Tag Archives: two player

20 May 2013 · 21:02

King of Snake – Hydra review

Hydra-1

It’s safe to say that I am not the biggest fan in the world of abstract strategy. I like theme in a game! I like complicated stuff and millions of bits! However, one thing I’ve always wanted to do here on littlemetaldog.com is give everything a try at least once, so if a game is put in front of me It Will Get Played. Them’s the rules! I’d like to think that I can put aside my meh-ness towards a genre of games and see good stuff in everything I play – after all, who knows, I might find something that I enjoy! And goodness me, what’s this? A game that’s made me think that not all abstracts are terrible? Blimey.

Hydra is a two player game built around simple rules with a single objective – to create a single continuous line across the playing surface with your tiles. Each player is given twenty eight tiles in their colour – three Heads, four Tails and twenty-one Bones – which you’ll use to wend your way over the play surface. One will work their way from North to South, the other will go from East to West, but (as you’ve probably worked out) there’s an issue. At one point, the players’ lines will have to cross over somewhere – and it’s here where the game gets really quite tricky and mean.

You see, the three different tile types allow for different placements, and it’s getting to grips with these that will see you ending up the winner. Heads are the most versatile, allowing your next placement in any of the four orthagonal spaces next to it. Tails are useful should you need to turn a corner. Bones, meanwhile, are the simplest of the tiles, only allowing for the creation of straight lines.

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In this example, the Light player uses two Bones to move from the bottom of the board, a Tail to turn right, another Bone then a Head.

Each turn will normally see you placing a single tile on the board, either at one of the edges you’re trying to link or off a piece that is already on the board. You also have the option of flipping an already placed tile which can be retrieved at the end of your next turn, or not placing anything and flipping two instead. The playing area, a seven by seven square, quickly gets very busy and the two lines will quickly collide but only a Bone tile can be crossed. Heads and Tails tiles are ideal for blocking your opponent’s plans then, but there’s a literal price to pay: using then will require you to discard tiles from your pile which will quickly limit your options. For every Tail used, you’ll discard three tiles; for every Head, it’s four, and you’ll only be able to reclaim these spent tiles by flipping and removing the played pieces from the board. It’s an ingenious idea that really balances the game out – sure, you could put a load of the more powerful tiles on the board, but you’ll go broke quickly, and it’s in fact impossible to traverse the board using only Heads and Tails. 

For such a small game with simple rules, there’s an awful lot of opportunity for cruelty in Hydra – which is probably what makes it appeal to me despite my normal lack of affection for abstracts. Having played it a fair few times now (and lost every single match) I’m developing an appreciation for the game, recognising where I went wrong and what I could have done to  fix errors I have made during play. Actually figuring out how to win hasn’t quite clicked yet but I feel that will come with time in this game that rewards considered thought and multiple plays. The more experience you have with Hydra, the better you’ll become at recognising openings and options and the more pleasurable your gameplay will be.

While it’s not converted me entirely into the fold of full-on loving abstract strategy, I’ve come to realise that I’ll happily go back again and again to the genre if I’ve got the right game in front of me. Hydra is a well developed little affair that has some neat ideas – plus did I mention that the wooden box collapses down to create the playing surface? It’s these little touches that make me want to put copies of the game in front of others and demand they play with me, if only because I could possibly beat a total newbie…

Hydra is a self produced design by Simon Dangerfield. The game will be launched officially at this year’s UK Games Expo in Birmingham over the weekend of May 25th to 27th. For more information, contact Simon via email: simon@talltree.co.uk

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11 March 2013 · 17:55

Rock the Boat – Le Havre: The Inland Port review

LHIPCover

If you’ve read the site regularly or listened to the show, you’ll probably know that Agricola is one of my all time favourites. I’ll play it anywhere, with anyone, anytime; seriously, if you fancy a game on boiteajeux.com, let me know – I’m LittleMetalDog over there. I honestly reckon that designer Uwe Rosenberg is some kind of savant genius when it comes to design. Just look at his track record. Bohnanza, Ora et Labora, All Creatures Big and Small… the guy knows what he’s doing.

Of course, one of his most famous games is Le Havre. In all honestly, I’ve tried my very best but I can’t get my head around it. I can see that it’s a great game and I understand why it’s popular, but frankly it leaves me a bit cold. Hell, even the tutorial on the iOS version of the game confuses the bejesus out of me and I’m really not that dumb. Honest. Thankfully, there’s now a stripped down two-player version of the game that (a) I actually understand and (b) is pretty damn good.

Le Havre: The Inland Port focuses on building the perfect engine in a race to score the most points after twelve rounds of play. Starting off with a handful of resources and a few Francs to your name, you’ll need to invest in buying buildings, each of which will boost what’s available to you to use in later rounds and contribute to your final score. As the game progresses the buildings on offer get more expensive but also more powerful and valuable. It’s a lot more straightforward than its big brother.

You also have two boards – one that keeps track of the amount of resources you have called the Warehouse, and one that you stash your purchased buildings on. Split into six sections, there’s also a rotating arm that’s numbered at its centre. When you pick up a new building, it’s placed into the sector marked with a zero; once a turn has been completed, the arm moves around. The numbers around the centre of the arm signify the amount of times a building in that space can be used but be sure to not leave it too long…

The wheel in question. The letters around the outside show the current round, while the numbers show how many turns there will be.

The wheel! The letters around the outside show the current round, while the numbers show how many turns there will be this time around.

You see, each time the arm moves, the number increases; you’ll get two, three, four or four actions and an extra Franc. Normally this means that you get to move the cube representing a resource type on your board that amount of spaces, though you’ve got to be careful as the area you’re moving around in is somewhat limited and in a game where exact management is everything, waste cannot be tolerated. This may be a simplified(ish) version of Le Havre but it’s still quite a hardcore experience.

Also pretty hardcore: the final sector. Should you allow any of your buildings to slip into that area you’ll have to sell it for half the price. You will feel like an ass, even though you could potentially pick it up again. Again, it feels like a spectacular waste when you should be attempting to control everything as best you can. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.

Anyway, at the beginning of each round, a new selection of buildings are added to the stack of what’s available to buy. You’re either going to buy one of these brand new options (paying the cost in coins or resources) or use something you’ve already purchased – either way, it’s immediately moved to the zero section of the wheel. You also have the option of using any buildings your opponent has bought; all you have to do is hand over one Franc and the ability is yours. This can’t be refused and is a perfectly viable option if they’ve got what you need – after all, there’s no way you’re going to get absolutely everything you require to win the game.

And here's your warehouse. It's pretty ingenious as to how it all works, moving around the squares to track your resources.

And here’s your warehouse. It’s pretty ingenious as to how it all works, moving around the squares to track your resources.

As the game goes on you’ll get more to do, allowing you to maximise your resources and get the biggest and best buildings. Some offer no resources at all but can bring in some massive points, so be sure to keep an eye out on what’s due to appear in upcoming rounds on the handy chart that’s included in the box. The moment the twelfth round is done, you total up the value of everything you’ve bought, add in the Francs you have left over and whoever has the highest amount is declared victorious.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that The Inland Port isn’t going to be for everyone. It’s far from the prettiest game in the world (‘functional’ is probably the best description for how it looks) and is dry as all get out, but if you’ve got the kind of gaming brain that enjoys developing a perfect routine you’ll get a lot out of this one. It’s all about getting the perfect amount of resources for what you need, maximising your play and – when necessary – screwing over your opponent by using what they’ve got available. Personally, I have to be in the right frame of mind for it but should the mood take me (and there’s a suitable opponent at hand) this is well worth a play. Rather than spending two hours attempting to decipher Le Havre and all its machinations, thirty minutes with The Inland Port is a comparative delight. Give it a shot!

Le Havre: The Inland Port was released by Lookout Games and Z-Man Games in 2012. Designed by Uwe Rosenberg , it caters for two players only with games taking about thirty to forty minutes. Pick up a copy for yourself by visiting Gameslore – you’ll be able to get one for £20.49. 

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12 February 2013 · 16:44

Metal Guru – Bronze preview

BronzeCOVER

Finding a decent game that is strictly for two players can be a tricky task indeed. I swear blind that Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is a sure thing, but sometimes you want to do something on a grander scale than simply constructing a farm. Perhaps you fancy taking the reigns of a civilisation and seeing if you can destroy those who rise before you, all in twenty minutes? Now you’ll get to do precisely that in a new game called Bronze from Spiral Galaxy.

Originally based on a PC game designed to be played solitaire, it’s now been transferred to the tabletop where you’ll vie against a single human opponent to see if you can dominate the map. With each player randomly allocated a civilisation from a selection of six, Bronze is a quick playing engine building affair with a fair dash of tile placement and area control – you start off with no money so will need to get resources to hand as quickly as you can; thankfully as you expand across the field of play you’ll gain access to more and more. As your access to resources expands, so do the opportunities to build bigger and better creations; however, you can get stuck quite quickly as each of the seven building types are limited. Leave it too long and your opponent could well steal the lot, leaving you high and dry.

Of course, you may not have to worry about this too much – with each player in control of a different civilisation, they could also have access to other buildings or even be able to pay less for those you can purchase. This asymmetric play adds some extra value to the package as a whole – after all, there are plenty of combinations to experiment with, and with four base maps included the options open up even further. Rules are also included to design your own maps, so the variety is almost infinite.

Mid game - things are going well for the

Mid game – things are going well for the Egyptians!

Actual gameplay is very straightforward – even newbie gamers will be able to grasp the whole thing within a game or so. With only three options to choose from on each turn, Bronze is simplicity itself. You can either expand your territory with a Farm, expand with a Building, or convert a Farm into a Building, but the trick to winning is all down to timing; get the right building on the board at the right time and you could steal the win. The game ends when one player can perform one of these actions, victory points are totalled up and your winner is declared.

In the games I’ve played I have found that there’s often a tipping point, a moment you can see precisely where the game turned in one player’s favour; some may consider this a bad thing, but in a game that plays so quickly, it’s hard to be entirely down on it. In fact, it’s actually suggested in the rules that you set aside enough time to play twice, switching civilisations after the first game and combining the points after both plays to see who wins.

It’s been interesting spending time with Bronze. Early plays didn’t really grab me; it wasn’t until I got a few games under my belt that I realised the depth that was in there. Of course, as it plays so speedily we’re not exactly talking Twilight Imperium here, but it offers a higher level of complexity than you may initially expect, and while it may not entirely take the place of Agricola: ACBAS as my two-player game of choice, it’ll certainly be hitting the table regularly when I’m looking for a head-to-head blast.

Thanks to the folks at Spiral Galaxy Games for letting me have some time with the only prototype that’s out there! If you’re interested in Bronze, you can get involved with the current Kickstarter campaign where a copy will set you back £30 – it ends on February 28th 2013 though, so be quick! 

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27 November 2012 · 15:18

History Repeating – Button Up! review

Sometimes a great game is huge, a sprawling extravaganza of a thing with countless wooden bits, huge amounts of depth and a playtime up in the multiple hours. Sometimes it’s the flipside of that, an idea so simple and straightforward that makes you wonder why the hell you didn’t get it first. Button Up!, a Bruno Cathala design from Jactalea, falls firmly in the second category – a tiny box, a handful of simple components and a wonderfully easy to grasp concept.

Three beermats, a set of instructions and a bunch of buttons. That’s all you get in the box. It’s not a lot, but then there’s not a huge amount of stuff you get to do in the game – however, in order to come out victorious in this lovely little two player release, you’ll need something that can be hard to come by that isn’t packed in – a bucketful of forward planning. Taking on the role of either Napoleon Buttonaparte or his nemesis General Ludwig Yorck von Buttonburg, you’re literally trying to end up on top…

Prepare for battle!

Nine large buttons, three each in three colours – red, black and white – are dropped and randomly arranged around the central beermat. It’s here where battle will commence and your points will be scored. The aim is to move said buttons in a clockwise manner around the mat, forming stacks that will quickly grow into a single tower. However, only the white buttons (or stacks containing one) can be moved by the players.

If you’ve ever played Mancala, you’ll have a head start on the way it all works. Pick up a single white button and you’ll place it on top of the next button. Pick up a stack of two and you’ll be adding to the next two piles. Each pile may only be added to once, meaning that it’s perfectly possible that you could create a massive one quite early on. The trick to the game, of course, is to engineer it so that your coloured buttons – red for Buttonaparte, black for von Buttonburg – end up as high in the final tower as possible.

Von Buttonburg dominates the stack – for this round anyway…

Once the stack is complete, points are scored. The highest gets nine, then you work all the way to the bottom with its value of one. White buttons, the spies of the game, score nothing. Both players determine their scores and whoever has the highest total is awarded the difference between the two – for example, say I scored 17 and you totalled 11, I would be awarded 6 points. The first to 15 points or more is declared the winner of the battle and claims bragging rights aplenty.

And that’s all there is to it. I could see Button Up! included in a larger scale game as a way of settling combat, but Jactalea have seen enough potential in it to release the whole thing on its own – and why shouldn’t they? It’s a lovely little two player filler (remember, that shouldn’t be a dirty word in the gaming world) that plays out in ten minutes. If you’re looking for a quick playing little game that, it’s an ideal way to kill a wee while. The fact that Bruno Cathala’s name is on the front of the box should help with getting Button Up! out there a bit more than your average small scale new release, but in all honesty I’d heartily recommend picking this one up.

Button Up! by Bruno Cathala was launched at Essen 2012 by Jactalea. Only two people can play, and games take around ten minutes. Copies outside of France are few and far between, but you can order it directly from the company site for only 10 Euro by clicking on this link!

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12 October 2012 · 11:18

Crawling – Dungeon Heroes (p)review

It’s hard finding decent games that cater specifically for two players in a quick timeframe. There’s Agricola: All Creatures Big And Small, of course, as well as the splendid but currently out-of-print Balloon Cup. Lost Cities is pretty good, and there’s also Summoner Wars (even though you can officially play that with more than two people). Now, if you’re looking for another one to add to the list, may I suggest the upcoming release from Crash Games, Dungeon Heroes?

It’s the traditional dungeon crawl turned into a half hour game of strategy, memory and tile placing. One player is handles the glorious heroes, all of whom have a different ability that should help them in their quest to grab three treasures from the dungeon. The Warrior is the only hero allowed to take on monsters, killing them by moving into their space on the board. The Wizard, though squishy, is very useful, allowing you to flip and reveal tiles. The Cleric has healing powers (which you’ll definitely need) and the Rogue may disarm traps. Meanwhile, their opponent is the Dungeon Lord, owner of our arena, who has only one thing on their mind; the destruction of the heroes. So far, so normal.

The game is split into two phases – Passive and Aggressive. Passive play sees the heroes take their first tentative steps into the dungeon while tiles are placed face down all around them by the bad guy.  The heroes, represented by dice that show their current health level, are very much at an advantage during this part of the game – with less stuff on the board, they can move about relatively freely. However, moving onto a tile reveals it immediately, so they must be careful not to unleash a monster or trigger a trap.

The Dungeon Lord is allowed to place four tiles per turn, and it’s here where it becomes evident that a good memory is required. Sadly, mine is filled with holes and so when I’m on the side of evil it doesn’t often go well… Thankfully, once all 36 tiles are placed, things take a turn for the nasty.

It’s now that the Aggressive Phase kicks in and the tide turns in favour of evil! Any monster tiles that have been revealed previously are now replaced by tokens that are allowed to wander the dungeon looking for a dinner of tasty hero. Here the power is definitely with the Lord as the heroes are now desperately trying to get the three treasures they need before they get wiped out by the wandering hordes. That is, of course, assuming that the evil player can remember where they’ve placed their monster tiles…

Other stuff they can use include slide tiles – very useful when a hero steps onto them as they force a sideways movement, hopefully into the jaws of a particularly strong beastie or a nasty cloud of poison gas. The previously mentioned traps can also be incredibly useful to destroy the good guys, assuming you can force the characters into them – easier said than done.

Swiftly enough, a winner will be declared and you’ll probably have enough time for a reverse match-up before your lunch hour is finished. Early plays of Dungeon Heroes will see you fumbling about a bit no matter what side you choose to use, but it quickly becomes clear that there’s a deeper game beneath what initially appears to be a light surface. If you’re the Dungeon Lord, huddling all your monsters around the heroes early in the game may well see you with not enough forces to successfully take them down later on. With the Heroes, leaving it too late could see you swamped with monsters and no chance of victory. I like the fact that the two different phases give specific advantages to one of the players – there’s a palpable switch once all the tiles have been played, a slight element of desperation for the heroes and a growing feeling of power for the Dungeon Lord. More impressively, it doesn’t feel unbalanced (which could well happen in a game such as this) – unless you play spectacularly poorly, both sides will be in with a chance until the very end.

One final point to remember: the game isn’t actually out yet. This is all based on a prototype provided by the folks at Crash Games, so if you want a copy you’ll have to head on down to Kickstarter. Be sure to check it out from October 16th!

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