The Dungeons and Dragons boardgames occupy an interesting space in the tabletop world. Conquest of Nerath is a Risk-inspired war game played out in the fantasy world. The others are inspired by 4th Edition DnD rules, but with all the roleplaying stripped away and able to run without a DM. What that means is that if you’re looking for a familiar ruleset and just want to wreck on some baddies and crawl through some dungeons this is right up your alley. With randomized dungeons and a bunch of different scenarios it’s a lock that it’ll play out different each time you have a go at it. This is the 3rd game with this current system and doesn’t really change much rules wise, it’s more a change in the scenery.
First we had Castle Ravenloft which had enemies, tiles and scenarios based on that gothic horror game world from 2nd Edition DnD, complete with a chance to fight Count Strahd himself. Next up was Wrath of Ashardalon and that was a more classic world with the big baddie being the titular Dragon. Here the game is based around the books starring Drizzt Do’urden, which means ventures to the Underdark, and multiple enemies from his past come out to fight.
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Every year at the beginning of October, I go up to my friend’s cottage with a few of my nearest and dearest to unwind and gorge ourselves stupid. A big part of the unwinding process generally settles around playing a serious amount of board games. Big winners of the past cottage weekends have included Sequence, The Settlers of Catan, and Apples to Apples. This year, my friend Ash announced that he had brought up this new game Qwirkle, mostly due to the fact that it had also won the German Game of the Year award that had previously been given to Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne. That was more than a good enough reason for me to give Qwirkle a whirl, and I was definitely not disappointed.
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It’s no small surprise that we here at Perpetual Geek were excited about Battleship Galaxies, I mean we figure it’s probably the closest thing we’re going to get an a Battlestar Galactica miniatures board game, and that’s just fine with us. After hearing reports that the game was actually quite good (which seemed a surprise simply because of the Battleship name in the title) only seemed to stoke the fire even more. Finally we’ve had the chance to get it a spin round the table and we’re happy to report we like what we see. So say we all!
You really shouldn’t let the name Battleship deter you, this isn’t a random firing game where you stare at a set of pegs then rattle off numbers like a bingo parlor. No way. Here you’ll play though various scenarios flying your ships around in space fighting as either the Intergalactic Space Navy or the alien Wretcheridians. You’ll manage your resources, deploy ships and play cards to gain an upper hand in an effort to destroy your opponent. It’s not random Battleship, I’d say it’s more “wargame lite”.
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Personally, I don’t understand the sport of boxing. It’s not that I can’t follow what’s going on in the ring or why people enjoy watching it. No, it’s more that I don’t understand why people would want to participate in a sport where the goal is to limit the amount you get beat up. Getting punched in the head at work is not something I’ll ever find myself interested in doing. All that said I really like boxing videogames and LOVE movies about the punch-happy sport. Hell, I’ve lived all my life across the river from where Rocky was filmed. I’ve run up the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I’ve ate lightning and crapped thunder!
To say that I’ve never played a tabletop game based on boxing is a lie, I owned Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots like any other child of my era worth their salt in having good toy taste. It’s definitely suffice to say that I’ve never played a tabletop card game based on boxing. Let alone one that’s played in real time. Hit the jump and I’ll explain some more.
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David Sirlin has become something of a maverick in the world of competitive games over the last few years. Puzzle Strike managed to recreate the experience of Capcom’s Puzzle Fighter in a tabletop experience, complete with its own set of Street Fighter-style characters. Yomi brought those same characters into a rock-paper-scissor style card battle. And wedged neatly in between those two releases was Flash Duel, a card game that brought Sirlin’s Fantasy Strike fighters back, albeit in a somewhat simpler fashion.
The basics in Flash Duel are incredibly straight-forward. Each player is represented by a wooden pawn, and at the start of the game these pawns occupy opposite ends of numbered board. In your hand are five cards, each of which features a number from 1 thru 5 on it. Players will use these cards to move, attack, defend, and push.
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The year is 90,000 B.C. and I don’t want to alarm you but there’s an Ice Age right around the corner. Time is short if you want to survive (or maybe even thrive). This encroaching Ice Age is the backdrop of this game that recreates what the species of the Earth battled for vying for survival and dominance. The game starts with all species in balance but in the typical “Survival of the Fittest” battle those balances tip.
Dominant Species is a game that grabbed my attention after hearing numerous glowing reviews online and my own desire to “step it up a notch” so to speak in how involved the games are that I play. Dominant Species is easily the most involved game in my collection and requires players that are serious about playing a game (you know what I mean). If you’re interested in getting together with friends, having a few drinks, and shooting the shit while playing a board game I think I’d have to recommend looking elsewhere. Playing a game like Dominant Species not only takes hours if played correctly, it’s the kind of game that requires the game itself to be the center of the action and not something that is just the glue to get some people to a table together.
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In our bi-weekly podcast and in the board/card game reviews you see on the site we sometimes refer to something as a “gateway game.” They’re games that are a bit easier to understand and are a great way to introduce non-gamers to the boardgame world. Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan and even Forbidden Island are pretty well suited for this gateway game status, since they’re both simple to teach and learn, and are incredibly engaging right from the get go.
Small World is a game that sits right on the cusp of gateway game and that next step. It’s slightly more complicated than something like Ticket to Ride but not by much. It contains more strategic choices and takes a bit more acumen to teach/learn at first. I personally love the game. Enter Small World: Underground, an expansion but still a standalone game that takes the basic gameplay of the first game, adds a few twists and just gives us more of everything there was to love about the base game.
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It’s a story as old as time: lemmings are born, raised, and – at some point in their life cycle – decide to jump off a cliff along with their buddies in a spectacle of mass suicide that would put Jonestown to shame. But here’s the thing – it’s just not true. Knowing this, the fine folks at a research lab in Montana have spent millions to breed and race a suicidal strain of lemming, so that they can be raced to their death to settle a $20 bet. We like to call this “science.”
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