Once upon a time in a far off kingdom players would gather and enjoy crushing one another in a competitive game of intrigue, conflict, and deceit. One day a man was sitting below the oppressive fist of his component and a thought struck him, ‘I always lose.’ He thought as another of his armies was removed from the board; ‘wouldn't it be better if we were all on the same team?’ and thus the Cooperative board game was developed.
For the record; that may or may not have been the way the idea of playing as a team was developed, but I like to think it is. The mechanic of Co-op play is not new, though in older games it was represented more as a team-vs-team than an all-vs-game. For the last few years, however, there...
Tag Archives: fun
Favorite Friday – Legend of Drizzt
The year is 2000, the season summer, and my freetime plentiful. My brother had previously picked up the PC adventure game Baldur’s Gate and I had watched him play it some but had yet to dabble much myself. I decided it was time. The world of Faerun instantly pulled me in and hasn’t let me go since.
Baldur’s gate lead me down the path that would eventually lead me to meet the dark elf ranger Drizzt Do’Urdan. When I learned Drizzt was going to get his own game in the tabletop space following the novels I was excited; even so it was not until a couple years after the games release that I finally had the joy of picking up a copy and bringing it to the table. Before I jump into the game’s...
Worker Wednesday – Russian Railroads
Monday we looked at the mechanic of Worker Placement and we have thus far looked at two other worker placement games; Caverna and Lords of Waterdeep. In today’s installment of Worker Wednesday we will continue our journey into the land of meeple management as I review Russian Railroads!
The vitals
Released 2013
Designer: Helmut Ohley & Leonhard Orgler
Plays: 2-4
EPT: 120 minutes
Many of my gamer friends know I am a sucker for train games; be it the train rails system, Ticket to Ride, or the 18xx series I love locomotives. Partnered with my love for train games comes a love for Russia; this can be blamed on having lived in Russia for a year while growing up. When I thus learned to love worker placement games I knew I had to give Russian Rails...
Rook – With the Special Bremner Variant
Time for Follow Up Tuesday! Wait? No? Curve Ball Tuesday?! Since yesterday we looked at worker placement as a mechanic and as we have Worker Wednesdays we are taking a detour today into a game that hold a special place in my heart. When telling a friend I was going to review this game he scoffed and questioned why, to which I simply told him; when something has worked for almost 110 years; it is worth looking at.
Every family should have a game; not meaning they should own at least one game, that is a given, but just as couples have a song a family should have a game. For my immediate family I think of that game as Scotland Yard, but for my extended family that game is Rook.
Vitals
Released: 1906
Designers: George S. Parker...
Mechanic Monday – Worker Placement
Worker placement; a mechanic that I have been referencing all year... or at least the two Wednesdays we have had thus far in 2015, and yet I haven’t dedicated a Mechanic Monday to it yet; that is what we in the biz call an oversight... or clever planning for the sake of building anticipation... I’ll go with the latter...
Today we shall delve into this mechanic to the full. What is worker placement? How does it work out in game? Why does it it work, or why may it not work? Thus far I have looked at two games that use this mechanic Caverna and Lords of Waterdeep. Both blogs are, in my biased opinion, worth taking a look at.
Let us first define the mechanic of worker placement. Keydom is the game...
Favorite Fridays – Dead of Winter
Zombies. Post apocalyptic conditions. Arctic cold. A group of survivors that have broken into sub groups following their own leaders with varied goals. These are all elements of a fantastic horror movies and shows; they are also all elements of this weeks installment of Favorite Fridays; Dead of Winter.
The vitals
Released 2014
Designer: Jonathan Gilmour & Isaac Vega
Plays: 2-5
EPT: 100 minutes
Dead of Winter is one of the few games I learned about well before its release; arguably since early on in its design thanks to the awesomeness that is The Plaid Hat Podcast (which I would highly recommend). I recall many days listening to the guys discuss the next game in the Vegian cannon; not City of Remnants 2 or an expansion, not another video game adaption like BioShock Infinite, but a new IP using...
Wild Card Thursday – Voice of the Mummy
Like most children I grew up familiar with Milton Bradley and their games. Sadly I was not familiar with their 1971 record player based game Voice of the Mummy until my cousin and co-host Sean introduced me to it many years into my gaming life. The idea of the game intrigued me as he explained it; I had heard of games that are soundtrack reliant, but a game from the 70s that was soundtrack reliant… that was shocking; especially when the soundtrack is on a plastic record!
The vitals
Released 1971
Designer: Unknown - released by Milton Bradley
Plays: 2-4
EPT: 30 minutes
As the game was explained to me I envisioned a giant old school record player sprouting out of a small game board with a candylandesque map. Then as I researched the game I was amazed at its...
Worker Wednesday – Lords of Waterdeep
Welcome back it is time for our second installment of Worker Wednesdays with a look at what has become one of my favorite worker placement games, Lords of Waterdeep.
The vitals
Released 2012
Designer: Peter Lee & Rodney Thompson
Plays: 2-5
EPT: 60 minutes
I recall many a time for two years looking at friends game shelves, shelves in game stores and on online retailers and seeing the game Lords of Waterdeep looking back at me; a glimmer in it’s eye. The box art showing a fantastic depiction of a fighter, mage and dude wielding a staff with two daggers in his belt that looks totally BA, with Dungeons and Dragons written across the bottom of the box, and a hefty weight when lifted off the shelf. Mental images of journeying through dungeons with the goal of finding...
Follow Up Tuesday – Pandemic
Yesterday we looked at the mechanic of the Action Point Allowance System; or APAS as no one calls it… today we will be following that up with a review of the Matt Leacock modern classic Pandemic.
The vitals
Released 2007
Designer: Matt Leacock
Plays: 2-4
EPT: 45 minutes
Pandemic is a co-operative game in which players act as members of the CDC working together to stop the spread of diseases across the globe. Players all start the game in Atlanta, Georgia; home of the Center of Disease Control before setting out to trot the globe and rid the world of these spreading diseases.
During setup each player is given a character, each character having unique abilities. The game ships with more characters than players thus making each game vary based upon which people are in play; each player also receives a...
Favorite Fridays – Arkham Horror
Let us journey back to the summer of 2011. My family is on vacation in Ocean City, Maryland in a condo a block from the beach. Those who know me well are aware I have 2 arch nemeses, one of which is the sun (a story for another time) and the other.. well we will discuss that later. I thus avoided the beach more often than not and withdrew to the comfort of the air conditioned condo to enjoy a book or game. My brother and my dad often joined me in this seclusion and we quickly turned to games to fill our time and it was thus that my brother introduced us to Arkham Horror.
The vitals
Released 2005 (remake of a game from 1987)
Designer: Richard Launius & Kevin Wilson
Plays: 1-8 (I’d recommend 4-5 and...