Zombies! Brains! Zombies! Brains!

     I am a huge Munchkin fan which is made by Steve Jackson Games. However, they have other games too! One of these such games is a quick playing, fast action dice game called Zombie Dice.

     Objective: The goal is to be the first person to collect 13 or more Brains and win (if you have the highest total.)


     Gameplay: So, you have thirteen dice which are colored green, yellow and red. Each dice has three pictures: Brains, Foot prints or Shotgun Blasts. Depending on the color depends on the number of pictures. So, for example the Red Dice have more shotgun blasts and the Green Dice have more Brains.  On your turn, you take three die out of the cup and roll them. If you get brains, you move them to the side. At anytime you can stop, count your brains and pass the cup. So let's say on your first roll you roll one red dice and two green dice. You roll one brain, one footprint (known as runners) and one shotgun blast. You would move the shotgun and brain to the side. You cannot re-roll shotgun blasts. So, you would pick up the runners and add two more dice to your hand and roll again. This time you get two brains and a shotgun blast. So, you put all three dice to the side. Presently you have 3 brains and 2 shotgun blasts. If you get three shotgun blasts on any one turn your brains you have collected during that turn are voided because you have died. So, do you roll again in hopes you get more brains? Or do you stay, collect your three brains and not take the chance of getting another shotgun and forfeiting your loot!

     Players tend to egg others on to see if they will give in to pressure and gamble. Peer pressure is not immune when playing Zombie dice. The action really heats up when someone reaches 13 brains and ends their turn. This gives everyone one last turn to beat the persons high score. If they tie and stop, they go into a roll off. However, people tend to push the envelope with nothing to lose.

    Zombie Dice is a great game. I rate it 4 out of 5 Stars for the sheer enjoyment and quality family time it brings.

Love Letter

     Board games are fun and technically, Love Letter could be considered a card game. However, it has a boxed edition, so therefore, I declare for my Blog: It's a board game. However, that is all semantics because when you get down to it, whatever classification you wish to give it, it is fun. Lots of fun. It is easy to play, easy to learn and quick (around 15 Minutes.) It's a great travel game or for around the kitchen table.

     Love Letter is from Alderac. The objective is simple, Woo Princess Annette. However, she has locked herself away in her palace. You need to find a way to get your love letter to her first? Can you? She has other suitors you know, namely those you are playing against.

      Object: The object is to be the last person standing with a card and if tied with another player, holding the highest card.

     Gameplay: Shuffle the 16 Cards. The cards have numbers 1-8. The princess being the highest at 8 and the Guard the lowest at 1. Deal one card to each player. Make sure it is face down and they keep it a secret. The remaining cards go to create a draw pile in the middle. Make sure to also give each player a reference card which explains each card and the action they perform. The first person who recently had a date goes first. If everyone who is playing is married, go with the youngest.
    So, the first person will draw a card and now have two in their hand. They have to discard one. Each card has an action. So let's say you have a Guard and drew the Princess. Now, you must discard a card. Well, if you discard the Princess - You lose (It says so on the card and after all that is who you are after.). So, clearly you must discard the Guard. When doing so, you must try to guess a card in another players hand - that is the Guards action. If you do, they are out. If you don't, your turn is over and the next player goes. Now, there is some strategy involved. Let's give another example. We'll say on your next turn you have a Handmaid which is a 4 and a Countess which is a 7. Clearly you don't want to discard the Countess, so you play the Handmaid which protects you from anyone guessing your card or playing something against you until your next turn. This allows you watch the other players defeat each other. As a third example: You have the Countess and pick up a Baron which allows you to compare hands. You discard the Baron and secretly compare hands with the player you choose. If they have less than a 7, you win but if they have the princess you are out and play continues with those left.

     If you play 2 players, the first person to win 7 games as represented by red tokens of affection wins. You can play as many as 4 players.

     You will be surprised on the outcome more than not. Sometimes people outsmart themselves. In one of my first games, I had the King and a guard. I decided to play the King as it allows me to trade hands. I gave my Guard to the player and they gave me the Princess. I was like, Yeah! And then they turned around and played the guard (Obviously they new what I had), guessed it and I was out. So much for being smart.

     Like I mentioned the game plays quick and is easy to learn. It tends to generate a ton of laughs. It is great for the kids too.

     I rate this game 4 out of 5 stars and I am sure you will too just as 95% of those on Amazon have.

Pandemic:2013 Edition

    Pandemic by Z-man games first arrived on shelves with its first edition in 2008. Definitely at that time, it was an anomaly as far as board games were concerned. It was a cooperative game, rather than a competitive game. Everyone in the  game to win it all, together rather than I am going to defeat all of you and claim victory as all classic board games were designed before.

    With what I consider to be a REAL resurgence in board games in the last couple of years, Pandemic has perfected cooperative game play. Zman games has released a new version: Pandemic Legacy and so I thought it was appropriate to write a review for the game that I believe spawned this fever: Pandemic: A New Challenge, published in 2013.

     Do you remember the movie Outbreak released twenty years ago starring Dustin Hoffman? In short it was a movie based on an outbreak of an airborne virus in a California town that threatens civilization unless a group of researchers can quarantine and eventually eradicate it. Pandemic channels it's inner Outbreak.

 Synopsis: Pandemic is a game where a series of four virulent diseases have broken out simultaneously throughout the World! You and your team have a specified amount of time to cure the diseases (which is before the pile of cards representing player cards runs out, or a specific disease - represented by colored cubes is completely dispersed or if more than seven outbreaks happen) or Humanity is lost.

Roles:  Each player has a role. You have the Contingency Planner, Operations Expert, Dispatcher, Quarantine Specialist, Researcher, Medic and Scientist. Each role has a specialty they bring to the team and its your job as a team to utilize these roles to the benefit of humanity.

Gameplay: You lay the board out, give each player a reference card to help them navigate through their actions and have them select one of the aforementioned role cards randomly. While doing this, have another player Separate the cubes (diseases) out and place the research station along with all the players pawns (represented by their role) in Atlanta. After all, CDC's home base of operation in real life is in Atlanta. Next you place the outbreak markers and cure markers "Vial" side up. Then, give each player a reference card to help them navigate through their actions as well as 2 player cards (if playing with 4.) Now, take four epidemic cards out if new to the game (Trust me, it's plenty hard enough) and shuffle the player deck. Finally, place the Infection tracker marker out and infect 9 cities. You are now ready to Go!

     The player with the highest population in their city goes first. Each player has has four actions which can consist of moving, playing an event card, building a research station or removing a disease cube. Your role can make some things easier for your team. So for example, the goal is to cure all four diseases, but  to do so, you must be in research station and have five color related city cards. A Operations Expert can build a research station in any city without actually having that city card in their hand.
     A typical beginning might be to move to an adjacent city if three cubes are there and remove one or two. So, we'll say that in the initial setup of the game, Montreal was hit hard with three cubes of a specific disease. An Operations Expert could go from Atlanta to Montreal as two moves and for the next two moves remove a cube(one per action unless they were a Medic), ending his/her actions. He/she would then pick 2 player cards, hopefully cities and not an Epidemic. Finally they would infect cities which is calculated based on the infection tracker (so if your on a level 2) you pick 2 Infection cards (also represented by cities) Let's say one was Chicago. (If the player had not previously removed any cubes, this would given it 4 triggering an outbreak, which gets you one closer to death and populates the surrounding connected cities with the disease making your task much harder.

    Remember I told you I hope they were NOT epidemic cards. Here is why.

Epidemic Cards: Epidemic cards are just that: Epidemic: a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time. These cards do Three parameters: INCREASE: Raise the infection marker meaning on every ensuing turn you will infect more cities. It has an INFECT parameter which asks you to pick a bottom card of the infection pile and immediately put three cubes on a city putting you on high alert and INTENSIFY: Shuffle the discard pile and put it on top. So, the city that was just infected, could get infected on the next turn which could alter your original plan on the following turn.


     Pandemic is an excellent cooperative game with lots of strategy, suspense and replay ability. Do you have what it takes to save humanity?

     I give this game 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

Do you have your Ticket?

     Trains. They have a certain special appeal. You get your ticket and the conductor comes along and punches it. You know you're on a trip. And there is something exciting about going on a trip. As a kid, we used to have a train go around our Christmas tree. The different lights shining on the cars as it circled around was mesmerizing. Most amusement parks, including Disney World have a train that will take you around the park. It seems every time we go to an amusement park, my kids are like, "Dad, we need to go on the train." There is just some Je nais se pais ce que quality about trains.

     The makers Days of Wonder have captured that Je nais se pais ce que quality perfectly in Ticket to Ride: 10th Anniversary Edition. The Board is larger, easier to read. The collector Tin sets of trains are a worthy upgrade with their detail and different designs, from the original make the game just, well, complete.

     Game Objective:  Use all your trains, complete all your destinations and have the most points at the end. There is also a bonus card. If you lay down the longest end to end continuous train, you will get the coveted Longest Train Bonus Card worth an additional ten points.

     Gameplay:  After you lay out the board which lists cities all across the U.S. connected by colored train tracks,  you then must choose from one of five different colored trains, each with their distinct look and detail and grab your associated colored marker. Every player starts out with four train cards which are color coded (white, black, yellow, orange, red, green, blue, pink and have one wild card that represents all trains.) Finally, you pass out three destination tickets. You get to decide which paths you wish to try to complete. You must keep at least two. (Shh! Don't tell people which destination tickets you kept! Keep them face down.)
Once everyone has decided on their destination tickets, you take the remaining train cards and place five out face up. Now we are ready to start!
   

          Take your Turn:  On your turn, you have initially two plays, you can either choose cards that are face up or from the draw pile. Or you can play cards from your hand to start building your train route.  When you draw cards on your turn, you can either draw two of the face up pile, or one Wild card. Or you could elect to pick one face up color train card and one off the pile. Or you could just ask for two  unknown cards from the draw pile. However, if you draw a face up wild card, you can only pick one card on that turn. Wild are special, so you only get one! If you decide to play train cards out of your hand, they have to be the same number and color of the train track. So, for example, you want to lay track from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The tracks connecting are three pink or three yellow. So, you would have to hand over 3 pink or 3 yellow cards depending which track you were looking to lay down. However, if you had two pink and a wild that would work too. When you lay down track, you get points dependent on length. This is where your marker comes in. On the outside of the board, there are numbers and this keeps track of your points which you acquire when laying down track and completing destinations.What if as the game goes on you have reached all your destinations and still have trains. You can use your turn to acquire additional Destination tickets. You draw three and keep at least one. But be mindful, just as you get additional points for completing train routes, you can be deducted points at the end for not completing a route.

    This is the simplest of all the Ticket to Ride games but that is what endears it to so many. My parents and children both love to play this game. If you are one looking for additional strategy and complexity, I would tell you to obtain Ticket to Ride: Europe or the Expansion game Nederland which requires either Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride complete games. They add additional nuances requiring multiple strategies. Look for my reviews on these variations soon!

     I rate this game 4 out of 5 Stars due to the wide audience it captures, the ease of play and nostalgia of trains. So, go full steam ahead and punch your Ticket to Ride!

     

     

Mysterium

     In light that a week from tomorrow is Halloween, I figured now is a good s time as any to review an other worldly board game. Have you played Clue? Have you watched the TV series Medium? Mysterium is where their paths cross.
   
     Gameplay:  Mysterium takes place on Halloween night in the 1920's. In your role as psychics, you have been invited to a night time Seance. This time of year is the best time to connect to the other side and your ultimate goal is to allow the ghost to cross over peacefully by figuring out who killed them. However, the ghost is exhausted from roaming the astral plane: where a persons spirit goes between dying and the spirit world. The ghost is too weak to speak, so they communicate with visions. Each player is given their own vision. The psychics job is to collectively interpret and connect the visions to a number of suspects and narrow down the possibilities. You then can vote on each players decisions. If you agree with a player's interpretation and they are right, you gain clairvoyance points. The more clairvoyant you are, the more clues you get at the end to determine who has done it, where it happened and how they killed, the now ghost. However, if your own interpretation of a vision is wrong, you do not go onto the next stage and must try again. You also need to decide which room it took place and what weapon was used. You basically get seven turns which is kept track by a most excellent grandfather clock (an hour strikes per turn) to reach the fourth stage. If all of the players cannot make it pass the third stage in seven turns, the ghost is again, for another year, trapped on the astral plane. However, if all players reach the end within the allotted seven hours (seven turns) the ghost summons a final vision which everyone votes on to hopefully identify the suspect and free the ghost to allow them to crossover to eternal peace.

     There is a timer that limits how long you can discuss the visions before making a decision. This added pressure can sometimes make you make a rash decision. Also, you can ask the ghost questions, but they return confirmation or lack thereof by knocks on the table; one knock for yes and two knocks for no. Alternatively, there is a atmospheric soundtrack you can download while playing. Sadly, I was disappointed in that piece and we played without it.

     I should also mention that there are three different levels, each one a bit more difficult allowing for replay ability.

     The cover makes me think of Sherlock Holmes and the Haunted Mansion from Disney World. It was enough intrigue to purchase it and I was not disappointed.

     I rate this game 3.5 out of 5 stars.


   

Tsuro

     We all are looking to walk our own path and hope it is the one that leads us to prosperity and happiness. However, as in life there sometimes are people who wish us not to succeed.

     Tsuro is the award winning game published by Calliope Games. It is designed for 2 to 8 players and fun for the whole family. It is a relatively short game but fun nonetheless.

     Gameplay: Each player starts out with their own marker and chooses where to start their journey by placing it next to a number of marks around the board. Each player is then dealt three tiles. Now, each player looks to play one tile on their turn and move their stone along the path created. Be careful though! If your path leads you to collide with a fellow player or off the board, you are eliminated. You could strategically place your tile where you doom your opponent as you carry on. The winner is the last one standing.

     This game although not involved, is a great change of pace, simplistic and nice break of routine to spend some quality time with family without having to carve out a great deal of time.

     Are you ready to clear your mind, and choose the path to victory?


     I rate this game 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Munchkin OZ

     Ever watch The Wizard of Oz? Are you a fan? Then Munchkin Oz is the game for you.

     However, be forewarned, these are NOT the Munchkins you are looking for! These Munchkins Kick Down Doors, Loot the Treasure and Stab their Buddies on the way to Emerald City. Gather all the items, Heart and Courage you can muster; But use your Brains to come up with a plan to defeat the Wicked Witch of the West and become the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

     Munchkin OZ is game made by Steve Jackson Games. This particular game is based on the L. Frank Baum's creation Wizard of the Oz.

     Gameplay: The concept is simple: Kick in the Door. Fight the Monster. Take the Treasure and be the first to get to Level 10.
   

     Everyone starts out with eight cards (4 Door Cards and 4 Treasure Cards) on Level 1 as a human and their character starts out as whatever gender they are. So, myself being a Male, I fight monsters as one. I am able to collect a number of items that I can carry which can aide me in combat. Some items require a one hand to play. So, I can only play two such items as I only have two hands. I couldn't for example play three items that require one hand each because I don't have three hands. I am a Human, not an Alien.(However, there are CHEAT cards that could make an exception) Each item typically has a bonus. So, there is a card the "Oil Can" which gives me +1 bonus but requires one hand to play. I have another card: "Revolver," which is a bonus of +3 but also requires one hand to play. So, I can play these and combined with my Level 1, gives me a +5 in combat. So, you see how this works? You combat level equals your bonus items, plus your level.

     How do you Level up? Glad you asked. You can level up basically three ways: Fight a Monster and win, buy a level or get a Treasure card which declares Go Up a Level. So, I mentioned earlier you need to Kick in the Door. This happens once you have played the cards you can in your hand in front of you. You then Kick in the Door. You play this card face up and read it aloud. It could be a Trap or a Curse which as the name implies is some type of challenge or obstacle in your path. Sometimes it could be a Class (such as a soldier from Emerald City) or an Ally which have abilities to help you battle monsters and sometimes, its a Monster like the Wicked Witch of the West. In order to Level Up you need to defeat a Monster. The Wicked Witch is a High Level at 19. You right now are a Level Five. Things look bleak, If you cannot defeat her or run away, the "Bad Stuff" on the card reads: "You are Dead... and your little dog too!" However, if you beat her, you get to go up 2 Levels and get 5 Treasures. So, how can you possibly defeat the witch as a Level 5? Some of the Treasure cards possibly in your hand are "Use once Only" cards and have the powers of -5 towards a Monster, this brings her down to a level 14. Your Still Are 10 Levels away before Victory or impending DOOM!. However, another player is a Level 3 and has a total of +7 bonus items laid down in front of them. You ask for their help. They know your in a bind and offer to help for all of your treasures that you will win if you defeat her. That's a steep price but you do get two levels. Or you could run away in fear like the Cowardly Lion. If you do this, you have to roll a Dice and roll a 5 or 6. If you roll a 4 or less, you Die, which means discard all the cards you own. What to do?
     Now, what if you don't draw a Monster card on the initial Kick Down the Door phase? Well, No Monster, No Problem. \Item cards, in addition to their bonus value have a price in Gold pieces written on the bottom right of the card. Do you have a total of a 1,000 Gold pieces with a combination of your treasure/item cards? If so, you could still Level up. It requires 1,000 gold pieces to pay for passage to the next level. Can't level up? Can't lay anymore cards down. Your turn is over. One caveat, if you have more than 5 cards at the end of your turn, you MUST discard the number to get you to five cards. However, if you are not at the lowest level, you must give those cards you would discard to the lowest level player.
     Munchkin gets more intense the closer to Level 10 you get. Everyone wants to be the one to win. So, the higher you get the more chance when those Monsters come out, and you need help, the more likely your friends that helped you in the beginning will thwart your success with a Wandering Monster Card which allows them to say, take a Level 11 Monster from their hand, attached with their Wandering Monster card have that Monster join your combat to add to the level you have to beat to force you to run for your life or suffer the consequences.
     Can you survive the Wicked Witch of the West, The Fly Monkeys and your fellow players on your way to Emerald City? When you get scared and fear the worst, just close your eyes and keep saying, "There's No Place Like Home. There's No Place Like Home." Everything will be okay and you'll have a great story to tell.

    I give this game 4 out of 5 Stars.

    You can check out all the Munchkin games at World of Munchkin

Betrayal at House on the Hill

 


  Welcome! Today's game review: Betrayal at House on the Hill, 2nd Edition. 

  I came across this game while watching Tabletop, hosted by Wil Wheaton. You can view their game day here: Part One and Part Two. After playing it THREE TIMES in ONE DAY, I can attest to its appeal.
  It starts off by 3-6 players deciding to enter the Haunted House on a dare. I mean how else does one enter a Haunted House? Once there, you start looking around, going through the house's three levels: Basement, Ground Level and Second story. You collectively look to collect items and as luck would have it, strange things or events happen, sometimes summoning omens, testing your physicality and mental stability. As in real life, some characters can handle creepy paranormal activity better than others.
  Invariably, you get split up (right?!) and eventually, the house turns one of you on the rest. The goal is to survive the night, killing the monster's and/or ghosts and hopefully snap your friend who turned on you out of the trance he/she has been put under. However, sometimes, the possessed cannot be saved and you need to kill them and what possessed them before they kill you.


  Gameplay: You all start out in the Entrance Hall of the mammoth mansion. Each person has traits: Sanity, Knowledge, (which are known as mental traits) Might and Speed (which are known in the game as physical traits.) You use the traits to move, attack and defend yourself on your journey throughout the house. Your speed trait dictates how many spaces your allowed to move about the house. When you come to a room with a door and wish to move in a certain direction, you lay down another room card chosen from a pile (designated by the floor you are on.) These cards, have symbols on them which depict three possibilities: Events (describing something that is happening like howling wind, and the sound of broken glass, or that the floor collapsed beneath you sending you plummeting to the basement) to help visualize being in a haunted house. Depending on your agility and quick wits, (physical and mental traits) you can avoid some of these pitfalls. Another symbol could be Items: Things you may be able to use to aide you in fighting the evils in the night. The Third symbol could be a Raven which aptly depicts an Omen that provide items as well but comes at a price, challenging your physical and mental well being. The Omens also prompt you to roll dice depicting whether the Haunt will begin or you safely can continue exploring the house. The Haunt is a creative twist where the traitor reads from one set of rules (trying to defeat the other players known as the Heroes now) whereas the Heroes read from another book on how they can successfully attack and hopefully eliminate the evil and sometimes the traitor as well. Unfortunately, to rid the world of evil means sacrificing a friend to do so. If the Heroes defeat the traitor then they win, if the traitor defeats the heroes, well, then they become victorious.

  There are a number of neat things about this game to allow for repetitive play. First, the room cards are laid out depending on how you move about the house and are randomly placed creating a different layout every time which could lead to be advantageous or not so much, depending on the Haunt you go on. There are 50 different haunts, so the chance of  landing on the same haunt are unlikely until after a number of game plays and if you played once a week, that could mean a different haunt each week for a year, give or take a week.

  So, are you ready to go with some friends and check out the Haunted House at the Hill? Be careful, it may betray you.

  I would rate this game 4 out 5 stars.