Board Game Info

by Nekrataal

The dutch version is available in January 2010 through White Goblin Games. Wait for information about a special release day.

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De nederlandse versie is in januari 2010 beschikbaar bij White Goblin Games. Blijft alert over extra informatie over de speciale releasedag.

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by kellhus

I don't have the rules in front of me, but if I remember correctly, group combat is initiated when I attack an opposing character, and another opposing character is in a position to attack me. This then potentially triggers a chain reaction, sucking several characters (friendly & opposing) into the combat.

But what about the case where I attack an opposing character, there is no other opposing character is in a position to attack me, but another friendly character is in a position to attack my target? Does this trigger group combat?

It seems a little weird if not - it's then quite alot harder to force a group combat. But (unless I'm missing something, which hopefully I am), the rules don't seem to mention this scenario...

by Tstefan

Witam

Zapraszam do zapoznania się z krótką, acz treściwą (miejmy nadzieję) recenzją gry Ingenious Tavel Edition – bardzo dobrej abstrakcyjnej gry logicznej autorstwa Reinera Knizia. Miłej lektury!

*



Krótki opis
Czym jest Ingenious? „Wspaniałą grą dla dwóch mózgów” – takie mnie więcej zachęcające (?) sformułowanie odnajdziemy na pudełku z grą. Co to oznacza w praktyce? Każdy z graczy ma za zadanie zdobyć jak najwięcej punktów układając na planszy żetony stanowiące połączenie dwóch tzw. heksów, czyli sześciokątów foremnych. Jeżeli położenie żetonu powoduje powstanie linii (jednej lub kilku) w jednym kolorze, gracz dostaje punkty. Warto nadmienić, że omawiana tutaj gra to dwuosobowe wydanie; Ingenious w podstawowej (sporo droższej) wersji może „obsłużyć” od dwóch do czterech graczy.



Co w pudełku?
Plastykowe komponenty. Hmm… Dlaczego nie papier i tekturka? ;-) Nie bądźmy malkontentami. Plastyk ma pewne zalety: np. można z niego wykonać różne pożyteczne rzeczy, takie jak mydelniczki czy miski dla kotów, a nawet karoserię samochodów (patrz: Trabant). Poza tym gra papierowa na pewno szybciej się zniszczy. Niech będzie plastyk. Zresztą już pierwsza minuta grania powoduje, że zapominamy myśleć o podobnych sprawach, gra się po prostu świetnie… Na plus zaliczymy zaprojektowanie elementów: kołeczki odmierzające punktacje jak i same żetony dobrze trzymają się planszy – to naprawdę jest Travel Edition (wersja podróżna). Nie straszne nam polskie „drogi” i podskakiwanie na tylnym siedzeniu samochodu.



Jak gra się w Ingeniousa Travel Edition?
Bardzo fajnie! Zasady są bardzo proste, praktycznie z biegu można zasiąść do grania. Gracze wykonują ruchy na zmianę: w każdej turze mamy położyć na planszy jeden z 6 dostępnych w każdej chwili żetonów, zaraz potem następuje podliczenie punktów i zaznaczenie ich w tabeli punktacji (służą do tego kolorowe kołeczki). Gra premiuje sprytne zagrania. Ponadto dobrze jest choć trochę kontrolować ruchy przeciwnika… Sama rozgrywka jest po prostu świetna, nie bez powodu gra dostała tak wiele pozytywnych ocen od użytkowników serwisu.



Stosunek jakość/cena:
Za grę zapłaciłem nieco ponad 60 złotych – jest to cena nieco wygórowana, biorąc pod uwagę to, co jest w pudełku, aczkolwiek niestety taniej nie znajdziemy. No cóż, płacimy za pomysł. I szczerze mówiąc, warto…



Fusy, plusy i minusy
Fusy:
Plastik? (dla malkontentów)

Minusy:
Plastik i jego jakość, zwłaszcza sama plansza jest niezbyt piękna.
Są gracze, którzy lubią obłędną grafikę…
Cena powinna być nieco niższa.

Plusy:
Po minucie gry nie zwracamy uwagi na jakość wykonania: sama rozgrywka jest bardzo wciągająca.
Plastik – gra na pewno będzie dłuuugo służyła, papier szybciej się nieszczy.
Brak tematu graficznego? Phi… ważne, żeby dobrze się grało.
Ingenious ma coś w sobie – na pewno szybko się nie znudzi.
Świetna, błyskotliwa mechanika gry.
Łatwa do nauczenia się.
Dobrze zaprojektowane komponenty – to faktycznie jest Travel Edition.
Kolejna dobra gra dwuosobowa.



Konkluzja – dla kogo jest Ingenious Travel Edition?
Dla dwojga graczy, którzy mają ochotę na dość szybką i łatwą do nauczenia grę logiczną, która jednakowoż nie jest ani banalna ani płytka. W gruncie rzeczy nie wiadomo, skąd to się bierze, ale w Ingeniousa po prostu chce się grać – znowu i znowu… Nie decyduje o tym jakość wykonania (przynajmniej nie w przypadku omawianej Travel Ed.), lecz znakomity pomysł i przemyślana mechanika. Jeżeli nie masz nic przeciwko grom nieprzedstawiającym żadnego konkretnego tematu, lub przynajmniej chcesz zacząć przygodę z abstrakcyjnymi grami logicznymi, a ponadto często grasz w składzie dwuosobowym – bierz w ciemno! Bardzo grywalne!

Ode mnie gra dostaje 8 pkt. na BGG. Zamierzam do niej często zasiadać: szybkie przygotowanie do gry, błyskotliwa mechanika oraz satysfakcjonująca rozgrywka sprawiły, że bardziej zainteresowałem się abstrakcyjnymi grami logicznymi. Ingenious to klasyk, który w moim domu przez długi czas będzie dostarczał niebanalnej rozgrywki. Walkę mózgów czas zacząć ;-)



PS. Jeżeli w tekście znalazły się błędy literowe, pzrzeprazsam…

by Tstefan

Witam

Zapraszam do zapoznania się z krótką, acz treściwą (miejmy nadzieję) recenzją gry Ingenious Tavel Edition – bardzo dobrej abstrakcyjnej gry logicznej autorstwa Reinera Knizia. Miłej lektury!

*



Krótki opis
Czym jest Ingenious? „Wspaniałą grą dla dwóch mózgów” – takie mnie więcej zachęcające (?) sformułowanie odnajdziemy na pudełku z grą. Co to oznacza w praktyce? Każdy z graczy ma za zadanie zdobyć jak najwięcej punktów układając na planszy żetony stanowiące połączenie dwóch tzw. heksów, czyli sześciokątów foremnych. Jeżeli położenie żetonu powoduje powstanie linii (jednej lub kilku) w jednym kolorze, gracz dostaje punkty. Warto nadmienić, że omawiana tutaj gra to dwuosobowe wydanie; Ingenious w podstawowej (sporo droższej) wersji może „obsłużyć” od dwóch do czterech graczy.



Co w pudełku?
Plastykowe komponenty. Hmm… Dlaczego nie papier i tekturka? ;-) Nie bądźmy malkontentami. Plastyk ma pewne zalety: np. można z niego wykonać różne pożyteczne rzeczy, takie jak mydelniczki czy miski dla kotów, a nawet karoserię samochodów (patrz: Trabant). Poza tym gra papierowa na pewno szybciej się zniszczy. Niech będzie plastyk. Zresztą już pierwsza minuta grania powoduje, że zapominamy myśleć o podobnych sprawach, gra się po prostu świetnie… Na plus zaliczymy zaprojektowanie elementów: kołeczki odmierzające punktacje jak i same żetony dobrze trzymają się planszy – to naprawdę jest Travel Edition (wersja podróżna). Nie straszne nam polskie „drogi” i podskakiwanie na tylnym siedzeniu samochodu.



Jak gra się w Ingeniousa Travel Edition?
Bardzo fajnie! Zasady są bardzo proste, praktycznie z biegu można zasiąść do grania. Gracze wykonują ruchy na zmianę: w każdej turze mamy położyć na planszy jeden z 6 dostępnych w każdej chwili żetonów, zaraz potem następuje podliczenie punktów i zaznaczenie ich w tabeli punktacji (służą do tego kolorowe kołeczki). Gra premiuje sprytne zagrania. Ponadto dobrze jest choć trochę kontrolować ruchy przeciwnika… Sama rozgrywka jest po prostu świetna, nie bez powodu gra dostała tak wiele pozytywnych ocen od użytkowników serwisu.



Stosunek jakość/cena:
Za grę zapłaciłem nieco ponad 60 złotych – jest to cena nieco wygórowana, biorąc pod uwagę to, co jest w pudełku, aczkolwiek niestety taniej nie znajdziemy. No cóż, płacimy za pomysł. I szczerze mówiąc, warto…



Fusy, plusy i minusy
Fusy:
Plastik? (dla malkontentów)

Minusy:
Plastik i jego jakość, zwłaszcza sama plansza jest niezbyt piękna.
Są gracze, którzy lubią obłędną grafikę…
Cena powinna być nieco niższa.

Plusy:
Po minucie gry nie zwracamy uwagi na jakość wykonania: sama rozgrywka jest bardzo wciągająca.
Plastik – gra na pewno będzie dłuuugo służyła, papier szybciej się nieszczy.
Brak tematu graficznego? Phi… ważne, żeby dobrze się grało.
Ingenious ma coś w sobie – na pewno szybko się nie znudzi.
Świetna, błyskotliwa mechanika gry.
Łatwa do nauczenia się.
Dobrze zaprojektowane komponenty – to faktycznie jest Travel Edition.
Kolejna dobra gra dwuosobowa.



Konkluzja – dla kogo jest Ingenious Travel Edition?
Dla dwojga graczy, którzy mają ochotę na dość szybką i łatwą do nauczenia grę logiczną, która jednakowoż nie jest ani banalna ani płytka. W gruncie rzeczy nie wiadomo, skąd to się bierze, ale w Ingeniousa po prostu chce się grać – znowu i znowu… Nie decyduje o tym jakość wykonania (przynajmniej nie w przypadku omawianej Travel Ed.), lecz znakomity pomysł i przemyślana mechanika. Jeżeli nie masz nic przeciwko grom nieprzedstawiającym żadnego konkretnego tematu, lub przynajmniej chcesz zacząć przygodę z abstrakcyjnymi grami logicznymi, a ponadto często grasz w składzie dwuosobowym – bierz w ciemno! Bardzo grywalne!

Ode mnie gra dostaje 8 pkt. na BGG. Zamierzam do niej często zasiadać: szybkie przygotowanie do gry, błyskotliwa mechanika oraz satysfakcjonująca rozgrywka sprawiły, że bardziej zainteresowałem się abstrakcyjnymi grami logicznymi. Ingenious to klasyk, który w moim domu przez długi czas będzie dostarczał niebanalnej rozgrywki. Walkę mózgów czas zacząć ;-)



PS. Jeżeli w tekście znalazły się błędy literowe, pzrzeprazsam…

by MerricB

The tenth Sabres mission saw Rich and Josh take in a force of four Mechs against my Mercenary force.

I had an Orion, a Stinger and a Griffin to defend three buildings. Rich and Josh took in a Hunchback, a Spider, a Grasshopper and a Trebuchet. I've begun to paint my miniatures, but I really want a second Intro set before I do the minis I don't have duplicates of. The three Green minis in the force below are mine; the Red and Greys (unpainted) are those of the Sabres.

(Yes, I know the mercenary force doesn't have the right minis... I proxy! Orion=Stalker, Stinger=Wolfhound, Griffin=Awesome)



The initial stages of the mission saw their Grasshopper advancing alone along the shore of the lake, whilst the Spider, Hunchback and Trebuchet manoeuvred into position on the far shore. My Stinger jumped in to begin harassing them, and the Grasshopper was taking hits from the long-range weaponry my Orion and Griffin were equipped with.



I was winning a lot of the early initiative rolls, which gave the Stinger a great advantage, even if its poor pilot was missing for the most part. However, being in a light mech means that there's only so long you can push the envelope: a couple of lucky shots hit the centre torso, stripping the armour and eliminating the Mech. Now it was four vs two!



The Grasshopper hid under the water, unwilling to take any extra hits from my Mechs, and the Hunchback and Trebuchet came into range. My more mobile Griffin moved in to engage, despite its terrible close-range weaponry. Being on the move just made it safer than taking lots of missile and AutoCannon hits!



However, there was only so much I could do close up, so I retreated it back to the buildings and the Orion. Now the Grasshopper emerged, and my Mechs were taking a lot of damage indeed.



When I got a chance to break for it, the Griffin ran, hoping to take up position on the other side of the lake and use its long-range weapons again. Meanwhile, the Spider jumped behind the Orion and fired its medium laser: double-one on the location roll, two centre torso criticals: two Gyro hits! The Orion was down and destroyed and only the Griffin remained on the board for the defenders.



The heavily-damaged Grasshopper retreated towards safety, but the Hunchback, Spider and Trebuchet were easily able to hunt down the Griffin. Another success for the Sabres!



Mission #10: Recon-in-Force
-50 (track) +100 (ID) +50 (Seek & Destroy) = 701 WP
xp: Shakir +1, Elden +2, Seyla +1, Sharron +1

Command Lance
- Daniel Sorenson. P2, G1. xp 0. HTM-27T Hatamoto-Chi Daniel - damaged (-114)
- Emory Wilk. P3, G3, xp 2. DRG-1G Grand Dragon Emory - damaged (-74)
- Shakir Jerrar. P3, G3, xp 5. HBK-4G Hunchback Shakir - damaged (-35)
- Drake Carron. P5, G4. xp 2. AS-7D Atlas - damaged (-111)

Fire Lance
- Dana Utsonomiya. P4, G4. xp 3. LGB-0W Longbow - damaged (-122)
- Andrew Martin. P5, G4. xp 2. CGR-1A9 Charger - damaged (-80)
- Sharron Burgoz. P3, G2, xp 4, wounds 1. TBT-7K Trebuchet - damaged (-35)
- Seyla Teresa Martinez. P2, G2. xp 2. GHR-5H Grasshopper - damaged (-60)

Pursuit Lance
- Albert Benton. P3, G4. xp 1. MON-67 Mongoose - damaged (-15)
- Jasmine Rubach. P3, G5. xp 2. HER-4K Hermes III - damaged (-30)
- Elden Berardinelli. P1, G3. xp 3. SDR-5K Spider - damaged (-15)
- James Macpartland. P6, G3. xp 3. wounds 1.

In Hangar
CN-9A Centurion (sale +90)
PHX-1 Phoenix Hawk (sale +90)
HBK-4G Hunchback (sale +90)
STG-3R Stinger - destroyed (-50) (+30)
GRF-1N Griffin - destroyed (-74) (+40)
ON1-K Orion - destroyed (-111) (+70)

Lost in Action
- Grace Shiro. P2, G3.

Warchest: 701 WP

by Superbarab

Is it possible to use indirect fire in this game?
Can you fire with a mortar or an ordnance to a target not in LOS using a leader as spotter?
In case, which order do you have to play? A Fire order to the Leader or to the Mortar?
Thanks in advance

by DallasDesigner

In the original Death Angel, the board was littered with "?", "!" and Angel Wing squares. In the 2nd edition, these icons will go away.

(Note: One of my previous posts referenced the Angel Wing chart. I will revise that post in a while)

Death Angel 2nd Edition will come with 74 Location Tiles. There are four types of Location Tiles:

30 x Item Location Tiles - This tile shows a location on the board. If your character ends his turn on this space, he gains an item. This tile replaces the "?" and "!" locations.

30 x Angel Appearance Tiles - This tile shows a location on the board. At any time during another player's turn, you may spawn Angel at this location. This tile replaces the Angel Wings space.

10 x Time Advancement Tiles - This tile does not show a location. Instead it shows time advancing. All players must immediately play a Shattered Memory card from their hand face-up in front of them, adjusting their karma according to the value of the card. If a player does not have any Shattered Memory cards in his/her hand, one should be drawn from the top of his subconscious deck. (Thus it's better to have several in your hand so you can choose the most beneficial one). The Time Advancement tile is put aside to mark the passage of time. Once 7 Time Advancement tiles have been revealed, the game ends.

4 x Sancuary Tiles - This tile shows a location on the board. If the player begins his turn on this space and spends his entire turn there, he regains 5 wounds, gains 5 courage, and draws 2 Shattered Memory cards.


All players begin the game with 7 location tiles, all of which should be kept face-up behind a screen that will be provided with the game. Whenever a tile is used, another should be drawn immediately to replace it.

Using this new tile-based system rather than the standard board icons provides several improvements:

Better motivation - Players will have a purpose to moving to specific locations, rather than aimlessly wandering around the board with all "?" locations being equal. Using location tiles, playesr will likely plan a route around town.

More interactivity - Instead of knowning exactly where Angel might spawn, players will always be on edge wondering when someone will play Angel on them. Alternately, if you have Angel Appearance Tiles, you can feel more at peace with the thought that she is less likely to spawn in that area, since you control some of the spawning tiles.

Better time management - Players will no longer have to advance the clock. The Time Advancement tiles will automatically do this in a more natural way.

by Richz99

I hate to ask, but does anyone have a scan of the Scenario book for VG Central America? For some unknown reason, mine isn't in the box any more.

Thanks for any help.

Rich.

by Howitzer_120mm

One of the threads in the Wormhole forums was discussing ramming, and it can be used as a "cheap" way to get extra moves, as after the ram, you are placed on the other side of the rammed ship.

My ideas on ramming:

-If a Larger/same size vessel rams, it pushes both ships 1/2 of the ramming ship's remaining move. (It has 4" left, it rams, it pushes both ships 2" in the direction of the ram)
-A smaller ship stops upon ramming.

-Fighters can not be rammed. (But can ram themselves)

-You must move at least 1/2 your move to make a ramming attack.

-You are not placed on the other side of rammed ship after the ramming attack.

by GeneGeek7

I think I speak for many. I so can't wait to see this game published. So-much-so, my game room is full of saliva from me drooling awaiting its release. I'm so stoked for this game. To bad VPG doesn't do preorders. Here is a little tune for Forlorn: Hope.

Sung to the Queen song "We Will Rock You"

Forlorn: Hope!
Forlorn: Hope!
Forlorn: Hope!
Buddy your'e a Marine and facing sure death.
You got blood on your face, no disgrace, kicking those Xenos all over the place.
Shooting Xenos, Xenos, Xenos!
Shooting Xenos, Xenos, Xenos!

Eh, needs a little work.

by wankongyew

NOTE: Since my review of Chaos in the Old World seems to be doing okay, I thought I'd an earlier one on Age of Conan. Hey, more reading material is always good, right?



One of the problems I have when writing about boardgames is that it’s impossible to wait until I’ve played a game several times in order to write about it. This is because for some games it can be very difficult to arrange multiple sessions of a game within a reasonable span of time. Apparently one of the dark secrets of the hobby is that many owners only get to play some of the bigger games they buy a handful of times, sometimes not at all, and yet they keep buying them anyway!

This was the case with Age of Conan, a game that Han brought in to play at CarcaSean and that I probably won’t see again for a long time. This means that all of my impressions and opinions were gleaned from a single playthrough and should be taken with the appropriate grain of salt. As its name implies, this game is set during the fictional Hyborian Age from the stories of Robert E. Howard. Up to four players each take control of one of the major nations of the era and strive to be the greatest empire of all.

Each player only takes one action during his turn and there are really only three types of actions to choose from: military, intrigue or court. The military action allows you to either move or attack with your armies or build additional troops. The intrigue action enables you to move your emissaries, deploy more of them or try to use to convert a province to an ally. Finally, the court action basically lets you either draw cards or play them.



The twist is that not of the actions are available all of the time. Instead, a pool of possible actions is created by throwing seven dice and the actions available correspond to the symbols that turn up. Some die faces show wild cards which can be used to perform any action and some show dual symbols, but the rules state that these must effectively be the last dice to be taken from the pool. Whenever a player picks one of the available actions, he removes the appropriate die from the pool, so that there are fewer and fewer choices left. Once all the dice have been taken, they are rolled again to create a new pool.

Of course this wouldn’t be a Conan game without the barbarian himself in it so in addition to fighting against each other on the map, the players also vie for control over Conan. This is done by secretly submitting bid tokens. Whoever wins gets to control Conan’s movement on the map and if he happens to be an area where you’re fighting against an enemy nation, he will be able to lend his mighty sword to your cause. Conan however has his own adventures to get on with and if his controller helps him to get to his objective, he’s rewarded with adventure tokens that can be immediately exchanged for resources or kept to earn points at the end of the game.

After Conan has completed four adventures, one age is complete and the nations must consolidate, earning money from the provinces they control and spending it on additional troops and other resources. At the end of the third age, the game ends and the victor is determined according to how many empire points each nation has earned. Alternatively, during the third age, a player who controls Conan can try to crown him as his nation’s king. This ends the game prematurely and gives the nation that successfully pulls this off a significant bonus in points.

The key to winning is in fact through military conquest because you immediately earn points equal to the value of any province you successfully subjugate and don’t lose those points even when another nation grabs that province away from you. Converting a province into an ally through diplomacy never earns any points, but is usually much quicker and allows you to immediately earn money in between ages. The Conan mechanic itself seems to mostly act as a timer. It’s quite difficult to actually use him to help out your nation directly but it’s evident that whoever controls him most of the time can achieve a lead in adventure tokens.



During our session, I controlled Hyperboria which starts with only four army units, one less than Turan and Hyperboria, but like Stygia has two sorcery tokens which can be spent to reroll any dice I throw. I also started with an artifact that gave me a bonus die whenever I attempted an intrigue action, so I spent my early turns converting a couple of neutral provinces into allies. This allowed me to get some decent money at the end of the first age but left me trailing behind in the race for empire points.

My wife played Aquilonia, which occupies the centre portion of the map and thus is a natural focal point for most of the action. She started with an artifact which allows her to win ties in military contests even as the attacker (the defender normally wins) and focused almost exclusively on military action. She actually managed to build and sustain a small lead throughout the game, while at the same time gaining control of Conan enough times to be more than competitive in the grab for adventure tokens.

Another way to earn empire points is by fulfilling the conditions on the objective cards that come up. Sure enough one of the cards that popped up awarded bonus points to the nation that had the most forts in the centre portion of the map and Sean, controlling the Turans, duly gravitated in that direction. As the cowardly player that I always end up becoming, I headed northwards and contented myself with munching on the empty neutral provinces there. This kept me in the running without becoming entangled in any big wars but you really need to be bold to win these kinds of games.



Our game ended when my wife succeeded in crowning Conan as king. Unfortunately, her obvious attempt to do so had made her the obvious target and both Han and Sean continuously attacked her. Han in particular was able to play some impressive Kingdom cards, representing the special abilities unique to each of the nations, that significantly boosted his military power, and gradually whittled down Shan’s forts. What the rest of us, except for Han, had forgotten was that the value of each province is added again to the final score at the end. Since Shan only had two forts left by the time she crowned Conan, she came in at last place even though she had a small lead before that. I think she’s still upset about that.

Overall, I found the game to be decent enough without being particularly impressive in any way. Some of the military aspects and the idea of splitting the game into three ages with a consolidation phase in between each phase reminded me a bit of Struggle of Empires, but SoE is still the cleverer and more interesting game. The mechanics involving Conan feel a bit odd to me as he simply moves around the map and completes quest automatically. I suppose that this is a necessary abstraction and it would be silly to have Conan fail at anything, but I would have preferred some additional options there.

As it is, anyone who’s a devoted Conan fan, as Han obviously is, will probably love the game. I’d like to play more in order to see what additional options the Kingdom cards offer, but it seems to me that you draw them very slowly over the course of the game. Finally, I note that the estimated playing time on BGG at 90 minutes is wildly inaccurate. In our case, we took nearly four hours to finish, though that includes extra time taken to explain the rules.

by wankongyew

NOTE: Since my review of Chaos in the Old World seems to be doing okay, I thought I'd an earlier one on Age of Conan. Hey, more reading material is always good, right?



One of the problems I have when writing about boardgames is that it’s impossible to wait until I’ve played a game several times in order to write about it. This is because for some games it can be very difficult to arrange multiple sessions of a game within a reasonable span of time. Apparently one of the dark secrets of the hobby is that many owners only get to play some of the bigger games they buy a handful of times, sometimes not at all, and yet they keep buying them anyway!

This was the case with Age of Conan, a game that Han brought in to play at CarcaSean and that I probably won’t see again for a long time. This means that all of my impressions and opinions were gleaned from a single playthrough and should be taken with the appropriate grain of salt. As its name implies, this game is set during the fictional Hyborian Age from the stories of Robert E. Howard. Up to four players each take control of one of the major nations of the era and strive to be the greatest empire of all.

Each player only takes one action during his turn and there are really only three types of actions to choose from: military, intrigue or court. The military action allows you to either move or attack with your armies or build additional troops. The intrigue action enables you to move your emissaries, deploy more of them or try to use to convert a province to an ally. Finally, the court action basically lets you either draw cards or play them.



The twist is that not of the actions are available all of the time. Instead, a pool of possible actions is created by throwing seven dice and the actions available correspond to the symbols that turn up. Some die faces show wild cards which can be used to perform any action and some show dual symbols, but the rules state that these must effectively be the last dice to be taken from the pool. Whenever a player picks one of the available actions, he removes the appropriate die from the pool, so that there are fewer and fewer choices left. Once all the dice have been taken, they are rolled again to create a new pool.

Of course this wouldn’t be a Conan game without the barbarian himself in it so in addition to fighting against each other on the map, the players also vie for control over Conan. This is done by secretly submitting bid tokens. Whoever wins gets to control Conan’s movement on the map and if he happens to be an area where you’re fighting against an enemy nation, he will be able to lend his mighty sword to your cause. Conan however has his own adventures to get on with and if his controller helps him to get to his objective, he’s rewarded with adventure tokens that can be immediately exchanged for resources or kept to earn points at the end of the game.

After Conan has completed four adventures, one age is complete and the nations must consolidate, earning money from the provinces they control and spending it on additional troops and other resources. At the end of the third age, the game ends and the victor is determined according to how many empire points each nation has earned. Alternatively, during the third age, a player who controls Conan can try to crown him as his nation’s king. This ends the game prematurely and gives the nation that successfully pulls this off a significant bonus in points.

The key to winning is in fact through military conquest because you immediately earn points equal to the value of any province you successfully subjugate and don’t lose those points even when another nation grabs that province away from you. Converting a province into an ally through diplomacy never earns any points, but is usually much quicker and allows you to immediately earn money in between ages. The Conan mechanic itself seems to mostly act as a timer. It’s quite difficult to actually use him to help out your nation directly but it’s evident that whoever controls him most of the time can achieve a lead in adventure tokens.



During our session, I controlled Hyperboria which starts with only four army units, one less than Turan and Hyperboria, but like Stygia has two sorcery tokens which can be spent to reroll any dice I throw. I also started with an artifact that gave me a bonus die whenever I attempted an intrigue action, so I spent my early turns converting a couple of neutral provinces into allies. This allowed me to get some decent money at the end of the first age but left me trailing behind in the race for empire points.

My wife played Aquilonia, which occupies the centre portion of the map and thus is a natural focal point for most of the action. She started with an artifact which allows her to win ties in military contests even as the attacker (the defender normally wins) and focused almost exclusively on military action. She actually managed to build and sustain a small lead throughout the game, while at the same time gaining control of Conan enough times to be more than competitive in the grab for adventure tokens.

Another way to earn empire points is by fulfilling the conditions on the objective cards that come up. Sure enough one of the cards that popped up awarded bonus points to the nation that had the most forts in the centre portion of the map and Sean, controlling the Turans, duly gravitated in that direction. As the cowardly player that I always end up becoming, I headed northwards and contented myself with munching on the empty neutral provinces there. This kept me in the running without becoming entangled in any big wars but you really need to be bold to win these kinds of games.



Our game ended when my wife succeeded in crowning Conan as king. Unfortunately, her obvious attempt to do so had made her the obvious target and both Han and Sean continuously attacked her. Han in particular was able to play some impressive Kingdom cards, representing the special abilities unique to each of the nations, that significantly boosted his military power, and gradually whittled down Shan’s forts. What the rest of us, except for Han, had forgotten was that the value of each province is added again to the final score at the end. Since Shan only had two forts left by the time she crowned Conan, she came in at last place even though she had a small lead before that. I think she’s still upset about that.

Overall, I found the game to be decent enough without being particularly impressive in any way. Some of the military aspects and the idea of splitting the game into three ages with a consolidation phase in between each phase reminded me a bit of Struggle of Empires, but SoE is still the cleverer and more interesting game. The mechanics involving Conan feel a bit odd to me as he simply moves around the map and completes quest automatically. I suppose that this is a necessary abstraction and it would be silly to have Conan fail at anything, but I would have preferred some additional options there.

As it is, anyone who’s a devoted Conan fan, as Han obviously is, will probably love the game. I’d like to play more in order to see what additional options the Kingdom cards offer, but it seems to me that you draw them very slowly over the course of the game. Finally, I note that the estimated playing time on BGG at 90 minutes is wildly inaccurate. In our case, we took nearly four hours to finish, though that includes extra time taken to explain the rules.

by IRON SPECTRE

Even if you are not into Thor or his corner of the Marvel universe, I must say that some of the sculpts and paint jobs in the new Hammer of Thor set are, in my opinion, some of the best clix ever made.

I just bought a "brick", and every booster I opened delivered without doubt some of the finest painted miniatures I have ever seen come out of a CMG booster.

The HoT figures are large, colorful, and all sport the new "keyless base" which you can turn easily without the need of a clix ring or other device.

I'm not kidding, the Thor minis are really a giant leap forward in paint detail compared to sets of a few years past.

Each miniature comes safely placed inside the booster a "slide out plastic drawer" like a tray that stops all 5 miniatures in each booster from sliding around or getting damaged or bent.

The cards are also protected from being bent or torn by being inserted with plenty of room inside the tray next to the miniatures, who are all standing in a neat row.

Long gone are the days of all the minis being squashed into the booster like sardines in a can.

From the time the tray slides out of the the booster, the HoT boosters are all class and very high quality.

Dont just look at a gallery somewhere and render your opinion, if you want to see some of the finest clix made to date, go buy at least one Hammer of Thor booster and take a good look at the great miniatures inside, even if your a long term clix veteran or are just new to the game, you wont be disappointed, this set has really got a lot going for it.

If this is the kind of high quality item that NECA are going to bring to our game, then I say "Welcome NECA", I hope the future of heroclix will be strong and bright thanks for helping us get off the "KO" click and back onto the map where this great game belongs!

by bobbles

do u ever feel that abit evil being as a hero to actually help ur fav villian to win the game...keke...i do...=p

my fav villian is the banshee n i like her overall design, abilities and her minion chart.

her barrow shades doin an extra hit for every "1" that the hero rolls on his/her fight dice (my fren rolls mostly 1s n 2s on his dice...ouch!...haha!).

the grounds keeper spreading riddles of the dead all ovr town...n u hv to be firm when facing him n not get swayed by his words of death...

the banshee grows in power for every death that she warned (+1 wound marker for every ko'ed hero or town elder that had just been killed).

the echo of the moors event on her minion chart...instilling fear into you (losing an event card)...ur allies leaving you (losing an ally card) upon hearing the wailing echoes...

occasionally, u can hear the banshee shrieking in the night...so did someone died or is it an omen of death...that leaves much to be investigated (whenever the "murder" card is played, place another 2 investigation tokens at the same location n 2 additional investigation tokens at each adjacent space).

u will regret for not conducting a thorough investigation (collecting more investigation tokens) as you will be tormented by the banshee's wailing death (for banshee's every fight dice roll of 6, hero must take an extra hit, alternatively, hero can pay 2 investigation tokens to ignore that extra hit).

by joefling34

Saturday nights at Kirk's house are always a blast, especially when we bring out MEQ.

The Heroes were Mike as Berevor, Ted as Argalad, Kirk as Eleanor and myself as the Evil Sauron. My begining of the game mission was to get the black marker to stage 3. My starting plot was placed in Gladden Fields and I placed all my influence from Barad Dur to surround Minas Tirith the best i could.

The first stage of the game could not have gone any smoother for the heroes. Berevor completed both starting and advanced quest pretty earlier while buffing up all 4 atributes at least once. Eleanor and Argalad both completed their starting quest and were able to take influence out of the shadow pool 3 times in the first stage. Needless to say I had no plots on the board for a very long time. Argalad harrassed the Mouth of Sauron a few times picking up three corruption cards before finally shutting the Mouth's mouth. Eleanor attempted to break into Mordor to achieve her Advanced quest but fell just short and was forced to retreat to Minas Tirith.

The Second stage of the game started to turn the tables. By this time I realized that the Heroes mission was probably to complete all of thier starting and advanced quest. I was able to get a couple monster tokens in Mordor and bring up the Black Serpent to prevent Eleanor from completing her advanced quest of going into Barad Dur. She was aided by Berevor which was defeated by the Black Serpent. Then the Black Serpent ambushed Elenor forcing both hereos to return to Minas Tirith. I was able to get my influence back in the Shadow pool and get some good plots on the table. Not sure of the exact names but the plots moved the Red Marker up 2 spots per turn, and the Black one Up 5. The Heroes managed to gather enough favor to take off a plot that moved the Black Marker up 2.

At the begining of stage 3 the Heroes were still dominate but were really struggling to find ways to complete their mission and to discard the plots. I was able to get another plot that moved the black marker up 2 per round, for a total of 5 again. I noticed that the heroes had 1 favor accrued between them, i knew they would not be able to discard anymore plots for a while, so my mission would be no problem getting the Black Marker to stage 3. I threw a pretty good bluff on the table (wich Ted (Argalad) called out a few times), by placing 6 influence in the shire to make them think i had a different mission. They worked together to break the line and reduce the shires influence down to 1. The Finale hit us quick with the black Marker and the green Marker finding thier way to the Finale at the exact same time. So nobody was dominant, we revealed our mission cards and I claimed victory.

Everything in this session is not cronologically accurate and i did miss a few things; such as The Black Serpent, Mouth of Sauron and RingWraiths all died. Not to mention Gothmog was 1 or 2 hits from dying. At times i thought they may have had the mission where they had to defeat all but 2 minions. This was probably the most fun that I have had with MEQ. If it wasnt for Argalad having 5 corrpution cards and Berevor having 4 by games end, I think the heroes may have pulled it off. I will give the Heroes thier props though, they played as a team and worked together, as heroes should!

This game really should see the table top a little more often.

by 4th stringer

As I just received Song of Blades and Glory and Song of Gold and Darkness for my birthday, and tried a couple of basic games with my brothers, I decided it was time to set up a solo game. I wanted as much of a traditionalist group of crawlers as possible, so I took a bunch of the pre-made guys, including the barbarian, the warmage, the blessed paladin, the acrobat thief, the dwarven orcslayer and the elven archer, and gave them all the hero ability. I envisioned them entering into a dungeon full of undead. With a shaky grasp of the rules, my heroes enter into the first room.
First Room
As the heros enter into the first room, they are greeted by a unlocked door directly to 7 human skeletons. The perfect warm up fight for them. Combat starts out pretty poorly, with the skeletons knocking over both the barbarian and the dwarf, and no one else succeeds in killing anyone. The thief, despite his weak combat stat (a 1) runs up to try to stomp out the only skeleton on the ground, but manages to slip and is knocked down by the grounded skeleton. The thief is immediately killed during the skeletons turn. The rest of our heroes are more lucky, however and manage to fight off the swords beating down on them. (At this point, besides one roll, the attacker in every fight rolled a 1 or 2. I had forgotten about the hero re-roll except to save the elf's shooty ability) The paladin starts destroying everyone he can reach, using his Cleric ability to easily cleave through three of the remaining skeletons. The elf also manages to kill one, after it is transfixed by the mage. Finally, the Dwarf lands not only a good hit, but a great one, causing a psychic explosion which destroys the remaining skeletons in the room. Its clear that this is a vulnerability that the Undead certainly have to worry about.
Second Room
Our party next meets a locked door. After an argument about who should have protected the thief, the Paladin finally just kicks down the door. As the dust clears, the party realizes that they have entered into a large, completely empty room. Choosing the door on the right, the Paladin and Dwarf work together to kick at the door, and after about 10 attempts, finally roll the 4 or higher they need to get through.
Third Room
Room three presents one of the major challenges. It is a Lich, protected by 11 Zombies. The Zombies were tough, but with a quality of 6 almost never moved, and as such could not take advantage of when the Lich managed to transfix the heroes. Dwarf killed a transfixed Zombie, before the Warmage transfixed the Lich and the Elf blasted it with an arrow so hard that he also caused a psychic shockwave, which against a Quality of 6 and the undead rule lead to the demise of the rest of the zombies in the room.
Fourth and Fifth Room
The fourth room opened without any difficulty, but once again the room was empty. There was a door which clearly led into room two, but the party moved onwards.

The fifth room was once again locked. The paladin fought hard to get the door open, and again only with the help of the dwarf was he able to knock it down. Awaiting the party upon the other side stood 4 mummies and a small treasure chest. The party has no problem with the the terror ability of the mummies, and manages to eventually kill all of the mummies through the use of transfix spells from the warmage and triple teams leading to the doubling of attack scores on helpless foes. Though the Mummies Tough ability kept them from chain reaction exploding, they still ended up falling a little to easily to the swords of my fighters.
Sixth Room
Finally, lugging the chest behind them, and also dragging the small chest, the party reached the final room. Sitting inside was a vampire lord. The Vampire manages to make the warmage retreat from his charge with his terror ability, before knocking over the elf. The rest of the party has no problem once again with the terror ability, and surrounds, knocks down and eventually destroys the vampire lord, with the dwarf making the final blow. The Vampire's toughness ability saved his life twice, but the result was that he was unable to roll the 2 actions he needed to get out of being transfixed.

Wrap Up
the party returned home with four treasure, which with the kills provided 37 Victory points. For that few models, that provided a massive boost in power, and I wonder if it would have been more appropriate to have added amother powerful model. I liked that number, and I almost feel like a 500 point crawl may be too many models for me, and is what led to me making them all heros to begin with. The Thief managed to survive and will return, having trained and improved completely(though he is still far behind the rest of the team).

Conclusions
Although the rules suggest that they could upgrade as the go through the dungeon, it was rare that the party was in trouble, and I am glad they only upgraded at the end. Hopefully a dragon will be appropriate as a final boss in their next adventure.

I like the way the dungeon crawl works, but I am not sure I treated both what treasure was found and what was in each room correctly. I need to become more familiar with the rules in order as a whole, so I am not constantly running back and forth from the PDFs to the table.

by scifiantihero

Hi, all!

I am going to start another (five player) game of Endeavor, and I'd love some people to join! There are just a few basic requirements:

-Be able to check in throughout the day, especially once you get a feel for when the others will be able to post.

-Make your posts look something like

'[BGCOLOR=#00FF00]Green[/BGCOLOR] Activates Docks, Ships to North America, Occupies Boston, and receives 1 culture and a ship/draw token. 3 workers and a ship/draw token left in harbor.'

Include any additional information that seems relevant, but note that I will be updating images with each of my posts for the most part, so you won't go long without new pictures.

-You can't have green because that's my favorite color, but please do post whatever color you would like to use when you sign up!

-Call the cities something geographically accurate if you're the first one there, and stick to that name (and if there's three cities with politics in the Caribbean, for example, just note which one it is as well.)

-Be okay with what--above-- may be a couple slightly stubborn, habitual eccentricities that I have when it comes to preserving the feel of the actual board game.

-Be prepared to have an awesome time!



Players:

[BGCOLOR=#00FF00]Derry[/BGCOLOR]

by joshbodine

If I select the buy a two-pack action in solo play, do just the rules described for this action apply (i.e. the greater of the number of either Helpers or Market Stalls in my play area, or free if I have none)? Or, do I also, in addition to those costs if applicable, have to pay the costs of the cards depending on what row they are in on the solo grid? (I realize that the solo game says that it works exactly the same as the game for 2-4 players with some additions, but I wanted to check if I was missing something elsewhere in the rules.)

by joefling34

Saturday nights at Kirk's house are always a blast, especially when we bring out MEQ.

The Heroes were Mike as Berevor, Ted as Argalad, Kirk as Eleanor and myself as the Evil Sauron. My begining of the game mission was to get the black marker to stage 3. My starting plot was placed in Gladden Fields and I placed all my influence from Barad Dur to surround Minas Tirith the best i could.

The first stage of the game could not have gone any smoother for the heroes. Berevor completed both starting and advanced quest pretty earlier while buffing up all 4 atributes at least once. Eleanor and Argalad both completed their starting quest and were able to take influence out of the shadow pool 3 times in the first stage. Needless to say I had no plots on the board for a very long time. Argalad harrassed the Mouth of Sauron a few times picking up three corruption cards before finally shutting the Mouth's mouth. Eleanor attempted to break into Mordor to achieve her Advanced quest but fell just short and was forced to retreat to Minas Tirith.

The Second stage of the game started to turn the tables. By this time I realized that the Heroes mission was probably to complete all of thier starting and advanced quest. I was able to get a couple monster tokens in Mordor and bring up the Black Serpent to prevent Eleanor from completing her advanced quest of going into Barad Dur. She was aided by Berevor which was defeated by the Black Serpent. Then the Black Serpent ambushed Elenor forcing both hereos to return to Minas Tirith. I was able to get my influence back in the Shadow pool and get some good plots on the table. Not sure of the exact names but the plots moved the Red Marker up 2 spots per turn, and the Black one Up 5. The Heroes managed to gather enough favor to take off a plot that moved the Black Marker up 2.

At the begining of stage 3 the Heroes were still dominate but were really struggling to find ways to complete their mission and to discard the plots. I was able to get another plot that moved the black marker up 2 per round, for a total of 5 again. I noticed that the heroes had 1 favor accrued between them, i knew they would not be able to discard anymore plots for a while, so my mission would be no problem getting the Black Marker to stage 3. I threw a pretty good bluff on the table (wich Ted (Argalad) called out a few times), by placing 6 influence in the shire to make them think i had a different mission. They worked together to break the line and reduce the shires influence down to 1. The Finale hit us quick with the black Marker and the green Marker finding thier way to the Finale at the exact same time. So nobody was dominant, we revealed our mission cards and I claimed victory.

Everything in this session is not cronologically accurate and i did miss a few things; such as The Black Serpent, Mouth of Sauron and RingWraiths all died. Not to mention Gothmog was 1 or 2 hits from dying. At times i thought they may have had the mission where they had to defeat all but 2 minions. This was probably the most fun that I have had with MEQ. If it wasnt for Argalad having 5 corrpution cards and Berevor having 4 by games end, I think the heroes may have pulled it off. I will give the Heroes thier props though, they played as a team and worked together, as heroes should!

This game really should see the table top a little more often.

by soojin

I have read some good things about this game and it seems potentially the sort of game I'll enjoy. However it also sounds very much like PoF with the auction and tile laying mechanics. So can anyone tell me if the 2 games are similar enough that I don't need to own both?

You may like to know that I simply adore PoF, in fact, it is 1 out of 2 games that I rate a 10. However, I'll only play PoF with 5 players because a lot of the tension is lost with fewer players. How does Vegas Showdown scale? Does it play poorly with 3-4 too?