Pigpen—A Double-Take Review

For today's review, we're giving you a look at a cute card game from Kevin Kulp and Jason Tagmire that's nearly finished its campaign on Kickstarter. If you don't want to bother reading the review, just go there and back it. If you need some convincing, read on...

The Basics

Pigpen is a family card game for 2-4 players that plays in ~ 15 minutes. Players are trying to create pens that will hold pigs, which will score VPs. Think of the pens as a "block" of 6 spaces—three across and two deep. The four outside space are walls. The front center is a gate. And the back center is for food.

The Components

96 Cards (this number will go up based on the final funding level of the Kickstarter campaign)—80 Farmer Cards and 16 Pig Cards

The Setup

Shuffle the Pig Cards and create a Pig Deck—the number of which will depend on the number of players.

Shuffle the Farmer Cards, deal out five to each player, and then place the rest as a draw deck.

The Gameplay

On your turn you'll play up to two cards from your hand, discard one card (if you want) to the discard pile, and then draw back up to five cards.

Types of Cards

Wall Cards: They're either brick or wood walls. Your pen can consist of both types of material—the only difference in the two is which attack card can destroy that type of material. These have a Defense number—the higher the number the stronger the wall.

Gate Cards: This is a card with a gate on it, and can be played in the gate space of your pen.

Food Cards: These are played in the food space of your pen.

Attack Cards: These are things like saws, jackhammers, and other things, used to destroy other pens.

So when you play cards you'll either be building up your own pen, or wrecking other people's pens. Once you get all of the pieces to a pen, you can grab a pig and put it on the Food Card. Each Pig has a different VP number on it. You can draw from the top of the Pig Deck, or grab one of the loose ones. Why would a pig be loose? I'm glad you asked...

If someone breaks a piece of your completed pen, you have until the end of your turn to fix it or the pig runs off and hangs out around the Pig Deck. If another pig gets loose, the current loose pig goes to the bottom of the PIg Deck.

As you build new pens, you can use the outside walls as part of a neighboring pen.

When the last pig is taken, the game is over. Everyone gets one last play to try and fix any broken pens—the pigs then run out of unfixed pens. Everyone adds up the VPs on their Pigs, and the winner is the person with the most VPs; ties go to the person with the most pigs.

The Verdict

Firestone—Here's a conversation I had with my 5-year-old when the family finished playing our first game:

Me: "What did you think?"

He: "Awesome."

Me: "What was your favorite thing?"

He: "That I won."

Me: "What was your second favorite thing?"

He: "That you guys lost..."

And that about sums it up: My family liked this game a lot. It's "cute."

Jeremiah—Somewhere along the line my kids figured out how fun it is to gang up Mommy and Daddy, and they didn't bother trying to be sneaky about it. We pretty much knew that if they had cards to destroy our pens, we were in for it. Our 5-year old would even stare us down and start making sawing noises before he played his card, to add to the torment.

Firestone—It's a card game, so it's very random, and there is a TON of take that. Somehow in a cutesy pig game it doesn't feel as harsh as in other games. And it's short enough that you won't be demolishing fences for 90 minutes, which would make me flip my wig. If I wore a wig.

Jeremiah—Yeah the built-in timer is a much needed thanks to the massive amounts of back-and-forth, take-that in the game. It could seriously go on forever.

Firestone—Adding to the randomness is the fact that the pigs aren't all worth the same amount. So someone might draw an awesome 4-point pig, place it on a Superfood, and it's pretty much there forever. While I might only draw 1s the whole game.

Jeremiah—Yeah, it's a card game which means there's an element of luck of the draw, but there's enough that you can do to level the playing field (or other pens) to keep it competitive.

Jeremiah—The game is definitely geared for the family experience. The theme lends itself to that very well, but I could definitely see sitting down with some casual/non-gamer type folks and enjoying some laughs as we deliver blow after blow to each other's pen.

Firestone—I'm not going to play this with anyone but my family, but I'm okay having a family-only game.

Firestone's Final Verdict—This is a cute game that my family likes playing. There's tons of take-that (almost all of it aimed squarely at me), but it's short and easy to learn. Put this on the table.

Jeremiah's Final Verdict—We really loved this game! My boys learned it very quickly, and more importantly so did my wife. It's a great family game that is enjoyable for both adults and kids. I would recommend it for a casual party game, and for church/youth group play. Pigpen is packed with lots of light-hearted "Take that!" Which makes for great player interaction in what is essentially a set-collection game! You should definitely put this game on your table!

This game has been fully funded, and they're offering new cards and pigs, so head on over to the Kickstarter campaign and check it out for yourself. There are only 3 days left!!

Fluxx: The Board Game—A Double-Take Review

We adore chaos because we love to produce order." ~M.C. Escher Looney Labs has turned their hit card game into a board game. Is it as chaotic as the card game? Is it completely different? Will Firestone actually like this game?! Let's find out!

The Basics

Fluxx: The Board Game is for 2-4 players, ages 8 and up, and takes 15-30 minutes to play.

The Components

12 wooden playing pieces in four different colors: 3 yellow cubes, 3 green cylinders, 3 red pawns, and 3 blue person-shaped pieces.

8 orange pegs

Tiles and pegboards

1 deck of cards

The Setup

Place a peg into the leftmost peg on each of the rules on the Rules pegboard, and into the 3 spot on the Win pegboard.

Place the Start tile in the center of the table, mix up the other tiles, and create a 3 x 3 square of tiles around that center Start tile.

Pick player colors, place all used pieces on the Start tile, and give each player the card that corresponds to his or her color.

Look through the deck and find the first five Goal cards and place them in a pile faceup on the Win pegboard.

Shuffle the cards and deal three to each player.

Before the game begins, everyone gets one free rule change. You can move any peg one space to the right (or up if you're moving the peg on the Win pegboard. You can move any peg, even if it's been moved by someone else, but you can never undo or reverse another player's move.

The Gameplay

Randomly determine a start player. On a player's turn, you'll just look at the Rules pegboard and do what it says. You'll be drawing 1-4 cards, depending on where the peg is. You'll be playing 1-4 cards, depending on where the peg is. You'll be moving 2-5 spaces, depending on where the peg is. And you'll have a hand limit of none, 3, 2, or 1 cards, depending on where the peg is.

You can play cards and make moves in any order you want, and can even alternate between them.

There are blue Action cards that make something happen. They might let you trade hands with another player, or force everyone to trade colors. There are yellow New Rule cards, that change the rules somehow. They might tell you exactly how to change a peg, or give you options on what to move. Green Leaper cards have one of the pictures from the tiles on them, and you just jump a piece to that space. Purple Goal cards are played onto the top of the Goal pile, so that becomes the current Goal.

The Start tile has four arrows leading out of it, and you can only leave using one of those arrows. You'll be moving and playing cards and trying to match the Goal card currently on the top of the Win board.

Most spaces have a picture of one thing on them: chocolate, sun, music, brain. Each space can only hold one piece. If you move onto a space with another piece, you bump it to an adjacent unoccupied space (other than the one you just came from).

Each tile has one octagon space, which can hold any number of players. There are also two Portal spaces. As soon as someone moves onto one of the Portals, that person is immediately transported to the other Portal space.

There are also Special Move rules. One allows you to rotate a tile as one of your moves. One lets you pick up a tile and move it to another space—as long as you keep the orientation the same and as long as it's still connected to the rest of the tiles. And finally, the Wraparound rule lets you move off of one edge of the board and wraparound to the other. You can even cross gaps left over from uprooting a tile this way.

Any time (even on another player's turn) that you have pieces on spaces that match the current goal, you take that card. And as soon as someone has a number of Goal cards matching the current win level on the Win board, that person...wins!

The Verdict and Recommendations

Firestone—It's no secret that I don't really like Fluxx. It's way WAY too chaotic for me. I'll play with my family, but I wouldn't call it my favorite family game by a long shot. But Looney Labs wanted me to play this anyway, because it was more strategic, they said. I was skeptical but open-minded. Well they were absolutely right.

Rather than being based completely on the luck of the draw, Fluxx: The Board Game feels more like a puzzle: Each turn is a little puzzle to solve. Sure, there are still cards to draw and luck there, but there's also more stuff you can do to affect your position. How can I get myself onto those two spaces using the rules, cards, and movement available to me? While there's still some chaos and luck, I felt as though I had more control than I EVER had in the card game.

Jeremiah—I, on the other hand, am a huge fan of Fluxx! Fluxx, if nothing else, is unique compared to anything else you will play—I love the way the game wreaks havoc with the players, causing them to readjust constantly. No, it's not very strategic—at times—but there's something about seeing the agony on your friend's face when they realize they HAVE to play a card that causes you to win!

Fluxx the board game captures a lot of the original feel of the card game but does a great job of creating a new experience for fans of the game and newcomers!

Firestone—The pieces are a mix of good and bad. The pegboards and tiles are all nice and thick, but the pegs are too long. So when the pegs are in, the boards won't sit flat on the table, and if you push the board down flat onto the table, some of the pegs pop out. The wooden pieces are nice and chunky, and the cards are all adequate—though very, very thin.

All the pegs in, or flat on the table—you can't have both.

Jeremiah—I'm also not a fan of some of the components. Yeah the tiles are thick and sturdy, and the cards are good quality. But I wasn't a fan of the pegboard system, either. I love its function! Just not its form. One of the peg holes is a little loose, too, causing the peg to fall out. Maybe it's the Euro gamer in me, but I'd just rather have had a tracker token on a track for the rules.

Firestone—Yeah, even my wife, who isn't a gamer at all, asked, "Why didn't they just have wooden cubes that you move on a board to keep track of this?"

UPDATE: Amber from Looney Labs has contacted us to let us know that they have a solution: pieces you stick to the bottom of the pegboards to raise them up high enough for the pegs to fit fully in. Contact customer-support [at] looneylabs.com. Thanks Looney Labs!

One other small complaint is that they chose the vanilla Fluxx as the theme. I completely understand why they did it, since it's their flagship product, and the one most people will be familiar with. But it's also kinda...boring. A cookie. A sun. A glass of milk. A piece of pizza. Andrew Looney. Meh... I would have been all over a Star Fluxx: The Board Game. Maybe that's in the works, but asking people to buy multiple versions of a $10 card game is one thing. Asking them to buy multiple versions of a $30 board game is very much another... But that's just a personal preference.

Jeremiah—I was totally fine with the original Fluxx theme; it sets up the base for the offshoot of the franchise. I, of course, have no way of knowing Looney Labs' plans for the future, but I could see them selling expansion packs instead new complete versions. Swap out the tiles and the cards and you're set—you don't need new player tokens and rule boards etc. Of course, Zombie and Pirate Fluxx would make for some cooler meeple options!

I'm pretty impressed with the great synergy between the board/tiles, cards and rule trackers! The cards still have their Fluxxy charm, and the board adds some great decision-making moments as well.

Firestone—Yeah, but the decisions aren't overwhelming. I could see someone prone to analysis paralysis getting overwhelmed by all of the choices as they puzzle through things. But it probably won't be a problem for most people.

Jeremiah Final Thoughts—As a fan of Fluxx, I have to say, while I was excited about FtBG I was slightly nervous that it might be an obligatory attempt to cash in on the reputation of its successor. All of the fears have been put to bed soundly! This game is fun! It is very puzzle-like, and the way it allows players to shift and change the playing surface makes it very replayable. Fluxx: The Board Game is the M. C. Escher of board games. Put this game on your table!

Firestone Final Thoughts—Aside from the terrible pegboard implementation, I like this game a lot. It's very light, and unlikely to make it past a couple of plays with my regular game group. But my family and I really like this, and I actually think it's a great nongamer game. I agree with Jeremiah: Put this game on the table!

Thanks so much for reading! And if you want, you can watch the video review, too!

Our Double Take Review of Fluxx the Board Game by Looney Labs! It's a new spin on an old classic, but is it worth it? Watch to find out! What did you think of Fluxx the Board Game? What do you think of our channel and reviews?

Awesome Level 9000—A Double-Take Review (Plus a Video!)

Welcome to Theology Of Games' very first Double-Take Video Review! We're still going to do the written review, but we're experimenting with some video reviews and previews. Yes, we know this video is raw—and we made lots of mistakes and have lots of things to learn. But we're going to get better! So check after the jump for the written and video review...

Awesome Level 9000 is an expansion for the hit "shufflebuilding" game Smash Up. You can read our review of that game right here.

The Components

4 new Factions: 20 cards in each Faction (Plants, Steampunk, Bears, and Ghosts)

VP tokens

8 New Base cards

16 original Base cards with updated graphics.

The Setup and Gameplay

This expansion doesn't really add any new mechanisms, so if you want to see how to play the game, just check the review of the original at the link above.

The Factions

Ghosts

These guys get stronger as your hand gets smaller. So there are a number of cards that allow you to discard cards or get rid of cards, and then others that give you VPs if your hand is small enough.

Bears

The Bears will just eat your face off. They're not complex, and there's not much nuance. There's just face-eating bears that will eat your face off and then poop out your face. Ewwww....

Plants

The plants want to overwhelm you—with both their numbers and their ability to stay out on the table. And the longer they're out there, the worse it is for their opponents. Better grab the weed killer...

Steampunk

The Steampunks are all about playing actions on bases and then triggering effects or talents that let you move your own minions to those bases with actions on them, or move your opponents' away from there. And they have that cool locomotive-helicopter thing!

The Verdict, and Recommendations

Jeremiah—If you love Smash Up!, you'll love this expansion; it's more of the same with enough twists and additions to tell that it wasn't just phoned in.

Firestone—It's a great expansion. It adds more of the stuff you want from the base game, and then throws in some cool extras—all for a low $20 price point!

Jeremiah—I'm so happy AEG added VP tokens, the pen and paper thing was reminiscent of playing 5 Crowns or Hearts or something. Even with my snazzy scorekeeper app it felt like I didn't have everything I needed in the box. It was an oversight in the base set, but they were awesome enough to correct it!

Firestone—Well, the lack of VPs in the base game felt like more than an oversight to me—there's no way VP trackers didn't come up in playtesting. So it just felt like they were being cheap at the expense of gameplay. But they included them here, and they're awesome. All is forgiven!

Another great and unexpected addition is the updated Bases! The font size is now larger, so it's easier to read from across the table. Both this and the VP chits are things AEG didn't have to do, but the fact that they did is really, really great. It shows a company willing to admit mistakes, listen to their customers, and go the extra mile to make it right. I love that.

Jeremiah—I'm a fan of all the new factions with maybe the exception of the Ghosts. Mechanically it's a very cool concept that ties into the theme very well!—It's the theme for me that doesn't jive; it's very non-threatening but. Meh...it's still Ghosts.

Firestone—I don't mind the Ghosts as much as Jeremiah. But maybe that's just because one of the factions in the base game is Zombies, and those are way creepier than the Ghosts.

I really like the Bear and Steampunk factions. The Plants are just okay to me because...well, they're plants. It's hard for me to get excited about plants.

Jeremiah—The plants I thought were cool, they remind me of Little Shop of Horrors, or even better that awesome BBC miniseries of Day of the Triffids! B-film making at its finest!

Firestone—My biggest problem with the base game is unchanged here, so it's still a problem: You spend a ton of time reading cards... I have to read my cards, and then when I get ready to play a card I need to read other cards on the table. And then when I play a card I need to read it aloud to the table. And then when it's the next person's turn, they go through the same thing. It's not at all a dealbreaker for me, and it hasn't kept me from playing the game with my 8-year-old. But it's probably the #1 thing that keeps it from getting played in my game group.

Jeremiah Final Verdict—I'm a big fan if the Smash Up franchise, the shuffle building technique is ingenious, and I learned and can teach the game in about 2 minutes! I love that AL9K offers more options and a little more depth, but doesn't make wholesale fundamental changes to the game, you can pick it up add it to your base set and know the different card abilities in about 30 seconds!

Firestone Final Verdict—This game has definitely grown on me. I thought it was fine when I played in my game group, but it's really shined for me as I've played with my oldest. This expansion is a great addition, and as I said before, it adds just what this game needed in an affordable package. And I agree with Jeremiah: no new major rules craziness means you just open the box and you're ready to seamlessly add to the base game and play! And play you should!

Sooo?

Put It On the Table! You may not bring it out for the young kids because of the Ghosts and all the reading. But it's a fun, light game for gamers, great family game, and the learning curve is fast for casual players!

Thanks for reading! And now...feel free to watch! Here's the video review. Remember: First attempt! But feel free to offer constructive criticism...and subscribe to the YouTube channel! Thanks!

Oh, don't forget! You can get Awesome Level 9000 on Amazon here!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRAnTMZO7gg&w=560&h=315]

Epic Death—A Preview

By Jeremiah “You only live twice: Once when you're born And once when you look death in the face.”  ― Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice

And thrice when you get brought back to life by a resurrect card...

Today we're looking at a prototype of the card game Epic Death, from Waits in Graves; the game was successfully Kickstarted by Springboard—Game Salute's Kickstarter juggernaut.

Let's talk about how the game plays...

The Components

Cards... Lots of them.

20x Adventurer Cards—These are flavorful, but un-unique, otherwise—no one adventurer has any special abilities or stats.

57x Loot Cards—This is one of two ways you score points. Again there are no abilities or bonuses given through collecting these cards.

38x Fate Cards—These cards make up your player hand, and basically allow you to increase your chances of completing a quest, or decrease the chances of your opponents completing quests on their turns. Speaking of Quests...

40x Quest Cards—These are split into two types: Quests (ordinary run of the mill quests) and Epic Quests!

16 Six-Sided Dice—I had to use my own for the preview version but they say these are going to be epic in the final version!

The Setup

Each player selects five adventures—unless you're playing a 5-player game then you select four, because you know...math. Separate the Epic, and Regular Quest cards, placing the stack of Regular Quests on top of the Epic Quest cards; this makes the Quest deck. Then deal a line of 5 Quest cards out from the Quest deck.  Shuffle up the Loot cards and Fate cards separately to make the Loot and Fate decks, and then deal out 5 Fate cards to each player.

The Gameplay

On a player's turn he or she selects a Quest from the lineup, and then players can play Fate cards on the active player's company, starting with Death/Resurrection cards and proceeding to "before dice are rolled" cards—before the active player rolls the dice—and then "after dice are rolled" cards—after the dice are...well I think you get it. Let's break those down a little bit:

Death/Resurrection cards—These cards are assigned to a specific adventurer; a Death card results in that adventurer being killed if the quest is failed. A Resurrection card will result in bringing a deceased adventurer back into the game if the Quest is successfully defeated.

Other Fate cards—The majority of Fate cards that are played before or after the dice are rolled either add or subtract the amount of dice rolled for the quest. Or force a player to re-roll after they've been rolled.

After the Fate cards have been played, the active player rolls the dice (starting with 10, and then +/- by the modifiers of the Fate cards). If they are victorious, they collect the reward, which typically consists of Loot cards and Fate cards. If they fail, then the Quest card is placed under one of the adventurers, exposing the bottom of the Quest card and the "Fail" points attributed to the card. If there is a Death card on an adventurer, that adventurer gains the "Fail" points and is killed (turned face down).

How do you defeat a Quest? Each Quest has a type and number of victories required to defeat it. A trivial victory is any die showing 4 and up, a mighty victory is 5 and up, and an exalted victory is a die showing 6. So a Quest requiring 4 mighty victories requires 4 of the 10 dice you're rolling to show a 5 or 6. Rewards and Fail points are scaled appropriately for the type of Quest and victories needed to defeat it.

Loot cards gained by defeating Quests are assigned to your adventurers by playing them under the adventurer cards showing the "Epic" score on the top of the Loot cards.

The Epic Quest Phase—Once you've gone through the regular quests the Epic Quests will populate the line up and will shake things up! Defeating an Epic Quest will still reward you with some Loot and Fate cards. But if a player fails an epic quest, they kill off a hero and gain the Epic score on the Quest card (placing it the same way you do a Loot card). Once an adventurer is killed off you can no longer place loot (points!) or quest cards (fail or points) on them.

End Game

Once one player's adventurers are all dead, the game is over, and the score is tallied. Players only count the scores of those adventurers who have met glorious, "epic," or maybe not-so-epic death in battle. Whoever has the most points wins.

My Thoughts

Components—While the copy I reviewed is only in the prototype stages, the artwork is mostly complete. From what I saw it's very well done in the cartoony fantasy style, and looks great. The flavor text is humorous and packed full of  great genre-crossing references!

Gameplay—I enjoyed the change-up halfway through the game—just when the turns seemed a little redundant, the Epic Quests come out and you find yourself actually trying to take dice away from your roll so you can kill off an adventurer and score a bunch of Epic points for your Epic Death! The potential (and I suppose the expectancy) for gang-up situations is huge in this game. Those seem to move the game along well though, so be prepared and bring your thick skin!

Final Thoughts and Recommendations—Munchkin and Gloom had a baby and named it Epic Death. If you know those titles, and you enjoy those titles, then get on the Epic Death bandwagon. The theme is set in a Munchkin-ish comedic fantasy realm where everyone gangs up on everyone else, and the scoring mechanism (i.e. placing points on a character and killing them off to score them) is very reminiscent of Gloom. That being said there is some fun to be had with the randomness of the dice rolls and a good touch of strategy when it comes to deciding if you want to play a fate card on an opponent or keep it to help your chances.

Put It on the Table—If you enjoy a slap-sticky dice-roller with lots of ganging up and a big take-that factor. Just know that this is that kind of game, and if you're into that, you'll love Epic Death—it does that very well! Casual players will be able to grasp the game concepts pretty easily as well, and the flavor and geeky references in the game will hit folks on many levels.

Leave It on the Shelf —You might want to leave this one on the shelf for family game nights, or with a church or youth group. While all of the artwork is stylized and non-threatening, there are a lot of Necromancer, demon-ish type cards in there—what you would expect for a game called Epic Death—so you might want to have a good look at the cards to determine what settings are appropriate for the game. Younger players might have a tough time tracking the change of strategies midway through the game as well.

Overall: Put It on the Table!

We'd like to thank Game Salute for loaning Jeremiah a prototype of Epic Death, which in no way influenced the review of this game.

Thanks so much for reading; we'd love it if you would subscribe to the blog by adding your email address in the little box over on the right ----->

You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Qwixx—A Review of the Spiel des Jahres Nominee

qwixxcover

By Firestone There were three games on the nominee list for the German Game of the Year award (or Spiel des Jahres). We reviewed the eventual winner, Hanabi, last week. But what about the others? Well I don't know anyone who owns Augustus, so we might not get to that one for a while. But I did manage to snag a copy of the third nominee—Qwixx. Was this dice-fest deserving of a nomination? Should it have won? Let's find out!

Specs

Designer: Steffan Benndorf

Play time: 15 minutes

Number of players: 2-5

Recommended age: 8 and up—but I've played it a 5-year-old who can hold his own with some coaching.

Components

6 standard 6-sided dice: 2 white, 1 blue, 1 yellow, 1 green, and 1 red.

1 score pad

Rules

Setup

Each person grabs one sheet from the score pad, and then you choose a start player. Easy, innit?!

Gameplay

qwixxscorepad

Before we did into gameplay, I need to explain the scorepad, since that's where the game really happens. As you can see from the image, the numbers move from left to right, with red and yellow going from 2 to 12, and green and blue going from 12 to 2. As the game progresses, you'll be crossing off these numbers. The kicker in this game is that once you cross off a number, you can only move to the right to cross off subsequent numbers. So if you start with a yellow 4, say, you'll never be able to go back and cross off 2 and 3. You can always skip numbers, too, so you could cross off 4, and then 6 in a later turn—but you're never crossing off that 5.

On a person's turn, he or she rolls all of the dice, and announces the sum of the two white dice aloud (or everyone can simply look at those dice...). Everyone in the game can then take that number as a "wild" color and cross off the corresponding number in any available color. It's completely optional. Then the active player can choose one of the white die and pair it with one of the colored die to create a "color number" he or she can use to cross off on the sheet. So the active player will be able to cross off up to two numbers, and each other player will have the option to cross off one number.

If you are unable—or unwilling—to cross off at least one number on your turn, you have to check one of the four boxes on the lower right of the core sheet. These are Failure boxes, and are each worth -5 points at the end of the game.

qwixxdice

If you have at least five numbers already crossed off in a color, you are allowed—any time you roll the correct number–to cross off the rightmost number, and then the lock symbol next to it. This locks that color, and you remove the corresponding color die from the game. The game continues until either two of the colors are locked, or one person fills in all four of their Failure boxes, in which case the game ends immediately.

The scoring based on how many numbers you've crossed off in each color, not the value of the numbers. One is worth 1Vp, two is worth 2 VPs, three is worth 6, four is worth 10, and so on... You add up the positive, subtract five for each Failure, and the winner is the person with the highest score!

The Verdict

Look, there aren't huge, strategic decisions to be made here. It's a filler, and a family game—that's why it was up for the Family Game of the Year Award! I like that there's something to do on everyone's turn—and that he decision on other people's turns is actually important. You can just blindly cross off the number on your pad that matches what was just rolled. But will that limit you when it's your turn, and force you to possibly take a Failure? Small decisions, but decisions nonetheless. Yes, it has dice and luck, but it manages the luck in an interesting way.

My family likes the game quite a bit—even my wife! The boys especially love rolling the dice into my dice tower. The 5-year-old still needs some help making decisions about whether to cross something off, but he's still able to play just fine. And after one game he knew how to start counting up his score and putting the correct number in the correct box.

My gamer friends liked it, too—even the ones who hate dice! It's a filler game that's truly filler length; this will be in my game tub for a long, long time.

If I had one complaint it's that there's only one score pad in the box, when it would clearly fit two. Yes, this would increase the cost, but you're already charging me ~12 for six dice and a score pad—I think you can throw another pad in...

qwixxdicetower

Recommendation

Put It on the Table! This game would work with any group: kids, family, youth group, nongamers, and gamers. It's very cheap, and there's no reason not to have a copy of this at every game night.

The Final Verdict

This has been a hit with every group I've played it with. It's cheap, fast, portable, and fun. Pick up a copy!

Incredibrawl—A Double-Take Review

Today we're taking a look at Incredbrawl, the slick-looking family/casual/gamer card game from Vision 3 Games. In Incredibrawl each player (2-4) is given an identical deck of cards featuring characters from three different types: Natural, Physical, and Energy. They then duke it out in a battle for ultimate glory (or at least 10 glory, the game's VP system) to see who comes out on top of this Incredibrawl!

Let's take a look at the nuts and bolts.

Components

Well, we received prototype copies of the game, but this is the list given in the manual:

• 120 Character Cards (30 per player, matching sets)
• 40 Power-Up Cards (10 per player, matching sets)
• 10 Location Cards
• 4 Rules Reference Cards
• 1 Sheet of Glory Tokens
• 1 Coin
• 1 First Player Token

The game is played in one of three different Modes: Family, Casual, or Gamer. As you probably guessed, they each vary in difficulty and have different things added or subtracted, depending on what version you're playing.

Setup

The game setup (for Casual Mode) looks like this: Each player gets a set of cards (leave the Power-Up cards out), then you place the Grassy Meadow location card in the center of the table (leaving the rest of the locations out), and then give each player one Glory token to begin the game with. Players shuffle their cards, and draw a hand of 5 cards. Then, it's go time!

Gameplay

So here's a quick rundown of the Casual mode, and then we'll touch on the other modes as well. The basic brawl/battle engine is pretty much a Rock, Paper, Scissors type of mechanic: Physical (Purple Sword icon) beats Natural (Green Grass icon), Natural beats Energy (Blue Lightning Blot icon), and Energy beats Physical. Each character also has a power level, which is used for breaking ties; if there is still a tie, then players play an actual game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine who wins the brawl.

A turn looks like this: Players select their characters, place them by the current location (which is always the Grassy Meadow in this mode) and then they have it out. In a 2-player game players reveal at the same time, activate any "P" (Play) abilities, determine a winner, trigger any "W" or "L" (Win or Lose) abilities on the involved characters, and then the winner collects 1 glory token from the pool.

In a 4-player game the brawl goes in two rounds, with the winners of each across-the-table brawl facing each other to determine the winner of the overall brawl. And in a 3-player game there is an odd person out who goes up against the winner of the first two.

The Abilities—This is where a good portion of the strategy lies for the game. Some cards actually give you some decent bonuses for losing the brawl you play them in, so you may intentionally be throwing them into the fray in hopes that they get taken down (of course, it is quite possible that they can win due to their power type and what your opponents have played!). While others trigger an ability when they are played (whether you win or not!). For instance, the Roboshark causes each other player to randomly discard one card. The Low Blow card triggers if you lose, and if you discard your hand, the winner of the brawl loses two Glory.

The End Game—The game ends when a player reaches 10 Glory—even if it's mid-brawl; if they have 10 Glory tokens, it's game over, man! The game also ends if a player runs out of draw cards and can't draw another card at the end of his or her turn—again, the player with the most Glory is declared the winner!

MODES

The game comes with three different Modes. The one we've described so far is the Casual Mode.

Family Mode—Family Mode is the same as Casual mode, except you use no card abilities, and players start the game with zero Glory (instead of 1 as in Casual mode). This is a stripped-down version, perfect for playing with kiddos, until they get up to speed.

Gamer Mode—Gamer mode has several variants, including using all of the location cards (which give certain power types extra abilities/bonuses, as in the game Smash Up) and shuffling in your Power-Up cards, which again give you further ways to defeat your foes; these can be played at a time during a brawl, as specified on each card.

Thoughts and Recommendations

Jeremiah—I think the first thing that stood out to me was the artwork—oh my! It has awesome, well-done, stylized graphics that are just super easy on the eyes! The aesthetics of the game (even with the prototypes we received) are very clean, and very slick!

Firestone—Yeah, the artwork is great. Colorful, fun, and creative. My kids saw it and immediately wanted to play. My gamer friends liked the artwork, too.

Jeremiah—I've mostly played the Casual mode, and the Family mode with my boys, but have had a hard time getting this one on the table with my gamer friends. I think once they realized that at its core it's a Rock, Paper, Scissors type of game they're just not excited. Even though the abilities, power-ups, and locations add some needed depth, up to this point it's been a hard sell for them.

Firestone—Well I did play the Gamer Mode with gamers, and...we didn't like it at all. I seriously applaud the guys from Vision 3 for trying to create a game that can appeal to the spectrum of gamers, but it just doesn't work here, IMO. You can add all the bells and whistles and variants you want, but at the end of the day it's still a Rock, Paper, Scissors mechanism at heart, and that just doesn't cut it with gamers—at least not the gamers in my group.

Jeremiah—My boys, on the other hand, HAVE NOT STOPPED ASKING TO PLAY THIS GAME! They think it's the bees-knees (actually they've never used or heard that term); we started playing it in Family Mode and moved up to Casual Mode. They handle it well in Casual Mode, although the youngest doesn't really read (he's only 4) so he plays a W, L, or P and then hopes it does something cool for him.

Firestone—Same here: The boys (8 and 5) love this game. Like you, my youngest doesn't know exactly what he's playing—he just wants to play a pirate or a yeti or an alien or whatever! Of course, because the game is so chaotic and luck-based, it really doesn't matter if that's how he plays—he's able to hold his own when his blindly chosen card beats his older brother's carefully chosen card. So what the gamers hated is a boon for the family!

Jeremiah Final Thoughts—I have to say my initial reaction to the game was a bit along the side of my gamer friends. "Oh... Rock, Paper, Scissors..." But my boys have changed my mind on it; I might not get to play it in Gamer Mode often, but we have a good time playing it in Family and Casual Mode, and it brings them to the game table with excitement, and that's always a good thing!

Firestone Final Thoughts—For me, this is a family game from start to finish. I've got plenty of gamer's games, so I'm totally fine that this is one I'll only bring out with the family.

Recommendations

Put It On the Table—For family game night, or a lighter party/game night. It also could make for a light tournament-style game with a larger group or youth group. There are zombie and a wizard characters in the decks, but they're very cartoonish, and not unsettling in the least.

Put It On the Shelf—When your hardcore gamer friends are coming over. If your group is really okay with chaos and luck—and thinks a game night filled with Munchkin and Fluxx is the height of fun—they may like it. Otherwise, keep it on the shelf.

OVERALL: Put it on the Table!

The game has a little less than a month to go on Kickstarter, and it's 2/3 of the way to its goal. Check it out, and join in to unlock those rewards!

We'd like to thank Vision 3 Games for supplying us with prototype copies of Incredibrawl which in no way influenced our review.

Please check us out all over the internets on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! And be on the look out for our upcoming podcast! And as always don't forget to subscribe to the blog over on the right ----->

Hanabi—A Review of the Spiel des Jahres Winner

by Firestone Well, the Spiel des Jahres were announced earlier in the week, and I was delighted to hear that Hanabi won! What's so great about this co-op card game? Well let's find out...

The game was recently printed in the US by R&R Games, so that's one I'll be reviewing.

Hanabi is a cooperative game for 2 to 5 players, where your team is trying to put on the best fireworks show. It's possible to lose the game, but that's fairly rare—it's usually just a matter of how awesome (or crappy) your fireworks display will be. The best you can do is 25 points, and it goes down from there...

Components

60 cards—there are six suits, each with three 1's, two 2's, two 3's, two 4's, and one 5.

8 Blue Clock Tokens

4 Black Fuse Tokens

Setup

Place the blue clock tokens faceup on the table, and stack the four black fuse tokens nearby, with the longest fuse on top and the explosion on the bottom.

You only use five of the six suits—the sixth one is a multicolor suit that is for an advanced variant. This isn't one of those games where you should just jump into the advanced game right away—the basic game will kick your butt.

So you take the 10 cards in the five suits, shuffle them all together, and deal five cards to each player in a 2- or 3-player game, or four cards in a 4- or 5-player game.

Here's the unique thing about this game: You never, ever, look at your own cards! EVER! When the cards are dealt to you, you hold them facing away from you.

Gameplay

The point of the game is to try and get each of the five colors down on the table. You have to start each color with the 1, and continue on with the 2, 3, 4, and finally the 5. You have to go in numerical order for each color, and there can only be one of each number in each color.

On your turn you can do one of three things.

1. Give someone a clue.
2. Discard a card.
3. Play a card.

If you give someone a clue, you are telling that person one thing about his or her hand. If you choose to reveal color, you would point to the appropriate cards and say, "This card is a red," or "These two cards are blue." You can also choose to reveal numbers, so, "These cards are 2's," or "That card is a 5."

Frequently Forgotten Rule: You have to give complete information about a hand. So if someone has two 2's in hand, you can't just tell them one card is a 2, even though sometimes that would be super helpful—you have to tell them about both 2's.

When you give a clue, you also have to put one of the blue clock tokens into the box lid (or just move them to the side, but the box lid makes sure you don't screw up which pile is which). If there are no more blue clock tokens on the table, you have to do one of the other two actions on your turn.

If you discard a card, you simply choose one and lay it aside for all to see. The rules say to make a discard pile that anyone can look at at any time. That's just dumb. You should just lay all cards off to the side, and place them such that everyone can see all of the discards all of the time—you can put them perpendicular to the main display so that you don't confuse the two, but in practice, this isn't really a problem.

You obviously have to be very careful about what card you discard, but every card other than the 5 has more than one copy, so you often have another chance to get that number out. If you discard a card, you can take a blue clock token from the box and put it back on the table—and then you draw a new card.

If you play a card, you choose one and attempt to play it to the table.

If it fits in an open space—for instance, if you play a red 2 and the red 1 is already down, you simply place it down in the correct spot, and your turn is over. You don't have to "call" which card it is before you pull it out of your hand and finally see what it is. If it fits, great!

If it doesn't fit, you put the card in the discard display, and you take the top black fuse token and put it in the box.

If you place the number 5 card onto one of the fireworks—thus completing that color—you get a bonus, free blue clock token back and available.

The game ends in one of three ways.

If you pull the third black fuse token (i.e., you make three mistakes when playing cards), the game ends and you all lose.

If you are able to fully complete all five colors of fireworks, you've won in spectacular fashion with a perfect score: 25 points.

How the game usually ends is that a player takes the last card from the draw pile. Each player, including the person who grabbed the last card, gets one last turn. Once that round is over, you count up your score.

You add up the highest-valued card you managed to play in each of the five colors, and that's your score. The rulebook breaks down what each range of scores means. And that's it!

The game comes with a number of variants, and if you're insane, it comes with a sixth suit, that's muticolored and counts toward every color when you're giving a clue.

Recommendations

Youth group/party game? Yes! I actually think this could be a great game for that. Expect to do terribly, but it forces the teenagers to think...

Family game? Definitely! Well, it won the Spiel des Jahres, but I really do think it would be great. The game recommends this for kids 8+, but I think that's probably too young to play the game well; it's actually fairly hard to give great clues here, and I don't think my 8-year-old would be able to figure that out yet. (But there's no reason not to try; that's how they learn, right?) If you have older kids, this one would definitely work.

Gamers' game? Absolutely! Our group is completely taken with this game. It's been the go-to filler for a while now.

The Verdict

In case you can't tell from the Recommendations section, I think this game is perfect for anyone. It should be in your collection.

I love how different it is. There have been other games where you can't look at your hand (Code 777, for instance), but this one just feels unique to me.

I also like how you can still win, even if you don't play perfectly. This adds to my argument that this is a great game for nongamers. You won't play perfectly—or probably even particularly well—the first few times, but it's okay: You can still win.

The cards are of good quality—though I'll probably still sleeve them. The backs of the cards are asymmetrical, and in this case that's a good thing, as it helps you organize your hand as you want.

One of the cool things is that each group and each person can create their own conventions about how to organize their hands. Some people only put new cards in on the left side of their hand, and will discard off the right side of their hand. If other people know that, and there's a precious 5 on the righthand side and you know she's about to discard it, you might want to make sure she knows it's a 5!

A problem that sometimes crops up in co-op games is that one person will completely dominate the game and basically play the whole game for everyone. In Hanabi, that's not really possible. For one thing, there's never complete information since you don't know your own hand—until the very end of the game. Also, you're really not supposed to talk unless it's your turn and you're giving a clue.

If there's one thing that could doom the game in your group, it's that the game puts a lot of pressure on you. I felt, at least, that I needed to give the perfect clue. This was especially true when I played the first time. Everyone else had played a few times, and since I hadn't, I was always afraid I would "blow it." I'm not normally a nervous player, but for some reason this game did it to me.

The Final Verdict

Look, this game is terrific. It's one of my favorites of this year, and I was pleasantly surprised when it won the Spiel des Jahres. Plus, it's cheap!

Thanks for reading, and please connect with us via social avenues: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!

Guile—A Double-Take (P)Review

Is 2013 the year of the tiny card game? I dunno, but we've already seen some corkers in the form of Coup and Hanabi. The guys at Terra Nova Games sent us a preview copy of their new Kickstarter project Guile, and we're here to give you our impressions. Please note: The copies we reviewed were preproduction prototypes. Artwork, rules, and...well, everything might change before the final game is released. This review is based on what we received, with the understanding that tweaks (minor or major) may happen.

Components

8 Knight cards—four of Arthur and four of Mordred

10 Influence cards—three 1's, three 2's, two 3's, and two 4's

1 Cycle card

1 Turn card

3 Victory cards

Setup

Decide which player will play Arthur, and which will play Mordred; there's no gameplay difference between the two of them. Just know that if you're the Mordred player, deep down you're a rotten, thieving, low-down scoundrel. Place the Knight cards in a circle on a table—alternating between the two players' Knights. This will create a Round Table—see what they did there?!

Place the Turn card above one of the Knights on the outside of the circle; then place the Cycle card sword-side-up below that same Knight card on the inside of the circle.

Next, shuffled the Influence cards, deal four to each player, and set aside the remaining two unseen. Each person looks at his or her Influence cards, and players simultaneously place one Influence card onto each of their Knight cards, so that there a bit of the Knight card peeking out from under the Influence card.

Gameplay

You'll play at least two, but no more than three, rounds, and each round will consist of eight turns for each player. The player whose Knight is above the Cycle card (in the game, this Knight is called the Knight-Errant) begins. On your turn you can do one of two things:

Look at the Influence card currently on top of the Knight-Errant, and then place it back.

Swap the Influence card currently on top of the Knight-Errant with any other card—without looking at either one.

Then just move the Cycle card one Knight clockwise, and it's now the other player's turn. When the Cycle card gets back around to the Knight under the Turn card, the game is halfway over, and you flip the Cycle card from the sword-only side to the side that shows the sword and some gold. This signifies you're in the second half of this short round.

You continue alternating turns until the Cycle card gets back to the Turn card again, and the round is over. Flip over the Influence cards currently on your Knights and count up Influence. The person with the most wins one of the three Victory cards, and the first person to win three Victory cards wins the game.

One of the 4 cards—and one of the 3 cards—has a dagger stuck into the number. If there's a tie on Influence, the player with the highest card with a dagger in it wins the tie. (The 3 card has a dagger just in case both 4's happen to be the two cards that are out this round.)

If no one has won, you move the Turn card one Knight clockwise and do it all over again—including dealing out all-new Influence cards to each player—but the other player will start this round.

That's it!

Recommendations

Youth Group Game? Not really! The biggest barrier for this is that it only plays two players. But if you're meeting a student for a soda, and looking for a quick game to play, go for it!

Party Game? Not really! Again, only two players, so unless you're at a party where everyone but you and a friend is playing Apples To Apples for the 1,000th time, this won't really work.

Family Game? Sure! Not the whole family, but we each played this with our oldest sons (7 and 8), and they both liked it.

Gamers' Game? Depends! My group didn't care for it much, but your group might.

The Verdict

Firestone—I'll start with some aesthetic things: I really think the back of the Influence cards should be uniform. It's not that each card back is different, but if you look at the image above, the whole thing tapers toward one end of the card, and the colors alternate.  I'm not sure if they're asymmetrical so that people can create some sort of private orientation scheme to keep track of which card is which, but it just seems that on games with trackable information it's almost always better to have the card backs look the same—there's a reason standard card decks have uniform backs.. (Again, these are prototype cards, so that might change before it's final. I hope so!) It's also weird that the darker-colored Knight is the Good Guy, and the bright one is the Bad Guy. But that's not a complaint—it's just odd and surprising.

Jeremiah— The asymmetrical backs didn't bother me so much; I mean, what's to stop your opponent from spinning them and blowing up your foolproof plan anyway? I was a little confused as to the color scheme of the knight cards, These aren't things that "break" the game—as Firestone said, they are aesthetics, and prototype aesthetics at that.

Firestone—I played this with a few gamers, and their reaction was mostly neutral. It's not that they didn't understand it, or want to give it a chance...they just felt there wasn't much there there. I had much better luck getting my 8-year-old to play. He enjoyed it quite a bit—especially after we talked about some things to do to move it beyond just playing Guile as a memory game. Once he started bluffing (which he's hilariously terrible at), he liked it even more. He was able to hold his own, too, because his chaotic, unconventional, 8-year-old gameplay completely threw me off and made it really hard for me to keep track of where my good (and bad) cards were. So often the VP reveal was an utter surprise...

I'm not saying this would only work with kids, or that your game group wouldn't enjoy it. This was just my experience.

Jeremiah— Truthfully I haven't played a ton of these 2-player mini-games; to me it seems that designing a game of this type would be a more difficult task than say a larger board or card game. Everything is so incredibly streamlined that the slightest tweak can destroy the core of the game. That being said, the two actions a player can take are a very precarious balance. The "look at the card on your current knight" action seems to be only useful for about half of a round. If you can remember your first one or two cards, there's no need to look at them. But if you put a lower card on the first one or two and switch them right away, by the time you get a chance to look at the card you switched for, it doesn't matter anyway because you can't do much about it (only switch it with the card on your next knight). I kept hoping for a 3rd turn in a round to make the game go more like this: strike, gather information, then counter-strike. It may just be the "big game" gamer in me...

Firestone—Yeah, the thing I kept thinking in this game is that there's not really time to act on the information you're given. In the early game you know what's out there, so if you have a low card, you'll probably swap it, assuming the one you swap for is more valuable. But if you know the card on turn is a 4...what do you do with it? Bluff with it? Swap it with another of yours? Just feign ignorance and look at it? The early game was full of turns where I didn't want to do anything, and later turns moved too quickly to act. I completely agree with Jeremiah—it seems that adding a third round of play would give me a chance to do something with the info I glean. Maybe that would wreck my ability to track cards, though...I dunno.

Jeremiah— I love that this is a game that is super easy to learn, and teach, because it is so streamlined. This style of game is going to do a lot for the industry in capturing the casual gamer. In the case of Guile the downside is if memory based games aren't your thing, there's not much else to grab onto here. The upside is if you like games with a memory based core mechanic, you're going to LOVE this game!

Firestone Final Verdict—I've enjoyed playing this with my son; I wish I enjoyed playing this with my game group. We love small filler card games, but this one just fell flat for us. It's more than just a memory game, but the meta game aspect isn't given enough time to percolate...

Jeremiah Final Verdict— I'm very happy that games like this are becoming popular. I love simple mechanics, and quick-playing games that cause a lot of tension for the short amount of time you're playing, and Guile certainly delivers that! I'm really rooting for this game; I feel with a few small tweaks the game can move from good to great!

There's only a week left in the Kickstarter campaign, and the game has funded! So you can get in on the fun for only $15—or $20 to get the game and some extras, such as variant cards. (We didn't play with these variants, but they look interesting. The Guinevere one, for instance, changes things if she's on Lancelot at game end. I think cards such as this one could really make the game more interesting. Again, it would be nice to have another round to maneuver her...)

Thanks so much for reading, and joining us in this 1-Year Blogiversary week! Don't forget: We're giving away some cool stuff—including a copy of The Great Heartland Hauling Company tomorrow—and all you've got to do to enter is subscribe via email, over on the right.-------->

We're also on Twitter, Facebook, Instragram, and YouTube! (Whew!)

Mayday's Crokinole Carrying Case—A Review

By Firestone

A while back we featured a Kickstarter Weekly from Mayday Games that included a crokinole board, a carrying case, and a clock you can affix to the front of a board if it's hanging on the wall. Well I have a Hilinski Brothers board that I'm completely happy with, but I wondered if the Mayday case would fit my non-Mayday board. So I reached out to Mayday, and they graciously offered to send me a case so I could test and report on it.

The Result: It fits very well. There's a little bit of room in the bag—maybe 1.5 inches between the board and the outer edge of the case all around. But it's not something where I'm worried about my board clanging around inside of there—it's just a bit less snug than I would prefer. There are handles, and also a shoulder strap, and the seams all appear to be strong. I gave the handles a few good, sharp tugs, and they're solid. I'm not sure how much I'll use the shoulder strap, but that was solid, too.There's also a velcro pouch on the inside where you can store your discs. Mayday sells the cases in black and yellow for $49.95.

I want two main things out of a crokinole carrying case:

1. The ability to easily and safely carry my board around with me.
2. Some extra protection from dings when I'm lugging my board from place to place.

The Mayday case achieves both of those goals. Plus, it's cheap at $50. (You're protecting a piece that cost at least $150, remember...)

They're selling other accessories, too, including colored discs, replacement wooden pegs, a box that holds your discs and acts as a score track, and more. And if you're in the market for a board, Mayday also has those, for $150.

Thanks to Mayday Games for providing a review copy of the case; this didn't affect my review in any way.

Thanks for reading, and check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!