We started this month recuperating from our epic September of gaming.
Month nine of the year was a big month for game playing, both with consistancy and with totals. So October was a lot less about chasing those stats. It also saw me dive into my third (and hopefully final) year of Uni, so evenings have gone from lots of gaming to lots of studying.
But, October being the month of Halloween, I still went with the theme and made my way through the first three series of FINAL GIRL. I played a Feature every other day and my win ratio was consistant with every other time I’ve played through the series. I absolutely love the Final Girl system and I’m already eager for the fourth series box to explode onto crowdfunding (hopefully early next year).
In other news, I’ve started receiving review copies of board games, both from an IG review group and also from a games publisher. Its’s been fun having packages turn up with a whole bunch of games to get stuck into. I’ve always enjoyed reviewing games (you don’t review 200+ games, once a week for 5+ years if you don’t enjoy it) and it’s bringing in titles that had either passed us by in the past, or are exciting new releases that I’d not been made aware of until now.
BRICK LIKE THIS! – I got sent a review copy of this along with FLIP 7 from Asmodee. I wasn’t sure at first what to make of it with it’s brightly coloured box art and a concept of blind building lego. I think it’s the first time I’ve opened a pack of lego and not completed a build from a manual. It was a weird feeling. It’s more family weight than we normally go for, but we’ve had plenty of fun in the past with party type games, so I was looking forward to giving this one a go.
SHALLOW REGRETS– ButtonShy continue to build my collection up with the fourth 18 card wallet game arrival this year! This one is a smaller version of DEEP REGRETS, a game that drew many people in with it’s fantastic artwork. The same style is here and it still looks great. It came with an expansion and a solo mode, and hit our table quite quickly after it arrived.
TAKE TIME – Another review copy, this one is a co-op card game in the vein of THE MIND or THE CREW where players are working to a lay down 12 cards (numbered between 1-12) with almost zero communication. It looks beautiful and comes with a fair amount of content in the box.
PSYCHO KILLER – I wasn’t sure what to make of this one when the review copy turned up. It’s VHS styled box made me think that it was a party game that prioritsed sillyness and puns over gameplay. But, upon opening the box and looking at the rules, I realised it was basically EXPLODING KITTENS in a Slasher themed coat. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. And it turned up just in time for our friends visiting on Hallowe’en. Perfect.
DAYBREAK – Another review copy, I’ve been interested in trying DAYBREAK since seeing the No Pun Included review a couple of years back. But it kind of fell by the wayside and I soon forgot about it. So I was super chuffed when I was asked to review it. A step up from PANDEMIC, this co-op game sees players playing cards and trying to save the world, but from a much more real and serious threat than four brightly coloured viruses. Looks interesting.
KING AND PEASANT – The last review copy received this month, this is a small box card game (18 cards, but not a ButtonShy game) where one player is the King, and the other takes on the role of the peasants. It looks like a quite yet strategic card game that could offer some fun mind games like TUSSIE MUSSIE (which means my wife will probably kick my butt).
BRICK LIKE THIS! – So here is a fun family party game that uses Lego. Sounds intriguing, right? Players pair up and then the teams compete to complete random Lego structures to eventially earn the most points.
One player has a card with a side-on silouette of a small lego build. I say ‘build’, but they aren’t anything other than abstract. This is good because you can’t suddenly see the beginnings of something you might recognize and start building quicker. Here every piece must be described in detail from shape, size, and colour, and then direction and position of it’s placement.
It almost feels like one of those teambuilding exercises. Comunication is key. Overall, it’s a fun little party game. The two player mode is a little different with the building alternating between the players as you try to score the most points in 10mins. The game has a complexitiy level to the builds starting with 5pts (the pieces are outlined) up to 8pts (the most pieces involved).
I really enjoyed our 4-player games,. It’s just frantic fun.
SHALLOW REGRETS – I missed out on DEEP REGRETS when it dropped into the hobby, and while I’ve played it since, it’s not a game I feel I need to own. The ButtonShy version, however, is a nice and short fix that I enjoyed even more than it’s bigger brother. Players take turns fishing, adding the cards to their tableau. Each fish has an ability that can be triggered, which is great fun. The extra ruffle here though is that a few abilities can see cards stolen, so you want to use the abilities effectivly, but you don’t want to hold onto them too long because someone else might benefit from it instead.
The game is good on it’s own, but the expansion adds abilities that can be in play for the whole game and it adds enough extra to easily improve the score.
TWILIGHT IMPERIUM – This game has sat on our shelves gathering dust for five and a half years. I purchased my copy in the early days of the Pandemic, and then spent the next few years intimidated by it and struggling to find other players keen to play.
This year I made a bigger effort to finally get this beast of a classic to our table and struck gold when my brother-in-law and his friend agreed to visit and play.
And what an experiance it was. The four of us spent nearly five hours getting to grips with the game, slowly discovering stratergies that more learned players already grasp. Our 4-player game consisted of three new players, and one who was familiar with 3rd Edition. It was so much fun, and I’m eager to play again soon, to keep the momentum going before the game returns to the shadows. For more details, check out my YouTube channel where I put up a video to go back over the day.
ASTERIX & CO – This one showed up as a review copy, and at first, I was incredibly disappointed. I was a big fan of the comics when I was a kid so I was filled with nostalgia when I opened the box and saw all the character art across the cards.,
The game itself is in affect a lane battler. You play cards to your side of the location (either red or blue), and once the total points of a players cards meets or beats 15, that player wins the location, before bringing another one in to replace it.
In four player you have locations between players, a little like 7 WONDERS ARCHITECTS. So you’ll only have the locations to your left and right available to capture. In a 2-player game you just have two locations between you both.
It’s quite a take that game, but one where you can really do well or fail miserably based on the card draw alone. Our first game saw my wife constantly draw a bunch of cards that cancelled out a lot of what I was doing. And my cards slowly became things that were useless and situational.
I don’t think I’d play this again at 2-player. It wasn’t fun. I wouldn’t even review it if that was my only experience of the game. But the 4-player games were a lot better. More enjoyable. Longer. Which is odd, because you fight over the same number of areas, in this case two, but it just works better.
SLEEPING GOD: DISTANT SKIES – We loved the roginal SLEEPING GODS, though it’s combat was tough. We also enjoyed the mini version; SLEEPING GODS: PRIMEVAL PERIL which is the only version you can get done in a single (still long) session. So I’m not sure why it’s taken us so long to get the follow up to the table, but we were very impressed once we did.
This time the boat is replaced by a plane, though this vehicle is used a lot less for traversing. Instead, you take the hero character, Claire, and move her around the world map book. The plan tends to wait at locations to be called to specific landing spaces, or to carry you across the map quicker than moving square by square.
The story, as always with Red Raven Games, is intriguing. The choice of directions and story spaces means our route through the game so far is potentially unique to anyone elses experience. Our combat has been extremly limited (just one boss in four hours of play) but it works so much better than the original SLEEPING GODS.
An absolutely beautiful game that lets us travel an interesting open world. I can’t wait to get back to it and continue our journey
IBERIA: KINGS & EMIRS – This is a review copy of a game I first heard about on the Meeple2Meeple podcast when PJ interviewed the designers. I was eager to give it a go after hearing about it and I was fortunate that the review group I’m part of had a copy ready to go.
This one feels like RISK on steroids. Each player is taking over regions of the Iberian map, gathering population and using that to bulk up their army. The combat mechanic is super simple and slick. No dice rolling or battle cards in sight. This is all about numbers, with success being visible before your troop even cross the border.
The action selection is interesting with your ‘Workers’ being used on some actions in stages. Building a Wonder, for example means your ‘Worker’ will be busy and unavailble for a minimum of three rounds. And that’s if you spend the money each round to increase the build track. You don’t have to, and could take longer to complete the Wonder.
We found that the 2-player only game, even with a couple of sections blocked off, still allowed us to dance around each other and avoid PvP (though I was building up to it just as the end game triggered). I’m very keen to try it at a higher player count and see how it all mixes in.
TAKE TIME – This one had passed me by until I was offered a review copy. I was sold on it’s silent cooperation as I’ve enjoyed playing games like THE MIND and THE CREW in the past.
First off, this game is gorgeous. The artwork on the clocks, the gold emposed cards. It gives the game a dream like almost etherial feel.
The aim is for players to work together and place 12 cards around the six ‘spokes’ of a clock. Once the players look at their hands of cards, they can’t speak to each other. The game gives a planning phase first, which is oh so necessary as each clock comes with special placement rules.
Sometimes you’ll be limited to how many cards can go in one of the six spaces. Or maybe the colour of the card (there are 12 light and 12 dark). Or perhaps a specific spot mut be the first turn.
Once youve placed your cards, you check for the placement rules, and the proceed from the hour hand and flip all the cards, one location at a time. The total of the cards placed there must equal or exceed the total of the spot that preceeds it.
Flipping thiose cards can be a tense affair. You only know part of the information (or maybe nothing if you didn’t put a card there). My favourite moments so far have been when I place a card but someone else at the table fears the worst, and then to see their relief when it gets revealed and all is good. I knew what I was doing, lol.
PSYCHO KILLER – The game arrived in perfect time for a Halloween evening of gaming. This game plays very like EXPLODING KITTENS, which was a big help with the teach to two of our more casual gaming friends. I was able to switch the venacular for certain cards as a short hand and it made it very easy for them both to get to grips with. Add that the cards all have their effect instructions written on them, and there were very few hiccups.
The game itself sees players building up hands of cards so as to avoid the psycho killer (when they strike) as well as hinder the other players and get away with the least injuries. I immediatly love that, unlike the combustable feline game this is similar too, they’ve not kept player illimination. This is a big plus. It’s all about avoiding injury points, brought on by drawing the Psycho Killer card and everyone being forced to place any weapon cards they hold in front of them.
And if you think that having 11+ injuries would mean no way back, this is also avoidable due to some cards that allow manipulation of your injuries. I went from 11pts back down to 3pts near the end of the game. Of course, I got screwed over shortly afterwards and ended up at 13pts by the end of the game, coming joint last. But thanks to some card abilities, I always had hope.
Overall it’s a fun party game that, while playing a little longer than I’d expected, is very straightforward, handles up to six players, and is a nice entry into this sort of card game arena.
- A month of FINAL GIRL
- First play of TWILIGHT IMPERIUM
- A super fun 4-player game of STAR WARS: OUTER RIM
Always Play Blue 