The latest in the States of Siege Series of games brings Steve Carey’s design skills to an interesting aspect of the 2nd World War in the Mediterranean. Having set such a high standard with We Must Tell The Emperor, my expectations were high for Malta Beseiged: 1940-1942.
“That Scorpion in the Sea” Malta Besieged: 1940-42 Read Post »
I have to say from the outset that this was one of the games that caught my eye from the word go ahead of Essen 2011, simply because of the fantastic artwork and design of the game. But it was not one that I immediately picked up because of the limited player range; most of my gaming is either in a larger group or two player. So I was very exited when Mark gave me the chance to review Singapore and I was not disappointed, when I eventually found the right number of players.
Looney Labs are surely specialists in simple, fast playing, family games and this looks like it fits the model. Based on an earlier published game, Aquarius, this is a dominoes-like game for 2-5 players age 6+ where the object is to be the first to play your cards and connect 7 Dragons.
As a long-time war gamer, I have been very remiss. I’ve never really played block war games. I guess I just never found them appealing but I couldn’t tell you why to be honest. So its about dang time I discovered whether I’m missing anything don’t you think?
I love Star Trek. Always have, always will, I guess. I’m not too fanatical as to have a Star Trek crew shirt or know every character’s name and go to Comicon to meet the actors and such but I do love Star Trek.
Now I will state up front that I’m not a huge fan of many Martin Wallace games as for the most part they are too “EuroGamey” for me. It’s a game style preference issue, nothing to do with the quality of his games. But I certainly bow to his obvious creativity and talent in board game design without question and interestingly, when I interviewed him at this year’s UK Expo, I found out that he is a long time war gamer.
Yep, another game with dice and miniatures hit the table. This one is a heavily SciFi themed beast called Earth Reborn from Z-Man Games. There are quite a few SciFi themed games out there and it can be tough to stand out. This is another set in the post-apocalyptic Earth (hence the name…) and is basically a miniatures skirmish game between 2 factions – NORAD and SALEMITES. The closest game in style that I have played is Space Hulk so that should give you an idea of the scale. Having said that, Earth Reborn is a very different game.
Ted Raicer is a well-known designer of a number of popular and respected war games, mostly set in WWI and I was very pleased to receive a copy of his game, The Pocket at Falaise, which looks at the allies’ attempt to cut off and destroy the German forces in Normandy. Historically, much destruction rained down upon Hitler’s forces from the Allied armies but enough of the German forces escaped through the unclosed pocket to fight on and prolong the war. Could things have been different?
I’d heard bits and pieces over the years about the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG and CCG’s and was always somewhat fascinated with the theme – fantasy, ancient Japan, Samurai, Ninjas and all that. Trouble is, I’ve never had the inclination to really invest time or money in either genre of game so I just let it pass. Lo and behold, AEG comes along with War of Honor, an entry into the world of L5R and my interested increased. After all, it was supposed to have 4 fixed CCG decks, and simpler rules to get stuck in.
Hex and counter, counter and hex. However you call it, to “some” gamers it smacks of old school games. Well, I’m here to tell you that its nothing of the sort. I prefer to call it a classic approach which can work very very well.
