Board GamesComments Off on Primer: Battles from the Age of Reason Source Book coming in July
Jun122013
Primer: Battles from the Age of Reason Source Book
$36.00 SRP
For twenty years, the “Battles from the Age of Reason” (BAR) game series has been the ultimate gaming expression of mid-eighteenth century warfare. The BAR games feature a highly detailed, realistic and interactive game system, gorgeous map and counter graphics, through research and exciting battles throughout Europe and the Americas. However, because of rules, depth, detail and period, many gamers have been perplexed in learning the system. This Primer is designed as an illustrated learning tool to accompany and enhance the Third Edition BAR rules.
88 pages, perfect bound.
Full color throughout.
Includes one counter sheet of 280 half-inch counters as well.
Let me start by saying this isn’t a rules review, it is more of an experience review. We played Princes of the Dragon Throne twice now and have a few things to share. But before we can do that you should watch this video. No, really the rest of this won’t make any sense if you don’t watch it. It is an excellent tutorial of the game.
As I said we played twice, well three times actually, but the first game doesn’t count because we botched the rules a little bit. We overlooked parliament. By the end of our second game we were starting to get the hang of it. But let’s review a little bit. The goal of the game is to become the next Dragon Lord. You do this by managing resources to gain control of the board, which in turn is how you earn prestige. Simply put you try and have the most prestige.
It’s not that simple. There are several ways for one to earn prestige. The easiest is to recruit prospects (Dragons and Citizens), some of them have a dragon’s claw on them that earn you prestige from the moment you buy them. Most of your prestige rewards don’t come until the end of the game. They are as follows.
Have the most dragons in your deck.
Have the most citizens in your deck.
Control more kingdoms by controlling the most guilds in that kingdom.
Have the most of a guild type.
Control the most Clan Houses.
As you can see there are many layers to the strategy involved.
On to our experience. At first I thought Princes of the Dragon Throne was going to be a long drawn out game that required a lot of effort to get through the lulls in resource building. While there are a few lulls in your resource management we quickly discovered there is a random factor to that as well. So the game could start quickly if inexpensive prospects are placed on the board. Just in case I lost you, here is a quick recap. You use your starter deck to gather your resources and recruit prospects. Recruiting a prospect allows you to discard a card from your hand or your discard pile. The recruits have varying resource costs with some as high as thirteen. If you have 6 prospects on the board with a cost of 10 or more it might be a couple of turns before anyone does any recruiting.
Oh and recruiting is strategy all in its own. It is always a good idea to replace a starter card with a citizen or a dragon that offers you more resources. Why? You might ask. Because by replacing your starter card with the recruited card you thin your deck making it easier to draw the better card.
Oops, I’m rambling. The second game we played we fell into a gather resource rut. It was almost like we were waiting for the crops to grow so we could harvest them. But in the last game we played there was no such dilemma. It just clicked. We had players gathering resources while others took the opportunity to recruit on the first turn.
It wasn’t until about half way through our third game that we realized we were playing wrong. We were following the rules and all that. What we weren’t doing was looking at the big picture. The one that is about the strategy of the game. We were kind of racing to get the most prestige. Which is the goal of the game. We were struggling to get recruits for that instant prestige we spoke of earlier. But we weren’t looking to control clans, guilds, kingdoms and we certainly weren’t looking at having the most citizens or dragons in our deck. All of us overlooked those. I mean we were acquiring them , but not focusing on them.
Once that critical piece of the puzzle was popped into place the entire game changed. It was no longer a mundane game of “I need these resources to buy that dragon”. It was instead a game of critical thinking, where you would try and plot your next turn instead of waiting to gather resources. Yes it became a wrestling match with all the players struggling to gain the most control all the end of game conditions. At this point you began to see light bulbs go off and on in the other players eyes.
And it really is a wrestling match. There are so many ways to thwart your opponents. For example, you can easily gain control of a guild in one turn by recruiting a dragon and a citizen; providng they share the same color. If you need to stop a player from controling a kingdom or the most guilds it is one of the easiest methods to use. Of course, if you have a soldier’s favor you can accomplish the same thing by adding or removing up to two Kings Guards from the board. As you can see it doesn’t take long for Princes of the Dragon Throne to become a cut throat game.
All in all we had some pitfalls in learning to play, but once we caught on to the game we were more than happy to be playing. Princes of the Dragon Throne is a game that offers the players more than enough options to keep everyone guessing, and wanting more. My boys really can’t wait to play again and neither can I.
This expansion set for The Battle for Normandy allows players to extend the campaign game to the end of August, but most importantly includes the area for the Mortain and Falaise Pocket scenarios. Counters are included to fill out Allied and Axis Order of Battles to the end of August, and also include specific breakdown counters for AT, SP AT, and mechanized infantry.
The Full Color Rules & Scenario books are updated and comprehensive, and include all original rules and scenarios plus all optional rules, and 6 new scenarios.
Board GamesComments Off on The Walking Dead Board Game 2
Jun082013
The Walking Dead Board Game 2
$ 40.00 SRP
In this co-operative game, players take on the roles of Rick, Glenn, Daryl, Michonne, and other characters. The Survivors are on the hunt for Walkers and must defend 4 key Locations in order to stay alive: The Farm, The Prison, The Town, and The Highway. Using oversized Location tiles, the map board is built at random each game, providing for great replayability. At each Location there is a Resource deck of 25 cards: Equipment, Allies, Food, or Ammunition. These decks are also placed at random locations, further adding to the replayability. A 48-card Event deck drives the action and triggers Walkers and other calamities to show up at the various Locations. Players draw Event cards each turn and have to figure out how to minimize the effects of their Events over the course of their turn. Dice are used to resolve combat and to determine the outcome of some Event cards.
Zmaster adds a fifth player to the Zpocalypse main game as the game master. This new player controls the zombies as they converge upon the survivors, who are trying to protect their bunker. Via zombie upgrades, new mutated zombie miniatures and the Deck of Doom, the zombie master adds new mechanics which spice up an already epic zombie survival game. Choose which scenario you prefer for the style of zombies to combat each game.
Zmaster provides rules and mechanics for altering the physics of the game to make it harder or easier, depending on your preferences and style of play. It turns Zpocalypse into the ultimate sandbox for testing out survival strategies and testing out how one would cope with a zombie threat.
It’s the summer of 1943 and Allied forces fight the Axis armies over the burning sands of North Africa. It’s a fluid struggle pitting tanks on tanks, and now you can refight these battles using the popular Nations at War system. Designed by Ralph Ferrari, here you’ll find everything you’re looking for in a platoon-level game! Armor, artillery, infantry that serves as more than cannon fodder, command and control, air support, and desperate close assaults that leave the victor in possession of the ground and the defeated in headlong retreat, all in an easy to learn, challenging to master, game system.
Desert Heat, which focuses on the fighting between the Americans, their British allies, Germans, Italians, and French, includes three counter sheets replete with the vehicles, men, and weapons of the armies that fought in North Africa in 1941-43.
There are 16 scenarios played out on four 11” x 17” geomorphic maps with .75” and .625” counters.
Talat is a 3 player strategy game sure to challenge players and reward great play. Talat involves moving towers of three different heights and in three different shapes on three game boards to eliminate opponent’s pieces and gain safety at the other side of the boards. Players play two other opponents simultaneously for a unique game play scenario.
Winner of a Top 10 Spielzeug award in 2012 and Dr. Toys Best 100 award.
Early in the 20th Century, modern factories crank out goods like clockwork. Race your mighty but unstable airship to pick up cargo and haul it through the clouds to depots safely outside city limits. Then hustle the most valuable shipments by train into the cities that want them, satisfying demand and racking up profits! Simple, right? Now do it faster, cheaper, and smarter than everyone else. If you can build the strongest network of air and steam, and produce the cash to show for it, you’ll deserve to be crowned the King of Air and Steam!
In this Box Breaking Matt takes a look at Zpocalypse. Zpoc is a semi-cooperative board game that take place in a post apocalyptic world. The game lends both a tactical miniatures feel and RPG flavors to create a unique game experience.
You can learn everything there is to know about Zpocalypse at GreenBrier Games.
The GreenBrier crew is currently using Kickstarter to make Zpocalypse Aftermath a super reality. The Kicksater link is on the right hand side of the screen.
If you liked our video and want to stay up to date with videos yon can follow us using any of the social media links on the right hand side of your screen.
We have good news and bad news for you. The bad news: the zombie apocalypse has already happened and the humans lost. Zombies now rule the world. They go to Zombie work, pay Zombie taxes, and hang out at the local Zombie malls. It’s not at all a pretty sight for humans. The good news: it’s flipping hilarious! In Zombie Fried, you, and you alone, have the power to hire someone else to do your dirty work while you take all the credit. You alone have the ability to invent crazy weapons that somehow work, even though you have never even fired a flare gun, much less a real one. So tread carefully my friends. Go forth and rid the world of the Zombie horde once and for all. But do it before some other Joe beats you to it – or before another flippin’ Zombie Rights Rally starts. Man, I hate those!
Primer: Battles from the Age of Reason Source Book
