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 »

Through The Ages is Reiner Knizia’s 1998 classic game of camel placement and area control.  I haven’t actually played the original boardgame but have wanted to for some time, so the iPhone game was a great opportunity to do so.

THE GAME
During the game, players place coloured camels (which come in 5 different colours) onto the board in order to score victory points (VPs).  First, players place camels with their leaders on them (one of each camel colour), so long as they’re not too close to other leaders, water holes or oasis.  Once all leaders have been placed, players take turns adding two camels (of any colours) at a time.  Only one camel can be placed on each space and camels must be placed next to camels of the same colour so that coloured herds start to grow (herds of the same colour must not merge).

If a camel is placed on a water hole or next to an oasis, then the leader of that herd gets VPs.  Players also get VPs for any areas that a herd cordons off.  The game ends as soon as there are no more camels of any one colour.  The biggest herd of each colour scores extra VPs for the herd’s owner. Read the rest of this entry »

Battle Line is one of my favourite portable 2-player games.  Consisting of a deck of cards and a few wooden pawns (and even the pawns aren’t totally necessary), it packs lots of punch by posing constant difficult choices and the potential for clever tactical game play.

THE GAME
The basic game consists of 60 troop cards (values 1 to 10 in 6 different colours) and there are 9 flags laid out in a row between the players.  On their turn, a player places one card next to any of the flags from their hand of 7 cards, then draws a new card.  Each player can only place a total of 3 cards next to any one flag.  When there are 3 cards on both sides of a flag, the player with the strongest set of 3 cards wins the flag and moves it to their side.  The cards are compared similar to poker hands: a straight in a single colour is the best, then 3 cards of the same value, then 3 cards of the same colour, then a straight in any mix of colours and finally the total value of the 3 cards.  A player wins the game as soon as they win 3 adjacent flags, or a total of 5 flags. Read the rest of this entry »

The Battlestar Galactica Loyalty Deck is an app that aims to help players during set-up of the Battlestar Galactica board game by FantasyFlight Games.  (If you haven’t played the game, the loyalty deck is the deck of cards that secretly tell each player which side they are on.)

The app’s goal is to make it simple to assemble the correct mixture of cards required for the loyalty deck (as it must have an exact composition) without checking the rulebooks.  With the two expansions available, there are now several factors that affect this composition.  You select the options you want, press the button and it then tells you which cards to combine.

Okay, it may be a nuke to crack a walnut but I like the idea of it.  Also, I appreciate the free app (created by a fan of the game) and think it’s a nice example of what an ap supporting a board game can do.  (Sadly, the Arkham Horror Toolkit app would have benefitted from this approach – see the full review here.)

James.

Want to get Battlestar Galactica Loyalty Deck for iPhone?
Use a link below to go to the App Store.

For iPhone

I was very excited when I saw there was an Arkham Horror Toolkit app for the iPhone.  I’m a big fan of Arkham Horror* – I wasn’t expecting to play the game in an app but I thought it would be something interesting.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Features
The app is a player’s aid with 4 functions:

• Dice roller – As it sounds, this visually rolls 3-D dice with some physics.  Text at the top states how many successes you have rolled and you can set it to count normal successes, cursed and blessed.
• Investigators -You can select an investigator, see all the info that’s on their character sheets and track all their stats.
• Location deck – Pick a map location (or Other World) and you are shown the text of an encounter.
• Maps – Pick a board and view it with zoom in and out functions.

It sounds fine but the biggest problem I have with it is this: What use does it really serve? 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 »

Below are links to reviews of games that will be released in shops this week (in the UK):

Note that my Liberté review is of the original release and not the new Valley Games version; however, the only difference is that the new version has better board colouration (which was an issue with the original game).  The Valley Games’ board can be seen here.

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 »