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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Valeria: Card Kingdoms in Tabletop Games
Jun 12, 2019
Imagine yourself a Duke/Duchess. You have land that needs to be developed. You have paltry starting resources and access to a Farmer to produce goods and a Knight to protect them. You need to build the greatest Dukedom/Duchy to prosper for generations and fend off the impending monster attack. In typical RPG fashion I ask you, “What. Do. You. Do?”
DISCLAIMER!! This review is for vanilla Valeria: Card Kingdoms. We have plans to add in the expansions in the near future. Once we do, we will add that information to this review or to a new review and link to it from here. -T
Okay, I have to admit, I Kickstarted Villages of Valeria (VoV) and Quests of Valeria (QoV) before picking up Valeria: Card Kingdoms (VCK). Why? Well, because I was wary of shared universe games at the time, so I tried one: Villages of Valeria. Dude, it’s a great game (review to come). When I Kickstart something I usually tend to go all-in. So I have the good stuff. Same with Quest for Valeria (review to come). I simply missed the boat on the first installment because I was late to the game.
Fast forward to me actually buying the game and trying it out. The mechanics felt very familiar (thanks Machi Koro), and the iconography was very familiar too (thanks VoV and QoV). But VCK excelled and rocked my world so much that I just cannot get enough of it.
Without paraphrasing the rulebook and teaching the entire game here, I’ll give a quick rules synopsis. You roll 2d6 on your turn and activate cards based on what you roll. Rolled a 3 and a 5? Ok, activate the 3 card. Also the 5 card. So far it sounds just like Machi Koro right? Here’s where it improves on MK. You also activate the 8 card (because 3+5=8). BUT ALSO EVERYONE ELSE ACTIVATES THEIR 3, 5, and 8 CARDS. Then you take two actions, which could be recruiting more citizen cards to activate when rolled, getting resources, defeating monsters, adding buildings to your Dukedom/Duchy. Most VP at the end of the game wins.
Roll dice, activate cards, take actions, win the game. It’s so simple, but yet so so so much fun. The game looks incredible when setup, there are a ton of card areas, monsters, the dice are big and chunky, game play is super fast, and you are always involved – even on your opponents’ turns. What more could you ask for? I’ll tell you: a super positive Purple Phoenix Games score of 22 / 24. It’s my favorite game of all time, after all.
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/valeria-card-kingdoms-review/
DISCLAIMER!! This review is for vanilla Valeria: Card Kingdoms. We have plans to add in the expansions in the near future. Once we do, we will add that information to this review or to a new review and link to it from here. -T
Okay, I have to admit, I Kickstarted Villages of Valeria (VoV) and Quests of Valeria (QoV) before picking up Valeria: Card Kingdoms (VCK). Why? Well, because I was wary of shared universe games at the time, so I tried one: Villages of Valeria. Dude, it’s a great game (review to come). When I Kickstart something I usually tend to go all-in. So I have the good stuff. Same with Quest for Valeria (review to come). I simply missed the boat on the first installment because I was late to the game.
Fast forward to me actually buying the game and trying it out. The mechanics felt very familiar (thanks Machi Koro), and the iconography was very familiar too (thanks VoV and QoV). But VCK excelled and rocked my world so much that I just cannot get enough of it.
Without paraphrasing the rulebook and teaching the entire game here, I’ll give a quick rules synopsis. You roll 2d6 on your turn and activate cards based on what you roll. Rolled a 3 and a 5? Ok, activate the 3 card. Also the 5 card. So far it sounds just like Machi Koro right? Here’s where it improves on MK. You also activate the 8 card (because 3+5=8). BUT ALSO EVERYONE ELSE ACTIVATES THEIR 3, 5, and 8 CARDS. Then you take two actions, which could be recruiting more citizen cards to activate when rolled, getting resources, defeating monsters, adding buildings to your Dukedom/Duchy. Most VP at the end of the game wins.
Roll dice, activate cards, take actions, win the game. It’s so simple, but yet so so so much fun. The game looks incredible when setup, there are a ton of card areas, monsters, the dice are big and chunky, game play is super fast, and you are always involved – even on your opponents’ turns. What more could you ask for? I’ll tell you: a super positive Purple Phoenix Games score of 22 / 24. It’s my favorite game of all time, after all.
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/valeria-card-kingdoms-review/
Parfs (178 KP) rated Mice and Mystics in Tabletop Games
May 21, 2019
Miniature game pieces are amazing (3 more)
Game board tiles art is amazing
Card artwork is amazing
Story is amazing ice a
Epic board game
Mice and Mystics is a phenomenal dungeon based board game which has an awesome story to help drive game play. The fighting mechanism is all down the roll of the dice with opportunity for the attacks to also be blocked by the roll of the dice. You get a chance to search for special equipment as well to help your missions. If you want a game that is going to keep you occupied for hours and can be played between 1 and 4 people it is one that needs to be purchased. This will not let you down in any way.
Glory to Rome
7.0
Rate It
Tabletop Game
In 64 A.D., a great fire originating from the slums of Rome quickly spreads to destroy much of the...
BoardGames CardGames MultiuseCards RomeGames
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Baseball Highlights: 2045 in Tabletop Games
Jul 6, 2019
It’s 2045. Baseball has bored everyone to death (NOT my opinion – GO CUBS GO!). So Big Baseball has turned to employing robots and players have begun to improve their game by adding cybernetic body parts to themselves. This is the future in which I want to live. Editorializing aside, only the best and most exciting players can make in the new bigs. Will your team of Naturals, Cyborgs, and Robots claim victory, or will your players be bound for the minors – or worse, the scrap heap?
Baseball Highlights: 2045 is a dueling card game with an interesting twist. It uses elements of card drafting, hand management, take that, and deck building to weave a satisfying experience that can be enjoyed by baseball fans and non-fans. I will not go into explaining the entire rulebook here, but I do want to touch on some items that turn this into something more than your run-of-the-mill deck builder.
DISCLAIMER: This game has quite a few mini expansions. While we do have all the expansions in our collection, we will only be reviewing the base game (though I am sure there are some promo cards in my “base game”). Should we decide to review the expansions in the future, we will add it here or link to the full review. -T
Each player begins the game with a deck of starter players belonging to a generic team (Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, etc). Each card has a combination of immediate actions, threatened base hits, pawn movement speed, and costs printed on them. By playing a card from your hand on your turn you will threaten a hit, cancel your opponent’s hit(s), and/or attempt to score your runners home. Here’s the twist. The Visitor player will play the first card and potentially threaten a hit. Play then stops and it is the Home player’s turn to try to affect the threatened hit(s) using a card from their hand. If they can cancel the hit, then the Visitor player’s plans are dashed and play returns to them to try to cancel the Home player’s now-threatened hits. This back and forth using different portions of each card is a little awkward to get used to, but after you get the hang of it, becomes a very cool little variation on the simplistic card value comparisons found in WAR.
After you play through your hand of cards and determine the mini-game winner, a phase of the game to draft “free agents” allows players to use icons on the cards to purchase stronger cards from the offer row. If the alternating play of the main game had your head spinning then deciding which of your teammates to replace with free agents will definitely cause some anxiety. But this is how your team improves. Do you get rid of the player that threatens Home Runs but provides you with zero purchasing power or do you oust him to the minors to call up Kris Correa? These are important decisions, coach!
Components. This game is basically a card duel game with player mats and tracking tokens that are completely unnecessary (but very nice). The cards are great quality! The individual player mats are a great place to organize your game cards and components. The pawns are just red, white, and blue wooden pawns. Nothing special there, but the colors are important and symbolize how fast the baserunners are. The components are great, and the insert is functional, so that’s a huge bonus for me.
Is the game good? Quite. I love the back and forth. I LOVE the baseball theme. I love the deck building aspect. I love being able to use this game as a tournament game, though I haven’t yet played it that way. Maybe soon! In any case, this is an excellent game and definitely worth taking a look at and trying for yourself. We at Purple Phoenix Games give this one an over the fence bomb of 9 / 12 (with special guest scorer Tony – I think Josh will like it, but I’m unsure if Bryan will).
Baseball Highlights: 2045 is a dueling card game with an interesting twist. It uses elements of card drafting, hand management, take that, and deck building to weave a satisfying experience that can be enjoyed by baseball fans and non-fans. I will not go into explaining the entire rulebook here, but I do want to touch on some items that turn this into something more than your run-of-the-mill deck builder.
DISCLAIMER: This game has quite a few mini expansions. While we do have all the expansions in our collection, we will only be reviewing the base game (though I am sure there are some promo cards in my “base game”). Should we decide to review the expansions in the future, we will add it here or link to the full review. -T
Each player begins the game with a deck of starter players belonging to a generic team (Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, etc). Each card has a combination of immediate actions, threatened base hits, pawn movement speed, and costs printed on them. By playing a card from your hand on your turn you will threaten a hit, cancel your opponent’s hit(s), and/or attempt to score your runners home. Here’s the twist. The Visitor player will play the first card and potentially threaten a hit. Play then stops and it is the Home player’s turn to try to affect the threatened hit(s) using a card from their hand. If they can cancel the hit, then the Visitor player’s plans are dashed and play returns to them to try to cancel the Home player’s now-threatened hits. This back and forth using different portions of each card is a little awkward to get used to, but after you get the hang of it, becomes a very cool little variation on the simplistic card value comparisons found in WAR.
After you play through your hand of cards and determine the mini-game winner, a phase of the game to draft “free agents” allows players to use icons on the cards to purchase stronger cards from the offer row. If the alternating play of the main game had your head spinning then deciding which of your teammates to replace with free agents will definitely cause some anxiety. But this is how your team improves. Do you get rid of the player that threatens Home Runs but provides you with zero purchasing power or do you oust him to the minors to call up Kris Correa? These are important decisions, coach!
Components. This game is basically a card duel game with player mats and tracking tokens that are completely unnecessary (but very nice). The cards are great quality! The individual player mats are a great place to organize your game cards and components. The pawns are just red, white, and blue wooden pawns. Nothing special there, but the colors are important and symbolize how fast the baserunners are. The components are great, and the insert is functional, so that’s a huge bonus for me.
Is the game good? Quite. I love the back and forth. I LOVE the baseball theme. I love the deck building aspect. I love being able to use this game as a tournament game, though I haven’t yet played it that way. Maybe soon! In any case, this is an excellent game and definitely worth taking a look at and trying for yourself. We at Purple Phoenix Games give this one an over the fence bomb of 9 / 12 (with special guest scorer Tony – I think Josh will like it, but I’m unsure if Bryan will).
Lightseekers
7.0
Rate It
Tabletop Game Watch
Each player in the trading card game takes control of a hero who uses an arsenal of cards featuring...
Circus Puppy
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The most popular circus in Animal City- Circus Puppy is going to perform. There are different types...
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Love Letter
8.2
Rate It
Tabletop Game
All of the eligible young men (and many of the not-so-young) seek to woo the princess of Tempest....
Carrie Leah (2 KP) rated Rising Sun in Tabletop Games
Jun 17, 2018
Colorful, beautiful art (5 more)
Clear rulebook
Quick reference card for each phase
Easy to moderate difficulty to learn
Best for 4 players
2 player variant
Beautiful game with excellent gameplay
If you've played and liked another CMON game, Blood Rage, you'll love this game! The object of the game is to win with the most points, but the path to claim that victory is completely up to the player. Make alliances and collect favor from the gods, wield your might in battle for a region at the end of each season, or spend your power wisely to collect rewards and boost your score. Always a favorite at game day!
Akward (448 KP) rated Citadels in Tabletop Games
Jul 26, 2018
Variable player roles (1 more)
Easy to learn
Citadels is a great game, if you have friends that move quickly. In that case, you can get a game in in about 45 minutes. If you have a few slow players, the card drafting will result in a lot of downtime and a 2 hour game.
Every round, players draft a new role for that round, which keeps the gameplay fresh. The roles have vastly different playstyles, and there are quite a few of them in the base game.
The game supports 8 people, but I will say that it is best with 4. Once you start adding more players, you end up having more downtime.
Every round, players draft a new role for that round, which keeps the gameplay fresh. The roles have vastly different playstyles, and there are quite a few of them in the base game.
The game supports 8 people, but I will say that it is best with 4. Once you start adding more players, you end up having more downtime.