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February 25, 2005
More About New Games
For those who are interesting in my opinions after reading last week's big catch of new games, just look here.
These opinions are based on reading the rules and playing with individual ideas a bit, with the exception of the one game that offers solo play (and even there, solo play is minimally like the regular game). But I've read a lot of game rules and usually can reach a reasonable conclusion just from that. Still, conclusions about "this will get tedious before the game ends" or "the joke won't last out the game" are my estimates based on reading, not on play.
- Alexandros - Clever game, minimally themed. Each turn, Alexander is moved (via a slightly tricky combination of cards and player choice), creating borders between provinces. The moving player can then either draw cards or lay claim on provinces by matching cards to the symbols on the board and by use of Guard markers (at least one Guard must be used). Future moves of Alexander and/or future card-play can result in provinces being subdivided or stolen. If a player choses to do so, they can announce Taxation instead of taking over provinces, which scores all provinces (not only theirs), so this is only done when they'll net more than the others will. Guard markers make it cheaper to take over a province, harder to have it stolen away, less vulnerable to sub-division, but also make it non-taxable (i.e., no points for any province with more than one Guard marker in it); excess Guard tokens used to make a conquest cheaper can be removed one at a time as later turn actions. Eventually, Alexander's wanderings will use up all the border pieces and the game ends. The theme is a bit thin (though better fitted than many), but the complexities of Alexander's movement could either make the game an interesting strategic contest or a highly-random mess. I'll have to play it to know which.
- Arena Maximus - Chariot racing in a randomly-built and rather unlikely circuit. The good parts of this game are a nice "inertia" effect, where "whip" cards are used to speed you up, but stay in play and require an action to remove later (slowing you down). While moving fast, you also have a smaller hand size (in-play whip cards still count against your hand size), thus limiting your options. The board is mostly hidden until it is encountered, so you may discover hazards with minimal time to respond. The major hazards require either a minimum speed or a maximum speed to pass them safely; others require you to match the "skills" (suits) with discards. Also, you can interact with chariots when you meet them on the circuit, either blocking them (if you're in front) or ramming them (if you're behind). All such actions require the use of cards, which come as whips (used for speed and attacking), reins (used for defense and avoidance), and wilds (used for either). Non-wild cards also have a skill (suit) icon used for some hazards; wilds count as all skills. Each chariot has different attributes (maximum speed change per turn, driver skill, hit points, and free skill), and I agree with some other reviewers that they might not be perfectly balanced. The fantasy theme is mostly in the art and the optional rules (allowing you to play cards for "spell" effects). Could be a fun "light" game, but looks to be a little longer than its mechanics merit. Also any game that has so dramatic a "kingmaker" problem as to require a rule saying "no kingmaking" clearly needs something. "Kingmaking" is the fairly common situation where a player who cannot himself win has the opportunity to select among the other players which will win. It isn't a problem in and of itself, unless the potential influence of the Kingmaker-player is so significant that it regularly matters more than any prior good play by the leaders. This game has a Kingmaking problem because the rearmost chariots in the race move first, and if doing so will not get them across the finish line but will get them into the space of the leaders, they clearly are invited to attack and perhaps disable a potential winner. The rules forbid this by fiat, but you have to wonder if something more elegant could have been done.
- Blood Feud in New York - This is a reasonably attractive game, and the shear amount of plastic figures result in in having a very distinct smell when you open it. The map is the boroughs of NYC plus a stretch of the New Jersey coast across the Hudson. Players take the role of crime bosses, directing their "family" and hirelings in an attempt to eliminate their rivals and take over the city. Interestingly, each Boss is actually on the board, needing to move to enable recruitment and maximize income, and needing to be defended. If the Boss is killed, that player is out of the game! Under the Boss is the Family, critical because only they can manage territories and create income. Then there are various hirelings, vehicles, and property you can buy with that money, which you have to use to get more money. After all, money is what you need to win. Of course, other bosses want to dominate not you, so many of those hired goons are to defend or attack. The game itself is quite simple, really, but manages to be a clean sort of economic/military simulation. The pieces are numerous (albeit with very little variation), "over 300" as the box claims, suffering a bit from painful color choices such as the Henchmen coming in bronze, silver, and gold by their relative rank. There's certainly fun to be had with this game.
- Bootleggers - Here's a surprise... This game and Blood Feud in New York came out from the same publisher at roughly the same time, and couldn't be more different. Except, of course, that both are reasonably good. Bootleggers is set in Prohibition (of course) and in an abstract location (there is no map). Here, the plastic gangster figures are little more than counters, placed on the board and rarely moved afterwards. This game isn't about mob war (except as abstracted by some of its event cards), but rather about production, distribution, and sale of alcohol. It's really an economic simulation at heart, with the choices offered being to invest in the different aspects of the business. Do I expand my still, buy a truck, or muscle myself more influence over the most popular (and, thus, profitable) speakeasies? Do I sell cheap (but certain) or try to ship to the high price but very random demand upscale joint? A nice mechanical touch is the initiative system, where each player is given a set of 12 cards at the start of the game (3 each from the high quarter, the 2nd quarter, the 3rd quarter and the lowest quarter of the deck); each turn, you pick which to play, with high cards giving you more control over your turn, but also costing more money to play. Correct use of these cards so you use your big guns when they do the most good is at the heart of winning. The game itself is attractive, with fun little "thug with tommy gun" figures; the only disappointment on that front is the small, medium, and large trucks that look exactly the same except for a number on the roof. And since those numbers are 4, 6, and 9, it's very easy to confuse the medium (6) and large (9) trucks! Still, this game has significantly more positives than negatives.
- Carcassonne: King and Scout - Tiny expansion to Carcassonne and to Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. The King set adds new tiles to Carcassonne (including one odd piece that lets two cities cross-over without merging) as well as the King and the Robber, effectively offering a bonus to the founder of the Largest City and the Longest Road. Very nice. Scout adds 5 tiles to Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, but they aren't as much play-tiles as they are Cosmic Encounter-like player powers. The problem is, three of these powers are fairly dull "finish a feature with this and get more points" while two (the Scout and the Shaman) are grand-level game changers. In board games, balance is good, and these tiles are not balanced.
- Carcassonne: The City - Completely new version of Carcassonne, this time focusing just on the city itself. Swaths of green fields are replaced with marketplaces, edge-matching rules are loosened up somewhat (except for roads, which must be matched), and an additional mechanic is added about 1/3rd of the way into the game to build a wall around the city, which cuts off expansion and offers new scoring mechanisms (towers score based on how much wall was placed since the last tower appeared and guards on the walls score points based on the number of distinctive "public buildings" in line with them). Carcassonne is at its best when it is kept simple (too many scoring options results in serious analysis paralysis in the mid-game), and this new start does that quite well. Also, the production values are outstanding, with wooden wall pieces and a hinged wooden box (thin and lightweight, but still rather nifty).
- Colossal Arena - This is a new edition of Titan: The Arena, a classic Knizia fave. This time, they've added new Monsters (there are now 12 rather than 8), each with a new game-changing power. Of course, the structure of the game requires there be 8 monsters in play, so you randomly (or whatever) deal out 8 of the 12 at the start of the game, then build the game deck. This is a bit of a pain, as you now need to re-sort the deck between games (unless you're willing to play with all 12 monsters and do a free discard every time you draw a card from a not-in-play monster, which is clumsy), but the new powers are nice and add several new options to an already-rich game. Also, the new rules explain the game better than the old ones did, without making the game seem quite as complicated as the other re-working of the same basic theme, Galaxy: The Dark Ages (which, in fact, they aren't, since Galaxy also features some attack mechanics that complicate the game). Highly recommended.
- Einfach Genial - Knizia does Dominoes. No, really. And it lives up to its "Simply Ingenious" name (the US edition comes later this year, just called "Ingenious"). It's Dominoes, only played on a hexagonal board and with pieces that are joined hexagons, so it's hex-based Dominoes in the same way that Across the Desert is hex-based Go. When played, you score in all five open directions from each half of the new piece, gaining symbol-typed points equal to the number of contiguous matching symbols. Thus, a new piece scores in 10 lines, so there's a good bit of searching necessary to find the best move. Also, most great-scoring moves just open the board for a follow-up move with the line now one space longer! A Knizia twist at the end says your score isn't your total or your best, but rather your lowest score for any of the six symbols. You get a bonus play for reaching 18 points in any one symbol, though (and you win the game instantly if you reach 18 in all six), so there's a reason to focus on one symbol just as long as you don't slight your weakest too much. Easy to teach, rich in meaningful choices, pretty to look at, rules for solo or team play... this one's a winner. One caveat, though... as with many pattern-matching games, it's very different with different numbers of players. With two, you can carefully set up future moves with little chance they'll be stolen or blocked. With four, the game becomes much more short-term optimization. Either way, it lives up to its name.
- Fearsome Floors - Here's a silly game with a difference... it's actually a good game as well as a fun and silly one. Players control a team of characters trapped in dungeons of a mad doctor and pursued by his monstrous creation. The characters move, pushing stone columns and sliding across slippery pools, then the monster stumbles toward the closest victim it can see. The challenge is to lure the monster toward the other players' characters while you maneuver yours to the far corner of the dungeon and freedom. Complexity comes from the character's movement abilities (each turn, they flip over, and some move very fast on one side and very slow on the other, while others are more consistently moderate-speed every turn) and the monster's unpredictability (he moves by fixed rules, but the number of squares he will move is based on a random card). Advanced rules change the simple stone columns into alternate effects (teleporters, see-thru crystals the monster can see thru but not move thru, and monster-spinning bits to re-orient the beast toward another direction), adding even more variety. In a lot of ways, this is much like a computer puzzle game, but with the added element of hostile characters trying to set you up for a fall. Could be lots of silly fun, but it depends on how cleanly the monster movement rules execute in practice. They seem ambiguity-free, but also rather complicated in some ways. If they cause arguments, they will ruin the game; if they're as solid as they look (and your group reads and implements them correctly), the game will hold up. If you like puzzle-style games (see Robo-Rally or Ricochet Robots), this could be one of the best (less dry and pre-determined than either of those, for example). It's also helped by a visually fun (but meaningless) "build the monster" phase, where the monster is assembled from various parts to give it a unique look each game.
- Fifth Avenue - This may be the disappointment of the set. It doesn't seem to be a bad game, just a rather lackluster one. Players compete to open businesses and place skyscrapers in midtown Manhattan. Each turn, you can place businesses, build up your stock of future skyscrapers, gather resources to bid on permits for future skyscrapers, force the scoring of a district, or accelerate the movement of the building commissioners. Then you must move a building commissioner. When a commissioner (there are two) finishes a tour from City Hall to Central Park, the districts he passed through open for bidding on skyscraper construction. The winning player can build, but is limited by the cards they used to win the bid (higher bid cards are more likely to win, but limit you to fewer skyscrapers). Skyscrapers score points, based on the diversity of businesses opened in adjacent spaces of their district. There are a lot of choices, with strict limits on each turn, but it feels to me (and this is from a reading of the rules, not a playing of the game) like those choices are just a bit too abstract, too detached from their results. The value of an action is as much or more dependent on what others do than on what you do. In the end, too much seems to depend on the random luck of bidding cards and business availability (businesses are placed out face-up but in a random order at the start of the game and can only be opened in groups from left to right). This one just has the feel of a lot of time spent to determine a random winner. Many games are like this under the hood (War of the Rings, for example, is a ton of military activity which serves to force the Free Peoples player to send Frodo and Sam into Mordor before they are ready, but really comes down to the luck of drawing Hunt tokens in the march to Mount Doom.), but if the individual actions that don't really matter much to the conclusion are themselves fun, the game can be fun in spite of the weighting of fluff. Fifth Avenue doesn't seem to have that.
- Gloom - Take the comicly creepy works of Edward Gorey and Charles Addams and mix it with a bit Lemony Snicket and a healthy dose of competition and you have Gloom. Here, the object is to take your weird family and beset them with comically gloomy events then death while brightening the lives of other players' families. It's a fairly straightforward game made more interesting by unique design; it's played using transparent cards. These cards allow you to stack up events and traits, sometimes covering over prior plays, sometimes adding new modifiers. The best cards (that is, the ones that cause the largest, longest-lasting effects) have a cost to play (forcing discards of additional cards, reducing hand size, etc.). It could be brilliant, but instead it's just clever. The problem, really, is that the cards are transparent, which is necessary so they can be stacked, but also means they can (partially) be read from behind, so there's far less mystery about what everyone has in their hand than in most card games. This is, however, the kind of light game that tries to be fun because of what you're doing rather than because of strategic challenge or tight competition, however, and on that level it is a success despite the lack of good information-hiding. Play it with the lights down low (which will set atmosphere and minimize the see-thru problems), spin crazy tales about just what each card's quirky bit of text actually means, and it'll be fun. Play it for a serious strategic contest... and you'd be better of with some other game.
- Heart of Africa - Not to be confused with Knizia's Africa (a game of exploration and set-creation), this is a game of colonial expansion and economic competition. Players send Traders into Africa, trying to capture the locations that produce certain resources. They also can influence the market, making goods more or less popular (and, thus, worth more or less points for their controller). The game is given a unique structure by its turn structure. Each turn, you put a pair of action chits at the tail of a 4-item queue, then all players bid "influence markers" on the head of the queue. The winner gets the action chits and takes a turn. The losers get to split up the influence markers spent by the winner to form their pool for future bidding. Very clever. Also interesting is the use of "neutral traders", rivals to the player-controled traders who have to be muscled out or they rapidly drain away the value of a good position. Any player can move the neutral traders (with the right action chits), giving them the "smarts" necessary to get exactly where they need to be to really be in the way. Also interesting is a player-vs-player conflict system that offers a "retreat" option that not only lets you off without casualties and in control of your direction of flight (normal combat results in lost traders and the winner selecting the forced movement) but also lets you steal any resources used by the attacker! This game offers a lot of conflict (its map of Africa is divided into a fairly small number of spaces, forcing contact among players) and some bluffing, plus because of the queue of future action chits, you can even tell what you're giving up by bidding for control of the turn now rather than waiting. Lots of interesting play potential here.
- Knock! Knock! - A simple bluffing card game with a thin Halloween party theme. Each turn, you draw a card and offer it (face-down) to another player. They can either take it or force you to keep it. Some cards are good guests, some are bad. Some protect other cards, some remove them or cause them to be stolen. The trick comes in figuring out who to offer a card to... If it's a good card you want, who will refuse it? Who else would it benefit the least if they do accept it? And if it's a bad card, who will almost certainly accept it so you don't have to take it yourself? It's simple and pretty (even if it doesn't quite stick to its own theme solidly), and it's also small and easy to teach, which makes it a keeper, something to bring along when there might be time for a quick filler game.
- Munchkin Fu 2: Monky Business - It's Munchkin. You either like it or you don't. This one expands the martial arts action of Munchkin Fu with new cards, mostly similar to cards already present in Munchkin, Star Munchkin, or Munchkin Bites, almost universally silly. The game is still one of randomly drawing cards and playing them on one another in hopes that you'll come out slightly better than everyone else, and nothing here changes that. As they add more cards, the various games tend to merge into one big conceptual stew of ideas, but if you're a fan, this one is worth consideration.
- Naval Battles - Well, it's kind-of a WWII naval simulation, but really it's a more straightforward head-to-head card game. Players pick a fleet of ships from a particular nation (and, in this game, France's navy can fight Japan's if that's what you want), arrange them into ranks, and blast away until the other side sinks. But the ships are reasonably well represented ("hull points" to indicate how hard they are to sink, main and secondary guns batteries by their caliber, any torpedo or aircraft capacity, and perhaps an icon for another special ability), the range of cards force a good mix of ships (you need big, medium, and small ships or you won't be able to use the cards that call for that size of gun), formations allow you to move ships out of harm's way at the cost of reducing their effectiveness, submarines can dive and become much harder to target, and aircraft go from fairly harmless if you have air cover to devastating if you don't. The base scenario is fairly mundane (two fleets batter one another until one sinks), but there are cards for reinforcements or retreats for repairs that muddy it all up into a more interesting form. It's beer-and-pretzels, but still offers a lot of meaningful choices and decisions amidst all the card-drawing and dice-tossing.
- Puerto Rico expansion - I had already downloaded this set of alternate buildings (and a few other things) for use with Puerto Rico, but a nice printed set is well worth the low price for which this can be had. The additional buildings (particularly if you swap them out semi-randomly rather than just adding them to the existing set) help reduce the overly-analyzed base buildings of Puerto Rico, and even if they aren't any better balanced than the originals (and they aren't), they help make the game different every time. Well worth it if you and yours play lots of PR.
- Senator - Here's a nice game of bidding and timely treachery. As Roman senators, players compete to control legislative agenda or to associate rivals with conflicting agendas. You win control of an agenda by bidding, then can use its special power (which can give you other agenda, allow you to recover cards, force others to discard cards, or similar effects) or, if they currently have an agenda with which the new one conflicts, give it to an opponent, which will force them to discard both. While the base mechanic is simple, the ability of players to veto the bidding with a well-timed assassination and the presence of several rules-modifying event cards (drawn from a long enough range of Roman history as to put this game at a very contradictory time) keeps things interesting. Build up a large folio of non-contradictory political accomplishments and you win. Not overly complicated, reasonably pretty, and not badly matched to its theme (excepting the self-contradictory time range of the event cards), this is a small game with a very reasonable level of depth.
- Shakespeare: The Bard Game - Fifth Avenue may be the disappointment of this order, but this is the failed gamble. FA comes from a line that has previously been great (Puerto Rico and Ra were early entries in this series), so its mediocrity is saddening. Shakespeare: The Bard Game made this order as a pure whim, and it turns out to have been a pure mistake. Roll dice and move around a board nominally representing London of Shakespeare's day. Stop at marked locations and answer trivia questions or read excerpts for money, then use that money to buy scripts and the actor and prop tokens needed to put on plays. Sounds like it could be interesting? Well, the implementation is drier than it sounds. This just isn't a very good game. Too much gaming (resource collection, maneuvering on the board, etc.) for a trivia game, too much trivia for a board game. Just not well done.
- Slow Freight - This game is presented by FunAgain as a special deal, a new train game by the designer of last year's SdJ winner, Ticket to Ride. It actually has very little in common with TtR except the designer, but that's not important to the marketing value of "new train game by Alan Moon". Slow Freight is a game of assembling trains either of like or mixed cargo, then trying to get them to their destination before time runs out. Longer trains are worth more points, but move more slowly (movement is random, with different train lengths reading from different lines on the card). And the game ends at a random time, determined by a "clock" card added to the deck, then removed and replaced with the next clock card (and the deck reshuffled) whenever it is drawn. Don't dawdle too long or you'll still be en-route when the last clock comes up. Don't rush or you won't get a share of the bonus points for longest train of each time. The game is provided DiY style, several cardstock sheets that need to be cut into the various cards and counters. Certainly worth the price, even with the amount of assembly required.
- The Count of Carcassonne - Another small Carcassonne expansion, this one adds a new starting centerpiece for the board, a walled city complex in which the Count lives. During play, whenever you do something that gives someone else points but gives you none, you can put one of your people into a district of the city (each district is associated with a certain map feature). Later on, when a feature is completed, you can withdraw people from the appropriate quarter of the city and put them on the feature. Unless, that is, the Count is in that quarter (no one can leave that quarter). So, not only does it change the early game by proving a new and different seed (in and of itself a good thing), it also adds an option of "sudden" scoring and a strategy of Count-management. A nice little add-on that doesn't bury the base game, even if (as with all Carcassonne expansions), you want to be familiar with the base game first before moving on to the expanded versions.
- Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition - I'd seen earlier editions of TI in stores and even being played, but never quite was impressed enough to pick up a copy. I'm very glad I did when this new edition came out, though. Imagine, if you will, a game that combines the unique rule-warping powers of Cosmic Encounters with the role/phase manipulation of Puerto Rico, the unique-each-game hex-based board of a Settlers of Catan, the evolving player-voted rules changes somewhat like Democrazy, plus serious strategic and tactical decision-making throughout the game, and even a technology system strongly reminiscent of the unmatched computer game Master of Orion II. Well, don't imagine, because essentially, that is this game. And it's all reasonably well assembled, thoughtfully laid out in the rules and on the player control cards, and presented with real style and attractiveness. Space fleets are gatherings of well-sculpted miniatures (not really to scale with each other, but that's OK), the board hexes are easily large enough to hold said fleets (though the whole thing will require a large table) and the attention to detail is spectacular. For example, on the player control sheet, you must allocate tokens into three categories. Tokens allocated to the middle category are flipped over to show different art so someone distant on the table can still tell at a glance what your allocation is. That's just thoughtful design. I've read some discussion that there are balance issues that get worse with fewer than the full 6 players, and it's not a short or simple game by a long shot, but it's certainly the kind of game that makes me want to test out just how well balanced it is by playing it as much as I can. Just... wow! I need to find 5 gamers and a free afternoon and soon!
- Warcraft: The Board Game Expansion Set - This is my winning gamble of this order. I really was unimpressed with Warcraft: The Board Game, but I'd read enough about this expansion to make me think it might do just what I thought (back in that review) was needed. And, indeed, it does. It replaces the icon-only cards with cards that contain all necessary rules text (and are somewhat more differentiated by race). It gives each race a special ability similar to one they have in the computer game. It adds race-specific heroes who level up and become more powerful during play. It adds new resource depletion rules to replace the highly random originals and much better replicate the source. It even recognizes that lowering the VP total needed to win creates a more satisfyingly strategic game. With this, the board game now actually does have much of the feel of Warcraft III, though it still plays at a higher level of abstraction. Certainly well worth a look if you, like me, though the original was just a little shy of the mark; if you hated the original, this will not change your mind.
- Witch Hunt - Light, friendly game where you try to get the other players' villagers hung as witches (dunno why they aren't being burned at the stake, but it's not my game) while protecting your own villagers. It's pretty much a madcap card-tossing game, though it's structured in different phases (the normal "hunt" mode with card play and drawing in order around the table, "trial" where each player can play one card and there's no draws, and "hanging" where anyone can play cards in any order). Cards (most of which are limited to use in only one or two phases) modify the reputation of Villagers, and at the end of the Hanging phase, whoever has the lowest reputation is killed. Usually, this means the player who initiated the trial gets points, but if it ends up being one of his own villagers, everyone else gets points. It's pretty much random and silly and the art is little more than adequate, but there's sufficient humor and it all looks as if it will go by quickly enough to make it worth the effort. Not a stellar example of the "not-from-Cheapass-but-much-like-them" school (this one's from Alien Menace), but certainly not a failed game, either.
Posted by ghoul at 10:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 22, 2005
More (Or Is It Less) About Milage
As I had worried, when I crossed 36,602 miles driven, I fell to 44.8 MPG. That means it took only 466 miles for me to fall another notch thanks to the impact of cold weather. I averaged only 37 MPG over this segment, which crossed over some of the coldest weather of this winter. It took barely more than one tank of gas!
I'm still hopeful I won't fall below 44.7 (perhaps not even to 44.7) before temperatures climb back above 40 and I start seeing more Prius-like milage.
Posted by ghoul at 03:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 18, 2005
Fifty-Three Pounds
Well, someone else measured that, but I can believe it.
And it's actually 41 pounds and 12 pounds as two distinct things, not one thing. Or perhaps its 23 things grouped into two things.
Some are tiny (2"x2"x1"), some are large (23"x12"x4.5"), most are somewhere in the middle. Together, it's big enough to take up most of the chaise the cats (especially Lightning) like to think of as their own.
But, in total, it's 53 pounds.
Really.
Yes, I received my monster order from FunAgain Games. The weight comes from FedEx's tracking info on the two big boxes they all came in.
And yes, I did probably go overboard.
Guess what I'll be doing this weekend?
[Update: Here's the list of titles...
- Alexandros
- Arena Maximus
- Blood Feud in New York
- Bootleggers
- Carcassonne: King & Scout (that's the 2"x2"x1" package)
- Carcassonne: The City (with its very cool, albeit lightweight, wooden box)
- Colossal Arena (a new edition of Titan: The Arena, a Knizia fave)
- Einfach Genial
- Fearsome Floors
- Fifth Avenue
- Gloom (yeah, the one with the transparent playing cards by the Eberron guy)
- Heart of Africa
- Knock! Knock!
- Munchkin Fu 2: Monky Business
- Naval Battles
- Puerto Rico expansion
- Senator
- Shakespeare: The Bard Game
- Slow Freight
- The Count of Carcassonne
- Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition (the big 23"x12"x4.5" box)
- Warcraft: The Board Game Expansion Set (word is it actually makes the game worth playing!)
- Witch Hunt
Just so it's recorded somewhere... I may have comments once I've examined these in detail]
Posted by ghoul at 01:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 16, 2005
Going to Indy!
I don't care if I don't actually have the time for it (and, if present workload is any indicator, I won't). I just made reservations for this August's GenCon.
I'll probably pad a day or two on either side of it to visit the family in Cincinnati during non-winter days as well.
Fun will be had. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Posted by ghoul at 07:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 05, 2005
And Done
And now the Heroscape Expansion Sets are all mine. Or, at least, until the next expansion slips out in May. Hmmm... that set is going to have a unit of "Massachussetts Militiamen" (scroll down for the Revolutionary War figs preview pic). What an interesting extension that will make to the already time-crazy game.
Quick review of the figs after the cut...
I like the IX Roman Legion. Solid, reasonably Legion-like sculpts (though I'm a bit disappointed by the stickers used for the shield designs). The Legionnaires themselves have nice abilities, with adjacent figures adding to each other's Defense and an ability to share each activation with any Warlord their player controls (there was one Warlord in the base set, two more in this expansion, one the Legion's officer). Roman Archers are less impressive, though quite impressive as long as you have all three of them because, as a unit, they can attack as 1 6-die unit rather than 3 2-die units. The Glyph with this set grants all of your figures a +2 defense while any of your figures controls it, which is enough to render many figures all but immune to smaller attacks.
Snipers and Vipers is a mixed set, two essentially unlinked squads. The Omnicron Snipers are a trio of deceptively powerful robotic snipers; deceptive because they look to have only an Attack of 1, but they hit twice for every hit they roll, so can pack a serious punch, particularly if you put them on high ground so they get an extra die to attack with. The Venoc Vipers are a dirt cheap unit (40 points for 3 figures) but they move fast, ignore the normal delays for walking in water, and have a Frenzy ability similar to the Vikings in the base set (get an extra move on a d20 roll of 16+). Unfortunately, they have a terrible 0 Defense, so unless you can get that Glyph from the Roman Legion set, they fall over when sneezed at. This set's glyph is a serious game-modifier, eliminating the Flying ability of any units in play.
The Grut Orcs are two very low cost units (both 40 points) and both quite useful in play. The four-figure Blade Gruts can share their activation with any Orc Champion on your side (there was one in the base set and another added in this expansion). The Arrow Gruts share their activation with any Beasts on their side (which, at the moment, means they are Mimring the Dragon's best buddies). Also, all Orcs can disengage from melee without suffering free attacks. The Glyph here is a major gamble, calling for a roll (19+ on d20) for each fallen figure on all sides; success means they revive and can re-enter the fray. Yikes!
Heroes of Bleakwoode offers 5 Unique figures, including a new "most expensive figure in the game", for those who thought Mimring and Deathwalker 9000 needed company. Taelord is a big, batwinged demon-lord sort with a giant sword, but his point value comes almost entirely from his "Attack Aura", granting a +1 Attack to all of his controller's figures within sight and 4 hexes! This guy can really enhance several figures, particularly the Omnicron Snipers from the S&V set. The Venoc Warlord is a leader for the Vipers, adding 2 to their already-high 7 Movement (though do be careful... he can't keep up with them if you do that, as he's only 7 Movement himself, not 9); he's also unhindered by water and adds a bonus to the viper's Frenzy roll as well. Marcus Decimus Gallus is the IX Legion's officer, adding one to friendly solders' movement (and the Legionnaires are Solideers... though the Archers are not) and also adding one to any adjacent soldiers' attack; at 100 points, he costs nearly as much as the Legionnaires and Archers together at 50 and 55, but he's a nice figure. Kelda the Kyrie Warrior is another flying angel-like figure, like Raelin the Kyrie Warrior from the basic set; Kelda flies, as the wings predict, and can also heal wounded figures, though it requires a d20 roll and there is a small risk of wounding them instead. Tornak is a new Orc-on-a-dinosaur figure, a smaller and quicker Grimnak (the original orc-on-a-dino from the basic game). And with all those great figures, there's also a Glyph, this one allowing to you add 1 to any d20 rolls, which does nothing for some forces, but is a real enhancer for others; for example, it doubles the chance of Ne-Gok-Sa taking over the mind of an enemy figure each turn.
Also, all of these sets come with additional hexes for your Heroscape boards, from 4 to 6 hexes, either in singles or doubles. Lets you make that mountain of death a little taller!
Many of the figures are quite good sculpts, particularly for the price. They aren't quire as cheap as MageKnight or D&D Miniatures figs, but they're also not randomly packed so you know what you're getting. These figures could make great RPG fodder, particularly the IX Legion and the Orcs. And Heroscape remains one of the best games I know of to set up just for people to look at it.
Posted by ghoul at 02:05 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
February 02, 2005
It's Happened!
GrimJack - returning to Cynosure
Yes, I mentioned this before, but now it's not just a plan, it's actual real-life reality!
Of course, I have to wait until I next get to StillPoint to pick this up, and that'll be next weekend... But it'll be real then!
Posted by ghoul at 06:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack