Game Review: Space Alert

This is one of the best games that I have ever played. And the one game that I get to play very little.

Hugely successful, the first run of this game sold out very fast, and it took what seemed an absolute age to get a reprint. I finally got my hands on a copy at the 2012 Midlands Game Expo, and boy was I excited to get it home.

The game revolves around you and the other players being dumped in a spaceship to babysit it whilst it goes out on a expedition mission. You move your un-named characters around the ship, refuelling the core, manning the guns and other things. Games last around half hour a game. The thing that sets this game apart from anything else is the way it works.

First, its a CD game. You play a CD, and each track throws different events at you. Its a cold, monotonos track, and perfectly captures the essence of deep space exploration.

Second, you have to program your characters. You get a hand of cards to begin with, and these all have different actions on them. You get a short amount of time to discuss what you need to do, and each player plays his cards. Heres the catch.. after a period of time elapses, you cannot change the order of these cards, you have to move onto another section and start again.

Thirdly, the game is quite random. Enemies and events are in decks of cards, so you never know whats goind to come next, even if you have heard the CD tracks a few times.

Photo from www.spieletest.at

You play the first round to decide what you are going to do and program your cards, then play the track again and act out how well you managed the situation. This is where friendships are broken.

So the CD tells you that a enemy has appeared, so you start to manouver around the ship to fire the guns and reload the guns. and charge the shields. The clock is ticking, and you have limited choices, and sweat begins to run. You think you are all locked in place correctly, and the round ends. Time to play this out and see if you all die a horrible death.

You reload the gun before someone fires it, but thats all wrong. You wanted to do that afterwards. You actually shoot the guns at the wrong time and miss. The person who is supposed to be recharging the shields moves the wrong way... this mission is a failure.

Yes, this game thrives on arguments. But when you get that one game where you do it all right, the elation, the high fives and hugs that happen because you survive are second to none. Grown men will cry.

And thats why we dont play this game very often. It is one of the most stressful board games ever made. Ever. But thats where the charm is, and why you need to have this game. I have not even gone into the fantastic pieces you play with, or the rule books (yes two) which are written in such a great story telling manner, these are all icing on the cake.

One of the best games ever.

 

Trains vs Zombies 2 Review

Yes, you heard that right. Trains vs Zombies. 2.

Available on Steam to download for £9.99, this standalone game is based on Train Simulator 2013 tech, and  puts you smack bang in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, armed with only your, ahem, train.

The storyline is entertaining enough, and the game gives enough of a challenge to be enjoyable. It might be frustrating for people who have never played train sim, but with the addition of simple controls, should not be to difficult to get to grips with.

As mentioned, this runs standalone, so you do not need to have Train Sim 2013 to play this, which also serves as a introduction into that game as well.

Graphically this game is very good. You will need a computer with some power under the hood however to run it on max settings, and I had to play around a little to get a good compromise between graphics and smoothness.

This does have some replay value in it, as you try to do things again to a degree of perfection. The downside is it only took me around 3 hours to complete, but that may be because I am a old hand at train sim and knew what I was doing from the outset.

A good little fun time waster.

Vintage Game: Blockbusters

A game based on the popular UK television show from the 80's. Adorned with a picture of Bob Holness in a blazing, and I must say very sharp white suit, what is this game actually like?

Made by Waddingtons and designed for three players. The white team has only one player, but has less spaces to travel across the board and goes first. Blue team has two people, and has to travel one more space. I think most people will know how this plays. You choose a letter, and have to answer a question where the answer begins with the letter you chose. Answer correctly, and a block of your colour goes on the board and you choose another letter. Link across the board and you win.

The game pieces are very nice in this game. You get a nice 3d blockbuster board, similer to the tv show. There are a lot of questions, and a nifty holder that blocks all the answers on the card apart from the one you need, so there is no need for a dedicated question master.

This can be played with two people, just one on each side quite easily. A variation that we played was rolling a d12 to select the question that you got from the card, as sometimes you can get a run of really easy questions, and a run of really hard questions if you just read from the cards.

The only main problem with this version is that most of the questions are very dated, and will give you a mind workout, sometimes you won't even be able to answer a question due to the dating. But none the less this is a fun game with some really difficult questions, but you will surpise yourself when you know the answers.

Game Review: Cadoo

Now this is not the usual game that we review here, but we played it last night and I must say I found it enjoyable.

Part of the Cranium! Range of games, this one is aimed at the kids. The basic idea of the game is to get 4 in a row connect4 style, of your tokens on a board. To do this you must complete challenges, either solo or combo.
All the challenges come on cards, and what you have to do is decided by a die roll.

Solo challenges have a question on them, and you must answer it then look at the answer. The great thing is that the answers are hidden, and you need to use the red tinted glasses supplies with the game to see the answer. Complete the task, and you place one of your counters.

Combo challenges have you performing a task describing something, through acting, drawing or using modelling clay to make the item in question. The other players then have to guess what you are describing. If someone manages to, then you both place a token on the board.
The game plays this way until there is a 4 in a row, or no more pieces can be placed. The winner in this instance its the person with the most pieces that win.

Although aimed at children, this game is great for adults. The thought process that goes into the questions is different, and I found some of the questions difficult because my logic is different from a child's. It is easy, but with a group it is fun, and that's the main thing. A great party game for all ages.

Game Review: The Haunting House

A earlier game by Twilight Creations, along the lines of zombies, without the size or time needed to play.

The game is based on that you have a bet with your friends, to enter the haunted house, run through and out the other side.

The game is played with 38 tiles, 2 being entrance an exit tiles, the others being random corridors and trapdoors. These are dealt out on the table in a 6 by 6 square, randomly. The entrance and exits are then placed in opposing corners, and the game starts.

Now actions are dealt in this is a interesting way. You have a hand of cards, always the same cards. The first round you get 4 random cards, and play these actions in order. Actions include move one space, move to spaces, miss a turn, switch places and enter trapdoor. After these first 4 moves have been done, you then get to choose four cards that you want. This is like programming your character, you place them and then play them in order. This makes for some tense turns, especially if you are racing for the exit and you and your opponent are making all the right moves.

The game pieces are simple, but nice. The board pieces are around 2 inches square, cards are normal size with nice art on them, and the 6 character pieces are nice, of the usual standard of Twilight Creations. The instruction sheet is a small, but well thought out affair. Some of the wordings need reading twice, as they could have been written better. I found reading the whole rules twice made everything clear.

This is a fun game with two people, but really gets going with 4+ people. The programming stage gets very interesting, as you try to outwit your opponents without making a mistake yourself.

All in all a great game for parties or filling some time. A few games of this is great, but we found that any more than around 5 left us cold. There is just not enough to do, and in some games there may not be any player interaction. The upside of this game is that it does not take long to play, games usually lasting around 10 minutes, so really great for those times when you need something quick to play.

Game review: Politika

Earlier today we decided to give this a shot, we were looking for a strategy game to play, something to get our brains warm and ticking over, and this had been hanging round for a while now, always as a possible option but overlooked.

Today however it had its chance.

Long story short, it kinda blew it,

Setup

Right out the box it needed a little set up, stickers put on pieces with little in the way of instruction as to where they went. The stickers themselves were a fair margin smaller than where they needed to go, while this makes sticking them down easy it did make the playing pieces look cheap.

Next there are then 50 tiny bits of card to split apart for each person playing, and by tiny I mean 3mm by 5mm tiny. Rather than pop the lot we picked our faction first to know which colours would be needed. We quickly found out the bits had a colour on only one side and were blank on the other, this caused issues as I picked the faction (at random) that was white meaning we were turning over little bits of card all the time to see if it was white all the way over or hiding a bit of green.

Across the top of the board is space for 3 sets of cards each with its own discard pile I could see little point for this other than bulking out the height of the board none of the cards once used are needed again.

After sorting out all the little bits of card across the landscape on the board and dishing out a few thousand dollars later (not rubles because they are apparently useless) we were ready to go.

Playing

Play proceeds in several rounds, each round has phases but with just 2 players two of the phases becomes defunct, one point of the game is to take over areas but you can faction with other players, there is little point to joining in a faction with your only opponent. Likewise with selling things you have or trading, either cards you hold or influence tokens so those were skipped.

You move your 2 play pieces around the board in to areas where your opponent has influence then attack by buying dice, and the defender gets 1 dice per influence point they have (the bits of card) and who ever has the higher roll wins (the combined score from the dice rolled), if you win you swap a bit of your card with a bit of your opponents and you slowly take over, its simple as that.

There are things around production and how you get your cash to play with but in essence its risk without the having to move armies about bit.

Ending

Play ends after 6 rounds (but you can decide on more rounds at the beginning of the game), who ever has the most little bits of card on the table wins though when we played it became obvious after about turn 3 that I would win. I had managed to get a lead (by luck not design) too great to be taken out in 3 turns even if I did nothing.

A game that looks this complex and has so many mechanics involved to play ends far too quickly to justify the set up time, even with the stickers on now and bits of card popped I think the set up is longer than it needs to be.

We are however going to give it another go in future with 3 or 4 people just to see if the factions add something

We both suspect however they won't.

Pros:

• lots of dice,
• quick half hour time waster

Cons:

• poor design of game peices
• very little strategy for a game that sells its self as strategic
• despite being dollars the paper money has Yeltsin's face on it
• generally dull

 

Game Review: Ponte del Diavolo

Now any game that has a literal translation of “Bridge of the Devil” is a good game in my books. And it just so happens, that this is not only a good game, but a fantastic game.

A abstract game for 2 people, by Rio Grande games (again, is there no end of good games by these?) which can be liked to chess with less pieces.

The game board is a 10x10 board, and there are three pieces in the game, light coloured tiles, dark coloured tiles and bridge pieces.

Players take turns placing 2 of their chosen colour pieces at a time. The idea of the game is to make blocks of 4 tiles, called “islands”, and link them together using the bridge pieces. You can lay pieces that have 1, 2 or 3 blocks, but these are non scoring in the final part. Islands cannot have any of your colour blocks around them, there must be a clear space between a island and other blocks of your colour, however opponents pieces may touch these.

No blocks may be place under a bridge after it has been places, so this makes these not only scoring pieces, but also great blocking pieces.

That is pretty much all there is to the rules of this game. At first look, it seems pretty simple, place tiles until you have no more then score up. After the first play however, it quickly emerges that there is a much deeper level of strategy to this game. A experienced player should always beat a less experienced player, just like in chess. There is the chance that this may not happen, but as this game is simpler than chess, it will not take long for someone to grasp a understanding of this game.

This game is a reworking of the game Twixt, by Alex Randolph (1922 – 2004). It is a very good adaptation, and worth of your shelf space. Games take around 15-20 minutes, so a great filler game, but can also easily take up a whole evening of great gaming.

Another recommended game that can be found quite cheap here in the UK.

Game Review: Railways of the World

The aim of this game is simple, build the biggest and best railway network, deliver goods and make money. The premise is simple, the game play however is as deep and strategic as you would like in a medium weight game.

Sitting in between Ticket to Ride and the 1830 series of railway games, do not let the theme put you off. It could be anything, they just chose trains.

Game contents

You get a lot of game in this big, heavy box. There are two game boards, Railways of the Eastern US, which is quite simply put, HUGE. You need a big table for this one, or the ability to bring in another table to the room. The other board, Railways if Mexico, is smaller and suited to 2-3 players. There is also a score board and income track board. Each board has their own set of cards assigned to them. You get a main rulebook, and two smaller rule sets for the individual maps. Also in the box you get paper money and bond cards, train cards, wooden goods cubes, lots of track tiles, and lots and lots of trains.

Set up is simple. Each city on the board has a number, this is the number of goods cubes that starts on it. Place cubes on all the city's. Each player each gets a level 1 train card, and a handful of train markers. 5 cards are dealt out, representing events that unfold throughout the game, and play begins. It could take a while for one person to set up alone, but with a group setup should not be more than 5 minutes.

How it plays

The game uses a auction system to gain the first turn. This can be vitally important, as if there is a card that would greatly benefit you, chances are it will greatly benefit someone else also. Bidding wars can be fierce, but great fun.

You start with no money at all in this game. Once the first auction is completed, players have to take bonds from the bank to get some money and get that game going. These bonds can never be payed back, and deduct points from you final score, 1 point for each bond you have, so you have to decide if you want to go for big money and gain a big lead, or play more reserved and see if other people will get into a lot of debt.

So now you have a little bit of money and its your turn. What to do? Well, you have 5 options.

• Build track, which costs money.
• Deliver goods, which gains you money
• Urbanize a city, change a grey city to a colour and place some good on it.
• Upgrade your train to the next level
• Take a operations card

It can be overwhelming at first, but after one turn, most players will have picked up what to do.

I'm not going to go into much detail on this game, as this review could then easily turn into a small novel. I cannot speak highly enough of this game, its almost perfect. There are just a few little niggles, like it being 1 turn to long, and some of the rules are not that clear, and you need to turn to the internet to work some problems out. But on a whole, this is like monopoly on steroids, with a good dose of strategy to boot. Plenty of options, and no two games will be the same due to the randomness of the cards and goods in play.

If you like trains, this is the game for you. If you don't like trains, then forget about the train theme, and play it. Its a economy game at heart, and a very good one at that, don't pass this one by.

Game Review: If Wishes Were Fishes

Another Rio Grande game, but is this one any good? In the UK there went a phase where this game could be purchased from a certain chain of discount bookshops for just 7.99, which is a huge discount on a game that would normally retail around the 19.99 mark.

You play as a fisherman, catching fish and selling them at the market to make money. The person with the most money at the end wins. The game mechanics are really simple, but when put together they create a game that can be quite deep.

The fish are put on the table 4 at a time, showing fish in shallow water going into deeper waters. To catch a fish, you have to put bait on each of the fish cards until you reach the fish that you want to catch. You then take that card, and have a choice. You can put it in your boat, which means you can then sell it on the market, or use the wish that the fish can grant you. These wishes range from moving people around the market, doubling the amount of fish you can sell, or giving you another boat. Some of these wishes are powerful, and will send everyone dashing for them.

Then there is the market itself. You choose what fish you want to sell, and sell them. The price you get depends on how many people there are at the particular stall, and this can be manipulated by using the fishes wishes. Needless to say, this part can get quite involved, as you push to manipulate the market to get what you want, whilst trying to bluff (or just deal with) your opponents.

The artwork in this game is fantastic and whimsical. Not realistic at all, my favorite is the catfish, which looks, well like a cat. This makes it a lot easier to see what is actually on the board, and what you should be doing next.

This is a fantastic game for everyone, and I can see the appeal to families with this one. The rules are simple enough that children will understand, and deep enough to keep the adults entertained. We highly recommend this game, as do we recommend most Rio Grande games.

Game Review- Bionicle Adventure Game: Quest for Makuta

This was brought round today by a friend who managed to get it cheap. So we decided to sit down and have a play through.

What struck me first was how cool this game looked. I mean, who doesn’t like Lego, Bionicle, and board games? This seemed a like it would be a great mix of the above. Looking through the rule book, this really seemed like a game that we could get our teeth into. There are various monsters, with different strengths, easy, medium and hard. There are also power ups which charge up your characters, and keys that need to be picked up. It was all looking good this far.

Next the game board. A hexagonal, jigsaw type board that is randomly generated and built as you play, each with varying amounts of monsters, exits, power ups and keys.

The goal of the game is to defeat Makuta, who's game tile will appear at some point in the game. Protecting him, there are a series of locks around the tile. Each one has a random set of keys (represented by tokens) that you need to have to get to battle him. What I like about this “boss” character is that he has varying different strengths, depending on where you come onto his board, and what number you roll on the dice.

All good so far.

The we started to play. And this game, as written, has one major flaw. Its to easy to level up. By the fourth turn of each game we played, at least one of us had a strength 30 character, and by the sixth to eighth turn, we all did. Now when the maximum strength monster is 28, (and that’s the boss), you end up just walking through the game looking for the keys and waiting for the boss tile to come out.

There is a power that allows you to steal from a character, and one power that allows you to warp anywhere on the board. But these are few and far between, and when you are powerful characters, there is just no point in using the steal, and the teleport just lets you win.

This game had so much promise from its looks, but just does not live up to it. We played as the rules say, and went back over the rules to see if there was something we missed, but there was not.

Also there are no actual Lego pieces in the box, which is not to much of a bad thing, but I feel that this could be a game that could use any theme, and the theme was pasted onto this to cash in on the Lego name.

All in all, nice pieces, bad use of mechanics. I am going to take a look to see if I can tweak the rules to give this some challenge, but I would just rather play a game that works from the box.

I need to play some better games!

Game Review: Yes! No!

The basic premise of this game: Answer the questions asked you, but you cannot answer yes or no. If you do, you lose. If you get through without saying yes no, then you win the round.

Sounds easy? It's not, especially as all the questions are obviously “yes” or “no” answers, and you cant repeat other answers, so say “maybe” twice and you lose.

This is a game not to be played sober. Neither is it a game to be played whilst drunk. Sober, its boring, and drunk, there is always someone who keeps tapping the bell, doing everyone's head in. So you take the bell away, and it becomes boring.

The only time when this would be fun I feel is after a long party, when everyone has had a lot to drink, and its just played between individual people. We have tried this as a actual get together game at the table, and it quickly got put back. Even I cannot put a silver lining in this one. Pick one up if you see it for 50p or the like, but I cannot recommend buying this new.

A short review, as there really is not a lot to say about this. Maybe if it was reworked it might play better.

Score: 3/10

Game Review: Dawn Under

I have been meaning to review this for a while now, but every time I get this out to look at it in a reviewers eye, I end up playing it for hours and then forget to review it. Yes, I enjoy this game immensely. Here’s why.

It is a very simple memory game. No scoring, no calculations, no difficult choices. But lots of fun. The story behind the game is that in the false dawn before sunrise, all the vampires scramble to find a resting place for the day. This is where you come in. You need to flip over the graves on the game board, and if the colour under the lid matches one of your active vampires, then you place him/her in the grave and replace the lid. Sounds simple? Well, for the mechanics, there are two other rules, and that’s it. But the challenge in this game is immense, and ramps up even more with 3+ players. For if you uncover an grave that’s already filled, you get a stake. Get 3, and you get 2 vampires from every other player, that you then have to place in to a grave. This just gets mean towards the end game, and can actually help you win.

The other, optional rules that can be used are garlic and rats. Each player gets 3 garlic tokens, and can play these if they uncover a empty grave but cannot place a vampire down. If uncovered, even by same player that placed it, every player gives you 2 vampires. The other rule is a rat. If you uncover a rat, you can uncover every grave adjacent to the one with the rat, one at a time, if you wish. You don't have to, and can stop at any time.

So that basically are the rules: You flip a grave, place a vampire, and flip another. Or get a stake, or other vampires.

But that’s the fun of this game. At first glance, it looks simple and unchallenging, just a “kids game” is one response that I had once. Then the same person wanted to play again and again. Its quite addictive this game, and with a short set up time and short games, is a great filler and regularly hits the table whilst we are waiting for people to show up for larger games.

The game comes with a wonderful board and thick, chunky tiles. This a game meant to last, and will stand up to even a group of over excited 5 years old's quite easily. This game has its feet squarely plated in the family market yes, but is great fun with a group of adults.

It is not without its shortcomings however. I just wish it was a bit deeper, a few more rules, not just turn a tile and move on. Towards the end of the game, it can be quite difficult to find a grave without something in it, and tiles swap hands fast, but then the game changes to try and win that way, bluffing people to pick tiles with vampires already buried, to try and whittle your hand size down.

But these bad points are only evident after a few games, and if its a filler game, then you wont play more than a few games in one sitting before moving on to the main event.

Another highly recommended collection game, as this both sits in the kids entertainment as-well as adults entertainment.

Score 8/10

Vintage Game: MageStones

MageStones is a old TSR game from way back in the '90s. It didn’t do terribly well when it was released, and faded into obscurity very quickly. I remember getting my first copy one Christmas when I was a child, and I saw it in pound shops a few years back as well.

This game spent a long time unplayed. The written rules make very little sense unless you play along with the rule book in hand. If only TSR had written some better rules, I think that this could have really taken off.

Basically, its a abstract game with its roots in naught’s and crosses. Players roll 3 dice, add them together and then can place their stones on a board with lanes marked 3 to 9. The dice are d3's, and roll of 1-2-3 makes you miss a turn, and a treble number gains you a extra turn. The idea of the game is to move all of your pieces from your hand onto the board. Pieces that have been surrounded by another players pieces, are “dispelled”, removed back the the owning players hand.

Lane 6 is the most powerful, and can only be place there with a roll of 2-2-2. But pieces in this lane cannot be dispelled, but can be used to dispel other pieces.

On first glance, when you get the rules (or have someone show you more likely), the game is shallow with not a lot going on. The theme is pasted on so badly it could be ANYTHING. But after a few plays, the strategy starts to come out, a lot like my findings with Dominion. When you see what can be achieved, with cunning ploys or outright bluffing, this game really comes into its own.

Coupled with the fact that a no game ever really goes over 15 minutes, even with 3 players, this is a great game to play when you are waiting for people, or even at parties. Simple enough, yet also highly competitive I think this would stand well with a league/table based on it.

Its a pretty rare find these days to get a nice copy of this. This game goes for between £10-25 on eBay (plus p+p), so can discourage people to buy it based on an old game at that price. But get this, this has the Farlands recommendation attached to it, it is a valuable addition to any game collection, and a testament to this game is that I spent £30 just to get this in my collection.

Vintage Game: Guess Who!

In this series of posts, we are going to play old games and see if they stand up to the test of time.

Guess who was first released in Great Britain in 1979 by Milton Bradley (MB) games. It went to the US in 1982. It has taken a few design changes over the years, the 1987 version only included 5 women and 19 men, which was not rectified until the 2000 version which had a almost equal split. Star Wars, Marvel and Disney versions have all been released, as well as various travel editions, which had only 20 tiles to choose from.

Guess Who. Now I think that everybody at some point in time must have played this game, it is one of THOSE games. I remember having it as a child, and now I play it with the children that are around now (nephews, friends children etc.), but recently we got this out at a party with adults, and yes it went down a blast.

The idea of the game is to “guess who” the other player has drawn from a deck of cards. You get two game boards, each with 24 tiles with each of the characters faces on them. You take it in turns asking questions about the looks, and by the end you should have one tile left, which should be the identity of your opponents character. If it is, you win that round, and onto the next one. First to five wins.

Now I know that write up is most likely irrelevant, as most people know how to play this simple game. With children, it teaches them logic and how to formulate plans to achieve a goal in a very real sense, and I think that this game alone is worth a place in children’s game collections just because of that. With a group of adults however, the game changes. The once innocent questions of a child are replaced with some, lets say, more colourful questions. But that all adds to the fun of this game.

I have played this game just one on one, and whilst it was still good, I think that with a group of adults, team play is a must. How you go about this is up to you, and part of the fun working that out.

The game in this day and age I think is defiantly still relevant. As I mentioned above, as a children’s game it encourages the building of logic skills, to get to a unknown goal in a structured way. As a adult party game, it works great. Its simple, easy to teach and can have some very funny outcomes and banter associated with it. If your child has this game try it out again, you may be surprised. If your child does not have this in their collection, get it for the both of you.

Descent 2nd Edition

Here is a game off the beaten track of all the Warhammer 40000 posts that have been going up here recently. Descent 2^nd edition is the follow up to the hugely popular Fantasy Flight Games, Descent: Journeys into the Dark.

A lot of people loved the first edition, and a lot of people hated the it as well. The main complaints were about the length of the game, and the sheer amount of space that it took up on the table. 2^nd edition is very similar, but also very different.

Miniatures wise, like all other FFG games, they are fantastic. Not as many as in 1^st Ed, but still a good amount. Cards are standard FFG size, and board pieces and counters again the quality that you would expect from FFG.

It has been hugely streamlined. Many of the annoyances that were in Descent, like the Town, popping to the shops mid quest, all the re-spawn points, and the fact that the Overlord character has so many monsters, and then variations of the monsters that you never quite knew what you were fighting until you were dead.

This leaves a system that begs to be played, and with not as much to remember for a new player, should be completed in 2 hours or less, maybe a little longer, but not by much.

At heart its still a dungeon crawl minus RPG elements, but you can still level up characters, and indeed the overlord player can upgrade as well. If you want more of a RPG series, then D&D or other equivalent system is for you. This is a tactical miniature game. One player takes the role of the overlord, and runs the dungeon and monsters with the help of a deck of cards. Other players take the role of heroes, ones that must defeat the many dangers lurking in these dungeons.

I believe that all of these adventures could be played right from the box, pick one and off you go. This would be great to show new people how to play, but the real heart of this is the campaign system, linking all the adventures together, and powering up your characters. Indeed, the game comes with a campaign all set up and ready to go, and I can almost guarantee that there will be expansions just like 1^st edition.

If you own first edition, then there is a little bonus for you. There is a upgrade kit. It requires that the core 2^nd edition is bought, but upgrades all of the 1^st edition monsters into the 2^nd edition rules, so right from the word go you will have many more options!

Game wise, this plays well from 2 to 5 players, all within 2 hours, without the grind of 1^st edition. I played 1^st Ed, liked it enough, but never played again as it was draining in the long run. This is a lot smoother and a lot better.

If you have never played Descent: Journeys into the Darkness, and like dungeon games, then without hesitation go out and buy this game. It is fantastic and will be supported for a while to come, so many more adventures are to come. If you have played 1^st Ed, I would recommend this game a lot, but would also suggest playing before you buy. The changes are for the better, but may be changes enough to make you not like these rules.

All in all, Descent 2^nd edition is a rip roaring romp through a dungeon, with enough re-playability to keep it on the table for months to come.

Logan Stones: Rock, paper, strategy

I played a new game today. It was easy to learn, light and abstract.

It was Logan Stones by Gem42. This really is a great little game. As mentioned above, its really easy to learn. If playing with new players, just tell them its a cross between Rock, paper, scissors and connect 4. With a dash of Othello. And that really is all to say about the rules.

In the box you get 18 quite luxurious double sided tokens, the Logan Stones, a nice fabric bag to keep them all in, and a well laid out rule sheet.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of this game. You place a tile, and in the vein of rock, paper, scissors, if that stone beats it, you turn that one over. When you run out of tiles, you start re-arranging the tiles already down, until you get 4 in a row.

The strategy cones from remembering what is on the other side of the tiles that have been put down, and trying to combo the flips to get the elusive 4 in a row. Your first games will be won by just placing down the winning tile, but soon that will become old hat, and you will be trying to get the final blow dealt at the end of a combo. Which is always good.

Playability wise, with two people, after a few games it could get repetitive, but throw in some extra people, then I think this game would be a fantastic filler between bigger games, or even could be part of a league. It says 2 people on the box, but more than 2 could easily play with a bit of common sense applied.

Overall, this is a great game. It may be a little pricey, but what you get is quality, and quality comes at a price. These tokens will not be damaged by normal wear and tear, you would have to go a long way to do any damage to them at all.

Verdict: 7.5

This will be making it to Thursday Night Gaming, and if I can get my hands on any, will become the showcase game. If you would like this game, drop me a message over facebook.com/farlandsgames or visit our website www.farlandsgames.co.uk and message me. With enough interest, I will stock this game!

Warhammer 40000 6th Edition – First Impression

I just received my copy of the new rulebook (I know, a bit late, but there were some supply issues) and have decided to share my initial response.

The book itself is gorgeous, big and heavy. The paper is thick, and the printing is impeccable. And this is only the normal version, I would love to get my hands on a collectors edition.

As with most of the GW rulebooks, the rules come first in the book, followed by 300+ pages of background, missions, hobby related items and reference tables. I have yet to read through the 130 pages of rules yet, but a few new rules such as mystery terrain and artifacts really stood out on a quick flick through.

There are a lot of pictures of beautiful boards and army’s in this book. I think maybe to many. I do believe there should be two versions you can buy, this version and an version with just the rules. Yes there will be a A5 rulebook in the new box set most likely, but the option to get it on its own would be nice, and most gamers would have both anyway.

Overall, I was very impressed with the presentation of this book. I cant comment on the rules, there will be another post soon dicussing them, and only time will tell if they stand up. If you have a spare £45 knocking around I would recommend getting this if not for just the pictures and story alone.

First impression presentation: 9.5

Only War free beta

So I announced to a group of friends about how I wanted to run a RPG session, and it came to the decision that we would try Fantasy Flight Games newest offering, Only War.

It is a true RPG game along the lines of their other games such as Deathwatch and Rogue Trader. At the moment, it is only in beta stage, and the beta rule book can be downloaded over from the guys at RPG Drive Through until August for the nice sum of $20. Alternatively, take a trip over to the FFG website and download the free starter game. Here you will find a cut down version of the rules, and a campaign/ story for you to play through.

I decided I was going to use the free download, as I did not fancy paying for a PDF that potentially would only be played once. However, I will now be getting that PDF, but more on that later.

The game is based on the Warhammer 40000 universe, and deals with the Imperial Guard. Players can choose a range of characters that are pre generated, and there are no options for making any more in the free version, but these will get the players off to a nice start. The bundled story is nice, long enough to run 3 sessions out of it (sessions being around 2-3 hours), with enough detail to be really immersive.

The problem I usually find with RPG's are the combat systems, most usually seem really clunky to me. The combat system in this however, is fantastic, and makes sense in my head. Initiative can change with a bad roll, so not every combat is going to see the characters going in the same order, which as we found out can have a big impact.

The story bundled is nice, based on the remnants of a Imperial Guard squad trying to get off a deathworld before their commanders “glass” the area with a orbital bombardment. It has a interesting mechanism, as the characters only have 11 hours to get to a firebase many kilometres away from their current position, and most of their decisions will result in the clock ticking away.

Is it worth getting? If you are a fan or tabletop RPG's, then I suggest that you give it a try, either by getting the free version, or downloading the paid beta PDF. All in all all my players enjoyed it, and talk about it quite regular, and I will be running it again in the near future.

Series 7? Why not!

I have been on a quest for a long time to find a superior paintbrush for my miniature painting. I have used Italeri, Citadel and Vallejo brushes prior to getting the Winsor and Newtons.

Out of them three, Citadel brushes were the best of the lot, but still something was lacking. I don't know if I had bad luck, but I could never keep a point on a Citadel brush. I look after my equipment, but after about 6 hours, the point was gone, usually split, which made almost anything really difficult to achieve.

I had wanted some series 7's for a long time, but could not justify the money to buy them, as they are really quite expensive for a paintbrush. But when I decided to try and take my painting full time, I thought it about time to get some. And boy was I glad I did.

Forget the cost. That is irrelevant. These brushes will not make you paint better, but they will allow you to paint better.

Note the italics there. With a brush of this standard, you never battle the brush. It always does what you want, and will always come back to a point, even after splaying the bristles on a down stroke, it always comes to a point. This means you can now concentrate harder on getting the paint exactly where you want it to be every time. Which is what will make you paint better.

I think the confidence boost of holding a £10+ paintbrush also has something to do with it, and they also look awesome. Buy some brush soap, look after them, and they will look after you for a long time to come.

These have been the biggest leap in my painting since I learnt how to thin my paints properly.

Remember, these brushes will not make you paint better, but they will allow you to paint better.

Buy some. You will not regret it.

Talisman 4th Edition Review

I first played this game many years ago as a child, when it was in its third edition. Back then it was a great game, that I could play with both my family and friends, and it will always have a dear place in my heart. So how does the Fantasy Flight Games 4^th reprint stack up?

This game oozes presentation. From when you first pick up and feel the weight of the box, you know you have a great game in your hands. This carries on when you open up the box for the first time, and see all the cards and the miniatures, and that board.

The board is huge, with beautiful artwork all across it. You can play this game many, many times and still see new things on the board, things that you missed the last time. All the other componants are wonderful aswell, with nice finishes on all the cards, and all the plastic pieces just feel right.

The rulebook is the usual fare, and I feel way to long for this game. It makes the game feel complicated when you first read it, but play the first game, and you will see how it all fits together seamlessly.

The game plays really smoothly, and even with brand new players, once you have played the first turn, every one will know what to do. Gameplay is simple: Roll a dice, move your character that amount of spaces left or right around the board, and do what the space you land on instructs you to do. Usually, it will be draw a amount of cards, which you then follow the instructions. These can range from fights with monsters, to items that you can pick up or special events that affect everyone on the board. Then its the next players turn to do the same.

The whole idea is to build your character into a strong warrior and work your way into the center of the board, where the Crown of Command exists. At this point, the character with the Crown of Command kills everyone and wins. It sounds easy, but as you work your way into the center of the board, spaces get harder, as do the monsters that you encounter. Couple that with the fact that when you make a dive for the center, you become a target for everyone to get.

I have found that this game takes about one hour for each player playing. So a four player game can last four hours, but don't let this put you off, that time will fly by. It really is a fun night in game, so grab your friends, get some drinks and snacks and see where this game takes you. The tales that can be told from playing this game are wide a varied, and peoples misfortunes will make you all fall around in laughter. Take for example from a game I played. We had a hapless druid, who on his turn drew the mighty dragon to fight. Having not a chance, he still fought it, and lost. Play went around, and he swiftly moved on, only to draw a demon, the most powerful enemy in the deck! Needless to say, his character did not last long, and proceeded to get drunk in the tavern (it had been a rough day).

So, do I like this game? Yes I do, and so does everyone I have introduced to it. This definatly goes in my top 5 games of all time. So get this, you will not regret it one bit.

Rating: 9.5/10