What’s He Building In There? from Baksha Games Review by David Lowry

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Baksha Games, Board Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Evil Doctor, Henchmen, Review, Sean Scott Garrity, What's He Building In There?, Worker Placement

Clink…. clink…. clink…. “Joe! Don’t damage it!” you yell at your henchmen who is beating on your doomsday device without thinking about the damage it could cause if he isn’t careful. Stupid henchmen, why are smart ones so hard to come by? you think to yourself.

In a few days you’ll unleash your master plan and take over all of London with your device and perfect escape plan. Only a few more things to do and then finally you will be done. You have spent months building, climbing the social ladder, improving your secret hideout, tightening security and buying exotic pets to firmly entrench yourself in the high ranks of society. Now soon, they will all bow to you and be at your command to do your bidding!

You can feel yourself growing anxious and giddy with the excitement of your soon to come dominance! “Prepare yourself London,” you murmur to yourself as you start laughing maniacally. “Three nights from tonight and you will all bow in fear of Dr. Power and my mighty machine!”

Publisher: Baksha Games

Released: 2013

Game Designer: Sean Scott Garrity

Artwork: James Van Niekerk

Players: 2 – 6

Ages: 12 to adult

Playing Time: 25 – 30 Minutes Per Player

Game Mechanics: Worker placement

Contents: 267 cards, 7 doomsday cards, 7 escape cards, 30 wooden cubes, 26 pawns, money tokens, 1 game board and 1 rule book.

Suggested Retail Price: $49.95

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

 

In What’s He Building In There? players are competing as Evil Doctors who along with their three henchmen, are racing to complete their doomsday machine and escape plans which both require inventions to be built before hand, climb the social ladder, build their evil lair compound, increase their security to keep prying eyes out or in maybe?… As well as acquire the rarest exotic pets to help establish their status in high social circles. Players only have 15 rounds to complete and launch their evil master plan and it comes quicker than you think. Can you build the biggest, baddest doomsday machine and escape plan to prove your superiority over the other wanna be evil doctors? Bring your blueprints, henchmen and let’s see if you are the genius you think you are. The evil doctor who garners the most points wins!

Game Play

Game play consists of players each taking one action per player until all four pawns have been placed on the board. Every round, players will have new workshops (up to six cards depending on the number of players) to choose from that provide the raw materials or a chance to refine materials needed to build your doomsday machine and escape plans. The first player to place on these cards will usually get a “bonus” for being their first. This applies to first 14 possible places to play on the board. The last three tracks don’t provide a first player there bonus. Note that Evil Doctors can only be placed on orange spaces and henchmen can only be placed on gray spaces. On the workshop cards, the very first space is both orange and gray and provide a different bonus depending on which pawn was placed there.

The next two spots to possibly play are money and taking the first player token. Then the next four spots are the Black Market spots that allow for things like additional refining, resource trading or money depending on which cards get placed on the board.

The next spot is the Genius at Work (GAW) track. Every invention needed to be built plus your doomsday machine and escape plan need GAW hours to be built. These hours are spent every time you build and invention so you need to make sure that you have enough hours to complete your different levels of your doomsday machine and escape plan at end game. Only the Evil Doctor may play here.

The next playing location is the Manual Labor (ML) track. This track is for accumulating enough hours from henchmen to build your final doomsday machine and escape plan. These hours do not spend as they are only used for the final project. Only the henchmen can play here.

The next three tracks are an additional way to accumulate victory points. The first is the Social Track which is how players build their evil lair. If a player doesn’t have it built by turn five, they must pay rent every turn until they finally build it. This track racks up lots of victory points the higher up you build. Note that only the Evil Doctor may place on this track making it hard to get GAW or the first player bonuses on the workshop cards and acquire these points as well.

The second track is the security track. This track accumulates victory points and the players must have built the “Real Estate” achievement on the previous track to build up to the second spot here being “Secure Fences.” The player who completes this track gets a bonus of +2 GAW and +2 ML hours at the end of game to help complete their doomsday machine and escape plan.

The last track is the Exotic Pets track. This track also accumulates victory points and the “Real Estate” achievement on the first of these tracks must be built here again to advance to the second achievement. The player farthest on this track gets an additional +5 victory points at end game.

The final step is to create and improve your doomsday machine and escape plan. Both must be completed to at least level 1 on their respective level charts indicated on the panel given or the player is basically disqualified. If either one is not finished to at least level 1, then the player cannot win the game period. The player has failed miserably as an Evil Doctor and must sit in their corner of shame and watch as all the other “real” Evil Doctor’s fight it out for supremacy. There are three possible levels on each doomsday machine and escape plan and you can complete as many on either that is possible as long as their is at least one completed on both. Each level requires more inventions to be built during game play and more resources on hand at end game. Each level is a nice jump in victory points at the end of the game.

The Components

The board is very nice and easy to navigate. It is a long board so it will take a decent size table with plenty of space for all the cards and player aids. The pawns are typical wood pieces with the Evil Doctor being very large compared to the henchmen. It adds a tiny bit to the theme but nothing special here. The cards come in different sizes. The Invention Cards are bigger than most cards that come with games probably to big and take up a lot of space on the table and the resource cards are very small and difficult to keep organized as they slide everywhere. All are good quality and should last a long time. The Doomsday Machine and Escape Plan Cards are very thick stock with slots so they can be put together and used as a wall to hide a players money and resources. These are easy to read and very well done. A nice component actually.

The way the board works with the invention cards is different as there are slots/space along the top edge of the board for the invention cards. These cards a previously said are very large and take up a lot of space. I am sure that the intent was to make it easy to read but it’s exactly the opposite here. If you are at the other end of the board, you can not read the icons at all to determine what resources you need to build it as the board is so long and far away. The player has to get up and constantly look or have it passed to them to read it. A resource track with smaller cards would have been a much better way to do this and dispense with the multitude of resource cards and length of board issues. This is my only complaint though. Otherwise, every thing is solid.

Final Thoughts

What’s He Building In There? is a sleeper hit! It’s an extremely fun game with lot’s of depth, decision making and a great theme. The choices between what to take when and will you be able to finish this track or level before the 15 rounds runs out provides for a very fulfilling game. The time goes quite fast so you need to make sure you plan well and hope you can beat the other players to the punch. First player can mean a lot in this game. If you like worker placement games and want something new, unique and a game no one else has to bring to your game nights then this is a game to check out. I never felt like I had played this game before which is very common in worker placement games to me. The more people that play, the better the game as it gets harder to get things accomplished, keep your money engine running and rack up enough resources and hours to complete your end objectives.

This worker placement game is a surprise to my gaming group! I highly recommend it and am looking forward to what Baksha Games brings to table in the future.

I am giving What’s He Building In There? 8.0 out 10 stars.

This game is Club Fantasci Certified!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: A review copy of this game was provided to me.

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Dread Curse by Smirk & Dagger Games Review by David Lowry

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Board Games, Club Fantasci, Curt Covert, David Lowry, Dread Curse, Family Game, Lindsey Look, Smirk & Dagger Games, Stuart Sisk, Worker Placement

 

Dread Curse from Smirk & Dagger Games

Smoke fill your eyes as you watch the ship sinking in the sea, fire still raging on top of part the decks that haven’t sunk yet. Your shipmates are loud and raucous as they celebrate their plunder. Bags of doubloons spill over on the deck as they run their grubby hands through it, fighting over who gets their share and how much of it.

BANG! Your eardrums rattle as you look up and see the Captain holding his musket high in the air, smoke trailing out of it. Instant silence fills the air except the sound of waves lapping up against the hull of the hip. “Keep your hands off!” the Captain yells. “Be proud you scalawags! Not a man lost and more bounty than we expected! The First Mate will gather the loot and divide it accordingly…” “I want my share now!” shouts a pirate about five people away from you slowly getting up. “Bang!” A small rivulet of blood drips out from right between his eyes as you look at the First Mate in shock. “Any other dead men?” the First Mate asks. The pirates shake their heads no as they slowly take a step back.  “Get back to work!” the Captain yells and the pirates scramble to their stations grumbling about what they’ll do if they end up getting short changed.

You return to your duties, plotting your scheme to get as much of that loot as you can without getting caught. A smirk creeps from your lips as you chuckle lightly thinking about whom you want to steal from the most.

Publisher: Smirk & Dagger Games

Released: 2013

Game Designer: Stuart Sisk

Artwork: Lindsey Look

Players: 3 – 8 Ages: 10 to adult

Playing Time: 30 – 45 Minutes 

Game Mechanics: Auction/Bidding, Variable Player Powers, Press Your Luck

Contents: 8 crew cards, 60 doubloons, 50 pirates code cards, 1 phase order card, 1 Jacques Pierre card and 1 bag to hold the loot.

Suggested Retail Price: $29.99

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

Dread Curse back of box

Dread Curse is a game of push your luck with plenty of opportunity to create good fortune for yourself. Players play a different role card every turn (usually) and draw doubloons from the bag while stealing from fellow pirates to increase their share of the bounty have the biggest stash at the end of the game. However their are two Black Spot doubloons in the game, don’t get caught with one of these or you automatically lose.

There are five phases to each round. Draw Coins, Steal, Pay Jacques, Cut and Run and All Hands on Deck. Except for the setup phase, you bid to see who gets the Captain card. From there on, the Captain randomly shuffles and hands out the character cards to the remaining players. The cards are numbered 1 – 8 and have variable cheat powers the may be played on the draw phase or steal phase based on the text on the card. Each player also has a hand of three pirate code cards that can be played also based on what the text on the card says. The interesting thing about these cards are that they are harder to come by and they are worth the gold value at the end of the game adding to the total of your stash. This of course, make the players “think” about whether or not it’s worth it to play the card.

During the Draw phase, all players draw from the back according to their text on their character card except for the Cabin Boy. The default amount is one coin unless your text states to draw more.

The Steal phase has each player stealing from another player in some amount unless their character cards states otherwise.

The Pay Jacques phase allows players to pay two doubloons to get a new pirate code card if they so desire.

The Cut and Run phase is when the players decide they are staying in or getting out of the game when they think they have enough loot or don’t want to get stuck with the Black Spot.

And finally the All Hands on Deck phase is when the players bid for the Captaincy with at two doubloons, more if there is a tie.

The loot is face down for the game unless the players reveal it during the All Hands on Deck phase.

When I first acquired this game, I had heard it was very Citadels like. I guess from the Character cards and their uniques powers that is true, but the comparison stops their. I had also heard it was better than Citadels and I’ll talk about that in a minute.

Dread Curse certainly draws some influence from Citadels but is a completely different game and plays that way. There is always a bit of the leader gets stolen from the most in this game in my experience which could be a bad thing for the stealing players. The Captain has the higher chance of having one of the two Black Spot coins as the captain has the option of drawing the most coins out of the bag. Being the Captain is great in the begging but risky towards the end of the game. The trick is to know when to use your powers, paying attention so you don’t forget to use your powers and knowing when to cut and run.

There is a definite bit of strategy to this game while keeping it very light, easy and fun. It is a social game for sure as people are laughing, stealing and trying to screw each other.

The components of Dread Curse are very well done. The Character cards are big, maybe to big but it doesn’t effect game play at all, just isn’t as easy to tote around as it could be. The doubloons are your typical card board pieces and the Pirate Code cards are all coated to prevent wear and tear. The bag to hold the coins is better than most I have received with most games lately. The artwork on Dread Curse is fantastic! Probably my favorite artwork of the year so far. Great job here!

My final thoughts on Dread Curse are this. It’s a fun, quick, very easy game to learn. Great for the meta game or waiting for others to show up at your game night. Perfect for family game night or a quick lunch time game at work. It isn’t better than Citadels like some claim but it is just as good and maybe quicker to play. They are different enough from each other to own both games in your collection. For advance gamers, you can play it in 10 minutes straight out of the box! That is a big plus. A solid game from Smirk & Dagger Games and definitely belongs in your collection if this type of game suits you.

I am giving Dread Curse 7 out of 10 stars as it is a nice addition to your library providing fun, social gaming and quick play for almost any situation.

This game is Club Fantasci Certified!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: A review copy of this game was provided to me.

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The Downfall of Pompeii from Mayfair Games Review by David Lowry

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Board Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Family Game, Hand Management, Klaus-Jurgen Wrede, Mayfair Games, Review, The Downfall of Pompeii, Tile Placement, Worker Placement

Shake….. Shake….. Loud crashing noises and the earth moving…..  You look around trying to figure out what’s going on. Your home is shaking unbelievably, things are crashing to the ground shattering. You run outside to see every in a panic. Screaming, shouting and wailing coming from every direction. You start to panic trying to stop anyone to ask whats going on. They ignore you running in every direction, grabbing their children and old folk. Then you see it. You look up and see a huge plume of smoke rising from Mt. Vesuvius. Fire spitting out of the top of it. You stand frozen, you can’t believe what you are seeing. Your panic sets in deeper as you don’t know what to do.

You run back in the house, grab your family, shouting at them to drop everything and run. They are crying, they don’t understand, your daughter grabs her doll and you all fun for the door trying to keep your balance as the earth shudders and tosses you around. You grab your daughter into your arms as she fell and hurt her leg. As you exit the door, you look back at the volcano and see lava erupting and hurling large chunks of lava in to the city! One narrowly misses you as it crashes into your home. Lava pours down the sides of the volcano and towards the city. You and your family take off running as fast as you can away from the volcano. Where do your run to? How do you get away from this disaster?

Publisher: Mayfair Games

Released: 2013

Game Designer: Klaus-Jurgen Wrede

Artwork: Oliver Freudenreich, Guido Hoffmann

Players: 2 – 4

Ages: 10 to adult

Playing Time: 45 – 90 Minutes 

Game Mechanics: Hand Management, Grid Movement, Tile Placement

Contents: 120 wood pieces, 62 game cards, 45 lava tiles, 3 dual vent tiles, 1 volcano, 1 cloth bag, game board and rulebook.

Suggested Retail Price: $35.00

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

In The Downfall of Pompeii, the players compete to place as many of their pieces on the board as possible and then race to get them out of the city before the lava takes them over and covers them or traps them essentially eliminating them from the game. The game is played in two phases the first of which is the players trying to populate as many of your own people as possible. The second phase when Mt. Vesuvius erupts is when the players try to vacate as many of their people as possible out of the city. If you people get caught, they get thrown into the volcano! The person with the most amount of escapees is the winner.

The Downfall of Pompeii is a short family oriented game that is easy to learn and provides enough challenge for any “serious” gamer to enjoy for the most part. Someone will always argue this point I am sure. This is a revised edition of this game originally published in 2004. The only new addition to the game is the “Dual Vent Variant” which is 3 double sided tiles giving the player a choice of which side to play.

The Downfall of Pompeii is more strategic than you might think. After the players play the initial eight cards and draw the first A.D. 79 card, then they get to place their “relatives” on the board allowing for additional pieces to get a chance to escape. Being that the initial placement of the pieces are dictated by the card being played, once the piece is played in a building, that player then gets to play “relatives” equal to the amount of pieces in the city square portion of that building, meaning you could play up to four additional pieces in one turn if that building is already full. You cannot chain this effect so once you get the first batch of relatives on your turn, that is all the relatives you will receive during that turn. The relatives must be placed in different empty building spaces after that.

This is one of the key component strategies of the game. The other is when the second phase kicks in, the players now get to move two of their pieces. Each equal to the amount of pieces currently in that building. So if you have three pieces in that building before moving, then you get to move three city squares to try and escape. Of course you move into spaces with lots of pieces in it, to try and get all those movement points the next turn. There is a nice level of depth here to provide a “game” and balance the randomness of the tiles being pulled out to place the lava.

Their are six lava starting points on the board represented by six different symbols all on the tiles. When players draw a tile, they must put the tiles in accordance to the symbol. The first tile of each symbol must be placed on the starting city square before placing anywhere else. From there on out, the tiles must be place directly next to a tile with the same symbol and never diagonally.

After the second A.D. 79 card comes into play, all the players discard their cards, put their remaining pieces back in the box and then pull one tile to place and move to of their pieces on the board to escape the lava flow.

The components of this game are decent. The artwork is good but standard. The tiles are thick and will last a long time. The cards are good weight and coated so as to not get all dirty and peel. The board was a tiny bit warped but not enought to effect anything. The volcano is just a piece that folds in a circle and two little tabs slide into their slots making a serviceable volcano. We are working a styrofoam one to add a little more theme to the game. The tile bag is practical but probably the cheapest element of the game. I am still pulling loose threads out after many plays.

All in all, The Downfall of Pompeii is a good, solid and fun family game that is easy to pull out, teach and fit into any gaming situation. Ideal for maybe gaming during lunch at work, the initial warm up game at a game night or teaching new gamers about the great hobby of gaming and of course family game night. Even thought the theme might seem a bit gruesome, it really doesn’t play at all in the game and is completely safe for kids. Mayfair Games even did a nice job of putting some actually history in the rule book to describe what happen when Mt. Vesuvius actually erupted. You’d be surprised at how many people didn’t know a thing about what happened with Pompeii and had no idea it was a real event. Some people complain about the set up with the cards, but I found that to be not a negative at all. It’s very simple, quick and shouldn’t bother anyone. It’s a very light set up game and packs a lot of fun into a short amount of time.

I am giving The Downfall of Pompeii 7 out of 10 stars as it provides a nice fit into so many situations and provides enough depth while being a light game.

This game is Club Fantasci Certified!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: A review copy of this game was provided to me.

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If I’m Going Down… by Van Ryder Games Review by David Lowry

Tags

A. J. Porfirio, Board Games, Card Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, If I'm Going Down, reviews, Van Ryder Games, zombies

If I am Going Down… by Van Ryder Games

Creak….. Creak….. Drag…. Thump, Drag….. Thump. The noise grows closer as you hear ragged breath emanating from whatever is getting closer. You peak through the slit in the door frame and see a human forming moving closer to you. Limping along, it is misshapen you can tell from the back light. Trying not to make a sound, the hair on the back of your neck stands up as you know something isn’t right. A chill runs down your spine as it just keeps coming. How does it know you are in there? You feel around for anything you can find as a weapon, trying to not make a sound. Finally it moves in the light coming through a window from the moon.

Hollow eyes stare at your location, flesh hangs from its face and hands. Dried blood covers its clothes and it skin is grayish, rotted and you can start to smell the stink of a…. dead body. Suddenly, you notice more figures moving your way…. The same slow gate, and you realize they are there to help you. Panic rises and your breath grows shallow. What are you going to do, it’s almost at the door. You feel something round, wooden… a bat? You grip it tight, waiting for it to open the door.

Publisher: Van Ryder Games

Released: 2012

Game Designer: A.J. Porfirio

Artwork: Gary Simpson, Aaron Wong

Players: 1 – 2

Ages: 14 to adult

Playing Time: 30 – 60  Minutes

Game Mechanics: Co-operative play, Card/Battle Driven, Campaign

Contents: Zombie deck (55 cards,) fate deck (41 cards,) six character cards, 50 tokens, 3 scenario cards, 2 turn reference cards, 1 zombie ability reference card, scenario book and rule book.

Suggested Retail Price: $30.00

Parental Advisory: Theme not safe for kids however, there is no blood or gore. The card art is the only real issue here.

If I am Going Down… by Van Ryder Games is the first DCG (Dying Card Game) at least that I know of on the market. What does this mean? It means you will die playing this game. No two ways about it. That is definitely a new marketing position if I have ever seen one. Being a able to play as a solo or a co-op with another play is a nice new twist as well. Also a nice feature is the fact that is scenario driven. You can play with or without the scenario book and even create your own scenarios.

In If I’m Going Down…, you place cards in set pattern and battle zombies as they move closer to you. Each character cards has unique abilities and operates better with certain weapons than others. You start the game with 3 items/weapons and can search for more on your turn to upgrade so to speak or ditch weapons which are no longer of any use. Most of the zombies are generic but some have special abilities that make it harder to kill and some pop up right next to you. The object of the game is to see how many zombies you can kill before they finally kill you.

When I first played this game, I found it to be fun but something that could very easily get old quickly. The first game I played was about 60 minutes and then I found a couple things I was doing wrong with not paying enough attention to the symbols on the zombie cards for effect. Then I played again right after that and the game never ended. Two hours in. and I am killing everything in site over and over again. I finally had to leave for a meeting otherwise I could have been there a very long time.

If I’m Going Down… is a well thought out game for the most part. It’s a bit of very cool and a bit of meh. I can see where A.J. has a great head for game design. He did extremely well in designing the components. The resources cards are double sided and very easy to understand and give you all the info you need while playing. The rule book is very well done. The scenarios are well done as well and the fact that you can create your own help with re-playability if you want to invest the time. Otherwise, this doesn’t have a ton of re-playability. It does suffer from the feeling of just going through the motions doing the same thing over and over again. However, it’s a very solid effort, with a few different zombies thrown in, and maybe a variant that increases the overall decision making, then this game becomes a whole lot better. Right now it’s basically a hack and slash card game that has great potential.

The other issue I had was the character movement. Can they? It isn’t listed as an action yet it is referenced in the rule book. I figured it should be an action, so I used the same movement as a zombie. One space per turn. This needs to be clarified unless of course I missed it.

Like I said before, the components are well done both in ease of use, structure and materials. The art work is good, but could be better. Being the first game, I am sure budget may have had a bit to do with this. A.J. included a spacer on the back of the rule book to help keep the card rows straight. That was a great idea to be included. There were a lot of little touches A.J. thought of that many designers and publishers don’t.

Over all, If I’m Going Down… is a decent game that is best suited to people who are zombie fanatics, love solo games and really like hack and slash. It’s not a must have game, but it isn’t bad either. It’s a very solid first (I believe) effort from Van Ryder Games. Based on what I have seen here, I am excited to see what else they bring to the table as they show great promise for future games.

I am giving this game 6 out of 10 stars.

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Belfort From Tasty Minstrel Games Review by David Lowry

Tags

Belfort, Board Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Jay Cormier, Review, Sen-Foong Lim, Tasty Minstrel Games, Worker Placement

Belfort from Tasty Minstrel Games

“What the ….?” The lumber yard is bustling more than ever as you look upon scores of elves picking up wood for whatever project they are working on. “What is going on?” you ask the yard foreman. “Seems that the King has requested a lot of building to be done.” he replies. “What? I was given the license to build for the city. I won that job!” Hastily making your purchase you take your load to the job site where currently underway, you have a tower going up.

As you walk towards the site, a dwarf runs up to you handing you a letter. Reading the apology sent by the Assistant Deputy of the Assistant Deputy, it states the King has decided that because of a clerical error, many master architects have been hired to build for the city. When building season ends, the King will hand the Key to the City to the one master architect who truly deserves it. “I can’t believe this!” you scream. “Grunt! Get over here!” A dwarf red of hair, stout of build and covered in dust and dirt from the morning work ambles up to you. “Yes sir, what do you need?” he grumbles as if he is to busy to be bothered. “Hire, all the help you can, elves and dwarves alike! Get as many gnomes as we can muster and get to building as many building as we planning all at once. Make sure you are first to the quarries, lumber yards and gold mine. We need to be ahead and better than everyone else. Well don’t just stand there! Move!” you shout. “Yes sir!” Grunt starts yelling at workers, giving them orders and point in directions for them to go. Then he scurries off to attend to his mission.

Shaking your head, you mind reals from all the work, long nights and personalities that will create issues you will now have to deal with. “It’s always something” you mutter to yourself. You set your mouth in grim determination and your mind to make sure that you will have that Key to the City at the end of building season and no one is going to stop you.

Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games

Released: 2011

Game Designer: Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim

Artwork: Joshua Cappel

Players: 2 – 5

Ages: 13 to adult

Playing Time: 90 – 120 Minutes 

Game Mechanics: Worker placement, Area Control/Influence, Card Drafting, Hand Management

Contents: 5 Game board districts, key to the city, calendar board, collection board, 50 property cards, 5 turn order crests, 1 calendar marker, 5 player boards, 12 guild tiles, 30 wood logs, 30 stone blocks, 20 metal bricks, 46 gold coins, 6 multiplier chips, 35 dwarves, 35 elves, 22 gnomes, 60 property markers and 5 scoring markers.

Suggested Retail Price: $59.99

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

In Belfort, each player is sending their loyal crew of Elves and Dwarves to the tasks of gathering resources, gold and constructing various buildings that have unique abilities for increasing influence in the city. Hiring Gnomes as staff for the building thereby, activating many of the special abilities and helping the player achieve success. Likewise, players can hire guilds to help along the way.

As each player is building in the five districts, their influence grows and knowing what and when to build can be critical to their success. According to the calendar, the scoring will be done three times throughout the building season. This will based on each players influence in each of the five districts as well as the size of their workforce of Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes. By the end of the seven rounds, the player who has earned the most points wins the Key to the City!

First let me state that Belfort is an amazing worker placement game. It is very well thought out and offers plenty of strategy while it is still simple to learn and understand. With all the worker placement games out there (and there are tons of them,) this one to me stands hands above most of them. With the popularity of gateway games of the genre like Lords of Waterdeep, Belfort brings much more to the table. The theme stands out to me immensely. I am not sure why exactly but it probably is a combination of many things such as the artwork, story and feel of the game. Many games of this style have themes that are just pasted on such as Lords of Waterdeep and have really no effect on the game. The mechanics of cube pushing are really all that matter in providing the character of the game at this point.

Belfort somehow manages to incorporate their theme into the overall experience and make it absolutely critical to the experience. The strategy of the game is quite deep and yet only feels like a medium weight game. If the players are familiar with euro style games, they will pick this up very easily and a great game will be born every time you play it. Yet as stated before, it is a good game for new gamers to learn and pick up quickly. This also serves very well as a family game as there is nothing for adults to have to worry about theme wise.

The artwork of Belfort is top notch and really, really adds a lot of flavor to the gaming experience. The components are some of the best yet for a euro game. The boards, guilds and other pieces are thick and colorful. There was no warping whatsoever in my copy. Everything is easy to read and understand. The cards are of good stock, weight and good artwork. A little assembly is required as you need to put stickers on the different colored playing pieces when breaking open the game.

My only complaint may be that player boards might have been a bit better as you need a lot of room to play this game. The building costs are on the player board and on the cards again. I have yet to see anyone use the board to determine the cost of building. Some space may have been saved here and there, with the calendar board, resource board and player boards and a little better planning, but this is a very minor complaint. As over all this game is awesome.

Belfort has become my go to game in worker placement genre. I have to play anything of this weight that is this fun, deep and easy to learn. While there are many great games out there, Belfort should be a table favorite for a long time to come. You don’t shelve great games and Belfort is a GREAT game.

I am giving Belfort 8.5 out 10 stars.

This game is Club Fantasci Certified!

Note: A review copy of this game was provided to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Space Junk from Lamp Light Games Review by David Lowry

Tags

Board Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Kickstarter, Lamp Light Games, Lief Steiestol, Michael Friesen, Reality TV, Review, Space Junk

Space…The Reality TV Frontier. The year is 2047 and the new “Green” is cleaning up space. There is tons of clutter littering the space around Earth and the future Jeff Probst has launched a reality TV program that will not only drive up his ratings with a race in space, but also clean up space as well.

In comes the cast of Space Junk. Sgt. Ned “The Hammer” Cole, Manuel Guerrero, Wynonna Fudd, Kitt Vicious, Mr. Smith, Bubba Johnson, Thomas “Tommy” Carmichael, Jimmy Ross and Johnny Tantrix. Join the cast as they race their ships made up and adapted from space junk!

Publisher: Lamp Light Games

Game Designer: Lief Steiestol, Mike Friesen

Players: 2 – 6

Ages: 6 to adult

Playing Time: 60 – 90 Minutes

Game Mechanics: Dice Rolling, Story Telling, Take That

Contents: 1 Game Board, 150+ Junk Cards, 8+ Character Cards, 6 six sided dice, 6 Ship Boards, 18 Translucent Cubes (3 of each color,) 12 Point Trackers (2 of each color,) 6 Space Ship Tokens and 1 First Player Marker.

Suggested Retail Price: N/A Currently in Kickstarter

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

Overview

In Space Junk players are characters that are featured on a reality TV show while racing each other to get the most point victory points at the end of six rounds of play. While racing the players are ramming, attacking and searching for space junk to attach to their ship in hopes of making it better and increasing their chances of winning.

The race happens within 3 rings around Earth which the players may traverse basically at will. The closer rings score points faster, the farther rings allow for more searching which allows to enhance the players ships as well as score points as most space junk cards have a victory point value. The player board holds six slots (used for ship enhancement) for attaching junk to to each players ship as well as a fuselage slot that can never be damaged. The cargo hold will hold as many junk cards as you wish (points!) and can never be damaged. Only the six slots on your ship can be damaged.

Prototype Components

Sequence of Play

Movement Phase : During the movement phase players may move the amount indicated by their Character Card and any junk cards. They first decide what ring to move in and then move the number of space indicated by their totals. A player may score points this way each time they pass the starting line which is very easy to do if they are in the center ring.

During the movement phase, players may ram another players ship if they land in the same space. This allows players possible to take junk from another players ship and place it on their own.

Attack Phase: During the Attack Phase, players may attack one other player no matter where they are on the board but will suffer a -1 penalty for every space away the defending player is. The attacking player roles a six sided die and add it to their attack total based on their Character Card and junk cards then subtracts any penalty. They score one hit for however many times the total is divisible by five i.e., if the player scores 15 then they hit 3 times and score points for the hit. Then the attacking player rolls one six sided die per hit and the defender move any card hit in a slot number (1-6) rolled by the three die. The damaged space junk cards are turned sideways and discarded after everyone’s turn.

Search Phase: The Search Phase allows each player to pick up space junk to add to their ship or cargo hold. The rings have a “limit” as to how many pieces of junk a player may pick up. The center ring is 3, middle ring is 6 and outer ring is 9. This limit is not altered by a players search total. A player may have a search of 13 but will only be allowed to take as many cards as the ring allows.

After all the players have adjusted their ships totals from junk lost or gained they are now on TV describing their character, ship and round just like any other reality TV episode you have seen. This is actually the most fun part of the game. I put in a house rule that any player that didn’t participate in this would lose 5 points just to make sure no one got to shy.

After six rounds of these three phases, the player with the highest point total wins!

Final Thoughts

Space Junk is a light game that tries very hard but misses on a few levels. It feels more like a party game and this is what are gaming group came away with. Being that the most fun was had during the characters describing themselves, the rest of the game pales in comparison and is a lot of work when you could just pull out Snake Oil or Cards Against Humanity and have no set up or tear down time.

Now to be fair, I reviewed the prototype so I am not sure what the real game will look and be like. The rules we a bit vague especially in the attack phase description. You are supposed to score 3 points when you successfully attack another player but it doesn’t specify if it is 3 points once or for every successful hit.

The scoring track is a major issue with me. It is completely fiddly and more confusing than helpful. I am sure it would not have increased the cost hardly at to print a scoring track around the board to make it easier to score and see immediately vs. having a track on the left in increments of 10 points except where they skip from 100 to 120. What happened to 110? Then to have another track on the right side to track the single points. Is this really necessary? Using two tokens to score instead of one on a board that had plenty of room for a scoring track all the way around it?

That artwork was good, the flavor text was sometimes funny although it didn’t always have something to do with the card it was printed on. I think the final product will be an attractive one. The cards and board I won’t comment on as I don’t know what the final product will be.

Space Junk is a decent first effort from Lamp Light Games and might fill a spot for people who love party games and space themes. I did enjoy the “TV time” portion of the game as did the rest of our group but the rest fell a bit flat and felt like just going through the motions with out any real need for much strategy. The dice are completely random and many times when scoring 3 hits, no damage was done to the other players ship.

Due to the amount of cards given in this game, it has some re-playability and I suppose expansion could be made I am just not sure it would be worth it. This is definitely a game that should be played with at least 4 – 6 players to have enough chance to ram or attack anybody with out penalties and to have enough “character stories” to have fun with.

Due to the lack of any real “game” and the best part being the “stories” I am giving this a 5.5 out of 10 stars. For what it is, it plays to long, is to much work and you can get the best of Space Junk in simpler cards games that aren’t as fiddly.

I was provided a review copy of this game.

Dungeon Roll Review by David Lowry

Tags

Board Games, Chris Darden, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Dice Games, Dungeon Roll, Fantasy, Review, Tasty Minstrel Games

 

Dungeon Roll Box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Two giant stone doors tower before you, covered in moss, vines and deep battle scars from ages gone by. Upon further inspection, a dank smell permeates the air as you approach the doors. The smell of death, decay and something not quite right makes your parties skin crawl. With a word, your wizard opens the doors to complete darkness and the unknown is tugging at your senses. The wizards staff lights up, the warrior moves in first, one member after another. What will you find in the Dungeon? Why is the hair standing up on the back of your neck? Why is there a giant red scale on the ground before you? Do you have the metal to brave Dungeon Roll?”

Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games

 

Game Designer: Chris Darden

Players: 1-4

Ages: 8 to adult

Playing Time: 15 minutes

Contents: 1 rulebook, 7 white party dice, 7 black dungeon dice, 1 10-sided level die, 36 treasure tokens, 24 experience tokens, 8 hero cards, 4 player aid cards, 1 hero book.

Suggested Retail Price: $15.99

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

Necromancer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Dungeon Roll each player receives a Hero Card either at random or the player can choose from the following characters: Bard, Battlemage, Beguiler, Chieftain, Commander, Dragon Slayer, Necromancer and Paladin. Each Hero also has a Special Ability that can be used anytime and and Ultimate Ability that can only be used once per delve into the Dungeon. Hero can level up once after gaining enough experience points to help their special abilities.

The game is played in the rounds or each playing delving into the dungeon three times each. The first player then rolls the 7 white dice to determine their party that may include Champions, Fighters, Wizards, Thieves and Clerics. The person to the Players left is the Dungeon Lord and rolls the Dungeon Dice as well as tracks the current players lever with the Level Die.

Bard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The players turn consists of four different phases:

The Monster Phase: The active player uses his companions (Champions, Fighters, Mages, Thieves and Clerics) to battle the Monster Dice (Skeleton, Goblins and Oozes.) Any Dragon dice rolled are set off to the side to be faced later if three or more Dragons are rolled. Once a companion is used to battle a monster is put in the graveyard and cannot be used again unless brought back with a potion later in the turn sequence. Dungeon Dice are returned to the Dungeon Pool to be reused again. The current player can press their luck and go deeper into the dungeon increasing the level on the Level Die and gaining more experience points. Level 1, one Dungeon Die is rolled, Level 2, two Dungeon Dice are rolled etc. If a player fails to defeat the current level, they must flee the Dungeon and their delve is over with out gaining any experience.

The Loot Phase: The player can choose to do these in any order.

Open Chests: One Thief or Champion may open any number of chests and all other companions can open a single chest.

Quaff Potions: Any companion (including scroll die) can be used to quaff any number of potion dice. One potion equals on companion resurrected from the graveyard.

Dragon Phase: If there have been 3 Dragon Dice rolled then the current adventurer must battle the Dragon! The adventurer can only defeat the Dragon if they have 3 different companions to battle it with. If there are not 3 Dragon Dice, skip this phase.

Regroup Phase: Here the adventurer retires to the tavern. They collect experience points equal to the level they achieved on the Level Die. If the adventurer was brave enough and somehow made it all the way to Level 10 on this delve, they must retire and collect 10 experience points. The adventurer can keep seeking glory by going deeper into the Dungeon if they have not achieved Level 10 yet. Remember if the adventurer cannot defeat all the Monster Die, they must flee the Dungeon and no experience points are gained.

Once the delve is over, the adventurer passes the dice to the left and play begins again with that player.

Once all the adventurers have completed all three delves the game is over and the players count up their experience points. The one with the most wins!

Dungeon Roll Dice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Treasure: When a chest is opened during the Monster Phase, the current player gets to retrieve treasure from the Dungeon. These can be used during a players turn if applicable like a fighter token or a mage token which acts as an additional companion die. Once the toke is used it is returned to the box. All unused treasure tokens count as experience points at the end for the player that has them.

The components for Dungeon Roll are very good. The artwork is very nice, the dice are high quality with cool graphics and the tokens are small but serviceable and sturdy. The box is a cool treasure chest look for the packaging but I can see the lip on the inside getting damaged fairly easy so take care when closing the box. The Hero Cards are very attractive and of decent quality. As much room as in on the card, the text could have been bigger for people with eyesight issues but that is a super small quibble.

Dungeon Roll is an very fun, quick romp through the dungeon and in some ways the theme really comes through. This is a great filler game or travel game as it all fits in the small treasure box and is playable anywhere anytime as it really only lasts about 15 minutes each game. Designer Chris Darden did a great job of finding a way to mix the luck of dice rolling with strategy and the feel of a dungeon crawl in such a small, compact quick game. This is a winning design and game. Great job Chris and Tasty Minstrel Games.

I am giving this game 7 out 10 stars as it is very fun, quick and thematic at its core with just the right amount of luck and strategy for a filler game that keeps everyone engaged and is going to be great fun for kids and adults.

A Fool’s Fortune Review by David Lowry

Tags

A Fool's Fortune, Board Games, Card Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Jason D. Pilla Cannoncro, Justin A. Pilla, Review, Rio Grande Games, Rummy Style

 

A Fool’s Fortune Box Top

“Come play a game of mischief, magic, mirth, and lore. Delve into the Book of Fate to reveal mysterious fortunes: realms near and far, resources wondrous and wild. Cast your lot with a crew of assorted (and sordid) characters. If you pay your dues and play your hand right, you may just win a fool’s fortune.” – Rio Grande Games

Publisher: Rio Grande Games

Game Designer: Jason D. Pilla Cannoncro, Justin A. Pilla

Players: 2-3

Ages: 13 to adult

 

Playing Time: 45 minutes

Contents: 1 rulebook, 77 unique cards.

Suggested Retail Price: $19.95

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

A Fool’s Fortune is a two player Rummy style game in which both players are attempting to make sets as fast as possible. It isn’t that easy however as the game provides plenty of twists based on the 5 suits of Fortunes and Characters with special talents that either player may employ against each other. The first player to achieve 3 sets wins the game and A Fool’s Fortune!

There are 3 Acts which are basically 3 different levels of play. Each Act can be played as a stand alone game or all together. Each Act has it’s own strategies that are different as each Act has a different purpose.

Of the 77 cards in the game, 55 are Fortune cards. Each Fortune contains a Realm and a Resource. Realms are represented by 5 different colors.

Mountain – Grey

Forest – Green

Coastal – Blue

Desert – Red

City – Purple

The Resources found within the Realms are distinguished by symbols.

Folk – Theater Masks

Location – Castle

Nature – Animal Paw

Treasure – Gem

Supernatural – Air symbol

You can have Aligned Fortunes that either match by Realm or Resource type. There are Charmed-Pairs that are identical in Realm and Resource type. Sets are groups of Aligned Fortunes that are in play. Each Realm also includes 1 wild card each.

There are 22 Character cards. These Characters can be recruited into service by paying a fee to put them into play by paying 2 Aligned Fortunes underneath the Character as the Characters Fee’s.

Like many card games, Characters or Engaged (exhausted) and Readied. To use the Characters abilities you have to engage your character.

You may also Fetch a Character from the Faire to be brought into your camp.

So you can see there is some thought in this game, unfortunately, it just isn’t worth the work of learning it.

While learning A Fool’s Fortune, I had a really hard time getting into this game. The rules are badly laid out and explained which is not something I find with most Rio Grande Games. The need to learn a ton of new terminology makes this game difficult and to be honest it just isn’t worth the time for a game this style. Not for a variation of Rummy anyway. The need to constantly used new verbiage to create a theme for what should be such a simple game completely destroys anyone wanting to really sit down and learn the game. With certain games like Android: Netrunner I can see this as the game play makes it completely worth it. With this one, it was unnecessary and kills the fun factor.

The idea behind the game was good. The fact that I can see a fair amount of deep strategy potential makes it sad that trying to understand this game is more difficult than it should be. Even after watching the vides, which are horrible, didn’t help. The music choice and cheap filming actually distract you from the learning. Hint: As a video producer and music professional, publishers and designers need to be very careful in how they make their videos or hire a professional to do it for them. This was just bad period.

Unfortunately this is the first bad review I have had to write, but honestly, I just can’t find anything about this game that makes me want to play it. I usually outline the game play in my reviews but trying to do that with this game is wouldn’t be fair to the readers. I love the theme and I can see the potential, but for $20, it is way more work than learning many other games. If you know someone that has learned this game and can explain it to you through a few rounds of play, then maybe you will enjoy this game, but I wouldn’t spend your money on this game. It just falls flat from the opening of the box.

This is a time sink one of the very few games I just have no desire to play. This is the only game I have played from Rio Grande Games I haven’t pretty much loved. Don’t be a fool with this one.

I am giving this four out of 10 stars as it just is way to fiddly to learn and poorly laid out to learn.

Cinque Terre Board Game Review by David Lowry

Tags

Board Games, Chris Handy, Cinque Terre, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Euro Games, Review, Rio Grande Games

Cinque Terre Box Top

Life in Cinque Terre is a beautiful sight to behold. A rugged coastal land on the Italian Riviera with five villages close to each other to do business in. Each Player is a farmers vying to harvest and sell produce in each village and become the most popular by fulfilling the most Produce Orders.

Publisher: Rio Grande Games

Game Designer: Chris Handy

Players: 2-5

Ages: 13 to adult

Playing Time: 60 minutes

Contents: 1 Rulebook, 1 Game Board, 16 Dice, 5 Player Cart Tokens, 5 Scoring Markers, 128 Produce Pieces, 1 Dice Bag, 5 Most Popular Vendor cards, 5 Fulfillment Cards, 80 Produce Cards, 80 Produce Orders, 16 Starting Orders.

Suggested Retail Price: $54.95

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

In Cinque Terre, each players plays a farmer that operate carts and harvest and deliver produce to sell in the 5 local villages. Players will also compete for Produce Order cards, which will give the player Lire for each successfully filled order in specific villages. The player with the most Lire, most popularity and most fulfilled Produce Orders at the end of the game wins.

The object of the game is to earn the highest total amount of Lire. This is scored by a scoring track around the edge of the board. Lire can be aquired by:

• Selling produce at a village for its value in that village

• Fulfilling Produce Orders, this can either be from the players hard or next to the board.

• Selling the most produce at a village to become the Most Popular Vendor.

Cinque Terre Set Up

During a players turn that player may take up 3 of the following 4 actions in any order they choose.

• Move up to 4 spaces in a clockwise direction.

• Draw 1 Produce card.

• Harvest Produce – They player may harvest up to 4 Produce pieces at any 1 of the 3 Harvest spaces. A player may not have more than 4 Produce pieces at any one time.

• Sell Produce at a Village Market – A player my sell up to 4 Produce pieces at any one of the 5 villages they are currently occupying.

Players may perform the same action more than once per turn.

Move up to 4 spaces – There are 8 spaces a player’s cart may land on. There are 3 Harvest locations and 5 villages. A player may move up to 4 spaces in a clockwise direction only. Players may occupy the same space.

Draw 1 Produce card – A player may draw 1 Produce card. Of course as stated earlier a player can take an action more than once. There are 8 types of Produce cards and 10 of each of those. The cards are colored coded to match the Produce pieces and 8 colored dice.

• Black – Olive

• Grey – Funghi (Mushroom)

• White – Agli (Garlic)

• Purple – Uva (Grapes)

• Green – Zucchine (Zucchini)

• Yellow – Limoni (Lemon)

• Orange – Arance ( Oranges)

• Red – Pomodori (Tomatoes)

If a player choses to draw a Produce card, they can draw from either of the 4 face up cards on the board or from the Produce draw pile.

If a card is taken from the game board, it is immediately refilled from the draw pile.

There is no hand limit and if the draw pile runs out, the players reshuffle the discard pile in to a new draw pile.

Cinque Terre Components

Harvest Produce – The players must harvest Produce in order to sell it. There are 3 Harvest spaces on the board from which the players may harvest. The players may only harvest the Produce attached to that particular harvest space. The first and third space has 3 types of Produce attached to it while the second space has only 2 attached to it.

To harvest Produce, the players must discard the appropriate card type for each produce they harvest i.e., 1 Olive card for 1 Olive produce piece. A player may never have more than 4 unfulfilled Produce pieces at one time on their cart, however a player may harvest up to 4 Produce pieces for one action.

Yield – A player may discard 2 resource of the same type to harvest any 1 other type of Produce piece they are currently sitting on.

Sell Produce at a Village Market – This is how the players make a profit and move their counter along the victory point track around the edge of the board mainly. A player may sell any type of Produce at any village but some types of produce will be more valuable in certain villages based on what the appropriate colored die says for that village. If a player sells an “Uva” at a village that has a purple die with the 5 showing, that Produce is worth 5 Lire each. Players may only sell the village they are currently occupying as well.

Each village will have dice to the right of it with a particular number showing, which was rolled before the start of the game and place in the appropriate space next to each village. If there is no die associated with a particular Produce color than that Produce is worth 1 Lire only.

To show that a Produce piece is sold, a player must move the piece to the corresponding cube space in the appropriate village row on their fulfillment card. Then the players adjust the scoring track to reflect the sale as well. A player may sell as much or as little at this market as they wish.

Cinque Terre Fulfillment Board

Produce Orders/Starting Orders – These are pretty much the same thing. Every player starts with a starting order to fulfill and will also fulfill more Produce Orders from the side of the game board. Each Order has Produce symbols next to each village. The player must sell on Produce for each symbol type shown to the corresponding village on the card. Once a player has sold a certain type of Produce in a village, they are now eligible to claim future orders requiring the same type of Produce in the same village. The player may sell several of the same type of Produce to the same village as it may be more profitable but not necessary.

Claiming Fulfilled Produce Orders – A player may only claim a Produce Order card from the side of the board at the end of their turn and only if their Fulfillment Card meets the requirements shown on the Produce Order. A player may only claim 1 Produce Order per turn. When a player draws a new Fulfillment Order, they look at it secretly and make keep it or refill the empty space on the side of the board. If they choose to refill the space, they must take the next card drawn.

Claiming Most Popular Vender Cards – Players ending their turn with all 8 spaces filled on their fulfillment card may take the MPV Card at the end of their turn. That card is worth a certain amount of Lire and the player then adjusts the scoring track accordingly to the Lire amount on the card. Any forgotten MPV Card to be claimed MAY be claimed by another player. Only one MPV Card may be claimed per turn.

Starting Orders are hidden throughout the game and are scored at the game end. Unfulfilled Starting Orders will result in a victory point loss at the end of the game.

The game end is triggered in one of these two ways:

– After the turn in which a player claims a fifth Produce Order card or MPV Card (any combination), each player then gets one final turn including the trigger player. Orders in the player’s hand at game end do not count against them.

– After the turn in which 2 different Produce types have been depleted, all players get one final turn including the trigger player.

Players then total up their final scores to determine the winner.

The components in Cinque Terre are high quality in every respect. My only complaint is the scoring track around the board couple be a bit better. That is a very minor complaint though.

Cinque Terre is a very good euro-style game that gives you plenty of strategy in a short, manageable game that plays a time frame to make almost anyone happy. This fits so well into so many different situations that it solves what most people complain about. While it isn’t innovative so to speak, it is deep enough, short enough, and the quality is solid.

This game is easy to learn and play almost immediately so it makes it a great choice as a gateway game for first time gamers not used to a euro-style game. Designer Chris Handy did a great job here and I know it wasn’t easy for him. This game took awhile to get out and I am sure that it went through lots of revisions before doing so.

I will give this game about a 7.5 out of 10 stars as even the theme comes across well here which can be unusual for a euro-style game. For those players that love cube pushers but don’t always have time for games like Caylus, this could very well scratch your itch.

Vampire: Prince of the City Review by David Lowry

Tags

Board Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Mike Nudd, Prince of the City, Vampire, Vampire The Masquerade, White Wolf Publishing

Vampire: Prince of the City

The Prince is dead by unknown and mysterious means! The Primogen of the five vampire clans vie for the throne of Prince of the City by outmaneuvering each other through controlling city zones, using their humans, using social stature, physical combat and mental abilities. Who will outwit each other, physically dominate or use politics and intrigue to claim the title? Which one will persevere and take the throne? Do you have what it takes to lead not only your clan but also all five-vampire clans?

Publisher: White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

Game Designer: Mike Nudd

Players: 3-5

Ages: 15 to adult

Playing Time: 90 – 120 minutes

Contents: 1 rulebook, 1 folding city board, 1 deck of 100 playing cards, 5 character cards, 5 unique character miniatures, 5 10-sided die and 3 sheets of counters and tokens.

Suggested Retail Price: $45.00

Parental Advisory: Safe for kids

Vampire: Prince of the City is based on the popular role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade and I think effectively captures its essence. Set in the aftermath of a great tragedy, the former Prince has met with the Final Death by some unknown means and now the Primogen of the five vampire clans the Daeva, Gangrel, Mekhet, Nosferatu and Ventrue are on the move to claim the throne of Prince of the City.

Each player takes the role of one of the Primogen in this effort to out maneuver his or her opponents to claim the title. Whichever player holds the most Prestige (victory points) at the end of the game wins. A set length of rounds between 6 and 12 determines each game and this of course affects the length of the game. Prestige comes in two forms in this game, Personal Prestige and City Prestige. Both are equally important for players to focus on. Personal Prestige is gained primarily though the event cards and City Prestige is game through city zone (area) control. At the end of the game, the players add up both their Personal Prestige and City Prestige to see who has become the new Prince of the city!

Primogen Miniature

The clans have different attributes that may give advantages in the different challenges from both event cards and other players.

Daeva – Sensuous, artistic and hedonistic. They posses supernatural physical power but are most feared for their majestic social presence.

Gangrel – Animalistic, instinctive and shamanic. The hunters and mystics of the Kindred world, physical power is legendary as are their abilities to transform undead flesh in to beasts.

Mekhet – Ideological, intellectual and philosophical. They are the spies and prophets of the Kindred world. They are supreme strategists and always one step ahead of the Danse Macabre.

Nosferatu – Monsters, outcasts and freaks. The brutes and terrors of the Kindred world. Known for hoarding its darkest secrets, physical power, mental cunning and nightmarish control of fear itself.

Ventrue – Royalty, generals and autocrats. The Ventrue are leaders and champions and take command of any man or best as suits their whim.

Each of the five clans have attributes on the player cards that represent their ability to perform mental, physical and social challenges The higher the score, the stronger the ability. Each of the five clans also have Disciplines listed on their cards that are super powers so to speak and may only be used once per turn. Disciplines cost one Vitae (blood) to use each time.

Vampire: Prince of the City Game Board

The game board is broken out into different city zones that are distinguished by color.

Religious – Orange

Government – Blue

Business – Purple

Arts and Entertainment – Pink

Research – Green

Industry – Red

Transportation – Yellow

Community – Dark Blue

The game comes with 100 playing cards of five different types.

Activation – Special game effects that may be used if the player controls the zone the card represents.

Event – These represent a number of different events that would occur in a city full of vampires. Any Primogen who expects to command the respect due a Prince needs to be able to resolve these events.

Retainer & Equipment – These cards represent people and items that give bonuses or other effects to the controlling player.

Strategy – The cards represent the different ways a Primogen may employ to garner more prestige or resources.

This game is a turn based game set up in five different phases as follows:

Resource phase –During this phase the player marshals the tools at their disposal. The player may take two actions from the following list.

Draw a card from the deck – A player may never hold more than three card in their hand at one time unless a card play dictates otherwise. Also a player may not have more than five cards in play in front of them again a card in play dictates otherwise

Hunt to gain one Vitae – Gain one Vitae (blood) to heal

Consume a retainer to gain two Vitae – Gain two Vitae to heal at the cost of one retainer card removed from play.

Recover from or rescue another Primogen from torpor (coma) – A player may come back in to play or help another player come back into play after loosing all their Vitae in a challenge. If a player looses all their Vitae, they are moved to the center of the board in the Elysium zone and they loose a turn as they are in torpor (coma)

Perform an alternative resource action (card text) – play a card from your hand or activate a card in front of the player in play.

Gifting or trading card is a possibility with another player in range of each other, this meaning in the same city zone or one away. A player may gift or trade as many cards in any combination with another player that is within range.

Starting Position

Movement phase – Each player may move their miniature to any spot on the board even if already occupied by another player or token (unless a game effect dictates otherwise such as torpor.) A play is not forced to move if they choose not to. Once a player moves a piece and places it, it may not be moved again until the next movement phase (unless dictated by a game effect.)

Ventrue Clan Sheet

Challenge Phase – During the challenge phase each player may make one challenge in turn order against another player in range of each other. Both the acting player and the target roll one 10 sided die and add their challenge score from their character card and any other bonuses from cards or other players helping and the high score wins. The challenges are as follows:

Mental Challenge Effects – The winning player may steal one face-up Strategy card in play of their choice from the loser, or steal one influence token from the loser in the next Influence Phase.

Physical Challenge Effects – The winning player may steal on Equipment card of their choice controlled by the loser, or steal up to three Vitea counter form the loser.

Social Challenge Effects – The winning player may steal one Retainer card of their choice controlled by the loser, or steal up to two Personal Prestige counters from the loser.

The winning player may also decline any winning effect if they so chose.

Event Challenges – These challenges are handled in a similar fashion but the event card dictates the type of challenge. The current player must score equal or higher than the given difficulty number on the event card. If they do, they event is solved and the player collects the Personal Prestige points awarded. If they fail, the event is left in play and other players may attempt to resolved this challenge during their turn.

Assisting a Challenge – Other players may assist both in player and event challenges. This must be declared before any dice are rolled or Discipline or card effects are used.

Influence Phase – This phase is where the players “bid” for influence in certain city zones. Each player will take three influence tokens from the bank plus one for ever zone in which they control all of that color. Influence tokens are not kept past this phase. Once this phase is complete, everyone discards his or her tokens and it begins again the next round. Once bidding begins, players try and get their influence tokens on the board in zones to control it. If a player wins that bid, those tokens stay on the board, if a player loses, the tokens bid this round are discarded. Players can only bid in zones they are currently in, colors they have tokens in or zones that in range of the players miniature. When a player controls a zone, their tokes are placed in the circle on the right side of the zone to show dominance.

Resolution Phase – During this phase all the players count up both their Personal Prestige and City Prestige and adjust their Prestige track on the outer edge of the board. Prestige is no cumulative, so it is entirely possible that a player will lose ground on the track. The person with the most Prestige per turn becomes the Regent (first player) and the next round starts unless of course it was the last round of play.

The components for Vampire Prince of the city are pretty well done. The board is thick and lays flat. The city zones could be outlined a bit better and the circles in the zones as well, but that is a minor issues. The miniatures are very nicely done; the tokens are thick and will last a long time. Using dark purple on a black background wasn’t a great idea for one of the tokens as it makes it very hard to see.

The box art on the other hand is really pretty poor. It’s very non-descript and doesn’t convey anything of the game and the back isn’t much better. There is information left off that would help sell the game to casual buyers.

That being said, Vampire: Prince of the City is a good, solid game. It plays much better with at least four people and best with five. Anything less and it takes for every for anyone to really challenge each other as the board is large and it’s easy to avoid other players.

There is a nice amount of strategy in this game. The player interaction makes it very fun and the theme carries through a bit. The cards add a great feel to the game and provide for some interesting strategy choices based on what you draw out of the pile. Bidding for influence is a great feature and provides a lot of great interaction and choices on top of the area control mechanic. Being in the lead will definitely lead to people attacking you so beware!

I recommend not using event challenges the first round or two as many of the challenges are much to strong to beat with out having cards laid down in front of the players to use.

All in all this is a much better game than may let on about in other reviews. I have a feeling, they didn’t really dig into it or have enough players to fill out the board more.

If you can find a copy of this out of print game, I recommend it. It’s worth the money and definitely has a good amount of replay value with all the different cards and types of characters you get to choose from.

I will give this game about a 7 out of 10 stars just because you need at least four players to really get the game effects really banging but it is certainly worth the price and wins in the strategy department.