Sobek is a small 2-4 player, Egyptian-themed game where players take cards and lay down sets of 3 in order to score points over 3 rounds.  During the rounds, 3 cards of the same type can be laid down as a set (wheat, cattle ivory, etc.) and you can increase a set already laid down by adding another set of 3 cards of the same type.

It might sound relatively ordinary but there are two game mechanics that caught my attention.  First, cards are taken from a row of 9 – only one of the first 4 cards can be taken by a player but if they take any card other than the first card they must put the others before it into their corruption deck.  The player with the most cards in their corruption deck at the end of a round will lose some points.  Second, the score for your cards is  the number of cards multiplied by the total number of scarabs on each (some have no scarabs) which sounds like a good system.  Plus, there are more scarabs on the less commonly occurring cards (like ivory) whereas the more common cards (like wheat) have fewer scarabs on them – the mathematical part of my mind likes the balance of that. Read the rest of this entry »

I was interested in Neuroshima Hex when it was released at Spiel a few years ago.  However, I didn’t get a chance to play it then, or since, so I was pleased to see it released on iPhone so I could finally give it a go.

THE GAME
Neuroshima Hex is a 2-4 player combat game using hex tiles on a relatively small hex grid.  Each turn, players draw 3 random tiles, discards 1 and play the other 2 tiles.  Some tiles have immediate effects, like grenades and push-backs, so aren’t placed on the board; however, the majority are units which do get placed on the board.  Some units can attack enemies (ranged and melee) and icons on the tiles edges show in which directions they will attack – the player chooses which direction they face when placing them.  Some other units boost the performance of some neighbouring units. Read the rest of this entry »

THE GAME
Kingsburg is a dice-rolling, resource managing and building game.  Players roll 3 dice and then take turns allocating combinations of their dice in order to gain the benefits of the 18 different advisors.  For example, allocate two 4’s (or a 5 and 3, or 6 and a 2) and you can use the number 8 advisor (Treasurer) who gives the player 2 gold.  Players use their resources (gold, stone and wood) to build buildings which give players victory points as well as a wide variety of abilities like re-rolling a dice, added strength in battle, bonus VPs, extra resources and so on.  The 20 different buildings are split into 5 groups and each group has a level 1, 2,3 and 4 building.  The buildings within the groups must be built in order, so a player can only build a level 2 building if they have built the level 1 building in the same group, and so on. Read the rest of this entry »

THE GAME
Roll Through the Ages is a bit like Yahtzee meets Civilization.  Players roll dice and they can keep the results or re-roll as they wish.  After 3 rolls, or if earlier if desired, the player uses their results to hire workers, feed workers, gather goods, build monuments, and develop their civilisation. The goal is to score as many points as possible.

Players start with just 3 dice and hiring extra workers can give them up to 7 dice to roll each turn; however, workers can not be fired and must be fed each turn, so lots of dice means lots of mouths to feed too or you lose points.  Points are primarily scored by creating monuments which takes workers and you only score when you complete a monument – so sometimes it’s better to start building a smaller monument that you think you can finish rather than risk not completing a larger one.  Read the rest of this entry »

In Isla Dorada, the players are a group who have crash landed in Columbia in 1934 in a strange and hostile land.  The group must travel together each collecting treasure and gold along the way as well as trying to fulfil their destiny (well, secret destiny card).

The core gameplay is that the players bid to decide which way to go from each location.  When a player makes a bid, they say which route they will take the group if they win.  The winner of the bidding must pay their bid in cards that match the route (Kamel cards to travel along sand paths, Yak cards to travel along mountain paths, etc.and some other cards such as wild cards) so each player’s cards will limit what they can bid on different routes.  There are a few other items like Bigfoot and the Leviathan that can block routes, rivers that are one-way routes and so on too. Read the rest of this entry »

THE GAME
In Medici, players are merchants bidding over goods at the dockside so they can load their ships.  There are 5 different types of goods and each good tile has a value from 0 to 5 on it too.  On their turn, a player draws 1 to 3 goods one at a time and then auctions the good(s) off as a single lot with the current player bidding last.  Players get just one chance to bid and can only ever buy a total of 5 goods in a round.  If no-one bids on a lot they are thrown into the sea.  A round ends when the goods run out or all players have their full 5 goods each.

At the end of a round, players potentially gain florins for their ships and their goods.  Ship’s Score: Players each total the values written on their goods tiles – the player with the highest total number gains 30 florins and the next highest amounts gains florins too – the exact amount of florins and the positions that score are based on the number of players playing.  Goods Sore: Each good tile (regardless of the value written on it) moves its owner’s marker one step along the relevant goods track (i.e. two cloth tiles would move the  player’s marker 2 steps along the cloth track). Read the rest of this entry »

After more than 5 years of having Windows PC smartphones, one of the main reasons I switched to an iPhone was because of all the boardgame conversions appearing on it.  Looking at my survey results so far, over 50% of respondents play games on their iPhones so it seems I’m not alone.

Therefore, I’m pleased to announce that from Friday 24th September, the Metagames blog will also be reviewing iPhone board games in addition to the usual board game reviews too.  To kick this off, there will be a new iPhone game review every day for a week as well as the usual board games reviews and posts too. Read the rest of this entry »

In recent years, every time a new expansion has been released for Arkham Horror I have been excited to get it and play it, but I’ve also thought that maybe it was time FFG started a new game rather than add even more to an already vastly big game.  So, it was great to see FFG announce a new game with the Arkham Horror badge.

Due for release in November 2010, Mansions of Madness sounds like it’s more along the lines of Betrayal at House on the Hill.  The game will have various story lines and the players playing the heroes/investigators will have to work out what is going on in the house and foil the evil there.  One player will be playing the evil side, so they will know the real story going on and will be trying to achieve their objective before the other players work it out and stop them. Read the rest of this entry »

Formula De (now Formula D) is a superb racing game that really brings formula one car racing to life with lots of tricky decisions about whether to risk speed or not, blocking, and speed.  So, Powerboats had a tough challenge to live up to.

The game board consists of 6 double-sided board sections which show hex grids with hexes either full of water or land.  The board sections interlock and fit within a frame that holds them in place.  The board sections can be rotated and flipped to create a massive variety – one side of the boards is easier than the other as the ratio of water to land is different.

The course of the race is laid out using a start/finish line and 3 marker buoys which are placed on various letters printed on the boards; however, you can place them anywhere you want too to make what you feel is the best course.  As you’d expect, the first player to get their boat round each of the buoys (in order and in the correct direction) and cross the finish line wins. Read the rest of this entry »

Il Principe is a difficult game to categorise as it involves card management, bidding, area control and role taking.  However, rather than delivering a confusing mix of genres, it delivers a tight game which I really enjoyed.

Players are building cities and institutions in Italy to earn victory points (VPs).  At the start of each round, players receive 5 cash and 4 cards – the cards come in 5 colours each representing a different city institution (town hall, university, etc.).  The players keep 2 cards and the rejected cards are combined and auctioned off colour-by-colour.  After the auctions, a player can either (a) use cards and cash to build a city, or (b) place as many cards face-up in front of them of one colour showing control over the 5 different institutions.

There are 10 role cards (5 major & 5 minor in each colour).  The player with the most face-up cards of each colour gets the matching-coloured major role uses the role’s benefit, e.g. the player with the most face-up green cards gets the Banker role card which earns them 2 extra cash.  Read the rest of this entry »