Lady Alice

Posted on December 24, 2014 by gschloesser

Design by Ludovic Gaillard
Published by Hurrican
3 – 5 Players, 45 minutes
Review by Greg J. Schloesser

Lady Alice

Sherlock Holmes, the famous London detective, remains a popular figure both literature and cinema. Countless books, movies and television series have centered on the super sleuth’s investigations and adventures. It is not surprising that dozens of boardgames have also focused on the dean of detectives, including the award-winning Scotland Yard and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. One of the latest in this line is Lady Alice by designer Ludovic Gaillard.

The famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley has been kidnapped. As with most deduction style games, it is your job to discover the details: the culprit, the place and time of the kidnapping, and the object that was stolen from Stanley’s collection of artifacts discovered during his African expedition that located the missing David Livingstone. Of course, the brilliant Sherlock Holmes quickly solved the case, but is using it as a teaching tool for young detectives. Players represent these youthful sleuths and must assemble the clues and uncover the details.

The game has some similarities to the classic Parker Brothers boardgame Clue. There are four separate decks, each containing one aspect of the mystery: culprit, location, time and missing object. One card from each deck is mixed together and one dealt to each player. Thus, each player knows one piece of the puzzle and must discover the other three.

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Francis Drake

Posted on December 23, 2014 by gschloesser

Design by Peter Hawes
Published by Eagle Games / Kayal Games
2 – 5 Players, 1 ½ – 2 hours
Review by Greg J. Schloesser

Francis Drake - cover

History lesson time. Francis Drake is best known as the scourge of the Spaniards, operating with the not-so-tacit approval of the English crown during the 16th century to raid Spanish ships and ports in order to loot their New World wealth and embarrass their European rival. However, Drake was also a renowned explorer and was the second person to successfully circumnavigate the globe. Sadly, his legend is severely tarnished by his prominent role in the slave trade. He remains to this day both a celebrated and despised figure.

Drake’s exploits certainly provide rich fodder for game designers. Peter Hawes (Heads of State, Triassic Terror) taps into the adventures of this famous character in Francis Drake, a big box release published by Eagle Games and Kayal Games. Players outfit their ships and undertake three voyages to the Spanish Main, hoping to raid and pillage Spanish towns, forts and galleons. Trading is also a worthy goal, and the player returning with the most booty and fame will win the favor of the English Crown and win the game.

Each player receives a Ship’s Log board whereupon they will gather the supplies and materials needed for each of their three voyages. There are spaces for crew, cannons, trade goods, commodities and other necessary items. Players begin with a supply of player and mission discs, one investor tile, and a frigate and galleon.

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Dale Yu: Review of Colt Express

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Dale Yu

 

Colt Express

  • Designer: Christophe Raimbault
  • Publisher: Ludonaute/Asmodee
  • Players: 2-6
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: 40 minutes
  • Times played: 3 with review copy provided by Asmodee

Colt Express transports gamers back into the American Wild West with a gang of bandits planning to make a big heist on the Union Pacific Express.  There are coin purses, jewels and strongboxes scattered throughout the train, but they are protected by a Marshal on board.  Thematically, the story falls apart a little bit because the gang is not working together to steal the goods; each player is trying to steal the most valuable loot and therefore win the game!

colt express

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Matt Carlson: Review of the Battle at Kemble’s Cascade

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Matt J Carlson

Kembles boxThe Battle at Kemble’s Cascade

Designers: Anders Tyrland, Olle Tyrland
Publisher: Z-Man Games (in the US)
Ages: 10+
Players: 2-5
Time: 75 mins
(Review copy provided by Z-Man Games)

Boardgames have turned into video games (see Civilization) and video games have made their way into a boardgames (Doom, Starcraft, Age of Empires III).  To my knowledge, The Battle at Kemble’s Cascade is the first boardgame designed to capture the nostalgia of playing an old arcade scrolling shooter.  Yes, in the game each player controls a fighter pilot desperately trying to defeat enemy ships and collect power-ups while avoiding enemy fire.  There is even a boss battle at the end, don’t expect to get through the game without using up several of your (albeit unlimited) lives.  As a boardgame, Kemble’s Cascade may not quite appeal to the typical strategy boardgamer, but to gamers who remember the arcade shooter genre fondly it manages to recreate much of the experience in boardgame form.

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Dale Yu: Review of Nations: The Dice Game

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Dale Yu

Review of Nations: The Dice Game

  • Designer: Rustan Hakansson
  • Publisher: Lautapelit.fi / Asmodee
  • Players: 1-4
  • Ages: 14+
  • Time: 20-40 minutes
  • Times played: 8, with review copy provided by Asmodee

nations the dice game box

Nations: The Dice Game (N:TDG) is a followup to Nations, a critically acclaimed game from Essen 2013 – one of many games trying to squeeze a civilization building game in a reasonable time frame.  N:TDG takes some of the similar themes/mechanics from Nations and squeezes it into an even shorter game!

Each player starts with a player mat that has 5 blue tiles (buildings) pre-printed on it.  There are a bunch of other tiles in the game that can be purchased and they will be stored on the player mat in appropriate places.  There is also a board with two tracks on it – one track for victory points and another track for knowledge (the book track).  There are also 4 different types of dice – the bulk of which are white in color. Continue reading →

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Dan Blum: Review of Rolling Japan

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Dan Blum

Rolling Japan

  • Designer: Hisashi Hayashi
  • Publisher: Japon Brand / OZAKU Brand
  • Ages: 8+
  • Players: 1-8 (or more if provide your own pens)
  • Time: 15 minutes

Times played: 8 of the original (all on purchased copies), 2 of Rolling Tokyo

Dice games have been hot recently, for reasons which as usual are murky. The biggest trend has been dice games based on board or card games (anyone interested in my proposal for Diplomacy: The Dice Game, drop me a line), but there have been plenty of original ones as well. Naturally, Sturgeon’s Law applies to dice games as it does to most things, so many of these games are not spectacular. However, just because there’s a glut of dice games doesn’t mean that a new one can’t be good.

Rolling Japan is good. It’s very light, which may seem obvious for a dice game, but a lot of recent dice games have been fairly complex (sometimes too much so for their own good). It’s at the same level as Qwixx, last year’s hit dice game, and is in fact similar to Qwixx in broad outline: on each turn someone rolls dice and each player marks off something on their individual score sheet.

The details are of course different. Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2014, Reviews | 4 Comments