I played Ascension tonight which is a pretty decent deck building card game and I realized man are companies really starting to milk this formula. Dominion is a great game but I stopped buying the expansion for it a while back. Thunderstone is also a decent game but it plays a lot like Dominion and of course Ascension plays like both of them.

Then I started thinking about the last time I played a game which was really different and well it's been a while. That's not to say companies aren't being innovative, but I really want something to come along and blow my socks off.

I want something I can't put down, can't wait to play and can't stop thinking about. Basically I want the Civ V of boardgames.

Where is that game? What is that game?

Just a random picture of a few games of CR we played last night.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/neuroshima-hex/id391297152?mt=8

For $2.99 I'm willing to take a shot at this, although it would be better on the iPad

FFG has posted their latest dev diary on the new Civilization game.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=1609

I'm going to get at least one, possibly two play sessions up on this fantastic game over the weekend. I played 4 games today and absolutely loved everyone of them.

While I anxiously await my order to ship, which includes Castle Ravenloft it has come to my attention that many stores already have this game.

Apparently Wizards of the Coast has decided to street date this game. Perhaps that is something they do with all their products I'm really not sure. I however hope it doesn't become the norm in terms of boardgames. It's bad enough that the street date ever came to be for video games, music and movies.

A lot of people think publisher's were the ones who established the street date but that's not really true. The big retail chains were the reason for what we have today. Complaints on stores getting their shipments ahead of others yada yada. You'll even hear tale of shops being fined if they sell games early, something by the way I've never been able to find documentation of.

So it's makes it really puzzling that in a hobby like board gaming a street date would exist, but then again WOTC markets their products well outside the normal hobby channels.

Hopefully by this time next week I'll be receiving a few rather large boxes with games an accessories, by that time I may have actually figure out the rules to Normandy 44.

I really like this nick name that FFG's remake Dungeon Quest is receiving. Really this game is pure luck and randomness, if you know that going in you'll be fine. It's has a ton of replay value because the dungeon is different each time but it's not a dungeon crawler. This is a race game plain and simple. Get in, Get Lucky, Get Loot, Get Out.

I've got a detailed game play session I am working on and will get that up sometime soon. So taking a break from FFG, I went to my next favorite publisher GMT and started to set up a game of Normandy 44 to try and learn it. The chances I'll ever get another person to play it with our slim, but hey what can you do.

This reminds me of all the complex games I use to play back in high school and college, back when my memory capacity for rules heavy games was actually good. So it's going to take me a little time to slug through this one, I feel bad because I put Battles of Napoleon to the side because I grew tired of attaching all the horse riders to the horses. I know many people find paying $70 for a game and having them seperate a blessing for painting purposes, I find it a bit of a chore.

However the real game I am waiting to get my little paws on is this one. This was one of my favortie D&D modules growing up. I was reading several session reports at the Geek and this sounds like a winner. Kind of like Descent with more replay value and a lot less time to play.


Waiting for this is holding up a pretty large order I have with Boards and Bits (wish they would ship partial orders) and I am considering canceling the whole order and doing it as two since rumor has it now this had been delayed til mid September.

It did get me back into reading the 4th edition D&D rules, thinking I might want to partake in a game. Then I saw this video and had second thoughts :)

Tonight (family permitting) I'll be heading back into the Dungeon for another session of Dungeon Quest. I'll see about detailing a session report.

Had the pleasure of playing my two latest FFG games last night, those would be Dungeon Quest and  Space Hulk: Death Angel Card Game. The best part is they weren't even my copies so no lugging of games required.

So here is my gut reaction to both of these game. They are both very fun and both are very tough. I can see these two games playing differently each time they hit the table due to the randomness of the games (especially DQ).

Space Hulk is a co-op game and you're basically taking a squad of Marines and trying to accomplish something, usually hitting a button in the last location. The game rules are really not well laid out in my opinion but the game is easy to understand. There are a few vague items that I am sure can be clarified with one visit to the Geek. Anyway we had a 4 player game and one player managed to survivie the last location and hit the switch. So victory!!!

To be honest I'm not sure if we achieved victory, the travel from the 3rd location to the last and victory all happened in a jumble and I'm willing to bet we did somethign wrong but I was dead so I wasn't paying attention.

Regardless verdict on Space Hulk Card Game is enjoyable game, plays fast and is very tough. 

Dungeon Quest was a game I really enjoyed even though I died 6 turns into the game. I'm a sucker for Dungeon crawl games, especially ones that don't take 5 hours to play.

The gist of the game is you're an adventurer and you're about to plunder the treasure chamber of a sleeping Dragon. I love the randomness of this game, the dungeon is a dangerous place and just surviving is a feat.

As you move into new areas you pick a dungeon tile and place it on the board. There are various room types and most of them do something. For example there is a room that rotates upon entering 180degrees. A room with spider webs, a chasm etc.

When you enter a room whether it is explored or not you have a dungeon encounter. This is done by drawing a card, it can be things as simple as an empty room or it could reveal a chamber to the deadly catacombs. The other choice is certain tiles have a little torch icon which means they can be searched. You do this by drawing from the search deck, this will not always be beneifical as I discovered last night.

There are various other decks as well, one to open doors, a corpse deck, a chapel deck, treasure deck etc. There are only about 5 (maybe 6) monster types and these monsters spawn from the various deck encounters. When a monster spawns you can either flee (recommended) if you have a way out of the room or you can fight.

Combat is very interesting and done with cards and it has counter attacks. After a combat encounter or two it becomes very easy to do and doesn't slow the game much at all. However there is no benefit to fighting the monsters if you don't have to as you get no rewards and healing is something that is hard to come by.

That's probably the biggest thing to understand about this game, it's a race game set in a dungeon theme. You need to get treasure and get out before the sun sets. Oh did I forget to mention sun is going down and if you're not out by the time it sets the Dragon awakens and basically eats your ass.

There is much more to say about this game and I want to get a few more plays in, both games can be played solo. However I think Dungeon Quest will be a popular game around the house. I can see my 7 year old and wife playing this one with me as it is very easy to play and has the potential for a lot of fun..

So I've gotten a bunch of new games lately. Two in fact from the same company FFG. Dungeon Quest which has excellent rules and then the Space Hulk card game whose rules are laid otu very poorly.

I wonder sometimes if rules are actual put into testing like games are? As we're making a game we think what we are writing is clear as day, but we are too close to the subject matter.

Anyway impressions of these games should follow after I pl;ay both tomorrow night.


Oh yes I'm back.

Yes I am still alive. I've been working on a rather large project, that will hopefully be launching sometime in the next 60 days in my spare time. I haven't gamed much since the warm weather hit. Last night I played Duck Dealer, which was interesting. I think I would of enjoyed it more if I wasn't constantly being reminded how most of us where taking turns was considered "wrong" and this is usually not my type of game, collect resources to build more resources. The good news is I didn't come in last :)

I order a load of games last night, I got to see the new Tales game and it looked so good and I knew my wife would play this so I bought it. The rest of my order were mainly war games, which never seem to get played in my Thursday night group which might be another reason why I burned out a bit on gaming.

I'll try and get back to posting here, even if I am the only one reading it.

Just letting everyone know who still reads this thing I got it yesterday. Excellent components, can't wait to play it. I'll get a review up as soon as I get a session in.

Although there is no official word on the Z-man site or at the Geek, Fun again has posted a pre-order for a Pandemic Expansion called On the Brink. The description indicated new roles, a 5th player, new variants etc. I'm sure they got this information from Z-man before posting this so I'd expect something more official in the near future.

Dominion: Intrigue is the first expansion for the popular card game. This is being packaged as a stand alone, meaning you get all the treasure and estate cards you need to play again. Of course with those cards comes the same price as the first game. Another expansion is set for a fall release and that one will be a true expansion.

The War Game from Dan on Vimeo.


This is a video I shot with a Flip Mino, first time I used it and the quality is so -so on the close ups. I was also sick as a dog, in other words this video is purely for test purposes but I thought I would share it.

This game is all kinds of awesome.

That's all.

Tide of Iron: Designer Series, Vol. 1
Talisman Revised 4th Edition Upgrade Pack
Tailsman Reaper Expansion
Tide of Iron: Normandy Campaign Expansion
World of Warcraft: Adventure Game - Artumnis Moondream Character
World of Warcraft: Adventure Game - Dongon Swiftblade Character
World of Warcraft: Adventure Game - Zowka Shattertusk Character
World of Warcraft: Adventure Game - Brandon Lightstone Character
StarCraft: Brood War Expansion

Make your own judgments

P.S. - I got Android for Christmas

I'm going to save my thoughts on the War Game for a full on review. I'll just drop one hint, when you're charging 100+ dollars for a game you better deliver on at least one of these 3 areas.

1. Bit Quality & Quantity - The War Game fails, the bits are too few in number and too big for the board. Think about that for a second this board is HUGE, but the bits are too big. then you don't get enough of them, look I know France won't play much a part in the war but man give them at least one of each unit. Also I don't like that fact that my boards edges already are fettered just from opening the game.

2. Unique Play Experience - I knew going in the this game was Axis & Allies on Steroids, but if I am staying with that analogy if this game was getting tested for illegal growth hormones it wouldn't get caught for doing anything illegal. While some of the rules are nice, a lot of the advanced rules need to be downloaded off the internet.

3. Support - The web site for this game is an utter mess, certain modules mentioned in the rule book are not even available on the site. This game wasn't just published mind you it's been out a while.

Now if you want to spend a good $15, go out and buy Sorry Sliders. Yes you heard me right, a MB game that doesn't suck. Someone took the Sorry name and slapped it on a decent Dex game.
The game comes with 4 different boards and game types and if you have kids this is sure to be a hit.

I played a lot of games over the break and I have a shipment of FFG games coming my way this week, it feels good to be back in the gaming saddle.

So I decided the first game I would open from my haul from Santa would be this one. The box is large, to accommodate the 3 maps boards that come with the game. The l;larger boards are welcome but I am already noticing warping on them just from the time they were out as I punched the rest of the game.

The games comes with storage containers for each nation and two catch all containers. Inside each container were the bits for each nation already punched and even the pesky infantry units were in their own baggies. From opening the box to getting everything set up took about 30 minutes, a far easier time then The War Game which I'll cover tomorrow.

All the bits and card board were really good quality and the rules are well written. I think I'll be playing this one in the coming week perhaps so I'll have more to say at that point. My only complaint thus far is the boards themselves, we'll see how they hold up.

Still here, wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. Here is some news, FFG has released a bunch of stuff recently.

TOI Scenario Book
TOI Normandy Expansion
Talisman Upgrade pack
Talisman Repaer expansion
4 Character Packs for Wow:TAG
Android

They also seem to be handling getting the games out differently, for instance the games are available on their online store, and then a few days later at your local game shop and finally getting to online retailers. Maybe this isn't different but it sure seems to be more noticeable.

Bill Abner has posted his top ten games of 2008, I plan on doing something like this myself soon. Anyway you should check it out Bill has good taste.