DowntimeTown – Dixit

The bold Dixit!

DowntimeTown – Dixit from Robert Florence on Vimeo.

ZOZ!

DowntimeTown – Summoner Wars

DowntimeTown – Summoner Wars from Robert Florence on Vimeo.

ZOZ!

DowntimeTown – Horus Heresy

The Heresy Revealed!

DowntimeTown – Horus Heresy from Robert Florence on Vimeo.

ZOZ!

Dominion Review

If you haven’t heard of Dominion, then you’ve probably just accidentally stumbled onto this site while looking for Sasha Grey videos. Anyone who has even a passing interest in tabletop gaming will almost certainly have heard about this juggernaut, this behemoth, this Dominion.

I like this game. I hate that font.

Dominion is a card game. It comes in a big old box, a “standard” sized board game box. But all that you get inside is a big stack of cards. Most of the cards are multiple copies of the same card. Your first impression when opening the box is “Oh, is this it? Oh shit. Oh shit. Should have bought Dungeon Twister 2!”

It works like this – you start with a small deck of cards, and draw some into your hand. Then you can spend cards from your hand to buy new cards from those laid out on the table. Then you discard the cards you buy. Then you discard any cards from your hand you haven’t spent. And that’s the game.

That really IS the game. When you get through your discard pile, you shuffle the whole lot into a new deck, and draw another hand. Your deck grows throughout the game, as you buy cards. Essentially, the game is the deck-building aspect of CCGs distilled into a half hour of quick thinking and strategy.

You win the game by having the most victory point cards in your deck at the end of the game. There’s a land grab for these cards near the end of the game, because the cards are entirely useless in the early part of the deck building process. You can’t spend them to buy cards, so they just clog up your deck like hateful things. And yet you need them to win. And so it becomes a game of immaculate timing. A game of judging just when to start making a dash for the prize.

So what about these cards that start on the table? The ones that you can buy? Well, some of them are treasure cards, and it’s essential to cash in regularly. For example, you can spend a few of your small change treasure cards to buy one treasure card of a higher denomination, and that will, when you get those discards reshuffled, put some extra funds into your deck. You can spend three of these…

...to get one of these.

The key thing to remember is that everything that you spend and everything that you buy goes into your discard pile and WILL come back into your deck. So you’re not really burning six coins to buy three in the example above. You’re burning six to secure nine.

Then there are the Action cards. These can be played at the start of your turn, and do various rule-breaking things. They allow you to draw more cards, offer additional opportunities to buy, additional opportunities to play Action cards and additional opportunities to fuck your opponents over.

There’s a real sense of building a little engine, a little economy machine, and in each turn you find yourself analysing the best way to get maximum productivity from your deck, and the best way to react to whatever process your opponent has in motion.

It sounds dull. I know it does. I’m sitting here explaining it and I know it sounds dull. But it isn’t. It all moves at a fair clip – draw, play cards, discard, discard, shuffle, draw. There’s a real thrill in watching your deck grow bigger with every turn, and when you’ve made some good buying decisions and find that a draw turns out a perfect little hand that you had visualised a few turns earlier, it’s as satisfying as cleaving a skull in Warhammer Quest or shooting a Genestealer in Space Hulk.

Okay, maybe not THAT satisfying.

There are 25 different Action cards in the base game, and you only ever play with 10 types at any one time. That means there’s a huge amount of replayability. The mind (okay, my mind) frankly boggles at the possibilities. Then there are the two new titles that are already on the market. Dominion: Intrigue, and Dominion: Seaside. Both introducing new cards to the game, both firmly on my Want List. This is a game that looks like it could run and run, and looks like it certainly intends to.

I’ll say one thing, though. Dominion is a fun game, but it might not be for everybody. Despite its current reputation in gaming as the monster that has forced everything else off the table, I think that there might be people out there who find it all a little bit sedate. You’ll get out of Dominion what you put into it. You’ll definitely enjoy it more if you’re the type of person who will notice the elegance of its design. It’s a gamer’s game, I think. Yep. Yep. That’s what I mean.

“It’s a gamer’s game.”

KIDS STUFF: Elefun Review

Is it a game? Or is it a toy?

It’s certainly an elephant.

Elephant fun. Elefun.

Elefun is, as the box tells us, “The frantic butterfly catching game!” Or “El divertido juego de cazar mariposas!”

It’s a big blue plastic hollow elephant that blows air like a confused vacuum cleaner. It takes three big expensive big boy batteries that ARE NOT INCLUDED, and the noise you hear when it’s running in a room is incredible. It’s a mix of an electronic hum and children’s laughter, much like you’d hear in a classroom when a vibrator goes off accidentally in the teacher’s handbag.

Sing along!

Before you play, you need to load tiny butterflies into the elephant’s nose, just the way it happens naturally in the wild. Then every player takes a net, and stands around the elephant’s erect trunk. The elephant gets turned on, and it starts to spit spinning butterflies into the air. Everyone tries to catch the butterflies (or mariposas) in their nets. The winner is the one who has killed more of God’s creatures than anyone else.

My daughter Hope loves Elefun. I know she does, because she likes to say “I’m being serious, we need to play Elefun” all the time. But, to be fair, my daughter is not even three years old yet. She has a lot of screwy opinions on a lot of things.

My girlfriend and I had to play the game with my daughter. We’re the gamers in the family, so really it’s our call on whether Elefun is a good thing or not.

Plus points first:

1. Elefun makes our daughter laugh like crazy. My daughter usually reserves her hysterical laughter for when she sees me hurt myself.

2. Elefun isn’t expensive. We got it for about a tenner. From a supermarket. Ten pounds for a plastic elephant that gets distressed and spews insects isn’t a lot of money in an age when you’d pay a fortune for a roller-skating chimp.

3. It doesn’t last very long.

And now our big fat CONS:

1. You will probably have to play it round the clock, leaving you so physically drained that you never have enough energy to produce another child.

2. Joanne and I get too violent while playing it, and end up assaulting each other. Actually, no, this is a positive one. What am I talking about?

It’s a great game/toy for kids. It’s not brilliant for adults. But you can make it bearable by battering each other.

Let’s leave the last word to Hope:

The Isle of Doctor Necreaux Review

I’ve come to realise that I really, really like card games. Packed in slim, small boxes, with lovely cards and able to offer a beautiful game with minimum fuss. I really, really like card games. I place them inside my sideboard, where they take up little room, and I smile at them and stroke them lovingly.

One of the newest card games to hit the shelves is The Isle of Doctor Necreaux, a co-operative adventure game designed by Jonathan Leistiko and published by AEG. It’s a game about going to a nutter’s island to rescue some scientists.

Inside the box you’ll find two decks of cards. One is a Character Deck, and the other is the Adventure Deck. Three dice come with the game, and a handful of counters to mark “charges”. That’s it. That’s all you need.

At the start of the game, each player is dealt three Character Cards. These character cards represent traits that will make up the player’s character.

You might have the card above, and a Ninja card, and a Stone Cold Killer card. That would make you a Stone Cold Killer Echo Medium Ninja. Which is, you know, a decent calling in life. Each card gives a special ability that will assist your team in the dash through Necreaux’s lair.

Many Character Cards start with “charges”, tokens placed on the card, which are spent to activate abilities. Got all that? Good.

The game itself is very straightforward. The aim is to run through the Adventure Deck until you find the group of scientists and the escape shuttle. Once you’ve found both, you can cheese it and pat each other on the back. Unfortunately, there’s a time limit in play. Each turn, the clock ticks down by one minute, bringing you ever closer to the island exploding and killing every man, woman and Stone Cold Killer Echo Medium Ninja unfortunate enough to still be sunning it on the beach.

In the players’ turn, you can do one of two things as a group. You can Rest, or you can Move. Resting lets you heal up a little, and place a charge on one of your chargeable cards. A Rest action is often necessary, but never chosen lightly, as it advances the clock one stop without moving you any closer to finding the objectives. The Move action is where the meat of the game is, so lets get comfy and go into a bit of detail.

The first major decision players have to make in their Move action is HOW FAST TO MOVE. This is vital, vital shit. Your chosen speed tells you how many cards you will be peeling off the Adventure Deck in that turn. So, for example, if you choose a speed of 5 you will resolve 5 Adventure Cards in that turn. You will be moving 5 cards through the deck, searching for that Escape Shuttle card and these lovely bastards:

I'll look after the one on the right, guys, okay? Sweet.

Inside that Adventure Deck you can expect to find MONSTERS, ITEMS, TRAPS and EVENTS. Your speed often plays into the effects of things such as Trap cards. Many traps ask you to roll over your chosen speed to safely duck the effects, so if you’re hammering through Necreaux’s base at a careless and crazy speed of 15, you’re not going to get much joy from that single dice roll. It’s a nice, logical way to deal with traps. The faster you move, the more your team is likely to blunder into tripwires and lasers. (Although, on occasion, moving swiftly can also help you outrun a trap). The faster you move, the more monsters you will have to battle before you get a chance to take a Rest turn and heal up. So logic would suggest you go slow, right? No, because that clock is ticking and you NEED TO FIND THOSE SCIENTIST SUMBITCHES.

Combat is simple, and rarely slows the pace of this exciting game. It’s simply every player attempting to roll over the Monster’s Combat Value to land a hit. If you roll under, your team takes a hit instead. The hit your team takes can be given to any player, so even in assigning damage there are decisions to be made. Taking a hit means you flip one of your Character Cards face down, losing that ability until you can Rest and flip it back up. Here’s a monster:

He’s a bastard. Just saying.

The most impressive thing about Necreaux is contained in this next block of text. Yes, it is such a good thing I am giving it its own block of text.

I’ve played a lot of co-op games by now. And here’s the dark, terrible secret. Most of them aren’t very co-operative. Often one player becomes the lead voice, pointing out the optimal decisions and steering the entire team. Players can often become passengers. NOT IN THIS GAME, BABY. The table is in constant debate, with everyone discussing their own character’s abilities, and how best to negotiate the obstacles.

“I’ll take the hit, my guy can get a free heal if I roll even.”

“No, just re-roll, I’ll discharge to re-roll.”

“But we’ve seen what’s coming. We might need that re-roll. Let me take the hit, this character’s only useful in-”

“Hang on, if you use that item to shift your charges from that card to my Psychic’s card, I can discharge them to eliminate that point of damage!”

“Yeah, but wait-”

With the flip of almost every card, it’s decision time again. It’s maybe the most co-operative co-op game I’ve played. And it’s just a card game!

In closing, here’s what happened at the end of last night’s game:

–ONE MINUTE ON THE CLOCK–

They could sense that the escape shuttle was up ahead. The team dashed towards it, giggling already at how sweet it would be to snatch this victory from the jaws of defeat. Then…

TRAP!

The ground opened up beneath them.

(The card told us that a pitfall trap had appeared and we had to make a choice – either we lose a minute off the clock to negotiate it safely, or one character has to fall in, taking 5 points of damage. 5 points of damage that would kill any of our characters outright.)

Robert fell in. They tried to save him.

“Give me your hand!”

“Leave me! I’ll only slow you down! GO! RUN!”

With that, Robert slid off into the blackness. The others screamed in horror at the loss of their most beautiful boy. Their perfect beautiful prince.

Later, in the Escape Shuttle, they spoke of how amazing he is and how he is brilliant at everything and is the best.

THE END.

Please buy this wonderful card game. You can even play it solo, so there’s no excuses.

DowntimeTown Episode 8: M:TG – PLANECHASE

Watch the new episode of DowntimeTown now. A chat about Magic: The Gathering and a look at the brand new “Planechase” system. Watch using the vimeo below or on the youTube channel later tonight.

DowntimeTown Episode 8: Magic: the Gathering – Planechase from Robert Florence on Vimeo.

Zaa Ooo Zaa!

DowntimeTown Episode 7: Space Hulk

DowntimeTown Episode 7 is now live, and it’s all about Space Hulk: Third Edition.

Enjoy.

DowntimeTown Episode 7: Space Hulk from Robert Florence on Vimeo.

Kingsburg Review

Here’s a wee poem I wrote:

Kingsburg, Kingsburg, roll your dice
Play it nasty, Play it nice
Play it once? No, play it twice
Kingsburg, Kingsburg, egg fried rice

Yes, I was eating egg fried rice on the night I first played Kingsburg. It was a birthday present from Ryan. The game, not the egg fried rice. I didn’t ask for rice for my birthday. I’m not an animal.

Kingsburg is another game published by Fantasy Flight, another release from the massive fun-organ of that board game behemoth. It’s designed by two strapping lads called Andrea Chiarvesio and Luca Iennaco, and two more polite young men you couldn’t hope to meet. (I haven’t met them, but I hope to someday.)

Here’s how it works.

The board is covered in illustrations of the King and his advisers. 18 of them in total. Each adviser gives the player some kind of benefit – goods, military strength, and so on. Each game year sees players employing advisers, growing their cities, and preparing to defend their city when war comes each winter.

So how do you employ advisers? You roll dice.

Here are some people. Put dice on their heads.

“Dice?!” the hardcore boardgamer screamed. “You want me to roll a die?! Me?! A thinker?! A man of logic and brilliance?! You want me to roll a die like I’m a 9 year old boy playing “Move Stevie Sausage Into The Frying Pan By Rolling Dice For Hours: The Board Game?”"

The room fell silent. The hardcore boardgamer grabbed the dice from the table. His hand, covered in sores and calluses from poking chits out of cardboard sheets, now contained the offending cubes. He screamed at them, his eyes bulging from their sockets, bloodshot from multiple sessions of Race For The Galaxy the night before.

“Dice?! Wooden creatures of fate and filth! I cast ye out!” He threw them across the room in fury.

They landed. All four dice showed a 6.

The hardcore boardgamer fell to his knees.

“In casting ye, I rolled ye.” He put a gun to his head, his tears flowing now. “And I rolled ye well.”

The bang shook the room. The spray of blood covered the gaming table. The game’s unsleeved cards didn’t stand a chance.

Yes, you roll dice. Let’s say I roll three dice. I roll a 5, a 4 and a 1. The dice allow me to employ some advisers. So I can employ adviser number 5, number 4 and number 1. Or, I can add dice together and employ number 9 and number 1 if that suits me better. Or 4 and 6 (5+1). Or adviser 10 (5+4+1).

Don’t look at me like that. It’s not complicated. I’ll go through it again.

I roll a 6 on all three dice. I can employ adviser 12(6+6) and 6. I can employ adviser 18 (The King). And that’s really all I can do. You get it?

Once an adviser is employed, no-one else can employ him* and get those benefits he provides. So there’s a little bit of interaction in there with players blocking out advisers who can provide their opponents with stuff they need.

The game’s all about building your city to score points, and defending your city from the winter attacks. To build you need goods and cash. To defend your city you need soldiers. Every player gets some soldiers from the King when it comes time to fight, but you’ll be wanting to bolster your defences. You should place your dice on military men to do this. Some advisers even let you have a peek ahead at the enemies you’re going to face, so that you can better prepare. (Worryingly, the Queen seems to know an awful lot about every impending attack. NEVER TRUST A QUEEN.) A failed attempt to force off the enemies will have you knee-deep in shit. Your buildings might be destroyed, you might lose victory points, lose your trousers, all in all it’s a disaster.

Five years of development and survival and the game gets called. The player with the best score wins.

That’s it?

That’s it.

I love you.

Kingsburg is an absolute pleasure to play. On those nights when you don’t feel like playing something that makes you want to disembowel your friends, Kingsburg is the game to pull out. It’s a sunny, summery game. With its beautiful illustrations and colourful dice, it’s a big explosion of happiness on your table.

Richard happily playing Kingsburg, distracted momentarily from thoughts of man's inevitable extinction.

The game flows beautifully too. There’s hardly any downtime. Everyone rolls at the same time, and from then on you’re either choosing your advisers or watching the other players like a hawk, hoping that they don’t shut your options down.

Dice, though. That means that word comes into play again, right? That word I call “The Other L-Word.” Yes, luck is a factor, but doesn’t play as big a part as you would think. Your success or otherwise in Kingsburg will usually be down to the choices you’ve made, which buildings you construct, and which advisers you decide to spread your dice across.

(In the game I almost always choose the Church route. I build the religious buildings. I do this not because I’m at all religious, but because you get a bonus when defending against demons. And it’s always good, in games and in real life, to keep your shit correct when demons are around. Consider this a warning.)

Kingsburg’s a beautiful little game. It’s easy to teach, plays fast, and combines the satisfaction of dice-rolling with the thinky-dinky decision-making of a worker placement Eurogame. My group loves it because it’s light and fun and has a clever mechanic that keeps you interested from start to finish.

And because Kenny, one of our group, is apparently IN it.

One of the esteemed advisers.

One of the esteemed Kennys.

*There’s actually a device that lets you place dice on an adviser who is already taken, but we won’t make the explanation any more complicated than is necessary, OKAY?

DowntimeTown Episode 6: Chaos In The Old World

It’s a brand new episode of DowntimeTown, an extra-long bit of banter about the brand new Fantasy Flight release Chaos In The Old World. It’s a game that’s NOT EVEN OUT YET in most places, and we’ve already played it and played it.

Ryan getting his Tzeentch on.

Check it out vimeo-style below, and be aware that there are some flickering images of demonic corruption throughout:

DowntimeTown Episode 6: Chaos in the Old World from Robert Florence on Vimeo.

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