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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Twisted Game of War in Tabletop Games
Jun 4, 2021
War. The card game nearly everyone knows how to play. You know, throw a card and your opponent throws a card and the highest number wins the played cards. First one to get all the cards wins. Yeah, there’s another rule, but that’s the gist. Well what if War got a small makeover? Would you be interested in checking it out? Let’s find out together!
In Twisted Game of War players take hold of their army and attempt to defeat their opponents by capturing and converting their entire army. The winner is the player who manages to collect all of the cards in the deck and hold every soldier.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup give each player a reference card, shuffle the deck of remaining cards, and give each player an equal number of cards. The game may now begin!
On a turn each player will simultaneously blindly draw and play one card from the top of their deck to the table. The cards are compared and the winner of the hand is the card with the higher number value. In Twisted Game of War, however, in addition to gaining the played cards the winner will also consult the chart on the reverse of the reference card. This chart shows additional results based on which suit of card bested the other suit. Possible effects include: a random card from the loser’s deck, a bottom card, the top two cards, or even each card returning to its original owner’s deck. As the game progresses, one player will eventually out-duel their opponent to win the game!
Components. This is a deck of cards in a tuckbox. The cards are normal quality and feature a brown back and numbers with different suit on the fronts. Quality-wise everything is fine. Where I have issues is the artistic design choices made for the game. The suits all suggest medieval-esque weapons and armor, and all utilizing metal as primary materials (save for the bow). However, the card backs and logo for the game seem to feature stitching, as you might find in cloth materials. This mismatch does not affect gameplay at all, but made me do the doggy head-cock motion when I noticed it. Similarly, the cards are all, well, boring to look at. Yes, they give the proper elements that are needed: suit and number. And I suppose players aren’t really looking at them too much anyway, as it’s a slightly fancied-up War and cards are played and discarded almost immediately. In any case, I feel an area of opportunity lies with the aesthetic of the game cards.
All in all this is a decent idea pasted onto a “game” that really is not much fun to play anyway. War takes zero skill and has zero choices. Twisted Game of War plays the exact same way, but has the added bonus of at least DOING something on many hands. So I suppose there is merit to be found.
When all is said and done, I still cannot see this as a “game,” as I happen to define the term personally, but I can see value when playing with children. If used with children, the game introduces the “less than” and “greater than” concepts, and children do not need to be able to read in order to play with the suit effect chart, so long as an adult or older child is able to read the results.
When I am hankering for a good card game, I simply cannot suggest Twisted Game of War with typical adult gamers. However, if I need something that my kids can get into, I may be able to pull this out and help teach them simple math and chaos concepts. I like the idea of trying to improve overly-simple games, but I think a bit more care could have gone into production here and it would have elevated this game for me. If you are searching for such a game as this, please hop over to the publisher’s website at: Mental Eclipse Games and tell them Travis sent ya.
In Twisted Game of War players take hold of their army and attempt to defeat their opponents by capturing and converting their entire army. The winner is the player who manages to collect all of the cards in the deck and hold every soldier.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup give each player a reference card, shuffle the deck of remaining cards, and give each player an equal number of cards. The game may now begin!
On a turn each player will simultaneously blindly draw and play one card from the top of their deck to the table. The cards are compared and the winner of the hand is the card with the higher number value. In Twisted Game of War, however, in addition to gaining the played cards the winner will also consult the chart on the reverse of the reference card. This chart shows additional results based on which suit of card bested the other suit. Possible effects include: a random card from the loser’s deck, a bottom card, the top two cards, or even each card returning to its original owner’s deck. As the game progresses, one player will eventually out-duel their opponent to win the game!
Components. This is a deck of cards in a tuckbox. The cards are normal quality and feature a brown back and numbers with different suit on the fronts. Quality-wise everything is fine. Where I have issues is the artistic design choices made for the game. The suits all suggest medieval-esque weapons and armor, and all utilizing metal as primary materials (save for the bow). However, the card backs and logo for the game seem to feature stitching, as you might find in cloth materials. This mismatch does not affect gameplay at all, but made me do the doggy head-cock motion when I noticed it. Similarly, the cards are all, well, boring to look at. Yes, they give the proper elements that are needed: suit and number. And I suppose players aren’t really looking at them too much anyway, as it’s a slightly fancied-up War and cards are played and discarded almost immediately. In any case, I feel an area of opportunity lies with the aesthetic of the game cards.
All in all this is a decent idea pasted onto a “game” that really is not much fun to play anyway. War takes zero skill and has zero choices. Twisted Game of War plays the exact same way, but has the added bonus of at least DOING something on many hands. So I suppose there is merit to be found.
When all is said and done, I still cannot see this as a “game,” as I happen to define the term personally, but I can see value when playing with children. If used with children, the game introduces the “less than” and “greater than” concepts, and children do not need to be able to read in order to play with the suit effect chart, so long as an adult or older child is able to read the results.
When I am hankering for a good card game, I simply cannot suggest Twisted Game of War with typical adult gamers. However, if I need something that my kids can get into, I may be able to pull this out and help teach them simple math and chaos concepts. I like the idea of trying to improve overly-simple games, but I think a bit more care could have gone into production here and it would have elevated this game for me. If you are searching for such a game as this, please hop over to the publisher’s website at: Mental Eclipse Games and tell them Travis sent ya.
Creep (Vulture Hollow MC #2)
Book
He’s my dream, my nightmare, my obsession. Creep. Weirdo. Stalker. Monster under the bed. ...
Contemporary Dark MM Romance Morally Grey
graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated The Girl on the Train in Books
Feb 15, 2019
Wow, I really didn't expect to like this book that much. I had recently read Gone Girl, which this isn't that similar other than it features twisted, damaged people, but was looking for something that felt close to the same. I was almost sorry that I decided to pick this up as I literally could not put it down and ended up staying up past my bedtime yesterday.
Rachel, the narrator, is an alcoholic mess who had just reached my OMG-just-quit-whinging-already! threshold when the author wisely moved the story forward. She still had her pathetic moments but I empathized with her and hoped she'd stop drinking and get help. The book was paced well and had just enough of the other two points of view from Megan and Anna as not to feel like an intrusion. I wasn't surprised by the whodunnit aspect since I had long suspected that character, but kudos to the author for keeping me on my toes with the other possibilties. I really enjoyed reading about the characters, situations and would be interested in Paula Hawkins' next book.
Rachel, the narrator, is an alcoholic mess who had just reached my OMG-just-quit-whinging-already! threshold when the author wisely moved the story forward. She still had her pathetic moments but I empathized with her and hoped she'd stop drinking and get help. The book was paced well and had just enough of the other two points of view from Megan and Anna as not to feel like an intrusion. I wasn't surprised by the whodunnit aspect since I had long suspected that character, but kudos to the author for keeping me on my toes with the other possibilties. I really enjoyed reading about the characters, situations and would be interested in Paula Hawkins' next book.
MelanieTheresa (997 KP) rated A Stranger on the Beach in Books
Mar 21, 2019
This book was EXCELLENT. I was hooked from the very first line and I could not stop reading. Fun, fast-paced, and completely intriguing - Michele Campbell has done it again!
There is a stranger outside Caroline's house.
Or is he?
This story was so well-written. It's told from two perspectives: Aiden's and Caroline's. Neither is a particularly reliable narrator, and you will find yourself questioning SO MANY THINGS. There were quite a few scenes which seemed to happen one way when Caroline was narrating, but then seemed to happen a completely different way when Aiden was narrating. Who's telling the truth? What actually happened? How do Caroline's husband, Jason, or her sister, Lynn, figure in to the story? Discovering all of this is half the fun, and I'm being very mindful of spoilers so as not to take that fun away from prospective readers! ?
A Stranger on the Beach is a twisted (and twisty), gripping, page-turner releasing July 23rd - just in time to take it to the beach. Add it to your TBR list now!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to preview this title early in exchange for an honest review.
There is a stranger outside Caroline's house.
Or is he?
This story was so well-written. It's told from two perspectives: Aiden's and Caroline's. Neither is a particularly reliable narrator, and you will find yourself questioning SO MANY THINGS. There were quite a few scenes which seemed to happen one way when Caroline was narrating, but then seemed to happen a completely different way when Aiden was narrating. Who's telling the truth? What actually happened? How do Caroline's husband, Jason, or her sister, Lynn, figure in to the story? Discovering all of this is half the fun, and I'm being very mindful of spoilers so as not to take that fun away from prospective readers! ?
A Stranger on the Beach is a twisted (and twisty), gripping, page-turner releasing July 23rd - just in time to take it to the beach. Add it to your TBR list now!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to preview this title early in exchange for an honest review.
Rikki Hammond (33 KP) rated Cards Against Humanity: Red Box in Tabletop Games
May 28, 2019
Three expansions in one box (1 more)
Increases replayability
Same negatives as the base game (2 more)
Not worth it if you own the first three expansions already
Doesn't come with blank cards to create your own questions and answers.
More cards = More hilarity
This is one of three colour boxes for CAH, and this one inparticular contains the first three expansions for the base game, which gives even more black and white cards to add to the collection.
This came out after the initial set of expanrmsions were released separately, so if you already own them, there is no point at all in buying this box. For some reason as well, it doesn't come with blank black and white cards, so you can write your own questions and answers out, which were available in the single expansions. Why they took this feature out is beyond me, as it really showed how twisted you and your friends minds could be.
Aside from that, you can't really go wrong with more cards that add more replayability to an already great party game, so this is definitely worth a purchase.
This came out after the initial set of expanrmsions were released separately, so if you already own them, there is no point at all in buying this box. For some reason as well, it doesn't come with blank black and white cards, so you can write your own questions and answers out, which were available in the single expansions. Why they took this feature out is beyond me, as it really showed how twisted you and your friends minds could be.
Aside from that, you can't really go wrong with more cards that add more replayability to an already great party game, so this is definitely worth a purchase.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Phantom Thread (2017) in Movies
Feb 9, 2018 (Updated Feb 9, 2018)
Not a Fun Guy to Be With
Yet another reissue of the controversial 1999 movie, but this time George Lucas has taken out all the stuff with taxation and Jar Jar Binks in favour of fashion design... ha ha, I jest.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays an obsessional creative genius who throws himself completely into his work and is very demanding of everyone around him, and is occasionally prone to hallucinating dead family members (so perhaps this role was less of a stretch for him than many).
Initially this comes across as a slightly so-what romantic drama about the relationship between a powerful, privileged man and a much younger woman, with him as a manipulative user and her, essentially, as a victim, but it eventually turns into a dark and even slightly twisted tale of what it sometimes takes to make a relationship work.
Day-Lewis is good, obviously, but so is Vicky Krieps as the woman in his life; presumably it's only her obscurity that's kept her from getting awards nods as she is really as good as he is.
Probably not for everyone, but Paul Anderson's most satisfying and accessible film for some years.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays an obsessional creative genius who throws himself completely into his work and is very demanding of everyone around him, and is occasionally prone to hallucinating dead family members (so perhaps this role was less of a stretch for him than many).
Initially this comes across as a slightly so-what romantic drama about the relationship between a powerful, privileged man and a much younger woman, with him as a manipulative user and her, essentially, as a victim, but it eventually turns into a dark and even slightly twisted tale of what it sometimes takes to make a relationship work.
Day-Lewis is good, obviously, but so is Vicky Krieps as the woman in his life; presumably it's only her obscurity that's kept her from getting awards nods as she is really as good as he is.
Probably not for everyone, but Paul Anderson's most satisfying and accessible film for some years.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2400 KP) rated Oliver Twisted (Ivy Meadows #3) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
Ivy and her PI uncle Bob are working on a case together as they go undercover on the Get Lit! ship the S.S. David Copperfield. They are trying to track down the people behind a rash of petty theft that have been plaguing the literature themed cruise company. As part of her cover, Ivy is working in Oliver! At Sea!, the ships current play. However, the ship has barely left when Ivy finds her roommate stuffed into their closet. Have the thieves escalated to murder?
This is another delightful romp with Ivy. There are some fun distractions and twists before she begins to put the pieces of the case together, and the way everything comes together at the end is masterful. Ivy’s cast mates are also the suspects, and we get to know them very well, yet the regular characters we’ve met in Phoenix still get to pop in, mostly via a sub-plot Ivy is trying to help with over phone calls. Throw in some delightful humor and you have another winner.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/02/book-review-oliver-twisted-by-cindy.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
This is another delightful romp with Ivy. There are some fun distractions and twists before she begins to put the pieces of the case together, and the way everything comes together at the end is masterful. Ivy’s cast mates are also the suspects, and we get to know them very well, yet the regular characters we’ve met in Phoenix still get to pop in, mostly via a sub-plot Ivy is trying to help with over phone calls. Throw in some delightful humor and you have another winner.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/02/book-review-oliver-twisted-by-cindy.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Lindsay (1774 KP) rated Lone Wolf Lawman in Books
Mar 20, 2018
Looking for an action-packed book. Well, Lone Wolf Lawman is packed to the brim with action. You get quite a few things in this book. There a romance as well. We meet Angie and Wes.
When Addie is pulled inside her barn by someone. She starts fighting him as she thinks she is attacked or dragged. But when we find out it Weston. He has come back and he when to warn Angie that the Moonlight Strangler may be after her and want her as his next victim.
Who is Moonlight Strangler? Who wants Addie dead. There is the twist and turns throughout this page-turner. Once you get started you are pulled in.
Who is after her and Weston? Delores Fossen plot is great, She tells the story like no other romance to a point that it has action throughout the story plot. There a surprise that Addie tells Weston?
This brings in the sheriff and Addie family and you will find that there are more surprises and twisted along the way. You will not be disappointed and you will be surprised at how it ends.
When Addie is pulled inside her barn by someone. She starts fighting him as she thinks she is attacked or dragged. But when we find out it Weston. He has come back and he when to warn Angie that the Moonlight Strangler may be after her and want her as his next victim.
Who is Moonlight Strangler? Who wants Addie dead. There is the twist and turns throughout this page-turner. Once you get started you are pulled in.
Who is after her and Weston? Delores Fossen plot is great, She tells the story like no other romance to a point that it has action throughout the story plot. There a surprise that Addie tells Weston?
This brings in the sheriff and Addie family and you will find that there are more surprises and twisted along the way. You will not be disappointed and you will be surprised at how it ends.
This is the companion novel to ‘No Virgin’ which I read in November 2016. This is the court trial that Stacey has to go through to get justice. She wants to see the man who raped her sent to prison and for him not to be able to prey on innocent young girls and carry out such a heinous act again. We see Stacey question herself whether she is strong enough mentally to go through with the trial and face her attacker once again. Stacey needs this to start rebuilding her life and looking to the future of university. She tries to convince another girl who has been attacked to go to the police to build a stronger case. I really think that both of these books could have been one book together than two separate novellas, However I did like seeing the court case and how brutal it can be when things are twisted and people appear to be something they are not. We still had her best friend included and the court case brought her family closer together. This again had powerful messages of seeking justice and support.
I rated this 3 out of 5 stars
I rated this 3 out of 5 stars
Lindsay (1774 KP) rated Lone Wolf Lawman in Books
Aug 30, 2018
Lone Wolf Lawman Looking for an action-packed book. Well, Lone Wolf Lawman is packed to the brim with action. You get quite a few things in this book. There a romance as well. We meet Angie and Wes.When Addie is pulled inside her barn by someone. She starts fighting him as she thinks she is attacked or dragged. But when we find out it Weston. He has come back and he when to warn Angie that the Moonlight Strangler may be after her and want her as his next victim.Who is Moonlight Strangler? Who wants Addie dead. There is the twist and turns throughout this page-turner. Once you get started you are pulled in.Who is after her and Weston? Delores Fossen plot is great, She tells the story like no other romance to a point that it has action throughout the story plot. There a surprise that Addie tells Weston?This brings in the sheriff and Addie family and you will find that there are more surprises and twisted along the way. You will not be disappointed and you will be surprised at how it ends.