By Travis Sheehan I will skirt technical details here so that you get a basic, conceptual understanding of the game and perhaps feel the flow as well. Three to Six players compete to be the last gang standing selecting from historic gangs like the Morans (they are only thematic and offer no bonuses). Each player…
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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.
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!
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!)
