this and the other player(s) then have a chance to play Pairs more cards without going over 31. The player who is Pair (two cards of the same number or rank): 2 points able to play a card last logs 1 point for doing so. Should Three-of-a-kind (three of the same number or rank): 6 any player cause the values of the face up cards to hit points exactly 31, they log 2 points immediately and the round Four-of-a-kind (all four of the same number or rank, ends. using the trump card down on the table): 12 points Runs (Sequences) Sources disagree on the point total that Noddy was Run of three: 2 points played to, with some saying just 15 points garnered a Run of four: 4 points win, while others say 25, or 31 points is the total that was Run of 5 or more: 1 per card needed to claim victory. Nevertheless, it appears that Flushes some of these games employed a simple, pegged board Three or more cards of the same suit: 1 point per card to track scoring, which seems quite likely to have been Knave-Noddy: 1 point the inspiration for the pegged board used in scoring for the game of Cribbage. In fact, most historians agree that Play proceeds first by having each player announce Noddy was likely the primary inspiration for the 17th aloud and log their scoring as they recognize the above century card game Cribbage, as it most definitely shares combinations or matching opportunities. With so some very similar mechanisms in addition to the scoring many various methods of scoring, it is possible to miss board -- so much so, that Noddy is often described a scoring opportunity, meaning players must remain in more modern times simply as “Cribbage without sharp and know the scoring rules well. This seems to the Crib.” Though Noddy seems to have been wholly be a feature of the game, with some variants and later, eclipsed by the popularity of Cribbage throughout the similar games allowing for opponents to score points next hundred years, it still remains a highly influential for the scoring combinations missed by the opposing card game. player! Another combination game that quickly gained Once each player has logged their points, play then popularity in the period was Vingt-un or Vingt-et-un, moves on by having the non-dealer play a card from which is French for “Twenty-One” or “Twenty-andtheir hand down on the table next to the trump card, one,” respectively. Most modern gamers will already be attempting to once again create scoring opportunities quite familiar with the rules for Twenty-One, which is with the existing cards on the table using the same more often referred to in the present as Blackjack (in the scoring methods as listed above. Each time a card is USA) and still played throughout casinos worldwide. played, the person playing the card adds the value of What many current Blackjack players may not realize, however, is that the game in its current form dates back

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Interview at very least well into the 18th century in France, where it was heavily played there, and that Vingt-un itself was most probably a direct descendent of other similar card games that shared the same mechanisms hundreds of years prior to that! In nearby Spain, evidence of a strikingly similar game appeared in sources as old as the 15th century, where the goal was the same, but the deck was slightly different (lacking 8s, 9s, and 10s) and the limit, or cut-off, was 31 instead of 21. Some sharp readers of this article may have indeed noticed a slight similarity in how Noddy was played, noting that it, too, “busted” at 31. This is not altogether uncommon though, as the most popular card games of the day did seem to readily borrow ideas and mechanisms from one another, in what seems to be a sort of “invisible hand” (to borrow the economic term) developing improved game design through a trail-and-error style process over the decades and centuries as various games came and went. This notion marks yet another example of the benefit of a standardized deck of playing cards being used across the continent, a sandbox for tabletop game design the likes of which have not yet been replicated in all of history. So great is the creation potential and versatility of a deck of cards that, perhaps for the first time in the history of European games, it was used to spawn a game that required only one player: Solitaire. Solitaire was first known (and still known in some countries today) as the game of Patience. Its exact origins and time of creation are not well-known, but it appears to have a Scandinavian or Germanic origin, and is mentioned in a German game anthology published in 1783 as “Patiencespeile.” Patience seems to refer to a sub-genre of games that are played solo using a deck of cards, with many variations and starting arrangements having been listed throughout the years. It also seems likely that it was developed alongside cards that were also used in fortune-telling, i.e. cartomancy. Both

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cartomancy and most early forms of Solitaire (aka Patience) relied heavily upon the draw from the deck, with little in the way of strategy or decision-making being used in the process. The game unfolds before you, based on the shuffle. Yet, despite the lack of choice or strategy involved, the genre flourished, gaining even more popularity in the coming centuries. It seems that there was something to be said for seeing one’s fate in a deck of cards, which speaks largely to the copious amounts of arrangements and permutations of possible combinations available in a single deck. Combination and matching card games in general, unlike the tricktaking genre, relied somewhat less on playing the other player(s) and more on playing the hand you were dealt. Interestingly, the most popular card games in the 19th century, though, can be said to have effectively used the best of both worlds (including much of what was learned in the previous few centuries) to develop card games which enjoy near legendary status today. Next time, we will cover some of the major games from this 19th century period, including an uncovering of the roots of Rummy, the premier of Poker, the beginnings of Bridge, and even a peek at Pinochle. Finally, we will transition back into board games for this period, as we take a stroll through the checkered past of Milton Bradley’s The Game of Life.

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Book Review Board Games That Tell Stories 2

lthough I have personally never met him, Ignacy Trzewiczek seems to be a nice guy. I have enjoyed watching him in videos, with his rapid fire, accented delivery, as he shares his thoughts on games and their designs. Board Games That Tell Stories 2 is a collection of blog articles that he has written, along with a collection of articles by a group of topnotch designers. The hardcover book comes with an attractively designed dust jacket, as well as a ribbon bookmark that is attached to the book. I love when books have this convenience and was happy to see it included. The book is 176 pages long and is basically divided into two sections. In the first section Ignacy delves into his approach to game design, playtesting, game specific productions and other relevant and entertaining subjects. Whereas the second section of the book is divided amongst several topnotch designers sharing their thoughts on various topics, as well as including an introduction to each designer by Ignacy himself. The first thing that you will notice when reading the book is the quality of the writing. It is clear that he is a capable writer and is able to communicate his thoughts clearly - this is especially noteworthy considering that English is not his native language. I can’t help but think of what it would be like if he decided to write a book of all new material instead of a collection of blog posts. Perhaps one day we’ll find out. The second thing that is immediately apparent is his great sense of humor. There is a reason that the word “Ultimate” is crossed out on the dust-jacket and replaced with the word “Funniest”. There are some incredibly funny stories contained within. Case in point: His brutal honesty at being a publisher and tearing apart a design and telling you upfront how he doesn’t care what you think. That may sound a bit harsh, but the above doesn’t due justice to the delivery in which he tells the designer just that. It’s brash, funny and brutally honest and you can’t but help to laugh as you can picture him standing there and delivering his decree.

By Serge Pierro

Although this isn’t a proper book on game design or a step by step analysis of designs in general, he does cover some of his games, in particular Robinson Crusoe, and provides excellent insight into how he approaches his design and production workflow. It is his transparency and willingness to share his mistakes that makes the information so valuable. Others might be tempted to prop themselves up and not let you know when they were wrong, but to his credit he wears his heart on his sleeve and exposes us to all of his thoughts and emotions on various topics. There is also a great four part section on playtesting. We are shown the various types of playtesters he uses, as well as the approaches that he uses for playtesting his games. Although not a large section of the book, it does provide a model for other designers to emulate, as he shows why having multiple playlets groups is important, as well as understanding what each of them have to offer. As if the insights that were provided by Ignacy weren’t enough, the second part of the book provides a great deal more. Several top name designers contribute articles on various topics. This includes designers such as Eric Lang talking about Blood Rage, Bruno Faidutti writing about stories and boardgames and Mike Fitzgerald discussing Baseball Highlights 2045 and Diamonds. There was an occasional quibble, such as on page 76 he says “next week”, which should have obviously been edited out, since this is not his blog. But that is nitpicking, as the overall quality of the book is excellent. This is the second book in the series and it is easy to see why they have been proven to be popular. If you have any interest in game design or the board game industry as a whole, I would highly recommend that you take the opportunity to read this excellent book.

Author: Ignacy Trzewiczek Publisher: Portal Games

Highly Recommended http://portalgames.pl

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Game Review Cuisine a la Card

By Serge Pierro

Delicious Deckbuilder

f there is one thing that I enjoy more than good board games, it is good cuisine. So naturally a game based on food is high on my list of themes that I’m interested in. Let’s see if the game delivers on its menu. Cuisine a la Card comes in a very sturdy 7 1/4” x 4” x 2” box. The cardboard insert divides the box into three sections, which hold the cards and 40 cardboard tokens nicely. The 20 page rulebook is informative and includes examples of play, as well as a one page FAQ. There are many illustrations throughout. The cards are all linen finished and feature simple culinary illustrations. The artwork for the Judge cards feature caricatures, which is a slight departure from the food images, yet they still fit with the graphic styling of the game. The graphic design could have been a bit cleaner, as some players had trouble with the arrangement and size of some of the icons. Cuisine a la Card is a deck building game and it should come as no surprise that there are some similarities with other deck builders. Players start the game with 2 Finishing Salts and 8 Tasting Spoons. Although the Spoons are the main currency of the game, there are also Forks, which can be bought, as some ingredients can only be normally purchased with them. On each player’s turn there will be four Ingredient cards available for purchase in the Marketplace. Normally each player will have one buy per turn, unless they use a card effect to gain an additional one. After being purchased, the ingredients and the other cards from their hand are placed in the discard pile. At the end of the turn the rightmost card is placed into an area known as The Fridge, and the Marketplace is refilled up to four cards. The benefits of the Fridge is that a player can purchase the top card for one Tasting Spoon, regardless of the printed cost.

An interesting feature of the game is the Warming Tray area. At the start of a player’s turn, before they play a card from their hand, they may place any of the cards face down into the Warming Tray area, which can hold three cards. These cards can later be used when submitting a dish to the Judges, thus not having to wait until they are drawn into your hand. The Judge cards are the main means of scoring. They come in three denominations, 15, 18 and 21. The numbers indicate the amount of chef hats that need to be generated by the presented dishes in order to gain the Judge’s favor, thus receiving the Medals earned and gaining a permanent in-game bonus. Each Judge has special interests which grant further scoring bonuses, if met. When submitting dishes to a Judge, the player presents the ingredients that are in their hand and Warming Dish area. The number of chef hats are added together, with special attention shown to two or more ingredients of the same cuisine type which grant a bonus. Players of Star Realms will be familiar with this concept of “synergy”. If the total number of chef hats equals or exceeds the amount needed for the Judge’s favor, the player takes that Judge and benefits exclusively from its bonus effect for the remainder of the game. After a dish is scored, the ingredients that were used are removed from the game. This is a nice touch that adds a touch of realism to the theme. The first player to receive 15 Medals is the winner of the game. Like most deckbuilders this one started off slowly, but then it quickly built up steam and proved to be quite enjoyable for various groups of players. I played it with non-gamers and they were able to pick things up quickly. The more hardcore gamers immediately zeroed in on trying to obtain the optimal cards for specific Judges. Like good cuisine, everyone who played the game left the table satisfied.

Designer: Danielle Demarest/Ammer Publisher: InMotion Software, LLC Number of players: 2-4 Mechanic: Deckbuilder Ages: 14+ Length: 20-30 mins.

Recommended

www.inmotionsoftware.com

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Game Review

Foragers

By Serge Pierro

A Dr. Finn Eurogame

ounger Dr. Steve Finn is known for designing quality filler games. Last issue we reviewed two of his games, Biblios Dice and Cosmic Run, both of which were well received. This time we take a look at his first foray into the realm of eurogames. Foragers takes a prehistoric theme and applies it to a light eurogame. The sturdy box comes with a cardboard insert that has a valley that runs down the middle of the box for storing most of the components, while the tiles and tableaus are stored on top. The twelve page rulebook is the same size as the box and is well illustrated. There are several examples of the main points of the game, which hasten the learning process. The back page contains summaries for both the game and actions. A double sided setup card is included. One side features the tile layout for two, three and four player games. The other side has step by step instructions on where to place resources and other components. This will get your first game up and running quickly and smoothly. The player tableaus are of the same card stock as the setup card and are also double sided, however it appears that this is only for cosmetic purposes, as both sides are identical. The game includes sixteen 4 1/8â&#x20AC;? square cardboard tiles. These are double sided with the playing area on the front and the type of tile is graphically indicated on the back. There are 54 cards broken down into 40 color co-ordinated action cards (10 for each player), 12 Spoilage cards, a common Action card and a first player card.

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The 72 cardboard tokens are of the same quality as the tiles. The rest of the components are made of wood and include 4 energy markers, 16 action cubes, 135 food tokens and 4 player pawns. The player pawns are a rectangular piece of wood measuring 1 1/4â&#x20AC;? tall. After setting up, players will play a series of rounds, each containing unique phases. The main phases are: Planning, Acting, and Spoiling.

The Planning phase is one of the more interesting phases of the game. Each player has their own deck of action cards (all the decks are the same) which are shuffled and the top three cards are drawn. Each player will choose one of the cards to play this round and put the other two cards back on top of the deck in any order. This allows players to use a card for the current situation on the board, as well as planning a strategy to pursue on following turns. A simple mechanism, but one that certainly added a great deal of interest to the game.

Players will then reveal their cards and begin the Planning phase. Starting with the first player, each player will take one of their action cubes and places it onto one of the spaces on their card and take the appropriate action. This continues until all the players have placed their four action cubes and taken the relevant actions. It should be noted that there is a common action card that players may place their cube on. However, once a cube is placed on a space, no other player may access that space. This is useful for times when you have a personal Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) action card that doesn’t include an action that you want to take. It is also the only place you can place a cube to Discover new territory, which allows players to add tiles, along with their resources, to the board. The main actions that can be taken during this phase are: Walk, Forage, Share, Pickup Tool, Eat and Rest. Using the Walk action allows a player to move the number of spaces indicated. Using the Forage action allows a player to pickup the number of food listed on the action card. The Share action allows a player to trade in already gathered food at pit space on the board and take the relevant token. This token will be used for endgame scoring and they have different numbers that are needed in order to obtain them. The Pickup Tool action allows a player to pick up a tool at a location. The tool gives a player the advantage of taking +1 food for each specific tool when Foraging or to increase Strength. The Eat action enables a player to eat Food that they have previously Foraged to increase their energy. The amount of energy is determined by how fresh the food is on the player card. The final action is Rest. When taking this action a player increases the appropriate number on their energy track. There is an additional special action called “Run”. This is used before or after one of the regular actions. This allows a player to move one space for every two energy spent.

When the game ends, the players total all of their tokens and bonuses and the highest score wins. For a fairly small package, this game delivers quite a bit of euro-styled game play. There were many interesting decisions to be made as all the players raced around the board trying to maximize their action usage. The ability to choose and set aside the action cards allowed players to tailor their gameplay around the foreknowledge of what was about to be revealed on later turns. The usage of the special Run action and the energy track allowed for some interesting “push your luck” aspects pertaining to the their usage and how fast you could recover. This went along with whether you used food for points, or to increase your energy. This is a solid, small eurogame that has a lot of replayability due to the random setups and shuffled action decks. Dr. Finn’s first entry into the eurogame market is a decent one and we look forward to seeing similar designs from him in the future.

Designers: Steve Finn Publisher: Dr. Finn’s Games Number of players: 2-4 Mechanic: Pick Up and Deliver Ages: 14+ Length: 60 mins.

Recommended

After the action phase is the “Spoiling” phase. Here a card is drawn from the Spoilage deck and is resolved. As food spoils it is worth less energy when eaten. The Spoilage deck is also used as the game’s timing mechanism, when the last card is revealed the game is over.

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www.doctorfinns.com

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Game Review

The Shadow Over Westminster

By Serge Pierro

A Cataclysmic Deckbuilder

t seems that these days players can’t get enough of the

Lovecraft and horror genres. However, the flooding of the market with these products has caused many to write off a number of releases as mere knockoffs and not worth taking a look at. The Shadow Over Westminster attempts to separate itself from the others by capturing their mood and atmosphere, while at the same time not resorting to being a cookie-cutter clone. The square box comes with a nicely designed black plastic insert that has different sections for all of the different decks, as well as for the cubes and figures. The board acts as a cover and keeps the cards and components contained within their designated areas. The oversized 12 page rulebook is the same size as the box and does a decent job of teaching the game. However, inexplicably there is one section that is cut off in mid sentence. You can infer what is meant, but it is a bit perplexing the first time you are reading through the instructions. Three of the pages are devoted to the backstory of the characters and it is well written, thus adding to the immersive experience of the theme. The back page features both a turn summary and gameplay tips. The four panel game board is made of a sturdy cardboard stock and is quite drab and dark. While I guess one can consider it “thematic”, I found it to be underwhelming, but it does the job. One of the highlights of the game is the inclusion of four plastic miniatures of the characters, each of them in a different color and unique sculpt. These were sculpted by Chad Hoverter of Mice & Mystics fame.

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Fourteen black wooden cubes are used as Darkness markers, as well as a white one for the Knowledge marker. The game comes with two different sized cards. The larger cards are for the 4 Characters and the 16 Cataclysms, while the 138 regular sized cards are distributed into several separate decks.

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The gameplay is a combination of deckbuilder and worker placement. On a player’s turn they will turn over the top card of the Darkness deck and resolve it. These cards will either place a black Darkness cube on the stated location or have the player take an Exposure card which are similar to “Curses” in Dominion, as they clog your hand with no effect. The Darkness cubes are

somewhat reminiscent of Pandemic, as they are triggered when the three cubes are forced to take a fourth and the Location becomes “Engulfed”. After resolving the Darkness deck, the player will have an option to move to a Location, as long as there is an open spot for his character. Once there, they may perform an action that is related to the Location.

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Game Review (Cont.) There are six Locations, though only five of them are accessible before the Cataclysm is revealed. Players start at the “Agency”. It is here where players can buy Advanced Techniques and Special Investigations. It is also where players can rest and rid their hand and reserve area of “Exposure” cards. The “Museum” is where players may purchase Artifacts. These cards grant various abilities and are essential to aiding the group in their quest to win the game. The “Warehouse” and the “Underground” are somewhat related, as they are both Locations in which players will attempt to complete Investigations. The main difference is that only one Agent may be at the “Warehouse” and they have to complete the Investigation on their own, while the “Underground” allows up to four Agents to work together to complete the Investigations there. In both cases the Investigation is made up of the Disturbance card(s) that are present there. Upon completion at the “Warehouse” the Agent will receive the Disturbance card, as well as a Talisman, and place them in their discard pile. However, at the “Underground” players may divide up the “spoils” amongst the participants any way the wish. The “University” is where players will place their Disturbance cards to increase their position on the Knowledge track. The track indicates how many Disturbance cards are needed to move up the track. When the condition is met, the Disturbance cards are removed from the game and the players hand size is increased according to the result. Level three is a special level, in addition to the increase in hand size, it triggers the revealing of the Cataclysm, as well as now triggering an additional Disturbance at the “Underground” Location. The last Location is for the “Cataclysm”. This Location has five spaces for the Darkness tokens. To win the game, players need to meet the Investigation number on the revealed “Cataclysm” card before it receives a sixth Darkness token, otherwise the “Cataclysm” takes place and the players lose.

The solitaire version is very challenging, especially if you don’t use the Knight Templar’s ability to help remove Darkness tokens. Unlike most solitaire games, the variety of choices within the game make for a very enjoyable solo experience. Robert Huss does an admirable job in writing excellent flavor text and literary content. While you can easily play the game without referring to the in-game text, you would be doing yourself a disservice in doing so. Since each character has two sides to their player card, the game essentially has eight roles that you can take on. This not only adds to the replayability, but allows for the building of some interesting strategic teams. We found that each player should focus on their specific talent and try to develop it to their maximum efficiency. One of the more interesting aspects of the game was the strategic timing of when to attempt to Investigate the “Cataclysm”. If you try to deal with it too early, you might not have the amount of Investigation cards to do so. Yet, if you wait too long, it is possible to find yourself not in a position to succeed as the “Darkness” keeps increasing while you are unable to leave the “Cataclysm” location in order to deal with the growing threat. A subtle but interesting mechanic that really makes for a tension filled ending to the game. Overall it’s an interesting co-op experience, in which the theme and mechanics satisfy the desire for a horror themed game that doesn’t take several hours to play.

Designer: Robert Huss Publisher: Counter Clockwork Games Number of players: 1-4 Mechanic: Co-op Deck Builder Ages: 12+ Length: 45-90 mins.

Recommended

The sixteen “Cataclysms” are all nicely varied and present the players with an assortment of challenges, thus leading to a good amount of replayability.

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www.ccwgames.com

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Interview

Chad Hoverter

“Chad Hoverter is a miniatures sculptor”

By Serge Pierro

Sculptor Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with our readers, can you tell us a little something about yourself?

out and until I started playing board games in my late 20’s. I was like most people, it never really ever crossed my mind that someone had to actually make those Monopoly pieces. I always use Monopoly as an example for people who look at what I do and get a puzzled look because everyone knows Monopoly.

Hi, yes! Thanks for having me. I am 45 years old and I am married for 10 years with one kiddo.

Do you come from an artistic family? Strangely - no.

Chad Hoverter Sculptor

Did you immediately become interested in sculpting at a younger age or did your interest evolve from an interest in drawing or painting? Definitely came later. I grew up drawing and painting. I went to college for Fine Art, and then Architecture, before I dropped

Mice and Mystics The Shadow Over Westminster Dungeon Run Song of Blades: Hammer& Forge dmgminiaturefactory.blogspot.com

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Is there a specific sculpting medium in which you prefer to work in? Yes - I use a combination of Epoxy and Polymer clays. ProCreate is the Epoxy clay and I use various combinations of Fimo and BeesPutty polymer clays as well. The polymer clays have to be baked to harden, whereas the epoxy clays are a 2 part mix and

will harden on their own after a bit of time - You are well known for your work on “Mice and Mystics”, however your other sculpts show an usually and hour or more.

appreciation of the human form. Did you study

Which clay I use is determined by the end anatomy or traditional sculpting before working on result desired. For instance, the polymer clays miniatures? once baked are too brittle to survive the metal miniature casting process, so I must use epoxy. Only marginally while I was in college for Fine Arts. I didn’t take the degree far enough to get Plastic and resin production are much more into much figure study. I always need more flexible. anatomy improvement - always.

Do you use commercial sculpting tools or do you Do you paint your own miniatures after they are create your own tools for specific techniques? commercially released? I use a mix of self made and commercially I painted the first spec figure that I sculpted for available tools. Mice and Mystics as a gift for the designer of that game (Jerry Hawthorne) and I painted a set of From your viewpoint do you feel there is a material Dungeon Run figs. So far thats it! I don’t have that best reflects the quality of your work in the time!!

released final project? Polystyrene, Resin, Pewter?

Who are some of your favorite sculptors?

Resin and metal miniatures hold the best detail from the original although plastic casting Oh man, thats a long list! Sebastian Archer, processes just keep getting better as technology Fancagne Didier, Allan Carrasco are a small progresses. selection of the guys on top.

Your current work is for game related miniatures, How did you get into the business of sculpting minis for games? do you do any larger pieces? The Games Workshop hobby got me into No but if my freelance schedule ever allows I building and painting miniatures and then would like having a go at garage kits or toys or converting them as well. I was converting so even maquettes for the entertainment industry. much I decided to look into the process of creating a whole miniature from scratch. Continued on next page>

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Interview (Cont.) Of your published sculpts, which one is your

At about the time I completed my very first sculpt, my best friend Jerry Hawthorne was favorite? toying with the ideas that eventually became Mice & Mystics. So it was a right place right Soft spot for Prince Colin. Certainly my skill has improved since then, but his was the first! time kind of thing.

What is your typical workflow when approached There appears to be a growing trend within the by a company to sculpt miniatures for their games? industry for sculptors to work with Z-Brush. Do you have any experience with Z-Brush, and if so, I can’t do much until I see the artwork. Once I what are your thoughts on its effect on traditional see the concepts and the size of the miniatures sculptors? requested, then I can give a quote and a timeline.

I am currently trying to learn zBrush. I think its Usually a little up front money is received and very simply a smart thing to learn as a sculptor then I can start. so I can offer the best options to my customers.

Is there any genre that you haven’t sculpted for There will always be demand for traditional that you would be interested in creating work for? sculpting though. I believe there is plenty of room in the current market for both.

I’d like to sculpt historical minis someday. I think it’d be fun.

With the popularity of miniature based Kickstarter projects, there seems to be an increase in both the In this issue we review “The Shadow Over demand and quality of sculpts. Do you feel that this Westminster” which features four of your sculpts, will continue to increase to the point where more which one of these do you feel represents you best sculptors will be able to devote their time fully to as a sculptor? sculpting and be able to sustain a career at it? TSoW was a bit of a turning point for me I think Definitely. Its just like anything else, the more - I felt my human proportions were the best I popular a thing is, the more people who will had done at the time. The Knight Templar gal want to be involved in it. is my favorite of the bunch.

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Can you share with our readers any projects that you are currently working on? I am not at liberty to share any of my current freelance work. I do have some personal projects in the works but nothing worth looking at yet. Sorry to disappoint!

Are there any books or tutorials that you could recommend to aspiring sculptors? Learning from another sculptor is the best way. Classes at conventions and asking questions of sculptors you meet is invaluable. I was lucky enough to have a few mentors at Reaper Miniatures when i was starting up. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have access to sculptors then there are some tutorials online you can find, a few videos (Miniature Mentor) you can buy. All those types of things are worth looking at if you are trying to learn to sculpt.

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in learning to sculpt?

Knight Templar mini from The Shadow Over Westminster.

Soak up all the info you can find! But at some point you just have to sculpt your first crappy piece!

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Game Nite

Documentary Review

Enter The Battlefield

By Eric Devlin

Life on the Magic The Gathering Pro Tour

s the full title indicates, Enter the Battlefield offers a glimpse into the lives of some of Magic The Gathering’s elite players and one player who wants to return to that status. With seven subjects, sixty-five minutes isn’t enough time to offer much more than a cursory introduction to any one player. The filmmakers wisely choose to draw in broad strokes and then tighten the focus for one or two vignettes a piece. The documentary will be the most successful with an audience that has a vested interest in it’s subject matter. Fans ranging from the casual to the obsessive will enjoy this look behind the scenes at a level of competition that most players can only aspire to. Unfortunately, viewers that aren’t already familiar with Magic The Gathering will often find it difficult to follow the game play specifics. We asked filmmaker Nathan Holt if chronicling the experiences of elite players for an audience that may not appreciate much of the gameplay nuance was a struggle. “A challenge, for sure, but I wouldn’t say a struggle. For 4 years now, Shawn and I have been tackling the challenge of making a complex game approachable to a casual audience with our web series Walking the Planes. It’s an important bridge to cross, and we’ve been doing it since Day 1 of our mission as Magic content producers.”

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Nathan Holt and Shawn Kornhauser are the primary creative talent behind the scenes and have built a rapport with both the players and the community with their excellent “Walking the Plane”s series on YouTube. “Walking the Planes” documents many of Magic The Gathering’s major events in a fun, informative and informal fashion, with each video lasting around thirteen minutes. These videos proved to be the springboard for “Enter the Battlefield” but the loss of Holt as an on camera host is telling. Holt brought a je ne sais quoi and whimsy to the “Walking the Planes” videos that is missing from “Enter the Battlefield”. I don’t know if this loss played into the choice of bringing on Wil Wheaton as the documentaries narrator, but it was an excellent choice. Wheaton gives life to the script he’s reading and and is a solid guide for the audience. He elevates the material, which is not meant to be a slight on the writing, but rather a compliment to Wheaton’s talent and professionalism.

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Reid Duke, William Jensen and Owen Turtenwald

The subjects of the documentary are disparate enough to provide an interesting contrast, if not in play style than in circumstances. Reid Duke, Owen Turtenwald and William Jensen are portrayed as not just research and playing colleagues, but as friends whose bonds created through Magic The Gathering will likely extend passed their playing days. Patrick Chapin is highlighted for his creativity and idiosyncratic deck building. Melissa DeTora was a pioneer among women players and was the first female player to make it to the top eight of a pro tour. She offers her perspective on the game, how she is perceived and the experiences of women competing in Magic. Shahar Shenhar is the only player to have ever won the Magic The Gathering Grand Championships twice and he did it back to back. The Observer Effect would be an obvious concern for the fidelity of a documentary like this. Did their being the subjects of a documentary change the participants game play and behavior. Holt doesn’t believe so. “Elite

competitors have trained themselves to ignore distractions and withhold information about themselves that might give their opponents an edge. That’s true of athletes as well. It’s a disposition they bring to the competition. That attitude often bleeds over to their relationship with the media. It can be tough, as documentarians, to get personalities like these to open up. I would say that was one of the biggest challenges at any given shoot. The audience wants to see vulnerability, emotion, and humanity. It’s in there. These people care deeply. They are devoted to their craft. I think we did a good job tapping into some of that, and I give our participants a lot of credit for allowing themselves to become vulnerable in front of a camera.” Chris Pikula was, to me, the most interesting subject of the documentary. He is a borderline hall of fame player for whom the elusive election to that prestigious hall would be a culmination to his career. The oldest player in the documentary, Pikula is lauded for not only his playing skill, but for his community activism and

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Documentary Review (Cont.)

A still of Melissa De Tora staring down an opponent in “Enter the Battlefield”.

stands against unethical play. He hasn’t been an elite player in years, but wants to rejoin those ranks. It also seems as though he is the only player with the demands of a family. Not being able to allocate resources such as time, community and travel to the game is a serious handicap that the other players aren’t hindered with. We follow along as Chris fights for the wins that he believes will put him over the top in his quest to get become a member of the hall of fame. The documentary is both informative and entertaining for those already familiar with the game. For those that aren’t, some of the explanations and game play may seem needlessly abstruse. As such, it comes with a mixed recommendation. For existing (or even former) players, definitely take a look. For those that are unfamiliar with the game, go in knowing that there may be a few stumbling blocks.

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To conclude, I believe that most documentaries are best judged by how well they accomplished what the filmmakers set out achieve. Here’s what Holt says they hope the viewer takes away from “Enter the Battlefield”. “I want people to relate to the characters. We may not all want to be the best in the world at something, but we all have goals. If you work hard and push through obstacles, maybe you can achieve those goals. Or maybe you fail. Even more resonant than the thrill of a big victory is the sting of coming up short, even after monumental effort and sacrifice. The players of Enter the Battlefield can show an audience how to pick themselves back up again with pride and push on. We can watch them and learn how to cope with our own adversity in life.”

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Enter the Battlefield - Life on the Magic the Gathering Pro Tour Filmmakers: Nathan Holt & Shawn Kornhauser Narrator: Wil Wheaton Documentary Subjects: Reid Duke, Owen Turtenwald, William Jensen, Patrick Chapin, Melissa De Tora, Sharhar Shenhar and Chris Pikula Length: 65 mins.

Recommended

http://magic.wizards.com/en/content/enter-the-battlefield

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Game Review

Scoville

By Serge Pierro

Thematic Pepper Game

lthough cardboard The theme of growing hot peppers is an unusual one, but to Ed Marriott’s credit, he has attached it to a game that reflects it nicely. Let’s take a look at what makes this a “hot” offering by Tasty Minstrel Games. (Let’s face it, you knew there was going to be at least one pun in this review.) The box features an asymmetrical cardboard insert that has two areas, one large area for the general components and a thinner area for the cards and tiles. It is designed for the board and screens to sit on top, acting as a lid. The eight page rulebook is the same size as the box and will have you up and running in no time. The layout is clear and informative and has numerous examples. Included are six sturdy cardboard player screens with pre-scored folding flaps, as well as six, card stock player aides. The four piece board is made of a heavy cardboard stock, and like many of TMG’s recent releases, it features a puzzle piece connection method. However, unlike other boards, this one features a unique die cut playing area in which the peppers may be placed. This is a great way to prevent the pieces from flying all over the table in case the board is accidentally jarred. It should be noted that while the cut out areas are uniform, there were certain wooden and plastic peppers that had some trouble fitting into the spaces, but when more force was applied, they went in. The Farmer meeples and the majority of the peppers are made of wood, with the Phantom peppers being made of clear plastic. There are 65 linen finished Auction cards that are smaller than regular playing cards and 48 square Market cards. Since these

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are not held in hand or shuffled throughout the game, their size and shape are not a problem. To start the game players can use the excellent “Setting Up” section of the rulebook to get things placed accordingly. It’s always a pleasure to have the setup clearly illustrated with step by step instructions.

Each round of the game has five phases: Auction, Planting, Harvesting, Fulfillment and a Time Check.

one way for the Planting phase and then reverses for the Harvesting phase. Players bid by holding an amount of coins within their clenched fists and then open to reveal In the Auction phase, players will bid for their position the bid. The winner gets to choose where they want to in the turn order. It should be noted that this is not start on the turn order track. After the turn order is a game where going first each round is always an determined each player will choose one of the pepper advantage. There are some strategic decisions that need cards on display and collect the appropriate pepper(s). to be made for each Auction, as the turn order resolves Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) During the Planting phase, each player must take one of the peppers from behind their player screen and place it onto the board. It must be orthogonally placed next to a previously planted pepper. Should the player plant one of the peppers that still has one of the associated Plaques available, they may take the Plaque and score its bonus at the end of the game. The Harvesting phase is perhaps the most strategic phase of the game. The turn order is reversed and players have three moves to walk around the farm and collect peppers. To collect a pepper a playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worker has to be between two peppers. They will then take a look at the breeding chart and take the appropriate pepper(s) from the supply. Example: A Farmer meeple is between a red pepper and a yellow pepper; consulting the breeding chart they see that this yields an orange pepper, so they take an orange pepper from the supply and place it behind their player screen. If a Farmer winds up next to a pepper that has no pepper on the other side, they receive no peppers. Since Farmers canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pass through other Farmers on a path, blocking becomes a strategy, especially if you trying to protect an area that is yielding rare peppers. During the Fulfillment phase the turn order reverts back to the initial position and each player will have access to three actions, though they may only perform each action once. Visit the Market: A player may purchase one of these cards by meeting the listed cost. They then receive the reward and place it behind their screen. Compete at the Chili Cookoff: These are recipes that offer victory points by meeting the amount and types of peppers listed on the card. Sell a Batch of Peppers: At some point players will find that they may have an abundance of certain peppers and wish to sell them. They may pick a specific color and sell them as a lot (max. 5). They are worth $1 for every two peppers of that color planted on the farm.

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The Time Check Phase is used to determine whether the game is in the morning or afternoon. The conditions are listed in the rulebook, as well as printed on the playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aide. The end of the game is triggered by the amount of Market and Chili cards that are left. Players add up the total points on all of their cards, etc. and the highest score wins. There is a lot to like about Scoville, everything from the quality components to the engaging gameplay is top notch. The pepper breeding was an interesting mechanic that led to some creative decision making as players tried to create regions of the farm that were favorable to their strategy. The blocking was an interesting element and it was easy to see that over a series of games a refined technique could be developed around planting/harvesting/blocking. The only downside was that the game seemed to end too early. We were a bit surprised the first time we played it, as we were just getting into the flow of the game and then it was over. Other than that, the game is very enjoyable and allows for players to be creative. I look forward to further exploring what this game has to offer.

Designer: Ed Marriott Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games Number of players: 2-6 Mechanic: Auction, Set Collection Ages: 13+ Length: 60-90 mins.

Recommended www.playtmg.com

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Game Review

Valeria: Card Kingdoms

By Serge Pierro

Fantasy Tableau Builder

ith the success of Machi Koro, it should come as no surprise that other designers would take a look at the design and reinterpret it. Valeria: Card Kindoms is such a game and has shown itself to be an improvement. Seldom has a review game been requested for repeated play as often as this one. Let’s see why. Valeria: Card Kingdoms continues the current trend among many up and coming companies by sparing no expense in the production quality of their games. The box includes a practical black plastic insert that includes pieces of foam to hold components in place, as well as placeholders for future expansions. The twenty page rulebook is printed on high quality paper. There are plenty of illustrations, as well as side panels featuring the game’s artwork. There is also a section on card clarifications, as well as an enjoyable solitaire variant. There are 14 small cardboard tokens used for multipliers, as well as a first player token. Normally this wouldn’t warrant much attention, but these are made of high quality, 1/8” thick cardboard. The marbleized custom dice feature numbers instead of pips and there are 175 custom wooden tokens. Fifty of these are for gold, 50 for magic, 50 for strength and 25 for victory points. The main feature of the game is the cards. Each set of cards comes with its own divider which makes setup and breakdown much easier. The cards are linen finished and at first seemed to be okay, however on repeated plays some of them started to warp and not lay flat on the stacks.

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To start the game, set it up according to the diagram in the rulebook. Deal two Dukes to each player, they will choose one and return the other to the box. These will be used at the end of the game as a hidden scoring bonus. Each player receives 1 Magic and 2 Gold tokens. Magic tokens are used as wild cards.

who rolled the dice will receive what is listed on the left side of their card(s), while the other players will receive what is on the right side of their card(s).

After the resources are collected, the player whose turn it is will get to take two actions. These may be used to buy more Citizens, fight Monsters, take a resource or On a playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s turn they will roll the dice. Each individual buy Domains. You may take two of the same action. number is resolved, as well as their sum. Each player To buy a Citizen, a player has to pay the Gold cost listed will look at the Citizen cards in their tableau and see if on the card. If a player already owns the same Citizen any of them meet the results of the roll. If so, the player they have to pay an additional gold for each Citizen that Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) is the same. The Citizen Role icons are used for buying Domains and may be relevant to endgame scoring. To fight a Monster, players have to spend the amount of Strength tokens equal to the amount listed on the card. They will then take the card and receive the printed reward. These are also worth Victory points at the end of the game. Each stack of Monster cards is stacked from weakest to strongest, with the weakest on top. As each Monster is defeated stronger ones will start to appear. Domains are another source of Victory points and provide either a one time or long term effect when purchased. To buy a Domain a player needs to pay the Gold cost, as well as meeting the number of Citizen Roles icons listed on the card. After purchase, these cards remain in play for the rest of the game for that player. If you are in need of a particular resource, you may spend an action to take one from the supply. The end of the game triggers when either all of the Monsters are defeated, all of the Domains have been bought, or there are twice the number of Exhausted stacks as there are players. (When a pile runs out of cards, an Exhausted card is placed in the space.) The game then ends after all players have had an equal amount of turns. To score, players will add the Victory points obtained during the game, as well as those from their Monsters and Domains, and resolve the bonuses on their Duke card. Highest score wins. Although it is a light game, it’s engaging gameplay had players wanting to play it repeatedly. Part of its allure is that there is little downtime on other player’s turns. It was interesting to watch some players collected one of each number, thus guaranteeing themselves resources on other players turns, whereas others preferred to stack certain numbers hoping for a big payoff. Both strategies has their merits.

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The Event cards introduced with the expansions made the

Exhausted cards interesting, as they trigger effects when revealed. We played with the first expansion and mixed it with the standard, Event-less, Exhausted cards. I’d be very interested to see how the game plays with the second expansion, which is currently unavailable, as the Events further enhance the game. However there are some negatives. There are a couple of Dukes that appear to be unbalanced. We have on occasion actually removed them from the initial pool of starting cards from which to choose from. I was also a little disappointed in the rewards for the Boss Monsters. In the solitaire game (which is excellent!) you receive a larger reward since you are killing all the Monsters in a stack. However, in the main game other players are also attacking the same stack, so when the Boss is defeated, it is possible to get a reward of a single resource. This was anticlimactic and didn’t seem to fit the game or the theme. Even with those minor complaints, this is still a brilliant light game. Both the solitaire and main game are equally enjoyable and the fact that two expansions have already been released only adds to its replay value. If you are looking for an excellent light game that, then look no further, this is one that you will certainly want to add to your collection!

Designer: Isaias Vallejo Publisher: Daily Magic Games Number of players: 1-5 Mechanic: Tableau Builder, Dice Rolling Ages: 13+ Length: 30-45 mins.

Highly Recommended www.dailymagicgames.com

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Game Review

Onitama

By Serge Pierro

Elegant Abstract

nitama is the second game in Arcane Wonders “Dice Tower Essentials” line and judging from the production values and the fast/interesting gameplay, I believe that this is just going to be considered an essential game for any gamers collection. Let’s take a look at what makes this game so appealing. The production value of the entire offering is excellent. From the box to the components, everything asserts quality. It’s not often that we talk about the actual box of a game, but this is one design that is certainly going to catch your attention. The box looks like it would contain a bottle of whiskey and opens via a panel/ flap on the side of the box, revealing a large graphic of the box’s illustration by artist Mariusz Szmerdt. When the flap is closed it is held in place by a magnet. Another interesting thing is that it measures 10 1/2” x 4” which means that it should fit nicely on an Ikea Kallax shelf along with other “standard” size boxes, it just won’t have the depth of a standard size square box. The game board is an 18” x 10” neoprene mat that has a rubber back that prevents slippage. I love these “mouse pad” type boards as they can be rolled up, and yet lay flat upon unrolling, and they aren’t prone to being accidentally moved during game play. The graphics invoke an ancient Asian theme and add to the atmosphere of the game. The board is stored in a dedicated area of the box, though you do have to make sure that the ends are rolled evenly or it won’t fit. Inside the box is a custom plastic insert containing sections for the student pawns, the cards, the board and the master pawns. When it was first opened the instructions were held in place by the box’s flap, now it seems easier to just store them along the inside the box or laid on top of the components.

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The twelve page rulebook is the length and width of the box and echos the graphic design that permeates the production. The rules are clearly written and amply illustrated, and you will be up and playing in no time.

Both the student pawns and the master pawns are cast in solid plastic and look great. The student pawns measure 1 3/4” and the master pawns 2 1/2”. Due to the solid nature of the cast they have a nice feel when being moved about, especially when coupled with the neoprene board.

At the heart of the game are the cards. The linen finished cards are oversized, measuring 2 3/4” x 4 3/4”. Each card displays the name of the “move” as well as a diagram on how it moves. Also featured is some great martial arts flavor text, as well as either a red or blue icon in the lower right corner to indicate who goes first. Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) To start the game, the board is setup as per the instructions in the rulebook, then each player is dealt two cards and then a final card is drawn and placed face up on the table. The remaining cards are placed back in the box, as they won’t be used for the current game. The icon in the lower right corner will indicate who moves first. Then the starting player will choose one of their two cards and assign the movement to any of the pawns on the board. The player will then move that pawn according to the diagram on the card and then place the card off to the side and take the card that was previously off to the side and add it to their other card, both of which are face up. This is an open information game, as you will be able to see the moves that your opponent can make on their turn, as well as them being able to do the same. The fact that both players will have access to all of the information contained on the face up cards is what makes the game so interesting. You are constantly weighing the usage of a card, knowing that your opponent is going to gain access to it on the following turn. Another point of interest is that you can move right in front of another pawn and know that you can’t be captured (see below) because your opponent doesn’t have a card that allows him to do so. Pieces are captured when one of your pawns ends their movement on a square containing an opponent’s pawn. Captured pawns are removed from the game. You may not end movement on a square containing one of your pieces. Pieces are able to jump over both yours and your opponent’s pieces. There are two ways to win the game. Capture your opponent’s master pawn or move your master pawn to occupy the opponent’s temple square.

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“The simplicity of the gameplay, coupled with the depth of strategic planning, makes this a game that you will be playing for quite some time.” Everyone that played this game loved it, from nongaming family members to hard core gamers, each of them wanted to immediately play it again after finishing their first game. Using only five out of sixteen cards for each game lends itself to a good amount of replayability as each game will offer a different combination of cards. That’s not to say that the game couldn’t use an expansion of more cards, however the ones included are satisfying and will continue to challenge you after repeated plays. The simplicity of the gameplay, coupled with the depth of strategic planning, makes this a game that you will be playing for quite some time. Essential, indeed!

Designer: Shimpei Sato Publisher: Arcane Wonders Number of players: 2 Mechanic: Grid Movement, Hand Management Ages: 14+ Length: 15 mins.

Highly Recommended www.arcanewonders.com

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Interview

Matt Leacock

“Matt Leacock is an award winning Game Designer.”

By Serge Pierro

Game Designer Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with our readers, can you tell us a little something about yourself?

I remember was called, The Sensation of Boxation. You were a cardboard box in the game, making your way down conveyor belts, trying to make your way into a shopping cart which served as the finish line.

I’m a game designer living in Sunnyvale, California. I’ve been designing games full time for nearly two years. Prior to that, I was a user experience designer for a variety of Silicon Valley companies and a graphic designer.

Did you start designing games at an early age? If so, do you remember what your first game design was like? Yes, I started experimenting with game design as early as 8 or 10 years old. I’d often receive games as gifts and whenever I was disappointed with the way they worked (which was often) I’d flip the board over and try to draw a better game on the reverse side. My earliest games were simple roll-and-move affairs. The first one

Matt Leacock Designer Pandemic Knit WIt Thunderbirds Roll Through the Ages

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www.leacock.com

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Due to the narrative nature of “Pandemic: Legacy” it appears that you enjoy stories. Who are your favorite authors… and what are your favorite books? I think most people are compelled by a good story— it’s part of what makes us human. Recently I’ve enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke Title and Shades of Gray by Jasper Fford – mostly because I get all the inside jokes about color (being a former graphic designer).

Photos: Owen Duffy

What games over the years have you enjoyed most, elimination, catch-up mechanisms, and a good from both the point of personal enjoyment, as well mix of strategy and luck. Finally Knizia’s The as those that influenced your growth as a designer? Lord of the Rings showed me that a cooperative Early on, I played a lot of mass-market games (Clue, Monopoly, Risk, and so on) but I really got hooked on gaming when I started playing 3M and Avalon Hill Games. Acquire and Civilization both stand out not only because I enjoyed them but because they changed the way I thought about what made a good game with their deeper strategies and interlocking mechanisms. Then Settlers of Catan arrived and offered a blueprint for me of what a good game should offer – a compact play length, lots of interaction, little downtime, no player

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game, with an opponent made only of cardboard, could be engaging.

When the opportunity presents itself, what games have you currently been playing? I’ve been playing quite a few deck building games lately. Trains, Automobiles, Thunderstone, and Star Realms all see a lot of table time. I’m also a big fan of Splendor. I play a lot of Codenames and Telestrations with my family. Continued on next page>

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Interview (Cont.)

Who are your favorite game designers? Reiner Knizia has been the most influential. I have a lot of respect for how balanced and elegant his designs are. I’m continually impressed by the creativity and breadth of ideas that Vlaada Chvátil has. Uwe Rosenberg is likely my family’s overall favorite as Bonanza, Mamma Mia, and All Creatures Big and Small have both received a lot of play over the years.

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Is there any particular designer that you haven’t Can you give our readers a breakdown on the worked with yet, that you would be interested in responsibilities/designs elements of both yours collaborating with? And if so, what type of game and Rob’s for the designing of Pandemic Legacy? would you be interested in making? I haven’t thought about this much, but now that you ask, I’d love to collaborate on a family game with Richard Borg. He was really friendly and welcoming to me at a convention years ago and I think he’d be a lot of fun to work with.

Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert and Thunderbirds are all co-op games. What is it about co-op games that draws you to them? I love the challenge of coming up with a “cardboard enemy.” You get to design an entire system for the players to face and that’s a real thrill for me. I also like the way it engenders camaraderie – instead of rivalry – amongst its players. People typically have a good time whether they win or lose a good cooperative game.

It’s very much a joint project and it’s difficult to say what specific elements have come from him or me. Ideas bounce back and forth and get gradually refined by both of us. We do come from different backgrounds though: I was a graphic designer and experience designer and Rob was an advertising copywriter in a former life, so we do specialize to some degree. For example, I maintain the files for the prototype and do the draft visual design while he maintains the rulebook and takes the lead on writing. We both work together on the mechanisms in the game and overall arc of the story.

With the production costs associated with plastic molds and innovations such as the “advent calendar” sheets, were you given a free reign when designing “Pandemic Legacy” or were you aware of monetary constraints and worked within Congratulations on all of the awards that both you a production budget? and Rob Daviau received for “Pandemic Legacy”. Clearly you struck a chord amongst gamers looking We developed the game in phases. We designed for a more narrative experience. With Season 2 the game we hoped to produce and then went through the long process of actually producing coming up do you feel that there will be enough it, learning a lot along the way. The dossiers (or “wow factor/story” to warrant gamers dedicating advent calendars) came about because we were themselves to playing “Pandemic” once again? not able to collate cards with stickers on them

in the Legacy Deck. We learned this fairly late Thank you! In a word: YES. I feel like we’ve just in the development process, then needed to scratched the surface of what’s possible. Rob get really creative to find a way to provide the and I have had a lot of fun designing Season 2 and I think it’ll show in the final design. Continued on next page>

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Interview (Cont.) stickers in the game at the appropriate time. The dossiers were the result – and I think they turned out even better than our original specification.

“Thunderbirds” was an unusual IP, as the generation who was exposed to it on TV are probably of a different demographic than the current gaming market. What drew you to wanting to release this game into today’s marketplace? Chris Birch of Modiphius approached me at Spiel about the opportunity to work on the game. At the time, I had never even heard of Thunderbirds. I don’t think it got much airtime while I was growing up. He was so excited about the idea – I could see a real sparkle in his eye – so I told him I’d look into it. I watched a few episodes and it was immediately clear to me that the premise would make a great cooperative game. I also liked the idea that the game would appeal to multiple generations, especially older adults who might use the game to share their love of Thunderbirds with their kids. I dove in soon after and watched nearly all the episodes, the two movies, and read the sourcebooks.

Knit Wit is clearly a departure from your previous works. What was the impetus to do a word based party game and how soon in the process did the concept of the Venn diagram usage come into play? I thought it’d be fun to design a game that incorporated drawing on a whiteboard and

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tried a few things without success. I stumbled into the idea of drawing Venn diagrams with overlapping concepts and put a crude prototype together fairly quickly. Early versions were very hard to play as you had to look in various locations in order to understand what was going on. I mentioned that our family is a big fan of Telestrations, but one of our frustrations with that game is that the markers dry out fairly quickly. Add to that the fact that my daughter kept breaking the game by drawing crazy regions – or regions that encompassed the entire whiteboard, making the game difficult to play. I brainstormed some alternate approaches to the game with Z-man and found that yo-yo string worked really great for defining the diagram. Soon after, I changed the magnets to spools, swapped out a stack of buttons for the sand time, and a friend suggested the name which

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brought everything together. In Knit Wit, you have to use your wit in order to knit different concepts together. It was a fairly rapid, organic process that was a lot of fun. Z-man did a fantastic job on the production and really ran with it, packing it in a sewing box, and offering large wooden spools, wooden buttons, and score sheets that look like chalkboards.

With designers such as yourself and Vlaada Chvatil starting to explore the family/party games genre, what design skills do you feel each of you bring to this genre that is different than those who develop specifically for that market and don’t venture into the hobby market? Vlaada’s got such a diverse set of games – I think part of it must be a willingness to fearlessly experiment in unfamiliar terrain. Continued on next page>

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Interview (Cont.) I don’t claim any special skills in this department other than a desire to chase things that I find fun – and see others enjoy as well. For me, this game was a nice break after co-designing Pandemic Legacy: Season 1. The scope of the project was so much smaller! It made for a nice change of pace.

Now that you are a full time game designer, can you give us a breakdown as to how you spend your time during the day creating/developing games, especially as compared to before when you were only designing part-time?

Are there any upcoming projects that you are at liberty to discuss or announce? The Great Chariot Race is due out this fall from Pegasus Spiele. It’s a light dice game that plays in about 30 minutes where you compete to be the first to complete two laps around the circus – or the last chariot to survive. The game is designed so that if you’re in the lead position you’re most vulnerable to the attacks of your opponents’ gladiators – but the further behind you are, the lower the chances you have of winning. You need to carefully manage your speed, damage, and fortune over the course of the race. The game typically ends in a dramatic fashion with chariots crashing across the finish line.

I’m fairly organized: I sit down at the dinner table in the evening with a pencil and sheet of binder paper each evening and make a list of priorities for the next day so I’m ready to roll Thunderbirds will be getting three expansions over after the kids head out to school. the coming months. The Tracy Island expansion (due in June) adds three new characters, two new I block out a little time in the morning to look machines, a Tracy Island miniature, four new at Facebook, Twitter, BoardGameGeek, and email pod vehicles, a set of miniatures to use for each to see if there’s any news and to flag things that pod vehicle, as well as a new disaster deck that require a response. Then, it’s on to design. My features the new characters and vehicles. The design work falls into a few major categories, Above & Beyond expansion (due in August) adds depending on what stage a given project is in: four new modules that you can mix and match. experimentation and sketching, playtesting You can level up your characters, use the disaster and observation, editing and development, or vehicles, try epic-level difficulty, or try “crisis” proofing. On any given day, I may spend all my mode which limits each turn to 70 seconds. time on one task, or I may break up my day Finally, The Hood expansion (due in October) doing a bit from each category, depending on let’s one player play against the other players the schedules for the games I’m working on. as The Hood. You can plot, scheme, hijack, kidnap, and otherwise mess with the members When I did this part time, I often felt that I of International Rescue in that sinister role. It was “stealing” time to work on these things – comes with a load of components including the either from my family or from my employer. Hood’s sub, plane, camera, and lair and a model It’s wonderful to have large blocks of protected of Creighton-Ward manor. time that I can dedicate to game design.

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Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (designed by Chuck D. Yager) is due this August. Instead of a band of disease-fighting scientists, you take on the role of detectives, reporters, hunters, and so on, battling cultists in an attempt to seal four gates before they awaken the Old Ones. I helped Chuck and Z-man develop the game and am really happy with it—it’s a lot of fun.

– is what distinguishes most great games. Show your game to as many people as you can and get a diverse set of feedback. 2. When you test your game, stop explaining and let people make mistakes. Listen and carefully observe them. You’ll get far better feedback watching and listening people than you will asking them what they liked or didn’t like.

What advice would you have for aspiring game 3. Write down the objectives you have for why you’re designing a game and what you want designers? your game to be and keep that information handy throughout the entire process. It’ll help I usually give three pieces of advice: you make better decisions as you as you move 1. Stop being so concerned about people your game forward. stealing your ideas. The execution – not the idea - Matt

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Game Review

Knit Wit

By Serge Pierro

Family Party Game

hile it would be easy for Matt Leacock to rest on his laurels and produce an endless stream of Pandemicrelated products, he has instead stepped outside of his comfort zone and designed a party/family game. Knit Wit is a quick game that can be enjoyed by both gamers and non-gamers, thus making it an excellent choice for many social gatherings. The first thing that you will notice about Knit Wit is the high production values. The game comes with a glossy cardboard sleeve that the box slides into. Upon opening the box via a magnetic flap, you are greeted with an array of unusual game components. The top cover has a pouch that holds the rule book. The black cardboard insert has several wells designed to hold the shipped components nicely and makes quite an impression when first opened. The four page rulebook is more than adequate for teaching the game and further embellishes the theme and graphic design that permeates the production. Graphic designers Phillipe Guerin and Karla Ron deserve kudos for their efforts. The first component that is going to grab your attention is the package of eight wooden spools that are wound with the loops for the game. Each spool has a white number printed on both ends. The 15â&#x20AC;? loops are both sturdy and colorful. These will be used with the wooden clothespins. Each clothespin has a hole drilled in it that the loop is put through and secured to hold the

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clothespin. The clothespins seem decent, but I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help but feel that they will be coming apart at some point in the future, as there is some movement between the spring and the clothespin itself, and the holes are drilled into the thinnest part of the wood.

While the loops, clothespins and spools are clearly the stars of the show, it is the tags that drive the game. Included are 114 single sided cardboard tags, as well as a single â&#x20AC;&#x153;Time to Shuffle the Tagsâ&#x20AC;? tag that is used to separate previously used tags. The tags that are included should keep you entertained for quite some time.

Also included are a set of plastic buttons. Each button features a number of holes that are used for scoring purposes, ranging from one to four. Speaking of scoring, the game includes eight, presharpened, white pencils. These will be used with the score pad of double-sided black paper, thus giving the Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) effect of writing on a blackboard. Also included is a white card that is the same as the score pad, presumably so that you can use it to make copies in the future. At the start of each player’s turn they will take one of the loops and place it so that it surrounds a previously played spool. (On the first turn this isn’t possible, as no spool has already been placed.) They will then take one of the tags from the box and attach it to the clothespin and then place a spool. You may not place a spool in an area that already has a spool. The numbers on the top of the spools relate to the numbers on the score sheet. When all of the spools and loops have been placed, players announce the start of the round and each player will write on their scoresheets a word/ phrase that matches the characteristics of the loops/ words surrounding a spool. Example: The blue loop surrounds spool #1 and has the word “Living” attached to it. Another player has played a green loop with the word “Slow” attached to it and has placed it around the #1 spool and then placed the #2 spool inside the green loop. So word #1 = Living and Slow (Turtle) and word #2 = Slow (Molasses). The first player to finish all their words takes the top button from the stack. These are arranged from most holes (4) to least (1) and are determined by the amount of players. The holes indicate the bonus points they will receive. After all of the bonus buttons have been taken, play is immediately stopped and scoring begins. The score of each word is determined by the number of loops around the spool, with each loop being worth one point. Starting with word #1 the players go down the list comparing their words. If two or more players chose the same word, they are cancelled and score zero points. The scores are totaled and the bonus from the button is added to it and the highest score wins.

This is an excellent game to play with family and non-gamer friends. The components catch everyone’s attention as soon as they hit the table and everyone was able to grasp the gameplay quickly. Although this is a good game, there are a couple of things I have concerns about. First of all, even with all of the brilliant production values, there is no means of storing the loops and clothespins in an efficient manner, unless of course you are willing to un-attach the clothespins and rewind the loops back onto the spools, or you are willing to hijack the area meant for the scorepad and then use the scorepad as a cover to cover the “tangled” grouping of loops and clothespins. Another concern is that there are many times when the combination of words become “impossible” due to one spool having four or more loops around it, thus all of the players didn’t write an answer for that slot and moved on. So while there are normally eight spools for eight words, many times there were only five or six spools that were relevant and the others were skipped. This made it feel like we were playing only a fraction of the game. Even with the caveats listed above, this is a game that many people are going to find quite enjoyable and it has already found itself on my short list of games that I will be bringing to family gatherings.

Designers: Matt Leacock Publisher: Z-Man Games Number of players: 2-8 Mechanic: Word Game Ages: 8+ Length: 15 mins.

Recommended www.zmangames.com

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Game Review

World’s Fair 1893

By Serge Pierro

2016 Mensa Select Winner

. Alex Kevern first caught my attention with his excellent game, Gold West (reviewed in Issue #6). So when I heard that he was going to do World’s Fair 1893 and it was going to feature artwork by Beth Sobel, it immediately became a highly anticipated game. Let’s take a look at what could be one of the best family game releases of the year. The box features a cardboard insert that has a section down the middle to store the components. It does an adequate job, however the main board piece doesn’t fit within it, so that leaves it prone to moving around during transportation. The sides of the box bottom feature 18 pieces of artwork from the game. The 12 page rulebook is the same size as the box and is clear and easy to follow. It also contains a couple of nice features, the first is that there is educational flavor text scattered throughout, and that the last page has a map of the World’s Fair grounds drawn to scale with landmarks. The main visual component of the game is the multi-section board. This is made of a sturdy cardboard stock and is divided into seven sections. The central board has the other pieces placed around it. This offers some different starting positions as well as conveniently scaling the game to different player amounts, however the pieces do no lock with each other and are prone to movement if nudged. While the board is certainly eye-catching, the cards for the game are impressive. Each card is unique and features artwork

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by Beth Sobel (see Issue #5 for our interview). This is an incredible effort, seeing as there are 40 main exhibit cards, 28 midway ticket cards and 23 influential figure cards (8 of which are unique). That makes for 76 pieces of unique art! Each card also features educational flavor text. Kudos to the whole team for all of the research and time that they invested in bringing this game to market.

The cardboard tokens are of the same quality cardboard as the board. The 88 Supporters are wooden cubes divided into four colors. The Ferris wheel car and the rounds marker are also made of wood, with the Ferris wheel car having a custom graphic printed on it.

them in front of them. Then they will deal out three cards, starting with the area in which they placed their cube and place one at each area going clockwise. Each player continues to do the same on their turn.

There are three types of cards that players will be Game play is incredibly simple. On a playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s turn accumulating throughout the game. These are Main they will take one of their wooden cubes and place it on Exhibits, Midway Tickets and Influential Figures. one of the areas around the Ferris wheel. They will then take the cards that are adjacent to that area and place Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) The Main Exhibit cards are used to trade in for Exhibit Approval tokens during the scoring phase and are worth nothing on their own. There are cards for each of the five areas in which you are trying to have the most cubes. If you have the most or second most cubes in an area during the scoring round you may trade in one of your previously obtained cards (for the area being scored) for its associated Exhibit Approval token. The Midway Tickets are used both as a timing mechanism, as well as being worth money. Each time one of these are taken from an area, the Ferris wheel token advances on the track until it returns to the starting position, signaling the end of the round. The Influential Figures have special abilities. When a player takes one of these cards they must play it during their next turn and are then placed into the discard pile. One of the main premises of the game is area control. When you place one of your Supporters (wooden cubes) onto one of the board sections you are trying to amass the most amount of them in that area to score points and be able to trade your Main Exhibit cards for Exhibit Approval tokens. At the end of a round players will do the following: cash in their tickets, score each area on the board and recall Supporters. Whoever has the most tickets at the end of a round receives a bonus of two coins and all players receive a coin for each of their tickets. Whoever has the most Supporters in an area receives 4 points and the ability to trade up to three Main Exhibit cards for the same amount of Exhibit Approval tokens. Whoever has the second most will receive 2 points and trade in one card. There are also rules for ties.

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The last thing done each round is to Recall Supporters. For each pair of Supporters that a player has in an area they must remove one Supporter. When the game ends players will total up their money, medals and Approved Exhibit tokens and the highest score wins. It should be noted that the Approved Exhibit tokens are scored by how many sets of tokens were collected, ranging from 1 pt. for 1 tile to 15 pts. for a complete set of five tiles. For such simple gameplay there is a lot going on. You will often times find yourself fighting against the board. On the one hand the cards you may want are in one area, but the area you need to control is somewhere else, leaving you with the decision of what to do. Tickets are worth cash, but claiming a lot of them will end the round quicker, so you have to weigh that against how many you are willing to take. The Influential Figure cards have great abilities, but are worth nothing on their own. So there are a lot of interesting choices to be made on each turn. I enjoy games that have simple and clean mechanics, yet reveal an engaging depth of play. This is one such game and I believe that we will be playing this one quite often.

Designers: J. Alex Kevern Publisher: Foxtrot Games Number of players: 2-4 Mechanic: Area Control, Set Collection Ages: 10+ Length: 40 mins.

Highly Recommended www.foxtrotgames.com

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Game Review

Flip City: Reuse

By Serge Pierro

Flip City Expansion

hen I first reviewed Flip City in Issue 5 of Game Nite, I was pleasantly surprised at the gameplay for such a small deckbuilder. However, it was clear that in order for the game to really reach its potential, it was going to need an expansion. Apparently Tasty Minstrel Games felt the same way, as they have released an expansion - “Flip City: Reuse”. Flip City: Reuse is a small expansion that comes in a tuck box that is the same size as one would expect for a standard deck of Poker cards. However, on the inside there is a sturdy cardboard sleeve/insert to help keep the cards from getting damaged. As a bonus, the box fits nicely inside the original Flip City box for storage. Two new cards are introduced, both of which are double sided and linen finished like the previous ones. There are 14 of each of the cards, as well as a separate card explaining the card effects and how to combine them with the main game. In my opinion the best card of the set is the “Flea Market/ Recycling Bin”. Let’s take a look at the effects. The “Flea Market” is a welcome addition to the game. It costs 2 and has the ability to stay in your discard pile when you shuffle your deck and it’s Recycle ability provides 1 additional Cash on your turn during the Play Card phase of the game. Since multiple “Flea Markets” can be recycled per turn, cards such as “Central Park” become easier to obtain and its ability to stay in your discard pile allows you to streamline your deck. On the other side of the “Flea Market” is the “Recycling Bin”. It has no inherent ability, but it does have a Flip cost of 1, which allows you to Flip the card back to the “Flea Market” side as well as allowing you to make an additional Flip during that turn. A nice compliment to the “Flea Market” engine. The other card included is the “The Plumber Shop/Renewal Agency”.

“The Plumber Shop” adds an element of disruption to the game by allowing a player to target their opponent’s deck. It costs 3 and the player chooses to have their opponents place the top card or bottom card of their deck into their discard pile. However, the player has to choose top or bottom as a blanket effect, as it doesn’t allow you to individually target each opponent. So you will find that there are times where you want to remove the top card of two opponent’s decks, while at the same time helping the third player by removing a less useful card from theirs. It also provides 2 Cash and an unhappiness icon. The Flip ability costs 2 to reveal “The Renewal Agency”. “The Renewal Agency” is another addition to the money engine of the expansion. Its main ability is that it generates 3 Cash, but, this may only be used for Flip and Develop actions. It also has a recycle ability for generating 1 Cash. Due to the influx of some quick cash, the expansion seemed to make the solitaire version of the game a bit easier to win. The “Flea Market” and “Office” cards were a strong combination in solitaire play, as well as being key factors in the main game. “Flip City: Reuse” is a welcome addition to an already fine game. Both victory paths of the game were enhanced by the cards and three of the four abilities were well worth using in both the regular and solitaire versions of the game. Perhaps in the future we will see a Bank card that will further exploit these cards with another victory condition - the amount of coins generated on a turn. All in all, this is a fine expansion that further elevates the game as an enjoyable deckbuilder. If future expansions are of a similar quality, Flip City should have a bright future.

Designer: Chen, Chih Fan Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games Number of players: 1-4 Mechanic: Push Your Luck, Deckbuilder Ages: 8+ Length: 30-50 mins.

Recommended www.playtmg.com

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Review The Broken Token By Bill Braun

Game Organizers

he Broken Token has been designing and manufacturing gaming accessories for board and card games since it was first founded in 2013. With a focus on enhancing the gaming experience, they specialize in storage solutions, box organizers, and gaming upgrades. As the tabletop industry continues to grow, The Broken Token offers a variety of products that could be described as the perfect marriage between fun and organization. From card-based games like A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, to the latest hotness like Blood Rage, their gaming accessories promote a speedy set up, as well as ample protection for those precious components and beautifully sculpted miniatures. Recently, I was provided two of their inserts (Dead of Winter, Battlestar Galactica) to see how well they are produced and experience firsthand the level of difficulty to assemble. To begin with, both inserts were delivered in a nice, padded envelope, and individually sealed in plastic bags. Nothing was damaged and all pieces were intact. Based on the materials that the inserts are made from I was more concerned with the packaging that normal. Constructed from 1/8” Baltic Birch, the materials are extremely lightweight, but proved to be sturdy enough to withstand any potential damage that may have occurred during transit. Upon removing the individual sheets of Baltic Birch I was instantly reminded of the token sheets that gamers have become familiar with. Cut in a similar style, the Broken Token’s wood sheets each contain numerous pieces that need to be ‘popped out’ and inventoried. While not as quick as popping out cardboard tokens, each of the pieces came free with a little extra wiggle. I was more than impressed with the

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Photo: Bill Braun

level of detail and precision that went into the laser cuts and, aside from a few minor splinters, found the removal process to be incredibly smooth. After ensuring that each insert shipped with all the necessary pieces, I began the task of assembling them. Starting with Dead of Winter, the directions were minimalistic and relied exclusively on images of the individual insert components. I was further reminded of the endless hours I’ve spent putting together LEGO buildings and play sets as a child and with my own children. The directions were both intuitive and extremely simple to follow. Although it was suggested that a modest amount of glue and/or tape could be applied to some of the edges of the wooden components to provide better stability, I found that, at least with the Dead of Winter insert, every piece fit together snuggly and the intricate dovetail woodcuts snapped together nicely. Overall, very little gluing was required. However, the same cannot be said of the Battlestar Galactica insert. While everything worked out fine upon completion, there was much more trial and error throughout the assembly process. Everything was loose fitting and required a greater amount of extra security to keep things together. Adding pieces per the directions often resulted in other pieces

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Photos: Bill Braun

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Review Review(Cont.) (Cont.)

Photo: Bill Braun

falling out of their respective position. I can only speculate that this may be due to ongoing refinements on the part of the craftsman at The Broken Token and that the Battlestar Galactica insert is an earlier design when compared to the much better designed Dead of Winter. All said and done, completing both game inserts took no more than two hours total, and aside from a light dusting of sawdust, provided for minimal cleanup. Although there is always a sense of accomplishment when completing any type of project – big or small – the real joy of this experience came with the transfer of the components, cards, dice, and game boards from their original storage solution into their new homes. Everything fit naturally and into their assigned positions, and the added wood burned labels are sure to accommodate for both a faster game setup and clean up process. Comparing this experience to that of my own designed game inserts - involving foam core boards, ample amounts of measuring, cutting, gluing, and a solid afternoon’s worth of work – it’s abundantly clear that The Broken Token has mastered the art of the game organizer. However, their solution may not be for everyone. Certainly, anyone with

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a bit of patience and an ability to follow directions will be able to easily assemble their products. But the added cost of a professionally laser cut organizer may be the ultimate deterrent for many a gamer. The Dead of Winter insert is priced at $28.99, while the insert for Battlestar Galactica lists for $27.99. While neither price point is unreasonable based on the quality of the final product, some may look at it as an unnecessary add-on. I’ll be the first to admit that game inserts – whether professionally developed or home brewed – are neither necessary nor required to enjoy the games that you play. But they do speak to personal preference and, if you have the extra budget, I highly suggest you give The Broken Token your undivided attention. They are providing a great service for both tabletop gamers and the hobby industry as a whole.

Company: The Broken Token Product: Game Organizers

Recommended www.thebrokentoken.com

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Photos: Bill Braun

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Interview

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Greg Isabelli

By Serge Pierro

“Greg Isabelli is the founder of the popular board game site: Board Game Arena.”

Founder of “Board Game Arena” What impelled you want to create a site that What are your favorite games, both onsite and allowed players to play popular hobby board off? games? Short answer : Because I was able to do it. Period. Long answer : I am a board games fanatic, and in 2010 I read an article about the possibilities to have real-time interactions with a website. It was quite innovative, and only few websites was using it, like Facebook for its chat. At this time the existing services to play board games online was based on outdated technologies and wasn’t really user friendly. I felt that this new technology would make possible to build a service that would be at least twice better than these ones. At this time I was spending 2 hours a day commuting in a train for work, so I decided to do it, and 10 months later BGA was born!

I used to play many different games, and I try to test the biggest possible number of board games. These times my favorite games are intelligent games than last a maximum of 90 minutes, like Race for the Galaxy, Splendor, 7 Wonders Duel, Hanabi ... However with my usual group of players we are used to play longer games, and our favorites are Imperial, Brass, Antike 2 and recently Food Chain Magnate. Seeing as the site releases new games on a regular

basis, can you share with our readers the process of how a game goes from the initial interest to the final release? We are releasing 12 to 18 games adaptations each year, and the process can vary a lot from one to another. But in all cases, everything starts with a common wishes from a publisher/ game designer and a developer to build an Continued on next page>

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Interview (Cont.) adaptation. To build a good adaptation, you need to make everyone happy including the software developer that want to share its love for a game. You need to love a game to pretend to share this love through your software. So the most difficult part of the process is to match the good publishers/game designers with the good developer. From this point, there is no rules : sometimes the game designer brings his own developer (or is a developer himself ), sometimes a very motivated developer manage to drive all the process with a lot of will-power, and so on. The development in itself is not an easy process : on BGA all adaptations have rules reinforcements, which means you cannot cheat. It makes the adaptation easy-to-use and the games are much faster, but the adaptations are much complex and many projects don’t manage to come to an good end.

Although the site is free, what are the benefits of purchasing a membership? The membership allows you to see some statistics (ex : your rank at each game), but the main idea is to support BGA. That’s why the membership is very cheap (2€ / month). You have to know that until recently, nobody was dedicated full time to BGA. This is why we rely a lot on the community of players who can do many many things to make the service better : translate the website in various languages, develop new games, help with the moderation, and of course send us money.

At the beginning of this year, I started working full time on BGA to make it even better and more professional, and of course it requires more money. This is why we started to introduce games that are restricted to paid members only (Lost Cities and Dungeon Twister). This “premium” Then, we are reviewing the adaptation internally. catalog is going to be extended, especially this We have a strong quality control procedure, year, so there is more and more benefits to be a and we check that the adaptation comply to member :) it. The players are used to have high-quality adaptations on BGA and don’t want this to Can you give us a behind the scenes look at the change. The game designer and the publisher is everyday operations of BGA? reviewing the game adaptation at the very end of the process, and in general at this step only We have a very light and flexible structure. I’m some details are to be fixed. the only one to work full time on BGA from Paris area, with the help from BGA co-founder Finally, the game is released on BGA, at first for Emmanuel who is working from Brussels. the paying members who has the right to beta- I’m coordinating a lot of persons that are test the game during a short period of time, contributing to the service (ex : game developers, then for everyone. moderators) that are from all over the world.

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On such a situation, the most difficult things is to manage priorities, because you can’t do all that have to be done. What is especially difficult is that a lot of players believe that BGA is a big company with many employees and have the corresponding expectations.

Have you ever considered having a game design contest, with the winning game appearing on the site?

No, but helping game designer is one of our top priority at now, so we’ll probably do it in the future. We may do more than that : having a So basically, our daily struggle is to try to save game design contest where ALL games are on enough time for the “next big thing” (next big the website, so everyone can test them :) game, next big feature), while continuing to provide a stable and bug-free service. And yes, Are there any upcoming announcements that you 24 hours are sometimes not enough.

would like to share with our readers?

How open is the development process for users We are going soon to announce a new way to who are interested in programming games for the build games on BGA, that will be way more site? simple and fast that the current process, with the same level of quality.

We build a website dedicated to developers : BGA Studio (http://studio.boardgamearena. The main idea of this new brick is to be a tool for com). game designers : using this tool, game designers will be able to bring their creations on BGA From this website, developers can create new in few hours, and then share it with the whole games project in few clicks, and start developing world. It will also allow crowdfunded games their games adaptations. When publishers publishers to have an online version of their agreed to have an adaptation of a game on BGA games during their crowdfunding campaigns, we add this game to the “available licence” list, and finally it’s going to multiply the number of so every developer can choose this game and games available on BGA by 4 or 5. starts to develop an adaptation. During all these years, we designed BGA to In 2015, more than half of the BGA game help board games to be more popular and to adaptations has been developed by the support the board game “industry” : this new community of developers, so this community brick is a very important step to continue in this is really important for BGA. However, the direction, and we hope you’ll like it! process is not 100% optimal and we are going to improve it a lot in 2016. www.boardgamearena.com

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65 www.redravengames.com

Special Feature Online Boardgaming Sites By Serge Pierro

Part I - Board Game Arena

hile most of us would agree that there is nothing quite like sitting down with a group of friends to play a favorite board game, there are times when it is just not convenient to do so. With this series of articles we will take a look at the best sites where you can play some amazing board and card games online - both in realtime and turn-based capabilities. Perhaps the most popular online gaming site is the browser based website, Board Game Arena (known hereafter as BGA). Touting an impressive 30,000+ Facebook likes, it is the world’s largest online site for board games. As of this writing there are 89 games available, however, they are always adding new ones. Some of the featured games include: Seasons, Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico, Through the Ages, Stone Age, Keyflower, Colt Express, Hanabi, Hive, In the Year of the Dragon, Libertalia, Lords of Xidit, Quantum, Spyrium, Targi, Tokaido, The Palaces of Carrara, and Tzolk’in. Alongside these games are several classic games including: Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Gomoku, Xiangqi, Hearts, Reversi and Yahtzee. There is something for everyone.

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While the site is free, they do offer memberships which include “members only” perks. For instance, members are able to track their statistics of the games they’ve played, as well as their ratings. Another perk is that members have the first opportunity to beta test new games. Recently the site enabled members to be able to initiate games of Lost Cities and Dungeon Twister. Nonmembers are able to participate in these games, but are unable to actually set up the matches themselves. The site is well organized and easy to navigate. Across the top of the window is a group of tabs that access the main areas of the site. These include: Play Now, News, Community, Games, Competition and Forums. The Play Now tab takes you to the main area of the available games looking for opponents. You have a choice of either Real-time or Turn-based games. This section also has a list of all of your current games, with each of them featuring an animated hourglass to indicate whose turn it is. Another nice feature is that upon signing in there is a clickable link across the top of the screen that tells you how many games are waiting for your move, this way you can easily access your games with one click.

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A turn-based game of Lost Cities.

The games in the Games section can be sorted by The News section is where new games are announced. Usually there is a bit of a teaser before the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s release, popular games, latest games, core gamers, regular with players trying to figure out what the game will be, players, casual, abstract, short games, medium length, basing their guesses on a posted image. long game, awarded games, classic, two player, fantasy, sci-fi, card game, dice game, solo, worker placement, The Community tab displays news from your friends hand management, bluffing, tile placement and more! and groups that you belong to. Anytime a friend wins a game for the first time it is announced to you in this feed. The Competition tab shows upcoming tournaments, If there is any news of note about features, bug fixes, etc. as well as the top players in each of the games on the the related group will announce it here as well. site, along with their ratings. There is also a Hall of Fame list of the best of the best. One of the more interesting things about this page is that each game has

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Special Feature (Cont.)

The Prestige section. The green wreathes represent a Good Player rating >1600 & the red wreath = Expert Player >1800.

its own area with the name of the game, the designer, top players and how many games have been played. An example: Race for the Galaxy has been played, 3,123,708 times!

Your Profile page lists how many games you are currently playing as well as how many games you have played on the site. Your Reputation rating is also here, as well as any penalties for leaving games or running over time. The Prestige section shows all of the games The Forum area is in both French and English and that you have played and your individual victories, includes Official Announcements, Discussions, rating and any of the “medals” and milestones that Tournaments, Translations, Bugs, Suggestions, and you have earned at each of the games. There is also a Developers. section for the scores of each of your games, as well as any achievements you’ve earned. In the upper right corner there is access to your personal data: Sound on or off, message center, a notification Even after a brief encounter with the site you will easily icon, as well as a Preference page that allows you to see why this is such a popular site. There is a broad customize the site settings. range of games for all types and levels of players and

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Interview

Part of the Profile page.

the people are quite friendly. However, it should not come as surprise that there are a handful of people who feel the need to start a game and not finish it. This is common to sites such as these, but since the site tracks these offenders, it is easy to see who you may or may not want to start a game with.

layout and friendliness, this is a great place to start your online boardgame playing experience. I log is several times a day and there is usually at least one game waiting for my move, and since I usually play 10-20 games at once, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s usually multiple games waiting. Besides the ability to play great games with a variety There is a chat feature which of international people, it is available to the players, yet is also a great place to learn one must keep in mind that how to play a game before www.boardgamearena.com this is an international site purchasing it. Myself and and not everyone speaks English. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never had any others have purchased games after playing them on this problems with anyone harassing or otherwise displaying site. antisocial behavior and have found several people who are more than happy to help you out when starting Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an excellent site that will expose you to a wide range to play a new game and you are unfamiliar with the of games and experiences. You can test various strategies interface. against good players, and be able to do so from the Due to the size and scope of the site, as well as the comfort of your own home. Highly Recommended!

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Game Review

Gruff

By Bill Braun

Battlin’ Billy Goats

think it’s safe to say that the tabletop industry has gotten into the habit of relying on a shortlist of themes over the past few years. If you’re not fighting off hordes of zombies, you’re exploring the vast reaches of outer space or delving into the darkest of dungeons. That’s not to say that these (over)used themes aren’t still fun and occasionally come with variations on an all too common experience. But it’s become obvious that breaking into the industry with a new game, a new theme, and a new experience without leaning heavily on massmarket appeal has become difficult at best. Gruff, developed by Studio Woe, takes the premise of the Norwegian fairytale – Three Billy Goats Gruff – and mutates it (quite literally) into a tactical combat card game that encourages players to crush their enemies using specially-crafted decks of monster goats. But is an interesting and comical theme enough to warrant repeated plays, or does Gruff end in tragedy like so many of the “classic” children’s tales it derives its ideas from? Gameplay Gruff is primarily designed for two players, but can accommodate for up to four players via a draft tournament. Winning is simple - kill all of your opponent’s Gruffs, or defeat the opposing Shepherd to be victorious. However simple the idea behind Gruff may be, the set-up (especially for first-time players) is surprisingly complicated. Each player starts by choosing a single Shepherd and three Gruffs. Although Gruffs come in a variety of different factions, players are free to mix and match as they please. Because each Gruff and Shepherd comes with it’s own set of statistics - Mean, Weird, Fat, and Crazy - making these first-time decisions can be somewhat daunting and mostly a guessing game. To make things even

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more “confusing”, 8 ability cards are selected from each of the Gruff’s individual deck of 15 cards. Those selected 24 cards are shuffled together to form each player’s deck. Ability tracking and life sliders are attached to each Gruff and Shepherd, players arrange their 3 Gruffs in any order forming a line that protects their Shepherd - 5 cards are drawn from the top of the ability deck, and the game begins.

Photo: Bill Braun

After the clean up phase - where attacks are resolved, conditions are removed, and exhausted Gruffs are refreshed - players draw a card from their Ability deck (skipping the first player’s turn), a single Gruff is activated, ability cards are played based on their cost and the Shepherd’s current Crazy score, and a single Tactical action is taken. Tactical actions include attacking, moving, growing, and resurrecting your Gruffs and are the basis for which much of the tactical nature of this

game comes into play. What I find most interesting about Gruff’s combat is that although an attack may have been initiated on a player’s turn, it does not resolve until the clean up phase; essentially giving the defender an opportunity to move a weakened Gruff to a new location or play defensive ability cards. However, once a particular Gruff has been killed (i.e. its Fat score has been reduced to zero), any excess damage is applied directly to the opposing Shepherd’s Life value. Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) Each Gruff and Shepherd comes with its own innate abilities that nicely chain off one another. Some Gruffs build up their Mean statistic (their attack value), while others increase their Fat (their defensive value) when activated. A Shepherd cannot use ability cards if they cannot meet or exceed the card’s Crazy cost. Employing Gruffs that add to a Shepherd’s Crazy value when activated is essential to taking full advantage of your predetermined Ability deck. If you’ve selected Abilities that are more expensive to use, you better have chosen a set of Gruffs that can build up your Shepherd’s Crazy over time; the more Weird a Gruff is, the Crazier the Shepherd will become. It’s an interesting and well-thought process to consider, especially when a player is making those pre-game choices. As a result, a game like Gruff demands that it is played often and on a regular basis in order to take full advantage of each Gruff faction, Shepherd, and Ability card. Although playing a game of Gruff is fairly straightforward and easy to grasp, the first few experiences will be a bit of a grind to get through. Some games may even take longer establishing your Gruff army and complementary Ability cards than actually playing the game. As I mentioned earlier, a game like Gruff demands that it is played on a regular basis, and I expect the developers had their sights set on tournament play from the beginning. When compared to the much more widely played and behemoth tournaments of Magic the Gathering, I’m not entirely sure where Gruff fits in. Additionally, the more casual gamer might be turned off by the forced familiarity of each and every card in order to fully take advantage of what the game has to offer. Theme and Components Gruff comes neatly packaged into a smaller, more compact box that makes for easy transportation and storage. While there appears to be room for at least a single expansion, the box design may end up being a slight oversight by the game’s developers should the

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Photo: Bill Braun

title ever take off and provide for numerous expansions. However, I’m sure that it’s compact size helped to achieve the original Kickstarter goals. All of the cards are of a nice quality – with the Gruff and Shepherd cards taking on a larger than average card stock size – and the clips used to track the individual stats are sturdy and fit snugly onto each card without worry of ever scratching any of the card’s images as they slide across the edges. And speaking of artwork, I was instantly enamored with the dark fantasy style and overthe-top choices that were made to detail these mutated beasts and their handlers. They are light enough in tone to not offend, yet bizarre enough in style to properly reflect the game’s overall theme. Lastly, the game comes with a single, sculpted miniature that I am still uncertain as to its purpose. I suppose it could be used as a first player marker, but when the game’s design is focused on a two-player experience it’s not often that players lose track of whose turn it is. Perhaps a victory miniature?

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Photo: Bill Braun

Final Thoughts I missed the opportunity to back Gruff while it was on Kickstarter, but am happy to see that it was able to achieve its funding goals. Both the rules and gameplay are easy to pick up, but the game could benefit from a quick reference guide that briefly explains the benefits of each Gruff faction and Shepherd to lend a much needed hand when jumping into your first, second, or even third game. Once the game is up and running, play bounces between players quickly and with a good amount of tactical depth and strategy. Unfortunately, a game like Gruff may end up getting lost in the shuffle among the other, more popular style of tactical card games. This is a sad thought as I feel that the developers are on to something both unique and interesting. If you

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have an opportunity to try Gruff for yourself, I suggest you do so.

Designer: Brent Critchfield Publisher: Studio Woe Number of players: 2-4 Mechanic: Tactical Card Game Ages: 11+ Length: 20-45 mins.

Worth Trying www.studiowoe.com

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Game Review

The Walled City

By Serge Pierro

Londonderry and Borderlands

ith countries such as Australia and Taiwan having a close knit community of game designers, it should come as no surprise that Canadians would also have similar groups. The Walled City is by Daryl Andrews, Stephen Sauer and Joshua Cappel, all of whom are members of the Game Artisans of Canada. Let’s see what they have to offer. The game comes in a 12” square box and contains a cardboard insert that has two recessed areas for storing components. Due to the nature of the design, the board acts as a cover and prevents components from moving between the two areas. The large 20 page rulebook is heavily illustrated and well written. It details each phase of the game, as well as providing numerous examples. There is also an appendix in the back that gives an in-depth explanation of each of the Guild cards. The centerpiece of the game is the sturdy, double sided board. Each side features a different city type as well as a different game experience. Londonderry is the “main” side and the Borderlands is on the reverse. Both sides feature a different, yet graphically pleasing scoring track. There is an abundance of wooden components. Included are 100 Peasants, 80 Nobles, 12 Walls and 4 score markers, divided into four different colors. The colors are somewhat drab, being grey, brown, olive green and black. You need to pay attention to where the pieces are placed, especially in low light environments, as they do not “jump out” at you like primary colors would. The walls are a dark gray and large, so there is no mistaking where they are on the board. There are two sets of cards. The Construction cards measure 1 3/4” x 2 1/2”, while the 20 Guild cards are standard sized.

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Both are of a decent stock and don’t get shuffled during the game. The final components are the custom dice whose colors are surprisingly bright when compared to the palette chosen for the rest of the game. After setting up the board, players will start the first of two rounds.

Each round contains four phases, the first of these is the Align phase. Players will choose one Guild card for use this round. Each of these cards grant an ability that must be used during the current round, otherwise it is discarded. The number listed on the card also determines the turn order for the next phase. In the Build phase, players will be building roads to start dividing up the territory and placing their Citizens. There are three steps: Construct, Settle and Adjust a Die or Chit.

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During Construct, a player will place a road on an available path and then choose one of their Construction cards and place it next to the road. During Settle, a player will use the two sets of numbers on the Construction card and use them to determine how many Nobles and/or Peasants they can place on each side of the road. Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) During Adjust, manually change one die in value - one value up or down, or you may flip over a chit that was adjacent to the area you just built in. The third phase is Count Votes. After players have placed all of their roads, they enter this phase in which the area control element of the game is scored. Neighborhoods are scored by the number of Citizens that they contain. The player with the highest amount scores 5 votes, second highest 3 votes, third 2 votes and nothing for fourth. The second part of the scoring is the total amount of Citizens that are in areas of the same Faction dice. The player with the most Citizens scores the present value of the faction on the score track. The rulebook clearly presents this material and its nuances. The fourth and last phase is Defense in which players will place one Construction card face down on an empty space on the board between two towers. These cards will be used for scoring in the second round. The second round is the same as the first, with the following exceptions: In the Build phase players will be building Walls instead of roads and Nobles can be promoted to the towers as Watchmen. During the Count Votes phase Nobles will flee neighborhoods that have an opening in the wall. The dice in the towers are included in the scoring for Factions. During the Defense phase players will play their Construction card face down on an available space as before, however after all players have placed, all of the cards are turned over.

After Towers are scored the game ends. Highest score wins. While the game is only two rounds and lasts around an hour, there is a lot going on, especially on your first play as you are unsure of how to allocate your Construction cards, or if you should place a Noble or a Peasant. But once you get a feel for the strategies, the game plays smoothly and quickly. The Construction cards were very interesting, as the mastery of their usage is essential towards winning the game. The Guild cards were good, but there were some that were preferred more than others. The only downside was that as the game progressed the board got a bit chaotic with all of the components placed everywhere. Since the pieces are such a drab color it was possible to overlook some of them while counting, something that is unlikely to happen with primary colored pieces. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some good solid gameplay in the relatively short amount of time it takes to play the game. Due to its smooth flow and the replayability of the double-sided board, this is a game that I look forward to playing again in the future.

Designers: Daryl Andrews & Stephen Sauer Publisher: Mercury Games Number of players: 2-4 Mechanic: Hand Management, Area Control Ages: 13+ Length: 60 mins.

Recommended

Towers are then scored, the player with the most Watchmen scoring the combined points indicated on the Construction card(s) previously placed. The player who has the second most will receive the lowest number on the Construction cards.

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www.mercurygames.com

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Game Review

Empires at Sea

By Serge Pierro

Epic High Seas Adventure

mpires at Sea is a game for 2-5 players that features resource management, trade, exploration, piracy and combat. Let’s take a look at what this ambitious game has to offer.

Empires at Sea comes in a large box that has a cardboard insert that has an aged wood texture printed on it and has one large well and two smaller ones. This provides more than enough storage area for the components. A copious amount of resealable storage bags are also included. The large, four panel board is double sided and is made of 1/16” cardboard and is matte finished. And while the board is fairly attractive, it seems that someone went a little overboard with the sometimest distracting, semi-transparent type and lines. The eight page rulebook gives the basic information on how to play, but you will need to obtain the FAQ to have a better understanding on how some of the cards work. There are four different decks of cards. Each of the decks are of the same decent stock. The images are amazing, as they feature the works of masters such as Rembrandt from the 17th and 18th centuries. Though it would have been nice if the names of the artists were printed on the cards or listed in the rulebook. The non-ship components are made of wood or plastic. The Ports along with the Steel and Wood resources are made of wood, with the resources having two different sized cubes to represent “1” and “5” resources. The Gold resources are a bit strange. There were two packages of the “1’s”, one in yellow and the other in orange and the “5’s” were large gemlike pieces in various colors, which lead to six different colored pieces to represent Gold.

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Of course the main feature of the game are the ships. These are appealing sculpts that look great on the board. However, because of their oval base the larger ships were prone to falling over at times. After setting up the game as per the rulebook, each round begins with turning over the top card of the Weather and History decks. Each of these decks has 15 cards and will be the timing

mechanism for the game. The Weather cards instruct After completing the above, the current player has up players on how ships may move this round, while the to five actions to take on their turn. These are: Sailing, History deck sets the general atmosphere for the round. Trading, Buy a Port and Attack, each of which cost an action. The first player will then collect resources from their Port and Industry cards. They will then have to play a Sailing is the main means of moving about the board. mandatory Captain card out of their hand. If they are A ship may sail in one direction for as long as they wish unable or unwilling to do so, they must discard a card for one action. The movement is like a rook in chess. and collect 3 Gold. You may only play one card. Continued on next page>

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Game Review (Cont.) Trading occurs when a player’s ship is adjacent to a port. They may traded one of their resources for any other resource. If the port is owned by another player, the payment is made to them, but the resource is obtained from the general supply. To Buy a Port a ship needs to be next to an unoccupied port and pay 1 wood, 1 steel and 1 gold to purchase the port. They place their Port token there and take the related card and place it in front of them. This card will now start generating resources on the player’s next turn. If a ship is adjacent to an enemy ship they may spend an action to Attack, but this ends their turn. Attacks are resolved by means by comparing dice rolls to the stats of the ships. There are also cards that can influence the outcomes of the battles. After all the players have taken their turns, they will bid to bribe the Pirate. Each player will secretly bid an amount of Gold (zero Gold is also a bid) and then reveal. The highest bid wins and takes control of the Pirate for five actions and may attack other players. If there is a tie for high bid, no one gains control. Either way all of the Gold that was bid is placed in the Treasure Chest at the Pirate’s Bay, where players can attempt to defeat its naval base and win all of the Gold stored there. At the end the round players draw their hand back up to six cards and the next round begins with a new first player and play continues as above. The end of the game is triggered when the last Weather and History cards have been drawn. This signifies the last round and then onto the scoring. Scoring is done via the tallying of the points of the ships that you have in play, resources, ships sunk and Ports under your command. Whoever has the most points wins.

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While this game leans towards the Risk end of the gaming spectrum, it contains some elements that make it more interesting, such as the card play and resource management. The Weather and History cards had their impact felt on the gameplay and offer high replayability. The Captain cards were a bit frustrating at points. In one game a player never drew a card that allowed them to build a “Ship of the Line”, thus putting them at a huge disadvantage. The construction of ships and forts should’ve been included in the game’s economic system, and not triggered by random card draws. Another point of contention is that the card text started with flavor text and then immediately ran into the effect, which led to some confusion with some cards. I’d love to see a publisher pick this game up and polish it, because there is a decent game here. It was clearly in need of a game developer who could have smoothed out all the rough edges. Having said that, if you are willing to smooth out the rough edges yourself, this game will reward you with some enjoyable gameplay.

Designers: Zach and Amy Silverzweig Publisher: Bear and Bandit, LLC. Number of players: 2-5 Mechanic: Hand Management, Grid Movement Ages: 14+ Length: 60-180 mins.

Worth Trying

www.empiresatsea.com

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Solo Gaming

Flash Point: Fire Rescue

By Jeff Rhind

“But sound aloud the praises, and give the victorcrown To our noble-hearted Firemen, who fear not danger’s frown.” Frederic G.W. Fenn, “Ode to our Firemen,” 1878

remember growing up how I wanted to be a firefighter and save people’s lives. I didn’t care about the danger involved, as I was too young to understand the risks and hazards. In light of somewhat recent events, firefighters have become even more legendary and celebrated than ever before. Flash Point: Fire Rescue is designed by Kevin Lanzing and published by Indie Boards & Cards. It is a cooperative (or co-op) game that has players working together as a team to put out fires, snuff out smoke, remove hazmat materials and rescue people and even pets from the blaze before the structure collapses. In typical co-op fashion, you all win or you all lose. – together. The base set comes with a double-sided board that allows for some extra variability right out of the box. The set-up is a little fiddly since, through die rolls, you randomly place the initial fire tokens, hot spots, hazardous materials and POI markers (victims) which are placed faced down on the board. In the solo game, you can choose how many responders you wish to play with. A good starting game is at least three. Each responder has a different special ability or, to be more accurate, specialty that can be utilized in certain situations. One may be more adept at putting out fires, while another is better at rescuing victims and still another may be better at chopping through walls.

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On each responder’s turn there are three “phases.” First, you will spend the action points assigned to that particular character. Action points (APs) may be used for movement in and around the building, extinguishing smoke or fire, drive the fire truck or ambulance around the board, firing

Photo: Jeff Rhind

the deck gun into a quadrant of the board to put out fires shockwave that causes damage to walls that are marked opening and closing doors, and picking up victims. Unused with black damage marker cubes. When the damage action points can be banked and used in a subsequent turn. markers run out (there are 24), the building collapses and you lose the game. As you might suspect, things In the second phase, you “advance the fire.” Rolling the escalate from bad to worse in this game very quickly. dice randomly seeds a smoke token that could possibly The last phase of a responder’s turn is replenishing the flashover and become a fire, cause an explosion, or even a victim markers so that there are three on the board at the end of every turn.

Continued on next page>

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Solo Gaming (Cont.) Since most co-op games offer shared information among players, Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a great beginners’ solo game (and co-op game too!) You are the captain of the team developing a plan of attack, deciding who goes in where, who is retrieving victims and who should operate the deck gun to put out large sections of the fire! One of the greatest features of the game is its replayability and variable setup. There are many different scenarios that gamers can play, through the use of available expansions, including high-rise office buildings, brownstones and even a submarine! Each expansion comes with its own set of additional rules for dealing with the specific scenario and conditions. Additionally, you can make the game as easy or as hard as you want depending on how many firefighters you intend to play with, how many fires start in the structure, if there are hazardous materials presents, or how many victims are present in the building or how many of them you need to rescue to win. Optional rules allow for no hazmat materials or not having any use of the deck gun. On Boardgamegeek, users have uploaded custom campaign rules as well as user created map boards for more challenging play. As an aside: When playing the game in full co-op mode with others, some “care bear” players might have an issue with game play when they are unable to rescue victims from fire and smoke and some of those victims can be pets. Managing all your responders’ action points and trying to maximize each turn can be a challenge. “Advancing the fire” is relentless and unremitting. The damage counters are finite and run out quickly. It can be a pulsepounding race to get the last victim out of the building before it collapses on top of your responders or victims left behind. Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a fantastic and tense game. Its cooperative nature makes it perfect for solo play. Although it is considered one of the preeminent gateway cooperative games, its advanced and custom rules allow for a higher degree of difficulty for multiple players as well as the solitaire player.

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Photo: Jeff Rhind

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History

Stop Thief

By Kevin Cox

A crime is being committed... but where?

efore Letters from Whitechapel and Scotland Yard there was a way to chase a hidden criminal around a game board. The game even came with a nifty computer to control the criminal so all the players could be the good guys. The game was Stop Thief. Released in 1979 by Parker Brothers and designed by Robert Doyle, Stop Thief is a fun example of 70’s and 80’s era gaming. The Game

The Scanner moves the criminals around committing crimes, breaking windows, opening doors or simply sneaking around. Each act has its own unique sound played by the Crime Scanner. The players must follow these clues to deduce where the criminals are located, then get there and attempt to arrest them. To do so the detective must be at the location where they feel the criminal is currently located and punch in that location on the Crime Scanner. Through a series of fun digital sounds of sirens and gun fire, the scanner will tell you if you are correct. If so, you catch the crook and get a reward listed on the criminal character card. If not, the criminal runs and the hunt continues.

The players each control a detective from the ACME detective agency and attempt to locate and arrest the hidden criminal currently sneaking around the game board. The board features a few streets, a subway, and four large buildings for the criminal to commit the crimes in. The buildings are a Bank, The Crime Scanner notwithstanding, where the game Jewelry store, Antique store and of course a store that really comes to life is in the details and art. Stop Thief is sells Furs. To find the bad guys players will follow audio filled with quirky little artistic details all over the board. clues to the criminal’s location that come from the brain From the cinema playing a movie called Gorrzo to a of Stop Thief, the Crime Scanner.

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Photo by Kevin Cox

Verdict dog hanging out on the roof of the hotel for some reason, the game board is a lot of fun to study. But the details certainly do not stop there. Every Detective Character card and Criminal character card has details and back story galore. With detective names like Sheerluck Homes and Carrie Badger you know you are in for some laughs. The criminal character cards are even more in depth with full funny back story written on the back of each. To win the game you much catch enough of these fun crooks that your reward money reaches $2500. The first detective to do this is the winner.

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Stop Thief is on many gamersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; favorite game lists from their childhood. But the game should not just sit on the shelf or in the attic collecting dust. Next time you and your game group sit down to play something like Letters from Whitechapel, Scotland Yard or even Police Precinct, get the night started with a quick 30 minute game of Stop Thief as a warm up. You will be glad you did. It might just be the hit of the night. Where to find it What, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t already own a copy for your collection? As of writing this article there were no less than 30 copies on eBay with prices as low as $25.

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Education

Game Events By David Niecikowski, ABD, MAED/CI

Part 1: Description and Benefits

his is the first article in a three part series on the description, benefits, preparation, and coordination of game events. Game events are vital for anyone interested in promoting game literacy and nurturing and growing a game community. What follows is an excerpt from my book Game Design in the Classroom and although Part 1 below may seem obvious to experienced games, this article could be provided to those who are less familiar with the description and benefits of game events. What is a Game Event? A game event is a formal coordinated activity attended by a group of people during the day or in the evening to play traditional games together. Any day of the week may be chosen and sometimes holidays are selected as convenient days to gather. The people who attend these events may be the best of friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or complete strangers but who all share a common goal in wanting to spend quality time interacting in a positive, social, interactive atmosphere. Attendees may vary in age, from preschool to retirees, or the event may be limited due the experience or equipment needed to successfully participate in the games being played, e.g., a war game with painted miniatures or a live action role playing game. Some events may specify which games are to be played, e.g., board game night or Friday Night Magic, or be designated as open events where attendees arrive with their own games or have access to a game library at the event. The location of the event can vary, which may also limit who may participate because of the start time of the event or access to the location, e.g., a school game club may only be available to students attending that school. Most common events are free but some events, such as those held at a game convention or retail store, may require an entry fee or purchasing something needed to play in the event, e.g., booster

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packs for a collectible card game draft tournament. The coordination of the event is likely led by an adult, who may have trained assistants or tournament judges of all ages. The coordinator and his/her assistants will set the calendar, secure space and equipment, prepare any needed food and drink, send out invitations, manage attendees needs during the event, cleanup at the end of the event, collect and analyze event evaluations, and make any needed changes before the next event.

Why Hold a Game Event? The most common reason free game events are held is to foster community and, in some areas, provide a safe alternative to the streets. Game events that include a fee may also achieve the same results but may not be accessible to those who cannot afford the price of admission. Whether playing games in the classroom or Continued on next page>

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Education (Cont.) at an event, the opportunities to develop academic and life/social skills are numerous. Some game events may focus on specific academic outcomes, such as math games played at a math night event. However, academic development may be secondary to events that are held to develop specific social skills, such as resolving conflict, sportsmanship, and respect. Other events may be held to meet goals tied to funding, such as Title 1 parent education events or home school partnerships where parents play games with their children at the event and are encouraged to play games with their children at home. Some events are held to raise funds, as celebrations, as rewards, or just for fun. In comparison to other forms of entertainment, games offer a positive alternative to the constant digital stimulation of cell phones, TV, and the computer. A game event can encourage families to play together rather than using TV and video games as babysitting tools. In addition, board games often provide more return per dollar compared to the cost of other activities, such as a movie, play, concert, or amusement park. The return is especially high if there is no cost to play and games are provided at the event. Each year, stories are added online about holding a game event. The following are some recent examples of why schools and communities hold game events. At Florence Mattison Elementary school in Conway, Arkansas parents play board games with their children on Monday nights that, according to Gloria Hackett, “…teaches children higher level thinking skills, waiting their turn, and being polite.” A game night participating parent, Lelia Young, also plays games with her child at home and believes that “…playing games helps children in school” and in developing problem solving skills. She adds that “…playing board games is a way to spend quality time without spending a lot of money

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and energy.” Another parent, Andrea Key, agreed that the game nights were a “‘…great opportunity to take a break from the after-school rush.’” 1 At Wixon Middle School, classes are offered after school which are attended by students, teachers, and community members. According to teacher, Angela Persechino who helps make sure activities meet state standards, the “Board Games, Chess, and Puzzles” class selects board games that “…teach social interaction, math and critical-thinking skills. Children who play games on a computer do not develop their social skills. This activity draws them out.’” 2 In one UK community, police and residents support children’s interests in playing board games as a “fun way to get young people off the streets” in sessions titled “Board Games For Bored Kids”. 3 Interested in hosting your own formal game event? Part 2 and 3 in the next two issue will discuss in-depth preparation and coordination of game events. REFERENCES: 1. Muller, N. (2009). After school is still cool at Wixon Middle School. The Register. Retrieved August 14, 2010 from http://www.wickedlocal.com/ dennis/news/education/x884492212/Afterschool-isstill-cool-at-Wixon-Middle-School 2. Hartlepool Mail. (2010). Going from bored to board games. Retrieved April 25, 2016 from http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/Goingfrombored-to-board.5984032.jp 3. Pritchard, G. (2009). Community games day. Retrieved August 14, 2010 from http://www.g4ed. com/index.php/resources-forteachers/217-communitygames-day

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Comics

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Contributors Serge Pierro

Serge

has playtested numerous games for several companies, including Wizards of the Coast and AEG. He has also written for Duelist, Inquest and Gamer print magazines. His award winning photography has appeared in both newspapers and magazines. He has self published a game, and has several other designs scheduled for a 2016 release.

Eric Devlin

Eric has been the North East Regional Representative for Wizards of the Coast, the brand manager of Legends of the Five Rings, as well as working with Sabretooth and Third World Games. He has an extensive background in playtesting for top companies. He has also written for Games Quarterly, Duelist, Inquest and others.

Bill Braun Bill has been a contributing writer for PSNation and High-

Def Digest, an Editor and Publisher Relations Director for 30PlusGamer, and the co-creator and podcast host of A Band of Gamers.

John Anthony Gulla John graduated with an M.A. in Humanities, wherein he focused his study on games, the history of gaming, and game design as it relates to the Humanities. He is an avid board gamer and game collector, with over 200 games in his current collection. You can reach him on BGG.com under the username JohnAG68

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Jeff Rhind Jeff is a single father raising a 17 year-old son and a 6 year-old daughter,

and slowly coaxing them into the world of tabletop gaming. He has been gaming for many years and shares his love and appreciation for the hobby by reviewing and talking about games on his web site: completelyboard. com as well as his You Tube channel at youtube.com/completelyboard. You can also follow him on twitter @jeffrhind

David Niecikowski David is a published game designer and recognized expert on using traditional

games with families and students. Since 2000, over two dozen of his board games, role-playing supplements, books, and articles have been published. He has also worked as a freelance marketing and event consultant with scores of industry companies such as Alliance Game Distributors, Gen Con, Wizards of the Coast, Upper Deck, Mayfair, Rio Grande, AEG, and Out of the Box.

Kevin Lauryssen Kevin has a Master in Audiovisual Arts and majored in

Animation. He works as a Freelance Draftsman for multiple companies in Belgium. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an avid gamer who has created a web-comic about boardgaming. His work can be found at www.game-night.be

Kevin Cox Kevin is a published game designer, graphic designer and co-owner of KnA Games. His first tabletop release is a sci-fi co-op called Space Movers, which he created with his wife, April. Kevin has been gaming for over 30 years and has an extensive collection, which features many vintage games.Â In addition to gaming, Kevin enjoys being a husband and all around geek.

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Issue #10

July 2016