Cry Havoc (Game Review by Chris Wray)

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Chris Wray
  • Designer:  Grant Rodiek, Michał Oracz, Michał Walczak
  • Publisher:  Portal Games
  • Players:  2 – 4
  • Ages:  10 and Up
  • Time:  90-120 Minutes
  • Times Played:   3 (With 2, 3, and 4 Players)

CryHavocCover.jpg

“Cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war.”

— William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Cry Havoc was a big hit at Gen Con 2016, selling out early in the convention and topping many hotness lists.  The buzz continued through the hobby’s big meeting in Essen, and since then, Cry Havoc has been rising steadily in the BGG ratings.

Portal Games’s latest title is, in many ways, a medium-heavy, asymmetric “men on a map” battle game, complete with the miniatures and beautiful artwork that characterize similar titles.  But unlike others in the genre, Cry Havoc has some clever Euro-style mechanics, including elements of deck building and a truly original battle system.  I’ve found the game clever, enjoying my plays at each player count, though the game shines best with four players. Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2016, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dale Yu: First Impression of Millions of Dollars

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Millions of Dollars

  • Designer: Jeremi Kletzkine
  • Publisher: Matagot
  • Players: 3-8
  • Ages: 14+
  • Time: ~30 minutes
  • Times played: 2, with review copy provided by Matagot

Millions of Dollars is a frenetic negotiation/bluffing game new at Spiel 2016 from Matagot.  The designer is unknown to me prior to the fair, though the Israeli designer has at least two new games at the fair this year, this game and Naova at AMIGO.

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In Millions of Dollars, players are conniving thieves who are participating in multiple bank heists.   Each player represents a particular gang, and gets somewhere between 3 and 5 role cards (as well as a matching set of Character cards) – the number depends on how many players are in the game.  In the 5 player game, you can be the Driver, the Brute, the Crook or the Snitch.  (The Mastermind is added at a 6th player)  The game goes on for eight rounds, though it can end prematurely if any player is able to collect 20 Million or more at the end of any round.  The rounds themselves consist of 4 phases: Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2016, First Impressions | 1 Comment

Dale Yu: Review of Dungeon Rush

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Dale Yu

Dungeon Rush

  • Designers: Rustan and Eli Hakansson
  • Publisher: Lautapelit.fi
  • Players: 3-5
  • Ages: 8+
  • Time: 10-12 minutes
  • Times played: 4, with review copy provided by Lautapelit.fi

dungeon-rush

I knew nothing about Dungeon Rush prior to Essen – even though I was pretty interested in the other three games from the Finnish publisher – somehow this title was completely missed by me.  When I first sat down to meet with Lautapelit, Toni was super excited about this title, and it was the first one that he showed me.  We quickly played a round or two and I was sold.

An example hero

An example hero

In this game, players control two different heroes.  They are laid out on the table in front of the player – on to the left side and one to the right.  There are four different attributes for the hero found around the four outer edges of their character card: swords, arrows, magic wands and eyemasks.  Over three rounds of the game, players will try to improve the abilities of their heroes and earn coins. Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: Preview of Brewin’ USA

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Brewin USA

  • Designer: Adam Rehberg
  • Publisher: Adam’s Apple Games
  • Players: 2-5
  • Ages: 21+
  • Time: ~1 hour

brewin-usa

Brewin’ USA is the first game that I’ve played from the Tabletop Deathmatch competition – an independent game design contest sponsored by Cards Against Humanity.  It also may be the only game that I’ve reviewed that has an age requirement of 21+.  The rules state that this age requirement is due to alcohol promotional product regulations…. However, there isn’t any alcohol in the packaging (at least as far as I can tell), and though it is probably more thematic to consume beer while playing the game, it is not a requirement.  Being the maverick that I am, I did play the game with one of my underage boys, and I’m happy to say that he played the game well and will not be scarred for life by the theme!

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Players try to dominate the craft brew world by scoring the most points.  In the game, players make a “map” of the US by playing city tiles to the table; in columns which echo the timelines of the country.  The number of tiles is dependent on the number of players in the game.  Each tile tells you what region it’s in, how many VPs it is worth, and which types of beers are had there as well as which types are the most popular there.  Players are dealt a hand of 5 Beer cards, of which they must discard two.  Players take the bottlecaps in their player color as well as uncolored bottlecaps which serve as money while off the board (they will later represent VPs on tiles). Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: Review of Escape the Room: Secret of Dr Gravely’s Retreat (Spoiler Free)

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

 

Escape the Room: Secret of Dr Gravely’s Retreat

  • Designer: Nicholas Carvotta and Rebecca Bleau
  • Publisher: ThinkFun
  • Players: 3-8
  • Ages: 14+
  • Time: hopefully less than 2 hours
  • Times played: ONE

Print

Escape the Room: Secret of Dr Gravely’s Retreat is the second entry in their Escape the Room series.  We have reviewed that first iteration, Curse of the Stargazer’s Manor, on the blog last year.  The TL;DR review of that one was that we loved the idea and the chance to have an escape room experience in our own house, but the level of difficulty may have been a bit easier than we had wanted.  However, given the fact that the target audience for this game is the mass-market shoppers at Target.  Go back and read the previous review for some interesting back story on the whole puzzle room phenomenon.

 

But, despite the fact that we solved the first one in less than 20 minutes, we were very positive of our experience, and we were looking forward to the next one.  We have since played a number of different puzzle room games, and all have had their plusses and minuses.

Continue reading →

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CV

Posted on November 3, 2016 by gschloesser

Design by Filip Mitunski
Published by Granna
2 – 4 Players, 1 hour
Review by Greg J. Schloesser

cv-cover

Ever want to change your life? How about a new occupation, or perhaps a better relationship?  Want to start a blog or improve your health?  Which one of us wouldn’t want to change something about our life?  Well, now you can do it without any degree of effort or significant investment.  All you have to do is play CV by designer Filip Mitunski!

CV is short for “curriculum vitae”, which is Latin for “resume” (as in job resume).  In CV, you will be forming your life by acquiring and forming knowledge, skills, jobs, health, relationships and more.  All of this will be done by tossing and re-rolling dice in a Yahtzee-like fashion and using the results to acquire and improve all facets of your life.  If only real life was as easy as this!

The game consists primarily of dice, cards and tokens.  The cards are divided into three main categories:  early adulthood, middle age and old age.  These are further subdivided into seven “life” categories, including health, knowledge, relationship, life goal, work, possession and event.  These are color-coded for easy identification, and helpful icons generally match the symbols on the dice or indicate special card features.  Each card is appropriately named (Blood Donor, Blogger, Athlete, Marriage, etc.) and all have humorous artwork comically depicting the subject matter.  Don’t overlook the delightful artwork as it often elicits some chuckles.

Continue reading →

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