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 »

Recent real-life stuff have meant I haven’t been able to post as many reviews as usual but I just wanted to say that I shall be adding more new reviews as usual over the next weeks.  I posted a review of Magnum Sal today and more will follow including some new reviews of iPhone boardgame conversions too.

I had a chance to play Egizia again this week which I still think is a great game.  So many tricky decisions, clever game mechanics and lots of interaction – definitely one of my favourite worker placement games.

Japan seems to be shaping up to be the big gaming theme this year.  Amongst the games, I saw an announcement this week that a game called Shitenno is coming which is by the same designer that created the excellent Yggdrasil and Offrandes.  So, I’m definitely keeping an eye on that one. Plus, Ninja from AEG looks cool too with hidden movement.

Remember that bdg.ms is a good source of links to many of the latest board gaming posts (plus anyone can use it to shorten and share boardgaming links too).

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 »

The Spiel des Jahres winners have been announced.  The Spiel des Jahres goes to Qwirkle (which is the one I hoped would win that one) and the Kennerspiel des Jahres goes to 7 Wonders which is a deserving winner.  You can click on the links to read my reviews of these games.

The competition has now ended and the finalists have been picked.  (Finalists were picked at random and the winner was picked at random from the 4 finalists.)  The 4 finalists of the Strasbourg competition are:

• Yvan Norsa (via bdg.ms)
• Geocentrix (via Twitter)
• Ernie Lai (via Metagames Blog)
• Keith Bryson (via BoardGameGeek)

AND THE WINNER IS… Ernie Lai who will receive a copy of the SdJ-nominated Strasbourg.  Congratulations, Ernie.

My thanks to Pegasus Spiele for providing the prize for this competition and to everyone who entered by all the various means.

James.

To celebrate reaching 500 Twitter followers, Metagames is giving away a copy of Pegasus Spiele’s SdJ-nominated Strasbourg this week.  I reviewed the game a few week ago and really enjoyed it.  You can read the Strasbourg rules here.

HOW TO WIN
The winner will be randomly selected from one of 4 finalists.  Each finalist will be selected by a different method giving you 4 ways to earn a chance to win:

TWITTER
Anyone who is following @Metagames twitter account and has re-tweeted the competition phrase that I tweeted (which says I would like to win a copy of Pegasus Spiele’s SdJ-nominated Strasbourg).

– It’s important you re-tweet the @Metagames tweet so that I can see your entry.

BDG.MS
Anyone who shortens a board gaming link using bdg.ms from Monday 20^th June to Midnight PST Sunday 26^th June 2011 (you will need to register which is free and takes 20 seconds – simply click on ‘Register’)

– What’s bdg.ms?  It’s like bit.ly and tinyurl.com but just for boardgames with a list of all the latest links
– Only board game related links will be allowed
– Shorten a link to your site, a recent article you saw or your favourite board game (please don’t just shorten the link to Strasbourg on BGG)

METAGAMES BLOG
Anyone who posts a comment on the Metagames review of Strasbourg saying, “I want to win a copy of Stefan Feld’s Strasbourg”.

BGG
Anyone who has entered the competition using the competition page on BGG (being made live in the next 30 minutes)

To maximise your chances of winning, you can enter using all 4 methods described above.  The finalists will be announced on Monday 27^th June and the winner selected at random on the same day.  Note that multiple entries using the same method (i.e. re-tweeting multiple times, adding multiple comments) will not count.

My thanks to Pegasus Spiele for providing the prize for this competition.

Good luck,

James.

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 »