By Your Command

Hello people.

Tuesday night down at Enfield Gamers Phil ran a couple of us through the Battlestar Galactica board game, so cue a trademark impressionistic review ;]

Boardgamegeek.com says;

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is an exciting game of mistrust, intrigue, and the struggle for survival. Based on the epic and widely-acclaimed Sci Fi Channel series,

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game puts players in the role of one of ten of their favorite characters from the show. Each playable character has their own abilities and weaknesses, and must all work together in order for humanity to have any hope of survival. However, one or more players in every game secretly side with the Cylons. Players must attempt to expose the traitor while fuel shortages, food contaminations, and political unrest threatens to tear the fleet apart.

After the Cylon attack on the Colonies, the battered remnants of the human race are on the run, constantly searching for the next signpost on the road to Earth. They face the threat of Cylon attack from without, and treachery and crisis from within. Humanity must work together if they are to have any hope of survival…but how can they, when any of them may, in fact, be a Cylon agent?

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is a semi-cooperative game for 3-6 players ages 10 and up that can be played in 2-3 hours. Players choose from pilots, political leaders, military leaders, or engineers to crew Galactica. They are also dealt a loyalty card at the start of the game to determine if they are a human or Cylon along with an assortment of skill cards based on their characters abilities. Players then can move and take actions either on Galactica, on Colonial 1, or in a Viper. They need to collect skill cards, fend off Cylon ships, and keep Galactica and the fleet jumping. Each turn also brings a Crisis Card, various tasks that players must overcome. Players need to play matching skill cards to fend off the problems; skill cards that don't match hinder the players success.

Fate could be working against the crew, or there could be a traitorous Cylon! As players get closer and closer towards reaching their Earth, another round of loyalty cards are passed out and more Cylons may turn up. If players can keep their up their food stores, fuel levels, ship morale, and population, and they can keep Galactica in one piece long enough to make it to Earth, the Humans win the game. But if the Cylon players reveal themselves at the right moment and bring down Galactica, the Humans have lost.

I'm a huge Galactica fan and had heard good things about the game but in honesty found things a little bit slow to start off with. That was probably because there just three of us, the minimum number required, and we were obviously learning our way. Once things picked up the subtleties of the game came through as different characters archetypes have access to different resources.

I was Cylon from the outset and it became quite a fine balancing act to not be too obvious about it. I did rather give myself away at one point at which point the sub-game of bluff and deceit kicked in fully additional another dimension entirely which with more players would become far stronger.

All in all a good game I'd happily play again. Good stuff ;)

Are you not Entertained?

Hello people,

The recent Gladiatorial theme around Enfield Gamers has continued as Rich has recently picked up a copy of the Spartacus boardgame which sports the tag-line A Game of Blood and Treachery...which is highly accurate.

The blurb is also rather accurate;
In Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery, an exciting game of twisted schemes and bloody combats inspired by the hit STARZ Original series, each player takes on the role of Dominus, head of a rising house in the ancient Roman city of Capua. Each house is competing for Influence to gain the favor of Rome. Through a combination of political schemes and glorious battles on the arena sands your house will rise in fame and stature. As Dominus, you have a variety of resources at your disposal. Guards protect you from schemes launched by rivals. Slaves run your household and earn gold. Gladiators compete to bring glory to themselves and influence to their Dominus.

Three main phases occur in each game round of Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery.
The Intrigue Phase is when players launch their Schemes, hoping to raise their fortunes while undermining their rivals. Schemes and Reactions are represented by cards in the Intrigue Deck. Players wield their Influence to put their Schemes into play, often asking for (or bribing) another player’s help in hatching the most complex plots.

The Market Phase is when players buy, sell and trade Assets (Gladiators, Slaves, Equipment and Guards). Players also bid against each other to acquire new Assets at Auction. Wealth is not the only path to success as players bluff and bargain with each other to acquire the Assets they covet.
The Arena Phase is when the bloody games are held. Gladiators from two rival Houses are pitted against each other in a brutal fight for glory. The spectacles of the games are represented by miniature combat on the arena board. Fighters pit their Attack, Defense and Speed dice against one another to determine the victor. All players seek to increase their fortunes by betting on the outcome of the gruesome conflict. Fighters who emerge from the arena victorious gain Favor and their Dominus gain Influence.

The goal of the game is to become the most influential house in Capua, securing your family’s power for years to come. During the game, players will bribe, poison, betray, steal, blackmail, and undermine each other. Gold will change hands again and again to buy support, stay someone’s hand or influence their decisions. Will you be the honorable player whose word is their bond or the treacherous schemer whose alliances change with the wind?

 

Tuesday night we also cracked out The Serpents and The Wolf, the expansion allowing six of us to backstab, plot and occasionally do battle in the arena. Myself, Rich and Mr C had got a couple of games in a couple of Fridays back so had a bit of an idea what we were doing but it's not a difficult game to pick up.

The game itself is yet another high quality offering with good elements of resource management (gold does tend to talk though) and plenty of interaction between players. The combat system once onto the sands is quick, simple yet has enough to producing an engaging combat. Each house has its own special rules and abilities, flavoured to the series, and there are genuinely multiple ways to win the game, it's not an auto to build a stable of stone cold killers.

With the expansion the idea is for upto four Houses putting forward a combatant into the arena to fight in teams of two. We gave that bit a miss with three new players but it soon proved that it was otherwise too easy to sideline the more combat ready Houses. I'd made the early running, BIG mistake, only to be hauled back down toward the gutter. By mid-game a definite alliance had appeared between MrC and Rich. The rest of us weren't having that so when Ian had a chance for glory we backed him all the way!

Give it a go if you get the chance, well worth it for the quote opportunites alone :)

What would Jason Statham do?

Evening people.

Last night was the latest instalment of Enfield Gamers narrative Zombiecide campaign. With a few extra bodies in the mix there were seven of us playing, which  gave scope for a touch of in-cooperative play ;)

While Mr C and Shado represented the Committee Of Cooperative Statistics (COCS) myself and Shaun established the Peoples Republic of Do-What-You-Want (PROD) ;) Soon it was a classic battle of stats vs gut feeling with our three compatriots torn between each manifesto. Toe the statistical line or stick it to da' Man (dice gods). 

Snowy Leopards!! ahem.......

The rally crys were much stronger from PROD and soon focused on the cinematic theme of the game. Jon was playing Rick, who is basically Jason Statham so up went the cry "What would Jason Statham do?". Damien was playing Derek who was quickly given a midlands accent, while I had Woody Harrelson who legged it to the pimp mobile and started shooting.

Back to the game the scenario turned tough quickly with COCS sneaking through the buildings, both female characters, while PROD jumped into a patrol car performing doughnuts and drive-bys with wild abandon. In the end it was the PROD pro-mayhem agenda that somehow won through whilst COCS got jumped by a horde of walkers given bonus actions, while Jon / Jason watched on with a steely look of revenge in his eye!

Following a final flurry of road-rage and flying lead we just about edged the scenario though Rob died once, becoming a Zom-Vivor and Mr C died twice, becoming worm food.

All in all a good night and a highly enjoyable game. I still think drive-bys are a bit strong and not sure about Zom-Vivors, surely the other guys would just cap them?, but all good gory fun that adds spice. There was even talk of assigning by characters by looks and personality, now there's a can of worms!!

Snowy Leopards!!

Kicking it up a notch

Last couple of hours of the Zombicide Season II KickStarter and time to put my money where my mouth is. Not only my moola as Mr C (housemate / landlord / fellow nerd) has gone in halves. We've upgraded to Fugitive for a full copy of both Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall along with a set of Season 1 tiles and most of the optional survivors.

Finishing up at $285 (£190) we get the following list of swag;
- 138 zombies
- 20 zombie dogs
- 30 survivors
- 6 doggie companions
That's a feck load of painting come September!

Playing with some stats the KS, at time of typing, took $2.2M with 8800 backers. That's a rough average of $250 per backer. With most backers, 5800, also going for Fugitive that's $100 of extras, inc P+P.
No real comment on the KickStarter business model just some observations :)

Tracking a couple of Season 1 extras on E-Bay, Dave the Geek is on £40 and El Cholo on £50 with six days still to go. That's something of a secondary market which may not be so strong this time round but who knows. We were tempted to go complete set and sell a few but that's just a bit wrong. We're just geeks at the end of the day.

£95 each feels like a lot to throw at a board-game but we can get lots of cross-over use for roleplay any urban gaming of a slightly bloody nature etc etc. Mr C made a very good point that it's a fraction of the price of a 40K or Fantasy army, probably the same for PP, and that's an army not the whole package!

Anyway, between Dreadball and Zombicide I'm likely done for the year.......dependant on SALUTE :)

Grabbed by the Balls

Hello people,

Sounds painful but more the fact that my multi-phased hobby rehabilitation kicked off last night as I got down to the club (Enfield Gamers) last night for the first meeting of the year.

Plenty of new faces and after a fair amount of obligatory banter, geek and otherwise, I got in my opportunity for a third ever game of DreadBall. A good starter on Phase 1 then :)

Waiting for Rich to finish loosing to Shaun I had a good look through Shaun's DreadBall box (KickStarter) and was mightily impressed by the quality of the product.

The hooter sounds as I desperately try to remember what comes next!


1st rush 2 point score.........

The rulebook is the now relatively standard high quality, super glossy, perfect bound offering that we've all become used to. Plenty of good fluff and full colour art to go with the rules which has also become expected.

I had been tempted to pick up an MDF pitch as I wasn't sure how good the standard offering might be given that Mantic have often been criticised for the quality of their card tokens.
I shouldn't have doubted as it's a nice thick high quality printed offering outdoing your standard Blood Bowl board by some margin.

I had also read that the figures are true 25mm and relatively challenging to the regular GW painter. This proved to be the case for the former. I find myself to test the latter supposition.

 

...quickly followed by a 4 pointer!

It having been a good couple of months since last playing my previous games I honestly had to get Rich to remind me how things kicked off (groan....) and there was the odd prompt and explanation along the way.

Having said that I was very quickly playing my third ever game with the full rules, cards , special events etc with no reference to the rulebook what-so-ever.

As much as I'm an "experienced" gamer and prefer to learn by playing rather than reading I do think that this is testament to the smooth and streamlined nature of the game, it's very intuitive. I like that.

So, Phase 3 motivation project is DreadBall then :)

Tsunami strike back......

Back at the game I threw caution into the wind and with the dice in my favour quickly stormed into a 6 point lead when gaining a 7 point lead is an auto-win!

Having just bigged myself and / or the game I did then make a series of noob tactical errors as Rich fought back with his superior knowledge and experience of the game. Even with that undoubted advantage he only just manged to draw the scores to level before producing a super-jam special plat card only last rush score to steal the game.

Plenty of good lessons learnt for my good self which is no bad thing and all in the very best manner.

....to steal the game in overtime!!

So I had fun, learnt some new tricks and got myself well back into the gaming saddle. Good stuff.

 

Mr Christian, my soon to be housemate, also made the trip down for the night and left clutching Shaun's loaned copy of the game. I'm scheduled to move in on Sunday. Sunday night we're playing DreadBall. Phase 2 good to go!

 

All good stuff which leaves with a warm fuzzy geek-glow.

 

Merry New (Gaming) Year indeed :)



Smash and Grab

Brace yourself people its another two parter except this time some actual gaming is involved! With my better half away for the weekend I took the opportunity to go down to Tabletop Nation for Mantic's Dreadball day.

Having heard and read a fair bit about it and as a fan of Mantic's previous boxed games offerings I was keen to have a go. Hell I was just keen to roll some dice.

As a headline I was impressed! Despite obvious comparisons its definitely not a Blood Bowl clone. Think more of Speedball for those of you that remember :)

As often with Mantic there's a simple mechanic with the devil in the detail and a strong element of resource management. It makes for another trademark tactical thinker whilst also rewarding proactive play.

Statlines are basic with plenty of action based options. Actions are completed by achieving a number of successes against a target number. Number of dice rolled is the variable.

Nothing complex but 6s explode for a bonus roll and how much you succeed by gives you bonus actions or defines how hard you hit. Positional and combo play is key.

Rolling play with no reset after a score keeps things fluid as does the incremental scoring system. 1 point for the easiest score upto 4 for the most difficult. Game score is the differential so a couple of big scores can win it for you before time.

In short lots and lots of variation and options. Tactics far beyond a Blood Bowl cage are a definite requirement. Games are quick and pressurised. I'd originally been dubious of chess clock Kings of War but with Dreadball I'd be an instant proponent.

Played three games as a novice and quickly picked it up with plenty of spare time for a mooch between the racks and glances over shoulders. Would have been more than happy to have played a bit more as a mark of my interest.

I did manage to resist "investing" in a starter deal mainly due to my hiatus status. Talk has been to get the PDFs and proxy the figures but I feel that would be somewhat disingenuous even in the face of some criticism of an established company using kickstarter. The undoubted demand settles that issue!

Humans, Orcs, Veer-Myn and Dwarves first up with plenty of others to follow including droids and tentacled xenos. How could any Bowl/Ball-Head say no?

One to mark for definite action once I'm reestablished. Humans in London Wasps colours I think :)