Yu-Gi-Oh – The Game King
In 2009 Yu-Gi-Oh was named the top selling collectable card game of all time. The Japanamation power house has sold over twenty two billion cards worldwide to date. Things seem to be looking great for “The Game King”.
Family Business. You should get it!
By Travis Sheehan I will skirt technical details here so that you get a basic, conceptual understanding of the game
Thrilling Tales 2nd Edition
By Andrew Warren Thrilling Tales is a line of pulp role playing adventures and supplements by Adamant Entertainment. Although originally
Terrible Sharp Sword
Terrible Sharp Sword is the latest supplement for Sharp Practice, covering the American Civil War with a complete list of rule amendments that allow you to recreate this heroic and desperate struggle on the tabletop.
Blades, Dungeon Dwellers & Dragons
Another in Misfit Studios’ line of microsupplements, we get 5 magic blades. The introduction informs us that each Blade’s powers should be hidden, and gives guidelines on researching them…complete with a table to roll on (there is a unique one for each blade), detailing just how much information the researcher finds. A Critical Failure means that they get it ALL wrong. This is a great concept, but stumbles just a bit in execution: If they players roll it, they will know they got a Critical Failure, and will suspect something. If the GM rolls it, they essentially lose the right to use a benny to modify the roll, which some could construe as unfair. Other than that, I love it…and I have been told by the author that a benny solution is coming soon.
Small World Review
Small World was one of this year’s Meeple’s Choice Awards, and with good reason. This game, similar to Days of Wonder’s other juggernaut, Ticket to Ride, combines simple rules with a focus on strategy to create a game that’s easy to learn, but provides a challenge each time.
The Scepter of Zavandor
In The Scepter of Zavandor, the players are magic students amassing power to claim the game named scepter. SoZ is a brutal snowball economy game with an auction component as the main player interaction. Given this description, I should 1) not enjoy the game and 2) be fairly terrible at it. I was fascinated, if a bit overwhelmed, the first time I played it. With each subsequent play, I have liked it more and more. Even more surprising, I am very competitive at the game. After a few attempts, players learn what is and is not a good idea and then develop a sense of what strategies are viable.
Summoner Wars
You all know that I love Summoner Wars from Plaid Hat games, so when the opportunity arose to pimp out my game by getting the Vanguards, Fallen Kingdom, and Premium Board, I was all over it. The day I got them back home from Gencon, my daughter and I were laying out the board and ready to wage war upon one another, summoning not just new units on a fresh, new game board, but also summoning such smack-talk as “oh, man…that had to hurt! Not only did I waste your Common, I transformed him into a zombie!” There’s a whole lot new to the game now that the new factions are out, and I, for one, welcome our new Summoner masters. The new stuff is friggin’ awesome, and that’s that. I can also share that I finally beat my daughter at the game, using my new love, the Fallen Kingdom against her Tundra Orcs! w00t!
Heroes of the Fallen Lands
D&D Essentials are a new product line designed for new players. It boils down some classes to a single new build (sometimes two) with the express interest of making the game easier for new players to get involved in 4th edition and to create a new baseline for players to build from. The Essentials line comes in three parts: the part for everyone, the part for Players and the part for the GM. The part for everyone includes the new Red Box, the Rules Compendium and the official dice set. The Players books are Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom.
Dominant Species
Once in a while, wargames publisher GMT decides to zig when everyone else zags, and prints a game that doesn’t fit their usual line-up. They did it years ago with titles like Winds of Plunder and Conquest of Paradise, and more recently with the cute Leaping Lemmings. This time around, GMT takes out the big guns: acclaimed wargame designer Chad Jensen (of Combat Commander fame), one of the biggest boxes and boards ever to roll off their assembly line, and a mammoth leap back in time to present us with Dominant Species, an evolutionary battle that’s roughly 90,000 years old. (Talk about a different breed of conflict simulation!)