Friday, October 31, 2014

A Fondant Spock

So you may have seen my post two weeks ago about the Romulan Bird of Prey Piñata that I made for my son's birthday party.  Unfortunately my wife got sick so we had to postpone the party to this weekend.  So now the serious cake decorating has begun.  Tonight my wife finished the first major part of the cake decorations:


Yes, that's an 8" tall Spock made from fondant that will be gracing one of two cakes for my son.  My wife is awesome =)  I'm going to add a post soon with pictures of some of the other awesome cakes, costumes, etc. she's worked on over the years.  They're not board game related, but hey, this is my blog I can put what I want on it!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Dead Drop has Funded with All Stretch Goals!

Dead Drop by Crash Games - The artwork is awesome!
A few weeks ago I reviewed a quick little deduction microgame called Dead Drop, by Crash Games.  The game has gotten some rave reviews, with people even saying it replaces Love Letter as their microgame of choice.  And while I'm not sure if I agree with those assumptions, it is a pretty good game, even a great game with three players.  However it does have some shortcomings at 2 and 4 players, then again Love Letter is a pretty atrocious game for 2 players, too.  In my review I gave a few variants for 2 players that really make the game a ton better for 2 players.  But for four players what the game really needed is a few additional cards.  Well guess what, I've got some news for you that might make your day if you were on the fence about grabbing this game.

Dead Drop has now funded on Kickstarter!  This means that $12 standard level backers get the base game (spies deck) along with an additional copy (the monsters deck).  So now you can mix and match the decks or even add a couple of extra cards to make the 4 player game more in-depth.  But wait, there's more!

If you were following the Kickstarter campaign for the game at all (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crashgames/dead-drop-a-pub-series-game) you probably noticed that it ran into a few snags.  Read the comments and you'll see that there are a number of different things to point fingers at and no one thing that contributed to the rough campaign.  None of this is due to Crash Games's reputation for putting out high quality games though (see my review of their game Rise!), so it was disappointing to see this campaign nearly fail.  But in a very gutsy move, earlier this week Crash Games founder Patrick Nickell decided to unlock ALL of the stretch goals, even though the campaign was only about 50% funded with less than a week to go.  This meant that, if the game funded, $22 deluxe backers would get all 8 art decks!  This proved to be the boost the campaign needed and it has now funded, plus reached the point where several of the stretch goals would have been fulfilled anyway, and there are still more than 24 hours to go!  So congratulations Patrick, Jason (Kotarski, the game designer) and Crash Games!

So if you haven't checked it out yet, get over to the Dead Drop Kickstarter page and get in on the crazy action!  For $12 the game is definitely worth it.  And for only $22 you get 8 copies of the game and can share with a few friends!  I don't know where else you can get that much game for that little.  So head on over to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crashgames/dead-drop-a-pub-series-game and show some support.  Maybe the game can hit some of those additional stretch goals naturally and offset some of the risk Patrick took to bring this game to fruition.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

What Is It? - Guess the Photo Contest - Contest Over

CONTEST (over):  I took a break from game stuff for a couple of hours this evening to work on building something for my son's birthday party.  The first person to guess what it is I'm building will get a printed and laminated copy of Coin Age with some extra custom maps (one winner from my previous contest never responded so I have a copy ready to go).  I'll post another picture every few hours of the project more and more complete until someone guesses correctly.  I'm looking for a very specific answer, so check out the pictures and see if you can guess!  (I might drop a few hints along the way if needed.)

CONGRATULATIONS: 
Congrats to Chuck Tewksbury for correctly guessing Romulan Bird of Prey after two pictures were posted!  Thanks to everyone for guessing. The rest of the pictures are below. I still need to add details (it's already filled with candy), but you can see how it's turning out.  I just can't believe I've spent this much time on something that's going to get bashed to pieces. But I love my son and he wanted to destroy a Romulan Bird of Prey, so this is what I spend my evenings doing =)  I couldn't convince him to just do a Borg ship. No, it had to be from TOS since he's dressing as Spock.

Picture 1 - Tell me what this is to win!
Picture 2 - Starting to take shape...

Romulan Bird of Prey from Star Trek: The Original Series.  I still need to add the details, but here it is, flying through my garage.  
It's getting there...

Romulan Bird of Prey finished - the underside

Romulan Bird of Prey finished - the top side

Monday, October 13, 2014

GJJG Game Reviews - Rise! - by Crash Games

Rise!
Designer: Michael Coe
Publisher: Crash Games
GJJG Game Reviews - Rise! - by Crash Games

Game Overview:
Rise! is a 2 player strategy game for ages 13+ that takes 20-30 minutes (although my experience is that younger kids can play, too, as long as they understand the basic strategy, and games take significantly longer for experienced strategists).  Rise! is by Crash Games and originated on Kickstarter in 2011.  It was Crash Games's first Kickstarter project (and I believe their first game ever) and they have since had a number of successful projects.  It is now available through online and brick & mortar retailers, although not with the Ballistic expansion that was available on Kickstarter.  I received Rise! as a birthday gift this past spring, so I also don't have the expansion.  But even without it the game is pretty awesome.

In Rise! each player controls a set of workers that are attempting to either eliminate the other player's workers or build three towers.  Generally the game is aimed at building the towers because a player has to plan very poorly to lose all his players.  Each turn players may take two actions in an attempt to out-maneuver each other.  Actions include placing a land tile (a small green hex that serves as a space on a growing playing field), placing a worker (a small round, wooden disc) on a tile adjacent to another of the player's existing workers, moving a worker, jumping an opponent's worker (and removing the jumped worker from the board), sacrificing two workers to remove an opponent's worker from the board, sacrificing two workers to place a worker anywhere on the playing field even if it's not next to another worker, or removing a tier from a partially built tower.  Through these actions players try to expand the board and position their workers to create a ring of workers around a central hex tile.  When they accomplish that their workers will start building a tower (made from small wooden cubes).  If the player is able to maintain a ring for three turns the tower will be built.  The turns don't need to be consecutive, however if the opponent is able to surround the tower (even a completely built tower) the opponent's workers will start dismantling the tower, one tier at a time, then start building their own tower.  The result is a very complex strategic back-and-forth as players try to maneuver their pieces into position and maintain the positions and defend already built towers.

Components & Packaging:
The components and packaging are very high quality.  The tiles are all linen coated chip board and the pieces are very nice painted wood.  The game is a bit smaller than I expected, with each tile only being about 1.25" across, but I'm actually very happy with the size.  It's small profile (5.5" x 5.5" x 2") lets me take the game with me camping without taking up much space.  There's not much in the way of packaging, just a nice, thick box and two small plastic baggies for the wooden pieces, but it's sufficient to hold everything securely and is very sturdy.  I have absolutely no complaints about the components or packaging and wish all my games were this level of quality.

Score: 10/10 x1

Rules & Setup:
The rules that come with the game fit on a nice, glossy 9"x12" paper that's folded to fit into the small box. In addition to what I listed in my paragraph above the rules have a few graphics, explain each possible action in a little more detail, include the setup configuration, and have a few additional examples.  In all the rules are very easy to understand and pretty straight forward.  I've been playing with my 5 and 8 year old boys in the evening and they both understand the rules fine, even if they need a little work on understanding the strategy (my 5yo keeps wanting to sacrifice his workers to kill one of mine because he thinks it's funny, even though that leaves him with only a couple of workers that I can easily eliminate).  Teaching the game to an adult takes about 5 minutes, maybe even less.  And the rules have a nice summary of the possible actions, although I wish the summary was located on the rules in a space that was outward facing when they were folded.  Instead I find that I'm folding the rules against the way they were originally so the short reference is outward for new players as a reminder.  A small reference card would have been even better, but it's really not necessary after the first few minutes of play.

Setup takes about 30 seconds. and consists of laying out 12 land tiles in a barbell formation and placing one worker of each color on the appropriate tiles.  That's it, and it's so simple even my 5 year old can set up the game when he wants to play.

Score: 9/10 x2

Gameplay:
At its heart Rise! is a strategy game, like checkers or chess, but with its own twists.  Depending on the type of games you usually play you'll see Rise! as a worker placement/area control Eurogame, or a tactical wargame, or a straight up abstract strategy game.  And it contains elements of all of those.  As I mentioned above, the rules are simple enough that even my 5 year old can play (and surprisingly well when he decides to actually place his workers and not just sacrifice as many as he can to kill my guys).  However when you get two people that are pretty good strategists the game can take a lot longer than the stated 20-30 minutes.  I've played a number of games with different people and the game length can vary greatly.  The very first game I played with my wife was over in about 5 minutes.  The second game we played lasted nearly 45 minutes.  I also played a game with my friend Tony that took almost an hour.  We were at a Cub Scout camping trip and we had to leave the game for a while for some events and then come back to in in the afternoon.  I've played a number of games against my sons that usually last 5-20 minutes depending on how aggressive I play.  But I'm currently in the middle of one game that I've been playing against my friend Tony that is closing on 2 hours.  I actually had to take a picture of the game so that we can set it up again some other time:

Almost 2 hours in and we're still battling it out.  Time to take a picture
so we can set it up again later.  It's my turn next and I'm blue.
If there's one problem with the game its that the game only gets interesting if at least one player goes on the offensive early.  If no players make any mistakes or go on the offensive the red player will win by 1 turn every time.  I guess this is kind of true for most abstract strategy games, but the fact that the players start so far apart in Rise! means that inexperienced players may not realize this until its too late.  That's exactly what happened on the first game between my wife and I.  We knew the objective was to build three towers so we worked to build our towers.  There was no conflict until the very end and it came too late to really matter.  However once both players realize that some conflict is inevitable the game completely changes.  It really becomes difficult to make a ring around your towers and maintain that ring for multiple moves.  It seems that almost every move that puts you up a little can be countered by your opponent and set you right back.  So it really becomes a challenge to misdirect your opponent.

In my 2+ hour game that I'm currently in the middle of it's been a real challenge to get my last tower built.  I managed to surround a space, but Tony was able to sacrifice two of his guys to eliminate one of my workers and then jump another worker into that vacated space, effectively removing two workers from my ring while putting one of his workers into the ring. This means I'd need 3 actions to clear out his worker and populate both empty spaces, but since I only have two actions per turn he effectively blocked my tower construction.  He's done this to me twice now and at the same time I've prevented him from making a ring to complete his last tower.  It's been a real tog-of-war and we've thoroughly enjoyed it.  The 2 hours seemed to just fly by and we're both itching for the chance to finish the battle.

Officially there are two ways to win the game.  You can win either by completing three towers or by eliminating all of your opponent's workers.  Likely the elimination rule won't come into effect unless your opponent plans very poorly.  And usually if that happens it'll happen very early in the game.  Once your player has more than 4 pieces on the board it'll become nearly impossible (though not completely impossible) to eliminate his workers completely.  This means that 98% of games will come down to who can build their three towers first.  It would be nice if there was another way to win (although I can't think of what that would be) so that you'd have an option other than tower building.  When you have a pretty fixed win condition it can make it pretty easy to defend against and pretty difficult to accomplish without your opponent making a pretty big mistake.

Score: 8/10 x3

Replayability:
Every game I've played is different.  As you play more you'll see patterns and figure out strategy, but each situation will be different and each opponent will likely have a different strategy.  Even though there are officially two ways to win the game it'll usually boil down to who can build three towers first.  I wish games could be finished a little quicker since I know pulling this out against anyone challenging is going to eat up at least 45 minutes.  But at least I know that the game is going to be challenging and fun when I do pull it out.

Score: 7/10 x1

General Fun:
Rise! isn't the type of game that you'll want to play at parties or as a filler between other gaming sessions.  It's not a laugh-out-loud game or even all that social.  But if you like thinking and strategy games this is for you.  There will be lots of quiet moments where your opponent is contemplating moves and trying to think three or four steps ahead, but that's OK 'cause you'll also be thinking about your next move and hoping your opponent doesn't see the trap you laid.

I've also found that Rise! tends to gather a crowd.  The game looks great and seeing two people hunched over the table staring at these hex tiles and colorful wooden pieces with expressions of great concentration seems to draw people in.  I mentioned that I played a game at a Cub Scout camping trip and while we were playing we eventually had a group of about 10 scouts all watching and discussing the game amongst themselves.  And after the game was finished I was followed around by several of them answering questions and discussing strategy.  One even said he was going to try to make his own version of the game when he got home.

So even if this isn't a high-energy, boisterous game, it's a ton of fun for strategy game lovers.

Score: 8/10 x2

Overall Value:
The retail price for Rise! is $20 and it's currently selling for $16 + $5 shipping on Amazon.  For about $20 Rise! is definitely worth adding to your collection if you like strategy games.  The small footprint means it'll tuck away nicely on even the most crowded shelves and it is super portable.  The Kickstarter for the game had a backer tier that included a cloth carrying bag which would be a nice addition to the game if you want to carry it around more, but I find the small box very easy to pack for camping trips.  It's a staple of my camping games now.  There aren't many unique games that give you the strategic depth of Rise! with such a modest price.  Yes, you can get chess or backgammon sets for less, but they won't attract attention the way Rise! will.  And even chess or other typical strategy games will cost you more than $20 if you want components as high quality as those in Rise!.  So if you have the opportunity I definitely recommend adding Rise! to your collection.  If you can find it on sale, even better!

Score: 9/10 x1

Final Thoughts:
Rise! came into my collection just as I was seriously getting back into board gaming and it instantly went to the top of my favorites list.  The only gripe I have with the game is that it usually seems to take much longer than the stated time, which means it's only good for longer periods of time, but usually when I have those longer periods of time I have more than one other person looking to play games.  But the depth of strategy in such a small package is incredible.  Plus the game looks great, is pretty unique, and has aspects that will appeal to a number of different types of gamers.  If you ever want to play, let me know.  I'm always up for a game of Rise!

Overall Score: 84/100

Oh, no!  Tony has two towers built!  I'll need to catch up!

Nearly finished with my second tower.

Now I've got two towers built and a second started, but
Tony has me stuck being unable to complete it any further.

Here's a game I played against my 5 year old son.  He was blue and because
I wasn't paying attention he actually did pretty good.  I had to play catch-up when
I realized he was starting his second tower and I hadn't even started my first!


Did you like this review?  Show your support by clicking the heart at Board Game Links , liking GJJ Games on Facebook , or following on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games.  Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play).  I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game.  A score of 1-10 (low-high) is given to each game in six categories: Components & Packaging, Rules & Setup, Gameplay, Replayability, Overall Value, and General Fun.  Rules & Setup and General Fun are weighted double and Gameplay is weighted triple.  Educational games have an extra category and Gameplay is only weighted double. Then the game is given a total score of x/100.

Quick Review - Survive!

Survive!
Designer: Julian Courtland-Smith
Publisher(s): Stronghold Games & Parker Brothers
Quick Review - Survive!
A few weeks ago my wife was able to snag an original copy of Survive! from the resale shop for a buck!  Now we've finally played it.  When I mentioned to a friend that I found the game he said "Awesome!  That's a great game!  There's a ton of carnage!" and frankly, he was dead on.

In Survive! (since re-released as Survive! Escape from Atlantis with an included mini expansion) players control people trying to escape from a sinking island in a sea filled with sharks, whales, and sea serpents.  The island is composed of hex shaped tiles that represent beaches, forests, and mountains and after each turn players sink part of the island by removing a tile (beaches first, mountains last).  On the underside of the tile are instructions to place a shark, whale, or boat into the revealed water tile or sometimes a message that lets the player do something later in the game, like kill a shark, or take some extra moves.  But the sinking island is only half the fun.  Each player also controls 10 people that are trying to escape the island by any means necessary, by running, swimming, and using boats.  Each person piece has a number on the bottom and players try to get their highest value pieces to escape first, thus there's a memory element to the game, trying to remember where the highest valued pieces are located since you aren't allowed to look at the bottoms of the pieces during the game.

It may sound easy enough, but the various creatures surrounding the island make escape pretty difficult.  Whales sink boats, throwing the survivors into the water, sharks eat swimmers, sea serpents eat swimmers and entire boats, and whirlpools destroy everything.  So yes, my friend was right, there is a ton of carnage.  Out of 10 people, I was able to rescue 4 of them.  My wife was able to rescue 3 of hers and our friend Tony was only able to rescue 2 of his.  Tony's wife, Marisa, was able to rescue 5 people for the win.  Although the number of people you save doesn't matter, it's the points total, she was able to save several high value people.

The game plays pretty quickly, ours took about 40 minutes after figuring out the rules, and has a set ending so the game won't go on forever.  One of the mountain tiles is a volcano that ends the game immediately.  For us the volcano happened to be the last tile revealed, but it could have been the first mountain tile flipped, which would have shortened the game by about 5 minutes.  So there's not a huge variance in game lengths.  The game had a number of very fun elements and balanced strategy with luck very nicely.  There was also quite a bit of fun back-stabbing as players sent ocean creatures to attack opponents.  And trying to keep track of the higher valued people was a lot more challenging than you'd think.  I think the only thing that was a little disappointing was the quality of the tiles and boats.  While the quality of the people, shark, whale, and sea serpent pieces is top-notch, in the game I have the tiles and boats are just printed on thin card stock.  I believe in the newer releases the tiles are much more substantial, which would make them a lot easier to handle.  But that's a minor complaint in what is otherwise a very fun game.

Preliminary Rating: 8/10

The exodus begins!

The island is almost sunk.  The waters are treacherous
and the boats are scarce.

Did you like this review?  Show your support by clicking the heart at Board Game Links , liking GJJ Games on Facebook , or following on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games.  Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play).  I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game.  First Play Impression reviews will only get a single rating of 1-10 (low-high) based on my first impressions of the game during my first time playing.  Hopefully I'll get more chances to play the game and will be able to give it a full review soon.

Quick Review - Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game

Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game
Designer: Jason C. Hill
Publisher: Flying Frog Productions
Quick Review - Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game
This weekend I played the basic scenario of Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game with a few friends.  In Last Night on Earth players control either the Zombies or the Heroes.  The game can be played with 2-6 players and depending on how many players there are the heroes and zombies get divided up.  There are four hero characters in the game and the zombies can be controlled by up to two people.  We played with four players, but kind of tweaked the player distribution so only one player controlled the zombies and one player (me) controlled two characters.  This worked out fine since it's a very cooperative game for the heroes (and my second character died pretty quickly).

As players move around the board they can stop and search buildings for items and weapons that can help them, or occasionally an event that can affect the game.  The zombie player also gets card that can help him, but they're drawn randomly from a shuffled deck.  Combat between zombies and players can happen with ranged weapons, or hand-to-hand.  For ranged weapons (revolver, shotgun, etc.) combat is described on the card.  Hand to hand combat is pretty straight forward and relies on dice rolls, but in an almost Risk-like fashion.  Heroes roll 2 dice and zombies roll 1.  The higher value wins, zombies win ties.  If the hero wins they fend off the zombie (but don't kill it, unless they have a hand weapon that allows for kills).  If the hero wins and rolls doubles they actually kill the zombie.  If the zombie wins they inflict 1 wound, if they inflict enough wounds the zombies can kill heroes.  Play progresses until one of the objectives are met (heroes or zombies).

In the basic scenario the goal is for the heroes to survive and kill 15 zombies within 15 turns.  If they do, they win.  If not, or if two heroes are killed, the zombie player(s) win.  The basic scenario was very basic and serves to mainly get the players acclimated to the rules and gameplay.  More advanced scenarios include more challenging win criteria for both the heroes and zombies.  However, playing the basic scenario is a quick way to learn the game and see how different strategies work without investing a ton of time into an advanced game.  We learned a few things from playing the basic scenario, some of which may seem like common sense in a zombie apocalypse.  These tips apply to the basic scenario though, :

  1. Heroes should not stand in one place if there are many zombies nearby.  You'll eventually get overrun and killed, as evidenced by Johnny's fate in our game.  You need to keep moving and pick off zombies one at a time as they get closer.
  2. Get a gun.  Ranged Weapons are absolutely necessary to take pop shots at distant zombies.
  3. If possible, meet up in the Gun Shop.  The board is somewhat modular, so the Gun Shop might not be on your board.  If it is, have everyone gather there and kill zombies as you can.
  4. Unless you are in a building well supplied with guns and ammo, keep moving!
  5. If you control the zombies, you don't always need to go after the heroes.  At least in this scenario the zombie player would have had a much better chance at winning if he had avoided the heroes instead of chasing after them.  Because he came after the heroes we could just hang out in the gun shop and wait for the zombies to come to us.  The game would have been much more challenging for us if we had to resupply and then leave the gun shop go after the zombies.
  6. Spread out your zombies.  Grouping them into one space makes them easy targets for the shotgun, which can hit all zombies in the same space.  The revolver is more accurate and has better range, but can only kill one zombie per turn.  We were able to wipe out 4 zombies at once on one turn because they were all grouped in one space and the shotgun did a ton of damage.
  7. Get a sheriff that knows how to shoot a gun.  Yeah, my sheriff character had to rely on the nurse and the farmer's daughter to shoot and kill the zombies since my dice rolling abilities are atrocious.
Overall I found the game fairly fast paced.  There wasn't a whole lot of downtime between turns and the cooperative aspect for the heroes encourages between-turn discussion.  There is a bit more downtime for the zombie player, but the game moves quickly, so it's not too bad.  The components of the game are very nice, even more so since my friend painted all his hero and zombie miniatures.  And the game even comes with a CD of mood music.  The basic scenario was fun, but just gave a taste of how the game works.  I can't wait to try out a more advanced scenario.


Preliminary Rating: 7/10

Zombies all around.

The sheriff is out in the open, better get protected.

Holing up in the gun shop and picking off zombies as they swarm.
Watch out, they're in the building now!

Did you like this review?  Show your support by clicking the heart at Board Game Links , liking GJJ Games on Facebook , or following on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.


GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games.  Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play).  I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game.  First Play Impression reviews will only get a single rating of 1-10 (low-high) based on my first impressions of the game during my first time playing.  Hopefully I'll get more chances to play the game and will be able to give it a full review soon.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Quick Review - Sequence

Sequence
Designer: Doug Reuter
Publisher: JAX, Ltd.
Quick Review - Sequence
Tonight my youngest was asking to play a game (as is usual).  After turning down several requests for longer games, like Castle Panic, and his favorite kid game, Sum Swamp, I finally convinced both him and his older brother to give Sequence a try.

Sequence has been around for a long time.  I think it came out in 1982, but I've never played it.  I picked it up a few months ago from the resale shop for a buck because it said it was good for 2-12 players.  Well, that's kind of a misleading description because it can really be played with 2 or 3 players, or in teams with any number of players that divides by 2 or 3 (i.e. 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, or 12).  In team play each player plays independently, but the teammates use the same color chips to try and win.

The concept behind Sequence is super simple.  Each player is dealt a set of regular playing cards from a double deck.  Then they take turns playing a card from their hand and placing a chip on the game board so that it covers the printed representation of that card.  There are two of everything on the game board, except jacks, which are wild (or anti-wild).  The goal is to get a sequence of 5 chips in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally on the board.  2-eyed jacks are wild so you can play it and place a chip anywhere.  1-eyed jacks are anti-wild and let you take an opponent's chip off the board.

The game is billed as a fun, challenging, and exciting strategy game.  Again, this is a bit misleading.  Yes there is a little bit of strategy behind the game in deciding to place tokens grouped with other same-color tokens when possible, or place them to block opponents' sequence attempts, however there is also a lot of luck in the game.  You can have the best strategy in the world, bu if you don't get the right cards you'll never be able to execute that strategy.  When I played with my boys my 5 year old basically played random cards from his hand.  My 8 year old did his best to play chips near where other chips were played, but in an attempt to teach him a little strategy I helped him out with a few decisions - sometimes he wanted to group his chips together even when that wouldn't have helped him as much as playing a chip somewhere else on the board to block me.  I played the best I could, trying to line up chips so that I could win in multiple ways if I got the correct card.  And there's the crux of the problem with this game.  Before long all three of us had at least one potential sequence.  And it just became a waiting game to see who would draw the card he needed first, or would someone draw the card to block a sequence.  My 8 year old ended up winning, but not by any great strategy, it was just pure luck that he got the card he needed.  I flipped the next few cards in the deck and I would have had a winning hand in 2 turns.  My youngest would have had to wait a bit longer.  And through all that there was absolutely nothing any of us could have done throughout the game to affect who got the card he needed first.

Was the game fun?  Sort of.  My boys enjoyed it and since it really didn't require a whole lot of deep thinking it was good for them, especially since it was getting late.  Was the game exciting?  Not really.  Was the game challenging?  Not at all.  As I said, my 5 year old just played cards randomly and still came as close to winning as I did.  Was the game strategic?  Barely.  Too much luck to have any real strategy.  I see this as the type of game that can come off the shelf for very casual, conversational gaming.  The game requires very little thought and is fine for two or three couples to play absentmindedly while they have talk about other things.  It's really just an excuse to all sit around the same table and keep your hands busy while your mind is focused on chatting.

Preliminary Rating: 4/10

Placing a chip.
This makes four in a row, just need one more!
It's the winning move!

Did you like this review?  Show your support by clicking the heart at Board Game Links , liking GJJ Games on Facebook , or following on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games.  Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play).  I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game.  First Play Impression reviews will only get a single rating of 1-10 (low-high) based on my first impressions of the game during my first time playing.  Hopefully I'll get more chances to play the game and will be able to give it a full review soon.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Quick Review - The Scrambled States of America

The Scrambled States of America
Designer: Mary Ellroy
Publisher: Gamewright
Quick Review - The Scrambled States of America
OK, I confess, I haven't actually played this game.  But I watched while my wife and sons played as part of their homeschool lessons.  In The Scrambled States of America there are two decks of cards, one deck of states, and one deck of challenge cards.  Each player starts with a map of the US and a number of state cards that show a cartoon picture of the state (with faces, arms, legs, etc.) as well as the name, capitol, and nickname of the state.  Then players take turns drawing a challenge card and then racing each other to find a state in their hand that completes the challenge.  Some of the challenges are as simple as finding a state with a particular letter in the name, some are more challenging, like finding the state that is closest to somewhere else.  Through this kids will learn the location of states on the map, names, nicknames, and capitols of the states, and sometimes other geographic tidbits.  A simpler version of the game allows for players to play without racing each other.  The game ends when all the state cards are used up.

My boys had a lot of fun playing this game, even asking to play again the next day.  It's a simple way to learn some basic state facts and basic geography, but that's all it is, basic.  Part of the problem is that each player will only see a fraction of the states each time they play.  And during each game players will only be looking at some of the information about each state.  So to be of any real educational value the game will have to be played a lot.  But the game is simple and quick enough that the boys can play it whenever they want, even without an adult.

Both of my boys have said that they liked the game a lot and wouldn't change anything about it.  My wife thinks its a good supplement to standard lessons in US geography, but can't stand alone as a sole supplemental game.  We don't currently have any other US geography games, but we have been eyeing 10 Days in the USA to play alongside this one.

Preliminary Rating: 5/10


Playing The Scrambled States of America

Did you like this review?  Show your support by clicking the heart at Board Game Links , liking GJJ Games on Facebook , or following on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.


GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games.  Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play).  I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game.  First Play Impression reviews will only get a single rating of 1-10 (low-high) based on my first impressions of the game during my first time playing.  Hopefully I'll get more chances to play the game and will be able to give it a full review soon.

Quick Review - Pentago

Pentago 
Designer: Tomas Flodén
Publisher: MindtwisterUSA
Quick Review - Pentago
Pentago is a pretty standard connect-X type of 2 player strategy game with a twist.  Each player chooses a color, white or black, and then takes turns placing marbles in an attempt to get five in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally on the board.  The big twist is literally that.  After placing a marble each turn the player must choose one quadrant of the board to rotate 90 degrees.  This means the layout of the board is constantly changing and marbles that don't line up now might after a twist.

I found the game fun to play, but pretty typical for the 2 player strategy games that share similar goals.  The spinning quadrants requires players to really think and plan ahead in order to out maneuver their opponent.

This isn't a game that I'll be running out to find for my collection, however if I stumble upon it in a resale shop or garage sale I'll pick it up.  It would be a good addition to the other 2 player strategy games in my collection, like Pente, Quarto, Score 4, Swivel, Yengo, etc. but not a necessary addition.

Preliminary Rating: 5/10

Did you like this review?  Show your support by clicking the heart at Board Game Links , liking GJJ Games on Facebook , or following on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games.  Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play).  I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game.  First Play Impression reviews will only get a single rating of 1-10 (low-high) based on my first impressions of the game during my first time playing.  Hopefully I'll get more chances to play the game and will be able to give it a full review soon.