Archive for the 'Board Game Review' Category

The setting for Krysis is a mix of sci-fi, post-apocalypse and fantasy where players play companies attempting to collect gems and relics from a mine.  Players use cards representing their agents who are either fighters or transporters for not only do you need to collect items but you need to protect them (or steal them) too.

The board shows a mine with 6 levels.  Players start on level 1 and each turn they enter the next level down, so the game lasts for 5 rounds.  Each player has a screen – items placed in front are in their campsite, and items placed behind it are safely at their company’s base.  Each player has two decks of agent cards – fighters and transporters.  Read the rest of this entry »

During Spiel 08, I noticed Schmidt publishing a range of games for 2 players, ‘Easyplay for 2’.  As you may have read in my previous articles, I’m always looking out for good two-player games, so this range was definitely of interest.  Burgen Land is one of these games in this range.

During the game you will develop a red, a blue and a yellow castle by adding castle sections which each display the number of points they are worth.  One the board is a circular track called a rondel (if you’re familiar with games like Imperial, Hamburgum, or Finca, you’ll recognise this game mechanic).  The rondel is split into 24 segments – 8 blue, 8 yellow and 8 red – and each segment displays an icon – wall, large tower, small tower, house or crown.  On your turn, you roll your dice and move a crown piece that many segments clockwise around the rondel. Read the rest of this entry »

When I first heard of Opera, the theme didn’t instantly grab me.  However, it looked nice and it was getting good reports so I was looking forwards to playing it.

The players’ goal is to score points by performing Operas in different European cities and this takes money, opera houses and music.  The game is played over 9 rounds and players earn income (ducats) after every round.  Some points can be earned during the rounds, but the most points are scored at the end of every third round.

The game mechanics in Opera are quite unusual and took the new players (including me) a round or two before we started to understand the relationship between the different elements.  Read the rest of this entry »

Cockroach Poker is a very, very simple bluffing game. But for all its simplicity, it is certainly no less fun. The game consists of a deck of cards which have pictures of creatures like rats, bats, toads and, of course, cockroaches. There are 8 cards for each of the 8 types of creature.

The cards are dealt out to the players and the players try to get rid of their cards to other players. On your turn, you pass a card face-down to another player and say what creature is on it. They have three options: They can believe you, or they can say you’re lying. Read the rest of this entry »

Hansa Teutonica had a lot of good reports during Spiel 09, and even more afterwards.  It was on my list of games to check out but, at a glance, it looked a bit dry.  However, having played it now, Hansa Teutonica has a lot of really good things inside it and should not be missed.

The board shows lots of cities and routes in between them.  Each route has spaces along it which can be occupied by player’s traders (cubes) or merchants (discs).  Merchants are less numerous, can be used instead of traders, and for some actions only a merchant will do. Read the rest of this entry »

I admit it – I’ve never played the original Samurai game by Reiner Knizia which is a classic.  I’ve wanted to as I’ve always read that it’s a great game but I’ve just never had the opportunity.  So, I definitely wanted to play the card game version at Spiel 09.

In Samurai, there are two types of cards – a single deck of village cards and each player has their own deck of samurai cards.  The village cards show one, two or three shapes on them: circle, square and triangle.  When a village is placed on the board, matching shaped counters are placed on the card.  Each player is trying to claim these counters by surrounding the villages with samurai cards. Read the rest of this entry »

Letter of Marque is a very light and quick bluffing game with players launching ships laden with treasure and hoping they reach port safely whilst trying to steal other player’s treasure.

Each player starts with 5 ships, 5 treasure cards and 3 cannon cards.  Two of the ships have cannons marked on their undersides (these are defended ships) and the other three are blank (which are undefended).  The treasure cards are numbered 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

On their turn, a player can either launch one of their ships, bring one of their ships home or attack an opponent’s ship. Read the rest of this entry »

Cardcassonne is a light filler game of timing and set collecting.  Players lay and collect cards and the core play is whether to claim now or wait for more cards but risk someone else claiming what you want.

At the start of a round, each player has one meeple and a hand of cards (the number of which is based on the number of players, i.e. 5 cards each round in a 4-player game).  During play, there are four coloured rows on the table into which you can place cards – red, blue, green and yellow.

On your turn, you can either place a card at the end of a matching row (i.e. red card at the end of the red row) or you can place your meeple at the end of a row.  Read the rest of this entry »

There were quite a few stands at Essen with people in costume promoting games and the chef on the A La Carte stand was a memorable one.

A La Carte is part-dexterity and part-push-your-luck.  The goal is to score the most points or complete 3 recipes perfectly.  Each player has a stove on which to cook and a small saucepan too.  These are fantastic as the stove is a 3D hot plate constructed from thick card with a dial for the heat setting, plus the saucepan is a mini, metal saucepan.  In addition, there are 4 small seasoning bottles which each contain plastic, pea-sized nuggets – each bottle starts with 15 nuggets of a single colour of seasoning (black, red, yellow or green) and 5 clear nuggets (representing salt). Read the rest of this entry »

When I heard the designer of Carcassonne had a new game, I knew I wanted to check it out.  Players build forts and towns in the land of Albion (Roman Britain) where the south is tame but the north is inhabited by the Picts who are less welcoming to the Romans.  Each player controls Settlers (who build buildings and collect resources) and Legionnaires (who increase military strength in their region).  The first player to complete three level 4 buildings (including one in a far North region where it is most hostile) wins.

MOVEMENT
An interesting gameplay mechanic is movement.  Each turn, a player can move as many of their own units as they want.  The number of regions (distance) each unit can move is dictated by what buildings the player has built.  At the end of the player’s turn, all settler units are returned to a home camp. Read the rest of this entry »