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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Abyss in Tabletop Games
Aug 5, 2021
I am not a great swimmer. For several years of my life I would avoid water at all costs. I have since grown to love it, but would still freak out a bit if a crab came towards me. I’m kind of a baby like that. I do so love underwater scenes and the wildlife, so I was bound to enjoy Abyss. Throw in some of the most amazing artwork in all of gaming and you have a hit, right?
Abyss is a push your luck, set collection, hand management, fantasy card drafting game for two to four players. In it players are attempting to gain the most Influence Points to rule the underwater kingdom by recruiting allies and Lords, and controlling locations. The game ends once a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled.
To setup, lay out the board, shuffle the Exploration cards (starfish backs) and place in the upper left corner. Shuffle the Lord cards (trident backs) and place the deck in the lower left corner. Reveal Lords to each of the spaces drawn to the right of the deck. This is the Court. Shuffle the Monster tokens and place in a messy pile near the board. Next to these place all the Key tokens. Display the Threat Tracker board with the Threat token on the first space. Shuffle the Location tiles into a stack and reveal the first one. Give each player a pearl in a shell cup and the game is ready to begin!
On a player’s turn they will follow the basic structure of Plotting at Court (by spending pearls to reveal more Lords), Taking One Action (by Exploring the Depths, Requesting Support from the Council, or Recruiting a Lord), and Controlling a Location.
Plotting at Court is simply paying pearls to reveal more Lords at Court.
The action choices begin with Exploring the Depths. This is the push your luck portion of the game where players will reveal cards from the top of the Exploration deck one by one, offer the card to their opponents for purchase (payable to the active player in pearls), and then deciding to continue or take into hand. These cards include members of five allied races of underwater species numbered in strength from one to five and monsters. Fighting monsters is an auto-win and the spoils are what is reflected on the Threat Tracker. If players decide to pass, they will move the Threat token down by one level and improve the treasure won when destroying a monster. Any allies that are undrafted will be sorted by family and placed on the appropriate space on the board.
To Request Support from the Council players will take the entire stack from one family on the board. Again, these are made up of the cards that were undrafted from previous Exploring the Depths actions.
Finally, Recruiting a Lord players will be spending their Exploration cards to combine strength values and family types to appease the Lords they wish to recruit. Players will analyze the strength needed on the bottom left of the Lord card along with the number and color of bubbles above the strength number to determine from which families cards will need to be paid. Lords will have special powers that can be used throughout the game until you use them to Control Locations.
Lords and monster tokens afford players keys, and once players accumulate three keys they MUST Control a Location. To Control a Location players will draft a face-up Location tile or draw one to four tiles and draft one of them. Also, players will sacrifice their Lords (and their special powers) to, well, lord over Locations as super powerful property managers. This is done by covering up the special Lord powers with the Location tiles.
Play continues in this fashion of quick turns until a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled during a Plot at Court action.
Components. As I mentioned in my open, Abyss boasts some of the most magnificent art ever to grace a board game. The aesthetic coupled with the theme makes for a gorgeous game on the table. The cardboard is all good quality and thick, the cards are good quality as well. The black plastic shells and pearls they hold are so nice to play with and I find myself rolling those pearls as fast as I can within the shells and inevitably spilling them everywhere.
The game play is also quite solid. I like drafting games quite a bit and this delivers a lot of drafting in different locations. You draft Exploration cards and Location tiles to beef up your mini empire. Using the Lords as special power cards but having to cover them up to help control a Location is a clever mechanic and helps with any sort of runaway leader issue. I did not touch on a couple rules because they can be a little confusing to new players (ie the affiliation of allies), but even new gamers can appreciate what Abyss does and how beautifully it accomplishes its task.
I cannot overstate how gorgeous this game is and how much I enjoy being able to pull it off the shelf and set it up to people who have never seen it. I mean, even just the box cover, which is a giant face and no text, is very impressive and helps set the tone for the dark but interesting experiences held within. Purple Phoenix Games gives Abyss a boding 14 / 18. Pick it up, post a picture of which box cover you received, and tag us in the post so we can compare.
Abyss is a push your luck, set collection, hand management, fantasy card drafting game for two to four players. In it players are attempting to gain the most Influence Points to rule the underwater kingdom by recruiting allies and Lords, and controlling locations. The game ends once a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled.
To setup, lay out the board, shuffle the Exploration cards (starfish backs) and place in the upper left corner. Shuffle the Lord cards (trident backs) and place the deck in the lower left corner. Reveal Lords to each of the spaces drawn to the right of the deck. This is the Court. Shuffle the Monster tokens and place in a messy pile near the board. Next to these place all the Key tokens. Display the Threat Tracker board with the Threat token on the first space. Shuffle the Location tiles into a stack and reveal the first one. Give each player a pearl in a shell cup and the game is ready to begin!
On a player’s turn they will follow the basic structure of Plotting at Court (by spending pearls to reveal more Lords), Taking One Action (by Exploring the Depths, Requesting Support from the Council, or Recruiting a Lord), and Controlling a Location.
Plotting at Court is simply paying pearls to reveal more Lords at Court.
The action choices begin with Exploring the Depths. This is the push your luck portion of the game where players will reveal cards from the top of the Exploration deck one by one, offer the card to their opponents for purchase (payable to the active player in pearls), and then deciding to continue or take into hand. These cards include members of five allied races of underwater species numbered in strength from one to five and monsters. Fighting monsters is an auto-win and the spoils are what is reflected on the Threat Tracker. If players decide to pass, they will move the Threat token down by one level and improve the treasure won when destroying a monster. Any allies that are undrafted will be sorted by family and placed on the appropriate space on the board.
To Request Support from the Council players will take the entire stack from one family on the board. Again, these are made up of the cards that were undrafted from previous Exploring the Depths actions.
Finally, Recruiting a Lord players will be spending their Exploration cards to combine strength values and family types to appease the Lords they wish to recruit. Players will analyze the strength needed on the bottom left of the Lord card along with the number and color of bubbles above the strength number to determine from which families cards will need to be paid. Lords will have special powers that can be used throughout the game until you use them to Control Locations.
Lords and monster tokens afford players keys, and once players accumulate three keys they MUST Control a Location. To Control a Location players will draft a face-up Location tile or draw one to four tiles and draft one of them. Also, players will sacrifice their Lords (and their special powers) to, well, lord over Locations as super powerful property managers. This is done by covering up the special Lord powers with the Location tiles.
Play continues in this fashion of quick turns until a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled during a Plot at Court action.
Components. As I mentioned in my open, Abyss boasts some of the most magnificent art ever to grace a board game. The aesthetic coupled with the theme makes for a gorgeous game on the table. The cardboard is all good quality and thick, the cards are good quality as well. The black plastic shells and pearls they hold are so nice to play with and I find myself rolling those pearls as fast as I can within the shells and inevitably spilling them everywhere.
The game play is also quite solid. I like drafting games quite a bit and this delivers a lot of drafting in different locations. You draft Exploration cards and Location tiles to beef up your mini empire. Using the Lords as special power cards but having to cover them up to help control a Location is a clever mechanic and helps with any sort of runaway leader issue. I did not touch on a couple rules because they can be a little confusing to new players (ie the affiliation of allies), but even new gamers can appreciate what Abyss does and how beautifully it accomplishes its task.
I cannot overstate how gorgeous this game is and how much I enjoy being able to pull it off the shelf and set it up to people who have never seen it. I mean, even just the box cover, which is a giant face and no text, is very impressive and helps set the tone for the dark but interesting experiences held within. Purple Phoenix Games gives Abyss a boding 14 / 18. Pick it up, post a picture of which box cover you received, and tag us in the post so we can compare.
Red Otter (340 KP) rated Mystic Vale: Conclave in Tabletop Games
May 30, 2019
Mystic Vale: Conclave is a good expansion if you have multiple other expansions for Mystic Vale already. It is at first a giant box/organizer that lets you organise multiple expansions. It also comes with additional decks for more people (or if you like the colors purple and white instead). It adds 8 new cards called totems that are in your play area from the start of the game. I did not like these too much as they sped up the game too much in my opinion and seemed unbalanced. The best part of this expansion in my opinion were the Conclaves. These are cards with advancements and vales from the expansions printed on them. By picking 6 of them randomly, you can allow for a more focused game and actually see multiples of some card types. Especially at smaller player counts when your level 1 advancement deck is more limited.
Tom G-Lewis (7 KP) rated Kingdomino in Tabletop Games
Jul 20, 2019
Went into my local game shop, explained I was goiyaway with the family and all we ever do in the evening is play the same 2 games of cards and I wanted to liven things up without frightening them with modern technology! This is what the guy recommended and it worked a treat. My mother has asked me to bring it over every time I visit. So long as you have 15-20 minutes to brush up on how the "dealer" role works the game moves at a good pace and no one feels like they are getting a bad deal as the game is easy to understand and those with poorer cards are compensated in the next turn.
Would highly recommend if going away or staying with young family to break the monotony.
Would highly recommend if going away or staying with young family to break the monotony.
Peter Shephard (2822 KP) rated Love Letter in Tabletop Games
Jul 25, 2019
Nice, simple game
Love Letter is one of those games which is so simple to learn, but can be extremely difficult to master - it is entirely possible for a first time player to win against a player who has played it dozens of times, because there are no tactics as such.
From the deck of cards, one is removed. Everyone is dealt a card. The first player draws a card, and plays a card, completing the action stated. The next player then does the same. Simple enough.
As there is only a finite amount of cards, and one has been removed, you never know exactly what is in play, or what is missing. You might have a Prince in you hand, but is another Prince about to be played, or has one been removed from the deck?
As I say, it is a very, very simple game, but also very enjoyable.
From the deck of cards, one is removed. Everyone is dealt a card. The first player draws a card, and plays a card, completing the action stated. The next player then does the same. Simple enough.
As there is only a finite amount of cards, and one has been removed, you never know exactly what is in play, or what is missing. You might have a Prince in you hand, but is another Prince about to be played, or has one been removed from the deck?
As I say, it is a very, very simple game, but also very enjoyable.
Chloe (778 KP) rated Dobble - Harry Potter version in Tabletop Games
Apr 24, 2020
Simple (4 more)
Easy to pick up
Fun
Fast-paced
Addictive
Like advanced snap
I received this as part of a smashbomb competition!
The game has 5 different mini games which are all very fun. Each card has several different characters or objects on it and these have to be matched with various paired cards.
The game is very easy to pick up with simple instructions for all the mini games. It would suit all types of people/family members even those without prior Harry Potter knowledge. The different icons are depicted within the instructions with names.
We spent quite some time playing this game eventhough each game is fairly short. Its addictive and much harder than the description sounds.
Sometimes you have the flow of things and blast through several pairs. Other times you are stumped and cant pick out any difference between the cards.
The game has 5 different mini games which are all very fun. Each card has several different characters or objects on it and these have to be matched with various paired cards.
The game is very easy to pick up with simple instructions for all the mini games. It would suit all types of people/family members even those without prior Harry Potter knowledge. The different icons are depicted within the instructions with names.
We spent quite some time playing this game eventhough each game is fairly short. Its addictive and much harder than the description sounds.
Sometimes you have the flow of things and blast through several pairs. Other times you are stumped and cant pick out any difference between the cards.
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