Board Game Breakdown

This post has been a long time coming...It has actually been over a month since I had a chance to sit down with friends and play test some of their amazing collection of board games. Many of which I had never encountered before. Hard core gamers will laugh at me, as apparently some of these are staples, but below are my first impressions of most of these games.

The Walking Dead: Okay, so as a huge fan of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead in all of its various formats, I figured the board game would be pretty awesome too. While it is great to see the original artwork, and the premise is sound, the game mechanics are a little lack luster. The whole idea of the board filling with walkers as you vacate spaces is cool, but your marker moves so slowly that it takes forever to make any progress. And rolling dice to combat walkers isn't very exciting. I need to play this one again, just to see if it was over complicated because of our unfamiliarity with the rules.

Egizia: Based around the formation of early Mesopotamia, Egizia is a worker placement style of game that focus's on the acquisition of resources and then transforming those resources into early Egyptian buildings in order to score points. I think we actually played 3 games of this before we had all of the correct rules firmly established, but once we did, the game really started to tick along. There are a number of strategies that in retrospect, I can see implementing, but those first few games I tried to focus on keeping my workers fed, so as to not loose points every round. While this game is apparently out of print, it is one that I enjoyed playing.

Small World: Sort of like a fantasy version of Risk, without the tedious hours of game play, Small World has simple game mechanics, with lots of intricate specific exceptions that can be assigned to the various races that are vying for world domination. I enjoyed the fact that there were various game boards based on the number of players involved with the game, and the random power/race assignments can create some very interesting game play dynamics. Bivouacking Trolls stands out as a combination that stomped my forces flat a couple of times. The whole concept that you can take a race into decline, and choose to attempt to reconquer territories with a second, or even third army is an interesting mechanic as well. This is a game I intend to one day add to my collection.

Survive: This little gem is a race against the clock. Atlantis is sinking, and you need to attempt to evacuate your forces to neighbouring "safe islands" through shark, and leviathan infested waters before the volcano on the island erupts, killing all remaining forces, and ending the game. The game mechanics are simple, and fun, as not only are you evacuating your forces, but you can control the various antagonistic elements and sink their boats, or have sharks eat their swimming survivors. We played this game a half a dozen times, and even when one of the games degraded into "everyone gang up against me", it was a blast. This is a game that I will definitely be purchasing for myself.

Pandemic: A cooperative game, where the players work together to stop the spread of a number of deadly diseases, this is another game that I feel I need to play again in order to truely appreciate. Since I was just learning the rules, and didn't have a great grasp of the mechanics, I felt a little bit led, while having not much to contribute to the scenario. With a better understanding of the various player abilities, I believe I would have a better grasp of the severity of the implied situation, and really be able to think 2-3 turns ahead and implement a startegy as opposed to simply reacting to new developments each round.

Carcossone: A turn based tile game of Medieval land development, this is another game I have known for years. Its simple mechanics make it easily accessible to new players, and it is quick to play. Another staple in my collection.

Castle Ravenloft: A simplified version of Dungeons and Dragons, Castle Ravenloft pits a cooperative party against the undead minions of a randomized castle Ravenloft,utilizing miniatures and dictated by a layout map. While the party attempts to complete various scenarios, find the item, destroy the target, etc, they are assaulted by unrelenting wave after wave of undead minions. My first real complaint about this game is how incredibly unbalanced it is in the games favour. It is very easy to get separated from your party, and easier to get systematically surrounded and wiped out before ever coming close to completing a scenario. Also missing is the sense of accomplishment associated with traditional D&D. In D&D you typically defeat the monster, loot its treasure, gain experience points, level up - gaining new and improved skills, and then continuestaging the process with a new adventure. With Castle Ravenloft, there is no rewards to speak of, simply a continued grind through the dungeon until you achieve yournight scenario goal, or die trying, either way ending the game. Apparently there are other D&D based adventure style board games that aren't so heavily unbalanced, and I think that I would like to try one of them before returning to Castle Ravenloft.

Settlers of Catan: This just happens to be one of the games that I was very familiar with prior to these sessions, having owned a copy for many years. It has become very mainstream, and it is apparently most people's introduction to European style board games, and it remains a great game to share with new people. Even the Big Bang Theory has dropped a "I've got Wood for Sheep" reference. That never gets old.

Lords of Waterdeep: While I have already written a post about my first experience with this game I thought it was worth mentioning that Lords of Waterdeep quickly became the game of choice with this particular group of gamers. We must have played in 15 times in 3 weeks, including a 5 player speed round game that lasted exactly 35 minutes. These sessions are the reason that I now own a copy of both this game, and the brand new expansion set Scoundrels of Skullport.

There you have it. Hours spent playing great board games with a fantastic group of people. I can't wait for our next session!

Lords of Waterdeep: A D&D based Board Game

Not that long ago I had the chance to attend a board game night and sample a bunch of really cool new games.  Today I had the opportunity to revisit the game that I was actually most impressed with.  That game was Lords of Waterdeep.
Set in the Forgotten Realms Campaign setting of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Lords of Waterdeep  dispenses with  all of the role playing elements of D&D in favour of a very slick, multi-turn based round centric play system.  You don't need to know anything about D&D to pick up and enjoy this game, but if you are a fan, you will appreciate a few of the finer points.
Sidebar: I played alot of D&D in Elementary and High School.  Make that that ALOT.  It was actually Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition, and all most exclusively set in The Realms, and while I preferred to play, I DM'd most of the campaigns that I was involved with.  I haven't played in over 12 years, mainly because I can't find a group of people with the same interests and availability.  So now that we have established that I was (am) a huge nerd, with legit nerd street cred, back to Lords of Waterdeep.

The game mechanics work like this:  Each player controls a faction of a secret society within Waterdeep, which faction you choose has no impact on game play, other than deciding the colour of your DnDeeple.  Each player also randomly selects one Lord Card that grants bonus's at the end of the game for completing specific Quest types. At the beginning of the game you have 2 agents that you can use to generate resources and complete quests.  In order to complete quests, you must first generate a supply of resources to add to your pool.  These resources include Gold, and hirelings.  Specifically you are trying to recruit followers of the 4 basic character classes: Warriors, Wizards, Clerics, and Rogues.  Each class of hireling is designated by a different coloured cube.  Resources are earned by assigning an agent to a specific location on the game board.  After an agent has been assigned and the resources collected, you have the option of completing a quest, assuming that you have the required resources.  There are different categories of quest cards, including Piety, Commerce, Warfare, Arcana, Skulldugery, and each Quest requires different resources to complete and offers different rewards.
Agents can also be assigned to build new buildings which add new and interesting elements to the game play.
There are also Intrique cards which shake things up a little bit, adding a fun and often surprising dynamic to the game play.

The artwork of the box, game board, and various cards are done by the same folks who design game supplements for the current edition of D&D, so it all feels right.  As someone who has been very immersed in Realms Lore over the years, I appreciated the short blurbs on all of the quest cards, many of which tie into well known plot points from the various Realms supplements that have been published over the years.  Of course, a player who was new to the genre wouldn't really be missing anything, as none of this affects the actual game play.
The game continues for 8 turns, and the winner is decided by a combination of total points acquired, bonus points awarded by the players secret lord, and the amount of minions, and gold remaining at the end of the game.  Today we played with 5 players,  2 of whom were new to the genre.  Everyone picked up the game play mechanics very quickly, and I think we all had a lot of fun.  Each time I have played this game I have found myself taking a very different strategy, and I enjoy the fact that, much like D&D, the game changes dramatically based on the actions of the people you are playing with.
This is a wicked board game that I will be adding to my personal collection very soon!  Especially since a little interweb research tells me that they have just published a 6 person expansion.