GamesReviews written by Ken B.
It's easy to "hate" on Ticket to Ride. It's popular. It's light. It's theme is barely there.
Yet...
There's something elemental about the gameplay. People simply 'get it.' I've never plopped this down--with any group--and had them not like it.
Collect cards, try to complete your routes by slapping down your trains and claiming them. At the end of the game you get points based on completion of tickets and lose points for those you could not complete. But you have limited resources--both in cards, in time, and in routes as if you wait too long, someone else may snatch up a route you need. If that happens, you may have to pick a sub-optimum route or worse, you get blocked off completely.
The fact that this game is considered a "Euro" hurts it on two fronts, but helps it as well. If this were a mass-market game (and it's barely a step removed from being as such in terms of design) then I don't think AT fans would crap all over it. There also wouldn't be the Euro backlash because it was so popular..."we once loved it, but man, now it's sold out and become a corporate whore." Then again, if it weren't lumped in with the Euros, Eurofans and BGGers might never have checked it out in the first place.
As far as the hobby Eurogames go, this is one of the best.
Really, Nexus Ops is a great example of a classic style game "modernized" and cleaned up into light gaming perfection.
It's got a tiered combat system like Shogun/Samurai Swords. You've got the whole building troops/collecting resources, feels a lot like Warcraft or something similar.
Instead of turtling, you've got two motivators to get out there and kill some bugs--one, your mission cards almost always award you points for doing some smashing, and two, the "Monolith" in the middle of the field grants POWERFUL cards to he who controls it. Let someone sit on the Monolity uncontested for a few turns and I assure you the game will conclude not long after.
Great bits, tons of combat, awesome card play, and all this for a four-player light wargaming smash-em-up that takes 90 minutes to play. You simply can't beat it. For $20 or less you'd be foolish not to have a copy of this.
It's a touch too light in places, and you're sometimes going to want something heavier, so I can't go the full 6. But this is certainly one of the great Ameritrash games. BUY IT.
Tigris & Euphrates is proof positive that you can have a Euro that features heavy and direct player conflict.
The game has an abstract feel but actually pays decent nods to its theme, particularly in the conflicts that arise and how they're handled between joining kingdoms (or if an usurper Priest or King shows up to try and wrest power away.)
The random tile draws keep everything fresh, you can go for the throat when you're in a position of power, and best of all you can be sneaky and force fights between rival kingdoms! Like the best wargames, the object is to take ground, hold ground, and strike the enemy where they're the weakest, and at just the right time.
Looking forward to the Fall '08 reprint, which will feature a double-sided board and a new 'building' type.
Just a sweet, sweet game and easily one of the best Euros ever made.
It kills me that I'm one of the few fans of Pirate's Cove on the editor's staff. Let's review:
1. Pirate theme. Yeah, it's played out, but it's still cooler than Kingly ass-kissing.
2. Building up your ship. Maybe you're not building up a character RPG style, but tweaking your ship affects how well you fight and how much treasure you can hold. Just light enough for casual gamers to handle but some customization for the ATer as well.
3. Cards. The cards have crazy wild differences in power but all of them have the flavor of the best AT games. Surprise your foe by chucking a fistful of dice for one round. Upgrade your ship. Get a parrot with stupidly powerful abilities. Hinder your foes by sending the Royal Navy after them. Good times.
4. Dice-based combat. Uh...duh? Feels GOOD to shred your opponent's bow by unloading your cannons on them. Sink, bitch!
5. And...uh...yeah, VP. But at least you get VP for blowing up boats and finding treasure, not "plotting the best building for with the master mason is very impressed and allows you to kiss his ring."
Go buy this game. Set it up for your friends. Try to make it through without making stupid pirate noises. If some part of this game doesn't appeal to you, you are dead inside and need to question your AT credentials.
Epic Duels is a nice, light miniatures skirmish game, played on small Star-Wars themed maps.
You get 12 popular characters, each with their own supporter(s), and a deck to go with them. Each character has a different theme--the Emperor has discard and direct damage, Maul is all about blindingly quick attacks, and Luke and Leia have cards that directly feed off of each other.
For an originally $20 game, the bits are amazing with a nice stash of (badly) painted minis, the 12 decks of cards, two double-sided gameboards, character sheets for each team, and a some scorekeeping tokens.
Team play is great, or playing 1 on 1 two-handed. I'm not the biggest fan of straight one on one as it's too luck-based, but managing a team of two characters and their supporters is great fun. You can knock out a game in fifteen minutes with two, and you'll want to play again immediately after your last game.
I've never tried a massive six-player game but I'm betting it could get claustrophobic really quickly.
It's a great little game, if you can find a copy that doesn't cost you an arm and a leg, pick it up for sure.
It's more abstract than some would like for sure, but for a fast-playing semi-thematic co-op game, Shadows is still pretty damned good.
The Traitor mechanic keeps it fresh, that's for sure. That paranoia--who's out to betray the loyal knights?--keeps everyone on their toes. It's not uncommon for a game that's going poorly for everyone to be at each other's throat by the endgame.
The variable powers are great, and there are a lot of quests for variety.
It's brought down a few points because it suffers from a few lame quests (the Grail is a GRIND, and who bothers with the Black Knight?) and the replay can suffer over time. Still, it's beautifully produced, and can be a winner with both AT gamers and more casual folk. It's definitely worth a look.
I really dig the production of this game. You'll not find a pile of more beautiful plastic miniatures everywhere.
Too bad they forgot the "adventure" in this adventure game.
Quests are all--to a one--"Place monster(s) in location. Go to this location and kill them." You kill those monsters, and increase your stats/find loot. You repeat until someone is ready to kill the endboss.
And please, PLEASE make sure that someone can kill the endboss. If you fail at this task, players will spend a loooooooong time trying to hash it out PvP style. We were well over an hour into just the PvP part when fatigue set in. This was at about the six-hour mark.
I really want to like this game. I'm a sucker for piles of miniatures. But I really don't care to ever play this game again. Skeletor is a bigger champion of this game than me, so he's found something we didn't. Just do your homework before plopping down the $80.
But this game is a "truckload of random."
My tagline for it would be: "Blackbeard: The Game That Just Sort of Happens to You."
Everything that happens in this game does so by die roll. EVERYTHING. Fight? Loot? Movement? Placement of Governors? Effects of cards? EVERYTHING.
So you move around, try to loot some ships, draw some cards, hope you get the "I WIN!" retirement card, hope no one gets the "NO YOU FUCKING DON'T" double-cross card, and call it a day.
I'm not even sure what they were going for here...a weird mix of theme and total abstraction on several levels.
Pretty much an ambitious, interesting failure.
This is a fun co-op to bust out and try to save the world from a host of plagues and diseases.
Each player works together by using the skills of their different roles to try and discover a cure for each disease, all the while stemming the tide of infection lest it overwhelm the planet.
Some of the design choices are questionable--big assed pawns that are too large for the oddly-made board that scuffs, scratches, and warps easily--but overall this is a fun game.
The difficulty level seems really wonky though. We can crush it with two but we've yet to best it with four even on the "Easy" level. And it often isn't close. Maybe we just suck, who knows. But like LOTR on the harder levels, it is a co-op game that's not afraid to challenge you.
In that regard it is a little more like a optimization puzzle. I think better bits would have help stave off the abstraction/puzzle feeling, instead of giant colored pawns stomping all over the map.
Hard to find, OOP, but worth it.
This game simulates the ending of Episode I. Whatever your opinion of that film is, there's no denying that this is an awesome game.
You have four battles simultaneously going on, and you have to balance your card play to try and either win or hold your own in each arena. You've got the war on the plains with the Trade Federation and the Gungans, where the Gungans are hopelessly outmatched and are merely hoping to distract the TF long enough for the Queen to accomplish her goals. You have the Queen, her decoy, Panaka and a legion of guards trying to scale the palace and reach the top floor where the viceroys are holed up. You've got Anakin in his ship, racing through screens of starfighters in an attempt to destroy the Trade Federation Control Ship. And in the core, you have the duel to the death between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul.
You take turns activating characters in the different arenas by playing cards that are much like Memoir '44. Move your guys, take your shots, try to accomplish your goals.
The only knock would be the static setup might get stale over time, but there's so much going on that it will probably take awhile for that to happen.
Highest recommendation to pick this one up, even at OOP prices. If you're actually a Star Wars fan, the recommendation is all the stronger--sell blood to get it, whatever it takes. Just a great, great game.