I would like to thank everyone who followed us and tweeted about the contest but we have randomly selected a winner and they have been notified. They will be receiving their prize shortly.

We have other goodies to give away in the future and we'll make sure of two things in future contests.

1. They won't require twitter.
2. They will require some creativity.

Now excuse me while I go clear out the tunnels in hell of these demons.

Hope everyone had a fun filled holiday weekend in the United States. It was 90+ here yesterday after being in the 50's the day earlier...ah Spring.

On tap this week I have the following reviews.

Ascending Empires which is really more of a game then I expected.

Claustrophobia which causes me to smack myself for not trying this game earlier.

The Port-a-Party lineup of games which went through extensive testing over the weekend.

I'll also be picking the winner of the LOTR contest tonight and once contacted will post here.

Well there new to me anyway. The following games all arrived this week.

Space Infantry - This is a solo game from Lock n Load publishing.  The rules are just not very well organized which has been my typical experience with L&L but the game plays nice. I've already ripped through 3 scenarios as they take about 20-30 minutes each.

Ascending Empires - A new one from Z-man games which is getting a lot of buzz. Haven't even ripped off the shrink on this one yet but it is on tap for this weekend.

Dwarf King's Hold: Dead Rising - I've already mentioned my disappointment with the components in this $60 game. The components in Space Infantry are better produced and that game was $20 cheaper.  Setting that aspect aside there is a really good game here for two players. I'll get to a review at some point but there are other items ahead of it.

Claustrophobia - Another two player game similar to Dwarf King's Hold but this one is just has lots of atmosphere. I really like the components and the simple rules. I hope to play this over the weekend as well.

Yesterday we spoke with Jim Krohn the designer of the upcoming Space Empires 4X. Today we speak to Jim about his other game nearing release Band of Brothers.

• Rommel's Obsession - the battle of Crusader
• Medieval Empires - multiplayer medieval wargame
• Time Changer - a family euro
• Starships - a clever, family, space game
• No name yet - A starship fleet combat game

It's going to be a long, long wait until the 3rd quarter of this year for me. The original Adventurers was a personal favorite of mine and a big hit in the house with the wife and kids. This game seems to come out every time we have people over as well.

FFG has put up a preview of the upcoming game and well the wait just got a little longer for me. I know some people aren't happy that this game is a stand alone product and not an expansion to the original but I'm not one of them.

GenCon is going to be mighty costly to my wallet this year.

Recently OBGB had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Krohn the designer of the much anticipated Space Empires 4X. Because Jim was so gracious with his time the interview is rather large so we're going to split it up into multiple postings.  Check back tomorrow for part 2.

Some of the bits from Space Empires 4X

• There are not a lot of space games that have a strong wargame feel.
• On the other hand, it is simple enough so that non-grognards can play.
• The mounted map has certainly helped to make the game accessible to more people.
• GMT has done a good job with the game.
• It has to help that, although they primarily publish wargames, GMT has a number of excellent games that are appreciated by non-grognards.  Space Empires fits in that mold.

• There is a combat bonus if you outnumber an opponents fleet by 2:1.  This abstractly represents how a larger fleet could more easily maneuver to fire on downed shields or damaged parts of a ship.  You don't want to be on the short end of that stick.  Therefore you are always encouraged to build escorts for you capital ships.
• Some technology is only available on some smaller ships.
• Ship Yards are needed to build fleets and available ship yard space sometimes constrains you to build  a smaller ship than you would like.
• Money - it is always in a short supply and that can often cause you to build a smaller ship.

Near final map

I suppose the fact that it is fairly simple and quick helps too.



Check back tomorrow for part 2 of the interview where we discuss Band of Brothers.

For those unaware the Spiel des Jahres is the Game of the Year award in Germany. It's a very prestigious honor among the gaming community.  So I was happy to see that Forbidden Island was nominated.

Previous winners have included Dominion and Dixit. Other nominees where Qwirkle and Asara.

This year for the first time the category has been spit and a companion award called Kennerspiel des Jahres is being given for games termed "more complex"

In that category is the game 7 Wonders and well it doesn't matter who else because 7 Wonders will easily win. However I can't say 7 Wonders is more complex then any of the3 games mentioned above.

Our forbidden Island review is listed on the side panel. I highly recommend the game back when I wrote the review I recommended Pandemic over Forbidden Island saying it was a little deeper. Having played countless games of FI since then I can say that statement was incorrect and while both games are fantastic Island sees more time at my house due to the shorter time it takes to play.

Head on over to GameWright for the full press release.

GMT Games has posted a few links on their face book page to the upcoming playbook for Space Empires 4X.

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

I like the lack of clutter on these cards

Fantasy Flight posted another preview of the upcoming Rune age game. I have to admit as much as I am growing weary of card based games this one is sounding interesting. Here is a small bit

The Monument is designed for players who want a fully competitive game, but who also want to restrict direct player interaction, thereby keeping the focus on their own individual strategies. Mechanically, this amounts to a race to amass a necessary sum of gold, after which victory falls to the first player to spend that wealth erecting a massive tribute to his race’s god or gods. Just as each race has its own distinctive style, each race’s god contributes to its unique flavor. Which deity will you appease?

 Find out more on the FFG site.

Been a rather slow news day for a Monday. Unless of course you consider FFG's news that you can take on the role of the overlord or keeper in their GenCon Descent and Mansions of Madness events exciting news.

I just received a few new games that I'm going to be looking into and reporting on. Dwarf King's Hold: Dead Rising is one of the games. Haven't done much but open the box and my initial reaction to that was less then favorable. I expect a little bit more for $60 to be honest and I certainly don't expect to be assembling miniatures and gluing them together.

The rule book dimensions remind me of the old computer game manuals from the 90's and the card board bit's aren't very thick. Here is to hoping the game play changes my initial feelings. I can live with lack luster components if the game plays well enough.

Also arriving today is a copy of Space Infantry. I haven't even cracked the seal on this one yet but I'll be diving into it this week. Other items on tap in the near future is an interview with Jim Krohn the designer on the upcoming and very popular Space Empires 4X and the Band of Brothers games both of which I plan on picking up. In fact I have SE4X on pre-order maybe Jim can pull some strings.

Finally I'm pleased to report we will be covering GenCon this year after missing last years show. I expect a lot of games to be available in limited supply this year so I'll be bringing a big shopping bag.

Caught this piece of news from our friends over at No High Scores and also on the Geek. Apparently there is a possibility of an expansion for Hannibal Rome vs Carthage.

Hannibal is one of my favorite games however I'm not what an expansion will add to the games. In fact over at the Valley Games site the bullet list for the expansion is not that impressive.

• A new map board for the First Punic War,
• A map board for the ORIGINAL Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage game on the reverse side,
• This expansion includes a two-sided board. One side features the board for Hamilcar: First Punic War (the expansion), while the other side is the board for the original Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage
• 9 new generals who fought under Hamilcar, 9 new Roman generals AND 7 new generals for the original Hannibal game that can be played with the original

So three of the bullet points are about the map. It's certainly nice to have a new map and some new generals to play with. I would assume if you're adding 7 generals to the original game there might be some new rules but the site doesn't mention this.

I'm a completest so I've already bought in on the pre-orderbut hopefully Valley Games will give us a little more information on this expansion.

I've notice over at the site comic book resources they have information on a new Z-man game on the hit TV show and comic series The Walking Dead. I haven't been able to find any information on z-man's site or BGG as of yet.

Z-man produces a lot of games and Zev is a fantastic guy. Some of their games are outstanding and some are so-so. Where this one will fall I have no idea. It says a late summer release which means it will probably be at GenCon.

Head over to CBR to see the details.

Everyone knew this was coming right? I think this about soaks up every avenue Days of Wonder could use for this brand.

However Ticket to Ride is still a fun game and a nice bridge game for people getting into the hobby. I've raised many a gamer by cutting their teeth on TTR over the years.

I may pick this up so I can give you the loyal readers some impressions. Yes I know, I'm just that nice of a guy.

Get more information over at the official page.

Mayfair has announced an expansion for the train game Steam. I'm not a huge player of this game like some of my friends but I do enjoy it. Press below.

The three maps in the release are: 1) Belgium & Luxembourg (an expansion for 2 players competing to build an importing empire), 2) the Brussels Metro (an expansion for 3 players developing intercity transit), and 3) Mid-Atlantic US (an expansion for 3-6 players building railroad empires in the Civil War era).  Also included will be an extra sheet of Steam™ tiles.  These boards are sure to challenge Steam™ players with their region-specific rules and challenging topography.

See the full release over at the Mayfair site.

Fighting Formations is one of the better war games I have had the pleasure of playing. I may have to make an adjustment to our review policy just so I can talk glowingly about this game. GMT is offering a demo tomorrow night on Vassal. I'd love to attend this but it's my daughters birthday. If you want to see why this is such a great game with a fantastic mechanic then see the below.

On Thursday, May 19 at 8:30pm Eastern Time: We will be conducting a live online demonstration of Fighting Formations: Grossdeutschland Infantry Division. You can get all the information on how to tune in from our Ventrilo Voice Server page.

From FFG this afternoon:
"Humanity’s golden age came to a sudden and violent end on Emergence Day. Within 24 hours, a quarter of all human life on Sera was wiped out, and billions more were lost in the conflict that followed – an unending war that has reduced the planet’s surface to a smoking ruin. Now, one final desperate stand is all that remains to prevent the total annihilation of the human race. Gather your team. You are humanity’s last hope."

After having been anounced what must have been three years ago, the vile money-destroyers over at FFG have finally given us a look at their upcoming Gears of War boardgame adaptation. Meeting expectations as an adaptation of the console shooter, it's a co-op game, seems to be an all-players vs the game mechanics design.

More from the source here. I look forward to more info, this one could go either way for me.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is one really challenging game to review. The game offers some unique mechanics to the ever growing field of titles Fantasy Flight has classified as "Living Card Games". Despite the interesting mechanics there seem to be some major play balancing issues if you try to play the game right out of the box.  Before I get ahead of myself lets go on a journey through what could eventually be a solid gaming experience. While I won't cover every aspect of playing the game, you can watch the excellent video tutorials on FFG's site for that. I will delve into some of the aspects.

The Parts
LOTR:TCG comes with 226 cards, 2 threat trackers (more on that in a minute) and somewhere around 90 bits for tracking things such as damage and progress. The art work on the cards is fantastic and the symbols on the cards are also pretty easy to identify and remember. This may seem like a small detail but having played other LCG's I really like that the LOTR cards make sense.

The threat dials are no different then dials used in other FFG's product such as Battlestar Galatica but the issue is you're only given two of them. Since you are given enough cards in the starter set to play a game with four players. I really can't come up with a good reason as to why FFG didn't include 4 dials other then to try and sell more core sets. In their defense I don't recall seeing anything in the rules about playing with 4 players but the game is definitely set up for it.  This means if you want to play with 4 players you'll need two starter sets.

The Game or You Better Pick Wisely
Two things sold me on trying LOTR:TCG the first was the ability to play it solo and the second was that it was a cooperative game.  Because the solo experience is where I spent a great deal of my time I'm going to give that it's own section later on but first lets cover the game itself.

The first thing you're going to do in a game of LOTR:TCG is either pick which deck or heroes you want to play. As I said the game comes with four starter decks that suggest they can be played out of the box.

Now whether these decks can be played as is depends on who you ask. Certain scenarios play better with different deck combinations and I would say some are near impossible to be won with certain deck combinations.  While you can customize your own decks most players are going to start with a starter deck and there lies the problem. This game is hard, but with a bad deck combination you could instantly be turned off by the game.


Perhaps FFG wanted people to be challenged with learning the different decks or customizing their own decks. Perhaps this additional learning curve is in place to make up for the lack of quests included in the base game. I'm not sure of the answer I just know that play balancing this off the mark is hard to be missed during testing.


Lets move on to Heroes because they are important. Each Hero has a sphere he is proficient in. The heroes collect a resource token every turn and in order to play cards from your hand you need to pay for them with resources. The catch is you can only pay for card with resources that match their sphere. For example Aragorn is a Leadership hero so if you're playing a card from the leadership deck the resources must come from Aragorn or any other hero with the leadership trait. So if I elect to play the leadership deck then I should pick only the leadership heroes. Playing the leadership deck and then having Legolas be one of your heroes is a waste because his resources won't be useful for playing cards.


Again you can customize your decks thus allowing you to mix and match heroes and cards from all the spheres but this is something you won't be doing the first time out. In fact you may never do it unless you play this game a lot. That got a little long but I think it is important to someone looking to buy this game. In short the game penalizes the player who just wants to pick it up and play once in a while which is a shame.

Once you have determined which heroes you will play and which deck or custom deck you then tally up the threat level of the heroes you control to set your initial threat level on the dial. Threat is important because if your dial ever reaches 50 you're out of the game.


As previously noted the game comes with 3 quests that you can play. A quest is a combination of cards in a sequence and the object is to add progress to the quest to continue on to the next step. In the picture above in order to move to the next Step in the quest the players would need to add 4 progress tokens to this card.

A turn of LOTR:TCG goes along these lines. First players collect a resource token for each hero and add it to that heroes resource pool. Then the player enters the planning phase this is where he/she can play cards for their resource costs. While some cards can be played at other times this is the only stage where an Ally card can be played and these are invaluable cards in the game.

Next is the quest phase which is essentially how players progress to win the game.  Starting with the first player each player determines who he will commit to questing this turn.  A player doesn't have to send anyone but they will still suffer the effects of failing to quest. If you do send someone then a card is added to the staging area for each player who sent some of his characters on the quest.  

The object here is to have the willpower of the committed characters be greater then the threat of the cards in the staging area. If you beat it you add progress tokens to the quest, if not your threat goes up. Recall I said some deck combinations make some quests challenging? Well welcome to play balance issue #2. location cards.

A monster coming into the staging area is far easier to deal with then location cards. Monsters can be attacked or will engage you if your threat level is high enough. This gets them out of the staging area onto your characters which removes their threat level from the quest calculation. 

Locations aren't as easy because when a location comes up you can elect to travel to it which makes it an active location but you can only travel to one location at a time. A location acts as a buffer to the quest, meaning if a location is active any progress you make that would normally go to the quest needs to go to the location until it is explored. 

Locations can pile up, especially in the starter quest and only two decks handle locations very well. So if you should choose the 2 decks not equipped to handle locations and your encounter deck hands you a lot of locations in a row you've essentially lost. In fact after playing several games you'll often be able to see a losing deck well before the game would end.

Going it Alone
LOTR:TCG sets up and scales well whether playing it alone or with 2,3 or 4 players. However the solo game is more challenging to play and suffers from the same issues mentioned above. I would love to see someone take the starter quest Passage through Mirkwood and play it with the leadership deck 20 times and get more then one win without cheating at all. However the same scenario can be beaten  with the Spirit deck with far more success assuming you can avoid the monsters.

The game plays very quick, especially solo and it's an easy setup and tear down game. I've played most of my games during a lunch break.  From a solo standpoint the game is one of the few that really works for the single player.

Summing it up

I've played this game with other people a half dozen times and each time the feelings were about the same. The game is cool but very challenging and most would play it again but weren't exactly banging down the doors.

I've played 22 games of LOTR:TCG solo and I have won twice. These were games 21 and 22 so what you can take from that is a few things. I could suck at this game and this could be my issue alone although searching forums on various sites would say you were mistaken.

The game has a steep learning curve which means that it is going to take an investment of time to become good. Again I would partially disagree as the rules are simple and it is one of the better card games mechanically I've seen.

It's all a crap shoot and their is so much randomness to the encounter deck that unless you know the scenarios and know which decks work with them you're going to be handicapped. To me this is the crux of the problem with LOTR:TCG and that it's a really good game mechanically but it is impossible to play balance.

The game sets up for someone wanting to customize their deck and really come up with great hero / deck combinations for beating scenarios. This is in stark contrast to every other LCG I've played which I've been able to have fun with right out of the box.

Bottom line is this is a good game, it is very challenging and the way it stand right now for you to get maximum enjoyment out of it you're going to need to either learn which decks work with which quests or craf your own combinations.

The rules for the upcoming game Dungeon Run are now online. You can also pre-order the game over at the plaid hat games site.

Dungeon Run from my understanding was a print and play game that plaid hat picked up, expanded the rules and added nice bits too. I never played the print and play but as our readers know I love Summoner Wars so I will be giving this one a look come late summer.

Well seems like the blogger crash did cause us some issues. Some posts I had scheduled for today are no longer around. Fortunately I back those up offline but I am not at a spot where I can get to them. This means I will probably hold my LOTR review until Monday.

We had planned to roll this site out of Blogger into a more traditional website in the future but these last two days have made me think I may have to do that ahead of schedule.

On tap this weekend I plan to play Earth Reborn, The Back to the Future Card game and also the Resident Evil deck building game as well. What's on your play list for the weekend.

For those of you not on the GMT update mailing list (you should be) here is a short snippet from it with their release schedule for this year. To see the full update visit GMT Games website or click here.

The 4th Adventure pack

FFG has announced the now fourth adventure pack for the Lord of the Rings Card game.

If you're asking yourself shouldn't the first pack be in stores before they announce the fourth? Or shouldn't they have planned in advanced and had all of these things published at once so they could actually maintain a monthly schedule? I say welcome to the world of FFG logic.

My review of this game will be posted this week, I'm going to give it one more play this time with 3 people. I had to buy another base set to do this by the way. That will bring my total plays up to 21 and for those keeping score my current record is 0 - 20, take from that what you will.

Don't forget about our contest above, right now your chances of winning are pretty good as our twitter following is small, maybe I need to post links to naked celebrity photos.

Gaming with the Wife is an ongoing column where I talk about the games my wife, a non-gamer, likes and dislikes. If you're married to a non-gamer hopefully this column will present a little information and humor.

Summoner Wars

Volume 1 - Summoner Wars

Welcome to the first entry in Gaming with the Wife. As a married gamer with two girls ages 6 and 8 my gaming time is reduced to once a week with my friends. This means for me to get games I prefer to the table it takes a very long time at our regular Thursday meetings.

Since I also review and discuss games daily I need to find other ways to get those games in. Living in a household of women presents a challenge as to which games are going to be hits and which games are going to end after 4 turns. Playing solo is a good way to learn a game but I seldom prefer to review a game without playing it many times with another living opponent.

My wife is a non-gamer in the sense that before I started easing her into our hobby a night of gaming might of consisted of Scattegories or Balderdash. However she is wonderful in that she is willing to give any game a try with me. I find it amazing what she likes and doesn't like, in fact I am proud to say one of her favorite games is Twilight Struggle.

This particular night it was my wife who wanted to play a game and try something new. However time was short and I didn't want to hit her with a game that had complex rules so I looked over my collection and Summoner Wars jumped out at me.

After a quick setup I went over the rules which is something I always dread. My wife like a lot of players gets that glazed look in her eyes when rules are being explained. She prefers to learn as we go but surprisingly with Summoner Wars she had no problem staying with my 5 minute explanation of the turn sequence and how the game worked.

Soon we were off and quickly I had the advantage. Having played the game before I knew what cards to summon and how to work the battlefield. As she played actions I gave her advice, "If you move that guy there his special ability will kick in if this guy attacks".

It didn't take her long to catch on and before I knew if the battle had gone from one sided to pretty balanced. Unfortunately for her she had some cards she had trouble getting out due to the summoning cost and I pressed the advantage once again. My victory was not as easy as I expected it to be from the first few turns but it was definitely my experience playing the game that paid dividends.

After the game we went through the various faction decks, talked some strategy and even set up some examples. I was pretty surprised by this, usually a gaming session ends in me cleaning up and her going to bed. However with Summoner Wars I could see the wheels turning. She was thinking of ways to better play the game and more importantly what faction she wanted to try next.

A few days later I asked her about the game, she said she absolutely loved it. She, like many equated it as a similar experience to playing chess a game she loves. It easily made it into her top five games and here where her reasons.

1. Easy to learn rules
2. Card were well written and explained what they did.
3. Turn sequence made sense and not a lot of "stuff" going on.
4. Felt like she had a chance to win even in her first game against an experienced opponent
5. Liked the variety of the different "teams"

Verdict: Play it again anytime.

Next time I'll be covering Defenders of the Realm a co-operative game which is a genre my wfie really enjoys.

As a parent I'm always looking for ways to keep my two girls busy on trips. I don't mind the occasional DVD or video game being played but whether it is a long car ride or some downtime in the hotel room at the amusement park I'm looking for something to keep them busy. Luckily both of my girls love to play games, unfortunately as a gamer you know most of the games today take up a lot of space to move around.

That's why I was very interested in the press release that I just received. Gamewright is releasing a line of games that can be played on the go and in a short amount of time. You can find out more about them on their blog and they are coming out with two games to start the line up.

The games sounds perfect for families but also for parties as well. At a price tag of $9.99 it will be interesting to see if this line up takes off.

Conquest of Nerath promises lots of die rolling.

Today as a gamer we have a very large assortment of games to choose from not only in theme but also in mechanics. Growing up things were simple, you lined guys up and you rolled some dice. Eventually that turned into role playing games and more sophisticated ways of rolling dice and checking tables but the bottom line is you were always rolling dice.

Somewhere along the line rolling dice became a "bad thing" we needed better ways to solve conflicts. While there is no question we have gotten many different ways of resolving conflict over the years as the hobby has grown not all of them are better. Perhaps some people like resolving combat with cards in the new version of Dungeon Quest but I'm not one of them.

I don't hate dice rolling games, in fact I very much enjoy them from time to time. Axis & Allies remains one of my favorite games to this day. I'm also very big on fantasy themed games, my collection contains just about every dungeon crawler you can find and an assortment of fantasy themed die rolling strategy games.

So when my love of fantasy and die rolling are combined I'm pretty much in from the jump on a game. That's why June can't get her fast enough so I can find a copy of  Wizard's of the Coast Conquest of Nerath. 

There is not a lot of information out on this game as of yet so I'm not sure if the targeted June 21st date is going to hold but it looks like my type of game. From the publishers site:

Conquest of Nerath is a fantasy conquest game. 2-4 players muster armies of foot soldiers, siege engines, monsters, warships, elementals, and dragons to attack their opponents. Players employ heroes such as knights and wizards to lead their troops and explore dungeons in the search of magical artifacts and treasures to increase their power in combat.

Conquest, monsters, siege weapons, heroes and dungeons whats not to like? Check back later in the summer as I'll most definitely be covering this one.

FFG has posted their latest preview of yet another deck building game. Remember when FFG used to make giant coffin boxed games with lots of meat to them...yeah me too.  Personally I am a big fan of Runewars but I'm pretty sure I have hit my limit on deck building card games.