Back in the summer of 2011 – which, for those of you who don’t like to do math, was nearly fourteen years ago – I reviewed Z-Man Games’ “weird & wonderful cross between a dexterity game like Carabande or Catacombs and a space civilization game like Twilight Imperium or Starcraft: the Board Game.” (Yes, my exact words to describe the original edition of Ascending Empires.)
Unfortunately, the game went out of print pretty quickly – and it was relatively difficult to find. Meanwhile, I put Ascending Empires on my top 100 games list that I publish every couple of years… and it has sat somewhere between #23-#32 on every one of those lists – including the 2024 top 100 list. I really love the game.
And then last year Play to Z decided not only to reprint Ascending Empires, but to reimagine and tweak the rules and ratchet up the quality of the components via Kickstarter. Based on my aforementioned adoration of the original game, I was an easy mark for Zev Shlasinger (the head of Play to Z) and plunked my hard-earned gaming cash down on the new edition (and sprung for the single piece neoprene board add-on)..
When I did a rulebook comparison prior to the KS campaign, I noted that it looked like there was (in the words of Charlie Peacock) “a whole different, a whole lot the same.” * Now, with five plays of the new edition under my belt, I think that statement sums it up pretty nicely.
In The Lie, all the cards lie! The cards show numbers from 1 to 4, and they are in four different colors. However, when you turn each card over, you will find something has changed: either its color or number. You must be clever in choosing your combinations in order to play a higher number of the same color. Whoever is able to play all of their cards first wins the match, and whoever has the most points after a certain number of matches wins the game.
The competition is ripe! Play apples, bananas, cherries, and more to make a shared fruit feast. Low numbers are worth more but you score only if your card is part of the winning combo! Can you lure others to follow your juicy offer, or will they be tempted by the fruit of another? Win the most points and victory is yours for the picking!
The challenge of Slide is to rid yourself of cards to leave as few points as possible. In the game, you need to arrange the numbered cards, aiming to score as little as you can. But watch out, you’ll need to keep an eye on your opponents and be one step ahead to win the game!
Designer: Kasper Kjaer Christiansen, Kare Storgaard
Publisher: Capstone Games
Players: 2
Age: 12+
Time: 30- 60 minutes
Played with a copy I purchased and additional content packs provided by the publisher
A lot of my gaming is done two-player these days; while we do have a monthly game group and attend several cons, day to day it is just the two of us. While many games include options for two players, my attention is always drawn to any game that is specifically designed for only two. I knew little about Pagan: Fate of Roanoke when I first picked up the box at my local FLGS, but I was drawn in both by the theme and the player count. How did it turn out? Read on and see!
Pagan: Fate of Roanoke is an expandable, asymmetrical card game that takes place in the lost colony of Roanoke. One player is a Witch and the other is a Witch Hunter. The Witch is trying to carry out a ritual before they are exposed, while the Witch Hunter is trying to track down the identity of the true Witch.
To get started, the village and enchantment boards are placed in the middle of the table. The villagers, 3 each of red, blue and green, are placed face-up on the board.
You then decide who will be the Witch and who will be the Hunter. Each player gets their relevant action pawns and influence discs as well as their deck of cards and player board. The Witch gets secrets and favors tokens, and the Hunter gets clues and evidence tokens. Each player has an influence dial; influence is essentially the currency to be able to do various things throughout the game.
Each turn consists of two phases; the basic steps are the same for both players, with each having some different options based on their role. There are a lot of subtleties to each role; I am going to give you a high-level overview so you get a sense of the gameplay.
First up is the Upkeep Phase, where players both:
Return your action pawns from where you placed them (more on that in a minute)
Resolve any upkeep effects on played cards on your player board
Pay any upkeep costs for allies (the Hunter only)
Discard down to 7 cards if necessary.
This is followed by the Action Phase, where players take turns placing their action pawns to do the actions that are available to them. These action pawns can be placed on an action space on their player board, which contains actions specific to their role, or they can visit a Villager.
When the Witch visits a Villager, they place their action token on the Villager of their choice and take the action listed on the card (play cards, draw cards, gain influence). They distribute Secret tokens either to other Villagers (the Villager you played on indicates where) or to a Brew card on the Witch’s player board (more on that in a minute). Secrets are important for the Witch, because they can convert 3 Secrets to Favors; once they have 3 Favors on the true Witch they can win the game.
When the Hunter visits a Villager, they follow the same procedure, but they place clues; once they have 3 clues on a Villager they can convert them to Evidence, which will help them identify the true Witch and win the game.
One thing the Villagers do is let you draw cards. Each player has a unique deck of cards; the Witch has:
Charms: instant effect, allowing the Witch to manipulate the Villager Board
Brews: played on the Witch’s board, giving them bonuses and boosts.
Familiars: played on the Witch’ board, augmenting the Witch’s action with the pawn with the Familiar symbol.
Enchantments: played on the central board, makes life harder for the Hunter.
The Hunter has:
Allies: played on the Hunter’s board, gives the Hunter a boost or bonus.
Locations: played on the Hunter’s board, gives the Hunter a different possible action.
Events: instant effect that gives the Hunter an opportunity to gain something
Investigation: played on either the Hunter’s or Witch’s side of the Villager board, depending on who it affects. It either helps the Hunter or hinders the Witch.
Play continues until one of the following things happen:
The Witch wins by successfully performing the ritual or if the Hunter eliminates 3 innocent villagers.
The Hunter wins by eliminating the true Witch or exonerating 8 innocent villagers.
That’s the base game. There are also options for more advanced play, with players able to adopt one set of villagers as a faction or scenarios that change things up. Some scenarios might change the rules for a player, while others might have a goal that, if the player makes it, they gain a bonus that helps them meet their objective. There are also a few that change the winning conditions. You don’t need these, necessarily, as the base game offers plenty of variety, but they can keep the game feeling fresh.
As I mentioned earlier, the game is expandable, meaning you can buy new content packs. There are 4 content packs currently available. All of the content packs have a different theme, and contain 32 cards – 16 for the Hunter and 16 for the Witch. Having these additional cards allows you to take advantage of the deckbuilding option for the game. You can certainly play the base game as is with no content or deckbuilding, but the content packs give you the opportunity to build your deck yourself, to best suit your playing style or interests. The base game rulebook includes some parameters for deckbuilding and all of the cards have clear symbols so that they can be easily sorted should you wish to rebuild or perhaps revert back to the base game.
It also can give you the chance to build your deck; while you can play with the deck as it comes, once you are familiar with the game you can choose to build your deck. The rules give you some guidelines for what your deck must include, but you are otherwise free to play with combinations to find the best ones.
There is also an expansion for the game, but as I have not played that I cannot comment on it.
MY THOUGHTS ON THE GAME
I love it. I am a big fan of deckbuilders and the theme, which is very well integrated into the game, grabbed me right away. I have enjoyed playing as both roles and have always felt like I have interesting choices available to me. You have to both plan strategically while also reacting to your opponent; this leads to a lot of angst while you watch to see what your opponent is doing that might completely derail your well-laid plans while also plotting your own derailment of their plans. You must be careful not to tip your hand too quickly, showing your opponent where you are headed, but you have to go there, so how do you throw your opponent off? Every game has been tense, gripping and close, no matter which side won. The new content packs add even more to the game, giving you more opportunities to build a sort of engine that will maximize your efficiency. Being able to customize your deck is really fun, too; it allows you to build up the things you like best about the role you are playing and keep your opponent guessing more than if you are just playing with the base decks. While I have not yet incorporated them all, they seem to be balanced and don’t throw the game to one role or the other.
The art is great and really fits the theme of the games. The graphics are very good; the symbols are small, which may bother some people, but I found them legible. All of the components are cardboard and of good, sturdy quality; it is possible to buy a wooden token upgrade set if your heart so desires.
The rulebook is excellent. We had no trouble learning the game from the rules and were easily able to find rules when we needed them. There are numerous pictures and step by step instructions, and there is a handy glossary in the back of the rules. Your player board also serves as a handy player aid as well. The rules also include a starter scenario that essentially plays the game for you; while we did not take advantage of that it would be a good way to learn the game and be sure you understand what is happening. While the game may seem overwhelming before you get started, how to play is clear after just a couple of turns. That doesn’t mean your strategy is clear, of course; it just means that the actions that are available to you are clear. How you achieve that victory is much less so, which is of course the fun of the game.
Thoughts of Other Opinionated Games
Ben B: My son (age 12) has played this game a lot with me around Christmas and it has really been a bright spot. We’ve each taken turns playing the different characters and both seem to be extremely balanced. Most of our games, a player has won within one turn of the other player winning. The cat and mouse deduction game doesn’t overstay its welcome. The deckbuilding aspect doesn’t feel as impactful as the timing of actions on the villagers (middle characters) and the use of enchantments/charms and allies has added the variety to each game. I don’t trust Capstone to balance or design this game but they have been good at republishing the German cards with the errata. There have been releases of the minor card expansions but they have been silent about the first impactful expansion, Pagan: Beyond the Palisades until I saw it pop up on a BGG hype list today (2/11).
