Tag Archives: card game

14 May 2013 · 13:58

Waterline – Hooyah: Navy Seals Card Game review

Hooyah COVER

There are, of course, plenty of war games out there. Whether you’re pushing blocks around an abstract looking map or commanding vast armies of painted miniatures on a three-dimensional landscape, your choices are vast and often – for noobs like me anyway – somewhat daunting. Maybe I’d be better off with a card game? Something like… I dunno… Hooyah: Navy Seals Card Game perhaps?

Designed by industry veteran Mike Fitzgerald (the same one of Mystery Rummy fame), Hooyah puts you and your fellow players in the roles of Navy SEALS tasked with covert missions that need to be completed quickly and quietly in order to keep the free world ticking over nicely. Considering that this essentially boils down to a rather simple set collecting game with a few pretty interesting twists in the rules, that’s quite a bold claim to make… so how does it work?

As it’s a co-op, you can play as part of a team of up to four. A mission is chosen for your elite squad to tackle and characters, each of whom have special abilities and bonuses fostered by years of training, are doled out along with the requisite amount of health tokens. One player is required to take the Lt. Commander role, essentially acting as the team’s leader which I found to be an interesting design decision. A games group can suffer from the issue of having an Alpha player, someone who tries to push others into doing what they think is best, but in Hooyah it’s positively encouraged. Yes, you need to work together, but having someone leading from the front is vital in this game where speed is of the essence.

Missions are made up of ongoing stages, referred to in game as Operations. Cards are flipped from the mission stacks that show what you will need to play collectively in order to pass the Op; for instance, if you’ve got a Blue 3 and a Yellow 2, you and your fellow SEALS must get that amount of cards on the table to progress. While that may sound easy, you must also consider the fact that you are limited by a pretty cool mechanism that I originally thought wouldn’t work at all. The game, you see, is timed – but not in any conventional way.

Hooyah STUFF

When the cards for the Op are revealed, you total the numbers and turn the included timer dial round to that number – when a new player gets to take their turn, the counter is clicked down one space. On hitting zero, the game isn’t done; you’ll just end up losing an awful lot of health and should one of your squad have none left… well, that’s when you lose. It’s a lot trickier than you first think, but you do at least have some advantages in the face of such a challenge. The strongest is the ability to Roll Call – only the Lt. Commander can do this, but it’s the only way you can share information in Hooyah. Each player gets to say how many of a certain colour they can contribute to the current Op, and if the bossman thinks the team have enough to go through it successfully, you can do so.

However, to inject some uncertainty into the proceedings, Events will pop up and hamper your progress, so even if you your elite team have the necessary requirements you DEFINITELY will not get through your encounters unscathed. The further into the mission you get, the less time you’ll have to play with and the more likely you’ll be unable to complete the final section. To make it even harder, the last Op of the mission takes place immediately after the fifth one with no time to regroup or draw cards – it’s a lovely way to balance the game out but ensure that you’re constantly going to be challenged.

The whole thing is produced to a high degree and is well worth handing over your money if you’re after a slightly different co-op experience. While I’m not one to go in for the bombast you’d normally associate with the Navy SEALS and combat in general, I still found the game an enjoyable diversion that – thanks to being pretty straighforward to understand and playable in under an hour – never stays around too long. With plenty of options to tinker with the game and increase or decrease the difficulty as well as the inclusion of solo rules, there’s a surprising amount of value in this package. I’d put it in that “end of the night game” category, a perfect way to wind down after an evening of more competitive endeavours.

Hooyah: Navy Seals Card Game was designed by Mike Fitzgerald and was released in 2012 by US Game Systems. Between one and four players can get involved and games will generally take you around an hour.

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25 April 2013 · 14:13

Space Oddity – Star Trek: Deck Building Game, The Next Generation review

Star Trek COVER

Star Trek is WAY better than Star Wars. Just putting that out there. For me, if it comes down to a fight between what are arguably the two biggest sci-fi franchises out there, I’ll always plump on the side of the Federation over the Force. Of all the various shows, my favourite is undoubtedly The Next Generation – it was first on when I was a young teenager and showed me that there was such a thing as decent space-based television. Whether it was Picard being all badass against the Borg or The Q Continuum screwing about with the laws of space and time, it was great – even the slightly dodgier episodes where they were trying to push A Message.

When I heard the news that Bandai were working on a deck building game based on the property (Star Trek: Deck Building Game: The Next Generation) I have to admit I was a bit reticent. They didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory with the Resident Evil game, though it does have its fans, so while I was interested in how they’d handle Star Trek: TNG, I wasn’t holding out a huge amount of hope.

Thankfully, the game isn’t too bad. It’s not incredible but it’s far from terrible and will certainly keep fans of the series entertained. You could probably best describe it as “functional but a bit clunky”, the kind of game that could’ve done with a little more time to stew in its juices before being released. A little refinement to shear off the roughness would’ve been welcome, but we have what we’re given so let’s get into the meat of it.

The game follows the usual deck building 101 format with a few interesting twists – you start off with a hand of not-so-good cards and are looking to add better ones while removing the dross. Rather than coming with a single ruleset, ST:DBG:TNG (there must be a better acronym than that) there are actually three different ways to play, each one offering a slightly different experience. Exploration is a free-for-all race to score a set amount of points, Borg War is co-operative with all the players facing off against the game, and Klingon Civil War is somewhere between the two with a focus on pairing up with another player. In reality they don’t actually feel that different when you’re playing – after all, they’re all using the same basic engine – but at least Bandai have made an effort in supplying a range of experiences.

So many famous names! Everyone remembers XXXX, don't they?

So many famous names! Everyone remembers Tam Elbrun, don’t they?

It actually works in quite a straightforward manner. Beginning with that slightly crappy deck staffed with a few vaguely competent crew members, you’re “exploring the universe” in a bid to pick up characters from the show. In other words, you use Experience shown on your crew cards to buy from a selection of those available in the middle of the table. These cards are drawn from the Space Deck, a set of cards that are put together at the start of the game that represent the scenario you’re working through. Managing to get more recognisable faces into your deck gives you the chance to use their Diplomacy skills – in turn, these will let you pick up better ships and equipment. If you’ve ever played any deck builder ever, you’ll pick it up in no time at all; everything is really straightforward despite the frankly bobbins rulebook.

And perhaps that’s where the game falls down a little. Seriously, most of the rulebook focuses on setting up the game but fails to really explain how it functions in a clear way. Before you even take to playing you’re going to have to battle with the rules; not exactly what you want when you’re looking for a quick game. Once you’ve got the rules down (and frankly, it’s not that hard to understand) you’ll be grand, but man… those early games really do drag and could well be enough for some people to dismiss ST:DBG:TNG from the start. Frankly, I’d say bin the rulebook entirely and watch the videos that are over on boardgamegeek – it’s a much better way of learning to play. The straightforward nature means that you’re not really getting anything new though… it’s far from an innovative game.

From a production standpoint, again it’s not awful but far from wonderful – the cards are of a decent quality and all information is clearly presented. Unfortunately a lot of the imagery looks a little blurry, which seems to be down to the fact many photos are lifted directly from video of the original show. Others look like they’ve been taken from headshots to promote the programme when it first came out – and Wil Wheaton has never looked so young, forever immortalised in that fetching Starfleet jumpsuit. There’s also a LOT of air in the box when you first crack it open – of course, that’s down to the plans for future expansions, but I don’t think there’s a single gamer out there who’s a fan of the concept of perceived value. Give us a smaller box first, then when you make an expansion give us a bigger one that everything can fit in… doesn’t that make sense?

Bandai have also made the slightly odd decision of using d20s to track damage taken in battles. Sure, they do the job just fine, but I think that tokens would’ve done a better job (and would probably have been a bit cheaper. This may be down to the fact that I’ve knocked the table a few times and it’s annoying when you send the dice flying. I’m as clumsy as the rulebook.

Still, it’s an entertaining wee jaunt, especially for an avowed Star Trek watcher like myself. Where many deck building games care criticised for a lack of theme, this one is positively overflowing with Starships and Birds of Prey all over the place. Again, you may run the risk of people turning their noses up at it – it is Star Trek after all, and some crazy folks aren’t into it – but that’s their loss. If you’re a fan of the series you’ll be willing to forgive its faults. If you’re not, you’ll undoubtedly be a bit pickier, but there are many worse ways of whiling away your gaming hours. Now, who do I talk to about a DS9 expansion?

Star Trek: Deck Building Game: The Next Generation was designed by Alex Bykov and was originally released back in 2011. Published by Bandai, games will normally take you about an hour and play with between two and five. Should you fancy a copy of your own, visit Gameslore today – they’ll get you sorted for £22.49.

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24 April 2013 · 22:37

Little Star – Council of Verona preview

Verona LOGO

Regular readers of the site will know that I’m far from adverse to writing about Kickstarter games. However, it’s rare that I’ll put down my opinions on something that hasn’t even had its campaign announced yet. But now there’s something new from Crash Games called Council of Verona and I’m getting a little bit excited. If AEG’s Love Letter was the game that ushered in the Year of the Microgame, I honestly believe that Council of Verona is going to be the release that takes it to the next level.

Cliches aside, Verona is a bloody good game. Between two and four players can get involved in a bid to exercise some level of control between the warring Montague and Capulet families. The story goes that Prince Escalus has grown tired of their quarrels and has formed the titular council. Over the course of each game players will attempt to secretly influence certain characters, with whoever has the most control taking the win.

The whole game is made up of only thirteen cards (split into Montagues, Capulets and Neutrals) and four influence tokens (marked 0,3,4 and 5) in four colours. That is IT. That’s even less than Love Letter, and yet it’s as solid and entertaining a game as its Japanese cousin. Each player is dealt one card at the start of the game, then a draft takes place where you take another card and pass the rest to the left. Once only two cards are left to choose from, the player takes one and the other is discarded, never to be involved.

Now that everyone has their cards, it’s time to get into the meat of the game. The play area consists of two “places” – the Council and the Exiled, and each turn begins with you playing a single card to one of these (Council are laid out portrait style, Exiled cards are placed landscape). Cards will either be Influential or Action, and mastering when and how to play both kinds is vital if you’re to be victorious.

Actions first. These are simple enough – you lay the card down and follow the instructions, but you don’t have to trigger the ability if you don’t want to. Sometimes just adding a character to an area is more than enough, but consider the fact that some allow for the movement of other cards, some switch Influence tokens or let you take a peek at what’s already been placed. They should never be underestimated!

The cards that can be Influenced have two important elements – Influence Spaces and Winning Conditions. The three spaces can be filled with your Influence tokens, but beware! The different cards have a selection of modifiers on them, so you may not have as much sway over the characters as you think. Having power over as many as you can is often a good idea, though don’t spread yourself too thinly; until the final card is played, there are plenty of opportunities for the balance of power to shift and screw over your finely crafted plans.

The concept art for Lord Montague's card. Nice!

The concept art for Lord Montague’s card. Nice!

The various goals that the characters are looking to achieve fit well into the story of Romeo and Juliet, giving Council of Verona just enough theme to make it stand out as not just another microgame. The young lovers will score points if they’re together at the end of play, no matter where they are. The Lords want their own families to dominate the Council, while Mercutio’s desire to ruin both the Montagues and Capulets power is reflected in wanting as many characters banished as possible. Escalus desires peace and balance, so he seeks neutrality on the Council. Of course, not all of these can happen, but you can be sure that multiple Winning Conditions will occur. Just hope that you’ve got the highest combined total of Influence at the end.

Having had a fair few games of Council of Verona now, I’m beginning to see how the various cards can affect each other. Unfortunately there’s no accounting for what your opponents will do, so even if you’ve somehow managed to put together a decent hand of cards during the drafting phase of the game, you’re still going to have to pay attention to who is getting added to the Council, who has been exiled, and what Influence tokens are you think are being secretly placed. Like the Montagues and Capulets that are represented within, you’ll need to plan and plot and manipulate your opposition so that your devious machinations bear fruit… and it’s excellent. You’re constantly trying to out-think and out-bluff everyone else while still covering as many bases as possible. For such a tiny package, it packs a lot of challenge and I honestly can’t wait to see the final version.

Council of Verona was designed by Michael Eskue, plays with between two and four, and Crash Games will be running a Kickstarter very soon. That’s all you need to know. Apart from  the fact that it’s fantastic.

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27 March 2013 · 19:48

NEWS: Fox & Chicken is coming soon to Kickstarter…

So, a while ago we attempted our first Kickstarter campaign for Keep Running!, a quick playing card and dice game for up to eight people. Frankly, we aimed for the stars but landed on our asses. Despite doing our very best to spread the word about the game, it just didn’t seem to capture the imagination of the Kickstarter users… maybe it was the time of year (ending it on Christmas eve seemed like such a good idea!), perhaps it was the game itself… who knows. Either way, Keep Running! didn’t set the world alight. We’re still positive about it though and are determined to relaunch it later in the year.

We learned a lot of stuff from that campaign, though. We realised that there were a lot of people who were interested in the projects that we’re dreaming up here at Sprocket Games and The Little Metal Dog Show. We found new ways of getting information about the game out there and are grateful to friends old and new who helped us in our journey. And now, with our latest project, we hope that they’ll hop on board again.

Our latest project is a new take on a classic game. If you have even the vaguest awareness of gaming, you will have invariably played Werewolf. Some people also know it as Mafia, but whatever the name, the premise is the same. Players are given secret roles, some good, some bad. The bad guys have to team up and wipe out the goodies, while the good guys must eliminate the bad. Some special roles can be thrown into the mix that skew the rules somewhat, but you will either win or lose as a team. There’s always a lot of shouting, accusations, pointing and laughs… and we’d like to present our version of the game to you now.

Forget the werewolves. This time around it’s vulpine violence you’ll need to deal with when you play… FOX & CHICKEN.

FnC COVER

We’ve spent ages refining Fox & Chicken to make it as appealing as possible. Starting off with hastily scribbled hand-drawn cards one night, we eventually ended up making a full version with great (but simple) cartoon art to play with our friends and family. Then people starting asking for copies of their own and we thought… well, why not open it up even further and see if anyone else is interested? And that’s where we are now.

FnC BATTLE

Next week, we’re going to be launching Fox & Chicken on Kickstarter. We have a modest target that we hope will be attainable. Getting a copy for yourself will be very affordable (no matter where you are in the world!) and we hope that people see it as a great value for money purchase that provides a great gaming experience. We’ve also got some plans up our sleeves that will hopefully draw even more people in, including creating a range of minigames that are exclusively playable with the Fox & Chicken deck. We’re even going to open up the process to everyone, encouraging backers to come up with their own minigames for which – if we choose to include them – they’ll be rewarded with credit and free copies of the game.

FnC FERAL

Now, we know that games like Werewolf and Mafia can be played without the necessity of cards, but we’d like to think that the version we’re offering is worth pledging your support to. We’ve made sure that our printer is using the highest quality thick cardstock to guarantee that they’ll last you ages. There’s some nice ideas floating around our office regarding stretch goals (including limited edition bonus cards)… and now all we need is to hit that big green button to launch our campaign.

We hope you like the look of what we’ve created. If you’re interested, spread the word where you can and let folks know that we’ll be launching NEXT TUESDAY. That’s April 2nd, 2013. We’d love to get Fox & Chicken from our table to yours, so let’s do it!

Sprocket THANKS

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· 18:03

Something Changed – Elemons review

ElemonsCOVER

It is a truth universally acknowledged that most games that purport to have an educational aspect are bloody awful. During my days as a teacher I saw more boxes that had been played once then chucked into cupboards than I care to remember. They always looked the same, excited kids eternally locked in the 1970s who looked delighted to be on the cover while LEARNING and PLAYING (but mainly LEARNING because you wouldn’t want to have too much fun, would you?). Such dreadful, dreadful crap.

The vast majority of them focused on maths, of course, because there’s nothing more fun than adding and subtracting. Move out into other subjects and the terrain got a lot more barren – despite delving deep into those despairing dumpsters, I don’t think I ever saw a history based game, and forget finding something scientific. Now, in an attempt to redress the balance, a new game called Elemons attempts to strike that balance between education and entertainment.

Set in a rather strange little universe where elements from the periodic table have taken sentient form, Elemons (perhaps unsurprisingly) has a bit of a Pokemon vibe about it. Strictly for two players, you both take a set of twelve cards, each one of which depicts an Elemon. Icons show its base state – either solid, liquid or gas – and how you’ll be able to transform it to a different form using either heat or cold.

Behold (some of) the Beasties!

Behold (some of) the Beasties!

The game takes inspiration from rock-paper-scissors, meaning that it’s straightforward enough for even very young players. A card in the middle of the players shows what beats what – in the case of Elemons, gas engulfs solid, solid splashes liquid, liquid disperses gas. Each turn, you’ll have three Elemon cards in your hand alongside four Temperature cards. Taking one of each and placing them face down on the table, you and your opponent reveal them at the same time…

…and here’s where you need to be paying a little bit of attention. The Temperature cards paired with the Elemon will give you a final state for this battle. For example, Boromon starts off as a solid; playing it with a card with a minimum heat value of three will turn it to a liquid, while going with a heat value of five or more makes it a gas. There’s also an X card which keeps your Elemon in its current state. Once both players have worked out what state they’ve got in front of them, you compare using the instructions of the central card and if there’s a winner, they take their opponent’s card. First to get ten cards from the other player is the winner. See? Very straightforward.

The circle of Elemental DESTRCUTION.

The circle of Elemental DESTRCUTION.

As it’s aimed at a younger audience, you’d expect it to be both graphically appealling and easy to understand. Icons are clear and easy to understand and the various Elemons look cool. In this, the first game in the proposed series, there are only twelve different characters and I would’ve liked to have seen them in different poses on the two player card decks, but hopefully when new games are released we’ll expand further into the universe. For older players, the backstory is written at the bottom of each of the cards, hopefully inspiring them to add a bit more of a storytelling element to the game.

Of course, the main thrust of any game should be that it’s fun to play and… yeah, Elemons manages to break with tradition by actually being entertaining. It’s also quite challenging at times, so even a certain cross-section of grown ups will take something from it – managing to keep track of the cards that have been played by your opponent can prove rather tricky. With children being the main target audience for Elemons, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the game stood on its merits for a gamer audience. Sure, it may not be the first game that pops into my mind when I’m looking for a two-player effort, but it’s a fine way to spend some time while bolstering your knowledge of the elements.

Elemons was designed by Eiman Munro, and was first released through Elemental Publishing in 2013. Strictly made for two players, games will normally take you between 15 and 20 minutes. To pick up a copy, head on over to the Elemons site where one will set you back £7.99. They’ll also be at this year’s UK Games Expo, so if you’re attending be sure to check them out!

 

 

 

 

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