Archive for the 'Board Game Review' Category

For some time, I’ve wanted Fantasy Flight to do more Arkham Horror but not just expanding the already huge game.  So, the announcement of Mansions of Madness was great news.  If you’ve played ‘Betrayal at House on the Hill’ then think of ‘Mansions of Madness’ as ‘Betrayal at Arkham Horror on the Hill’ – which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Mansions of Madness pits one player (the Keeper) against up to 4 other players who are investigating strange goings on at the mansion (crypt, chapel, etc.)  The board is made up of room pieces whose layout is determined by the story (defined in the rules) that is being played.  The players don’t know the reason behind the weird happenings and it’s their job to uncover enough clues so that they understand how to defeat the evil that is at work.  The Keeper plays the role of the evil side – causing weird happenings, controlling the monsters, etc. – and their goal is to defeat the investigators. Read the rest of this entry »

Vinhos is one of the several games with a wine-making theme that were released last year.  The game lasts 6 game years and the winner is the player with the most victory points (VPs) at the end of the game.  Each year, players take 2 actions and turn order is re-assessed after each round of actions.  In one action, a player can:

• Buy one or more vineyard (which produce wine)
• Buy 1 or 2 wineries (which increase wine value)
• Hire 1 or 2 enologists (which increase wine value but cost money each year)
• Buy a cellar (increases the time you can keep wine which makes it more valuable)
• Sell wine for cash
• Export wine for VPs (some immediately and some later if you dominate that area)
• Bank (cash in/out and make/sell investments)
• Hire 1 or 2 wine experts (giving various extra powers and increasing chances at wine fair)
• Press release (announce your wine fair entry and maybe influence a manager) or Pass

As you can see there’s a lot choice, especially as a player will only take 12 actions in the whole game.   I won’t explain all the rules as that’s too much to cover but will mention a few core gameplay areas. Read the rest of this entry »

Days of Steam is a light, train-themed, tile-laying game.  The tiles show different track routes (or towns) which build up to create a rail network between towns.

Each player has 1 train and scores victory points (VPs) by delivering goods and completing circuits.  The winner is the first player to score 13 VPs, or the one with the most VPs when the tiles run out.  Each turn a player can either move their train (costing 1 point of steam per tile), play a track tile from their hand (earning 1 – 2 steam), play a town tile, or use a water tower (earning 4 steam).

Tiles played either extend the railway lines or add a town to the network.  Each town starts with 2 random colour goods on it which can be picked up by players (carrying 1 at a time). Players score 2 VP for delivering a good to a matching coloured town and there are bonus VPs for having delivered different colours of goods.  Read the rest of this entry »

Die Speicherstadt (whose English language version is called The Speicherstadt) is the name of Hamburg’s warehouse district and is a simple but clever game.  The goal is to earn as many victory points (VPs) as possible and the game ends when the deck of cards has been used.  Each round 4 to 6 cards (number of players plus 1), are available for puchase.

Players take turns placing one of their 3 meeple next to a card (on the adjacent warehouse) to show that they want a chance to buy it.  If a card already has meeple next to it, the player places their meeple next in the queue for that card.  When all meeple have been placed, each card is resolved. The player whose meeple is first in the queue can purchase the card at a cost equal to the number of meeple in the queue.  If they don’t buy it, that meeple is removed and the player who owns the meeple that is now at the front of the queue gets the chance to buy it (at a lower cost than the previous player because there are now fewer meeple in the queue).  When a player buys a card, any meeple in the queue are simply returned to their owners.

Some cards give you goods, some give you VPs if you place the stated goods on them, some allow you to convert goods to cash, etc.  The cards are quite varied but the icons on them ensure they are easy to understand. Read the rest of this entry »

I noticed Mâamut in late 2009 but, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to buy a copy from the publisher until Spiel 2010.  The game appealed to me because of the mammoth hunting theme and its simplicity.

During the game, players use their 1 hunter (meeple) to lay traps and try to catch the one roaming Mammoth.  A hexagonal board is assembled of randomly placed hex tiles each showing grass, snow or rocks.  Players take turns taking one action which can be to either:

• Move – Play a card from their hand of 3 (valued 1 – 3) and move their hunter (a) the full number of spaces, (b) in a straight line, and (c) never on to/through rocks (as these are always out of bounds to hunters and mammoths).
• Lay trap – Place on their hunter’s current tile but only if it’s a grass tile (and no other hunters or traps are there)
• Remove opponent’s trap – If no other hunters are there.
• Pass – Discard a card and draw a new one.

Read the rest of this entry »

Charon Inc is designed by Emanuele Ornella who designed Assyria and Il Principe among others (and who I interviewed last year).

In Charon Inc players place flags to take control of different areas of a moon in order to get gems which are used to build buildings to score victory points (VPs) – most VPs at the end of the game wins.  It may sound like pretty standard stuff but there are some clever game mechanics that create lots of interaction and tactical decision-making.

At the start of each of the 5 rounds, players place one of their flags on each of the 5 special ability spaces.  Then, players take turns removing any one of their flags from a special ability and placing it onto the board.  The moon is divided into a grid with gems placed in the areas (gem colours in each area are random but the quantities are fixed).  A player can place their flag on any empty corner, side or centre of an area.  Read the rest of this entry »

Crows was on my radar when I read the rules before Spiel, so I bought a copy there and finally got to play it this week.  Crows is a simple game for 2-4 players but contains a surprising amount of tactical play.  The game consists of tiles (most showing a tree with 0, 1, 2 or 3 crows on each), some special ability tiles and lots of crow meeples.  Each player gets a coloured gem (shiny object) too.

A player’s turn consists of: 1. Draw a random tile and add it to those on the table; 2. Place their shiny object on an empty tile; 3. (Optionally) play one special ability tile.  Once each player has had one turn, the crows move towards the nearest shiny objects and players score points based on how many crows are on the tile with their shiny object.  If there are 6+ crows on a tile, they scatter.  Finally, the starting player moves on to the next player and another round begins.  When there are no more tiles to place, the game ends and the player with the most points wins.

As you can see, it seems like a very simple game on the surface but it delivers some interesting game play.  Read the rest of this entry »

7 Wonders was the most anticipated game of Spiel 2010 with a very effective pre-launch campaign and general word-of-mouth. During the game, each player builds various buildings including developing their wonder of the world.  The winner is the player that scores the most victory points (VPs).

The game lasts 3 eras and each era consists of 6 turns.  Each turn, players pick one of the building cards in their hand and either:

(a) Build it
– Paying resources (if their built buildings produce enough or bought from neighbours)
– For free (if they built the pre-requisite building, or if it’s a basic building requiring zero resources)
(b) Discard it for 3 cash
(c) Use the card to build the next stage of their wonder (with the relevant resources)

Sounds pretty standard, right?  Well, there are several game mechanics that make 7 Wonders very different to other games. Read the rest of this entry »

Two games about Loch Ness were released at this year’s Spiel in Essen.  This one is by Ronald Wettering, who designed Lifeboats – a great game where players vote each other’s people out of sinking life boats.  With such a great (and humourously vindictive game) in his repertoire, I was automatically interested in Loch Ness.

Players have 3 photographers (numbered 3, 4 & 7) who are trying to take photos of the Loch Ness monster (Nessie).  The better the position when Nessie appears, the more victory points (VPs) you will score. Read the rest of this entry »

Grand Cru is one of several wine-making themed games released at Essen this year.  Each player owns a vineyard (board) where they will place the wine they make and any tiles they buy – each tile shows either one type of vine or a special action.  There are 5 types of wine each represented by a different colour (which represents a type of grape/vine).  Players take out loans during the game (each worth 7 cash) but must pay interest each round.  Each round players take turns performing just 1 action each.

Developing a Vineyard
As an action, a player can choose one of the newly drawn, face-up tiles and start an auction for it by placing one of their markers on their bid price (1-6).  On their turn, any other player can use an action to raise a bid (max price 6).  If a player is still the highest bidder, they can use an action to buy that tile.  Also, a player can use an action to immediately buy any face-up tile (whether being auctioned or not) for 7 cash. Read the rest of this entry »