Monthly Archives: January 2015

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...

Mechanic Monday – Action Point Allowance

Mechanic Monday Round 2! Last Monday I took a look at Hand Management and today we will shift our focus to Action Points, or as BGG calls it the ‘Action Point Allowance System’. This is by no means a new mechanic or idea; BGG references 'Special Train' as the oldest game they have in their index using AP; tracing the mechanic back to the 1940s. As more games are released of course more games will utilize the mechanic while looking at it in new and varied ways. As of writing this the AP page on BGG has 2,308 games tagged as using the mechanic (note that counts expansions and the like) I was first fully introduced to the concept of Action Points when playing what was, at the time, the new hotness; Pandemic. I had likely played...

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...

Camel Up (9.1/10)

Brian, Eric, and Sean take a look at the 2014 Spiel Des Jahres winner Camel Up; will it live up to the hype or fall flat like a camel out of the gate?!

Wild Card Thursday – Fireball Island

Wild Card Thursday! Some men just want to watch the world burn; others just want to blog about whatever game they feel like. I am part of the latter group. Thursdays are a wild card I may take a look at a designer, a game, a mechanic, a convention, news in the industry, or some other crazy curveball. Today we look at the vintage cult classic Fireball Island. The vitals Released 1986 Designer: Chuck Kennedy & Bruce Lund Plays: 2-4 EPT: 45 minutes I was unfamiliar with the game until Sean had mentioned it could be a fun classic game for us to play and review at which point I started my research. The game at first glance appeared as a simple children's roll and move game and soon revealed itself to be so much more! (I have embedded our...

Downfall of Pompeii (7.8/10)

Join Brian, Eric, and Sean as they take a look at the Mayfair modern classic The Downfall of Pompeii

Worker Wednesday – Caverna

It’s Wednesday; what does that mean? It means it is time for the first Worker Wednesday of 2015! The day of the week I look at worker placement games. These reviews will go much like every other review with a minor exception; they will all feature games that heavily rely on worker placement. For those who have known me for a while this would come as a shock; I was at one point in my life not a big fan of worker placement games; I would make the argument that they were all the same with minute differences that didn't add enough to the game to differentiate themselves from others, essentially saying, “If you've played one worker placement, you've played every worker placement.” Fortunately my life has changed and I have found a...