When Horus Heresy was announced I was filled with excitement since Fantasy Flight Games was giving their treatment to the epic battle in the 40k cannon that set the tone for the grim and dark future that is Warhammer 40,000. As photos started to pop up showing the components and the production quality I frothed even more at the mouth. There was no question that HH was a game that I had to play. The day finally came where Deacon’s copy arrived in the mail and soon after the date was set where we ourselves were going to determine the path of mankind in this landmark battle. But then we started playing…

The first thing I noticed after we started to play was that this game was more FFG than GW. Charm and character are words that I use to describe the boardgames of Games Workshop. Fairly straight forward rules with simple, intuitive and quick gameplay were traits to many of their titles. Outside of the 40k theme, FFG removed these intangibles and instead went in the FFG direction which is intricate and interwoven mechanics and procedures. Which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, but for me I quickly sensed that my personal peak in terms of interest and enjoyment had already passed during the discovery phase of the game. Now that I had it in front of me and was playing I realized that what I wanted from the game was a GW game updated to modern game design standards through FFG’s resources. What I realized was that HH was a FFG design with a 40k theme and for me that was not what I wanted - It just felt like more of same. The “innovation” that was touted in the promotional material felt very similar to mechanics in their other games like Red November and StarCraft: The Boardgame although some twists had been added.

For me this game was a flop - mentally there was a point where in my head a sound echoed that could only be described as a large-mouth bass slipping off of your hook and hitting the wooden dock creating a thud that was hollow with a hint of a smacking sound from the fish’s slime coat. That sound was my hope and optimism for this game dropping as I realized that the game is not what I was hoping or wanted it to be. With opaque gameplay and layers that I felt were more bloated than Nurgle’s gut, my interest and enthusiasm waned.

Horus Heresy is a fine game and I was expecting it to quickly become one of my favorites and perhaps that is partially to blame for the downfall in my personal opinion. The rules and mechanics work and there are tons of options for players to pursue during the course of the Assault on Terra. And from what I can tell everything functions well and for all practical purposes work. For me though the bloat from things like the strategic map and the piles of piles of cards were just too much. Had the older GW design characteristics like dice and charts and a general lightheartedness been captured it would have fallen more inline with my expectations but as it stands, outside of the 40k theme, there is nothing in the game that really kept my attention or interest. Perhaps with a dozen or more plays this opaque feeling I get from the game would thin out or the cumbersome nature would disappear but even if I committed that much time and effort into this game I just do not think that it would inject any fun into the game which I feel is sorely lacking.

At this point I will admit that I have only played one full game and one partial game so you can take what I said with however many grains of salt you want, but truth be told I just don’t know if I’ll ever summon up the enthusiasm to play the game again. After my first partial play I felt that the only thing pulling me back was the 40k theme and after the full game even that was gone especially when I noticed my mind wandering less than a third of the way through the game to the game we were playing after HH. What I will say about the game is try before you buy as it will likely not meet your expectations if you enjoy the intangible traits that GW games used to have like I do. I wish I had it in me to play the game some more and offer up a full review, but I just don’t.

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: Games - Board Games, Horus Heresy by LordVonTush
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Cooperative games are ones that I find myself drawn to for whatever reason. Part of the appeal I feel is because I trick myself to thinking that the lack of competition between players will get some of my very casual gamer friends to play. The other easy justification is often co-op games can be played solitaire without much in the way of rule changes or things like that. You just have to take on the roll of a few players by yourself. Pandemic appeared to be a game that would deliver a solitaire puzzle as well as be simple enough to allow my casual gamer friends to play. Both of which the game delivered on to an extent.

In Pandemic players become an emergency response specialist team sent to control sudden outbreaks of various diseases that are breaking out at pandemic levels (hence the name) world wide. The game contains a map of the world with various cities called out and lines which denote travel routes (for both the players and the diseases). Some wooden cubes which represent the viruses, diseases are of four different colors which are isolated by regions. For example the US and Europe are afflicted by the blue cubes, the Middle East by black cubes, South America and Africa by yellow cubes and Asia by red cubes. In addition to the disease cubes, there are pawns for the players and two decks of cards. The two decks of cards form the bulk of play.

The first deck forms the Infection Deck. This is just a deck with all the cities and when a card is required to be drawn from this deck the top card is flipped and a cube of the proper color is placed in that city. What is interesting about this deck of cards is that there are points in the game when the discards need to be shuffled (prior to the deck being exhausted). These are shuffled and placed on the top of the draw deck so what happens is you have the same cities popping up over and over again which I thought was a neat little mechanic to detail how a city, once infected, has a difficult time of eradicating the virus from the population.

The second deck is the player deck which contains yet another set of city cards in their respective colors but also has a few special event cards as well as the dreaded Epidemic Cards. Prior to play this deck is stacked to a certain degree. After players are dealt their initial starting hand the deck is divided into equal piles (the number of piles depends on the “difficulty level” being played with more decks being harder). To these decks one Epidemic Card is mixed in. Each deck is then shuffled individually and then stacked on top of each other to form one overall deck. The Epidemic Cards in effect becomes the game clock since the players must satisfy the winning conditions prior to the last card being drawn, and if they don’t they lose as the world succumbs to virus outbreaks of horrendous and devastating scales. Epidemic Cards are also the trigger for that neat little mechanic where the Infection Deck has the discards shuffled and placed on top of that deck.

When I initially bought the game I was having a blast with the game and I really thought it was the cat’s pajamas. It combined simple gameplay with some interesting little twists and was pretty thematic. The rules were simple and easy to teach and for new players to grasp. But after a while it started to lose some of that shine. Each game felt like they were just the same thing over and over again which in reality it was. The only real variation were the roles that players had. As each role has a different bonus they can provide the team, the roles drawn was about the only true variety. Then as players became accustomed to the roles they fell into predictable patterns. Overall the it got a little stale.

On the Brink was then released which introduced new roles for the players to use as well as Virulent Strain which makes one of the disease colors react and grow in different ways as well as the Mutation Challenge which adds in a fifth color (purple) which behaves in a different manor than the other four colors. On the Brink added variety, variation and some unpredictability. What was once getting stale, started to have some differences from game to game. The new roles that were added makes a wide possibility of potential teams with each team having some strengths and weaknesses. The changes to the behaviors of the diseases added some nice twists. In other words to me the game felt complete when playing with On the Brink. Also included in OtB is the BioTerrorist option which has one person running around the board via hidden map setting off bio-chemical weapons in various cities and generally causing havoc. I haven’t had the opportunity to play with this variant yet but I do look forward to when the opportunity presents itself.

Pandemic though is a tough game for me to recommend, especially since it doesn’t feel complete unless you have OtB. I love the simple and easy to grasp rules, but the gameplay at first feels a little opaque and puzzle like. To a new player, the rules aren’t intuitive and often I felt like they were looking to me and my past experience with the game to make their choices for them. Once I thought this game would have mass appeal, but as time wore on I see that this just isn’t the case. In my opinion the game is fun, but not great. What I feel the game really lacks is those moments of disbelief or those moments of exuberance where things go horribly wrong or where the odds are defied causing hoots and hollers in excitement or disbelief, the game just felt level even though the tension builds through the game - It is usually in those moments where I personally derive the most fun from games and unfortunately Pandemic just lacks those moments.  It is one of those games where you should try it at least once because it may be the perfect game, or it could just be boring and procedural depending on your preferences.

Rating: 3 out of 5 (base game); 3.5 out of 5 (with expansion)

‘Til Next time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: Games - Board Games, Pandemic by LordVonTush
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Fantasy Flight Games has been quite busy these past few weeks. Expansions have been announced, new game releases are in the pipe and for me it is very exciting because all the games I’m about to mention I have some fondness for.

Months back FFG acquired the rights to 2-player tactical skirmish game Tannhauser. At that time they also announced that they were planning a revised rulebook tweaking and fixing a few things they thought could be done better and to reflect some of the feedback the game received. To be honest I thought the game was dead and forgotten, but I logged onto the FFG website today and there was the announcement for the new rulebook as well as a pdf preview of a few pages. I haven’t had a chance to take a look at the revised rules at this point, but it is on my long “to-do” list. I look forward to dusting this game off once the new rules are released. They will be available for a $5 download or a $9.95 from your local hobby stores. Expected Spring 2010.

Next up is another game I thought FFG forgot about which is Tide of Iron. A WWII tactical game which feels to me like a mix between typical hex and chit wargames and a GW miniatures game - Odd combination but it works. Fury of the Bear brings the war to the eastern front and introduces the Russian forces. What concerns me is that this expansion has a MSRP of $79.95 which is what ToI originally retailed for when it first came out but with a lot less stuff. My theory though, is that ToI has seen its last expansion for various reasons, perhaps a new scenario book, but I don’t see this game going into the Pacific Theater, but if you haven’t picked this up by now, I am a pessimistic person. Expected Summer 2010.

Runebound I thought was going to be a great adventure game. It had all the hallmarks of a classic with simple rules, but in practice it fell short for me. The dice system for movement I thought just got in the way and the game lasted way too long for what it offered. But during this past weekend’s “Realms of Terrinoth” event held at the FFG Event Center a new expansion was announced which introduces a jungle world to the desert, ice and water worlds already visited in prior expansions. Not much is known at this time, but it sounds like there will be rules for a shorter game which I think is greatly needed - I just hope that they are backwards compatible with the previous expansions. (EDIT: FFG has posted their news item announcement regarding this expansion)

Lastly is a follow up to a review I did a few entries ago I did a review for the Games Workshop game DungeonQuest and I mentioned that there were rumors that FFG had bought the rights to the game and would be publishing a version. These rumors turned out to be true and unveiled at the “Realms of Terrinoth” event was the box for their release. There isn’t much information out on the game right now. It sounds like it will support up to six (where the first game was only four) and it has been rebranded to fit into FFG’s proprietary Terrinoth world which is the same world as Runewars, Descent and Runebound. I personally could care less about the change of worlds, but if they make it to where you can’t fall down a pit to your death on the first turn of the game I will be very disappointed.

EDIT: Here is the official announcement from FFG regarding the release of DungeonQuest. The do list the game as 1-4 players though so my hopes for up to six players has been squashed.

For the most part these announcements have me very excited and I personally look forward to the majority of them.

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: News - Random by LordVonTush
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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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Looks like there’s some really cool “hybrid” gaming systems being developed now - as technology and classic gaming are merging into an all new type of beast.  I can see this type of thing really catching on as the price of these “surface” computers come down and become more mainstream - and no special headgear needed unlike the “SCOPE” technology featured on this site a few months ago.  Link

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DEACON

Filed under: News - Random by DEACON
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