Road to Legend preview #3 is up this time covering towns. I hate Fantasy Flight with a passion as I will be buying this game, I should just get a job their it would be cheaper. Speaking of my future employer news has broke that they have hooked up as a publishing partner with Games Workshop. Which means they will pick up the printing of Talisman and future expansion for it.

Got to play the Operation Crusader scenarios for Days of the Fox last night and I am penning an AAR of it, forgot the camera though so no pictures.

Days of Wonder publishers of Ticket to Ride, Pirates Cove and another favorite of mine Battlelore has been very quiet lately. Many are wondering whats going on with Battlelore and what new products they might be releasing. Well today the dropped a press release and unfortunately it doesn't cover any of that information, it does however tell us that they are raising their prices across the board. My advice if you are in the market for any of their games hit the online retailers before this takes effect in full.

I've order a new game called Pandemic and I hope to have that by next week and I'm also waiting on the release of Key Largo. So hopefully lots of reviews coming up.

Finally I submitted my review of Commanders: Attacked of the Genos to GameShark and that should drop next week unless Bill Abner hates it, then he just comes to my house and hits me.

The next preview for the Road to Legend the upcoming expansion for the game Decent has been posted at FFG's site. Curse them and their previews I'm pre-ordering it right now.

The above title could be used to describe my work week but it is also the first scenario in the Days of the Fox expansion that I played last night. I will post a full AAR sometime soon with photos. Also planning on playing again Thursday night to get a few scenarios in so I can write a review.

I really like the way Days plays compared to the original TOI scenarios. Desert warfare is wide open and cover is pretty much non existent at least in the Hellfire Pass scenario. As the Brits you only start with 2 tanks and then receive reinforcements each round. The goal is to take out two 88's which are positioned on two hillsides behind an entrenched German squad. Before I had even made a move I lost one of my Tanks it was crazy and fun.

In other news I am working on a review of The Genos game I mentioned last week for Gameshark. It's a blatant Advance Wars rip off but it is fun, I've yet to get in a multi player match which I need to do for the review so if anyone is interested let me know.

According to a report at BoardGame News whose link you can find to the right the game Wits & Wagers is coming to live. The game is a trivia type game with a twist and i can see how it would translate well onto Live. I'm not a big fan of it myself but it will certainly entertain a lot of people.

I also read at Kotaku that Magic the Gathering is coming to Live as well. Not many details on that at this point but I like the trend that I am seeing on Live.

I received a few emails as to my thoughts on Gencon filing for Chapter 11. I really don't know enough about the situation at this point to comment, I'm glad that GenCon Indy isn't canceled this year but it doesn't bode well for the future of the hobby that the biggest convention might be no more. It's also another reason for me to hate George Lucas beside the new trilogy, although to be fair if Gencon LLC did what the suit claims then they are scum.

Hmm I guess I did have some thoughts after all.

Finally I have gotten 2 whole entires for the banner contest, so if you're on the fence your chances are good. I've decided not to look at them until judging time so i am not swayed. It's nice to see traffic increase on the blog as well so thanks to all the new readers.

So I had a chance to sit down and open up DOTF yesterday and snap a whole bunch of pictures. You can see all of them if you go to my Flickr page, otherwise enjoy some here. This isn't a review of the expansion that will come after I have had a chance to play at least 2 or 3 scenarios. This is simply an OOTB impressions post.



The game comes with a 19 page rule book although only 6 of those pages contain rules. The rest are the 6 included scenarios.

A full compliment of British figures (76 in all) which is highlighted by the Matilda II and Crusader tanks plus the Bren Gun Carries and QF 6 pounder anti-tank guns.



I should also note that the British squad bases had no issues, i was able to pop in the figs without any problems, unlike the original game where many people had to take drill bits to the bases to widen the holes.

12 German figures consisting of Panzer III and Panther Tanks plus the famed German 88mm AT gun.

You also get 4 American MI 57mm AT guns as well.

Two new unit reference sheets which felt a little flimsy but I didn't have my original TOI opened to compare so this may just be my imagination.

9 new Map overlay pieces consisting of Desert terrain as would be expected. These look and feel phenomenal just like the original games boards.

14 map overlays including new Terrain overlays for Dirt Roads, Crevasses and Dunes to name a few.

55 new cards including some new decks such as Desert Tactics and German Air Support.

Of course you get all the standard chits you would need for the British which I won't bother to detail out here. There are 3 new Specialization Tokens called Recon, Alpha and Bravo. You can read about those in an older post or wait for my review.

On the whole everything was at Fantasy Flights high standards when it comes to components. Surprisingly all the Tanks and all of the individual figures were in perfect shape out of the bag.



The 88 guns however where bent to hell. Some such as the one in this picture probably unfix able as it feels like it is ready to snap already.

Anyway I will be playing one scenario tonight and I hope to be able to review it sometime in the next week or so.

A preview is up on FFG's site about the upcoming expansion to Descent which is one of my favorite games.

I'm very interested in this expansion as it adds a campaign option to the mix. Whether I will be able to muster up a group to play this regularly enough to justify purchasing this expansion is another question altogether. Anyway the preview covers some of the cool new features and is worth the read.

I spent the afternoon shooting pictures of the Days of the Fox expansion so I hope to have something up tomorrow about that.

I'm going to be away for my day job for the next 2 days so I won't be posting much, it kills me of course because Days of the Fox arrived today. I'm also seeing a lot more traffic thanks to a few friends promoting my contest.

I continue to be impressed by Sins each time I play it, I'm still a turn based guy at heart but I really like the pacing of it. When I get back this weekend I will do an "out of the box" for Days and hopefully have some more information for you on a board game I got to play test recently.

I was just strolling over at Bioware's site and saw this, it will probably hit all the major news sites if it hasn't already.

It's obvious that most Bioware titles that are 360 "exclusive" aren't really the case. Had I know about this I had plenty of 360 games and I would have waited for this on the PC.

I completely forgot to mention that Commanders: Attack of the Genos an Xbox Live arcade game hits this week. This is a turn based strategy game that is aimed at all levels of players. While I'm not expecting anything as engrossing as Catan or Carcassone I'm still in support of any games that have board game qualities. For those who don't know both Talisman and Blood Bowl are expected to make Live appearances this year.

Here is the deal I need a banner image. See that lovely templatized image sitting behind my blogs name? I think it should be more representative of a board gaming site. So if you're interested in trying to win a copy of Sins of the Solar Empire here is your chance.

All you need to do is click on the email link in the upper right and send me an email. Title it Sins Contest and then either attach or link to your submission. You can enter as many times as you want.

The winner will get a copy of the game and full credit on my blog for the use of the image.

The image needs to be a jpeg and the size is 740 x 150. The contest will run until the end of the month. I'll probably post soem finalists then make a decision so by entering you're giving me express permission to feature your images on the blog whether you win or not.

For those of you without artistic talent like myself don't worry I will be having more contests in the future.

I managed to break the tip of my left pointer finger yesterday when the lid of my washing machine decided to slam down on it. A lesson was learned however and that is don't help out with the laundry.

So I am typing without the use of that important finger since I am a speed two digit typist. I didn't have a chance to do any board gaming this week which is a big let down. Missed my normal Thursday night group and couldn't swing the weekend session either. Hopefully the TOI expansion will arrive this week and I also place an order for some other items.

I'll be posting the details of the Sins contest a little later today.

Occasionally I will discuss something other then board gaming because the bottom line is I'm a gamer. Many have tried to rid me of this passion but no one has succeeded yet. I own a 360, PS3, 6 PC's, PSP, DS (soon to be cobalt black one as well), Wi and about a dozen other platforms that no longer see any AC coming their way. My motto has always been "Gamers go where the Games are" I'm not a fan of any console just good games. I've dogged the PS3 for the better part of a year but it still delivered one of the top 10 gaming experiences of my lifetime with Drake's Fortune.

So along comes Sins of the Solar Empire by Stardock which has been described as a cross between Home World meets Civilization. That's a pretty fair comparison in my initial days with the game. Sins on the surface could be mistaken for you run of the mill RTS but it's not even close. I need to come clean I am not a fan of RTS games I can count on one hand the number of RTS games that have seen extended play from me. In case your curious those would be Total Annihilation, Age of Mythology, Rise of Nations, Company of Heroes and that's about it.

Sins has the potential to be the next one on that list, there is just so much depth to this game it is hard to phantom at times. To give you an idea of how over whelming this game can be let me give you my thoughts 10 seconds after starting my first game. "What the Hell should I do first"

It certainly wasn't through lack of information that I arrived at that thought. There were four decent tutorials to take me through Logistics, Interface and numerous other skills and information I would need to get going. It wasn't from a clear cut idea of what I needed to do, the goal is simple dominate the stars.

I sat there staring at my screen letting the seconds click because I couldn't figure out what my little empire should do because there were so many choices. Develop my planet, create construction frigates, set up mining facilities on the nearby asteroids, get a ship yard up and going to create a fleet, put planetary structures in place, perhaps start my way to controlling the black market.

As I sat there I kept thinking to myself the clock is ticking, lets get those frigates up and going. Lets get some defenses going tick, tick tick... I need metal for my fleet get mining set up on that asteroid tick, tick, tick...

As my minions went about doing my bidding without the babysitting required by your typical RTS I waited and waited for the inevitable rush to occur. You know what I mean it happens in almost all RTS game, hell it happens in Civ IV and thats possibly the best turn based game ever made. Before you're ready, because you haven't followed the formula for success the AI is scouting or worse attacking you.

In case you're wondering there it is, my problem with RTS games in general. Many of them are suppose to feel grand in scale, AOE you're colonizing the new world. Nothing kills the illusion of such a grand design as an instant rush by elephants while your still chopping trees to build animal pens.

In Sins I waited and I waited and it never came. That's not to say that contact didn't occur because it most certainly did. However I felt in control, I felt like I knew my empire and what was going on. I had a plan, my little cruiser and frigates were doing what I told them to do and better yet they were doing what needed to be done at times without me telling them. My solar empire was living, breathing on it's own and I was sitting in a throne room on my planet with a smile.

Will Sins make it to my top 5 list of RTS games, time will tell but so far I am enjoying the ride. I read this somewhere and it was a simple quote but spot on. "Sins has that one more turn feeling except there are no turns"

I doubt I will do a full review of this game, that's not my blogs purpose but I am going to give you a chance to win a copy of the game. I'll be announcing a contest over the weekend which will give you a chance to start your own empire.

Considering the current traffic to my site your chances should be good.

Well news today out of Fantasy Flight that they will be releasing a game based on the Sci-Fi channel series BattleStar Gallatica. Here is a brief blur from the press release:

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game will be a semi-cooperative game, in which players work together to solve problems confronting the fleet, ranging from mechanical to political issues, all the while remaining vigilant for Cylon attacks. However, suspicion clouds the ship and its crew, as one or more players may indeed be a Cylon!

You can find the whole release here.

Lara Crigger has posted a review of a new version of Risk coming out over at GWJ. I haven't played Risk in a very long time but this seems a bit interesting and the packing looks cool too.

The Tide of Iron expansion should also be on shelves here in the U.S. in the next few weeks. It's already out in Italy and the UK, once i have my grubby little hands on it I will get something up very quickly.

I mentioned Through the Ages a few weeks back, apparently it is out but going to be very hard to find. They did a limited print run and if you didn't pre-order I think you will be SOL.

Once upon a time back in the early 80's when Dungeon and Dragon's was hitting one of it's many peaks of popularity there were a slew of fantasy themed board games released. The first edition of Talisman was published by Games Workshop in 1983 and it was a fun little title which has gathered somewhat of a loyal following. Fast forward to 2007 and a company called Black Industries has published the 4th Edition of the game. Interestingly Black Industries recently announced that they were getting out of the game publishing business to concentrate on publishing books, what this means for the future of Talisman expansions or even a 5th edition is anyones guess at this point.

What You Get
The game comes in a nice package which has tray insert for the many cards you will find. Their is one 6-Fold Playing Board, 14 Character Cards and card board pieces, 104 Adventure Cards, 24 Spell & Purchase Cards, 4 Talisman Cards, 4 Toad Cards and 4 Alignment Change Cards.

Also included is a nice easy to read Rules Book, which once again has no index a pet peeve of mine but these rules are so short it hardly matters. Six 6-Sided Dice and a load of Plastic counter for Craft, Strength, Life tracking and Gold-Colored Coins.

The art work is very nicely done in the game and everything is in full color. I found the card stock to be a little on the cheap side, just getting the shrink wrap off caused some slight damage to the cards. The tray in the box while nice is not large enough to hold the 104 adventure cards securely. It was also common during our play sessions for the card board figures to come out of their plastic bases.

How does it Play
Talisman is a game that plays itself by that I mean it is pretty much card driven. You will refer to the rules for combat and a few other items on your very first play but by the time you're 15 minutes in the game will flow very nicely.

The board is set up into 3 regions those being Outer, Middle and Inner. the goal of the game is simple reach the Crown of Command in the inner region and then kill off the other players. The only time a player is really eliminated from the game is when a character is in the inner region so while PvP combat will occur in the outter regions to try and get an item from another character it will not allow you to win the game.

A turn is simple you roll the dice to move if you're in the Outter or Middle regions. You must move your fill die roll but you can go in either direction. Each location on the board has instruction for example the Woods might have you draw an adventure card, the Crags might cause you to get lost and lose a turn, the Village offers a Mystic, Alchemist and Healer each with different results.

The main component of the game our the adventure cards that you draw. You might draw something simple like a bag of gold which gets you a coin. You might draw a location like the cave which stays on the board in that spot and causes the player to roll a die and use one of it's result. You will also encounter creatures from the very fantasy themes Dragons, Ghost and Demons to the mundane like the wild Boar or Lion. Defeating these creatures is key to game as you keep their cards as trophies which you can then trade in in multiple of 7 to increase your attributes.

There are 3 attributes in the game they are strength, craft and life. Increasing these very high is a key to the game because to get past 2 spots on the board in the inner region is going to require a high score in at least strength or craft.

Combat is either physical which is strength based or physic which is craft based. So encounter a Lion with a 3 strength uses physical combat and encounter a Demon with 5 Craft uses Physic. Combat is pretty simple you roll a die and add your appropriate attribute to the result and someone rolls for the creature. If you roll higher you kill the creature, a tie is a stand off and if you roll lower you lose a single life and combat does not continue. The creature stays on the spot for someone else to come in an pick off on future turns.

That pretty much sums up the entire game play. You move, read and react as I said the game plays itself. The problem with the game is while fun, people can tend to linger in the outter and middle regions to long. First time players get caught up in visiting the location on the board which have die roll results and seldom look for encounters when in fact defeating monsters and trading in their cards for increase attributes is what you need to do.

Is it Worth It
That's a tough question to answer and it depends on your gaming style. Talisman is not so much a game you play every week or month, although gamers with children might find more frequent play, but one you play a few times a year.

It's a game you experience more then play and if you like that style then Talisman is worth every penny. For me it's a valuable addition to my collection.

Score on the D10: 6

FFG (what you say? why yes i am a fan boy) has posted the rules for the Tide of Iron Expansion Days of the Fox.

Click Here

An interesting article on the new terrain and some of the new strategy decks included in the expansion. The more I read the more I think this expansion is going to be a must buy for TOI fans.

Well the holidays are over and some news is just now finding its way to my door step. First for BattleLore fans wondering what direction the game was heading in you can check out this news from Days of wonder.

Tide of Iron fans the much anticipated (by me anyway) Days of the Fox expansion should be here in a month or so. You can check out a small article on the inclusion of Anti Tank guns on FFG's site.

Got a chance last night to see but not play production version of Through the Ages and the RRT expansion Rails of Europe.

I've seen Rails before as the prototype had been played at our gaming group, but it was nice to see it in the final production box. Through the Ages looks right up my alley, I glanced at the rules and it looks great. Unfortunately they were starting a game very late and I didn't have time to sit in on it.

Anyway the word I got is if all goes well expect to see both on shelves in about a month.

Last night I played a miniatures game call Wings of fire which is WW2 air combat. I think we had 12 people playing so it pretty much ate up my whole night. I'll just say that while I love miniature gaming something about the pace was just off last night.

I should have some review up shortly of Dust, Hannibal and Tannhäuser.

If you're into board gaming their is a very good chance you're going to be playing a game or two that is not published currently in the United States. It's not uncommon for many gamers to import (or trade) for overseas titles and then find translations of the rules on Board Game Geek.

Fortunately for you Jetzt schlägt's 13 is not a game you're ever going to need a rules translation for. According to BGG the title transl;ates in English to "That takes the biscuit" but I've heard other translations as well.

So what is Jetzt schlägt's 13? It's a card game for 2-5 players (I wouldn't play it with less then 3 players) that takes about 30 minutes to play. It's got elements of blackjack in it's theme so there is the random / luck factor, It also has a fair share of strategy for such a simple game. What Jetzt schlägt's 13 really is however is one of the best games I have played this year.

The way the game is played is very simple, the start player draws a number of cards face down equal to the number of players. He then turns over one of them and elects who to give the card to. Each player will receive one of the cards and place the card face up in front of him or herself from left to right. The order is important so make sure that players are following this procedure. Once each player has a card including the dealer, the next player will repeat the process until someone gets 13 and busts. Once a player busts the rest of the players take their scoring cards, I'll go over cards in a minute, and put them in their score pile and the start player cards passes to the next player on the left. It is entirely possible for every other player to gain victory points in a round, the only person who is guaranteed none is the player who busts.

So how do you track the score in each round and victory points? well lets take a look at the cards themselves.

The game has several types of cards and until I get some images posted you can see a shot of all of them here.

You have your base card which have a blue background and those cards come in 3 varieties. Each blue card will have a numerical value at the top, this number is what is used to calculate your round score to bust. In the picture I link to you can see blue cards with the numerical values zero through three, the values go up to five however.

In addition to this numerical value each card may posses one or two plus signs. These plus signs are victory points and if you end a round without busting any cards in your hand with these plus signs go into your scoring pile. The final blue card will have an image of a card depicted below the numerical value. When you give this card to a player they must immediately draw another card off the deck (not the dealers hand) and add it to their face up hand. You can and often will draw multiple cards of this type and you must continue to draw cards of the deck.

Another type of card is the immediate scoring card, these two green cards come with either one or two plus signs. These cards do not go into your face up hand, they are immediately put in your victory point pile. This makes them very valuable as the are guaranteed victory points.

The final cards are the special cards and they have a yellow background and there are three of them. The first gives you the ability to increase your hand limit for the current round to 18. The second card is depicted as a hand and is the refusal card and is very powerful. Once you're given one of these it sits in your hand and you can refuse a card given to you and then discard the refusal card. It is possible to have multiple refusal cards in your hand for the round. The final card is depicted as a U-turn and if you give it to someone they must discard the last card they put face up, you finally see why the order of left to right is important.

As I previously stated you play a round, someone busts and everyone puts victory point cards in their victory point pile (face down) and the start player passes to the left. The game ends when you get through the deck, if you reach the end of the deck and your in the middle of a hand simply reshuffle the discard pile and finish out the round.

Jetzt schlägt's 13 is a game literally anyone can pick up, plays fast and is one you can break out at a dinner / holiday party and get the casual gamers in on. I highly recommend it if you can find a copy.