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 you like what we bring you, please vote for us here: http://www.boardgamelinks.com/links/sites

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