We have a group that plays big games of Talisman with every expansion a few times a year, and I like to get my own games together from time to time. Our big games always have all the Adventure Cards mixed together into one giant deck. I decided for my games I'd rather have a smaller and more coherent decks centered around various themes.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Medieval Conspiracy - Overview & Early Impression
I'm pretty into Medieval Conspiracy right now as a political positioning game with a healthy dose of negotiation, alliances, backstabbing, and a bit of wargame mixed in.
This is based off a dozen or so rounds with only two players to learn the game, so I don't have any strong conclusive opinions as of yet. Short version is that we liked it enough to leave the game on the table where we left off and pick it up again in the next couple days, but the game really needs more players for all its inner workings to show their stripes. Below is some overview of how the game players, with very little actual opinion sprinkled in.
It's a kind of negotiation-wargame hybrid. There isn't a ton of combat, but there is a lot of positioning and threatening and dealmaking. Basically the goal of the game is to control a majority of the 7 Electorates (territories/fiefdoms) to win by majority vote when a Death of the Emperor event card comes out. Doing so isn't easy, and I can see the game running 4+ hours with new players. A good player aid would probably shave an hour of the game just to take the discussion about what can happen and when out of the game length. Unfortunately the game doesn't come with any play aids so I'll definitely be making some.
You start with a handful of random and probably disconnected fiefdoms and a few troops. There are plentiful profane fiefdoms and far fewer clerical fiefdoms. There will be a lot of neutral fiefdoms of both types when the game starts, and you cannot just move into them. The game is primarily driven by event cards that are auctioned off each round. They do things like let you get Knights where you can normally only get mercenaries, initiate the death of a lord or bishop which lets you get more fiefdoms (neutral or player-controlled), cards that let you open up another player's fiefdom to attack, and a bunch of other stuff.
The Death of a Lord event cards let the winner of the auction pick any territory on the board and kill the lord present. Since nobody has a right of succession to a neutral fiefdom, a neutral fiefdom goes up for negotiation for control and if that doesn't work out it goes up for auction. If a player-controlled fiefdom suffers Death of a Lord they have right of succession if they have an heir/child already placed in profane education, which means they have first go at it if they choose. There are also Right of Succession action cards that let a player who otherwise has no claim to a fiefdom in on the dealmaking/auction. The twist is that if an auction takes place the winner isn't safe either. Any other player who bid in the auction who has adjacent troops can flat-out attack the winner. It's much safer to work the bribe/negotiation angle than let bordering fiefdoms go to auction. Adjacent players may also join in to aid the attack or the defense. Death of a Bishop works the same way, but celibacy of the Bishops means that there is no right of succession for clerical fiefdoms, but you need a child/heir already in clerical education to get in on the control discussions.
There are event cards that also allow the winner to open up any player-controlled fiefdom up to attack by any adjacent players who have an heir in education able to control it. There is also a fate phase each round where each player rolls a die with a 50% chance to either kill a lord outright like the Death of a Lord card or celebrate births and place more heirs into education. This all sounds like it would lead to a lot of fighting & squabbling, but the expense of troops and the risk of being attacked even after an auction means, at least early in the game, it's far more likely that something will get settled in negotiation before things break down and an auction occurs.
War in this game is most often used as a political chip, a threat that always looms but is costly to carry out. We haven't experienced the late game yet, but I suspect war to become more prevalent when necessary to reduce a player's ability to gain more Electorates. The game is ultimately about positioning and rising to power; being in place to grab Electorate fiefdoms when they become available. War is a tool to do so but not the only one, and an expensive primary strategy.
Income is based on controlled fiefdoms with bonuses for fiefdoms connected by trade routes (roads). The minimum bid to get into an auction for an Electorate fiefdom is high, to the tune of the cost of 8-12 mercenaries that could otherwise be fortifying your holdings. You'll also drain a bunch of money into auctions for non-combat types of boons like Castles, Monasteries, Relics, etc. Electorates are harder to attack once they're held as well, and can only be gained through event cards. There are 38 event cards, and only two of them are Death of an Electorate. That means in a 4 player game you'll only see those cards twice every 9-10 rounds or so. Same goes for Death of an Emperor; you'll only get a chance to win at the twice every 9-10 rounds rate.
The action cards can really help or hinder though. Some of them are pretty awesome, and some are pretty brutal. The card text is good about indicating any special timing rules but the big handicap is that some of the best cards can only played on your turn, i.e. when you are the active player for a game round. Draw a really great action card that can only be played on your own turn, during the player to your left's turn, and you'll have to wait a while to use it.
Some negatives: The card and board text and artwork is good, but not great. I don't have a problem with the font choice, but the cards can be hard to read in low lighting, and some of the board spaces get pretty covered by game pieces. There are well-used trackers for things like Relics and Income and such so you don't need to count up your trade connections each turn, but that doesn't make the sometimes-cluttered smaller fiefdoms any easier to manage. The decisions to print the rules in that font was mistake. Printing out the rules in Arial from ugg.de should be order of business #1. The game length isn't a big issue for me because players stay engaged almost all of the time, outside of the negotiations and auctions they aren't eligible to take place in. Stickering over 350 wooden blocks was not my idea of fun either. The game absolutely should have come with player aids. Lastly, there are some ambiguities in the rulebook translation. You'll definitely want to walk through the turn-by-turn example at the end just to figure out some of the things that aren't clearly enough explained elsewhere in the manual. The game isn't particularly complex, but you wouldn't know that from reading the rules as written.
There are a handful of things I haven't touched on, such as the Master cards, how combat works, and some of the more interesting cards that can come out. I don't have enough time spent with the game to give a solid recommendation, but I'm tentatively really high on it right now. I'll need to see how it goes with 4-6 players before I have anything more concrete to say about it though. Alliances will be critical with more players; even in our two-player leaning playthrough we were establishing peaceful borders in a few places just to get our little feudal domains off the ground.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Dragonwood Review and Why I'm Taking a Closer Look at Gamewright's Games
Dragonwood is as 2015 release by Gamewright, a company best known for Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert. The strength of Gamewright's catalog is targeting families and young children, so most of their game don't get a lot of press around here. What separates Gamewright from most of the family games on department store shelves is that Gamewright has a good eye for taking concepts that board game hobbyists know well and distilling them down into simple rules that even the most non-hobbyist family can enjoy. This unfortunately leaves many of their games in the pit of the not very interesting for hobbyist gamers, but Dragonwood doesn't fall into that trap.
Dragonwood is card and dice game set in a fantasy forest populated with monsters. The goal is to capture the monsters, each having varying point values, in order to have the most points at the end of the game. To do so you'll play cards in order to roll D6s with the sides numbered 1-2-2-3-3-4. The game ends when players have run through the player draw deck twice or both dragons are captured. Along the way you'll be able to capture enhancement cards that make it easier to capture the monsters, but enhancement cards can't be used to capture further enhancement cards; you'll have to roll the dice unmodified to get those.
The forest deck contains the aforementioned enhancement cards as well as Fire Ants, Spooky Spiders, Crazy Bats, and of course, amongst other cutesy monsters, two dragons. Five are always on display in a row called the landscape]. Each card has three values you can try to roll to capture it: Strike, Stomp, and Scream. Stomping works best against the Fire Ants, whereas Screaming might work best against an Ogre. The player deck is 60 cards in five suits numbered 1-12, and four Lucky Ladybugs that let you draw an extra card immediately.
To Strike a monster you need to play a straight, and you get to roll a number of dice equal to the number of cards played in the straight. Stomp and Scream are sets and flushes and work the same way. Playing as few as one card is legal, and one card is enough to give you a 50/50 shot against the weakest monsters. On your turn you'll choose to either use one of these attacks and roll to capture, or you can "Reload" and draw one card. If you do successfully capture a monster it is kept in front of you face-down, so there's no point counting during the game. Enhancements are kept face-up in front of you and will give you things like +1 to all capture attempts, reroll a die, and such. There are a few more interesting Enhancements but that really is all there is to Dragonwood.
Well, that's all there is in the mechanics department. Playing the game is more interesting than it sounds. The hidden points are what makes it work. You've been building up your hand to try roll six dice against that big bad monster worth a bunch of points, but while you've been doing that John got a really good Enhancement card and Jane's been taking out scores of little monsters for cheap points. How do you adapt? Is that big monster worth it, or do you actually need it now to stay in the game? Should you go for the available Enhancement instead and hope you're the one who is able to take out the dragons later? These aren't particularly agonizing decisions, but there's just enough there for the game to stay interesting anyplace in the 2-4 player range.
Gamewright and the designer knew where to draw the line with this game. The rules are blissfully simple and absence of any extra weight bolted to the chassis is really quite pleasant. Dragonwood is certainly a decent game for families or as a filler, but it just may be an amazing way to teach basic game concepts to kids. Hand management, die-rolling against a target value, straights and sets and flushes, and Enhancement cards are all present here in an extremely accessible way. The box says ages 8+ but I'd wager you could go younger with some patience. If the game were played as a teaching and learning exercise you could even save the point values of the monsters for later and let the kids work out how to capture whatever monsters they want most.
I'm not sure how to wrap up this review because I'm not sure how to categorize Dragonwood. It's certainly a filler game, but it seems to deserve a better categorization than that. It's a kids-and-families game but my wife and I enjoy it all the same. It's a game that signals to me that Gamewright's catalog might be worth a second look.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Warrior Knights: Two Different Games with the Same Title
Fantasy Flight Games, 2006
I've always really liked FFG's Warrior Knights. I get the criticisms, and they're mostly valid, but the issues aren't big issues for me. Highly recommend getting the expansion and just using it from the get-go though. The game is rules-heavy enough that adding a few extra things doesn't make it significantly more complex, and the experience is just better. Once you get comfortable with all the rules and moving parts the closest thing I can relate FFG WK to is A Game of Thrones the book/show in game form. There's a lot of jockeying for position, religion, offices, tenuous alliances, and of course fighting. The game doesn't feel like it's trying to be set in a particular place in history, but rather it attempts to be evocative of a period. It's fun to play the roles of Head of the Church or Chairman of the Assembly or, if you're a poor title-less Baron, to scheme against them. The game mechanics give you ways to do that, but it does take several plays to fully grasp all the different systems at work and how they mesh together. The end result is that the first couple plays are sometimes confusing and it can feel like people sometimes luck into opportunity. The truth is that with experience players can work the systems in their favor and get a real feeling of "I made this happen." The biggest issue with FFG WK; however, is that there are a few areas where players can game the design. Once in a while you'll find yourself thinking, "I guess the rules allow that, but it doesn't feel right." I've played a bunch of FFG WK and it hasn't ever been a significant issue for me, but once in a while I've caught myself trying to come up with house rules to iron out a couple wrinkles.
Games Workshop, 1985
I had played FFG WK quite a lot before I ever played the GW original. I was pretty comfortable with the sometimes overwrought design of the FFG incarnation and was really interested in how it might have mutated from the original game. What I did not expect was for GW WK to be so... clean. The rules aren't really written all that well, but once you've figured them out the game really hums along in a way that FFG WK never has. Every single thing in GW WK is more straight-forward and intuitive. Combat? Die roll. Voting? Pen and paper. Movement? Let's talk about movement. The FFG game requires cards to be played, you usually don't get to move all that much each round, and achieving your desired positioning for a battle or a siege usually takes a few turns. The GW game just lets you move your Barons without any special requirements. The result is that GW's game is much more vicious. There are no safe corners of the board that will give you a couple turns to figure out whether the enemy is coming for you. When the enemy comes, and it will come, it will be at your gates in short order. GW WK, to quote Mr. White, "is like a swift, gauntleted punch in the mouth." He's right. Hell, the game begins with an Assembly phase where you suddenly have to start by putting players on unequal footing. You'll make enemies quickly. One thing that makes our games especially vicious is that, since we already have pens and paper for various game reasons, we allow passing notes above the table starting after the first Assembly. Everyone knows you sent something to your neighbor, but only you and he know what it was.Setting and theme is an interesting topic for these two games. They're ostensibly the same setting, but there's something markedly different between the two. FFG's version has missions, scholars, a religious system, and other machinations that, like I wrote above, make it feel more evocative of a period than truly set in one. It seems to be a romanticized version of an era, and it really does remind me a lot of A Game of Thrones. GW's original, while probably not designed to represent a specific historical situation, has a more honest medieval setting. GW's Barons are Barons, not the scholarly political warring heroes of the FFG game. The GW game is more true to a maybe-possible historical period than FFG's "Wouldn't it be cool if..." design. The end result is weird, because in GW WK I care more about my towns, troops and nobles. The idea that the GW game world could be a real time and place seems to make my actions more meaningful. I shouldn't give a shit, honestly; we're talking about a little card that says I have Romanian Mercenaries that need to be paid, but I do.
Well...?
So the burning question: If you're going to play one, which one should you play? If you like the FFG school of design then their version with the expansion really does have enough to it to be called a coffin box game in a normal sized box. If you are indifferent or aren't particularly a fan of the FFG school of design then play the GW version. I really enjoy both games and can't pick a favorite, but I lean slightly towards the GW game simply because you get to the meat of the game immediately, and the tension holds for the duration of the game. But sometimes all those FFG systems in their Warrior Knights mesh together just right and you'll be gloating while the other players sit in disbelief. The truth of it is FFG should have given their game a different name like, "SomethingSomething (inspired by Derek Carver's Warrior Knights)." They didn't though, and because of that these games will always be compared even though they are different games that are both great for different reasons.Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Level 7 Invasion In Review
The 10-year-old in me would love it.
Level 7 Invasion is the third game in the Level 7 setting, and a pretty cool setting it is. Dr. Cronos is genetically engineering alien hybrids with varying degrees of monstrosity in the lab/bunker known as Subterra Bravo. Level 7 Escape had players escaping from the horror, and Level 7 Omega Protocol had players going back into the fray to shut the evil Doctor down. Level 7 Invasion finally leaves the Subterra Bravo facility and goes global. The Hydra have launched a full-scale invasion of Earth to stop the threat of Dr. Cronos, his creations, and humanity in one big operation. Players need to ally with Dr. Cronos this time around; the governments of the world allow him through their territory to continue his hideous experiments in the name of saving humanity as a whole. There's some good fluff writing in the beginning of the rulebook to set the stage, a great Risk-like map of the world, a ton of great miniatures, awesome player board with a bunch of dials and tracks, and a bunch of card decks. With the game set up and the backstory read, it looks like it's going to be a hell of a ride.
It isn't a hell of a ride. It's a pretty fun ride, but there are cracks in the veneer. The game is pretty sound mechanically, but there may be significant balancing issues.
First the round structure, for context. There's a Development Phase, a Warfare Phase, and a Maintenance Phase. Each phase has 5 steps, so there are 15 steps to a game round. Sounds like a lot, but it really isn't, as most of them are simple and can be performed simultaneously. The Development Phase has players buying units, doing research, and funding Dr. Cronos' Project. The Development Phase is where players actually make progress toward winning the game. The Warfare Phase has player unit movement, events, and actual combat. This phase is mostly about keeping things under control. The Maintenance Phase is when players take further damage at the coalition level, feed their populace, and adjust their Terror Level.
The game is billed as semi-cooperative and requires all five coalitions to be in play. Only those coalitions that aren't eliminated at the end can win. If you've got less than five players the semi-cooperative aspect is mostly irrelevant. You may shed a crocodile tear for South America when it falls, but you won't really care as you've got another coalition under your control and will still get to share the victory. Letting a coalition fall doesn't carry any penalties with it other than the player elimination if its the only coalition a single player controls; in fact once all a fallen coalition's units are killed [i]all[/i] figures are removed from the continent and it is removed from the game. That's some significant incentive to let South America fall early and often. Any bad Hydra guys there get eliminated, Drop Ships can't land there and spawn more units, and the invading forces are easier to manage. The only downside is that a defeated coalition still draws Event Cards, which are always bad, but that's not that big of an issue. Letting a coalition die off in Level 7 Invasion is pretty similar to finding the cure and eradicating a disease in Pandemic.
To win the game the players need to build the five stages -- 7 actual build cards in a specific sequence -- of Dr. Cronos' mega-weapon that will eliminate the Hydra threat and then survive to the end of the round. This really isn't that difficult. Every single one of our plays has been close to 7 rounds, because we've been able to build a stage of the weapon every single round without much difficulty. To build a Dr. Cronos Project Card, Dr. Cronos needs to be in the coalition that has the card that needs to be built this round. Dr. Cronos is pretty mobile and this isn't really any issue. Early in the game he can't move through territories with Drop Ships so when they spawn they might block his path, meaning you're stuck not doing his project this round and now your game will last an extra round. It's mildly thematic I suppose, but really it just adds unnecessary length to an already long game.
As the design would have it, Dr. Cronos starts in South America. Then he bounces around between Africa, North America, then Europe, and finally Asia. Sorry South America, but you're going to fall unless you get lucky with Drop Ships hitting other coalitions. There's just no reason to save South America because the other coalitions don't need them to win after about Round 2, and eliminating a coalition means less Hydra invaders show up. The defeated coalition still draws Event Cards, but that can be partly negated by always choosing the events that spawn more Hydra invaders. It's still a net gain for the other coalitions.
The game looks impressive and encourages the players to formulate a strategy from Turn 1. The fact of the matter is your strategy should be:
(1) Always build as many units as possible and attack the Drop Ship locations.
(2) Build up Military tech followed by Communications.
(3) Keep the invaders in your territories under control.
(4) Manage your Terror Level so you have the resources to do (1).
Letting your territories get overrun will hurt your Income and increase your Terror Level, which will also hurt your Income. So go full military and don't let that happen. Upgrade the other techs when you've got extra cash, and if you do well in the battles by doing (1)-(4) above then you will have extra cash. That's really all there is to it.
You'll notice I didn't list "Fund Cronos' Project" in my highly detailed strategy paragraph. So let's talk about Income, Money, and Resources. Each turn you get your Income, which takes the form of Money and Resources. It's a fixed amount that is degraded by having your territories overrun and/or having a high Terror Level. But you can trade with other players in a limited capacity. A coalition can perform one trade during the Development Phase and another during the Maintenance Phase. There's an odd number of coalitions, so one won't get to trade. Sorry again South America, unless you've got something I want. This is an interesting situation, because Africa and South America produce lots of Fuel and Minerals while North America, Europe, and Asia produce lots of food and cash. Coalitions need to trade to get a good balance. South America could potentially leverage their position to avoid being eliminated and participate in the win, and if they do that you should let them fall with all their Fuel and Minerals. If South America really wants to save humanity they should trade away everything they've got and fall early. Also, when your coalition units destroy a Drop Ship you can increase any of your dials by one. So by following my awesome strategy paragraph above players should be able to get an extra Fuel or Minerals just about every round. So back to funding Dr. Cronos. You'd expect that only the coalition building it's Cronos' Project card would be able to fund Cronos', but you'd be wrong. Cronos' Project Funding is open contribution time. Trading rules don't apply. Everybody chip in, and it's easy.
If I'm making it sound like winning the game is easy, that's because it is easy. We've had some close games, but we have yet to lose. Lose South America, go full Military+Communications whenever possible, and always attack the Drop Ship locations. That's really about it. Depending on the board state you could even lose North America and/or Africa towards the end as well. If you want to win, just play Asia because it's the last location that Dr. Cronos' needs to be to build his project. Letting the invaders get out of control in a coalition you don't need any more is no big deal. Unlike Pandemic, where an overflow (outbreak) explodes into every surrounding territory, in Level 7 Invasion a single invader moves into a single adjacent territory. Oh no.
I've been pointing out the flaws and it probably sounds like I hate this game. I don't. It's a lot of fun. Level 7 Invasion is a true Ameritrash game. The setting is great, the combat is fun, all of the many steps to a turn are simple and easy, the game is well-produced, and the tension does ramp up as you play. I feel it's maybe a couple house rules away from being properly difficult to win. First on the house rule list would be play full-coop. If any coalition falls everybody loses. Second would be adjust the invader overflow rule. Third would be get rid of the "everybody chip in" part of funding the Cronos' project. Then you'd have a more interesting game. The downside is you'd still have a four-hour-long game that isn't really a better design than other popular cooperative games that play in less time.
If the theme appeals to you, and you've got a big gaming time slot with five players then you could have a lot of fun with Level 7 Invasion. The design's framework can handle a few house rules to adjust the difficulty or your group dynamic. The 10-year-old in me would love it, but regular old me is sad he's not 10 any more.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
BSG Expansions: Pegasus through Daybreak
Background: At least 20 plays with all the expansions, and a bunch more plays using different expansion mixes. Good thing I woke up early on a Sunday morning without a lot to do:
Pegasus
The best expansion for interesting characters.
Introduces the best Characters of any expansion. Treachery Cards are also a really nice addition. The Cylon Leaders in Pegasus are nice for a change of pace, but they really only shine when you get Daybreak into the mix (more on that below). You do want an experienced player to play the Cylon Leader. A good player means the Cylon Leader cannot be ignored.
I'm a bit torn on the Pegasus game board. It has some nice abilities and is a nice complement to Galactica, but it becomes a simple damage soak. Every group I've every played with almost always uses Pegasus to soak up the damage that Galactica could be taking. It makes the Cylons weaker in that respect because humans losing the game due to Galactica damage now takes 4 additional hits. One simple house rule that I love, that very few groups are willing to use, is to put all the Galactica and Pegasus damage tokens in a bag and draw for damage. That means when you draw damage there's a 60/40 Galactica/Pegasus damage token split at the start of the game, which makes damage to the ships much more scary than just using Pegasus as a damage soak. That one simple change makes me love the Pegasus board.
New Caprica is an interesting ending for a change of pace, but not one we choose often. Most groups I've played with aren't wild about it. The one really cool thing about New Caprica is that it gives the Admiral extra power which has to be considered. You cannot have a Cylon Admiral, even more so than without using New Caprica. When New Caprica comes into play the Characters move to the New Caprica board and do human-y and Cylon-y things until Galactica jumps back to save everyone. Then the name of the game is to get everyone, and the Civilians, off of New Caprica. BUT the Admiral can jump Galactica at any point once it comes back, so a Cylon Admiral can ditch everybody, which will cause all the morale loss of everybody dying and all the population loss of losing a bunch of Civilians. It's one of the more satisfying ways to win as a Cylon Admiral.
Exodus
The best expansion for pilots.
Introduces the CAG (pilot leader) role, which is great and gives the pilots more to do with greater flexibility. There are some interesting Characters, some are good but most are average.
The Ionian Nebula ending is a mixed bag. The best thing it adds are Allies on the game board. There will be locations that have an NPC present, with a card that lists a positive and negative effect on it. There will be a random Trauma Token placed on each NPC at the start. If a player encounters an Ally they reveal the Trauma Token on it, resolve the effect, replace the Ally, and put one of their own Trauma Tokens on the new card. At the end of the game Humans want more blue Trauma Tokens than red in their own individual pools, and the Cylons want the reverse. This makes placing the tokens on Ally cards interesting, because you have to decide when placing whether it's better to get rid of your red token or save the group from the Ally's negative effect if the Ally is encountered in the future. It also looks highly suspicious when it comes to light that a supposedly human player has been ditching red Trauma Tokens all over the place.
The actual Ionian Nebula end is a bit weaker because it shifts the dramatic final, "We made the jump!" ending into a big final resolution step where Trauma Tokens are revealed, effects are dealt with, and such. When we first started playing Exodus we played that ending a lot, because there are some cool ideas there, but ultimately we migrated back to the original Kobol ending.
The Exodus Cylon Fleet board is my single most favorite BSG addon. My main complaint against the BSG base game is how the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards can sometimes be distributed poorly enough to greatly skew the game's difficulty. The Cylon Fleet board produces better pacing, and makes when to jump a more interesting choice. The Cylon Fleet board has its own track that advances until all the Cylon ships on the fleet board jump to Galactica's location. If it is on the very last step before they jump to Galactica, then Galactica probably doesn't want to jump as soon as possible because if Galactica jumps before the Cylon Fleet ships arrive then they'll probably just arrive immediately after and the humans will have a board full of Cylon ships to deal with and an empty Jump Preparation Track. The Cylon Fleet board also puts more of an emphasis on Civilian ships and Pilot Characters.
Daybreak
The best expansion for Cylon Leaders and for finally getting rid of the Sympathizer mechanic.
I'll start with the Demetrius board. Demetrius is the humans' best friend if they believe they might have a Cylon Admiral and are having trouble getting rid of him. There are Demetrius Mission Cards that can add to the total distance jumped to help you get through the game. A human player or two can cycle through the Mission Cards aboard Demetrius to get to those, but a Cylon could do the same thing to bury them. There are other good missions on Demetrius, but the ones that add distance are often the most important. Beyond that the Demetrius board doesn't add much when used with Pegasus and Exodus because there's just a lot of other things to do. The Missions become more important when you're only playing the base game with Daybreak.
Additionally, Daybreak comes with the Earth ending. Earth requires 10 distance to Kobol's 8, so it can be used to offset the Demetrius bonuses. If the humans start winning too much using the Demetrius Mission Cards then use the Earth ending. Interestingly, and this could just be our group(s), but when Kobol is the destination our humans don't always make a big deal out of the Demetrius distance Missions, but when Earth is the destination they do. Which ending to use with Demetrius will probably depend on your group.
The characters in Daybreak are little better than Exodus', but probably not as good as Pegasus'. The one interesting character shift in Daybreak is that each character gets a Miracle Token that they use to fire off their once-per-game ability. There are sometimes ways to get another Miracle Token which means the once per game ability are only usually, but not always, actually once per game. Additionally, the new Gaius Baltar can take and give Miracle Tokens. Whether new Baltar ends up being human or Cylon, things can get interesting.
The next-to-best thing about Daybreak is that it makes the Cylon Leaders [i]way[/i] more fun to play and significantly more interesting. Now Cylon Leaders draw 2 Motive Cards at the start of the game, and an additional 2 during the Sleeper Phase. Motive Cards have prerequisites/requirements on them and [i]may[/i] be revealed when those requirements are met. If not revealed, and the requirements then become unmet, they can't be revealed retroactively. Each Motive Card will state either Cylon or human allegiance. Whichever the Cylon Leader reveals more of is his true allegiance.
For example: Cylon Leader is dealt one Human and one Cylon Allegiance Motive Card at the start, and the Human Allegiance card seems like the easier goal. It turns out to be and he chooses to reveal it before the Sleeper Phase. The humans rest a little easier feeling like they can trust the Cylon Leader so far. Then during the Sleeper Phase the Cylon Leader draws two Cylon Allegiance Motive Cards. Now the Leader has no choice but to turn on the humans if he wants to win. Naturally, the inverse can also happen. The Leader could also draw an equal number of Cylon and Human Allegiance Cards, in which case the Cylon Leader has some choices to make.
The best thing about Daybreak is that it finally gets rid of the Sympathizer role and replaces it with the Mutineer, which is much more fun. The Mutineer doesn't have the weird allegiance-changing mechanic. The Sympathizer can cause the humans to want a resource in the red before the Sleeper phase, which is just weird. The Mutineer has no such concerns.
The Mutineer introduces Mutiny Cards into the game. There are various ways to get Mutiny Cards, and you generally don't want them. If a non-Mutineer gets 2 Mutiny Cards he goes to the Brig, because he's a mutinous cretin. The Mutineer goes to the Brig on his 3rd Mutiny Card. Getting rid of Mutiny Cards is tricky though. Generally they require you to use your action on your turn and generally they're bad. They Mutineer and Mutiny Cards do just enough to manage the game balance, just like the Sympathizer used to do, but without the weirdness of the Sympathizer.
Recommendations: Single Expansion
If you really like the base game and don't mind the Sympathizer, but want some more great characters and some extra ship locations with neat abilities then Pegasus is the easy answer.
If you really like the base game, but want to add just a little meat to it, and the Sympathizer leaves a bad taste in your mouth, the Daybreak is the easy answer.
If you're like me and always thought the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards were a little clunky in pacing, and would like the pilot characters to be more interesting, then Exodus is the easy answer.
Recommendations: 2 Expansions
Pegasus and Daybreak complement each other the best. You get rid of the Sympathizer, your Cylon Leaders are now much more interesting, and you get a bunch of new ship locations and some great characters. If you like the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards then this is the obvious way to go.
Pegasus and Exodus complement each other nicely. You get some pretty good characters, more for pilots to do, more ship locations, and all the added fun of the Cylon Fleet board. If you don't mind the Sympathizer but don't like the occasional clunky pacing of the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards then go this route.
Exodus and Daybreak are good together as well, as they let you get rid of both the Sympathizer and the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards. But they also add the most complexity over the base game compared to either Exodus or Daybreak paired with Pegasus. If you have no qualms about complexity then I would just pony up for all three expansions rather than buy Exodus and Daybreak without Pegasus.
My Favorite
All three expansions. Come on, you knew that was coming. It adds all the great stuff I talked about above. My favorite arrangement is:
I feel like FFG was patching things along the way with the expansions after Pegasus. Pegasus mostly introduced cool new things. Exodus introduced cool new things and got rid of the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards. Daybreak introduced cool new things while replacing the Sympathizer and finally upgrading Cylon Leaders into a truly interesting role to play.
Pegasus
The best expansion for interesting characters.
Introduces the best Characters of any expansion. Treachery Cards are also a really nice addition. The Cylon Leaders in Pegasus are nice for a change of pace, but they really only shine when you get Daybreak into the mix (more on that below). You do want an experienced player to play the Cylon Leader. A good player means the Cylon Leader cannot be ignored.
I'm a bit torn on the Pegasus game board. It has some nice abilities and is a nice complement to Galactica, but it becomes a simple damage soak. Every group I've every played with almost always uses Pegasus to soak up the damage that Galactica could be taking. It makes the Cylons weaker in that respect because humans losing the game due to Galactica damage now takes 4 additional hits. One simple house rule that I love, that very few groups are willing to use, is to put all the Galactica and Pegasus damage tokens in a bag and draw for damage. That means when you draw damage there's a 60/40 Galactica/Pegasus damage token split at the start of the game, which makes damage to the ships much more scary than just using Pegasus as a damage soak. That one simple change makes me love the Pegasus board.
New Caprica is an interesting ending for a change of pace, but not one we choose often. Most groups I've played with aren't wild about it. The one really cool thing about New Caprica is that it gives the Admiral extra power which has to be considered. You cannot have a Cylon Admiral, even more so than without using New Caprica. When New Caprica comes into play the Characters move to the New Caprica board and do human-y and Cylon-y things until Galactica jumps back to save everyone. Then the name of the game is to get everyone, and the Civilians, off of New Caprica. BUT the Admiral can jump Galactica at any point once it comes back, so a Cylon Admiral can ditch everybody, which will cause all the morale loss of everybody dying and all the population loss of losing a bunch of Civilians. It's one of the more satisfying ways to win as a Cylon Admiral.
Exodus
The best expansion for pilots.
Introduces the CAG (pilot leader) role, which is great and gives the pilots more to do with greater flexibility. There are some interesting Characters, some are good but most are average.
The Ionian Nebula ending is a mixed bag. The best thing it adds are Allies on the game board. There will be locations that have an NPC present, with a card that lists a positive and negative effect on it. There will be a random Trauma Token placed on each NPC at the start. If a player encounters an Ally they reveal the Trauma Token on it, resolve the effect, replace the Ally, and put one of their own Trauma Tokens on the new card. At the end of the game Humans want more blue Trauma Tokens than red in their own individual pools, and the Cylons want the reverse. This makes placing the tokens on Ally cards interesting, because you have to decide when placing whether it's better to get rid of your red token or save the group from the Ally's negative effect if the Ally is encountered in the future. It also looks highly suspicious when it comes to light that a supposedly human player has been ditching red Trauma Tokens all over the place.
The actual Ionian Nebula end is a bit weaker because it shifts the dramatic final, "We made the jump!" ending into a big final resolution step where Trauma Tokens are revealed, effects are dealt with, and such. When we first started playing Exodus we played that ending a lot, because there are some cool ideas there, but ultimately we migrated back to the original Kobol ending.
The Exodus Cylon Fleet board is my single most favorite BSG addon. My main complaint against the BSG base game is how the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards can sometimes be distributed poorly enough to greatly skew the game's difficulty. The Cylon Fleet board produces better pacing, and makes when to jump a more interesting choice. The Cylon Fleet board has its own track that advances until all the Cylon ships on the fleet board jump to Galactica's location. If it is on the very last step before they jump to Galactica, then Galactica probably doesn't want to jump as soon as possible because if Galactica jumps before the Cylon Fleet ships arrive then they'll probably just arrive immediately after and the humans will have a board full of Cylon ships to deal with and an empty Jump Preparation Track. The Cylon Fleet board also puts more of an emphasis on Civilian ships and Pilot Characters.
Daybreak
The best expansion for Cylon Leaders and for finally getting rid of the Sympathizer mechanic.
I'll start with the Demetrius board. Demetrius is the humans' best friend if they believe they might have a Cylon Admiral and are having trouble getting rid of him. There are Demetrius Mission Cards that can add to the total distance jumped to help you get through the game. A human player or two can cycle through the Mission Cards aboard Demetrius to get to those, but a Cylon could do the same thing to bury them. There are other good missions on Demetrius, but the ones that add distance are often the most important. Beyond that the Demetrius board doesn't add much when used with Pegasus and Exodus because there's just a lot of other things to do. The Missions become more important when you're only playing the base game with Daybreak.
Additionally, Daybreak comes with the Earth ending. Earth requires 10 distance to Kobol's 8, so it can be used to offset the Demetrius bonuses. If the humans start winning too much using the Demetrius Mission Cards then use the Earth ending. Interestingly, and this could just be our group(s), but when Kobol is the destination our humans don't always make a big deal out of the Demetrius distance Missions, but when Earth is the destination they do. Which ending to use with Demetrius will probably depend on your group.
The characters in Daybreak are little better than Exodus', but probably not as good as Pegasus'. The one interesting character shift in Daybreak is that each character gets a Miracle Token that they use to fire off their once-per-game ability. There are sometimes ways to get another Miracle Token which means the once per game ability are only usually, but not always, actually once per game. Additionally, the new Gaius Baltar can take and give Miracle Tokens. Whether new Baltar ends up being human or Cylon, things can get interesting.
The next-to-best thing about Daybreak is that it makes the Cylon Leaders [i]way[/i] more fun to play and significantly more interesting. Now Cylon Leaders draw 2 Motive Cards at the start of the game, and an additional 2 during the Sleeper Phase. Motive Cards have prerequisites/requirements on them and [i]may[/i] be revealed when those requirements are met. If not revealed, and the requirements then become unmet, they can't be revealed retroactively. Each Motive Card will state either Cylon or human allegiance. Whichever the Cylon Leader reveals more of is his true allegiance.
For example: Cylon Leader is dealt one Human and one Cylon Allegiance Motive Card at the start, and the Human Allegiance card seems like the easier goal. It turns out to be and he chooses to reveal it before the Sleeper Phase. The humans rest a little easier feeling like they can trust the Cylon Leader so far. Then during the Sleeper Phase the Cylon Leader draws two Cylon Allegiance Motive Cards. Now the Leader has no choice but to turn on the humans if he wants to win. Naturally, the inverse can also happen. The Leader could also draw an equal number of Cylon and Human Allegiance Cards, in which case the Cylon Leader has some choices to make.
The best thing about Daybreak is that it finally gets rid of the Sympathizer role and replaces it with the Mutineer, which is much more fun. The Mutineer doesn't have the weird allegiance-changing mechanic. The Sympathizer can cause the humans to want a resource in the red before the Sleeper phase, which is just weird. The Mutineer has no such concerns.
The Mutineer introduces Mutiny Cards into the game. There are various ways to get Mutiny Cards, and you generally don't want them. If a non-Mutineer gets 2 Mutiny Cards he goes to the Brig, because he's a mutinous cretin. The Mutineer goes to the Brig on his 3rd Mutiny Card. Getting rid of Mutiny Cards is tricky though. Generally they require you to use your action on your turn and generally they're bad. They Mutineer and Mutiny Cards do just enough to manage the game balance, just like the Sympathizer used to do, but without the weirdness of the Sympathizer.
Recommendations: Single Expansion
If you really like the base game and don't mind the Sympathizer, but want some more great characters and some extra ship locations with neat abilities then Pegasus is the easy answer.
If you really like the base game, but want to add just a little meat to it, and the Sympathizer leaves a bad taste in your mouth, the Daybreak is the easy answer.
If you're like me and always thought the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards were a little clunky in pacing, and would like the pilot characters to be more interesting, then Exodus is the easy answer.
Recommendations: 2 Expansions
Pegasus and Daybreak complement each other the best. You get rid of the Sympathizer, your Cylon Leaders are now much more interesting, and you get a bunch of new ship locations and some great characters. If you like the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards then this is the obvious way to go.
Pegasus and Exodus complement each other nicely. You get some pretty good characters, more for pilots to do, more ship locations, and all the added fun of the Cylon Fleet board. If you don't mind the Sympathizer but don't like the occasional clunky pacing of the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards then go this route.
Exodus and Daybreak are good together as well, as they let you get rid of both the Sympathizer and the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards. But they also add the most complexity over the base game compared to either Exodus or Daybreak paired with Pegasus. If you have no qualms about complexity then I would just pony up for all three expansions rather than buy Exodus and Daybreak without Pegasus.
My Favorite
All three expansions. Come on, you knew that was coming. It adds all the great stuff I talked about above. My favorite arrangement is:
- All three expansions
- With or without Cylon Leader or Mutineer, because I enjoy them both
- Earth destination because using Kobol with Demetrius can sometimes let the humans end the game too quick
- Put the Pegasus and Galactica damage tokens in a draw bag, because it's not like the Cylons would decide to attack two Battlestars in close proximity and completely ignore one of them
I feel like FFG was patching things along the way with the expansions after Pegasus. Pegasus mostly introduced cool new things. Exodus introduced cool new things and got rid of the Cylon Attack Crisis Cards. Daybreak introduced cool new things while replacing the Sympathizer and finally upgrading Cylon Leaders into a truly interesting role to play.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Doom of the Eldar: First Play Session
A good while back I picked up Doom of the Eldar and Horus Heresy (Games Workshop, although I also have the FFG HH). Hadn't gotten around to playing them though until last night when we busted out Doom of the Eldar.
It's a fun game. I'm surprised with all the Games Workshop reprints FFG has been doing that this hasn't been done in a Silverline-style format. There's really not a lot to it component-wise. The gameplay could probably handle a little updating, but it still stands up pretty well. I don't know my 40k backstory very well, but the setting is an Eldar Craftworld (read: big ship) is attacked by the Tyranid Swarm. It's almost like a Castle Panic in spaaaace where one player is the Eldar and one player is the Tyranid.
It's got 6 Phases to a turn:
See? It's that easy.
So the Tyranid units are face-down in space as the Hive Swarm. The Tyranid player can inspect his own face-down space Tyranids. They have a singular combat value. The Eldar have some ships in space too around their Craftworld with a singular combat value. Space combat is die rolls back and forth based on stacked unit strength, on a CRT, until somebody wins or the Eldar retreat.
Once the Tyranids get to the Craftworld they are flipped face-up. There's no stacking limit in space but on the Craftworld it's 3 units per player. Units on the Craftworld have an attack and defense value, and it gets real bloody real quick. Eldar unit defenses are doubles until the Tyranids wipe them out of a Craftworld area, at which point the area loses its 2x defense fortification forever. Craftworld Combat is a single die roll by the attacker based on the attack strength to defense strength ratio, again on a CRT.
The weird thing is that the game is scored with victory points, but it works pretty well. The Eldar player only gets VP based on the length of the Tyranid Assault. Eventually the assault will end, either due to Tyranid Reinforcement doubles or a fixed point on the reinforcement track. That doesn't end the game; however, it goes until either the Craftworld has been devastated or all the Tyranids are dead. Once the assault ends though there's no further way for the Eldar player to get victory points so he really needs to defend the Craftworld. The Tyranids get VPs by devastating Craftworld areas and killing a couple Eldar special units.
The game feels like a game of its era. The game flow was a little bit clunky the first round or two, but after that we were smashing each other up and it didn't matter. The game flow gets a lot smoother as you play and figure out little ways to speed up things like placing reinforcements and such.
Session:
I was the Eldar, my wife the Tyranids. I misread a stacking limit rule and thought the stacking limit applied in space as well so I spread out my ships all over the place at the start. Her Hive Swarm mauled them, and did it with quick efficiency. I had zero ships in space by her third reinforcement phase. I could have launched a few more ships but it was a waste at that point, so the Eldar braced to defend the Craftworld. The Tyranids landed and quickly devastated a rear area, but the Eldar held off the first wave on three other fronts. That was just about the end of the good news for the Eldar though.
Consistently good reinforcement rolls kept the onslaught persistent and bloody. A couple rounds later both rear sections, both flanks, and the Craftworld's forward section were devastated. Some fancy fighting by the Eldar managed to wipe out a big chunk of the Tyranid heavy units on board the Craftworld though, which really just put them back into the reinforcement pool to come out again next turn. But then, my wife the evil Tyranid finally rolled the right doubles to end the assault. Boom. No more reinforcements for the rest of the game and most of the Tyranid heavies are back in the box. The Eldar have 5VP at this point, and so to the Tyranids for the 5 devastated Craftworld areas.
Just have to hold on. The Eldar can't gain any more VP but they can force a draw if they don't lose any more areas or one of their special units. With the Tyranid threat on board the Craftworld pushing three fronts (two flank, one rear) the Eldar repositioned their units for maximum effect. Tyranid battle in the rear section: Eldar units hold fast. Tyranids flanking the right section: Eldar annihilate the entire swarm. Tyranids pushing hard on the left flank: Bad news. I had moved some of my better units into the left flank and put one of my special "If you kill this dude you get a VP" units into the left flank because I needed the strength bonuses he gave. The odds were such that my Eldar would hold unless my evil Tyranid wife rolled a 6, which would annihilate my entire defensive force and devastate the area. That's +2 Tyranid VP for anyone counting, but the risk was necessary to hold the area. Die roll... 6. Tyranids win, and my beautiful Craftworld is full of ugly bugs. We could have played out the rest of the game to the bitter end to see what the final VP margin would have been, but we didn't because the Tyranids had won anyway.
I liked the game and my wife really liked it, which I didn't expect. Game time was about 90 minutes, but now that we know how to play I'd expect future games to be closer to the hour mark. If GW's Horus Heresy is this fun I'm going to need to track down Battle for Armageddon to complete The Trilogy.
It's a fun game. I'm surprised with all the Games Workshop reprints FFG has been doing that this hasn't been done in a Silverline-style format. There's really not a lot to it component-wise. The gameplay could probably handle a little updating, but it still stands up pretty well. I don't know my 40k backstory very well, but the setting is an Eldar Craftworld (read: big ship) is attacked by the Tyranid Swarm. It's almost like a Castle Panic in spaaaace where one player is the Eldar and one player is the Tyranid.
It's got 6 Phases to a turn:
- Tyranid Reinforcements: Roll 2D6, and doubles could end the assault. The chance of doubles ending the assault increases as the game goes on. Then the Tyranid gets his 2D6 worth of reinforcements and rolls a D6 to place each of them in 1 of 6 deep space areas, just like Castle Panic.
- Tyranid Move
- Tyranid Combat
- Eldar Special Action
- Eldar Move
- Eldar Combat
See? It's that easy.
So the Tyranid units are face-down in space as the Hive Swarm. The Tyranid player can inspect his own face-down space Tyranids. They have a singular combat value. The Eldar have some ships in space too around their Craftworld with a singular combat value. Space combat is die rolls back and forth based on stacked unit strength, on a CRT, until somebody wins or the Eldar retreat.
Once the Tyranids get to the Craftworld they are flipped face-up. There's no stacking limit in space but on the Craftworld it's 3 units per player. Units on the Craftworld have an attack and defense value, and it gets real bloody real quick. Eldar unit defenses are doubles until the Tyranids wipe them out of a Craftworld area, at which point the area loses its 2x defense fortification forever. Craftworld Combat is a single die roll by the attacker based on the attack strength to defense strength ratio, again on a CRT.
The weird thing is that the game is scored with victory points, but it works pretty well. The Eldar player only gets VP based on the length of the Tyranid Assault. Eventually the assault will end, either due to Tyranid Reinforcement doubles or a fixed point on the reinforcement track. That doesn't end the game; however, it goes until either the Craftworld has been devastated or all the Tyranids are dead. Once the assault ends though there's no further way for the Eldar player to get victory points so he really needs to defend the Craftworld. The Tyranids get VPs by devastating Craftworld areas and killing a couple Eldar special units.
The game feels like a game of its era. The game flow was a little bit clunky the first round or two, but after that we were smashing each other up and it didn't matter. The game flow gets a lot smoother as you play and figure out little ways to speed up things like placing reinforcements and such.
Session:
I was the Eldar, my wife the Tyranids. I misread a stacking limit rule and thought the stacking limit applied in space as well so I spread out my ships all over the place at the start. Her Hive Swarm mauled them, and did it with quick efficiency. I had zero ships in space by her third reinforcement phase. I could have launched a few more ships but it was a waste at that point, so the Eldar braced to defend the Craftworld. The Tyranids landed and quickly devastated a rear area, but the Eldar held off the first wave on three other fronts. That was just about the end of the good news for the Eldar though.
Consistently good reinforcement rolls kept the onslaught persistent and bloody. A couple rounds later both rear sections, both flanks, and the Craftworld's forward section were devastated. Some fancy fighting by the Eldar managed to wipe out a big chunk of the Tyranid heavy units on board the Craftworld though, which really just put them back into the reinforcement pool to come out again next turn. But then, my wife the evil Tyranid finally rolled the right doubles to end the assault. Boom. No more reinforcements for the rest of the game and most of the Tyranid heavies are back in the box. The Eldar have 5VP at this point, and so to the Tyranids for the 5 devastated Craftworld areas.
Just have to hold on. The Eldar can't gain any more VP but they can force a draw if they don't lose any more areas or one of their special units. With the Tyranid threat on board the Craftworld pushing three fronts (two flank, one rear) the Eldar repositioned their units for maximum effect. Tyranid battle in the rear section: Eldar units hold fast. Tyranids flanking the right section: Eldar annihilate the entire swarm. Tyranids pushing hard on the left flank: Bad news. I had moved some of my better units into the left flank and put one of my special "If you kill this dude you get a VP" units into the left flank because I needed the strength bonuses he gave. The odds were such that my Eldar would hold unless my evil Tyranid wife rolled a 6, which would annihilate my entire defensive force and devastate the area. That's +2 Tyranid VP for anyone counting, but the risk was necessary to hold the area. Die roll... 6. Tyranids win, and my beautiful Craftworld is full of ugly bugs. We could have played out the rest of the game to the bitter end to see what the final VP margin would have been, but we didn't because the Tyranids had won anyway.
I liked the game and my wife really liked it, which I didn't expect. Game time was about 90 minutes, but now that we know how to play I'd expect future games to be closer to the hour mark. If GW's Horus Heresy is this fun I'm going to need to track down Battle for Armageddon to complete The Trilogy.
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