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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated The Imposter Kings in Tabletop Games
May 1, 2021
If there is one thing that I love about board gaming, it’s strategy. Planning out and executing a long-term plan, only to have your opponents throw a wrench in it, thus forcing you to re-strategize on the spot? That’s my JAM. So when I heard about The Imposter Kings, I knew it was right up my alley. After getting to play it, did it live up to my expectations? Or is it an imposter that doesn’t hold up? Keep reading to find out!
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. -L
The Imposter Kings is a card game for 2-4 players in which players are attempting to gain and maintain control of the throne, accumulating a total of 7 points to win the game. There are some slight rules variations between 2-, 3-, and 4-player games, but the overall gameplay is the same. This review will focus on the 2-player rules. To setup for the game, assemble the deck as described in the rules for your chosen player count. In a 2-player game, the deck is comprised of 18 cards. Each player is given a King card, and one player’s will be the True King. The True King merely determines the first player for the round. Shuffle the deck and deal 8 cards to each player. There will be 2 cards leftover, and those will go into the center of the play area, one face-up and one face-down. This lets the players know which card is not in either players hand, as well as a random unknown card in neither players’ hand. Each player will select a card from their hand to be their Successor, and will place it face-down next to their King, and they will also select one card from their hand to discard face-down. The game is now ready to begin!
On your turn, you will play any card from your hand to the Court (play area) that is of an equal or higher value than the card played previously. The last-played card to the Court is considered to be on the Throne. All cards in Imposter Kings are numbered 1-9, and each card has an associated special ability. Once you play a card to the Court, you may/must use the ability (if optional/mandatory). These special abilities can alter the Court and gameplay by Disgracing cards (flipping them face-down to ‘reset’ the number line), swapping cards with other players, playing a lower-numbered card on top of a higher number etc. The round continues in this fashion, with players alternating, until one player is no longer able to play a card to the Court. That player loses the round, and the winning player receives a number of points, depending on certain aspects. The deck is reshuffled, the True King is passed to the loser of the round, and a new round commences. The first player to reach 7 points is the ultimate winner!
That details the basics of the gameplay, but there are a few special things to keep in mind. Certain cards will force players to play a card to their Antechamber – face-up in front of them. If ever you have a card in your Antechamber at the beginning of a turn, you must play it to the Court, regardless of its value. This can be a good strategic way to trap your opponent into playing a specific card on their next turn! Sometimes a card will need to be Condemned – it is then placed face-down in front of you, and then removed from play on your next turn. Another good way to eat up an opponent’s turn! If you ever get to a point in the round when you are unable to play a card to the Court, you may choose to use your King power – it allows you to flip your King over to Disgrace the card currently on the Throne, and take your Successor into your hand (hopefully giving you a chance to keep playing in the round!). However, there is an Assassin card in the game!! If you have the Assassin, you can reveal it when your opponent decides to use their King – thus assassinating them and immediately winning the round. Lots of tricksy ways to make sure you end up on the Throne!
So all in all, how does The Imposter Kings hold up? Fairly well, actually. For being a simple and relatively fast card game, there is a lot of strategy required for success. You have to decide which cards/powers to use when, while also trying to deduce what your opponent has in their hand. Can you trap them and force the round to end? Or have they kept a dark horse in hand for just this situation? There is a lot more to The Imposter Kings than meets the eye, and that makes it a fun challenge. The first time I played this game, it reminded me of a similar game by ButtonShy titled Hierarchy. The concept and gameplay are similar, but the biggest difference is that The Imposter Kings can be played with 3 and 4 players. That adds another element of strategy/chaos to the game, as there are more cards to deduce, more opportunities for the Court to change between your turns, and just more strategy in general. Hierarchy is strictly a 2-player game, but The Imposter Kings allows you to play with more people. With higher player counts, new and unique cards are added to the starting deck, offering even more abilities and strategic options for play. The gameplay scales with player count, and that keeps it engaging.
Let me touch on components for a minute. This is a retail version of the game, and the production quality is very nice! The game comes in a nice small box, and the deck of cards is sturdy in hand. The artwork is interesting, the text is clear, and the cards are color-coded based on their value. The coloring really helps with quick visual identification of what cards are in play. The game also comes with some reference cards for the various abilities, and those were much appreciated. The rulebook had a couple of areas of ambiguity, but watching the videos on the BGG page for The Imposter Kings helped answer any questions I might have had. All in all, good production quality!
So as you can probably tell from this review, I generally like The Imposter Kings. The gameplay is strategic, engaging, and its 3-4 player variants offer some unique twists that the 2-player just cannot handle. This is a game that I can see myself bringing out when I have newer gamers at my table. The gameplay is simple, yet strategic, and it is not overwhelming to learn or play. It definitely makes players think, and even now I’m thinking about what strategy I might try next game. If you are looking for something relatively simple, yet surprisingly strategic, consider checking out The Imposter Kings. Purple Phoenix Games gives it a royal 8 / 12.
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. -L
The Imposter Kings is a card game for 2-4 players in which players are attempting to gain and maintain control of the throne, accumulating a total of 7 points to win the game. There are some slight rules variations between 2-, 3-, and 4-player games, but the overall gameplay is the same. This review will focus on the 2-player rules. To setup for the game, assemble the deck as described in the rules for your chosen player count. In a 2-player game, the deck is comprised of 18 cards. Each player is given a King card, and one player’s will be the True King. The True King merely determines the first player for the round. Shuffle the deck and deal 8 cards to each player. There will be 2 cards leftover, and those will go into the center of the play area, one face-up and one face-down. This lets the players know which card is not in either players hand, as well as a random unknown card in neither players’ hand. Each player will select a card from their hand to be their Successor, and will place it face-down next to their King, and they will also select one card from their hand to discard face-down. The game is now ready to begin!
On your turn, you will play any card from your hand to the Court (play area) that is of an equal or higher value than the card played previously. The last-played card to the Court is considered to be on the Throne. All cards in Imposter Kings are numbered 1-9, and each card has an associated special ability. Once you play a card to the Court, you may/must use the ability (if optional/mandatory). These special abilities can alter the Court and gameplay by Disgracing cards (flipping them face-down to ‘reset’ the number line), swapping cards with other players, playing a lower-numbered card on top of a higher number etc. The round continues in this fashion, with players alternating, until one player is no longer able to play a card to the Court. That player loses the round, and the winning player receives a number of points, depending on certain aspects. The deck is reshuffled, the True King is passed to the loser of the round, and a new round commences. The first player to reach 7 points is the ultimate winner!
That details the basics of the gameplay, but there are a few special things to keep in mind. Certain cards will force players to play a card to their Antechamber – face-up in front of them. If ever you have a card in your Antechamber at the beginning of a turn, you must play it to the Court, regardless of its value. This can be a good strategic way to trap your opponent into playing a specific card on their next turn! Sometimes a card will need to be Condemned – it is then placed face-down in front of you, and then removed from play on your next turn. Another good way to eat up an opponent’s turn! If you ever get to a point in the round when you are unable to play a card to the Court, you may choose to use your King power – it allows you to flip your King over to Disgrace the card currently on the Throne, and take your Successor into your hand (hopefully giving you a chance to keep playing in the round!). However, there is an Assassin card in the game!! If you have the Assassin, you can reveal it when your opponent decides to use their King – thus assassinating them and immediately winning the round. Lots of tricksy ways to make sure you end up on the Throne!
So all in all, how does The Imposter Kings hold up? Fairly well, actually. For being a simple and relatively fast card game, there is a lot of strategy required for success. You have to decide which cards/powers to use when, while also trying to deduce what your opponent has in their hand. Can you trap them and force the round to end? Or have they kept a dark horse in hand for just this situation? There is a lot more to The Imposter Kings than meets the eye, and that makes it a fun challenge. The first time I played this game, it reminded me of a similar game by ButtonShy titled Hierarchy. The concept and gameplay are similar, but the biggest difference is that The Imposter Kings can be played with 3 and 4 players. That adds another element of strategy/chaos to the game, as there are more cards to deduce, more opportunities for the Court to change between your turns, and just more strategy in general. Hierarchy is strictly a 2-player game, but The Imposter Kings allows you to play with more people. With higher player counts, new and unique cards are added to the starting deck, offering even more abilities and strategic options for play. The gameplay scales with player count, and that keeps it engaging.
Let me touch on components for a minute. This is a retail version of the game, and the production quality is very nice! The game comes in a nice small box, and the deck of cards is sturdy in hand. The artwork is interesting, the text is clear, and the cards are color-coded based on their value. The coloring really helps with quick visual identification of what cards are in play. The game also comes with some reference cards for the various abilities, and those were much appreciated. The rulebook had a couple of areas of ambiguity, but watching the videos on the BGG page for The Imposter Kings helped answer any questions I might have had. All in all, good production quality!
So as you can probably tell from this review, I generally like The Imposter Kings. The gameplay is strategic, engaging, and its 3-4 player variants offer some unique twists that the 2-player just cannot handle. This is a game that I can see myself bringing out when I have newer gamers at my table. The gameplay is simple, yet strategic, and it is not overwhelming to learn or play. It definitely makes players think, and even now I’m thinking about what strategy I might try next game. If you are looking for something relatively simple, yet surprisingly strategic, consider checking out The Imposter Kings. Purple Phoenix Games gives it a royal 8 / 12.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Ghoulash: The Game of Card Calamity in Tabletop Games
Sep 3, 2019
Ghoulash! I cannot say that word without using a Dracula-esque accent nor without my tummy grumbling (goulash is a yummy traditional Hungarian dish). Anyway, lunch time hangriness aside, Ghoulash is not a new game. In fact, the original version of Ghoulash was released in 2001 under Ghoulash Games. It is a pen-and-paper dungeon crawler for 2 players that we are reviewing as well. This game we are reviewing here is a card version prototype. So how does it play?
In Ghoulash: The Game of Card Calamity (which I will shorten to Ghoulash for the purpose of this review – even though there is the OG Ghoulash as well, I think you know what I’m talking about) players are Ghoul hunters. Ghouls are monstrous green blobsters that are coming for you. You fight them by shooting Ghoo, a purply substance, at them to exploit their weak spots and vanquish them. The first Ghoul hunter to reach 10 Victory Points (VPs) will be crowned the winner!
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. As this is a preview copy of the game, I do not know if the final rules or components will be similar or different to what we were provided. -T
To setup the game, shuffle the deck and place a 6×3 grid of cards in the middle of the table. This is the “floor” and will be the game board for the duration of the game. When the floor is out of cards (I will explain), set out a new 6×3 grid floor and continue play. Deal each hunter a hand of seven cards and you are ready to play!
Each of the face down cards that comprise the floor are opportunities for encounters. You, as a Ghoul hunter, will enter the floor from any border card. On your turn you may fill your hand up to your current hand limit – which changes based on whether you have taken wounds or not. Next you must move orthogonally onto a space that contains a card or an empty space, but you must move – or take your Action first, THEN move. If you move to a space with a card, you encounter the card. Depending on what type of card is flipped face up you will be taking cards into your hand, following Command instructions, or fighting Ghouls. When you have finished your turn it is the next hunter’s turn.
Should your flipped card reveal an Action or Special card, you simply collect the card into your hand. If the flipped card is an Battle card (which has Ghoo splats – like the ones pictured above on the far right), you must follow the Command instructions at the bottom of the card before collecting to your hand. And if it’s a Ghoul you will begin battle!
Battling Ghouls is mechanically simple, but the overall battle may not be. When you face a Ghoul its card will tell you what the strength of the monster is (the white number). It could have four, five, or six hit points (HPs). To vanquish the Ghoul you will need to play cards whose Ghoo value (splats) is equal to or greater than the Ghoul’s HP amount. From this point the other hunters can intervene in the battle by playing cards whose battle Ghoo tips the scales toward the Ghoul thus making it more difficult to defeat (a la the ganging up mechanic in Munchkin). As only one hunter may affect the battle in this way, it is the player’s cards whose strength is greater that wins the challenge. Now the original combatant must spend more Ghoo cards to overcome the super-buffed Ghoul. Should the hunter prevail they will collect the Ghoul card and display it in front of them to show the table how many VPs they have earned. If the hunter is unsuccessful in the battle, they suffer wounds in the amount of VPs that would have been awarded with a successful battle (the green dots at the bottom of the card). Wounds are reflected by cards in hand, so if a hunter suffers two wounds, their hand limit is now five instead of the original seven. Play continues in this fashion until a hunter has accumulated 10 VPs and earned victory!
Components. Per my disclaimer, the game that was sent to us is a prototype version of the completed game, so components may (and probably will) change or be improved as a result of further development, and/or a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, I can comment only on the components that were provided to us. The game is a deck of cards in a deck box. The cards themselves are of fine quality. The art upon them is okay. Nothing too stellar, but it gets the job done. I think the art is one thing that can be improved with development. Don’t get me wrong, the art is not at all bad. Perhaps it’s the card layout or graphic design. Something with a bit more punch would be appreciated.
Our thoughts on this one are that it needs some sprucing up a bit. Yes, it is in prototype format currently, and we know that. The card design needs to be updated a bit, but the game itself was also lacking a bit. One of the major concerns we had when playing through it was the card grid of the floor. We did not use any sort of player marker, token, meeple, or anything to mark our locations, and I really think that may have helped. We just had a hard time visualizing where our hunter was in relation to the face-down cards and how many turns it would take us to travel to them. There were several times where we just guessed as to who was actually closer and they were able to encounter the card. I am unsure how to fix that without supplying a grid or some sort of tracker. We should have maybe just played with meeples or dice for position markers. Oh heck I just thought of this: we could have also placed out dice or whatever on an x and y axis to denote where floor cards should be. Ugh. Battles were run somewhat smoothly, even though there were times where I was down to one card because I had suffered so many wounds and I could not get a First-Aid Kit to save my life (literally). The battle challenges did not work with us and we were trying to find a good way to make them happen, but our minds must not have been at their peak. We weren’t quite sure if, like in Munchkin, you could just add one card to your challenge total, or if you had to commit the entire bunch of cards you wish to play. It is not clear in the rules, so we went with our guts.
Overall, this could be a good dungeon crawler type card game. The theme is good, but for us it didn’t quite click…yet. If it sounds like something you would like to have in your collection, check Kickstarter for the campaign (if Ghoulash Games decides to crowd-fund this), contact the publisher directly, or (depending on date you read this) purchase from your FLGS. Oh, and keep the Ghoo Gone away – this time Ghoo is good for your health!
In Ghoulash: The Game of Card Calamity (which I will shorten to Ghoulash for the purpose of this review – even though there is the OG Ghoulash as well, I think you know what I’m talking about) players are Ghoul hunters. Ghouls are monstrous green blobsters that are coming for you. You fight them by shooting Ghoo, a purply substance, at them to exploit their weak spots and vanquish them. The first Ghoul hunter to reach 10 Victory Points (VPs) will be crowned the winner!
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. As this is a preview copy of the game, I do not know if the final rules or components will be similar or different to what we were provided. -T
To setup the game, shuffle the deck and place a 6×3 grid of cards in the middle of the table. This is the “floor” and will be the game board for the duration of the game. When the floor is out of cards (I will explain), set out a new 6×3 grid floor and continue play. Deal each hunter a hand of seven cards and you are ready to play!
Each of the face down cards that comprise the floor are opportunities for encounters. You, as a Ghoul hunter, will enter the floor from any border card. On your turn you may fill your hand up to your current hand limit – which changes based on whether you have taken wounds or not. Next you must move orthogonally onto a space that contains a card or an empty space, but you must move – or take your Action first, THEN move. If you move to a space with a card, you encounter the card. Depending on what type of card is flipped face up you will be taking cards into your hand, following Command instructions, or fighting Ghouls. When you have finished your turn it is the next hunter’s turn.
Should your flipped card reveal an Action or Special card, you simply collect the card into your hand. If the flipped card is an Battle card (which has Ghoo splats – like the ones pictured above on the far right), you must follow the Command instructions at the bottom of the card before collecting to your hand. And if it’s a Ghoul you will begin battle!
Battling Ghouls is mechanically simple, but the overall battle may not be. When you face a Ghoul its card will tell you what the strength of the monster is (the white number). It could have four, five, or six hit points (HPs). To vanquish the Ghoul you will need to play cards whose Ghoo value (splats) is equal to or greater than the Ghoul’s HP amount. From this point the other hunters can intervene in the battle by playing cards whose battle Ghoo tips the scales toward the Ghoul thus making it more difficult to defeat (a la the ganging up mechanic in Munchkin). As only one hunter may affect the battle in this way, it is the player’s cards whose strength is greater that wins the challenge. Now the original combatant must spend more Ghoo cards to overcome the super-buffed Ghoul. Should the hunter prevail they will collect the Ghoul card and display it in front of them to show the table how many VPs they have earned. If the hunter is unsuccessful in the battle, they suffer wounds in the amount of VPs that would have been awarded with a successful battle (the green dots at the bottom of the card). Wounds are reflected by cards in hand, so if a hunter suffers two wounds, their hand limit is now five instead of the original seven. Play continues in this fashion until a hunter has accumulated 10 VPs and earned victory!
Components. Per my disclaimer, the game that was sent to us is a prototype version of the completed game, so components may (and probably will) change or be improved as a result of further development, and/or a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, I can comment only on the components that were provided to us. The game is a deck of cards in a deck box. The cards themselves are of fine quality. The art upon them is okay. Nothing too stellar, but it gets the job done. I think the art is one thing that can be improved with development. Don’t get me wrong, the art is not at all bad. Perhaps it’s the card layout or graphic design. Something with a bit more punch would be appreciated.
Our thoughts on this one are that it needs some sprucing up a bit. Yes, it is in prototype format currently, and we know that. The card design needs to be updated a bit, but the game itself was also lacking a bit. One of the major concerns we had when playing through it was the card grid of the floor. We did not use any sort of player marker, token, meeple, or anything to mark our locations, and I really think that may have helped. We just had a hard time visualizing where our hunter was in relation to the face-down cards and how many turns it would take us to travel to them. There were several times where we just guessed as to who was actually closer and they were able to encounter the card. I am unsure how to fix that without supplying a grid or some sort of tracker. We should have maybe just played with meeples or dice for position markers. Oh heck I just thought of this: we could have also placed out dice or whatever on an x and y axis to denote where floor cards should be. Ugh. Battles were run somewhat smoothly, even though there were times where I was down to one card because I had suffered so many wounds and I could not get a First-Aid Kit to save my life (literally). The battle challenges did not work with us and we were trying to find a good way to make them happen, but our minds must not have been at their peak. We weren’t quite sure if, like in Munchkin, you could just add one card to your challenge total, or if you had to commit the entire bunch of cards you wish to play. It is not clear in the rules, so we went with our guts.
Overall, this could be a good dungeon crawler type card game. The theme is good, but for us it didn’t quite click…yet. If it sounds like something you would like to have in your collection, check Kickstarter for the campaign (if Ghoulash Games decides to crowd-fund this), contact the publisher directly, or (depending on date you read this) purchase from your FLGS. Oh, and keep the Ghoo Gone away – this time Ghoo is good for your health!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Bellum Magica in Tabletop Games
Jan 1, 2022
One of the many recent trends in board games has been that of playing as the villains in the game’s lore. One of the bigger games that I remember employing this little shift is Legendary: Marvel Villains, and another that I truly enjoy is Disney Villainous. There is just something about playing as the bad guys in a game that is designed for the bad guys to finally win. Enter Bellum Magica, a game that I didn’t even realize existed until it arrived on my door step from Blue Orange Games. I wonder, will this one find its way into my collection permanently?
Bellum Magica is a medieval fantasy engine building game for two to five players. In it, players are evil lords waging war on a local village and each other in an attempt to becoming the richest lord of all. The winner is the player who earns the most VP from treasure chests looted during the game.
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, each player chooses a castle board and is randomly dealt two goblin cards to be added to the castle. These goblin cards have icons on the left and the right of the main character art, and will slide beneath the main castle board on either side to activate their icons for the duration. Next, the human kingdom (that will inevitably be attacked by players) is setup per number of players and placed on the table. The two different creature decks are shuffled and two cards from each pile are revealed. The other tokens are placed in the insert “token reserves” and are available to all. The first player takes the die and is known as the Captain. The game is now setup and ready to begin!
Each turn consists of six phases and, luckily, the game comes with a couple player aids to remind players of the order. First, the Captain rolls the die to Choose an active horde. Whichever result is rolled will then activate the corresponding line on the castle board, with all icons activating during the turn. If a player is unsatisfied with the rolled result, they may discard a barrel token in order to buy a round of drinks for the Captain, forcing them to re-roll the die. The Captain may also discard a Confusion Spell token in order to re-roll the die as well. These items are earned later in the game from different actions. Next, all players Gather resources (collect items) shown on the line that is activated on their castle board and any cards that have been added to alter these items (see photo below). Players will compare treasure map icons shown on the active line, and Call back their scouts who have gone in search of treasure chests. The player with the most icons will collect a metal chest, and if players are tied for the most, they each instead collect a wooden chest.
Once all items have been collected, players may enact the Attack action in turn order. Depending on the number and types of sword icons showing on the right side of players’ castle boards, they may choose to attack one of the face-up kingdom cards in the offer OR may choose to instead attack another player. In order to attack, the player will need to possess at least as many normal swords and/or magic swords as are showing on the kingdom card or on an opponent’s castle board. By successfully attacking, the player will collect spoils shown on the kingdom card, or may steal a treasure from an opponent, provided the attacker also possesses a thief icon on the active line.
When attacks are all resolved, players may next Recruit creatures from the setup creature decks by paying the recruitment costs (in food and glyph tokens). Players then decide under which side of their castle board they will slide the newly-acquired creature to aid in their efforts on future turns. These creatures can provide more resources or more attacking icons, depending on the side added.
After all these phases have been completed, the End of the Turn phase aptly finishes the turn. Cards are replenished and the new Captain is passed the die. Play continues in this fashion until one player has ten treasure chests at the end of an Attack phase. The player with the most VP from collected treasure chests is the winner!
Components. This game boasts some excellent artwork and some of the cutest little tokens I’ve seen. Firstly, the art is simply amazing. I love the looks of it, and the game is beautiful on the table once setup and playing. There are three types of wooden tokens that just make me smile while playing with them: little chicken legs, beer barrels, and cool little purple glyphs. I honestly wish they were bigger, but I understand cost of manufacturing places limitations when trying to keep products within a certain price point. All said, though, the components are great with this one!
I have one super tiny rule shrug: the addition of the Confuse Spell token and its rules. Now, I think I understand WHY it exists – these can be used every turn a player is Captain. So, it acts like a beer barrel, but is useful on future turns when you are Captain. If players are good at the game, and if you play with the full complement of players, you may not have many turns as Captain before someone wins, so I guess I don’t fully agree with the necessity of the Confusion Spells… except to further instill the fantasy theme.
That said, I still really enjoy Bellum Magica as a gateway-level engine builder. The more cards you add to your castle board, the better opportunities you give yourself to gain more and more resources throughout each turn. I have found that getting yourself a magic sword icon or more as soon as possible helps setup bigger turns and can be the difference between victory and embarrassment. As the kingdom cards start running out, their difficulty level increases, so having those extra magic swords come in handy big time. Also, investing in thief icons to be able to control other players’ treasure chest hoards may be invaluable. There are many ways to craft each turn to maximize effectiveness, and that helps keep Bellum Magica relevant and exciting to play.
It is probably no surprise by now, but I do enjoy playing Bellum Magica. When I first tried reading the rules I was a bit confused and wasn’t quite sure what the point was, but as I started playing more and more, the rules are really just pared down, almost like an outline or first draft. If you can stick with it and get it to the table, I believe you will find a very capable gateway engine building game with an accessible theme and great art and components. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one metal treasure chested 4 / 6. I do believe I will continue to love it more and more as I play it more and more. If you align with my board game tastes, this is an easy one to recommend. If you and I normally align somewhat, then I might suggest playing someone else’s copy before grabbing one of your own right away. I am more into gateway-weighted games than most reviewers, I’m sure, so this might be a bit lighter than your normal fare. In any case, I think this one needs to be played. A lot. If you ever see me out and about, or at a convention, let me know that you want to play this with me and I will not turn down the opportunity.
Bellum Magica is a medieval fantasy engine building game for two to five players. In it, players are evil lords waging war on a local village and each other in an attempt to becoming the richest lord of all. The winner is the player who earns the most VP from treasure chests looted during the game.
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, each player chooses a castle board and is randomly dealt two goblin cards to be added to the castle. These goblin cards have icons on the left and the right of the main character art, and will slide beneath the main castle board on either side to activate their icons for the duration. Next, the human kingdom (that will inevitably be attacked by players) is setup per number of players and placed on the table. The two different creature decks are shuffled and two cards from each pile are revealed. The other tokens are placed in the insert “token reserves” and are available to all. The first player takes the die and is known as the Captain. The game is now setup and ready to begin!
Each turn consists of six phases and, luckily, the game comes with a couple player aids to remind players of the order. First, the Captain rolls the die to Choose an active horde. Whichever result is rolled will then activate the corresponding line on the castle board, with all icons activating during the turn. If a player is unsatisfied with the rolled result, they may discard a barrel token in order to buy a round of drinks for the Captain, forcing them to re-roll the die. The Captain may also discard a Confusion Spell token in order to re-roll the die as well. These items are earned later in the game from different actions. Next, all players Gather resources (collect items) shown on the line that is activated on their castle board and any cards that have been added to alter these items (see photo below). Players will compare treasure map icons shown on the active line, and Call back their scouts who have gone in search of treasure chests. The player with the most icons will collect a metal chest, and if players are tied for the most, they each instead collect a wooden chest.
Once all items have been collected, players may enact the Attack action in turn order. Depending on the number and types of sword icons showing on the right side of players’ castle boards, they may choose to attack one of the face-up kingdom cards in the offer OR may choose to instead attack another player. In order to attack, the player will need to possess at least as many normal swords and/or magic swords as are showing on the kingdom card or on an opponent’s castle board. By successfully attacking, the player will collect spoils shown on the kingdom card, or may steal a treasure from an opponent, provided the attacker also possesses a thief icon on the active line.
When attacks are all resolved, players may next Recruit creatures from the setup creature decks by paying the recruitment costs (in food and glyph tokens). Players then decide under which side of their castle board they will slide the newly-acquired creature to aid in their efforts on future turns. These creatures can provide more resources or more attacking icons, depending on the side added.
After all these phases have been completed, the End of the Turn phase aptly finishes the turn. Cards are replenished and the new Captain is passed the die. Play continues in this fashion until one player has ten treasure chests at the end of an Attack phase. The player with the most VP from collected treasure chests is the winner!
Components. This game boasts some excellent artwork and some of the cutest little tokens I’ve seen. Firstly, the art is simply amazing. I love the looks of it, and the game is beautiful on the table once setup and playing. There are three types of wooden tokens that just make me smile while playing with them: little chicken legs, beer barrels, and cool little purple glyphs. I honestly wish they were bigger, but I understand cost of manufacturing places limitations when trying to keep products within a certain price point. All said, though, the components are great with this one!
I have one super tiny rule shrug: the addition of the Confuse Spell token and its rules. Now, I think I understand WHY it exists – these can be used every turn a player is Captain. So, it acts like a beer barrel, but is useful on future turns when you are Captain. If players are good at the game, and if you play with the full complement of players, you may not have many turns as Captain before someone wins, so I guess I don’t fully agree with the necessity of the Confusion Spells… except to further instill the fantasy theme.
That said, I still really enjoy Bellum Magica as a gateway-level engine builder. The more cards you add to your castle board, the better opportunities you give yourself to gain more and more resources throughout each turn. I have found that getting yourself a magic sword icon or more as soon as possible helps setup bigger turns and can be the difference between victory and embarrassment. As the kingdom cards start running out, their difficulty level increases, so having those extra magic swords come in handy big time. Also, investing in thief icons to be able to control other players’ treasure chest hoards may be invaluable. There are many ways to craft each turn to maximize effectiveness, and that helps keep Bellum Magica relevant and exciting to play.
It is probably no surprise by now, but I do enjoy playing Bellum Magica. When I first tried reading the rules I was a bit confused and wasn’t quite sure what the point was, but as I started playing more and more, the rules are really just pared down, almost like an outline or first draft. If you can stick with it and get it to the table, I believe you will find a very capable gateway engine building game with an accessible theme and great art and components. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one metal treasure chested 4 / 6. I do believe I will continue to love it more and more as I play it more and more. If you align with my board game tastes, this is an easy one to recommend. If you and I normally align somewhat, then I might suggest playing someone else’s copy before grabbing one of your own right away. I am more into gateway-weighted games than most reviewers, I’m sure, so this might be a bit lighter than your normal fare. In any case, I think this one needs to be played. A lot. If you ever see me out and about, or at a convention, let me know that you want to play this with me and I will not turn down the opportunity.
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated Tropico 6 in Video Games
Aug 14, 2019
I used to spend my time dreaming of what it would be like to live in a tropical paradise. No concerns in the world except for when my next umbrella drink was to arrive and how long I could nap before flipping over and beginning the whole process again. The leisurely island lifestyle seemed to be the perfect escape from the non-stop chaotic life that has become my own. Getting my hands-on Tropico 6, developer Limbic Entertainment’s latest installment of the popular city-builder series, quickly turned my peaceful dreams into a hectic, fast-paced adventure. Now instead of wondering what the difference between SPF 15 and SPF 30 in my sunblock are, I was forced to quell revolutions, ensure that my people had enough entertainment and housing, and promising improvement in healthcare…all in the hopes of getting re-elected and I loved every minute of it.
Tropico 6 takes the familiar city builder game and turns it on its head a bit. You begin your life as El Presidente with the ability to customize the look and feel of your miniature ruler. Not only dealing with his/her physical attributes, but also defining their personality type. This provides special in-game bonuses which can affect your influence with the super-powers or even the internal factions themselves. Your next option is to design what your palace will look like, everything from roof-top holographic images of yourself, to the type of wall that surrounds your palace. While these are really nothing more than decorative facades on which you will build your spanning empire, it’s these little touches where Tropico really shines.
For those who haven’t played Tropico before, there is a two-hour tutorial that takes you through not only the basics, but some of the advanced concepts as well. It introduces the player to not only specific buildings, but also some of the more in-depth features that are provided. Concepts such as firing an individual from a building and closing the opening job requisition or identifying rebels and putting down uprisings are all covered in detail here. The tutorial however barely scratches the surface as to all the things that can be done. Thankfully Tropico 6 includes fifteen story missions that take you through numerous game concepts and challenges to build upon what the tutorial has taught you.
There are essentially two ways one can play Tropico 6, there are the story missions as well as the sandbox mode. While players will likely be quick to want to jump into Sandbox mode and begin cultivating their own island, there are compelling reasons to play through the story missions first. The story missions are not truly connected to one another, and while you must complete several to unlock them all, there isn’t an order in which you need to play them. If you go in order, the game will take you through the various “Era’s” that are new to the series. Starting with Colonial times where you regularly need to appease the crown until you can raise enough revolutionaries (or money) to claim your independence. Working your way through the World Wars (which roughly cover the events between World War I and World War II), into the Cold war and finally Modern Times. Each of the Eras unlock access to specific technology and buildings, ensuring that each Era provides a unique challenge to overcoming certain obstacles. Each story mission tasks you with a specific goal and places several obstacles in your way. Everything from claiming independence in the first mission, to going after the seedy underbelly of crime and bringing down a notorious kingpin. The story missions themselves last anywhere from one to several hours, ensuring plenty of game play in each one.
Tropico 6 brings a lot of new concepts and gameplay to the series. The game now takes place on a series of islands interconnected with docks and bridges. It’s easy to focus on your main island only to forget your others, and some missions will task you with specific goals that can only be created outside the main island. It’s a good introduction to thinking on a wider scale. Additionally, you can build a pirate cove that allow you to send pirates on raids. These raids involve everything from “rescuing” educated people or stealing wonders from around the world, like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty. A new character known simply as “The Broker” provides opportunities to raise cash for your swiss bank account. The swiss bank account is a private account for El Presidente’ and allows him to purchase items from the Broker. These can be anything from blue prints that unlock buildings at a cheaper price, or the opportunity to automatically complete a demand without having to do the grunt work behind it. Election speeches also make their return to Tropico 6, elections are held every ten years to ensure you are keeping the people in your island nation happy. Lose an election and you lose the game, fairly straight forward. One opportunity to sway your people is to craft election speeches from the four categories. These include acknowledging an issue (like entertainment or health care), praising one of the four factions that exist on Tropico, blaming a super power (Axis or Allies) for the current state of affairs and finally making a promise to address a specific issue. Be warned however, that each of these choices can hold severe consequences and note that a promise to address a concern means you’ll be focusing on that before the next election.
Each of the folks who inhabit the island are individuals. You can literally select any person walking down the street and identify who they are, how they are leaning in the upcoming election, what political party they belong to and even where they work. If someone is a political rival you can bribe them to choose your side, if a particular set of rebels are causing issues you can have them arrested or locked up in an asylum. You can even execute any individual you want; however, this will have lasting consequences. The amount of detail is staggering; however, Tropico 6 does an excellent job of allowing you to be as micro managing as you want to be. While you can certainly go in and fire individuals from the various businesses that pop up, you certainly don’t have to.
Graphically Tropico 6 is a spectacle in itself. Everything from the waves as they slowly crash upon the shoreline, to the awe-inspiring sunsets. It’s certainly one of the most beautiful city builders around. Each building is unique enough to identify it easily and each has its own unique flavor all to itself. Even with all of this, I never encountered any hiccups in performance, and load screens are pretty much left to new games. Its soundtrack has a distinctive island flair to it, and while the longer you play the more repetitive it becomes, I never felt the urge to simply mute it. In fact, I found myself humming some of the tunes while doing chores around the house…yes it can get in your head like that.
Tropico 6 does have some flaws, but nothing truly game breaking. The road construction tool, while doing it’s very best to identify the best path you wish to take, will sometimes go a bit crazy. Spaces between buildings which should allow for careful road placement will be blocked for unknown reasons, which can force you to destroy existing buildings if you haven’t planned for expansion appropriately enough. With so much to do, some of the specific tools or buildings can be a bit difficult to find, in particular once you “acquire” a world wonder it took me several attempts to locate where you can go to actually place it. Again, nothing that stops the game in it’s tracks, and certainly some things that can easily be patched in later releases of the game.
Tropico 6 is all about freedom, the freedom to rule your tiny island kingdom the way you want. Well… at least the way you want as long as you can appease the numerous factions and ensure you get re-elected in the next general elections. You are free to do as much or as little as you want, and you are free to dig in as deep as any city builder type game allows you to go. The included stories ensure that you have at least 40-50 hours of defined content, but it’s the limitless playability of the sandbox setting where the game truly shines. The game isn’t perfect, but it’s about as close as city-builder games can get these days. It’s mix of humor, city management, and that one-more turn itch will keep you playing long after you told yourself you should go to bed. Long live El Presidente’! Viva Tropico!
What I liked: Variety of Story Missions, Excellent Tutorial, Amazing visuals
What I liked less: Road tool seems a bit finicky, some items are difficult to locate
Tropico 6 takes the familiar city builder game and turns it on its head a bit. You begin your life as El Presidente with the ability to customize the look and feel of your miniature ruler. Not only dealing with his/her physical attributes, but also defining their personality type. This provides special in-game bonuses which can affect your influence with the super-powers or even the internal factions themselves. Your next option is to design what your palace will look like, everything from roof-top holographic images of yourself, to the type of wall that surrounds your palace. While these are really nothing more than decorative facades on which you will build your spanning empire, it’s these little touches where Tropico really shines.
For those who haven’t played Tropico before, there is a two-hour tutorial that takes you through not only the basics, but some of the advanced concepts as well. It introduces the player to not only specific buildings, but also some of the more in-depth features that are provided. Concepts such as firing an individual from a building and closing the opening job requisition or identifying rebels and putting down uprisings are all covered in detail here. The tutorial however barely scratches the surface as to all the things that can be done. Thankfully Tropico 6 includes fifteen story missions that take you through numerous game concepts and challenges to build upon what the tutorial has taught you.
There are essentially two ways one can play Tropico 6, there are the story missions as well as the sandbox mode. While players will likely be quick to want to jump into Sandbox mode and begin cultivating their own island, there are compelling reasons to play through the story missions first. The story missions are not truly connected to one another, and while you must complete several to unlock them all, there isn’t an order in which you need to play them. If you go in order, the game will take you through the various “Era’s” that are new to the series. Starting with Colonial times where you regularly need to appease the crown until you can raise enough revolutionaries (or money) to claim your independence. Working your way through the World Wars (which roughly cover the events between World War I and World War II), into the Cold war and finally Modern Times. Each of the Eras unlock access to specific technology and buildings, ensuring that each Era provides a unique challenge to overcoming certain obstacles. Each story mission tasks you with a specific goal and places several obstacles in your way. Everything from claiming independence in the first mission, to going after the seedy underbelly of crime and bringing down a notorious kingpin. The story missions themselves last anywhere from one to several hours, ensuring plenty of game play in each one.
Tropico 6 brings a lot of new concepts and gameplay to the series. The game now takes place on a series of islands interconnected with docks and bridges. It’s easy to focus on your main island only to forget your others, and some missions will task you with specific goals that can only be created outside the main island. It’s a good introduction to thinking on a wider scale. Additionally, you can build a pirate cove that allow you to send pirates on raids. These raids involve everything from “rescuing” educated people or stealing wonders from around the world, like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty. A new character known simply as “The Broker” provides opportunities to raise cash for your swiss bank account. The swiss bank account is a private account for El Presidente’ and allows him to purchase items from the Broker. These can be anything from blue prints that unlock buildings at a cheaper price, or the opportunity to automatically complete a demand without having to do the grunt work behind it. Election speeches also make their return to Tropico 6, elections are held every ten years to ensure you are keeping the people in your island nation happy. Lose an election and you lose the game, fairly straight forward. One opportunity to sway your people is to craft election speeches from the four categories. These include acknowledging an issue (like entertainment or health care), praising one of the four factions that exist on Tropico, blaming a super power (Axis or Allies) for the current state of affairs and finally making a promise to address a specific issue. Be warned however, that each of these choices can hold severe consequences and note that a promise to address a concern means you’ll be focusing on that before the next election.
Each of the folks who inhabit the island are individuals. You can literally select any person walking down the street and identify who they are, how they are leaning in the upcoming election, what political party they belong to and even where they work. If someone is a political rival you can bribe them to choose your side, if a particular set of rebels are causing issues you can have them arrested or locked up in an asylum. You can even execute any individual you want; however, this will have lasting consequences. The amount of detail is staggering; however, Tropico 6 does an excellent job of allowing you to be as micro managing as you want to be. While you can certainly go in and fire individuals from the various businesses that pop up, you certainly don’t have to.
Graphically Tropico 6 is a spectacle in itself. Everything from the waves as they slowly crash upon the shoreline, to the awe-inspiring sunsets. It’s certainly one of the most beautiful city builders around. Each building is unique enough to identify it easily and each has its own unique flavor all to itself. Even with all of this, I never encountered any hiccups in performance, and load screens are pretty much left to new games. Its soundtrack has a distinctive island flair to it, and while the longer you play the more repetitive it becomes, I never felt the urge to simply mute it. In fact, I found myself humming some of the tunes while doing chores around the house…yes it can get in your head like that.
Tropico 6 does have some flaws, but nothing truly game breaking. The road construction tool, while doing it’s very best to identify the best path you wish to take, will sometimes go a bit crazy. Spaces between buildings which should allow for careful road placement will be blocked for unknown reasons, which can force you to destroy existing buildings if you haven’t planned for expansion appropriately enough. With so much to do, some of the specific tools or buildings can be a bit difficult to find, in particular once you “acquire” a world wonder it took me several attempts to locate where you can go to actually place it. Again, nothing that stops the game in it’s tracks, and certainly some things that can easily be patched in later releases of the game.
Tropico 6 is all about freedom, the freedom to rule your tiny island kingdom the way you want. Well… at least the way you want as long as you can appease the numerous factions and ensure you get re-elected in the next general elections. You are free to do as much or as little as you want, and you are free to dig in as deep as any city builder type game allows you to go. The included stories ensure that you have at least 40-50 hours of defined content, but it’s the limitless playability of the sandbox setting where the game truly shines. The game isn’t perfect, but it’s about as close as city-builder games can get these days. It’s mix of humor, city management, and that one-more turn itch will keep you playing long after you told yourself you should go to bed. Long live El Presidente’! Viva Tropico!
What I liked: Variety of Story Missions, Excellent Tutorial, Amazing visuals
What I liked less: Road tool seems a bit finicky, some items are difficult to locate
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated the PC version of Shadow Of The Tomb Raider in Video Games
Aug 14, 2019
It’s hard to believe that Lara Croft made her first appearance in a video game all the way back in 1996. Featuring cutting edge 3D polygon graphics and gameplay that would often be duplicated but never replicated, the game would go on to sell a whopping 7 million copies. Since that time there have been numerous sequels, culminating in a complete re-envisioning of the franchise in 2013. The new era of Lara Croft explores her origin story and how she ultimately became one of the toughest female characters to grace a PC or console screen.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the third installment in the reboot of the franchise. Lara is no longer a naïve, explorer in training, who struggles with the idea, much less the actual action, of killing a human being. The years have made her a more seasoned (and possibly more ruthless) tomb raider, and she has now blossomed into the badass character that she is known for. Her adventures will take her deep into Mexico and South America, where she is trying to stop the apocalypse that she had accidently set in motion when she acquired an ancient dagger. What follows is roughly a 12+ hour main story and several hours’ worth of side missions that help flesh out the story and the world around her. The best part is that the story has all the excitement and thrills you would get if you took an Indiana Jones movie and added some of the Mel Gibson drama Apocalypto, so buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider adds the social interaction that was largely missing in the previous installments. While there are still plenty of times when Lara will be out on her own, searching through ruins or trekking through the jungle, there are now several civilizations that Lara will be interacting with. Her adventures will take her to the ancient city of Paititi, where most of her interactions will be with the locals and the main antagonists to the trilogy, Trinity. It’s in the interactions where we really get to see Lara question not only her beliefs but also her actions when acquiring ancient artifacts. Many of the discussions revolve around what will happen if outsiders come and try to change their standard of living or force their own wills on the natives. These discussions cause Lara to reevaluate what she does for a living, and how her own actions have an impact far greater than she even realizes. The inclusion of so much interaction with other people brings a whole new dimension to the Tomb Raider world and it entrenches you in the story in a way that battling even the most dangerous tombs never could.
One of the most interesting levels in the game takes you back in time to when Lara was just a young girl. You get the opportunity to experience the world through the innocence of a child, and her own imagination as she explores her father’s mansion. It provides an interesting look into the events that would unfold during her impressionable years, and also helps to offer some additional insight into what drives her as an adult. It’s in this level, where you finally understand what fuels her desire and continues to push her forward.
Gameplay is largely the same as the previous titles, but they did add a few new interesting ways to traverse some of the more difficult terrain, such as the ability to rappel down cliffs or using a pick axe to traverse cave ceilings. Climbing, jumping and swinging are all handled very intuitively using the controller. Yes, there were times where I felt I was doing the right thing and fell to my death anyway, but at no time did I feel overly frustrated or blame the tight controls for my own missteps.
Swimming and diving play a far bigger role in Shadow than in the previous games. Long, deep caverns will require you to swim and find pockets of air to keep from drowning. There are even a few sequences where you will need to swim through plants to avoid the various eels and piranha that will kill you, and swimming through the plants is just as easy as it sounds. Thankfully I never felt these sequences played on for too long and they certainly added diversity to the levels. While generally swimming and diving in video games tend to be an exercise in frustration, I never felt that was the case here.
Stealth also plays a bigger role in this game and adds another key to your survival. The original 1996 game focused on your dual pistol wielding abilities to get you out of jams and in this game, you are rewarded with a subtler approach. Taking a nod from games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, you will now have plenty of opportunities for Lara to crouch in large grassy fields or cover herself in mud and hide amongst the vines and cliff walls to surprise and take down her enemies. You can now overcome many adversities utilizing only stealth, but don’t worry, if you prefer more upfront action, there are still the obligatory pistols, shotguns and machine guns you can use to dispatch foes. Stealth is just an added way to ensure that Lara saves her bullets for far bigger threats down the road.
Now for everyone’s favorite part…the tombs! What would Tomb Raider be without tombs and the challenges that come along with them? As you may have already guessed, all sorts of puzzles and booby traps await you on your journey. I found they kept a nice balance between challenging and entertaining and thankfully none of them were so obscure that you need to break out Google to overcome them. Another great addition to the game is that the player can now individually adjust the difficulty on puzzles and on combat. That means if you love combat but not the puzzles you can adjust them independently, which is something I wish far more games would take advantage of. Either way, there are plenty of challenging tombs where you can flex your tomb raiding muscles.
As your adventure progresses you will earn skill points that allow you to upgrade Lara with new abilities. There are three skill trees, each containing many different skills, where Lara can spend her points. The three trees are broken down into Seeker, Warrior and Scavenger and Lara can be upgraded when she arrives at a basecamp. A few of these upgraded skills are longer swim times, multiple stealth takedowns, and the ability to shoot two enemies simultaneously. It’s always exciting to upgrade your character and see how the gameplay changes with new your abilities. This game is no exception and the upgrades you choose can really enhance your experience.
Graphically, Lara has never looked better. I played the game on my Xbox One X in 4K and the environments were awe inspiring. The lush jungle almost jumps off the screen and the character models are some of the best I’ve seen in recent memory. Of course, all this beauty wouldn’t mean much if there were stutters and lags and thankfully I never noticed a single frame drop while playing the game in all its 4K glory. Shadow of the Tomb Raider feels like you are part of a high budget, summer blockbuster and at times it was difficult to determine the difference between a cutscene or live game play (in a “wow, this is incredible!” way). The acting was also top notch and Camilla Luddington once again does an outstanding job delivering her lines, even making some of the corniest statements endearing. Every aspect of this game is the best of the best and you will be hard pressed to find an area of the game that was lacking.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider in an amazing accomplishment and easily my favorite game of the series. I’d even go as far as saying that I enjoyed it more than Uncharted 2, which is a true testament to how much I loved this game. Not only does the story have a heart and completely engages the player but it’s thrilling and there is non-stop adventure until the very end. While this certainly could be the last game in the rebooted series, I truly hope it’s not as I already want to play another. I highly recommend picking this game up. As soon as you knock over your first pot, you will be happy that you did!
What I liked: Stunning graphics, Incredible voice acting, Blockbuster feel
What I liked less: Occasional areas where it was unclear where to go next
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the third installment in the reboot of the franchise. Lara is no longer a naïve, explorer in training, who struggles with the idea, much less the actual action, of killing a human being. The years have made her a more seasoned (and possibly more ruthless) tomb raider, and she has now blossomed into the badass character that she is known for. Her adventures will take her deep into Mexico and South America, where she is trying to stop the apocalypse that she had accidently set in motion when she acquired an ancient dagger. What follows is roughly a 12+ hour main story and several hours’ worth of side missions that help flesh out the story and the world around her. The best part is that the story has all the excitement and thrills you would get if you took an Indiana Jones movie and added some of the Mel Gibson drama Apocalypto, so buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider adds the social interaction that was largely missing in the previous installments. While there are still plenty of times when Lara will be out on her own, searching through ruins or trekking through the jungle, there are now several civilizations that Lara will be interacting with. Her adventures will take her to the ancient city of Paititi, where most of her interactions will be with the locals and the main antagonists to the trilogy, Trinity. It’s in the interactions where we really get to see Lara question not only her beliefs but also her actions when acquiring ancient artifacts. Many of the discussions revolve around what will happen if outsiders come and try to change their standard of living or force their own wills on the natives. These discussions cause Lara to reevaluate what she does for a living, and how her own actions have an impact far greater than she even realizes. The inclusion of so much interaction with other people brings a whole new dimension to the Tomb Raider world and it entrenches you in the story in a way that battling even the most dangerous tombs never could.
One of the most interesting levels in the game takes you back in time to when Lara was just a young girl. You get the opportunity to experience the world through the innocence of a child, and her own imagination as she explores her father’s mansion. It provides an interesting look into the events that would unfold during her impressionable years, and also helps to offer some additional insight into what drives her as an adult. It’s in this level, where you finally understand what fuels her desire and continues to push her forward.
Gameplay is largely the same as the previous titles, but they did add a few new interesting ways to traverse some of the more difficult terrain, such as the ability to rappel down cliffs or using a pick axe to traverse cave ceilings. Climbing, jumping and swinging are all handled very intuitively using the controller. Yes, there were times where I felt I was doing the right thing and fell to my death anyway, but at no time did I feel overly frustrated or blame the tight controls for my own missteps.
Swimming and diving play a far bigger role in Shadow than in the previous games. Long, deep caverns will require you to swim and find pockets of air to keep from drowning. There are even a few sequences where you will need to swim through plants to avoid the various eels and piranha that will kill you, and swimming through the plants is just as easy as it sounds. Thankfully I never felt these sequences played on for too long and they certainly added diversity to the levels. While generally swimming and diving in video games tend to be an exercise in frustration, I never felt that was the case here.
Stealth also plays a bigger role in this game and adds another key to your survival. The original 1996 game focused on your dual pistol wielding abilities to get you out of jams and in this game, you are rewarded with a subtler approach. Taking a nod from games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, you will now have plenty of opportunities for Lara to crouch in large grassy fields or cover herself in mud and hide amongst the vines and cliff walls to surprise and take down her enemies. You can now overcome many adversities utilizing only stealth, but don’t worry, if you prefer more upfront action, there are still the obligatory pistols, shotguns and machine guns you can use to dispatch foes. Stealth is just an added way to ensure that Lara saves her bullets for far bigger threats down the road.
Now for everyone’s favorite part…the tombs! What would Tomb Raider be without tombs and the challenges that come along with them? As you may have already guessed, all sorts of puzzles and booby traps await you on your journey. I found they kept a nice balance between challenging and entertaining and thankfully none of them were so obscure that you need to break out Google to overcome them. Another great addition to the game is that the player can now individually adjust the difficulty on puzzles and on combat. That means if you love combat but not the puzzles you can adjust them independently, which is something I wish far more games would take advantage of. Either way, there are plenty of challenging tombs where you can flex your tomb raiding muscles.
As your adventure progresses you will earn skill points that allow you to upgrade Lara with new abilities. There are three skill trees, each containing many different skills, where Lara can spend her points. The three trees are broken down into Seeker, Warrior and Scavenger and Lara can be upgraded when she arrives at a basecamp. A few of these upgraded skills are longer swim times, multiple stealth takedowns, and the ability to shoot two enemies simultaneously. It’s always exciting to upgrade your character and see how the gameplay changes with new your abilities. This game is no exception and the upgrades you choose can really enhance your experience.
Graphically, Lara has never looked better. I played the game on my Xbox One X in 4K and the environments were awe inspiring. The lush jungle almost jumps off the screen and the character models are some of the best I’ve seen in recent memory. Of course, all this beauty wouldn’t mean much if there were stutters and lags and thankfully I never noticed a single frame drop while playing the game in all its 4K glory. Shadow of the Tomb Raider feels like you are part of a high budget, summer blockbuster and at times it was difficult to determine the difference between a cutscene or live game play (in a “wow, this is incredible!” way). The acting was also top notch and Camilla Luddington once again does an outstanding job delivering her lines, even making some of the corniest statements endearing. Every aspect of this game is the best of the best and you will be hard pressed to find an area of the game that was lacking.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider in an amazing accomplishment and easily my favorite game of the series. I’d even go as far as saying that I enjoyed it more than Uncharted 2, which is a true testament to how much I loved this game. Not only does the story have a heart and completely engages the player but it’s thrilling and there is non-stop adventure until the very end. While this certainly could be the last game in the rebooted series, I truly hope it’s not as I already want to play another. I highly recommend picking this game up. As soon as you knock over your first pot, you will be happy that you did!
What I liked: Stunning graphics, Incredible voice acting, Blockbuster feel
What I liked less: Occasional areas where it was unclear where to go next
A Bibliophagist (113 KP) rated Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1) in Books
Jan 27, 2020
Well written (3 more)
Unique plot
Less YA tropes
No teen angst and romance
Not your typical YA
I approached this book with little expectation. I saw it cluttering up my feed on Instagram and being posted by everyone. I liked the cover (I'm a sucker for good covers and any YA without a photo manipulated monstrosity catches my eye). However every time I picked it up in the store and read the back and I just wasn't interested.
So in a New year new me moment, I forced myself to pick up two popular books that I was not interested in. Since they were both YA, they'd be quick reads and my expectations could below. I also forced my picks to not be hard SciFi, as I need to step out of my comfort zone. I picked this up, and developed more concern when I noticed how divided the reviews were, I noticed people were either firmly in the "this is my most favorite book ever" or in the "this is the most boring book ever I hated it" camps. I rarely rate books 1 or 5, so I wanted to see how I felt.
Honestly, I was very pleasantly surprised. This book is YA, and obviously has some YA aspects, but it doesn't follow the tropes unless stripped down to bullet points and is surprisingly well written. This well written aspect, with no intentions of making people mad, I think is why so many found it boring. If you primarily read YA, and are used to it's over the top writing, it's over the top dialogue and relationships and emotions, then yes, this book was probably horribly boring.
We do open with the standard tropes of uninteresting, normal girl and boy get thrown into something extraordinary. But that's where the stereotypes ended for me. The author quickly throws us into the world and the events of the story. We're in the future, who knows how far past the present, where society has overcome death. AI has evolved and "The Cloud" is now "The Thunderhead" a massive AI database that has solved most of the world's problems, eliminated poverty, war, government, created jobs for everyone, and even defeated death. We all have healing nanites that prevent illness and repair injury, and even in the case of death, we can be revived at a revival center and be greeted with some tasty ice cream. If we start feeling our age, we can just "turn a corner" resetting ourselves to a younger version of ourselves while retaining our memories.
Now, in a world without death, but babies are still being born, some form of population control is in order, the balance must be restored. So the world created the Scythedom. An organization outside the authority of "The Thunderhead" because death has and always should be a responsibility of the living. Those who become Scythes, must "Glean" (permanently kill) a quota of people every year to maintain population control. How they do so is up to them, but there are rules, a Scythe cannot show bias or malice in their choices, they cannot marry or have a family, they cannot kill another Scythe (but they can glean themselves) or someone with immunity, They may grant immunity to those they feel worthy, they must kill the families of those who resist, and they are above all other laws. The vagueness of these laws worked when the Scythedom was first created, but the world has become complicated, and some people have decided to find joy in what they do, even if it's killing.
Our story follows two teenagers who recently encountered the Honorable Scythe Faraday, Citra, and Rowan. Citra showed gumption and sass and moral balance, and Rowan held the hand of a boy that was not his friend as he was gleaned. Faraday is considered old school and chooses all that is gleaned by old school, age of mortality statistics. If a percentage of teenagers died in alcohol-related car accidents, he found a teenager with a penchant for drinking, who just got a car, and gleaned them. He believes the job is necessary, but should never be enjoyed, you need to be moral and compassionate and hurt every time. He is granted permission to take on an apprentice, and he takes on two, Rowan and Citra. Neither want it, nor should they, but should they become a Scythe, their families will receive immunity as long as they shall live, which in this day in age could be forever. So, reluctantly they both take it. There is a glamour to Scythedom as well, they'll wat for nothing, people will bend over backward to provide them with their desires in the hopes of immunity. If these two follow the teachings of Faraday, they won't be tempted by this, they won't abuse it, but not everyone feels the same way.
Citra and Rowan begin training (it gets a bit YAish here) studying history, poisons, combat, weapons. The goal to make them perfect, moral, compassionate, killing machines. Everything is going as well as it can, and luckily the book doesn't do what every other YA author would do and give us pages upon pages of the two falling in love, awkward encounters, stolen kisses. We have none of that thankfully. The dialogue is all purposeful and helps propel the plot, not flowery passages talking about teenage angst and feelings. But, it is a book, after all, so everything starts falling apart when a group of "New Age" Scythes, Scythes that believe they should enjoy their jobs, who take pleasure in mass killings (entire flights, festivals, food courts) stir things up at a Scythe Conclave meeting. They question if having two apprentices hurts whether or not the Conclave can judge the worthiness of either, or if them being friends will result in them always helping each other. How can they truly judge their ability if they always have each other's support? So they propose, since no law prevents it, that whichever apprentice should be chosen (remember Faraday was given permission to have ONE apprentice) will have to Glean the other. The Lead Scythe allows it, and honestly, this is one aspect of the book I struggled with, but I think was supposed to express the corruption of the Scythedom, at times when things aren't in writing they say "welp can't do it" and other times they say "welp nothing says we can't do it". Faraday attempts to free our two protagonists from their apprenticeships, but instead, they are separated, one going to a respected Old School Scythe, one going to the very modern group that started this whole problem, thrusting them into a world excess, deprivation, and honestly psychotic murdering. They now train, separately, knowing that one will die unless they can figure out a way to change things.
Even writing that sounds so Yaish, but it doesn't feel that way because it's so well written. The author doesn't give us Romeo and Juliet, no pining, no romance, just two kids trying to be that, good. Even when surrounded by something very bad. So, if you want to star crossed lovers, you won't like this book. If you like character development and struggle, you might like this book. We arguably see more of Rowan's development, Citra for me felt less focused on or given fewer opportunities for growth, and she had a bit of an attitude that made me no like her much, but given her circumstances, I UNDERSTOOD why she was the way she is, and I can't say I wouldn't be just as grumpy. If anything her response to the corruption and the situation felt very real, even if it sacrificed having a manic pixie daydream mary sue to project myself into. While appearances weren't really given for the two, setting them up to be good old fashioned Mary Sue and Gary Stu, they were very much their own people, with little room for the reader to pretend to be them. So another star in the breaking the YA mold category. We watch them struggle with where they are, and how to come to terms with their inevitable future, either being takers of life or having their life taken.
Overall this was refreshing, while it was an easy read and was a good "palette cleanser" and m boyfriend calls my YA marathons in between books that actually linger in my soul. It felt elevated, sure it was still very much YA, but it was more thought out than the standard, it focused on the story and not the romance, it focused on important things, and it never lost sight of its story. I started at 11am on a Sunday and Finished by noon on Monday, eager for the next. It was an unexpected, refreshing read, with a unique concept that has room for more. The sequel doesn't feel forced, and if I never got it, this story is finished, but the world and situation created to allow for more, without feeling like a forced trilogy. I wanted to know how this story was going to play out, and now that it has, I want to know how the next story in this set up plays out.
So in a New year new me moment, I forced myself to pick up two popular books that I was not interested in. Since they were both YA, they'd be quick reads and my expectations could below. I also forced my picks to not be hard SciFi, as I need to step out of my comfort zone. I picked this up, and developed more concern when I noticed how divided the reviews were, I noticed people were either firmly in the "this is my most favorite book ever" or in the "this is the most boring book ever I hated it" camps. I rarely rate books 1 or 5, so I wanted to see how I felt.
Honestly, I was very pleasantly surprised. This book is YA, and obviously has some YA aspects, but it doesn't follow the tropes unless stripped down to bullet points and is surprisingly well written. This well written aspect, with no intentions of making people mad, I think is why so many found it boring. If you primarily read YA, and are used to it's over the top writing, it's over the top dialogue and relationships and emotions, then yes, this book was probably horribly boring.
We do open with the standard tropes of uninteresting, normal girl and boy get thrown into something extraordinary. But that's where the stereotypes ended for me. The author quickly throws us into the world and the events of the story. We're in the future, who knows how far past the present, where society has overcome death. AI has evolved and "The Cloud" is now "The Thunderhead" a massive AI database that has solved most of the world's problems, eliminated poverty, war, government, created jobs for everyone, and even defeated death. We all have healing nanites that prevent illness and repair injury, and even in the case of death, we can be revived at a revival center and be greeted with some tasty ice cream. If we start feeling our age, we can just "turn a corner" resetting ourselves to a younger version of ourselves while retaining our memories.
Now, in a world without death, but babies are still being born, some form of population control is in order, the balance must be restored. So the world created the Scythedom. An organization outside the authority of "The Thunderhead" because death has and always should be a responsibility of the living. Those who become Scythes, must "Glean" (permanently kill) a quota of people every year to maintain population control. How they do so is up to them, but there are rules, a Scythe cannot show bias or malice in their choices, they cannot marry or have a family, they cannot kill another Scythe (but they can glean themselves) or someone with immunity, They may grant immunity to those they feel worthy, they must kill the families of those who resist, and they are above all other laws. The vagueness of these laws worked when the Scythedom was first created, but the world has become complicated, and some people have decided to find joy in what they do, even if it's killing.
Our story follows two teenagers who recently encountered the Honorable Scythe Faraday, Citra, and Rowan. Citra showed gumption and sass and moral balance, and Rowan held the hand of a boy that was not his friend as he was gleaned. Faraday is considered old school and chooses all that is gleaned by old school, age of mortality statistics. If a percentage of teenagers died in alcohol-related car accidents, he found a teenager with a penchant for drinking, who just got a car, and gleaned them. He believes the job is necessary, but should never be enjoyed, you need to be moral and compassionate and hurt every time. He is granted permission to take on an apprentice, and he takes on two, Rowan and Citra. Neither want it, nor should they, but should they become a Scythe, their families will receive immunity as long as they shall live, which in this day in age could be forever. So, reluctantly they both take it. There is a glamour to Scythedom as well, they'll wat for nothing, people will bend over backward to provide them with their desires in the hopes of immunity. If these two follow the teachings of Faraday, they won't be tempted by this, they won't abuse it, but not everyone feels the same way.
Citra and Rowan begin training (it gets a bit YAish here) studying history, poisons, combat, weapons. The goal to make them perfect, moral, compassionate, killing machines. Everything is going as well as it can, and luckily the book doesn't do what every other YA author would do and give us pages upon pages of the two falling in love, awkward encounters, stolen kisses. We have none of that thankfully. The dialogue is all purposeful and helps propel the plot, not flowery passages talking about teenage angst and feelings. But, it is a book, after all, so everything starts falling apart when a group of "New Age" Scythes, Scythes that believe they should enjoy their jobs, who take pleasure in mass killings (entire flights, festivals, food courts) stir things up at a Scythe Conclave meeting. They question if having two apprentices hurts whether or not the Conclave can judge the worthiness of either, or if them being friends will result in them always helping each other. How can they truly judge their ability if they always have each other's support? So they propose, since no law prevents it, that whichever apprentice should be chosen (remember Faraday was given permission to have ONE apprentice) will have to Glean the other. The Lead Scythe allows it, and honestly, this is one aspect of the book I struggled with, but I think was supposed to express the corruption of the Scythedom, at times when things aren't in writing they say "welp can't do it" and other times they say "welp nothing says we can't do it". Faraday attempts to free our two protagonists from their apprenticeships, but instead, they are separated, one going to a respected Old School Scythe, one going to the very modern group that started this whole problem, thrusting them into a world excess, deprivation, and honestly psychotic murdering. They now train, separately, knowing that one will die unless they can figure out a way to change things.
Even writing that sounds so Yaish, but it doesn't feel that way because it's so well written. The author doesn't give us Romeo and Juliet, no pining, no romance, just two kids trying to be that, good. Even when surrounded by something very bad. So, if you want to star crossed lovers, you won't like this book. If you like character development and struggle, you might like this book. We arguably see more of Rowan's development, Citra for me felt less focused on or given fewer opportunities for growth, and she had a bit of an attitude that made me no like her much, but given her circumstances, I UNDERSTOOD why she was the way she is, and I can't say I wouldn't be just as grumpy. If anything her response to the corruption and the situation felt very real, even if it sacrificed having a manic pixie daydream mary sue to project myself into. While appearances weren't really given for the two, setting them up to be good old fashioned Mary Sue and Gary Stu, they were very much their own people, with little room for the reader to pretend to be them. So another star in the breaking the YA mold category. We watch them struggle with where they are, and how to come to terms with their inevitable future, either being takers of life or having their life taken.
Overall this was refreshing, while it was an easy read and was a good "palette cleanser" and m boyfriend calls my YA marathons in between books that actually linger in my soul. It felt elevated, sure it was still very much YA, but it was more thought out than the standard, it focused on the story and not the romance, it focused on important things, and it never lost sight of its story. I started at 11am on a Sunday and Finished by noon on Monday, eager for the next. It was an unexpected, refreshing read, with a unique concept that has room for more. The sequel doesn't feel forced, and if I never got it, this story is finished, but the world and situation created to allow for more, without feeling like a forced trilogy. I wanted to know how this story was going to play out, and now that it has, I want to know how the next story in this set up plays out.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Buru in Tabletop Games
Feb 22, 2021
I would consider myself somewhat of a world traveler. I haven’t quite visited as many places as I would like, and certain worldwide pandemics have prevented me from scheduling any international travel plans. My family and I enjoy cruises and visiting all sorts of different countries. Now, Buru has never been specifically on our list of places to visit, but should we ever get the chance to head to Indonesia, now after playing this game I think I will want to visit this little island.
Buru (http://burugame.com/)is a mid-weight economic worker placement game with a large dose of bidding thrown in for fun. In it players are visitors to the island sent to compete to become the governor of Buru by hiring indigenous peoples to assist with tasks, by providing fish for the peoples, pleasing the island’s elders, and by paying homages to the spirits of the land. The emissary who can utilize all their resources efficiently and impactfully will be deemed governor of Buru and winner of the game.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, follow the instructions in the rulebook. There are just too many steps to detail here and the rulebook is fantastic. Once setup, the play area should look similar to the photo below.
The game of Buru lasts five rounds, and each round consists of five phases of the day: Dawn, Morning, Noon, Afternoon, and Dusk. At the end of the fifth round the game is over and players will tally points to arrive at the winner.
During the Dawn phase players will flip over the top two Decrees tokens from the middle of the main circular board. These Decrees will be placed in certain areas and are worth bonus points or other advantages for the round. Also during this phase the Forest cards will be reset from the previous round. Once complete play moves to the Morning phase.
In the Morning players will be sending out their numbered Explorer tokens (from 1-5) onto the various board areas in turn starting with the current Emissary (first player). Each player will place one of their Explorer tokens at a time until each player has only one Explorer token left. Players may place multiple Explorers in a location to increase their bid for majority, but these Explorer tokens are placed face-up (literally with the face showing and the number on the board not showing) so that their values are hidden. Once Explorers are placed, play moves to the Noon phase.
At Noon the people must fish for food and have lunch. The leftover Explorer token that was not used in the Morning is then revealed and its value is converted to fish. Fish are needed to recruit islanders and are converted into other resources. Fish are tracked on the individual player boards. After a hearty lunch play continues into the Afternoon.
The Afternoon is where much of the action in Buru takes place. During this phase the Explorer tokens that were placed in the Morning are revealed and players take actions in each area by order of majority in each area. First the highest-bidding player will claim their chosen action space, then the next highest bidder, and so on. The Forest is resolved first. Players reveal the Explorer tokens in the Forest and whichever player has majority in this area is able to place their tokens a claim space on the board and will receive a Forest card of their choice. Forest cards are typically resources immediately earned by the player. Resources include Clay, Palm Leaves, and Ebony. The player with majority also earns the favor of Gunung (green spirit) and takes its giant statueeple.
Next, the Shore is resolved in the same manner. The Shore is where players may use their supplies of fish to recruit islanders to their taskforces and carry out tasks. The majority leader in this area chooses a space to place their Explorer tokens and resolves the action. This could include purchasing islander cards and refreshing the offer of islander cards in whichever order the player chooses. The player with the majority also earns the favor of Banyu (blue spirit) and takes its giant statueeple.
The Village is the area where islanders are able to complete tasks. The majority leader in this area chooses a space and takes the actions. These actions include activating islanders for the actions printed on the bottom of their cards and possibly even earning more fish. The player with the majority also earns the favor of Manuk (orange spirit) and takes its giant statueeple.
Finally, The Sacred Lake is resolved in the same manner. Here players are able to pay tributes to the spirits in order to earn bonuses from them. The majority leader in this area chooses a space to place their Explorer tokens, earns an immediate Esteem (VP tracked along the outer edge of the board), and takes the action of the space claimed. These spaces offer opportunities to pay tribute to one or more of the spirits as well as earning an Elder card, which provides conditions for earning bonus points at the end of the game. When a spirit is tributed they offer bonus Esteem cards and other benefits to be used. Once this area is completely resolved and players have all taken their turns play moves onto Dusk.
In Dusk players will reset the board for the next round of play. Players retrieve all their Explorer tokens from the board and untask their islanders that have completed tasks this day. After the fifth round the game is over and players tally their scores from their position on the Esteem track, any spirit Tribute cards earned, and Elder card point conditions met. The player with the most points will be crowned the winner!
Components. Okay, I have to give a giant shout-out to the team at Crafty Games. This is one of the highest-quality prototypes I have ever played in terms of component quality. When I opened the game box all components were separated into baggies and card cases and LABELED with the number of components, the titles, and even a picture of the components to be placed within. I don’t even organize my games to this level and I feel I am a tad OCD about my game organization. Kudos here. But also the components are all fine quality and the finished product promises to be just spectacular if this is what is received as a prototype.
I love the art and art style throughout this game. It is difficult to have theme shine through in a very Euro-style game, but I did feel the theme here. The art is very suggestive of island life, and Crafty Games even hired Cultural Consultants to assure all avenues are culturally appropriate. What a great call. I wish all publishers would be so thorough.
The gameplay is also quite stunning. The game just flows so naturally and everything makes complete sense. Of course you need to collect natural resources before recruiting islanders before asking said islanders to complete tasks before you pay respects to their spirits. I like the flow, and after a couple rounds I no longer needed the rulebook as a crutch.
I have very much enjoyed my plays of Buru for many reasons. The game is absolutely gorgeous. The art sings and truly adds to the gameplay. The rules are not light, but not over my head, and I appreciate that. The choices given to each player are crunchy without being too burdensome, and players of many skill levels will be able to find joy contemplating when and where to send their Explorers in each area. The game builds up to a big ending where many points are scored from places unknown to opponents and bulleting ahead from last place to first from exploiting bonus cards is so satisfying.
It is easy to understand why I love this game and would certainly recommend it to all gamers. If you have been looking for something a little heavier in your collection but don’t want to go TOO heavy, please do yourself a favor and consider backing Buru. Crafty Games has been working on some truly great games here the past couple years and I am excited to see where Buru ends up after another undoubtedly successful Kickstarter campaign. I will always be up for a game of Buru, and I hope to play it often as the years continue.
Buru (http://burugame.com/)is a mid-weight economic worker placement game with a large dose of bidding thrown in for fun. In it players are visitors to the island sent to compete to become the governor of Buru by hiring indigenous peoples to assist with tasks, by providing fish for the peoples, pleasing the island’s elders, and by paying homages to the spirits of the land. The emissary who can utilize all their resources efficiently and impactfully will be deemed governor of Buru and winner of the game.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, follow the instructions in the rulebook. There are just too many steps to detail here and the rulebook is fantastic. Once setup, the play area should look similar to the photo below.
The game of Buru lasts five rounds, and each round consists of five phases of the day: Dawn, Morning, Noon, Afternoon, and Dusk. At the end of the fifth round the game is over and players will tally points to arrive at the winner.
During the Dawn phase players will flip over the top two Decrees tokens from the middle of the main circular board. These Decrees will be placed in certain areas and are worth bonus points or other advantages for the round. Also during this phase the Forest cards will be reset from the previous round. Once complete play moves to the Morning phase.
In the Morning players will be sending out their numbered Explorer tokens (from 1-5) onto the various board areas in turn starting with the current Emissary (first player). Each player will place one of their Explorer tokens at a time until each player has only one Explorer token left. Players may place multiple Explorers in a location to increase their bid for majority, but these Explorer tokens are placed face-up (literally with the face showing and the number on the board not showing) so that their values are hidden. Once Explorers are placed, play moves to the Noon phase.
At Noon the people must fish for food and have lunch. The leftover Explorer token that was not used in the Morning is then revealed and its value is converted to fish. Fish are needed to recruit islanders and are converted into other resources. Fish are tracked on the individual player boards. After a hearty lunch play continues into the Afternoon.
The Afternoon is where much of the action in Buru takes place. During this phase the Explorer tokens that were placed in the Morning are revealed and players take actions in each area by order of majority in each area. First the highest-bidding player will claim their chosen action space, then the next highest bidder, and so on. The Forest is resolved first. Players reveal the Explorer tokens in the Forest and whichever player has majority in this area is able to place their tokens a claim space on the board and will receive a Forest card of their choice. Forest cards are typically resources immediately earned by the player. Resources include Clay, Palm Leaves, and Ebony. The player with majority also earns the favor of Gunung (green spirit) and takes its giant statueeple.
Next, the Shore is resolved in the same manner. The Shore is where players may use their supplies of fish to recruit islanders to their taskforces and carry out tasks. The majority leader in this area chooses a space to place their Explorer tokens and resolves the action. This could include purchasing islander cards and refreshing the offer of islander cards in whichever order the player chooses. The player with the majority also earns the favor of Banyu (blue spirit) and takes its giant statueeple.
The Village is the area where islanders are able to complete tasks. The majority leader in this area chooses a space and takes the actions. These actions include activating islanders for the actions printed on the bottom of their cards and possibly even earning more fish. The player with the majority also earns the favor of Manuk (orange spirit) and takes its giant statueeple.
Finally, The Sacred Lake is resolved in the same manner. Here players are able to pay tributes to the spirits in order to earn bonuses from them. The majority leader in this area chooses a space to place their Explorer tokens, earns an immediate Esteem (VP tracked along the outer edge of the board), and takes the action of the space claimed. These spaces offer opportunities to pay tribute to one or more of the spirits as well as earning an Elder card, which provides conditions for earning bonus points at the end of the game. When a spirit is tributed they offer bonus Esteem cards and other benefits to be used. Once this area is completely resolved and players have all taken their turns play moves onto Dusk.
In Dusk players will reset the board for the next round of play. Players retrieve all their Explorer tokens from the board and untask their islanders that have completed tasks this day. After the fifth round the game is over and players tally their scores from their position on the Esteem track, any spirit Tribute cards earned, and Elder card point conditions met. The player with the most points will be crowned the winner!
Components. Okay, I have to give a giant shout-out to the team at Crafty Games. This is one of the highest-quality prototypes I have ever played in terms of component quality. When I opened the game box all components were separated into baggies and card cases and LABELED with the number of components, the titles, and even a picture of the components to be placed within. I don’t even organize my games to this level and I feel I am a tad OCD about my game organization. Kudos here. But also the components are all fine quality and the finished product promises to be just spectacular if this is what is received as a prototype.
I love the art and art style throughout this game. It is difficult to have theme shine through in a very Euro-style game, but I did feel the theme here. The art is very suggestive of island life, and Crafty Games even hired Cultural Consultants to assure all avenues are culturally appropriate. What a great call. I wish all publishers would be so thorough.
The gameplay is also quite stunning. The game just flows so naturally and everything makes complete sense. Of course you need to collect natural resources before recruiting islanders before asking said islanders to complete tasks before you pay respects to their spirits. I like the flow, and after a couple rounds I no longer needed the rulebook as a crutch.
I have very much enjoyed my plays of Buru for many reasons. The game is absolutely gorgeous. The art sings and truly adds to the gameplay. The rules are not light, but not over my head, and I appreciate that. The choices given to each player are crunchy without being too burdensome, and players of many skill levels will be able to find joy contemplating when and where to send their Explorers in each area. The game builds up to a big ending where many points are scored from places unknown to opponents and bulleting ahead from last place to first from exploiting bonus cards is so satisfying.
It is easy to understand why I love this game and would certainly recommend it to all gamers. If you have been looking for something a little heavier in your collection but don’t want to go TOO heavy, please do yourself a favor and consider backing Buru. Crafty Games has been working on some truly great games here the past couple years and I am excited to see where Buru ends up after another undoubtedly successful Kickstarter campaign. I will always be up for a game of Buru, and I hope to play it often as the years continue.
LilyLovesIndie (123 KP) rated Honour in Books
Nov 5, 2018
This review was originally carried out as part of a blog tour on Lily Loves Indie and can be seen here http://lilylovesindie.co.uk/?p=209
This stunning collection of short stories has got to be one of my favourite items on my kindle. When I read these I experienced such a depth of emotion and they moved me so much that I had to keep putting it down to get tissues and mop up the mess that I became. This, by far, is Feeney's greatest work to date. She elicits such a wonderful amount of emotion from you, and this is all the more remarkable when you consider that some of the stories are just a few thousand words long. In order to do each story the justice they truly deserve, I am going to briefly review each book before summing up my main ideas. So if you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin....
Honour
A young woman at a graveside, the rain falling down, already the emotions are running high, and this is just the first paragraph of the story, yet I'm hooked. Throughout the whole of this story Feeney leads you in a direction, letting your imagination fill the gaps, but then at the last minute she deals her hand and tells you exactly what is going on, and boy did it knock me for six! I was most definitely not expecting that turn of events, but strangely, it totally fitted. Apologies for the vagueness, but I don't want to spoil it for you as this is one of the key features of this story.
Deserter
Just as the title suggests, this story deals with a deserter, the officer who tries to cover it up and his family dealing with his actions at home. I know what you're thinking, there's enough material there to write a whole book! But Feeney writes this superbly, capturing the emotions of all the key characters in just a few short chapters. Jack's dilemma, and the reasoning behind his desertion, are both incredibly touching and very sensitively written. As someone who can't even begin to comprehend what horrors soldiers must see every day, I really feel like Feeney gave us a glimpse into a tortured mind, a soul that was broken and in need of so much healing that just simply wasn't available. She also deals fantastically with the stigma attached to deserting in a very delicate and sensitive manner, highlighting the other side of the story incredibly well.
Silence is Deafening
I've read and re-read this story so many times, but it still kills me every time! It's so emotionally written, charged with sadness and a sense of duty, a sense of honour. Strangely, I engaged more with Evelyn as I found myself imagining what her emotions would be when she wakes up and reads Joseph's letter. I could feel the ties that bound them together being strained and pulled, the pain they must have felt. It was just so well written the intensity of their love was completely real, it charged the room around my and stole my breath. But what I loved most about this story is that there was hope at the end. He might have survived, he might have come back. The tiniest glimmer was there, and it captured my imagination and sent seeds of thought rooting deep in my head. It's not a story you'll forget in a hurry, but in the best possible way!
Letters to No One
This is perhaps my favourite military based story I've ever written, but for me it is head and shoulders above the others in this collection. I could talk for hours about why I loved this story so much, but I'll try and summarise it and not spoil anything. The strongest feature of this particular story is it's wonderful believability and 'normal' way of approaching what is, to non-military families at least, a very abnormal situation. The letters are funny, yet very much full of a sadness at the separation and need to see each other one more time. Jonno is a great character, and although he doesn't feature much directly, it's the indirect references to him in his families letters which really bring him to life. Little Michael is totally adorable, and his letter is perhaps my favourite purely for the innocence only a child can have. The whole story touched me more than any other in this collection, eliciting full on body shaking sobs and I can only conclude that it is because it is a. wonderfully written and b. incredibly realistic. As much as I hate to admit it, this has probably happened to countless families out there, and that immense sadness just crushed me and opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at things.
Night Terrors
Initially, I found this quite difficult to get into, it's the one story in the collection I wasn't over keen on as I read through. However, it's a bit of a 'grower' and, like 'Silence is Deafening', it planted hundreds of little seeds of thought in my brain and when given time to develop they just grew and grew until they were out of control. Dealing with what is essentially PTSD, and how it affects not only the sufferer but also their family, 'Night Terrors' has so much it can teach the reader. We all think nothing of our 'normal' lives, but this was another story that really opened my eyes to the troubles being in the military can cause. Carl's dad clearly struggled for years, never feeling he could discuss him experiences and so they literally terrorised his dreams. It's incredibly sensitive in how the story deals with what is a very current and prevalent issue and Feeney deserves a great deal of credit for not only having the balls to deal with this subject matter, but also for doing it so brilliantly. Again, this is another emotionally charged piece of writing, but Feeney really does develop the plot so well and so subtly that it sucks you in without you noticing.
Welcome Home
The final story in the collection is as wonderful as the others. A happy ending, a reunion, a feeling of hope to carry forward. This is the ending we all want for all our soldiers, and Feeney cleverly reminds us that no matter how many may perish, and however sad that may be, we must always keep looking for that glimmer of hope, and take the opportunities of happiness that are offered to us when they are there, because we never know when they will be snatched away.
One of the key features in all of these stories is how engaging they are, despite what is, at times, very upsetting subject matter. The characters pull you in, the circumstances, although fictional, are tinged with a reality that brings you crashing down to ground when you think about them after (and believe me, you will) and you realise, 'that could have actually happened to someone'. It's a humbling thought, and one that really makes you think, but in a good way. Reading this book made me so much more thankful for the sacrifices servicemen and woman make, and the pain their families must experience, but mostly it made me grateful for my own life.
Something else that shines through is how real everything feels in these stories. I know Feeney did a large amount of research into military procedures and that is evident with the protocols, the addresses, the description, just everything really! It's clear that this writing means a lot to the author, and that passion for respect and honour of our armed forces just oozes from every page and fills you with a great sense of pride and patriotism. It's strange to feel proud of something when you're reading (unless it's something you've written), but Feeney manages to elicit that, as well as many other emotions as you're reading and it just builds to a huge crescendo.
Another key feature is the description, and this is a theme that is evident throughout the whole collection. Feeney puts so much into her writing. You can clearly see in your mind the characters, you can feel the emotions, you hurt when they hurt, smile when they smile. It's her attention to the small detail in this story that really gives this story that extra something. Even though you don't know all the specifics like names and ages, we know plenty to cry for their loss and smile with them in their joy. You hurt when they hurt. It's very rare I find a story that moves me in such a way, especially one that is just pages long, but that is exactly what this story does.
In conclusion, this book is truly phenomenal, one of the best pieces of literature I have read so far this year. It's engaging, thought provoking, realistic, easy to read, but above all, it's just, well, words fail me. Honestly, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Five stars is not enough for this book, and it truly deserves the highest accolades possible. Seriously, go one-click! It's now available on Amazon UK and Amazon US, but heed my warning, you want a lot of tissues near you when you read this, tear-jerker doesn't quite cover it!
* * * * * *
I am SO excited about reviewing this and interviewing the author over on Lily Loves Indie and Ramble Media on 1st November as part of the Blog Tour! Watch this space for updates and snippets of my review.
This stunning collection of short stories has got to be one of my favourite items on my kindle. When I read these I experienced such a depth of emotion and they moved me so much that I had to keep putting it down to get tissues and mop up the mess that I became. This, by far, is Feeney's greatest work to date. She elicits such a wonderful amount of emotion from you, and this is all the more remarkable when you consider that some of the stories are just a few thousand words long. In order to do each story the justice they truly deserve, I am going to briefly review each book before summing up my main ideas. So if you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin....
Honour
A young woman at a graveside, the rain falling down, already the emotions are running high, and this is just the first paragraph of the story, yet I'm hooked. Throughout the whole of this story Feeney leads you in a direction, letting your imagination fill the gaps, but then at the last minute she deals her hand and tells you exactly what is going on, and boy did it knock me for six! I was most definitely not expecting that turn of events, but strangely, it totally fitted. Apologies for the vagueness, but I don't want to spoil it for you as this is one of the key features of this story.
Deserter
Just as the title suggests, this story deals with a deserter, the officer who tries to cover it up and his family dealing with his actions at home. I know what you're thinking, there's enough material there to write a whole book! But Feeney writes this superbly, capturing the emotions of all the key characters in just a few short chapters. Jack's dilemma, and the reasoning behind his desertion, are both incredibly touching and very sensitively written. As someone who can't even begin to comprehend what horrors soldiers must see every day, I really feel like Feeney gave us a glimpse into a tortured mind, a soul that was broken and in need of so much healing that just simply wasn't available. She also deals fantastically with the stigma attached to deserting in a very delicate and sensitive manner, highlighting the other side of the story incredibly well.
Silence is Deafening
I've read and re-read this story so many times, but it still kills me every time! It's so emotionally written, charged with sadness and a sense of duty, a sense of honour. Strangely, I engaged more with Evelyn as I found myself imagining what her emotions would be when she wakes up and reads Joseph's letter. I could feel the ties that bound them together being strained and pulled, the pain they must have felt. It was just so well written the intensity of their love was completely real, it charged the room around my and stole my breath. But what I loved most about this story is that there was hope at the end. He might have survived, he might have come back. The tiniest glimmer was there, and it captured my imagination and sent seeds of thought rooting deep in my head. It's not a story you'll forget in a hurry, but in the best possible way!
Letters to No One
This is perhaps my favourite military based story I've ever written, but for me it is head and shoulders above the others in this collection. I could talk for hours about why I loved this story so much, but I'll try and summarise it and not spoil anything. The strongest feature of this particular story is it's wonderful believability and 'normal' way of approaching what is, to non-military families at least, a very abnormal situation. The letters are funny, yet very much full of a sadness at the separation and need to see each other one more time. Jonno is a great character, and although he doesn't feature much directly, it's the indirect references to him in his families letters which really bring him to life. Little Michael is totally adorable, and his letter is perhaps my favourite purely for the innocence only a child can have. The whole story touched me more than any other in this collection, eliciting full on body shaking sobs and I can only conclude that it is because it is a. wonderfully written and b. incredibly realistic. As much as I hate to admit it, this has probably happened to countless families out there, and that immense sadness just crushed me and opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at things.
Night Terrors
Initially, I found this quite difficult to get into, it's the one story in the collection I wasn't over keen on as I read through. However, it's a bit of a 'grower' and, like 'Silence is Deafening', it planted hundreds of little seeds of thought in my brain and when given time to develop they just grew and grew until they were out of control. Dealing with what is essentially PTSD, and how it affects not only the sufferer but also their family, 'Night Terrors' has so much it can teach the reader. We all think nothing of our 'normal' lives, but this was another story that really opened my eyes to the troubles being in the military can cause. Carl's dad clearly struggled for years, never feeling he could discuss him experiences and so they literally terrorised his dreams. It's incredibly sensitive in how the story deals with what is a very current and prevalent issue and Feeney deserves a great deal of credit for not only having the balls to deal with this subject matter, but also for doing it so brilliantly. Again, this is another emotionally charged piece of writing, but Feeney really does develop the plot so well and so subtly that it sucks you in without you noticing.
Welcome Home
The final story in the collection is as wonderful as the others. A happy ending, a reunion, a feeling of hope to carry forward. This is the ending we all want for all our soldiers, and Feeney cleverly reminds us that no matter how many may perish, and however sad that may be, we must always keep looking for that glimmer of hope, and take the opportunities of happiness that are offered to us when they are there, because we never know when they will be snatched away.
One of the key features in all of these stories is how engaging they are, despite what is, at times, very upsetting subject matter. The characters pull you in, the circumstances, although fictional, are tinged with a reality that brings you crashing down to ground when you think about them after (and believe me, you will) and you realise, 'that could have actually happened to someone'. It's a humbling thought, and one that really makes you think, but in a good way. Reading this book made me so much more thankful for the sacrifices servicemen and woman make, and the pain their families must experience, but mostly it made me grateful for my own life.
Something else that shines through is how real everything feels in these stories. I know Feeney did a large amount of research into military procedures and that is evident with the protocols, the addresses, the description, just everything really! It's clear that this writing means a lot to the author, and that passion for respect and honour of our armed forces just oozes from every page and fills you with a great sense of pride and patriotism. It's strange to feel proud of something when you're reading (unless it's something you've written), but Feeney manages to elicit that, as well as many other emotions as you're reading and it just builds to a huge crescendo.
Another key feature is the description, and this is a theme that is evident throughout the whole collection. Feeney puts so much into her writing. You can clearly see in your mind the characters, you can feel the emotions, you hurt when they hurt, smile when they smile. It's her attention to the small detail in this story that really gives this story that extra something. Even though you don't know all the specifics like names and ages, we know plenty to cry for their loss and smile with them in their joy. You hurt when they hurt. It's very rare I find a story that moves me in such a way, especially one that is just pages long, but that is exactly what this story does.
In conclusion, this book is truly phenomenal, one of the best pieces of literature I have read so far this year. It's engaging, thought provoking, realistic, easy to read, but above all, it's just, well, words fail me. Honestly, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Five stars is not enough for this book, and it truly deserves the highest accolades possible. Seriously, go one-click! It's now available on Amazon UK and Amazon US, but heed my warning, you want a lot of tissues near you when you read this, tear-jerker doesn't quite cover it!
* * * * * *
I am SO excited about reviewing this and interviewing the author over on Lily Loves Indie and Ramble Media on 1st November as part of the Blog Tour! Watch this space for updates and snippets of my review.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated The Grimm Forest in Tabletop Games
Apr 9, 2021
I am so psyched to be reviewing another board game based on fairytale lore. The Brothers Grimm material is such an enchanting (eh? eh?) theme and games can be taken in so many wonderful directions. Though I have never actually read any of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales (I know, I know), I have seen most of the movies based on the stories. I also know that the source material happens to be way darker than what Disney puts out, so when I heard we would be receiving The Grimm Forest to review, and not having really researched it much beforehand, I had a feeling it would be darker fare. But how dark does it go? Let’s find out.
The Grimm Forest is a simultaneous action selection, set collection, take that game for four family members of the infamous Three Little Pigs. As fantasy contractors players are tasked with constructing three houses as sturdy and quickly as they can. However, these contractors will have competition for limited resources, as well as the occasional interference from scary creatures and buddies of opponents. Like the baseball movie says, “If you build it, you will win the contract to build more stuff.” Or something like that.
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, place the Location boards on the table for the Fields, Forest, and Brickyard (for a three-player game, as below). The First Builder Bonus tokens are placed below the matching Locations as well as the resources that can be harvested. One of each Mega Resource (5 Straw, 4 Wood, 3 Brick) are placed on the matching Location at the beginning of each round. The Friend and Fable decks are shuffled and placed nearby, as are the House sections (Floors, Walls, Roofs – Rooves?), and the Monster minis. Each player chooses a color and collects the Player board, Pig mini, and Gather cards matching that color. The first player is given the Starting Player tome token and the game may now begin!
The Grimm Forest is played over a series of rounds with each pig having a multi-step turn. Initially, however, the pigs will be deciding from which Location they would like to harvest resources by laying the corresponding Gather card from their hand to the table face-down. Once all pigs have laid their card, the Gather cards are flipped and revealed simultaneously. If any pig had chosen to also play one Fable card it would have been revealed and possibly resolved prior to this step. Players will place their Pig mini on the Location board they chose and then harvesting of resources may begin, unless a player has a Fable card that resolves at this point in the turn. If a Pig is alone in a Location they receive all resources currently found there. If Pigs share a Location then the shared minis will share the resources equally, keeping any remaining resources on the Location for the next round. If any player used a Fable card that activates at the end of the Gather phase, it is resolved now.
After the Gather phase, the Pigs will be able to take actions. On their turn, in turn order, each Pig may choose to perform two of the following actions in any order they wish (actions may be repeated except for Friend Special Actions): Draw a Fable card, Gain 1 Resource, Build, Special Actions. Drawing a Fable card is self-explanatory and players will keep their Fable cards secret from the other players. They may choose to play one of these Fable cards during the choosing of Gather cards portion of the beginning phase of a turn. A Pig may instead wish to gain one resource of their choosing and add it to their collection. As mentioned earlier, a Pig may also use their active Friend card’s (which is earned by building a Wall section) Special Action once per turn, should they have collected one earlier.
The true hero of The Grimm Forest is the Build action as this is what propels players to victory. Pigs may Build any house type they wish, as long as that type is not currently under construction elsewhere on their board. Also note that houses must be built from the ground up so Floors must be present before Walls can be built and Walls need to be constructed in order to hold up a Roof. Pigs may build these sections of houses by discarding the appropriate number and type of resources they have gathered previously: two resources for a Floor, four resources for Walls, and six resources for a Roof. Once a Pig completes construction of the first house of a type they will grab the matching First Builder Bonus token and reap its rewards.
The game continues in this fashion until one player has built three houses of any type, or multiple players have completed their three houses by the end of the round. Those tied players then check for sturdiness to break their tie: brick houses are sturdier than wood, which are sturdier than straw. The winner is the player with the sturdiest collection of houses, and then all players are invited to share a plate of bacon in celebration of the win (not in the rules, but I added that for… flavor).
Components. This game is chocked full of killer components. I do not oftentimes compliment boxes and inserts, but when a game comes with GameTrayz already, you know that the publisher cared a ton about the game. Everything sets up and tears down so much nicer and quicker with a GameTrayz insert that I wish every game would come with them. Yeah, I know, $$$. Outside of the insert (or inside?) the other components in the game are simply stellar. Everything from the card backs resembling book covers, the incredible plastic house pieces, and amazing minis, just makes this one sing when on the table. The art is done by the incredible Mr. Cuddington, and they are quickly becoming some of my favorite board game artists.
Wait, there are monster minis? But I didn’t talk about that in my overview. Well, yes, that’s correct. These monsters come into play from certain Fable cards, and when they are played it instructs the player to introduce the appropriate monster mini on the playing area. This can be done with such dramatic flair that you truly get a sense of dread that little piggies may feel. If you have seen Stranger Things (not a sponsor) and remember the part when the Demogorgon mini hits the table, then you understand how I introduce my monster minis. These monsters wreak havoc on the players and sometimes deny them resources, and other chaos to mess with pigs.
Overall, I am so enamored with this game. It has nearly everything I love about games. It has amazing theme and art. That is always big with me. The components are super high quality, as all Druid City Games/Skybound Games usually are, and the game is so smooth once it is learned. All phases and turn components work together well, and there are plenty of choices each player makes every round. The game comes with advanced rules and components as well once all players are comfortable with the base game, and I love when games come with that added complexity and difficulty.
I have nothing bad to say about this game at all, which makes me sad, because I can usually find something to improve with every game I play. Okay wait, I just thought of one: I appreciate that the player colors include both orange and purple, but then the others are blue and green. I think the player colors could have come with some different choices as I feel blue, green, and purple are within similar color bands. Maybe pink and aqua would be better choices for my taste? I don’t know, and I am sure research was done to decide on the player colors, but like I said, I needed to find SOMETHING to complain about.
So it is certainly no surprise that I love this game and rated so highly. I doubt it will ever truly break into my Top 10, but I feel it ticks all of my boxes for a great game and a 6 from me. Purple Phoenix Games as a whole gives this one a porky 15 / 18. If you are looking for a great game that is admittedly lighter, but gives great gameplay throughout, features incredible art and components, and offers opportunities for role-play then you definitely need to grab a copy of The Grimm Forest. I will be recommending this to so many gamers in the future, and I will be pushing the floor of the age suggestion on the box once my son decides he wants to learn to read. I think I am going to go try out the Advanced rules now, and remember: don’t eat an apple that a scary person gave you at the door.
The Grimm Forest is a simultaneous action selection, set collection, take that game for four family members of the infamous Three Little Pigs. As fantasy contractors players are tasked with constructing three houses as sturdy and quickly as they can. However, these contractors will have competition for limited resources, as well as the occasional interference from scary creatures and buddies of opponents. Like the baseball movie says, “If you build it, you will win the contract to build more stuff.” Or something like that.
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, place the Location boards on the table for the Fields, Forest, and Brickyard (for a three-player game, as below). The First Builder Bonus tokens are placed below the matching Locations as well as the resources that can be harvested. One of each Mega Resource (5 Straw, 4 Wood, 3 Brick) are placed on the matching Location at the beginning of each round. The Friend and Fable decks are shuffled and placed nearby, as are the House sections (Floors, Walls, Roofs – Rooves?), and the Monster minis. Each player chooses a color and collects the Player board, Pig mini, and Gather cards matching that color. The first player is given the Starting Player tome token and the game may now begin!
The Grimm Forest is played over a series of rounds with each pig having a multi-step turn. Initially, however, the pigs will be deciding from which Location they would like to harvest resources by laying the corresponding Gather card from their hand to the table face-down. Once all pigs have laid their card, the Gather cards are flipped and revealed simultaneously. If any pig had chosen to also play one Fable card it would have been revealed and possibly resolved prior to this step. Players will place their Pig mini on the Location board they chose and then harvesting of resources may begin, unless a player has a Fable card that resolves at this point in the turn. If a Pig is alone in a Location they receive all resources currently found there. If Pigs share a Location then the shared minis will share the resources equally, keeping any remaining resources on the Location for the next round. If any player used a Fable card that activates at the end of the Gather phase, it is resolved now.
After the Gather phase, the Pigs will be able to take actions. On their turn, in turn order, each Pig may choose to perform two of the following actions in any order they wish (actions may be repeated except for Friend Special Actions): Draw a Fable card, Gain 1 Resource, Build, Special Actions. Drawing a Fable card is self-explanatory and players will keep their Fable cards secret from the other players. They may choose to play one of these Fable cards during the choosing of Gather cards portion of the beginning phase of a turn. A Pig may instead wish to gain one resource of their choosing and add it to their collection. As mentioned earlier, a Pig may also use their active Friend card’s (which is earned by building a Wall section) Special Action once per turn, should they have collected one earlier.
The true hero of The Grimm Forest is the Build action as this is what propels players to victory. Pigs may Build any house type they wish, as long as that type is not currently under construction elsewhere on their board. Also note that houses must be built from the ground up so Floors must be present before Walls can be built and Walls need to be constructed in order to hold up a Roof. Pigs may build these sections of houses by discarding the appropriate number and type of resources they have gathered previously: two resources for a Floor, four resources for Walls, and six resources for a Roof. Once a Pig completes construction of the first house of a type they will grab the matching First Builder Bonus token and reap its rewards.
The game continues in this fashion until one player has built three houses of any type, or multiple players have completed their three houses by the end of the round. Those tied players then check for sturdiness to break their tie: brick houses are sturdier than wood, which are sturdier than straw. The winner is the player with the sturdiest collection of houses, and then all players are invited to share a plate of bacon in celebration of the win (not in the rules, but I added that for… flavor).
Components. This game is chocked full of killer components. I do not oftentimes compliment boxes and inserts, but when a game comes with GameTrayz already, you know that the publisher cared a ton about the game. Everything sets up and tears down so much nicer and quicker with a GameTrayz insert that I wish every game would come with them. Yeah, I know, $$$. Outside of the insert (or inside?) the other components in the game are simply stellar. Everything from the card backs resembling book covers, the incredible plastic house pieces, and amazing minis, just makes this one sing when on the table. The art is done by the incredible Mr. Cuddington, and they are quickly becoming some of my favorite board game artists.
Wait, there are monster minis? But I didn’t talk about that in my overview. Well, yes, that’s correct. These monsters come into play from certain Fable cards, and when they are played it instructs the player to introduce the appropriate monster mini on the playing area. This can be done with such dramatic flair that you truly get a sense of dread that little piggies may feel. If you have seen Stranger Things (not a sponsor) and remember the part when the Demogorgon mini hits the table, then you understand how I introduce my monster minis. These monsters wreak havoc on the players and sometimes deny them resources, and other chaos to mess with pigs.
Overall, I am so enamored with this game. It has nearly everything I love about games. It has amazing theme and art. That is always big with me. The components are super high quality, as all Druid City Games/Skybound Games usually are, and the game is so smooth once it is learned. All phases and turn components work together well, and there are plenty of choices each player makes every round. The game comes with advanced rules and components as well once all players are comfortable with the base game, and I love when games come with that added complexity and difficulty.
I have nothing bad to say about this game at all, which makes me sad, because I can usually find something to improve with every game I play. Okay wait, I just thought of one: I appreciate that the player colors include both orange and purple, but then the others are blue and green. I think the player colors could have come with some different choices as I feel blue, green, and purple are within similar color bands. Maybe pink and aqua would be better choices for my taste? I don’t know, and I am sure research was done to decide on the player colors, but like I said, I needed to find SOMETHING to complain about.
So it is certainly no surprise that I love this game and rated so highly. I doubt it will ever truly break into my Top 10, but I feel it ticks all of my boxes for a great game and a 6 from me. Purple Phoenix Games as a whole gives this one a porky 15 / 18. If you are looking for a great game that is admittedly lighter, but gives great gameplay throughout, features incredible art and components, and offers opportunities for role-play then you definitely need to grab a copy of The Grimm Forest. I will be recommending this to so many gamers in the future, and I will be pushing the floor of the age suggestion on the box once my son decides he wants to learn to read. I think I am going to go try out the Advanced rules now, and remember: don’t eat an apple that a scary person gave you at the door.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tiny Epic Pirates in Tabletop Games
Dec 28, 2021
Gamelyn Games and Scott Almes have done it again. They’ve managed to create yet another Tiny Epic game with a combo of theme and mechanics that we just couldn’t pass up. When this Kickstarter went live, we were definitely auto-backing it. Now that it’s been fulfilled and we’ve had the opportunity to play it, does it meet all of our high hopes and expectations? Is Tiny Epic Pirates a hidden treasure, or is it fool’s gold?
Disclaimer: I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook in this review, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. -L
Tiny Epic Pirates is a competitive game in which players take on the roles of pirate captains sailing the seas, engaging in combat, trading at various ports, and trying to bury some treasure. Played over a series of rounds, the game ends once a player has buried their 3rd treasure chest. To setup, follow the instructions as detailed in the rulebook – there are simply too many to outline here concisely. Two unique aspects of setup are that the Map cards are shuffled and randomly placed in a 4×4 grid, ensuring a variable setup for each game. The other is that each player will also randomly assign Order tokens on their Wheel (rondel), which means that no two players will have the same setup for a game. Once the Sea has been created, players have prepared their appropriate mats, a market for Booty and Crew have been setup, and tokens/Ships are placed on the map, the game is ready to begin!
Each turn is broken down into 5 steps: Captain’s Order/Deckhands, Sail, Execute Captain’s Order, Trigger Bonus Actions, and Crossing the Ship Line. The first part of every turn is to move your Captain meeple clockwise on your Wheel to select your Captain’s Order for this turn. Moving to the next adjacent space is free, but to skip spaces you must place Deckhand meeples onto the skipped spaces. In future turns, you may have Deckhands coming off the wheel, and you will assign those to other tasks during this step. The next step is to Sail your ship. Every player begins the game with a base speed of 1 Map card, and this can be enhanced throughout gameplay. During this step, you may Sail your ship across Map tiles up to your total allowed distance. After having Sailed, it is time to Execute Captain’s Order. To do this, refer back to your Wheel to see which action your Captain is on, and perform it. Possible actions are to Plunder (steal Booty from settlements), Trade (trade Booty for $ at markets), Crew Up (add up to 4 Crew members to your Ship), Search (gain a one-time benefit from un-searched Map cards), Attack (attack opposing Pirates or Merchant ships at sea), or Hide Out (rest at a Cove and reassign all Deckhands). You may only perform the action that was selected in the Captain’s Order step, regardless of if your placement on a Map card has other actions available.
Once your selected action has been performed, the next step is to Trigger Bonus Actions. Looking at your Captain and Crew cards, if their leftmost icon matches your current Captain’s Order, you may trigger the listed bonus actions. Some bonus actions allow you to perform duplicate Captain’s Orders, but others will earn you money, let you reassign Deckhands, exchange Booty at a different rate, and bury treasure. You don’t need to perform every Bonus Action listed if you so choose, but they may only be performed when their card icon matches your Captain’s Order. The very last step of your turn is to see if you have Crossed the Ship Line. Check your Wheel and see if you have moved from space 5 across the Ship Line to start another circle around the Wheel. If you did not cross the line, then your turn ends and play moves to the next Pirate. If you did cross the Ship Line, then the Merchant and Navy ships will sail a set amount of distance. Merchant ships are simply trying to deliver goods to port, and will be traversing the sea throughout the game. The Navy ship is hunting down Pirates, and will move to attack the current player any time the Ship Line is crossed. When a player has buried their third and final treasure, the round finishes as normal and the game ends. The player who buried all 3 treasures is the winner! In the case of a tie, check the rulebook. 😉
As with most of the Tiny Epic games, I will first start by saying that the size of the box may be small, but the gameplay inside is enormous. There is so much strategy in this one, I think it’s the ‘heaviest’ one in the series so far. You have so many different choices when it comes to strategy, and the gameplay will feel different every time. You could choose to take the offensive and be the aggressor, attacking any and all Ships that you can. Winning combat against Merchant Ships earns you Booty and other resources, while winning combat against opposing Pirates earns you Legend Levels. Your current Legend Level dictates how many spaces you are allowed to Sail, as well as how many dice you can roll during combat. So increasing that level results in better benefits. Maybe you just want to be an honest Pirate and do all of your trading at legal markets, avoiding contact with others and trying to skirt around combat. Maybe you want to try a little of both? The point is, you have choices, and must be able to adapt them based on your opponents’ decisions as well.
A neat element I touched on earlier about this game is the variable setup for each individual player and their Wheel. This really factors into your strategy because you have to know when to use which actions. Do you use a Deckhand to skip a space, or do you burn a turn moving for free to keep that Deckhand right where you want him? And remember, Bonus Actions are only triggered when the matching Captain’s Order is selected, so maybe you have to sacrifice acting in a turn (not being able to perform the selected Captain’s Order) in order to trigger your desired Bonus Action. It’s all about strategy, and that keeps the gameplay engaging at all times.
Just a word of warning though, there is a bit of a learning curve, as there are so many steps and items to consider each turn. Thus the gameplay felt pretty daunting and slow-going my first few plays. But as I became more comfortable with the turn structure and the iconography, it became easier to know what comes next. Another thing to consider is player count. Playing Tiny Epic Pirates at 2 players didn’t really feel that immersive or engaging. With only 2 players on a 4×4 grid, it can be easy to completely avoid each other and skirt around, essentially playing by yourself in a way. With 3 and 4 players, there are more Ships on the map and more opportunities for player interactions and engagement. So it all comes down to what kind of gameplay you want, when selecting your player count.
Components. Again, so far all the Tiny Epic games have had awesome production quality and Tiny Epic Pirates is no exception. The artwork is bright and colorful, the cards and cardboard tokens are sturdy, the meeples are cute, and the actual ships are fun to play with. My only qualms are that two of the player colors – black and blue – are visually similar so in setup it can be tricky to tell them apart. Another qualm is that two of the Booty types (teehee) are a tan and gray color, and the iconography for both on the Map cards are similarly colored. The first few plays I found myself trading the wrong Booty at market because I didn’t check the icon closely enough. These are not game-breakers by any means, but just a heads up so you’re paying attention! As this was a Kickstarter, I did opt for the add-on Pirate Skull dice, and have to honestly say that I prefer the regular game dice better. The ‘knots’ on the corners of the skull dice stop them from continuing to roll, so I felt like I wasn’t really getting a real roll on them. Maybe that’s just my personal opinion, but the regular ol’ game dice are perfectly fine.
How does Tiny Epic Pirates fare in the lineup of the Tiny Epic games? Fairly well, I would say. It’s not one that I would pull out to play with just anybody, as it is a bit of a heavier game, but it is one that I know I would enjoy with my game group. There are a lot of neat elements and mechanics at play here that really work well together and make for an engaging and kind of brain-burning (in a way) game. Although Tiny Epic Pirates might not get as much playtime for me as others in the series, it’s a good one to have and it really embodies the tiny (small box, check) and epic (sweet and strategic gameplay) parts of the title. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a seaworthy 4 / 6.
Disclaimer: I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook in this review, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. -L
Tiny Epic Pirates is a competitive game in which players take on the roles of pirate captains sailing the seas, engaging in combat, trading at various ports, and trying to bury some treasure. Played over a series of rounds, the game ends once a player has buried their 3rd treasure chest. To setup, follow the instructions as detailed in the rulebook – there are simply too many to outline here concisely. Two unique aspects of setup are that the Map cards are shuffled and randomly placed in a 4×4 grid, ensuring a variable setup for each game. The other is that each player will also randomly assign Order tokens on their Wheel (rondel), which means that no two players will have the same setup for a game. Once the Sea has been created, players have prepared their appropriate mats, a market for Booty and Crew have been setup, and tokens/Ships are placed on the map, the game is ready to begin!
Each turn is broken down into 5 steps: Captain’s Order/Deckhands, Sail, Execute Captain’s Order, Trigger Bonus Actions, and Crossing the Ship Line. The first part of every turn is to move your Captain meeple clockwise on your Wheel to select your Captain’s Order for this turn. Moving to the next adjacent space is free, but to skip spaces you must place Deckhand meeples onto the skipped spaces. In future turns, you may have Deckhands coming off the wheel, and you will assign those to other tasks during this step. The next step is to Sail your ship. Every player begins the game with a base speed of 1 Map card, and this can be enhanced throughout gameplay. During this step, you may Sail your ship across Map tiles up to your total allowed distance. After having Sailed, it is time to Execute Captain’s Order. To do this, refer back to your Wheel to see which action your Captain is on, and perform it. Possible actions are to Plunder (steal Booty from settlements), Trade (trade Booty for $ at markets), Crew Up (add up to 4 Crew members to your Ship), Search (gain a one-time benefit from un-searched Map cards), Attack (attack opposing Pirates or Merchant ships at sea), or Hide Out (rest at a Cove and reassign all Deckhands). You may only perform the action that was selected in the Captain’s Order step, regardless of if your placement on a Map card has other actions available.
Once your selected action has been performed, the next step is to Trigger Bonus Actions. Looking at your Captain and Crew cards, if their leftmost icon matches your current Captain’s Order, you may trigger the listed bonus actions. Some bonus actions allow you to perform duplicate Captain’s Orders, but others will earn you money, let you reassign Deckhands, exchange Booty at a different rate, and bury treasure. You don’t need to perform every Bonus Action listed if you so choose, but they may only be performed when their card icon matches your Captain’s Order. The very last step of your turn is to see if you have Crossed the Ship Line. Check your Wheel and see if you have moved from space 5 across the Ship Line to start another circle around the Wheel. If you did not cross the line, then your turn ends and play moves to the next Pirate. If you did cross the Ship Line, then the Merchant and Navy ships will sail a set amount of distance. Merchant ships are simply trying to deliver goods to port, and will be traversing the sea throughout the game. The Navy ship is hunting down Pirates, and will move to attack the current player any time the Ship Line is crossed. When a player has buried their third and final treasure, the round finishes as normal and the game ends. The player who buried all 3 treasures is the winner! In the case of a tie, check the rulebook. 😉
As with most of the Tiny Epic games, I will first start by saying that the size of the box may be small, but the gameplay inside is enormous. There is so much strategy in this one, I think it’s the ‘heaviest’ one in the series so far. You have so many different choices when it comes to strategy, and the gameplay will feel different every time. You could choose to take the offensive and be the aggressor, attacking any and all Ships that you can. Winning combat against Merchant Ships earns you Booty and other resources, while winning combat against opposing Pirates earns you Legend Levels. Your current Legend Level dictates how many spaces you are allowed to Sail, as well as how many dice you can roll during combat. So increasing that level results in better benefits. Maybe you just want to be an honest Pirate and do all of your trading at legal markets, avoiding contact with others and trying to skirt around combat. Maybe you want to try a little of both? The point is, you have choices, and must be able to adapt them based on your opponents’ decisions as well.
A neat element I touched on earlier about this game is the variable setup for each individual player and their Wheel. This really factors into your strategy because you have to know when to use which actions. Do you use a Deckhand to skip a space, or do you burn a turn moving for free to keep that Deckhand right where you want him? And remember, Bonus Actions are only triggered when the matching Captain’s Order is selected, so maybe you have to sacrifice acting in a turn (not being able to perform the selected Captain’s Order) in order to trigger your desired Bonus Action. It’s all about strategy, and that keeps the gameplay engaging at all times.
Just a word of warning though, there is a bit of a learning curve, as there are so many steps and items to consider each turn. Thus the gameplay felt pretty daunting and slow-going my first few plays. But as I became more comfortable with the turn structure and the iconography, it became easier to know what comes next. Another thing to consider is player count. Playing Tiny Epic Pirates at 2 players didn’t really feel that immersive or engaging. With only 2 players on a 4×4 grid, it can be easy to completely avoid each other and skirt around, essentially playing by yourself in a way. With 3 and 4 players, there are more Ships on the map and more opportunities for player interactions and engagement. So it all comes down to what kind of gameplay you want, when selecting your player count.
Components. Again, so far all the Tiny Epic games have had awesome production quality and Tiny Epic Pirates is no exception. The artwork is bright and colorful, the cards and cardboard tokens are sturdy, the meeples are cute, and the actual ships are fun to play with. My only qualms are that two of the player colors – black and blue – are visually similar so in setup it can be tricky to tell them apart. Another qualm is that two of the Booty types (teehee) are a tan and gray color, and the iconography for both on the Map cards are similarly colored. The first few plays I found myself trading the wrong Booty at market because I didn’t check the icon closely enough. These are not game-breakers by any means, but just a heads up so you’re paying attention! As this was a Kickstarter, I did opt for the add-on Pirate Skull dice, and have to honestly say that I prefer the regular game dice better. The ‘knots’ on the corners of the skull dice stop them from continuing to roll, so I felt like I wasn’t really getting a real roll on them. Maybe that’s just my personal opinion, but the regular ol’ game dice are perfectly fine.
How does Tiny Epic Pirates fare in the lineup of the Tiny Epic games? Fairly well, I would say. It’s not one that I would pull out to play with just anybody, as it is a bit of a heavier game, but it is one that I know I would enjoy with my game group. There are a lot of neat elements and mechanics at play here that really work well together and make for an engaging and kind of brain-burning (in a way) game. Although Tiny Epic Pirates might not get as much playtime for me as others in the series, it’s a good one to have and it really embodies the tiny (small box, check) and epic (sweet and strategic gameplay) parts of the title. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a seaworthy 4 / 6.
