In the land of the Rising Sun, faithful Samurai protect the Shogun—their commander and lord. Cunning Ninja try to undermine the Empire, by fair means or foul. The katana blade sparkles on the battlefi eld as a lonely Ronin prepares for the struggle, plotting his revenge.
Can you find your enemies while honoring the way of the warrior?
A new game in the BANG! Game System line.
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Anyone who knows a little about Reiner Knizia’s games will know that the good Doctor loves games that deal with trying to get points in various different categories and then only score that category in which the player has the fewest.
The game is played on a hex board. 120 equally sized pieces, each consisting of two joined hexes, come with the game. There are symbols on each hex that make up the piece – some pieces have two identical symbols, some have two different symbols (not unlike dominoes). The goal of the game is, through clever placement, to obtain points in the different symbol colors. Points are claimed by placing a piece such that the symbols on it lie next to already-placed pieces with the same symbol.
The game ends when no more tiles can be placed onto the board or when a player reaches the maximum number in every color. Now each player looks to see how many points they scored in the colour they ‘scored the least’. Whoever has the most points in their least-scored colour is the winner. Simple. The author of the game has also come up with solitaire and team play, in which two teams of two play with each player not being able to see his partner’s tiles.
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Goblins, Inc. is a corporation dedicated to building unstoppable giant doomsday robots, and it’s looking for a new Boss. Do you have what it takes?
Team up with your greed-driven fellow goblins and build the ultimate doomsday robot. Meet other teams in epic battles and blow them up, but always remember, only one goblin can win because there is no “G” in team work!
The game plays over two rounds in which you partner up with each of your fellow players to try to build the ultimate giant doomsday robot – but the other players don’t know which hidden agendas you must complete to impress the Boss! During the four phases of the round, the teams take turns designing, building and piloting their robots in order to destroy the other team and get one step closer to becoming the next Boss of Goblins, Inc.
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Build a House of Terror. Tile by Tile.
It’s never the same game twice. As one of twelve mysterious characters, you’ll explore a house filled with deadly secrets. As you play, you’ll build the house. But beware! One of your fellow players will betray you. The traitor will test your sanity as you use all your skills to survive.
With fifty fiendish scenarios, Betrayal at House on the Hill puts you face-to-face with legendary monsters, modern nightmares … and your friends.
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A review special! Not just one game review, but a hatful!
Now this is something a bit different. Fueled entirely by sugar and caffeine, we typed and shot this review in just half a day. Our mission? To review half a dozen games with two minutes allotted to each. Approximately. Thereabouts. Oh God.
But we met with a success of sorts and here, for your viewing pleasure, is the result. We look at games old and new, including D-Day Dice, Ingenious, Samurai Sword, Goblins, Inc., Shadow Hunters and Betrayal at the House on the Hill, but NOT IN THAT ORDER.
Several days after filming, the sugar may not have entirely worn off. Still, this was a good experience for us and training of sorts. Preparation for… something greater.
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Since our last foray into Actual Journalism was so well received (It was? — Mark.), we’ve decided to give it another go. This time, we take a look at Game Salute, a company headquartered deep in the hinterlands of New Hampshire, a state that somewhat resembles in shape a standard reference pear.
Game Salute styles itself as a new kind of publisher, one that does much more than handle marketing and fulfillment (fulfillment meaning “getting the game out to customers”, from receiving, to warehousing, secure storage, picking, packing, shipping, tracking, sales to stores globally and customer service).
Among the flexible services they offer are solutions for other publishers, and, intriguingly, managing Kickstarter campaigns, boasting such success stories as Alien Frontiers, as well as unique titles ranging from Chicken Caesar to Pixel Lincoln.
It was started as a response to the many pain points its CEO Dan Yarrington saw in the board game industry. To find out how the cure compares with the disease, we sent Actual Journalist Mark Wallace off to have a good long chat with Yarrington, and he came back (from a phone call, not from New Hampshire) with this exciting and informative Q&A!
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In Augustus, you will vie with your fellow players to complete “objective” cards for special powers and ultimately for victory points. Each card has 2-6 symbols which you must populate with legionnaire meeples in order to complete the card. These symbols are drawn one at a time from a bag, with all player gaining the benefit equally, but interestingly, there are more of some symbols than others.
So the pivotal skill you’ll deploy is in making your choice of which three objectives you’ll start the game with (you’re dealt six) — balancing potential difficulty of completion against value of the reward — and then which of five available objectives you’ll add to your plate each time you complete one of your three. The game ends when someone completes seven. So there’s real strategy but the game is still ruled by luck of the draw.
Beautifully illustrated, about 30 minutes to play, and already a favorite for many families, Augustus is one of the nominees for the 2013 Spiele des Jahres.
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In 1894, farmers from the small village of Malpaso face the prospect of again losing their livelihood to a band of roving thieves, led by the self-styled General Mapache – himself wanted by the Mexican National Defense Army. Their solution is to go to the much admired, but fallen from grace, ‘Padre’ Esteban, and see if he can hire gunfighters to protect them.
Revolver 2 is a two-player card game set in the Old West, in which one player takes the role of General Mapache and his band of thieving outlaws, and the other player is controlling the villagers and guardians hired to protect the town of Malpaso, led by the infamous Padre Esteban.
Successor to the highly successful 2 player game Revolver, and again beautifully designed.
Unique and new perspectives in the world of Revolver: first you play the poker tournament, which determines in which areas the firefights occur.
Each player has their own unique deck of cards with unique possibilities.
Several winning conditions for each player: requires different tactics and different methods of play.
Short texts and clear symbols on the cards make the game easy and clear to play.
A lot of direct player interaction and high replayability.
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Paul: Yes, yes, we have a seventh podcast for you, for all of you, even you there, at the back. Please form an orderly queue here and pick up your free copy. In this podcast we bounce from topic to topic like kangaroos on trampolines in an earthquake, touching on the glorious Galaxy Trucker, the … Read more
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Quinns: IT’S HERE. Actually literally drop everything. Wok Star, the co-operative, real time game of running a Chinese fast food kitchen is now on Kickstarter. I heard about this game two years ago, and a reprint containing such dramatic extras as “Fridge Failure cards” and an electronic timer (instead of a sand timer) is finally upon us.
Just imagine. You and another 1 to 3 of your friends rolling dice together, racing to complete recipes against the clock. Spending money between “days” to buy new recipes. Arguing as Paul fails to collect enough tips. Again. If you have a friend called Paul.
“Warning,” the Kickstarter quips. “Wok Star may well result in high fives.” Well, that’s me sold. You’d better believe we’ll be bringing you the earliest possible review.
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