DungeonQuest is a game where just a few years ago I would have echoed a lot of the criticisms that people have placed at the games feet but what I have realized is that this game delivers just about everything that I want from a quick dungeon crawl game. The game is random, almost to a fault, but that same randomness makes the game endearing and charming. Played with the right group of people with the proper amount of beer pumping in their veins this game is tough to beat in terms of pure fun.

Players take the role of one of four preset adventurers set with the task of diving deep into underground catacombs to raid the Dragon’s Stash and try to make it out alive before night fall all the real baddies come out. Players start the game in one of four corners of a gridded board and draw random tile counters which can be rooms, traps, cave-ins, a portcullis closing behind you and other dastardly things all to hinder, actually flat out kill, the adventurers. As players work towards the center of the dungeon, it starts to develop with all the twists and turns you’d expect.

Once a player settles a room they draw an aptly named “Room Card”. This card could contain a further trap, a monster, the corpse of a previous adventurer as well as other events, or it could just be a blank room. Some of the cards will have you draw from another deck. For example if you decide to loot the corpse you come across you can find other items or nothing. So like I mentioned the game is random and has you drawing cards all over the place and rolling dice to determine the outcome of events. This randomness creates wild swings in playtime, but none of which last more than an hour. More often than not, your adventurers will meet his untimely end (if I recall correctly the rulebook states you should expect to die about 70% of the time). But the goal of the game is to make it out of the dungeon with the most treasure.

One of the shortest, but also the most memorable games I played had my opponent falling into a pit to his death two tiles in. I proceeded to find a sack of gold with thirty gold pieces and ran out for the quick and easy win. Considering a good stash to run out with is 500-1000, it was a pretty hollow victory (but a victory none-the-less) but that quick victory allowed us to kick off another game very quickly as time was starting to run short that evening.

Thinking about this game though I really do think that it is the best dungeon crawl I have played. Typical dungeon crawl games in my opinion have two issues. The first one is not wanting to see your character die. Many games are expected to have a role playing/character development type aspect to the game to give the players a reason to be fighting off these monsters and seeking hard to find artifacts and in time players develop a bond with this person they’ve been leveling up and gathering goodies for. In this game, you expect your character to die and if he doesn’t that in itself is a victory.

The second problem I feel dungeon crawls run into is too often the dungeon-master is just there to shepherd the adventurers through the dungeon, present them with challenges, but not make it too hard where the death of a character is at risk. So between these two what happens is you develop a game that lacks competition. Descent by Fantasy Flight Games looked to add that competition between the players and DM, but in my opinion that game starts to bog down and doesn’t have the pacing that I want from a dungeon crawl which is something quick and leaves a lot of dead monsters at my feet.

So what develops is a disconnect of competition between the players. With this game though, the DM’ing is handled by the game and cards and players are expected to die. So a competition exists to not only make it to the Dragon’s Stash but what also develops is the basic competition of survival in a very harsh environment.

There is a slight downside the Dungeon Quest though. A game that has a DM, provided the DM is good, can create a very colorful narrative with lots of description and can create a lovely ambiance for the game. There is not a lot of descriptive text on the cards with the extent being “Trap - Arrows! Roll a D6-Luck in Damage”. Personally though that is all that I need as I’m not a roleplayer, but one thing that I’ve been thinking about is for players who really dig and enjoy that narrative and there is a quick fix that can be done - Have an opponent draw and read your card to you and embellish what is happening. Instead of drawing a card that says “Crypt - Draw Crypt Card” a creative person can embellish it with text like “As you walk into the room a beam of light from a strategically positioned window shines down onto a stone tomb. Engraved along the side is a relief detailing a battle long since forgotten to this land. Etched onto the ornate lid is a Coat of Arms and below it the name that you recognize as a street in your hometown not to far from here. Do you want to open the tomb?” A simple little modification that can make what is a random and chaotic game that much more colorful and memorable.

There are rumors that Fantasy Flight Games will be reprinting this and I beg and plead that they not change a single thing about the game. It is just about perfect as originally printed with charming early 90’s graphics and gameplay. With the exception of combat. The way combat is handled is each person is given three tokens which say either “Slash” “Mighty Blow” “Jump Aside”. Each player picks one and places it face down. They’re then turned face up, a small matrix consulted and damage dealt. It feels like a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors and to me is lacking. If FFG does do a re-release, I wouldn’t mind seeing a change to the combat system, but with that said, if it came down to a complete overhaul or a reprint as originally printed, I’d take the straight reprint because this game is near perfect as is.

Overall this has become one of my favorite games to play. It is short at 30-60 minutes (and if everyone has a quick death can be as short as 5 or 10), easy to teach and though not really interactive between players still interactive in the race to get to the center and back while keeping your skin. For me it is the perfect vehicle for people to get together, share a few brews and a few laughs. For me DungeonQuest shouldn’t be the focus of that night but the focus should be on the company you keep that just happen to be gathering to play a boardgame.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: Dungeonquest, Games - Board Games by LordVonTush
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The market is flooded with games that just come and go.  I can’t tell you how many games I have owned that see but a single play before they are set aside never to be played again.  Sometimes though - and this is very rare in the Drunk Dwarves group - a game continues to grace the table over and over again.  Some how, almost magically, it scratches the itch of every player in the group.  And amazingly, where many games are picked apart after a few plays when players begin to see how its found wanting, some still stand strong as the first choice on game night.  Small World, by Days of Wonder is one of those games, and has been my number one pick for a few months now.

At it’s core, Small World is a light-hearted empire building game with a fantasy theme.  Players choose from a variety of races and struggle over limited resources in a relatively small area.  After a number of turns, the winner is the player who manages to accumulate the most victory coins (points). 

The races presented are pretty common fantasy races - many classic races are represented: Orcs, Giants, Wizards, etc. and each race has their own special ability.  In addition, there are also “special power” prefixes that are attached to these races that add additional abilities.  This aspect makes for an incredible amount of combinations, which really adds to the games replay value.  For example - if you were to draw the two cards pictured below, you would control a race of dragon riding wizards, who possess the unique abilities of both wizards and dragon riders.

Once you select a race as your own, you take a number of race tokens into your hand to represent your new civilization.  How many is determined by your race and special power cards - see the numbers in the orange circles?  Add those together, and that’s how many tokens you get.  Now it’s time to introduce your civilization into Small World.

Small World is represented by an incredibly illustrated and colorful board.  There’s multiple boards included in the game, each for a different number of players - this allows the game to scale very well.  The board is divided up into different types of terrain.  When you first place your race onto the board, you select a region on the edge of the map, or coastal region, and pop down 2 of your tokens to claim the region as your own.  You have to place an additional token for every other token in there before you arrive.  This includes enemy race tokens, mountain tokens, fortress tokens, etc.  From there, you spread out to adjacent regions until all of your tokens are used up.  Once you’re done, you get a victory point for each region you control, and play passes to the next player.  After you play a number of turns, the player with the most wins.  Its that easy.

The flavour of Small World lies in the races and their special powers.  Some races may allow you to fly to any region on the map.  Others may gain you extra victory points for controlling plains or fields.  Still others may award you extra tokens for killing enemy tokens - the variety is huge, and makes each game unique and incredibly entertaining.

As you get attacked by other players, and spread your race thin across the landscape, they become less powerful - and eventually, you’ll want to put them in “decline”.  Putting a race into decline allows you to choose another race, while the old one slowly fades out of existence.  Any race you have in decline still earns you money for the regions they control, but they can no longer expand, and usually loose any special power they may have had.  Knowing when to put your races into decline, and when to hold onto them for one more turn is what Small World is all about. 

If I were to recommend a game to anyone out there in the interwebs, Small World would be it.  Its fun, unique, has an incredible replay value - so you get your moneys worth, and is quick - you’ll usually play multiple games in any given session.  Not only that, but it’s incredibly easy to pick up and play, with all of the subtle strategy hidden just below the surface for you to discover as the game progresses.  If you haven’t tried this one - give it a shot.  You won’t be disappointed.

-

DEACON

Filed under: Games - Board Games, Small World by DEACON
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I’ve always liked Warmachine by Privateer Press.  I mean, how can you beat a bunch of steam-powered machines pounding the hell out of each other?  But alas, I dropped out of the game a long time ago when the Warjacks were reduced to the role of mere support, and the game basically became focused on swarms of infantry.  This was lame - so I left. 

Now Warmachine has been re-released, with rules that bring ‘Jacks back to the front of things - where they damn well should be - and thus, I have taken a very serious interest in the game that hasn’t graced my table in years.  I dusted off my Khador models, got the new rules (which I will review later), and picked up one of the new plastic Warjack kits that Privateer Press has released.  At first I was a bit weary - plastic?…  ‘Jacks?…  Warjacks are supposed to be heavy metal - not light plastic!  Not only that - but each kit costs 35 bucks!  But because each kit lets you make your choice of 4 different models, complete with stat cards, I thought I’d at least give this new kit a day in court.  But to be realistic - if you want to make this kit worth it’s cost - get some magnets. (I’ll post a tutorial on that later as well.)

Upon opening the box, you’re greeted with this…  What - no sprues?  No clipping?  No trimming?  Now this is something I could get used to!  And check out those nice stat cards!  So far so good. 

After unwrapping all the parts, you end up with this lovely pile of bits.  Everything you need to make any of the four jacks shown on the box.  You’ll notice right away if you have some of the classic metal ‘Jacks, that many of the proportions are quite different.  I mean, check out those heads!  Looks like some head hunters got to them or something.  Other than that - So far so good.

Then I start to look closer…  What the heck is with this torso piece!?  First off, it’s completely smashed and crooked - slanting down the right.  There’s a big friggin’ vent tab front and center - getting that off should be fun.  Then I flip it around - and notice that all the smoke stacks on the right side are all crumpled in and shitty looking.  Wow, look at that boiler!  Looks like they used a 3-part mold here, so naturally, you’ll have to trim of 50% more flash!  Of course, they ran the mold lines right over the rivets.

Then I find this piece of shit staring me down…  What am I supposed to do with that?  All the fingers of this hand are all screwed up, and have a nice mold line across the details as the cherry on top.  Hey Privateer Press - this is “unusable”.  You need to do better, or go back to metals.  Some of the other bits were great as well - like the cannon arm that looks like it’s giving birth, and a head so thin and tiny, I thought the blade on top would snap if I looked at it too hard.  (no I did not squash that pic.)

OK - so now lets see if Privateer Press has a good replacement service - seeing as how their “request form” offers up no confirmation of delivery, and since as of yet I have got no response, my guess would be it’s about worth as much as the “Fist o’ Flash” up there.  I’ll let you know if I have any luck.

So here’s the rub.  I can’t recommend this kit - especially at 35 bones.  35 dollars should buy you an all metal starter with a caster and 2-5 jacks, not one plastic model.  If you manage to get it magnetized, so you can field any of the 4 Warjacks as you see fit, then maybe it’s worth the scratch - but not at this quality.

Privateer Press- this isn’t going to cut it - stick with what you know, and that’s kick ass metal figures.  And for the love of god, don’t pull the classic metals and leave us with this garbage.  And while you’re at it, stop trying to be GW’s mini-me.  You must know that people flee from these prices and into your waiting arms everyday - you’re begging for them to bounce right out just as fast if you start gouging them.

-

DEACON

Filed under: Games - Wargames, Warmachine by DEACON
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Well, the re-release of Space Hulk has came and went but if you missed out on it there still are some copies to be found here and there. I thought I’d take a moment to share a few comments that I have on the game. This is to supplement the original First Edition Space Hulk review that I did a while back and since a good portion of the game stayed the same I won’t be rehashing what I have already said, but will instead focus on the changes the game made and some of my thoughts.

First off the simplistic gameplay of the original game that I have come to love has stayed the same. Some aspects from the Deathwing and Genestealer expansions have been included like psychic powers as well as different Terminator weapons. My personal experience with the first edition expansions is nil but from what I’ve heard, a lot of cool aspects were introduced in those, but in execution they moved away from the easy to play and understand gameplay the original game had and made the game more complex than perhaps it should have been. With Space Hulk 3rd Edition, aspects like psychic powers and unique Terminator weapons have been included and mixed in pretty seamlessly into the rule system.

Many of the rule changes deal with the Terminator side with the Genestealers remaining pretty much unchanged. Some of these changes made a few of the missions a bit too easy on the Terminators. One change which I am not as big of a fan of is how jams are cleared when in Overwatch. In 1st Ed if you were on Overwatch and had to clear a jam you had to spend one Command Point to clear the jam and then two more CP’s to go back onto Overwatch. In 3rd Ed you still have to spend one CP to clear the jam, but then you automatically go back into Overwatch. Another change from 1st Ed to 3rd Ed is how you draw your command points. In 1st Ed you drew your CP and whatever number you drew you were stuck with while in 3rd Ed as long as your Sergent is still alive you are able to discard the token back into the CP pool and redraw. The last major change is the addition of Guard which is a status your Terminators are able to enter into which helps them in close assault. Guard allows the Terminator to re-roll one of their dice in close assault.

The negative change that happened to the Terminators is the way that Sustained Fire works. In 1st Ed, the more you shot at a target the better chance you had of hitting them. For example first shot attempt required a 6, second attempt a 5+, third attempt a 4+…etc. The 3rd Ed rules work the same way, but now they just allow you to go down to 5+.  Overall though a minor negative compared to the other bonuses that the Terminators were given. Some other things the game introduces this time around is the powerful Librarian character for the Terminators and the massive Broodlord for the Genestealer player. Both of which can be game-changers for one side or the other depending on how they are used.

Overall I’m a little mixed on the rule changes but overall I think they are for the better. Since many of the missions from the 1st Ed core set are included, the changes mess with the balance since these missions were not adjusted for the rule changes. But when playing with the changes it is a new experience playing the old scenarios again. Some I just think work better under the old system - the second scenario for example, where the Terminator’s goal is to kill a set number of Genestealers. Unjamming a bolter on overwatch used to take 3 AP, now a Terminator is able to jam and reset three times for the same amount of CP’s. With the long corridors in the second scenario, this means the Genestealer has to potentially run down the same corridor for three turns while a well placed Terminator unloading on him with Overwatch the entire time. Before the Genestealer’s tactic was to throw some cannon fodder out there in hope the Terminator jammed and then swarm in the rest of the troops behind him hopefully defeating him in close assault and causing a hole to form in the Terminator’s line. Now, that doesn’t work as well because jams typically don’t stay around for long.

I do think this is the definitive edition of the game. The additions they included like the Librarian, Broodlord and additional Terminator weapons provides the players with more variety than the base set of 1st Ed offered. The models are amazing looking but their usefulness is a little questionable. When I first saw all the different poses that the Genestealers had, the first words through my head were “F’ing Awesome!” But as I started to play as the Genestealers they became a pain in the ass. With the one uniform pose from the 1st Ed, they lined up very nicely down those 1″ wide corridor sections even though they took up a lot more room than 1″ square. Now with the different poses and limbs jutting out at different angles, they just do no line up as nicely. This is a rare instance where I actually wish they kept the uniformity to allow for easier use during gameplay. The other gripe I have is the high-gloss boards. I just don’t like looking down and seeing glare coming back at me from the boards. To me it kind of takes away the dark and gloomy aspect the narrative portrays. But the quality of the board pieces and just about every other component in the game is amazing and some of the best I’ve seen from any boardgame.

Overall this is a game that any self-respecting Space Hulk fan should have in their collection and is also a game that anyone who enjoys thematic and tense games should own. Compared to my original rating of 1st Edition which, upon reflection, was a little under-rated, this one scores some pretty high marks. The quality is the best I’ve seen in any game, the variety was upped quite a bit with additional scenarios and weapon types as well as the introduction of the Librarian and Broodlord and these additions address a few of my original gripes with the game.

Updated Rating: 4.5 out of 5

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: Games - Board Games, Space Hulk by LordVonTush
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Castle Panic by Fireside Games really came out of nowhere for me. The game was already out and released by the time I started to hear a little bit of buzz on various websites I frequent but the buzz that I heard was pretty positive so I started to dig a little bit deeper to really see what this game was about. Two of the first things I noticed was the price which is a MSRP of $34.99. As I feel $34.99 is the new $19.99 from a few years back I was excited. The next thing I noticed was it allowed for solitaire play. I am personally a big fan of solitaire games just because when I’m sitting around with little to do I find more enjoyment out of learning and playing a baordgame system than watching TV or playing a video game (though I will admit I do enjoy both of those activities). When I’m looking for something a little more mentally engaging though I typically turn to some sort of boardgame.

Castle Panic I heard plays much like a Tower Defense Game. I’ve only played one round of one game that would be considered a TD Game, but I’d say that is an accurate description. The game comes with a board, six wall sections, six tower sections, a heap of monster tokens, a deck of cards and a six sided die. Your six tower pieces are set up in a circle in the center of the board with your wall sections forming another circle around the tower. Radiating out from those circles are three more circles that show what defenders are able to attack monsters in those sections (Swordsmen, Knights, Archers). Beyond that is one more circle which is the Forest section and is where the monsters are coming out of to storm your castle. These rings of circles are further divided into six sections much like the very best Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Pies are divided into six sections with pairs of pie pieces divided up further into red, green and blue colors.

Game play is simple where players first draw up their hand of cards, discard one card and draw one, trade up to one card with another person, play cards, move the monsters and then draw more monsters. Many of the cards are simple cards like Blue Knight or Red Swordsman or Green Archer - Basically when you play a card like one of those a chosen monster in that specific area takes a hit. There are some other special cards like colored heroes which allow you to hit a monster in any of the ranged, or there are defender types that allow you to hit a monster in any section - For example a colorless archer which would allow you to hit a monster in any color archer area. In addition there are some other special cards like the mighty Berserker which kills off any one monster no matter the area, or a card that allows you to draw two extra cards, or a card that lets you reinforce a wall, in addition to a few others.

After giving the game a first solo play I realized that cycling your hand of cards was the key to this game. Planning ahead really is not that big of a factor because that typically means you are holding onto cards instead of cycling your hand trying to obtain cards that will cause damage that turn. The last game that Deacon and I played, I was dealt cards which would allow me to rebuild a destroyed wall in my initial hand and I held onto them cutting out a third of my hand from play and that just started a snowball effect where the monsters were coming out quicker than we were able to fight them off. By the time I had a chance to rebuild a wall I actually had three choices available to me because in one turn three walls came down. We proceeded to lose that game by the way.

So the strategy to the game is fairly straight forward: Cycle cards, strike early, strike often. That did disappoint me to some extent but after a while what I realized was, this game reminds me of old Nintendo games. Those games that you’d just sit down to play when there was some time to blow and TV or outdoor activities just didn’t sound appealing. Games where you had them down so well that you fully expected to beat them or games that were difficult yet still enjoyable to play. Games like those keep popping into my head when I play Castle Panic. I will admit that in the past I have held it against games that were like this which are ways to pass the time instead of being tactical or strategic or thought provoking and I will admit I did have my head up my ass for a brief period. This game is a heap of random but that is not a bad thing as long as the company you keep as well as yourself had a good time. For me Castle Panic delivers that good time. Overall the game is fun and light and plays quickly, but it isn’t that deep or strategic of a game.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: Castle Panic, Games - Board Games by LordVonTush
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