Archive for the 'Content Type' Category

Sneaks and Snitches is a very clever game – it’s incredibly simple but delivers a lot of interaction in the form of trying to out think your opponents.  During the game, players are all thieves trying to steal gems and items so they can win by scoring the most victory points (VPs).

Each round a number of loot cards (depending upon the number of players) are placed in the centre of the table and each one has a letter next to it.  Most loot cards show a number of coloured gems the player that steals it will receive, but they also show items worth VPs and  a few other items.

Next, each player secretly picks one of their lettered criminals to be their sneak (thief) and another be a snitch (guard).  When all players have picked, all criminals are revealed and placed next to the matching letter – snitches above and sneaks below the loot.  Any loot that has a snitch next to it can not be stolen (B, D, F and H in the example picture) and, therefore, any sneaks next to it get nothing.  If a single sneak is next to an unguarded loot, i.e. no snitch (E) then that player gets that loot.  If multiple sneaks are next to an unguarded loot (C) then they get in each other’s way – the main loot stays where it is but each player takes a bonus card (which shows a single colour gem on it). Read the rest of this entry »

Mr Jack is a clever 2-player game that mixes deduction with movement – I put it that way as purely saying it’s a deduction game can give the false impression that it is dry or shallow.  The original Mr Jack and it’s follow-up, Mr Jack in New York, are both games where one player is Mr Jack (the Ripper) and the other is the investigator.  Players take turns moving the various suspects as the investigator tries to deduce which suspect is Mr Jack before Mr Jack escapes off the board.  The deduction in those games is made by saying whether Mr Jack is standing in the light or not at the end of each round.

Mr Jack Pocket is a smaller and more portable Mr Jack game that encapsulates the main elements of the original games but actually delivers a different game experience. The goal of the game is to reduce the 9 suspects down to just 1 before the 8 rounds are over and before the Jack player has accumulated 6 hourglasses. Read the rest of this entry »

Magnum Sal was a game that caught my attention just before last year’s Spiel in Essen as I like worker placement games; however, I never got to play it and, until recently, kept missing opportunities to do so at one of my regular groups.  Magnum Sal is a game about Polish salt mining – yes, you can’t beat it for having a theme that makes it different to other games.

Each player starts with a few miners which they can use to either go into the mine or they can be an assistant at a town building.  Each turn, players take turns taking 2 actions each (place workers, use building, extract salt).  The goal is to make as much money as possible (primarily by mining salt).  There are two distinct areas of the game: the town and the mine.

In the town, the player can use buildings to: buy tools (special one-use abilities and money at game end), hire extra workers, visit the palace (to fulfil a contract for lots of cash), pump water out of a mine (making it easier to get the salt out), use the market, etc.  Also, most town buildings have space for one worker so that they get income each time any player uses that building. Read the rest of this entry »

Alien Frontiers is a dice-placement and area-control game with a space colonisation theme for 2-4 players.  Players score victory points (VPs) by placing colonies on the planet (as well as for dominating planet areas and a few alien tech cards).  When any player has placed their 9th and final colony on the planet, the game ends and the player with the most VPs wins.

During the game, players take turns rolling their dice (spaceships) and allocating them to different locations (orbital facilities).  Each orbital facility lets you do different things such as gain resources (energy and ore), build spaceships, gain alien tech (special abilities), raid other players, etc.  Each facility requires dice to use it and most require a specific mixture of dice, i.e. doubles, a total of 8 or higher, a 3-dice straight.  However, the extra twist is that there are a limited amount of spaces for dice at each area and a player only gets their dice back at the start of their turn; therefore, opponents’ dice can block spaces so that other players are unable to use them. Read the rest of this entry »

I just noticed a new game on the Fantasy Flight Games site called ‘Elder Sign’.  It’s an Arkham Horror Files game (like Mansions of Madness) so uses the same setting but this time it’s a co-operative, dice-based game for 1-8 players.

The investigators are at a museu hunting for Elder Signs with which to block the Ancient Ones arrival.  From the info on the site, it sounds a bit like Arkham Horror: The Card Game (which certainly isn’t a bad thing) as there is no board but still features Ancient Ones with doom tracks, stamina and sanity stats, and the other usual Arkham elements.

Players try to complete adventure cards in order to search the museum for the elder signs but they will suffer ill effects if they do not complete cards fully.  Each time the clock strikes midnight, a Mythos card is drawn which has a negative effect representing the strengthening of the Ancient One’s evil.

Check out the preview and the site for more details (link below).  Not a lot of details about it yet but it looks very interesting indeed – especially if you’re an Arkham Horror and Cthulhu fan as I am.

Link to preview on FFG site (and there’s a link to the game’s site there too): http://bdg.ms/ae9v

Pantheon is by the same designer as Stone Age which is one of my favourite boardgames.  I read through the rules recently and it’s definitely one I want to try out.  As the name suggests, the theme involves the Gods.

The game’s played over 6 turns (epochs) and each turn one of the nations on the board is activated which means loot tiles are placed on hexes with that nation’s symbol, that nation’s special effect is executed and some god tiles are revealed.

During their turns, a player can either:

1. Move – Spend cards to place their coloured pieces on the board; thereby, claiming hexes in chains across the board which in turn can gain loot tiles.
2. Buy – Purchase sacrifice tiles & more pieces to place on the board
3. Gain a god tile – Gained by having enough sacrifice tiles and cards (although, unlike tiles, cards are single-use)
4. Draw 3 cards Read the rest of this entry »

REVIEWS
The Spiel des Jahres nominees were revealed last week.  Below is a list of the nominees with easy links to reviews of most of them.

Spiel des Jahres
Asara
Qwirkle
Forbidden Island

Kennerspiel des Jahres nominees
Strasbourg
7 Wonders
Lancaster

Luna was also on the list of recommended titles.

THOUGHTS
As far as my thoughts go, Read the rest of this entry »

Letters From Whitechapel is a game about Jack The Ripper.  If you’ve played Scotland Yard, then you’ll get a good idea about it if I say it’s like an advanced Scotland Yard; however, in case you haven’t, I’ll review this assuming no previous knowledge of Scotland Yard.

One player is Jack the Ripper who needs to perform a series of murders and the other players are the police trying to catch him before he has completed his grizzly activities and escaped.  Jack takes turns moving invisibly around the board (which shows many connected, numbered spaces) whilst the other players take turns working together as the police to move around and catch him.  The police do have some clues though – first, they know where the murder takes place so they know Jack’s starting point; second, Jack must say if he’s moving normally or using one of his special moves each turn; and, third, the police can detect if Jack has been through a space they investigate (next to their current position) so they can detect his trail.  Each night, Jack must get back to his hideout – the location of which is unknown to the police – before each night ends. Read the rest of this entry »

Neuroshima Hex on iPhone is a quick-playing, well-executed version of the board game on iPhone.  Taking it one step further, the same developer (Big Daddy’s Creations) has released a puzzle version of Neuroshima Hex called Neuroshima Hex Puzzle.

Neuroshima Hex Puzzle contains 100 different puzzles to solve.  In each puzzle, players are given one turn to solve a situation.  Therefore, players get 3 tiles and they must place just 2 of these so that their base has more hit points left compared to all their enemies after the turn has been executed.  So, it plays exactly the same as the main game but is a series of 100 single-turn scenarios as opposed to full games.

Read the rest of this entry »

The guys creating RoboArena – an iPhone and iPad app they’re creating via Kickstarter which is a mix of RoboRally and turn-based X-COM – got in touch with me recently to tell me about their project.  Looks very interesting.  Check out their Kickstarter page and lend your support if you want to get involved.

Check out the details here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bravadowaffle/roboarena-an-iphone-casual-strategy-game (Be quick as there’s only 5 days left to back them.)