12th September 2021
Gaming Sunday has come to a conclusion and we're logged into Board Game Arena for the final game of the night; Love Letter. Read my blog about it here.
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12th September 2021 Up from the depths. Thirty stories high. Breathing fire! HIS HEAD IN THE SKY! GODZILLA! GODZILLA! GODZILLA! ….and Godzoo- OK, that's going too far. Take on the role of a kaiju as they rampage against each other for the right to flatten Tokyo! What's in a game?
The dice are very well constructed and feel satisfying weighty to heft, which is good because they be getting a of of use. The boards, cards and standees are lavished with brash, colourful and cartoonish art, it's comical style perfectly fits both the game's style and over the top theme. The game has little iconography which is easy to understand. How's it play? Setup
On to play In King of Tokyo, players take turns rolling and re-rolling dice, then using those results to try and gain some benefit to work towards their objectives. During play there will always be a monster inside Tokyo, while the others are outside, in a 5+ player game, there can be 2 monsters inside Tokyo. A turn goes like this.
Endgame Play continues until one of two conditions are met. A player has reached 20 victory points - in which they immediately win or all monster bar one have had their health reduced to 0, in which case the last monster standing wins. Overall
King of Tokyo is a push-your-luck game with a difference, most other games of this type task players with essentially beating the odds and doing so more efficiently than other players, getting to whatever the victory criteria is first. But King of Tokyo has an extra wrinkle, in King of Tokyo, players can target and eliminate other players, I'm not a fan of player elimination but it gives the game an extra approach and dimension to gameplay. Not only that, players will look to prioritise different results at different times, if they're low on health; they'll want hearts. If there's a power card they like the look of; they'll want energy. The rules for getting into Tokyo compliment this well. Getting into Tokyo works for scoring points or attacking enemies. There's an inherent risk to do so, because it makes that player the central target. Managing to stick it out in Tokyo however, earns the player 2 victory points per turn, which on the surface might not seem like much but is actually 10% of the required victory score. Additionally, being in Tokyo is the best way to dish out damage to all other players, hit them hard enough and they'll probably want to heal instead of attack, giving the player in Tokyo more time, because sometimes, attacking the player in Tokyo is a risk. A canny player might yield Tokyo to another player who is low on health because it then puts them on the spot! Throw the usage of power cards into the mix and King of Tokyo becomes an enjoyable blend of strategy, risk and reward and push-your-luck mechanics. Furthermore, players will need to adapt to the unpredictability the game sends their way. King of Tokyo is a easy to learn, light and fun game not to be taken too seriously, it's perhaps a little too long for a filler game but is definitely worth trying, especially if you're a fan of push-your-luck games. 12th September 2021
Sunday gaming on Board Game Arena continued with Race for the Galaxy. Read my blog about it here. 12th September 2021
I'm logged into Board Game Arena for some Sunday night gaming. The next game of the night was Martian Dice, read my blog about it here. 12th September 2021
It's Sunday evening and I'm logged into Board Game Arena for the start of some gaming goodness. The night kicked off with Forbidden Island, read my thoughts about it here. 11th September 2021 Wogglecon was drawing to a close and the final game of the day was co-operative word-puzzler Letter Jam. What's in a game?
The numbered token are bright and colourful art-wise and while simplistic, the setup cards are pleasant enough. Otherwise, there's pretty much no more art, but this is a word game, how much art is needed? The game has practically no iconography that needs learning. How's it play? In Letter Jam each player is given a 5-letter word in the form of 5 face-down letter cards. Then the players have to collectively guess their individual words by looking at the clues given by other players and filling in the gaps. Setup
On to play
Endgame Discussion and cluegiving continue until one of the following 2 conditions are met. There are no more clue tokens or players are happy with their deductions and want to guess their words. Now all players take their 5 cards and keeping them face-down, rearrange them to spell the word they were originally given. Once this is done all players simultaneously reveal their words. If everyone has spelt a word, then everyone wins! Interestingly, it does not have to be the word that was given, so long as it's a real word, it counts! If one or more players hasn't spelt a word... well... there's always next time. Overall
Letter Jam is a pretty clever little game that will tax players' grammatical and spelling abilities. Players will want to try and spell out distinct or unusual words so that there's less ambiguity for other players who will then have a better opportunity to guess their own letters. Ultimately though, players will probably end up having to employ deductive reasoning and make educated guesses and hope for the best. If you're an analytical player who sees all the possible variations in a situation, you'll probably end up overthinking Letter Jam. There's not much more that can be said about Letter Jam, the game's depth doesn't arise from mechanics, it comes from players' abilities to spell words. Letter Jam is a light game to play, has a lot of replay value and plays up to 6. If I have any criticism of Letter Jam, it might that the game feels a bit too overlong for what it is and rules are slightly fiddly. Otherwise it's mostly straight forward to learn and the game will have crossover appeal to non-gamers and is a reasonably fun cooperative game to play. 11th September 2021 All day Saturday continues, the next game I played at Wogglecon was Betrayal at the House on the Hill. What's more fun than exploring the local haunted house with your disparate band of friends. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? It's not like one of them is going to betray you, right? It's not like it's in the game's title! What's in a game?
The character tiles are decorated in monochrome illustrations with one colour - the player's colour. Artwork used on the room tiles is a little plain but unobtrusive. The paintjobs on the models is nice addition. Thematically, it all fits though. The game's iconography was straight forward. How's it play? Setup
The objective in Betrayal at House on the Hill is to explore the house until the 'haunt' is discovered and then maybe defeat it! Broadly speaking, the game is divided into 2 stages, the second stage begins once the 'haunt' has manifested. On their turn, the active player can do the following:
Endgame The heroes and the traitor continue taking their turns until one or the other complete their objective, in which case they win. Overall
Mechanically speaking, Betrayal at the House on the Hill is straightforward, especially in the first stage of the game. Players add tiles to the map and deal with whatever randomly comes with it, it's fun, but players are just reacting to encounters, all a bit unchallenging mentally. When the traitor is revealed, this all changes though. The heroes will find themselves having to complete their objectives while invariably having to keep out of the clutches of the traitor and their monstrous allies. They'll probably have to collaborate to have a chance of success. Meanwhile, the traitor will have their own objectives, this may or may not involve capturing or defeating the heroes. The traitor can be sure that the heroes' objective will be bad news for them and will want to thwart them. Betrayal at the House on the Hill has now become a very tense game of cat-and-mouse. However, there are number of things about the game that irk me. I'm not fond of traitor mechanics, nor am I fond of one-vs-many mechanics and Betrayal at the House on the Hill uses both! It's a bit of a put-off for me, obviously, YMMV. Additionally, when the haunt is revealed, all the players must split up to secretly read their objective and in the case of the heroes; discuss their actions while the traitor sits around waiting. This creates a strange, pace-breaking awkward pause to the game. Finally, having the playing area actually split into 3 playing areas, one for each of the house's floors feels somewhat clumsy to me, it's not a dealbreaker, but it does take up table-space. There's nothing wrong with the game, it's just not really for me and isn't a game I'd pick to play. If the haunted house theme appeals and you're happy to play with traitor mechanics, Betrayal at the house on the hill will probably be an enjoyable experience. 11th September 2021 The first game of the first Wogglecon for me was Space Cadet. I wish I hadn't made those Star Trek references in other games, because I could really do with one here! Caveat: I'm not going to blog about Space Cadet in as much detail as other games, otherwise I'd be here all week! Space Cadets is a 3-6 player co-operative game where players take on the roles of the bridge crew commanding a starship as they go on various missions. There are 9 different stations on the bridge which must be manned, thus players will have 1-3 stations they will be responsible for, depending on the number of players. What's in a game?
The smaller tiles and tokens are fairly sturdy, but the larger boards and tiles, particularly the map tiles feel quite thin and flimsy, and might prone to warping (Sic.), it's not a deal breaker though. There's little art to speak off and it's mostly functional. The games iconography is clear and understandable. How's it play? At the start of the game, players will be given a mission with certain objectives to complete. They will spend rounds exploring quadrants of the galaxy by turning over map tiles, encountering obstacles that need navigating and enemies that need vanquishing in the pursuit of their mission. Space Cadets is a real time game but that's not to say that all the players act at the same time. The game is broken down into 9 stages per round, although this has nothing to do with the number of stations in the game. The stages are as follows.
The game also includes a countdown mechanic in the form of a nemesis ship, which after a certain time will appear and hound the players. The nemesis ship cannot be destroyed. Endgame Players continue on their mission until they collectively complete or fail their objectives, additionally, their starship may explode, which as you may imagine can be considered a loss. Overall
Space Cadets is without a doubt a hugely ambitious co-operative game. It works hard to evoke the spirit of the TV shows it attempts to simulate. During play, there were moments when the players were naturally talking about how they needed energy diverted to their station, or how they'd achieved lock on an enemy ship or torpedoes were loaded. It sounded like a sci-fi TV show. This was pretty awesome. Players will collectively need to identify and prioritize dangers as well as balance managing these risks with working towards their goals. They'll need to decide which stations need energy the most, it's very hard to power up all systems at the same time and of course, they'll need to play their minigames and all of this needs to be done in real time! It's also something of a peculiar experience, since most players will be concentrating on their own minigames, they won't spend much time paying attention to what other players are doing - even though a lot of the game's mechanics are interlinked. There's a lot of clever gameplay going here. Having said that; I can't really recommend Space Cadets to casual players or the casual group. While the individual games are not complex, there are 9 of them! Taking 2 minutes to explain each game takes 18 minutes add a minute of of questions for each game and that's now 27 minutes, add in explaining how the enemy ships work and setting up and you're looking at close to 45 minutes of setup, maybe more! However, if you've got a group of dedicated players who are all willing to commit to learning the game and playing it on regular basis, then Space Cadets will probably be a great experience. 11th September 2021 It's a Saturday morning and the inaugural day of Wogglecon. A small gaming con organised by David from Woking Gaming Club. Members gathered at the scout hall in Bisley for a day of gaming and socialising. Games I played were:
Space Cadets Just One Betrayal at the House on the Hill Letter Jam If you're wondering what a woggle is, find out here! |
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