GamesReviews written by Matt Thrower
There's some interesting stuff going on here - I like the way the designer has actually made something interesting out of the basic "Yahtzee" mechanic especially. But it is *ridiculously* hard, unless I've misunderstood the rules. I also found it disappointingly mechanical, especially in view of the fact that it obviously tries hard to convey a theme. Still, definately worth some of your valuable time to check out, especially as a solo game.
Another fun and well balanced hybrid. What's particularly noteworthy about this is the way in which conflict is used as a threat to drive the play rather than being a factor in and of itself: because you need to spend at least 2 turns lining up an attack it's not hard to prepare a defence of some sort so actual battles are fairly rare. But you still get plenty of interaction & metagame because players have to respond to the *threat* of attack yet the game as a whole stays balanced. Excellent production values and plenty of variety. Big downside is that early quarter of game is quite dull as there's no value in early conflict and all the gods are valuable so auction lacks tension. But it certainly comes alive later on!
The reward deck and extra aliens are useful for regular players. This is the best way to get the sixth player pieces if you need them. However, the game isn't at its best with six.
Well designed game that adds a lot of solid Napoleonic flavour to the C&C sytem. My rating reflects C&C overload more than fun - I find M44 and CCA more interested and so see less reason to play this. But if you're a Napoloenics or C&C fanatic, very much worth your time.
Not quite sure what to make of this one. My initial impression is that it's pretty good - it seems to balance the level of skill and chaos well, has nice elements of bluff and timing, some cool special creature powers to add variety and, maybe best of all, an interesting collusion vs competition mechanic when players bet on the same creature at different levels. It's possible that longer term it'll prove there's not enough player control but hey, it's short, so that's probably forgivable.
Rating is deliberately unfair. There's some good stuff in the box (especially the hellhounds). But I'm annoyed by the fact we don't know if the expansion content is usable with the original missions. It's too much stuff to shuffle in and out to switch between. So, until I can play the original (and online) scenarios with this content, it's basically worthless. Only for people who've played the original to death and want a new lease of life.
First impressions are that this is walks a very impressive line between gibbering chaos and strategic choice, although for new players there's a bit too much information to easily digest at a glance. It also looks fabulous in play with the lovely tile art and painted figures. Tense. Exciting. Satanic. Mmmm.
Adds a fifth player to an already highly asymmetric game with even more asymmetry and yet retains most of the balance. Adds new options and variants for the other four players, all of which are worth using. What's not to like, really?
Very good indeed, with a fantastic balance of strategy and (appropriately enough) chaos. It's fairly (not completely) balanced but has such huge asymmetry in the player powers that this is actually a fairly impressive achievement. It's a highly procedural game that has to be followed to the letter, which is kind of a bind, but it's difficult, exciting, competitive and tense and the theme sucks you in to the point where it can feel marginally uncomfortable when you start ruining regions.