Front Page

Content

Authors

Game Index

Forums

Site Tools

Submissions

About

Reviews written by Ken B.

79 results - showing 71 - 79
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Ordering
August 16, 2008 (Updated: September 07, 2018)
Rating 
 
4.0
Board Games

Citadels was my first exposure to role-selection and one of the first games we played after getting back involved in the boardgame hobby.

There's a lot to like about this game; the variable player powers of the different roles are fun to use, managing your gold and buildings has a bit of a CCG feel (especially with the buildings with powers) and there's a lot of trash talking and crazy stuff that happens in every game. Bruno is a big fan of working chaos into his games and this one has a lot of it.

We played this several times and it was a decent hit.

Over time, you realize there's a lot less strategy invovled than you think (that whole "Princess Bride" double-guessing game) and it can run long with more players but is less interesting with fewer players--I'll disagree with Steve and say the 2-player version is downright awful.

Anyway, I like the game, we just don't really feel the urge to play it often. That being said I would gladly sit down for a game of it. It ain't perfect, but it is fun. Certainly worth the $20.

KB
Ken B.
August 05, 2008
Rating 
 
3.0
Board Games
True pioneering classic that unfortunately has bee

The AT fan is always torn on how to rate and review Risk. After all, this is one of THE most influential *games* of all time, not just AT but for gaming in general. It made conflict gaming available to the masses. It was light enough that grandpa would play it with you.

But do you want to drag out the old girl to play it now? When you have other choices? Not really. (NOTE: If you're talking about the new Risk re-release, things are much different.)

For one thing, the combat system was great for its day but its hard to swallow now. The "only one can fall per dice roll" makes for some oddball situations. Who hasn't dashed ten troops against 3 and ended up retreating, frustrated, because the opponent's dice got hot and you couldn't kill ANYBODY?

Plus, in Vanilla Risk there just isn't that much to DO. On your turn, try to take some ground, toss some dice and hope for the best, collect your card, move on.


Almost every child of Risk has improved on this formula, by giving you game-changing cards, special unit types or leaders/ships, objectives to fulfill, asymmetrical sides, in-game "currency", and so much more. It's hard to justify spending the long amount of time on old Risk when you can get more meat from a game in the same amount of time, with a similar feel to boot.

But we have Risk to thank for everything from Shogun to Fortress: America to Axis and Allies all the way to modern day games like Dust and even War of the Ring. So truly, Risk is a classic. Just one who has been obsoleted.

KB
Ken B.
August 05, 2008
Rating 
 
3.0
Board Games
Brainburner that's good for the occasional play.

You know, I dig Roborally, I just don't find myself wanting to play it all that much. It's a pretty genius design, but it's very much a mathy-style brainburner. And even then for all your headscratching and puzzling something goes wrong and you end up in a pit anyway.

But it is fun, with the caveat you MUST have the right crowd for this. Some people enjoy driving into pits and are going to have a great time. Other people will just get frustrated, and I can totally sympathize (though I laugh my ass off every time *I* drive into a pit or off the edge of the board.)


It's a classic, just not one I try to get to the table very often. As stated above, good in small doses.

KB
Ken B.
August 05, 2008
Rating 
 
5.0
Board Games
Excellent Remake

A simply fantastic remake of the GW classic, this eliminates many of the problems of the old game such as making Dracula too hard to find unless he plays a certain way. The use of the card trail gives the hunters a fighting chance, some would say TOO much of a fighting chance.

I enjoyed playing as Dracula tremendously. Much like other games "run" by someone, it usually falls on the owner of the game to play as Dracula as he or she knows the most about the game. I've heard grumbling with four hunter players that there isn't enough to do for them, that there's a lot of downtime and if you end up away from the action your game gets quite boring. The next time we play we are going to use two hunters per player to see if that helps.

This is a lavish production--tons of cards, a nicely mounted board, thick tokens and chits, and minis for the characters and Dracula.

Things can be 'fiddly' with moving cards around, hunting down cards on your path, moving things to the catacombs, keeping track of your cards and tokens, making sure you don't "cheat" by not revealing part of your trail (just because you're keeping up with so much other stuff...)

But this is a great horror-themed game and the storyline presented is actually a very good sequel to the original novel.


Thumbs up, but this is a game that won't be for everyone, nor is it without its flaws. But it's still a lot of fun.

KB
Ken B.
July 29, 2008
Rating 
 
5.0
Board Games
A true stroke of mass market brilliance

A perfect blend of stripped-down battling goodness. Draft your guys, line 'em up, throw the bones. Build any sort of map you can think of, limited only by the number of master sets you own and your imagination.

It's one occasion that you're glad a mass-market company ran with something like this. Only they could have put this much plastic into such an affordable box and make it available pretty much everywhere.


It has a few faults--you'll wish for a little more meat after spending a lot of time with it, and there's no getting around the fact that the theme is pretty much "Eternal Champions" inspired naff.


But this is definitely a classic.

KB
Ken B.
July 29, 2008
Rating 
 
5.0
Board Games
Fantastic game, one of the very best

What more can be said about War of the Ring? A game that is daringly old school, that perfectly straddles the line between Ameritrash and war game, that squeezes ten tons of theme inside a tightly packed box...


It's the kind of game that makes you grateful that you're a gamer.


My full review on BGG has all the details. This is a game that deserves to be in print for years to come, and should it ever fall out of print it will be one that will still be highly sought after.

KB
Ken B.
July 29, 2008
Rating 
 
5.0
Board Games
One of the finest of its genre.

Like most, this was my introduction to Eurogames. It's an amazing game, no questions asked.

It's no filler coming in at about 90 minutes. It has concepts that are advanced for the "mainstream" gamer but it has enough accessibility to help them make that jump. It's nicely produced, has a good tempo where everyone can be involved thanks to trading, has player screwage, dice rolling...for a Euro, it's one of the best. There are some Euros that are better, but it is a tiny, tiny selection.

It was invigorating to play this for the first time, as though you'd found something new, something totally alien to a person weaned on Ameritrash. Unfortunately you eventually find out it's like finding a new radio station where they don't play the same damned 12 songs you're used to over and over again; but you listen to the new channel for two weeks and realize they're merely playing a *different* 12 songs over and over again. It's sad that one of the best Euros ever came out 13 years ago.

Anyway, gamers from every walk, fans of every genre, owe it to themselves to play this at least once. One of the very few "tentpoles" in boardgaming that everyone can point to as being an important, monumental moment.

KB
Ken B.
July 28, 2008
Board Games
Outdated, but we owe it a debt of gratitude.

She hasn't aged all that well, she's still too long for the depth she yields, but hot damn, you still can't open that box without going nuts over the bits, or remembering "that game" you played that time in college where you were grinding out Russians with a wave of Panzers, sweating as Great Britain got on her feet from your early raids, and hoping the Japanese fleet could hold off the Americans long enough for you to achieve your goals.



Never worked out that way, but hey...





This game is the father of a lot of modern AT. It was the Risk-style game that bothered to differentiate units and give you a little bit more to do than just toss the bones against each other. The production scale was ramped up to "11". No one forgets the first time they laid eyes on A&A. Nobody. It was the first time I had any idea there were games like this out there.





So a nod to the old girl, even if she is too high maintenance for these modern times.

KB
Ken B.
July 28, 2008
Rating 
 
5.0
One of the best games of all time

This is simply put one of our era's finest games. Broad in scope, ambitious in execution, this is a game all ATers owe themselves to try.

If War of the Ring, Game of Thrones, and Doom were the opening salvos, this is the game that put FFG on the map to stay.

The threaded actions and role selections do crib from Euros, but it's a welcome evolution as classic but sometimes stodgy AT designs got a boost in the arm from some of the better ideas to spring from the Eurogame revolution.


If you are an AT fan and opening this box doesn't give send you into plastic-induced ecstacy, you are dead inside.


This one's got it all...combat, negotiation, secret objectives, wildly unbalancing action cards, variable player powers and races, a political system...


Try it now. This will be one of those games that will be sought after years from now.

KB
Ken B.
79 results - showing 71 - 79
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8