I just recently learned about this game, and it sounded interesting so I gave it a go with the family over the past weekend.  It turned out to be a blast, and super easy to learn and pick up.  You’ll need a pretty large group to play - at least 8 people, but if you have a large family like mine, I suggest you give it a try sometime.

There’s been a few commercial editions of this game released, but to play Werewolf, all you really need is a simple deck of cards.  If you’d like a printer friendly version of the rules, click here.  This game is an experiment in mob rule, and gets really loud, but damn is it fun.  The game goes like this:

SET-UP
1. Assemble a group of 8 or more players.
2. From a deck of normal playing cards take 2 jokers, a king, a queen, and enough number cards so that there’s a single card for each player. Put the rest of the deck away.
3. Shuffle these cards and deal one, face down, to each player
4. The players with the Joker card are the “Werewolves”. The player with the King is the “Moderator”. And the player with the queen is the “Mystic”. All other players are “Villagers”.

THE PREMIS
The players are divided into 2 teams, the werewolves and the townsfolk.
The werewolves’ goal is to kill off the townsfolk without being killed themselves.
The goal of the townsfolk is to kill off both werewolves.
One of the townsfolk is the Mystic who has the power to detect the werewolves, but must be careful not to let the werewolves know who they are – the Mystic is the werewolves’ greatest threat.
The Moderator runs the game, and does not participate directly – like a referee. It is their job to keep things moving and entertaining.
During the game, players are killed and considered “dead”. Dead players are not allowed to converse, confer, or otherwise communicate with any “living” player.
The game alternates between night and day phases and begins at night.

NIGHT
The night phase begins with the Moderator instructing all players to close their eyes – it is night time, and the townsfolk are sleeping. The Moderator is the only player allowed to speak at night – all other players should remain silent. It helps to have music playing to muffle any sounds.
Once all the players have their eyes closed the Moderator says “Werewolves open your eyes…” The werewolves open their eyes and recognize each other.
Once the Moderator knows who the werewolves are, the Moderator then says “Werewolves choose your kill…” The werewolves then agree on which player they wish to kill. This must be done as silently as possible using pointing, hand gestures, etc.
Once the werewolves have agreed, the Moderator says “Werewolves close your eyes…” At which point, the werewolves close their eyes again.
Next, the Moderator says “Mystic, open your eyes…” The mystic should now open their eyes. The Moderator then says “Who bears the curse?…” The mystic now silently points to any player. The Moderator should now indicate if the chosen player is indeed a werewolf with a head nod. The Moderator then says “Mystic close your eyes…” The mystic should then close their eyes once more.

DAY
Once all the players have their eyes closed, the Moderator then says “It is day, and insert victim’s name was killed during the night…” The players can now open their eyes. The killed player flips their card over to reveal what card they drew. The player is now “Dead” and out of the game.
The angry townsfolk must now vote on who should be lynched for the crime. At this point, all living players argue over who should be chosen.
The werewolves should pretend to be just normal townsfolk. Anything is allowed here, lying and trickery is the name of the game. Once the players have reached a majority decision, that player is killed, and their card is flipped over – they are now “Dead”.
After this is done, a new night phase begins. Dead players can keep their eyes open and watch the action, but can no longer participate.

VICTORY
If at any time the number of werewolves is equal to or greater than the number of townsfolk remaining, the werewolves win. If the two werewolves are killed, the townsfolk win.
If the players wish to play again, shuffle up all the cards, and deal them out randomly to each player, thus beginning a new game.

The game is all about lying, acting, alliances and betrayal.  And it’s interesting to see how people quickly fall into their given roles each round with surprising intensity.  Give it a go if you have the chance, it’s awesome.

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DEACON

Filed under: Games - Card Games, Werewolf by DEACON
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I got this cool little game for Christmas (Thanks LordVonTush!).  Its a remake of an old Games Workshop game reprinted by Fantasy Flight - who has been doing a great service to these old gems lately.  It has been revamped with new art, which is awesome, and scaled down in size so that it fits in the cool little “book shelf” sized boxes, which I’ve become a big fan of.  Otherwise, the old rules remain basically untouched, which is a good thing in my opinion - games that throw balance to the in wind as a sacrifice to the gods of good fun are rare these days.

In Chaos Marauders, each player controls a chunk of a single chaos war band heading off to their next merciless raid.  Your goal is to prove to the other players that your gang of baddies is worthy of leading the horde, and that means bloody infighting, and general chaos.  You do this by completing three “battle lines”.  A battle line is basically a series of at least four cards, sandwiched between a standard on one side, and a musician on the other.  You want to make these lines as big as possible, because the bigger they are, the more points they are worth at games end, ‘course the bigger they are, the more difficult they are to complete.  Once a line is complete, it can march over and attack one of the other players incomplete lines, taking all their good stuff for themselves, and then becomes immune to such attacks.  If you manage to have three complete battle lines at the end of your turn, you trigger end game, and points are counted up.  Points are awarded for all sorts of things, like being the first to complete three battle lines, having battle lines of a certain size, completing sets of multiple cards, having various special cards on your size, etc.  So basically, the goal is to complete your lines as quickly as possible, making them as large as possible, with as many goodies packed in as possible, all the while screwing your opponent’s progress who is trying to do the same!

Like I’ve stated before, I love games with simple rules, and lots of flavour to add spice, and this game is all about spice - chaotic spice.  There’s actually two rulebooks included in the game, one for the rules of play, and another that goes over what all the wonderfully weird cards do.  You can try all you want to execute a perfect game plan - an opponent may suddenly draw a “Skaven Warp Fire Thrower” and simply burn one of your lines, completed or no, to ash right before your eyes.  Perhaps you draw the troll card which wanders through your army gobbling up all you magic artifacts.  Maybe a chaos general shows up and takes every third of your cards, or maybe forth, it’s all random depending on how you roll the “Cube of Devastation”.  As the name suggests, the game is chaotic as hell, and if you want to win, you have to learn how to deal with it and bounce back from huge losses.  Above all, you have to come to terms with the fact that nothing is certain in this game.  And that’s the aspect of this game that will drive people to set their copy on fire or love it as I do.  If you must have control in your games, play chess.  If you want to enjoy a chaotic game which you have very little control over, play Chaos Marauders, or play chess - only in a car going off-road.

Course, this isn’t a game that’s the star of the show on your weekly game night.  But when I think about it, none of my favorite games are.  But it’s definitely fun, and quick too, which is another thing I like about it - devoting any more time to an exercise in randomness would sort of ruin what makes the randomness fun. 

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DEACON

Filed under: Chaos Marauders, Games - Card Games by DEACON
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I had the pleasure of trying out this new game last night, and I gottah say - It’s pretty damn sweet.  At it’s core, Summoner Wars is a non-collectible tactical card game, where cards move and attack on a board much like pawns in a board game.  In a nutshell, each player begins the game with a single “summoner” and a small cadre of minions.  The goal of the game is to manoeuvre across the board and kill the enemy summoner - like in chess, you kill the enemy head honcho, and you win.

Summoner Wars from Plaid Hat Games rings in at $24.95, and currently, there’s two starter sets - though more are on the way.  Pick either one you want, it’s the same game, but each one features two completely different factions with their own style of play.  We were able to try out all four factions, and they’re all great, have their own “feel”, and compete well against each other. 

A starter comes with everything you need to play - two complete race decks, dice, wound markers, rule book, and a game mat.  With the exception of the game mat all of the components are of great quality.  The cards are printed on nice stock and feature really great looking art.  The rule book is also nicely done, and easy to understand.  You should be able to read through the rules and get to playing in ten minutes or so.  The game mat is functional, but is simply a black and white print which refuses to lay flat.  While not a big deal, it’s quality stands out like a sore thumb when compared to the quality of the rest of the starter.  I can imagine that many people who adopt this game will be looking for alternatives, or simply making their own.

Each summoner has a starting set up, which includes the summoner, a wall, and various troops which are set up in fixed positions on your half of the board.  At first, I wasn’t sure about this - I like options.  But after a few games, I came to like the system.  Basically the starting set-ups allow you to skip a few turns where nothing would really happen anyway, and get right to the action.

Game play is extremely simple.  You can move three of your units 2 squares, then attack with three of your units.  Units can attack enemy cards that are adjacent to them, or up to three squares away if they have missile weapons.  When a unit attacks, you roll a number of dice equal to their attack value, and every three or higher scores a hit on the enemy.  If a unit takes enough hits, they are killed.  Sounds pretty easy right?

Well, like all great games, the devil is in the details, and the subtle rules each race employs are what makes this game really shine.  For example, the elves have units that teleport around the board, archers that shoot 4 squares instead of 3, and warriors that automatically hit each time they attack.  The orcs are powerful, but unreliable, with some of their units able to move across the board and attack multiple times in a turn, so long as the dice gods are in a good mood.  Generally, a given unit has but a single special rule, and it’s easy to memorize them, and begin to formulate strategies with them even before your first game is over. 

The game is fast paced, and your minions will fall quickly.  Luckily, your summoner can summon new troops as the game progresses.  This is done during your turn by spending magic cards.  What’s interesting is how magic is generated.  At the end of your turn, you can discard cards from your hand into your magic card pile - thus converting unwanted troops, walls, or events into the resource that allows you to summon new units during future turns.  In addition to this, each enemy unit destroyed goes right into your magic pile, thus making you more powerful with each kill.  This mechanic promotes aggressive and well thought out tactics, and is probably the aspect of the game I enjoy the most. 

Once you pay the summoning cost of a unit, you can place it adjacent to one of your walls.  Walls are important as they provide cover for your troops in addition to being the point from which new troops are summoned.  Like units, walls can be destroyed - though they are much tougher, and doing so can severely hamper the enemy.  No walls - no new troops. 

All in all, Summoner Wars is a great tactical game.  Games are often very close, and usually leave you wanting a rematch.  Play time is quick - you should be able to complete a game in about a half hour once you get the hang of things.  This game is expandable, and your deck can be customized, though luckily, the card packs are not random, so you know exactly what you are buying.  This is a big selling point for me - I hate the money sinks that are random collectible games.

So if you like tactical games with a cool theme and interesting mechanics, give this one a shot.  It offers a sizable bang for your buck.

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DEACON

Filed under: Games - Card Games, Summoner Wars by DEACON
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Today is dank and wet in my neck of the woods…Perfect gaming weather, of course this damn 8-5 job really puts a damper on days like today where I just want to sit inside and push to plastic guys around a table. Oh well…So I guess I’ll do the next best thing, talk about games. Today I’m just going to talk about a card game Family Business (FB) published by Mayfair Games.

Rarely these days do you find a game that comes in an actual box for less than $20 so when I saw this game with a MSRP of $14.99 I decided to break one of my rules of game purchases and make an impulse purchase. After a few years of making many impulse purchases I’ve found that 9 times out of 10 the game sucks (Deacon might remember Abuse! The Final Insult). They either never make it to the table, since I had no drive to play it until I saw it checking out so once I get it home that lack of drive is still present, or if it does hit the table it is usually a bust and then sits on my shelf instead of the retailer’s shelf where it belongs.

My interest in the mafia, especially the Chicago Mafia, has been a part of me as long as I remember (but for whatever reason I still haven’t seen any of the Godfather movies) so as I mentioned I threw my impulse purchase ban to the wind and walked up to the counter with the game I wanted in hand (Fields of Fire) and this small box stacked on top of it and for once an impulse purchase actually turned out to be quite a blast.

FB was originally released circa 1982 so it is a game that has been around for a while but one that sadly gets lost in all the noise surrounding this hobby these days. The concept is simple, you play as the leader of a crime family and the goal is to conduct your business in a way that will leave you as the last family standing and all others dead. There are two types of cards in this game, the action cards and the gangster cards. The gangster cards act as your “life” while the action cards you play during your turn and provide things like police protection for your gangsters or contracts to put a hit out on another player’s gangers. Each player starts off with nine gangsters which are placed in front of them (here I should note that though each gangster has a unique drawing and name based off of real people, there is no difference in terms of gameplay, they just act as a mechanic to keep track of your “life”). Players are also dealt a starting hand and setup is complete.

The process during your turn is simple; you draw a card to your hand and play a card from your hand. There are three types of cards: Red Cards are your “attack” cards; Blue Cards “counter” red cards; Green Cards act as “rescue” cards. The majority of the red cards are what they call “Contract” cards and are the means to winning. When you play a contract you nominate a player and then anyone has a chance to cancel out the contract via a blue card. If the contract goes thru then the person named takes one of their gangsters and places in the “Hit List”. What the Hit List is, is a line of gangsters in the order which they were placed on the Hit List and once the Hit List reaches six gangers then a Mob War breaks out…More on the Mob War in a bit.

So as play proceeds more and more gangsters will show up on the Hit List. Here I will talk about the green cards for a bit. Often what those cards do is allow you to swap the gangsters positions on the Hit List, pull members off the hit list…etc. Basically it is stuff that allows you to manage who and where people show up on the Hit List. Once a Hit List reaches six gangsters a Mob War begins. When a Mob War starts game play continues as normal, but at the beginning of every player’s turn (before they do anything) the gangster in the first position on the Hit List is whacked, that gangster is said to be up against The Wall and removed from the game placing them in the R.I.P. pile. This happens at the beginning of every player’s turn until all the gangsters are killed or a card is played that cancels out the Mob War.

Well that is the game in a nutshell. What I really like about the game is the interaction. With a larger group (the more players the better in this game) possibilities open up where alliances can be formed with other family leaders or unsteady truces can be established. Players not only have to rely on good card play (and a lucky draw here or there is nice as well) but they also have to negotiate with people to strengthen their positions in the game. FB is a game where you have to be aggressive and a passive player, if not forgotten by everyone else, is bound to have a family which isn’t one of the last remaining.

The card design and graphics are nice but create a little too cartoon-y of an atmosphere but perhaps that is to gloss over the fact that in a five player game at least 36 gangsters are found dead in the streets. One thing I wish Mayfair did was include a little paragraph that explains the cards a little bit better. Once players get a feel for the game the one line makes sense, but if you’re playing for the first time the short description at times adds more confusion to a person trying to figure the game out. A little paragraph would have helped a lot in this case.

The other “problem” with the game (I use quotes because I don’t see it as such, but the current environment frowns upon this) is player elimination. The point of the game is to be the last person with gangsters left in front of them. Meaning, players will be eliminated from the game. If this is a problem and your group requires all people to be participating then not only would the player elimination be a problem, but chances are the aggressive nature of the game would not work for your group either. For me though, the game is short enough that there isn’t much time that a person is sitting around while the game finishes up, also combine the fact that if you’re out of the game, chances are just about everyone else is teetering on that brink.

For me, this game was a perfect fit into my collection. The card based nature (with no other components needed) makes it assessable to new people because you won’t be scaring them off with all sorts of bits and piles of cards. The theme is one that many Americans have a romance with due to particular movies like the aforementioned Godfather as well as Casino and Goodfellas to name a few others. As I mentioned though you have to go after people in this game, it can be downright mean at times if alliances form and someone is ganged up on, so if you have a person or persons in your group that takes things like that personally then I wouldn’t bother with the game. If you do have a group of people that have an arsehole streak in them or just like to have a good time, then chances are this game will be a success.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: Family Buisness, Games - Card Games by LordVonTush
2 Comments »

Lost Cities is a tough game for me to ramble on about. Out of all the games in my collection it has received the most plays in the recent years, but not for reasons of it being a great game. It is an interesting game which is accessible to most people and if it was published by a major publisher with main stream, big-box retailers, this game has a great chance of success on a large scale.

With Lost Cities, the theme means nothing to the game. The premise behind it is players take the role of archeologists exploring ruins of ancient civilizations. Deep down though the game is just hand management and has many parallels to card games such as standard solitaire or gin rummy. The game is played with a deck of over-sized cards and a board which looks good but is unnecessary.

Players take turns playing cards from their hand on their side of the board which matches the color on the board (for example a green card goes in the green section of the board). These are called “expeditions” and each player runs their expedition from their side of the board. The deck is divided up into five colors or suits with cards numbers 2-10 as well as three “handshake” cards. I’m going to bypass a rules summary here because the rules are simple enough to where a summary would just be a retyping of the rules. Basically the game comes down to knowing the scoring system (which will take a round or two for new people) and once knowing the scoring the system how to manage your hand to maximize the scoring possibilities.

As I mentioned I’m torn on LC. On one hand the game is good, light fun. It is simple and accessible to just about everyone who enjoys card games be it poker, gin, spades, bridge, solitaire…whatever. This, in my experience, has also been problematic. The simple rules and familiar mechanics really does make it a must have in any game collection yet on the other hand, those simple rules and familiar mechanics has also caused a problem for me which soured the game to some extent.

My case in point is when I was teaching some games to a friend of mine who is a poker player through and through. He is also a person that I spent many a college days and nights playing gin rummy. Since this game has familiar aspects when compared to those two games I though it would be a hit. Which it was, but the downside is he no longer had interest in anything else. That caused me to lose any sort of traction on introducing or expanding on any other game that he had interest in and this became, as he described it, “our game”.

So in the grand scheme of things, I was happy to get some gaming in, but all variety was lost and interest in anything else was gone. So that is my word of caution on the game. As I mentioned this game should be in everyone’s collection yet some caution needs to be used on deciding when to introduce this game. Personally during that time I got a little burnt out on the game (three or four games back to back three times a week will do that) but it did provide me with the social experience that games ultimately are meant to provide. For me though, the game doesn’t offer enough depth and variety to justify the amount of plays it was getting and ultimately I feel the game is slightly overrated for the depth and fun it provides, yet LC is still a game that fits very well into any game collection and should be in every game collection.

Rating: 3 out of 5

‘Tile Next Time – Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: Games - Card Games, Lost Cities by LordVonTush
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