The Opinionated Gamers

Designer: Brian & Amy Weinstock
Publisher: North Star Games
Players: 4-8
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: 20 minutes

Review by Mark Jackson (5 plays w/a

review copy provided by North Star Games)

Lost in the mists of time are the hours I spent in English classes (I have a B.A. in English literature with particular attention paid to the writings of Chaucer, John Steinbeck & C.S. Lewis)… seriously, it’s been so long since I took my Shakespeare class that all I can remember is how amazed I was that my professor, a noted Shakespeare scholar, could make these wonderful plays sound so boring.

By now, you’re probably wondering how my under-used undergrad degree ties in with a review of a party game from same folks who brought us Wits & Wagers and Say Anything. In fact, I’m going to tie it in twice:

1. the fact that I have owned three different sets of the Complete Works of Shakespeare
2. the miracle of context

The Complete Works of Shakespeare & Disney: Monopoly

Tis’ the season in which we buy gifts for people – probably too many gifts. You can tell when someone is scraping the bottom of the gift-giving idea barrel when they give an English major a set of Shakespeare volumes or a game collector a themed edition of Monopoly. (For the record, I like both Shakespeare & Monopoly… but I have 7 editions of Monopoly in my collection & have managed to give away 2 of the 3 Shakespeare sets.) Continue reading →

So I have been mostly a Eurogamer and lately it seems the trend has been towards more theme but I have actually been more attracted to abstracts lately. So here are a few of the newer ones I’ve had a chance to play this fall.

Coerceo
The game comes in an appropriate sized box for the standard edition. One of the perks of most abstract games that I find appealing is that generally they are great looking games. Pretty and shiny if you know what I mean! Coerceo does not disappoint in this regard. I played the standard edition and it comes with nice, solid, triangular pyramids with a black  or white pearlescent appearance.
The pyramids have a nice feel to them. Each player starts with 18 pieces. The board is made of 19 hexes which are divided in alternating black and white sections. The game includes multilingual rules and the English rules are concise and well illustrated.

Game play is pretty easy. The basic set up has players pieces on triangle sections of their own colors on the outer most hexes of the board (which is the hexes placed to form a larger hex-Settler’s style).
Players alternate moving a piece from one triangle or their color to an adjacent triangle of their color. They may capture an opponent’s piece if the surround it by their pieces on 3 sides. If an opponent’s piece is on the edge of the board then only 2 pieces are need to surround an opponent’s piece. If you place your piece into a spot surrounded by opponent’s pieces you are not captured. Continue reading →

Designer: Colby Dauch
Publisher: Gamewright
Players: 2-4 (best with 2)
Ages: 9+
Playing Time: 30 minutes

Review by Mark Jackson (9 plays of the Master Set; 32 plays of the system)

Part the First: In Which Your Humble Reviewer Attempts To Convince You To Read The Rest of This Review

Tom Vasel called Summoner Wars “absolutely fantastic” and  “one of the best games of 2009“. (Of course, he’s also admitted publicly that he likes the endgame mechanic from Killer Bunnies & the Quest for the Magic Carrot, so you might want to reconsider listening to him.)

Magic Carrot aside, Tom’s right. And chances are pretty good you didn’t actually hear of this game until 2010… or really see it make a splash until 2011 – which doesn’t change the fact that it’s a brilliant game system that you should try… even if you’re not normally a fantasy battle type of gamer. Continue reading →

Kingdom Builder
Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Publisher: Queen Games
Ages: 8+
Time: 45 mins
Players: 2-4
Review by Nathan Beeler

Kingdom Builder box

Going Boldly
After charging to the highest heights of the euro-gaming world with his game Dominion, Donald X. Vaccarino must have begun looking for new worlds to conquer.  One of his follow-up games, Nefarious, a game about mad scientists plotting to take over the world, seems to give an indication of his post-Spiel des Jahres winning mindset.  With Kingdom Builder, the other of his two latest offerings, the man drags Queen Games kicking and screaming into the realm of wargaming, where he plans to revolutionize the experience there, as well.  And – boy howdy – has Mr. Vaccarino succeeded at his goal: the game plays like no other wargame I’ve ever seen or heard of.  In fact, aside from the hex grid map, a strong argument could be made that it plays exactly like a middle of the road light-weight euro.  Let’s take a peek inside the box, at the future grognards have to look forward to.

Hex Grid Map

Take a Look, It’s in a Box
The first thing that jumps out among the components is old reliable; the hex map, chock full of terrain types and locations.  However, even here there is a twist, in that the map is made up of four modular boards, a subset of the eight that come packaged with the game.  Each of the eight boards has different configurations of terrain, as well as a different special location on it that confers a slight change in the rules.  Players can randomly or deliberately choose which of the four to use and their location relative to each other.  Because of this, the game plays differently every time. Continue reading →