Magic the Gathering: Graveborn review

By paul | Published: November 18, 2011

Magic the Gathering Premium Deck Series GravebornGraveborn forms part of Magic the Gathering’s Premium Deck Series of all-foil 60 card decks. These decks include 7 rares and 1 mythic rare along with an a deck box and a spin down counter. The spin down counter is worthy of mention as it is translucent and has a real sickly death feel to it, nice work Wizards :) . Anyway, on to the cards…

At first glance the deck doesn’t enirely make sense, it contains just Swamps (black mana) and there are a handful of very powerful creature cards requiring different coloured mana to cast.

After digging a bit deeper, the core mechanic of the deck becomes apparent. The deck basically functions around discarding cards from your hand or library (specifically creatures) and then resurrecting them, putting them straight on to the battlefield.

One example of this could get you a 9 mana creature on the battlefield by turn two! Should you be lucky enough to draw Entomb and Exhume in your starting hand, you’re guaranteed to get the big creature of your choice out by turn two, unless countered in some way of course.

Even without getting this specific combination of cards you could still get one of these creatures on the field by the second turn. If you happened to start a game with one of the big nasties in your hand then Putrid Imp can get it into your graveyard in turn one. Exhume is also not the only way to get a creature out of the graveyard in turn two, Animate Dead can also do this but at a cost of giving the resurrected creature -1/-0, not too big a price to pay for getting a 7/11 or 9/9 out in the second turn…

OK, so you can get some high mana cost non-black creatures out in the first few turns but what are these cards?

First up we have Sphinx of the Wind, a 6/6 with flying, first strike, vigilance, life link and protection from red and green.

Blazing Archon

Blazing Archon

Second, there’s the Blazing Archon, a 5/6 with flying and a special rule meaning that creatures cannot attack you.

There’s also Crosis, the Purger, a 6/6 once again with flying. In addition to this, if Crosis causes damage you can spend an additional 3 mana to make the opposing player discard all the cards in their hand of a chosen colour, nasty for mono (single colour) decks.

Next up, Inkwell Leviathan, a 7/11 (yes, you read that right), this beast has Islandwalk, trample & shroud.

Also included is Verdent Force, a 7/7 that generates a 1/1 Saproling at the start of each turn, these Saprolings are ideal to use as sacrafices that are required for some card effects.

Terastodon

Terastodon

Finally, there’s Terastodon, a 9/9 (potentially in turn two!?!). When Terastodon enters the battlefield you may also destroy any three non-creature permanents and get a 3/3 elephant token for each permanent destroyed in this way.

There is also a black creature that is worth mentioning - Avatar of Woe. This can also enter the battlefield early using the mechanic already mentioned, it can also enter for a significantly reduced mana cost if there are 10 or more creatures in all graveyards. Avatar of Woe has fear and can destroy target creature when tapped, this damage cannot be regenerated.

There are a host of other ways to get these big cards into the graveyard and ultimately on to the battlefield. In total there are 13 cards that put cards into your graveyard and 11 that can get them from the graveyard and on to the battlefield.

Full Graveborn deck list

Creatures (13)

  • 1 Avatar of Woe
  • 1 Crosis, the Purger
  • 1 Inkwell Leviathan
  • 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
  • 1 Terastodon
  • 1 Verdant Force
  • 1 Blazing Archon
  • 2 Putrid Imp
  • 2 Hidden Horror
  • 1 Faceless Butcher
  • 1 Twisted Abomination

Spells (23)

  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Entomb
  • 1 Zombie Infestation
  • 1 Cabal Therapy
  • 2 Last Rites
  • 2 Sickening Dreams
  • 3 Exhume
  • 3 Duress
  • 3 Animate Dead
  • 2 Buried Alive
  • 2 Diabolic Servitude
  • 2 Dread Return

Lands (24)

  • 21 Swamp
  • 1 Polluted Mire
  • 1 Ebon Stronghold
  • 1 Crystal Vein

Conclusion

The Graveborn deck is very powerful indeed.  Within a few turns you will be almost guaranteed to get a very powerful creature card on to the battlefield and it’s just going to start going downhill for your opponent from there.

That said, had I built this deck myself I may have taken less of the off theme cards, specifically Faceless Butcher, Twisted Abomination & one Duress to take a full compliment of four Entomb to ensure I get some powerful cards into the graveyard as early as possible.

There is always a question mark over value for money with these decks but when you consider that Event Decks are £19.99 RRP and they are non-foil, then for a powerful deck like this it starts to make sense.

Overall score: 8/10

You can pick up Magic the Gathering’s Premium Deck Series: Graveborn at Mythreal for only £22.39*: MTG Graveborn

*Accurate as of 18th November 2011

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Super Dungeon Explore review

By paul | Published: November 16, 2011

Super Dungeon ExploreSuper Dungeon Explore is the world’s first chibi anime strategy combat board game. In Super Dungeon Explore players either take the part of one or more members of a party of adventurers or play as the consul, the dungeon’s evil master, summoning hordes of minions.

Super Dungeon Explore comes complete with over 50 plastic-resin Soda Pop miniatures, full rules, cards, dice, and battle maps, everything  required to play the game.

Super Dungeon Explore contents:

  • 50 + plastic-resin Soda Pop miniatures
  • Custom Super Dungeon Explore battle dice
  • Character and minion stat cards
  • Loot and treasure card decks
  • 5 double sided dungeon boards
  • 32 page rule book

What is Super Dungeon Explore?

Super Dungeon Explore is a dungeon bashing board game, taking a huge dollop of inspiration from Atari’s 1985 arcade classic Gauntlet along with the visual style of retro Japanese console RPG’s and finally characters & monsters that would be familiar to any D&D player. The main Gauntlet connection is the use of spawning points (generators in Gauntlet) and of course the dungeon setting.

Super Dungeon Explore Heroes

Super Dungeon Explore Heroes

What’s the aim of the game?

The game can be played by two to six players. One to five players take the role of heroes such as a dwarf warrior, a human wizard or a shape-changing shaman. One player takes that part of the Dark Consul and controls the all the monsters in the dungeon.

For the heroes the objective of the game is to destroy the various monster spawning points and defeat the dungeon boss. The Dark Consul’s task is simpler still, stop the heroes succeeding by killing them stone dead…

What are the miniatures like?

The plastic-resin miniatures from Soda Pop are done in a chibi anime, super-deformed style, meaning the ultra-cute head is roughly the same size as the rest of the body. They are of a far superior quality to the average board game miniature, basically being of table-top wargaming standard.

The miniatures, if bought separately would have an approximate value of £150 – £200, this is a rough estimate as not all the miniatures included have been released individually. When reaching this figure I haven’t included the dragon boss and mini-bosses as none of the miniatures that are available separately are anywhere near the size of these models.

Super Dungeon Explore Consuls Minions

Super Dungeon Explore Consuls Minions

Is it any good?

In a word… Yes.

Well, It’s certainly good fun to play and is great to look at. However, the best thing about Super Dungeon Explore is the 8 Bit (or 16 bit if you last that long) arcade feel. Stand-out examples of this are health and potion drops on wounding monsters and the use of spawning points for the bad guys, both of these recreate that an old school computer game feel perfectly.

It is also a terrific challenge for the player(s) taking the part of the heroes and good strategy and tactics are essential if the heroes are to be successful.This makes the game much deeper than it might first appear and certainly leads to increased longevity.

There must be something wrong with it!

Well, challenge is just another word for difficult isn’t it… and Super Dungeon Explore is certainly that. The heroes task is not easy at all, if they want a chance of winning they will need to play very tactically, mainly through ensuring they minimise the number of monsters able to attack each turn.

As this is effectively a two sided game it is fair to say that the game is not terribly well balanced; in a game played by a group of newbies I would be amazed if the heroes won. Having said this I feel that if this fact is acknowledged by both sides, then victory for the heroes becomes all the sweeter and even a slim loss feels like a minor victory.

Another issue is that the rule book is not terribly well written, an area of particular confusion is in how some of the spells work, it is not made explicitly clear what target number or dice roll opposes non-damaging spell, is it a Will or Armour? We’ve plumped for Armour as there seemed to be no information online. There are also several other areas where the rules lack clarity.

Finally, a very minor point, the game box and board pieces feel a little cheap. I’ve never come across a corrugated card  box for a board game before.

Conclusion

Super Dungeon Explore is fun to play, offers a strategic/tactical challenge, and is great to look at. If you enjoy a good dungeon bash then this game will appeal to you.

In terms of value for money this game is exceptional, containing a large number of great looking models, although there is a large degree of personal taste involved here as the super deformed style will not appeal to everyone.

However, the game is not very well balanced as the bad guys have a significantly easier time than the heroes. That said, I do feel that this isn’t so much of an issue that it spoils the game.

Finally, the rule book is not terribly well written and does leave a few rule areas uncertain.

The handful of negative points don’t get anywhere near to out weighing the positives however and Super Dungeon Explore will take a regular part in our gaming evening.

Overall score: 8/10

You can pick up Super Dungeon Explore at Mythreal for only £51.99*: Super Dungeon Explore

*Accurate as of 16th November 2011

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Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath review

By paul | Published: June 27, 2011

Dungeons and Dragons Conquest of Nerath“War has come to the Dungeons & Dragons world! In the north, the undead legions of the Dark Empire of Karkoth march against the fragile League of Nerath, determined to sweep away the human kingdoms forever. To the south, the infernal Iron Circle launches its own goblin hordes in a campaign of conquest against the elves and corsairs of Vailin. From the snowy expanse of the Winterbole Forest to the sun-warmed coasts of ancient Vailin, four great powers struggle for survival.”

Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath is a fantasy conquest game for 2-4 players aged 12+ and can be played in 2-4 hours. Players employ heroes such as knights and wizards to lead a range of troops and explore dungeons in the search of magical artefacts and treasures to increase their power in combat.

Conquest of Nerath includes the following components:

  • Rulebook
  • Dice
  • Game board
  • 110 cards
  • 252 plastic playing pieces representing the champions and armies of Nerath, Karkoth, the Iron Circle, and Vailin

First impressions

The first thing that struck me when opening the Conquest of Nerath box was the large number of game components, particularly playing pieces. The second thing that I noticed was the plastic tray inside the box, there is storage space for all the playing pieces, dice, game cards and game counters, once they are pressed out of the sheets of pre-punched card they come supplied in. This is excellent as many game manufacturers seem to forget about storage, and there really is no excuse for doing so. On opening the board I was immediately reminded of Risk, or better, Axis and Allies but this similarity could just be superficial.

The Rulebook is pretty slim, 24 pages, so I’m going to get stuck in. You can read the rules at this point too if you like: Rulebook.

Game set up

The game takes a long time to set up, maybe half an hour, as each territory starts the game with one or more specified playing pieces. That said Wizards of the Coast have made set up considerably easier by having small icons representing the starting pieces that start in each territory on the map, as well as listing the starting locations for each realm on the relevant reference card, this is a big help.

There are also a number of decks to set out and counters to arrange in stacks around the board.
Playing the game

Conquest Nerath board

D&D: Conquest Nerath board

There are 4 warring realms in Conquest of Nerath, with players controlling one or two of these depending on how many people are playing.The objective of Conquest of Nerath varies depending on whether you wish to play a short, medium or long game. A short game taking a couple of hours, a long game taking up to four hours. Short and medium games are decided by attaining a certain number of victory points, victory points are acquired by taking enemy territories or capturing, and using, treasures. The long version of the game requires one player to control all 4 capital locations on the board and to have collected 8 treasures.

There are 9 different types of playing pieces in the game, each realm has access to to the same playing pieces. These pieces have differing abilities, most prominently different pieces roll different dice. Footsoldiers roll a D6 (6 sided die) while Dragons and Castles roll a D20 (20 sided die), this is significant as a 6 or more is needed to be rolled to destroy an enemy piece, this is much easier when rolling a d20. Many playing pieces also have special abilities that give them advantages, such as first strike (the ability to hit the enemy before they can hit back) or durable (the ability to take 2 hits before being destroyed).

Due to there being quite a large number of playing pieces starting on the board the game has very little in the way of build up, the action starting almost straight away. Like Risk or Axis and Allies the core rules are simple but allow for strategic depth. Significant forethought is required to ensure that you don’t leave yourself overstretched. New troops are bought using gold, which is earned through controlling territories, much like in Risk or Axis and Allies and can be placed in any location with a castle on it, or adjacent to a castle in the case of naval units.

Conquest Nerath during play

D&D: Conquest Nerath during play

There are a two additional game play elements. Event cards are drawn each turn and can be played to provide benefits such as additional troops or extra attack dice in combat. Treasure cards are acquired by raiding dungeons using your heroes (fighters and wizards are heroes – only heroes can be involved in dungeon raids) and defeating the enemies within, treasure cards grant substantial benefits, most of which last for the remainder of the game.

There are a couple issues that you will likely encounter during play. I can imagine almost no game where you will not run out of playing pieces, even when using chips to represent multiples of each troop type in a territory. Also the quick reference cards for each realm would really benefit from having the base gold earned each turn on the “in-play” side rather than the “set-up” side as it is required during play not set up.

Conclusion

Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath, whilst very similar to some existing games out there, offers a number of new gameplay elements, events cards and dungeon raids. These make the game sufficiently different to warrant owning both Conquest of Nerath and another game of it’s type (Risk or Axis and Allies).

Conquest of Nerath comes with a large number of game components and the plastic storage tray supplied inside the box is very welcome.

The core game rules are simple but allow for strategic depth and winning the game requires significant forethought to ensure that you don’t leave yourself overstretched.

On the downside, the game takes quite a while to set up and players will often find that they have insufficient playing pieces for their game included in the box.

Obviously this game will be a big hit with fans of D&D, who may well choose this game ahead of Risk or Axis and Allies, simply due to the setting, , not a bad thing in this case.

All the talk of game mechanics and so on has so far missed the one thing that stands out more than any other after a few plays of this game… It is great fun to play. The game starts quickly, plays fast and random elements such as event cards throws up surprises making the game unpredictable and a players fortunes can turn around quite quickly at times. This makes for a fun game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, highly recommended.

Overall score: 9/10

You can pick up Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath at Mythreal for only £42.49 (Including UK Delivery)*: Conquest of Nerath

*Accurate as of 27th June 2011

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Khet 2.0 review

By paul | Published: May 19, 2011

Khet 2.0 Laser GameKhet 2.0 is a game for 2 players, aged 9 & up and can be played in anything from a few minutes to over an hour (much like chess).

Khet 2.0 combines lasers with classic strategy. Players alternate turns moving Egyptian-themed pieces that have two, one or no mirrored surfaces. All four types of pieces (Pharaoh, Anubis, Pyramid and Scarab) can either move one square forwards, backwards, left, right, or diagonally, or stay in the same square and rotate by a quarter twist. Each turn ends by firing the laser built into each player’s Sphinx piece. The laser beam bounces from mirror to mirror; if the beam strikes a non-mirrored surface on any piece, it is immediately removed from play. The ultimate goal is to illuminate your opponent’s pharaoh, while shielding yours from harm!

Khet 2.0 has won a Mensa Select award and was a Toy of the Year finalist.

First impression

The Original Khet

The Original Khet

I own, and am a fan of, the original Khet game, so this new version had better shape up… For people that haven’t heard of Khet, I describe it simply – “It’s chess with lasers” – enough said!!! (Oh dear 3 exclamation marks – Ed)

First impressions are good. The new version is smaller (which is a plus as the old box was a little difficult to store), the plastic pieces are of similar (i.e. good) quality and it includes a pair of lasers (another obvious plus :) ).

The 2 main differences are the fact that the board is flat, it was previous surrounded by a ‘wall’, and the laser are now in 2 sphinx pieces rather than the board ‘wall’ – See image above and to right.

There are also been some small rule adjustments and some pieces have been renamed.

Game set up

The game can be set up in 3 different ways, although you are free to create your own piece starting positions; I would recommend starting with classic.

Set up takes under a minute as there are only 12 pieces and 1 sphinx per side, red and silver.

Playing the game

Khet 2 - An Anubis Blocks the Laser

Khet 2 - An Anubis Blocks the Laser

The objective of the game of Khet is to hit your opponents Pharaoh with either your laser or cause them to hit their Pharaoh with their own laser, whilst of course ensuring your own Pharaoh is properly protected from laser fire!! (Just 2 this time but I sense he’s getting carried away again – Ed)

Silver takes the first turn and as with chess a single piece can be moved by each side during each turn. There are 4 different types of playing pieces that can move either 1 square in any direction or rotate 90 degrees (they cannot move and rotate), these are Pyramids, Anubis, Scarabs & Pharaohs, each have slightly different abilities, detailed below.

Pyramid: Each player has 7 Pyramids. A Pyramid has a mirrored side and a non-mirrored side, it is removed if during the game it’s non-mirrored side is hit by a laser.

Scarab: Each player has 2 Scarabs – These are basically the Djeds of the original version of the game. A Scarab has a mirror on both sides so is basically invincible. They can also switch places with Pyramids or Anubis’ of either side, when used like this they can significantly change the direction of either laser beam.

Anubis: Each player has 2 Anubis. These are powered up but unstackable versions of the Obelisk of the original game. The Obelisks blocked laser beams but were removed when hit, the Anubis is not removed from play if the beam hits its front.

Pharaoh: Each player has 1 Pharaoh. This is piece is similar to the king in chess, if the laser strikes a players Pharaoh her/she loses.

Sphinx: The final piece is the Sphinx, this piece contains the laser, it cannot move but can rotate 90 degrees in order to fire along the first board column or row. This piece was not in the original version of Khet, in the original the laser was built in to the side of the board.

As you can probably imagine, a simple move or rotation of a mirrored piece can send the laser shooting off around the board by a totally different route. Obviously this means that guarding your Pharaoh is essential, much like you would guard your King in chess. The new rotating Sphinx makes the potential for sudden changes in laser direction even greater.

I have only one gripe about the new version of the game, and it isn’t a big one by any means, as the board is no longer bordered, when the laser flys off the board it can be hard to work out where it has gone. I can see players around the world moving their hands around the board to catch the laser beam in order to work out where it has gone.

Conclusion

Khet 2.0 (and the original Khet for that matter) is a great, classic style game game with a futuristic twist! (Finally just a single exclamation mark – Ed) As such it has very broad appeal, just as chess does, people that wouldn’t typically play a board game can be easily persuaded to try a game of Khet.

Apart from my minor gripe regarding the fact that the new board makes it slightly harder to work out where the laser ends up, which probably won’t even be noticed by new players, the game is PERFECT!!! (Oh dear – Ed)

Overall score: 10/10

You can pick up Khet 2.0 at Mythreal for only £26.99 (Including UK Delivery)*: Khet 2.0

*Accurate as of 19th May 2011

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King of Tokyo game review

By paul | Published: May 6, 2011

King of Tokyo - Richard Garfield

King of Tokyo is a game for 2 to 6 players, aged 8 & up and can be played in under 30 minutes. In the game you play huge mutant monsters, gigantic robots and aliens, all of whom happily whack each other in order to become the one and only King of Tokyo.

King of Tokyo was designed by Richard Garfield and is published by Iello.

First impression

Now for those of a certain age, those that played 8-bit computer games, you’ll remember a game called “Rampage”, basically 3 monsters trash a cityscape, I was a big fan so have great hopes for this game.

On opening the King of Tokyo box I’ll admit to being pretty disappointed. I was hopping for miniatures rather than card monsters and was also hoping for a larger more atmospheric board.

That said, the various monster cut-outs are characterful and the manga-esque art looks great. It may be that it was considered to not be possible to represent the monsters in miniature form at the £31.99 RRP price point or that it was decided that getting nice colourful representations was considered the priority.

Also in the box are some nice looking monster status cards, 8 dice, some green-translucent plastic cubes (these were soon called energon cubes), a deck of cards, some counters and the afore mentioned disappointing board.

Anyway, after an initially disappointing start we’ll take a look at the game itself…

Game set up

Game set up is simplicity itself, taking no more than 30 seconds. Simply place the board in the middle of the table, shuffle the card deck and lay out the first 3 cards, then each player chooses the monster they wish to use in the game.

Playing the game

After set up, dice are thrown to determine who goes first. These aren’t standard dice, the faces bearing the following six symbols: 1, 2 or 3 Points of Destruction (Victory Points), Energy, Healing and Whack (Hits/Damage). Whoever roles the most Whack starts.

During your turn, you throw six of the dice mentioned above. In three successive throws you choose whether to keep or discard each die in order to end up with a combinations that enable you to win destruction (victory) points, hoard energy, restore your health or damage the health of the other players.

You are permitted 2 re-rolls, and can re-roll as many or as few dice as you like, yes this is Rampage meets Yhatzee.

In addition to this core game metric, the energy that you accrue when you get an energy result on your dice roll can be spent on acquiring special cards, these cards have a permanent or temporary effect. For example Spiked Tail means you deal more damage, Stretchy allows you to spend energy to change a dice roll to one of your choice and Psychic Probe allows you to re-roll one of each of your opponents dice.

Right, so we’re now looking at Rampage meets Yhatzee meets Magic the Gathering (this game is by Richard Garfield after all – Magic’s designer).

Finally, one or two players, depending game size, will be “in Tokyo”. Players accrue victory points simply for being “in Tokyo” the disadvantage of this is that the player(s) “in Tokyo” will always be on the receiving end of more damage than those that are not “in Tokyo”. This is as damage is dealt across the Tokyo border, those “in Tokyo” hitting out and those monster not “in Tokyo” hitting in, there are always more monsters not “in Tokyo” (apologies for gratuitous use of quotation marks – Ed).

To win the game one player must either destroy Tokyo by accumulating 20 destruction (victory) points, or be the last monster standing.

The various game metrics work well together, and there are multiple strategies that can be used to win the game. Do you stick it out in Tokyo slowly accruing victory points each turn only using cards to heal. Do you focus on gaining energy and using card abilities to gain victory points or improve your monster’s other abilities. Or do you just focus on whacking the other players until you’re the last monster in the game.

Conclusion

King of Tokyo is a fun and quick to play game that is easily accessible to all gamers big and small, the recommended age 8+ is about spot on. For older gamers there is more than enough strategy to keep things interesting but the game can be played by young children without then needing to fully appreciating the subtleties of the game. It’s one of those games that have simple rules but strategic depth.

Personally I also enjoyed the speed of the game, too many games often take hours to play and it’s really nice to play a game that can be played in as little as 15miutes (2-3 players) to half an hour (4-6 players), you’ll find yourself playing two or three games on the trot.

The only let down for me was the lack of miniatures and a more detailed representation/interactive of Tokyo.

Overall score: 7/10

You can pick up King of Tokyo at Mythreal for only £28.79 (Including UK Delivery)*: King of Tokyo

*Accurate as of 6th May 2011

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The Lord of the Rings: The Card game – Core Set review

By paul | Published: April 21, 2011

The Lord of the Rings The Card Game LCG Core SetThe Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a cooperative card game that puts 1-2 players (or up to four with two Core Sets!) in control of the most powerful characters and artifacts of Middle-earth.

Players select their heroes, gather allies, acquire artifacts, and coordinate their efforts to face a series of obstacles and through cooperation they must complete the quest before them to claim victory!

The Lord Of The Rings: The Card Game Core Set includes 226 cards that can be used to assemble a wide variety of decks to play through the 3 quests supplied.

First impression

On opening the Lord of the Rings LCG box we were presented with a rule book (available as a pdf here) over 200 cards, 2 sheets of heavy duty pre-punched card that contains all the game counters and some plastic things that allow the threat trackers to rotate :) .

A quick read of the rules reveals that the game is played in a co-operative fashion, with 1-2 players playing against the game.

Sorting through the cards, I’m impressed by the quality of the art which is reminiscent of much existing Lord of the Rings art, particularly that of John Howe.

I really only have one complaint at this stage, and that is that you don’t a lot for £29.99. To be honest though this is the case for the core sets of the other 3 LCG’s produced by Fantasy Flight as well (along with most of their board games too for that matter).

Game set up

If this is the First CCG or LCG you have played I would strongly recommend that you follow the suggestion in the rulebook and play the Mirkwood Scenario using one of the 4 pre-built decks and associated trio of heroes. This has the benefit of making your first game slightly simpler (although probably harder to win due to hero selection) and means you can get started on your first game much more quickly. Game set up is straight forward, simply follow the sample layout on page 11 of the rulebook and you’re away.

Playing the game

Card set up in Lord of the Rings LCG

Card set up in Lord of the Rings LCG

As already mentioned The Lord of the Rings LCG is a co-operative card game, pitting 1-2 (or up to 4 with 2 core games) against the game in the form of 1 of 3 available scenarios.

Any two games will never play the same as these scenarios only provide the loosest framework for the game, mainly dictating the type of encounter cards used and simply marking progress through the game. It is the cards that are drawn from the shuffled encounter deck are the main game element that players interact with.

Encounter cards come in many flavours, two of the main ones being monsters and locations. They are drawn each turn and are placed in the middle of the board, known as the staging area, later monsters then encounter one of the players, whilst locations stay in the staging area until players choose to travel to those locations.

Each player starts with 3 heroes, from 12 available and a deck of cards. All players win if the scenario conditions are met, individual players are out of the game if all their heroes die or if their threat meter hits 50, the players lose if all players are out of the game.

Each game turn has 7 phases, which in summary entail drawing cards and accruing resource tokens, questing, defending attacks from monsters and , in turn, attacking monsters. Without going into masses of detail and essentially reproducing the rulebook in this review, the game boils down to deciding which of your heroes will quest, defend or attack in each turn, each hero normally only being allowed to undertake one such action each turn.

The decision taken will vary depending on what is currently in the staging area and what, if any, monsters are currently engaged with players. Along with the current health, condition and abilities of the heroes (and allies) under a players control.

Combat is quite straight forward, consisting of simply comparing attack and defence stats and allocating damage based on the difference between the two numbers.

The Lord of the Rings LCG Cards

The Lord of the Rings LCG Cards

Questing is slightly more complex.  During the questing phase players will either make progress through the current part of the scenario or their threat level will rise. When opting to quest players need to exceed the combined threat score of all encounter cards in the staging area, including 2 cards that are yet to be drawn. A Progress token is placed on the current scenario card for each point the players beat the cards in the encounter deck by. However, if the threat total of the encounter cards in the staging area exceeds the players total questing score the players threat level increases by the difference between the two totals.

As the quest phase comes before attack and defence, and players don’t yet know what the target threat number is questing is almost always the phase that players come unstuck, through either under or over committing to questing. Under committing leading to threat build up, over committing potentially meaning that their are insufficient heroes to take part in attack or defence.

There are additional elements which introduces extra metrics, one such is travelling, you travel to location cards that are in the staging area; location cards include threat and can only be removed from the staging area by travelling to them. Travelling to a location means that it needs to be quested before further progress can be made on the scenario but if you don’t travel to locations they will accumulate in the staging area and you will soon start to lose every Quest Phase.

Finally, a bit of opinion. The game plays well, and is challenging from the first turn, unlike some card games that can take a while to get going. The core game metric of allocating heroes to the three different tasks each turn requires a lot of thought and strategies will change as the game progresses, heroes take damage and threat levels rise etc. Also, the fact that this game is co-operative, a first for Fantasy Flights LCGs, makes the game a much more social experience. With players discussing strategy throughout and more experienced players helping out newbies, without any of the potential issues that arise in doing so in a competitive game.

Overall score: 8/10

You can pick up The Lord of the Rings: The Card game – Core Set at Mythreal for only £26.39 (Including UK Delivery)*: The Lord of the Rings LCG

*Accurate as of 20th March 2011

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BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set review

By paul | Published: April 11, 2011

BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box SetBattleTech is an epic, ongoing fictional science-fiction universe supporting a game that simulates combat in the 31st century.

The lords of the battlefields of the 31st Century are 30 foot tall humanoid combat vehicles known as BattleMechs.

The Battletech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set contains everything you need to start playing Battletech.

Included in the box is:

  • 24 unpainted, ready-to-play plastic BattleMech minis
  • 2 unpainted, premium-quality plastic BattleMech minis
  • One 12-page full-color quick-start rulebook will have players into the action in minutes
  • 36-page book of pre-generated BattleMech Record Sheets
  • One 80-page full-colour rulebook
  • Inner Sphere at a Glance, a 56-page full-colour book of universe background and BattleMech technical data
  • One 16-page full-color Painting and Tactics Guide
  • Two heavy-duty cards of compiled tables
  • Two 18″ x 24″ game-board quality maps

Before we get stuck in to the review, something about my relationship with BattleTech. I’m a bit of a lapsed BattleTech fan, I used to play a lot of BattleTech but haven’t had a game in nearly 20 years. Why is this relevant? Well, I’m hoping that this boxed set will be a trip down memory lane for me, and that it will be a great way to start playing again, if it fails in either of these I will be hugely disappointed and the score at the end will reflect this. Anyway enough navel gazing on with the review…

On opening the 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set, I am pleasantly surprised by the shear amount of stuff that it contains, included is a selection of rulebooks and source books, record sheets (just waiting to be photocopied), 26 miniatures,2 quality card hex maps and a couple of dice.

Books from the BattleTech Introductory Box Set

Books from the BattleTech Introductory Box Set

After a read of the various books I have to say that I’m impressed. The quick-start rules genuinely will get players up and gaming in less than an hour and for new players I would recommend a game or two using these rules before tackling the rules within the introductory rulebook.

For those that don’t know BattleTech: The full introductory rules are moderately complex, BattleTech being a more complex game than say Warhammer 40,000. Although it’s just a matter of personal taste, I have always liked the way that units in BattleTech sustain damaged in quite a granular fashion, ‘Mechs can sustain damage to a range of systems, actuators, engines, gyros etc. Even when simply moving and shooting care needs to be taken not to generate too much heat, heat can lead to movement and combat penalties, damage to your ‘Mech or can even lead to the pilot losing conciousness. As a result of this complexity you tend to play with far fewer miniatures than many miniatures games. This isn’t a review of the rules however so back the box contents…

The introductory rules almost exclusively cover ‘Mechs, this isn’t too much of an issue as this is typically where people would want to start anyway and this is an introductory boxed set after all, rules for other vehicles/troops can be found in the full rulebook BattleTech Total Warfare. All in all the rules are well explained in the Introductory rule book with good use of examples making the more complex game mechanics easy to grasp.

Of the other books included, the most significant is “The Inner-Sphere at a Glance”, which provides quite an in depth introduction to the history and politics of the BattleTech universe, it certainly contains enough source material for players to decide which House (or other power) they would like to play and hence how they might like to paint your miniatures, see Camo Specs for more inspiration.

BattleTech Miniatures

BattleTech Premium & Standard Miniatures

Talking of miniatures… there are 26 ‘Mech miniatures in the box, 24 of which are of average board game quality, i.e. they fall well short of what many wargamers might expect. I admit to being disappointed. That said with a little cleaning up, filling and a tiny bit of re-sculpting of detail that has failed to mould perfectly these miniatures can be brought up to a standard that most gamers would be satisfied with… that is until they stand the remaining two miniatures next to them… The two premium miniatures are in a completely different league, being crisp hard plastic models, you can see the difference in this photo, click for a bigger pic.

I feel that I would have preferred to have fewer higher quality miniatures. Maybe 12 of the premium quality ‘Mechs instead of 24 poor quality miniatures that  really don’t inspire me to invest a lot of time painting them.

Finally, the 2  maps supplied are  of good size and quality.

Conclusion

BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set represents great value for money and is a great introduction or re-introduction to BattleTech.

The box set is jam-packed with stuff, including a well written introductory rule book, a detailed introduction to the background of the BattleTech universe and 2 high quality hex maps for you to play out your ‘Mech battles.

The only disappointment comes from the quality of the majority of the miniatures that come in the Introductory Box Set, personally I would have  preferred to have seen less miniatures if it meant they could have all been of the same quality of the two ‘premium’ Clan ‘Mechs included in the box.

Overall score: 8/10

You can pick up the BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set at Mythreal for only £35.99 (Including UK Delivery)*: BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set

*Accurate as of 11th April 2011

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Mansion of Madness review

By paul | Published: March 3, 2011

Mansions of Madness BoxMansions of Madness is a macabre game of horror, insanity, and mystery for two to five players. Each game takes place within a pre-designed story that provides players with a unique map and several combinations of plot threads. These threads affect the monsters that investigators may encounter, the clues they need to find, and which climactic story ending they will ultimately experience. One player takes on the role of the keeper, controlling the monsters and other malicious powers within the story. The other players take on the role of investigators, searching for answers while struggling to survive with their minds intact.

Mansions of Madness includes 1 rulebook, an investigator guide, a keeper guide, 8 investigator figures, 24 monster figures, over 300 cards, over 200 tokens and markers,  15 detailed map tiles, nearly 70 puzzle tiles & 1 Ten-Sided Die.

Mansions of Madness was designed by Corey Konieczka.

First impression

On opening the Mansions of Madness box we were presented with a rule book (available as a pdf here) and keeper guide, 8 investigator figures, 24 monster figures, over 300 cards and a number of sheets of heavy duty pre-punched card that contains all the map tiles and game counters.

A quick read of the rules reveals that the game is played as “Keeper” (kinda like an opponent combined with a RPG GM) vs 1 -4 investigators, loosely working as a cross between Descent and Betryal at House on the Hill, from the first skim read the game seems to capture the Cthulhu feel nicely.

The characters have been taken straight from the Arkham Horror game, and the miniatutres that represent these, and the monsters for that matter, are of very good quality.

My only disappointment is that you don’t really get a lot for your £64.99 and the box doesn’t have discrete areas to store the different game components.

Game set up

Game set up involves building the game board/map for the story being played, as well as setting out exploration cards and building a number of decks. This is quite time consuming, the Keeper needs a good half an hour to do this and might be best done before the other players arrive.

Once the board is set up, the other players just need to pick which investigator they wish to play and choose which traits that investigator will have for the game.

After this is done it’s time for the detective work to begin…

Playing the game

Mansions of Madness House of Lynch

The Fall of House Lynch

As already mentioned Mansions of Madness pits the Keeper against a number of investigators, whichever side meets it’s victory conditions first wins, although investigators won’t know what these are at the outside. A draw is also possible.

The role of Keeper is significantly more complex than that of investigator which is a really good thing. Getting a group of people together that have all taken the effort to read and fully understand the number of rules that the Keeper needs to know (over 25 pages) would be pretty difficult. The fact that the basic investigator rules only cover a couple of pages means that non-gamers can also get involved.

The story driven nature of the game manages to create a suitably suspenseful atmosphere, as appropriate to a game set in the Cthulhu universe, this is constantly re-enforced as almost all parts of the game have a narrative element. The overall game is driven by a turn counter that introduces new developments every few turns. Combat is also narrative based, being resolved by a rather unique card drawing system rather than just rolling a dice, adding flavour to a game element that can all to often be purely number based. In fact the narrative element is so strong I feel this board game verges on RPG territory.

Mansions of Madness Miniatures

Mansions of Madness Miniatures

The main part of the game however concerns exploration, with investigators searching the board for clues leading to the revelation of a final objective(s). Exploration is handled very well by the simple use of upside-down cards being placed in rooms that are revealed when an investigator enters a room. Should a room be locked or similar a card is placed on top of other cards in the room, this card needs to be resolved before the other cards can be revealed.

One part of the game that at first glance I thought was a great idea but on reflection is maybe implemented less than perfectly are the puzzles. They do add a rather unique element to the game, I can just imagine the investigators desperately working a lock while monsters close in from every side but the reality is different… Basically, while one player is trying to solve a puzzle everyone else is just watching, this can take some time and ruins the flow of the game. This is my only real gripe however.

The game is pretty well balanced but I do feel that as a 2 player game the investigator will have a hard time solving the mystery in the number of turns allotted simply as it could take half the game before they stumble across the first clue.

Finally, in the course of a few games we found that games usually took less time than suggested on the box, the average game taking about 2 hours.

Conclusion

Mansions of Madness is a great game, that merges a board game with the narrative aspects of an RPG. It does this by pitting the Keeper (aggressor GM) against the other players, it is impressive that the game manages to pull this off as the Keeper has significant power within the game but the rules create a framework that ensures that these are unable to be abused.

However, the best thing about Mansions of Madness is that it is incredibly atmospheric and pulls players, both keeper and investigators, in to a world of supernatural mystery.

The only negative being a slightly higher than average price point and lack of component storage in the box.

Overall score: 9/10

You can pick up Mansions of  Madness at Mythreal for only £55.24 (Including UK Delivery)*: Mansions of Madness

*Accurate as of 3rd March 2011

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Pike and Shotte Parliament Infantry review

By paul | Published: February 2, 2011

Pike and Shotte Parliament Infantry Box Warlord Games are busily releasing a number of historical sets for various time frames, from Romans in Testudo formation to German SS troopers, they are slowly building up a catalogue of miniatures that any historical gamer should be looking upon greedily.With the publication of their Black Powder rulebook just over a year ago they have provided an entertaining and well-crafted set of rules with which to use their (and other manufacturers) models in a wide ranging wargames settings, and having announced earlier in the year that they are working on a number of supplements to detail various periods in history, it really seems like there has never been such an exciting time to get into period wargaming.

The English Civil War is one of the periods in history that I am most interested in, and when Warlord started releasing the Pike and Shotte range of models I started gathering them just as a collector and painter.  Having been lured in with such dainties as the King Charles I model, and with the wealth of options available for historic wargaming, it seems to be the right time to take the plunge and build an army ready to march across the British countryside.

From just reading about the box the signs seemed good. 40 models for an RRP of just £18 ?  A few years ago that alone would have caused me to dismiss them out of hand as being of definite poor quality; but having seen what Mantic are doing these days, it is no longer as far-fetched to believe that plastic models can be both well-priced and well-crafted.

The package exterior filled me with hope, with the period-style artwork, and lots of well thought out information on the period and models.  If they put that much thought into the box then surely they wouldn’t cut any corners with the actual models ?

Parliament Infantry Insert

Parliament Infantry Insert

Inside the box, along with the sprues and the bases, was a nice leaflet with yet more detail.  Containing information on the period, paint schemes, unit organisation as well as some banners ready to cut out and use, this small leaflet was a great little bonus, and shows a really well thought out approach from Warlord Games. As the contents are similar (and sometimes the same) for all of Warlords Pike and Shotte basic regiments it’s worth getting one of each box just for the packaging and extras.

Parliament Infantry Sprue

Infantry Sprue

Parliament Command Sprue

Command Sprue

Getting onto the sprues themselves, it could immediately be seen that the sculpting and casting quality is at a high standard. The were some minor gripes, such as the lack of variety and a couple of minor aesthetics issues, but these were well mitigated by the cost of the product itself.  Having counted 42 bodies over the 4 sprues (as opposed the the 40 advertised), I checked to see whether it was possible to build some extra men, and it seems that the command sprue does indeed provide enough extras for you to produce an extra officer, sergeant or musician.

Parliament Infantry Unit Built
Parliament Infantry Unit Built

Looks-wise I had a problem with the tiny heads on the soldiers, but the reason for this became apparent when I started clipping the components of the sprue, each head is designed to carry one of the many hats provided.  This in turn resolved my other minor gripe, those hats provide a way of giving instant variation to the unit.

So a cheap box with no negative aspects, and with ’2′ bonus models included, it has to be:

10 out of 10

10/10 (warts ‘n all).

Pick up the miniatures from this review at Mythreal and get 10% off RRP* inc FREE UK delivery: Pike & Shotte Parliament Infantry

*Accurate as of 2nd February 2011

(Review courtesy of our sister site Total Wargamer)

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Mantic Games Revenant Cavalry review

By paul | Published: January 8, 2011

Mantic Games Revenant Cavalry CoverRevenants are ancient heroes infused with a Necromancer’s power that rise to become deadly undead warriors. The Revenants form the armoured elite of a Necromancer’s army and when mounted on the unholy remains of their once revered war-charges, there are few living warriors with the strength or nerve to stand against them.

Mantic Games’ Undead Revenant Cavalry are made from a resin/plastic mix, the Undead Revenant Cavalry Regiment contains 10 miniatures & the Revenant Cavalry Horde contains 20 models, each box contains 1 champion, 1 standard bearer and 1 musician.

This is the first time I’ve worked with a resin/plastic kit and I was surprised to find that all the parts were loose in a couple of plastic bags, maybe naively I was expecting sprues.

Wanting to know more about resin/plastic I gave Mantic a call and was told that the revenant cavalry were a trial to see how well this new material performed and that if it goes well we can expect more of these types of miniatures from Mantic.

The reason behind trialling resin/plastic is that the moulds for plastic kits are very expensive to produce, so miniatures that are likely to sell in smaller volumes, think specialists and character models, cannot be economically manufactured in plastic. Traditionally this would mean miniatures would be cast in metal but metal prices have sky rocketed in recent years, these revenant cavalry boxed sets would have cost twice as much if the miniatures were cast in metal, so Mantic have turned to resin/plastic. Additionally metal miniatures are always difficult to work with, if trimming or bending heavy weight parts is required, another reason to try resin/plastic.

Why resin/plastic and not just resin? We’ll anyone that has worked with resin will know that while it produces great levels of detail it is much, much more fragile than plastic (or metal of course) and adding plastic to the mix strengthens the miniature. This is an advantage as miniatures can be bent and twisted into shape easily during construction and are less prone to damage during play.

Anyway, on opening the bags included in the Revenant Cavalry Regiment boxed set you are presented with 70 plastic/resin parts along with 10 plastic bases. 3 parts for each horse including a mounded base and 4 for each revenant rider, see image below:

Mantic Games Revenant Cavalry Box Contents

Mantic Games Revenant Cavalry Box Contents

From the parts provided it is possible to build 4 differently posed horses, 7 differently built lancers plus command, a nice level of customisation.

Preparing the miniatures too little time, there was some flash on the miniatures, especially on the horses backsides, but these parts were easily cleaned up.

Construction was pretty straightforward, a little trimming and filling is required to get the two halves of each horse to fit together perfectly but this doesn’t present too much of a problem, I also found a lump of green stuff was needed to create better contact between horse and rider. NOTE: Resin/plastic is glued with super glue.

The only real complication is that the small resin scenic base poses some modelling problems as it sits on top of the plastic bases supplied. Some blending in with green stuff or similar will be required, this could have been avoided if the kit included recessed bases like those supplied with Mantic’s infantry.

The sculpts themselves are pretty nice, the standard bearer especially looks fantastic when built. To my mind there is only one piece of the kit that lets it down and that is the torso with the abdomen exposed. It doesn’t sit too well on some of the legs provided and the shield arm seems to want to sit lower than the lance arm on this torso. Both these issues can be resolved by trimming off the fitting peg and gluing on in the position of your choice, this doesn’t pose any durability issues as the resin/plastic mix sticks very well, much better than metal. Finally I would have liked to have seen tails on the horses but I guess this is the first thing that drops off when a horse enters unlife….

With regard to cost, at first glance this kit seems expensive for a box of Mantic miniatures, Mantic being well known for their great value for money. But once you accept that this kit was not going to happen in plastic and that the only other option would have been metal you soon realise that you get a lot of miniatures for your £25 or £50 RRP outlay. Were you to purchase the approximate equivalent Games Workshop miniatures (Black Knights) the prices would be £77 and £154 accordingly.

Mantic Games Revenant Cavalry

Revenant Cavalry charging into battle

So, all in all, there is little to fault this kit. The miniatures look great, are easy to build and represent good value for money…

Overall score: 9/10

Pick up the miniatures from this review at Mythreal and get 10% off RRP* and FREE UK delivery.

Mantic Revenant Cavalry Regiment

Mantic Revenant Cavalry Horde

*Accurate as of 8th January 2011

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