A continuation of yesterpost...
Conflict of Heroes
This World War II battle game has several scenarios. I played the Germans on the Eastern Front, trying to keep the Soviets from overrunning a communication outpost. In addition to the forces on the ground, players can use cards to help with the combat. Each round also has command points that can be spent to help die roles. As units are taken out, those command points become fewer and fewer. The game is a little fiddly with its details of combat--the player needs to have line of sight and then factor in defensive and offensive values along with terrain modifiers to figure out how much damage actually happens with a dice roll. I found it a little convoluted.
Forbidden Sky
We have this game at home but it was fun to try it out with others. Players are on a sky platform and need to hook up some circuits in order to launch the rocket and escape. The challenge is a storm that blows wind, moving the player tokens around the board, and strikes with lightening, causing players to lose health. This game is definitely harder than Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert. We were unable to win, even playing it twice in a row.
For All Mankind
The maker of this prototype describes it as Catan in outer space with nukes. Players start on Earth with a resource facility and move out to other planets to colonize them. In order to set up a new colony, a player needs enough fuel to get there. The current measuring tool is a string with knots though they were trying out a caliper to measure distances. A player can also invest in technologies, which give discounts on fuel or other resources or protection from interactive cards. Each player starts the game with two nuclear missiles. The missiles are used to destroy other players bases on other planets (you can't nuke Earth), presumably to make room for their own colony in that spot (I guess the radiation doesn't stay around). One fun part of the game is at the end of every round when the planets all move one space on the board--the distance to other places is constantly changing!
Trading and negotiating are encouraged in the game, like Catan, but the resource collection is not random (which is a nice change from Catan). The creator was inspired by The Expanse series (both book and TV show) though it has no specific ties to the franchise.
Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates!
In this racing game, each player is a pirate captain with three ships sailing across the Caribbean on three different tracks. Players use cards to move one or more ships on their way. As they travel, they can raid ports for supplies (more cards or victory points), which slows down progress. The game ends when one ship makes it to the end of its track. Then players count up their scores according to cards in their decks, victory points collected during the game, and how far their ships are on each track relative to the other ships. Winning quickly on one track means few points if that player is in last place on the other two tracks. The game has some interesting choices and a fun theme.
I had to leave before the game ended because of another set of Machi Koro Legacy games. That table was right next to the Pirates! table, so I was able to find out I came in second place (someone took over for me).
Ganz schon clever
This abstract roll-and-write game has six dice in different colors. The active player rolls the dice and then chooses one to mark off a box (matching number and color; the white die can be any color) on the player sheet. Any dice with lower numbers are put on the platter (a part of the box), so it pays to use the lower numbers first. The active player roll the dice a second time, again choosing a die to fill in a spot on the player sheet. After the third roll and write, the passive players get to choose one die from the platter to fill in on their sheets. Play continues for several rounds (the amount varies by number of players).
Scoring varies depending on the boxes filled in. The yellow and blue boxes give bonuses based on rows and columns (and one diagonal in yellow). The green, orange, and purple dies score on how far the player marked along the track, adding up numbers if the track takes numbers. The game is a fun abstract game with interesting choices. A couple of special powers let the active player reroll dice or use an extra die at the end of the turn. I liked it and may get the app version.
Azul Stained Glass
This is the second Azul game. It is very similar to the first though the task has changed. Instead of laying tiles on a specific pattern, players make stained glass windows. The mechanic is same: sets of four window bits are put out and players take turns using one color from the set of four (which could be anywhere from one to four pieces) to fill in one of the columns in their window. A meeple represents the glazer and has to be over the column being filled in. If players want to fill in a column further down, the meeple moves over. In order to work on a column that's been passed by the meeple, the player has to spend their turn moving the meeple back to the beginning. As columns are filled in, they are scored and flipped. A different pattern is on the back. Once the second pattern is filled, the column is scored again and put back in the box. As in the original game, the leftover glass bits go in the middle of the player area and have to be collected by the players before the round ends, potentially causing hard choices when a lot of one color is available and no one has space to use those bits. Any unused bits count against the player's score.
The game was enjoyable and a little different from the original. I didn't think it was different enough to warrant owning both. If I had to choose, I'd probably choose this one since it has a few more strategic options. Being able to move your meeple back rather than take a big batch of bits is helpful.
Horrified
We have this game at home and I reviewed it here. This edition is blinged out with special monsters.
Fire in the Library
In the most terrifying and stressful game I played, the books in a library are burning. Players save as many books as they can by pushing their luck drawing colored cubes (which represent the books) from a bag. If a player draws a second red cube, all the books they've collected that round are lost! Special tools (like a knapsack or a magical amulet) are available. The game is cooperative with the winner being whoever saves the books worth the most (some categories are more valuable than others). The game took a little while to figure out but started clicking by the third round. The box looked like a book.
Memoir 44 Overlord
When I go to big conventions, I try to play Memoir 44 Overlord if it's available. Regular Memoir 44 is a two-player game set during World War II. Overlord combines two games and turns it into a six- or eight-player game. Each side has three generals controls the left, center, and right sections of the double board. A fourth player is the main general who hands out activation cards to the other generals. I was on the left flank for the Japanese in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. This particular battle was the last, in August 1939. Several armored assaults tested the mettle of the Japanese. Historically, the Soviets overwhelmed the Japanese Sixth Army. My flank held off the Soviets, thanks in part to some favorable terrain. We were able to inflict enough losses on the Soviets to achieve victory. Altering history is always fun.
Zombicide
This zombie game has evaded me for quite some time. It's a miniatures skirmish game with various scenarios. The miniatures are quite impressive (and add to the price of the game, one reason why we don't own it).
We played a scenario where we had to keep the zombies from escaping a city street and to destroy the spawn points (one on each side of the road). With a full compliment of six players we had plenty of characters running around, distracting the zombies and taking out whichever ones were on the verge of escaping.
In addition to moving and fighting, players can also search for equipment. My character, Ned, had a special power that let me search for free, so I was loaded up with stuff very quickly.
The game was exciting. We had to use some tactics to get the zombies away from the spawner so that the character on roller skates (who gets a free move, naturally) could take out the final zombie spawner. It was fun but not a game I need to play outside of conventions or other large gatherings.
Red Dragon Inn
Players are adventurers come to a tavern to brag about their exploits, drink strong drinks, and gamble. Each player starts with some money, a small deck of cards, and a track with a red marker for health and a white marker for inebriation. A community Drink Deck has all sorts of beverages in it, most of them causing inebriation to increase. At the end of each player's turn, their top drink card is revealed and the consequences happen. If the red marker and the white marker ever meet or pass, then the character passes out and that player is out of the game.
In addition to drinking, players use cards in their hand to affect other players, buy more drinks for everyone, or start a hand of poker. If the gambling starts, whoever plays the last card wins the pot. Cheating cards and "highest hand" cards can be played to go for a win. If a player runs out of money, that player is out of the game.
I liked the game but we only played two players, so I imagine it would be more interesting with more players. The base game only has four characters but expansion sets can be added, increasing the options for characters and the player count.
Robinson Crusoe
This cooperative game has players shipwrecked on an island they have to explore in order to escape. As they discover more of the island, more resources and more hazards show up. Animals and bad weather can ruin your prospects. Crafting a strong weapon and building a shelter are important tasks, but so is collecting resources to make a signal fire. The game is a little complicated and I only played a few rounds but I liked what I saw.
Deadly Doodles
This is a draw and draw game. One player draws cards from a deck. Each card has pathways (a plus, a T, an L, or a straight line) that all the players draw onto their dungeon cards. Each player starts at one entrance and draws one card's shape in each square, hoping to make a path to treasures and weapons and monsters. The weapons are marked with a letter and can only be used against the monster with the same letter. If it becomes impossible to continue a route (or the player just wants to do something different), a player can start from another entrance. At the end of seven rounds, the scores (handily written on the bottom left of the card) are tallied and the one with the most points is the winner.
I played this on the final day of the convention, so the demo team was quite expert at maximizing their boards. Happily, they did not report their scores, leaving the three of us demoing the game to report our final numbers. I liked it but it might be too hard for my kids to plan far enough ahead to take advantage of all the resources in the dungeon.
Quacks of Quedlingburg
Players are quack physicians brewing concoctions. They start with a standard set of ingredients and buy more ingredients with different powers on their turns. The ingredients go in a bag from which they are drawn and placed on the cauldron (the player's board). The number listed on the ingredient is how far it moves along the track. Some of the ingredients have special powers, like the blue ingredient that lets you draw several ingredients and decide which one to place. If too many of the white ingredients come out, then the brew explodes, halving the benefit achieved. Once the players decide to stop pressing their luck, they see how far they got on the brew track and get money to spend on new ingredients and points to move along the VP track. Players with the blown up brew have to choose money or points.
The victory track has some rat tails in between the values. For all the players behind the leader, they get an extra space on the cauldron for each rat tail between them and the leader. That's a nice catch-up mechanism. Though it does hint that the game was originally designed as witches brewing in their cauldrons. That would be even more fun than this theme.
I liked the game a lot and would play it again. It was my last game of the con and a great ending.
Conflict of Heroes
This World War II battle game has several scenarios. I played the Germans on the Eastern Front, trying to keep the Soviets from overrunning a communication outpost. In addition to the forces on the ground, players can use cards to help with the combat. Each round also has command points that can be spent to help die roles. As units are taken out, those command points become fewer and fewer. The game is a little fiddly with its details of combat--the player needs to have line of sight and then factor in defensive and offensive values along with terrain modifiers to figure out how much damage actually happens with a dice roll. I found it a little convoluted.
 |
| The game in action |
Forbidden Sky
We have this game at home but it was fun to try it out with others. Players are on a sky platform and need to hook up some circuits in order to launch the rocket and escape. The challenge is a storm that blows wind, moving the player tokens around the board, and strikes with lightening, causing players to lose health. This game is definitely harder than Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert. We were unable to win, even playing it twice in a row.
 |
| We hooked it up at the end just to see the rocket light up |
For All Mankind
The maker of this prototype describes it as Catan in outer space with nukes. Players start on Earth with a resource facility and move out to other planets to colonize them. In order to set up a new colony, a player needs enough fuel to get there. The current measuring tool is a string with knots though they were trying out a caliper to measure distances. A player can also invest in technologies, which give discounts on fuel or other resources or protection from interactive cards. Each player starts the game with two nuclear missiles. The missiles are used to destroy other players bases on other planets (you can't nuke Earth), presumably to make room for their own colony in that spot (I guess the radiation doesn't stay around). One fun part of the game is at the end of every round when the planets all move one space on the board--the distance to other places is constantly changing!
 |
| Starting set up |
Trading and negotiating are encouraged in the game, like Catan, but the resource collection is not random (which is a nice change from Catan). The creator was inspired by The Expanse series (both book and TV show) though it has no specific ties to the franchise.
Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates!
In this racing game, each player is a pirate captain with three ships sailing across the Caribbean on three different tracks. Players use cards to move one or more ships on their way. As they travel, they can raid ports for supplies (more cards or victory points), which slows down progress. The game ends when one ship makes it to the end of its track. Then players count up their scores according to cards in their decks, victory points collected during the game, and how far their ships are on each track relative to the other ships. Winning quickly on one track means few points if that player is in last place on the other two tracks. The game has some interesting choices and a fun theme.
 |
| Ready to start |
I had to leave before the game ended because of another set of Machi Koro Legacy games. That table was right next to the Pirates! table, so I was able to find out I came in second place (someone took over for me).
Ganz schon clever
This abstract roll-and-write game has six dice in different colors. The active player rolls the dice and then chooses one to mark off a box (matching number and color; the white die can be any color) on the player sheet. Any dice with lower numbers are put on the platter (a part of the box), so it pays to use the lower numbers first. The active player roll the dice a second time, again choosing a die to fill in a spot on the player sheet. After the third roll and write, the passive players get to choose one die from the platter to fill in on their sheets. Play continues for several rounds (the amount varies by number of players).
 |
| Ganz Schon Clever components |
Scoring varies depending on the boxes filled in. The yellow and blue boxes give bonuses based on rows and columns (and one diagonal in yellow). The green, orange, and purple dies score on how far the player marked along the track, adding up numbers if the track takes numbers. The game is a fun abstract game with interesting choices. A couple of special powers let the active player reroll dice or use an extra die at the end of the turn. I liked it and may get the app version.
 |
| One of my score sheets |
Azul Stained Glass
This is the second Azul game. It is very similar to the first though the task has changed. Instead of laying tiles on a specific pattern, players make stained glass windows. The mechanic is same: sets of four window bits are put out and players take turns using one color from the set of four (which could be anywhere from one to four pieces) to fill in one of the columns in their window. A meeple represents the glazer and has to be over the column being filled in. If players want to fill in a column further down, the meeple moves over. In order to work on a column that's been passed by the meeple, the player has to spend their turn moving the meeple back to the beginning. As columns are filled in, they are scored and flipped. A different pattern is on the back. Once the second pattern is filled, the column is scored again and put back in the box. As in the original game, the leftover glass bits go in the middle of the player area and have to be collected by the players before the round ends, potentially causing hard choices when a lot of one color is available and no one has space to use those bits. Any unused bits count against the player's score.
 |
| Azul Stained Glass |
The game was enjoyable and a little different from the original. I didn't think it was different enough to warrant owning both. If I had to choose, I'd probably choose this one since it has a few more strategic options. Being able to move your meeple back rather than take a big batch of bits is helpful.
Horrified
We have this game at home and I reviewed it here. This edition is blinged out with special monsters.
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| Fun-looking monsters |
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| Dracula and Wolfman in the same corner of the board |
Fire in the Library
In the most terrifying and stressful game I played, the books in a library are burning. Players save as many books as they can by pushing their luck drawing colored cubes (which represent the books) from a bag. If a player draws a second red cube, all the books they've collected that round are lost! Special tools (like a knapsack or a magical amulet) are available. The game is cooperative with the winner being whoever saves the books worth the most (some categories are more valuable than others). The game took a little while to figure out but started clicking by the third round. The box looked like a book.
 |
| Fire in the Library--the library was upside down to me |
Memoir 44 Overlord
When I go to big conventions, I try to play Memoir 44 Overlord if it's available. Regular Memoir 44 is a two-player game set during World War II. Overlord combines two games and turns it into a six- or eight-player game. Each side has three generals controls the left, center, and right sections of the double board. A fourth player is the main general who hands out activation cards to the other generals. I was on the left flank for the Japanese in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. This particular battle was the last, in August 1939. Several armored assaults tested the mettle of the Japanese. Historically, the Soviets overwhelmed the Japanese Sixth Army. My flank held off the Soviets, thanks in part to some favorable terrain. We were able to inflict enough losses on the Soviets to achieve victory. Altering history is always fun.
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| The Overlord board set up |
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| Russian calvary and armor headed for the Japanese |
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| Those guys in the woods (lower left of picture) held out for a long time |
Zombicide
This zombie game has evaded me for quite some time. It's a miniatures skirmish game with various scenarios. The miniatures are quite impressive (and add to the price of the game, one reason why we don't own it).
 |
| The "boss" zombie |
We played a scenario where we had to keep the zombies from escaping a city street and to destroy the spawn points (one on each side of the road). With a full compliment of six players we had plenty of characters running around, distracting the zombies and taking out whichever ones were on the verge of escaping.
 |
| That building had a lot of zombies in it! |
In addition to moving and fighting, players can also search for equipment. My character, Ned, had a special power that let me search for free, so I was loaded up with stuff very quickly.
 |
| A good variety of weapons |
The game was exciting. We had to use some tactics to get the zombies away from the spawner so that the character on roller skates (who gets a free move, naturally) could take out the final zombie spawner. It was fun but not a game I need to play outside of conventions or other large gatherings.
Red Dragon Inn
Players are adventurers come to a tavern to brag about their exploits, drink strong drinks, and gamble. Each player starts with some money, a small deck of cards, and a track with a red marker for health and a white marker for inebriation. A community Drink Deck has all sorts of beverages in it, most of them causing inebriation to increase. At the end of each player's turn, their top drink card is revealed and the consequences happen. If the red marker and the white marker ever meet or pass, then the character passes out and that player is out of the game.
 |
| I was Remy, the first mate |
I liked the game but we only played two players, so I imagine it would be more interesting with more players. The base game only has four characters but expansion sets can be added, increasing the options for characters and the player count.
Robinson Crusoe
This cooperative game has players shipwrecked on an island they have to explore in order to escape. As they discover more of the island, more resources and more hazards show up. Animals and bad weather can ruin your prospects. Crafting a strong weapon and building a shelter are important tasks, but so is collecting resources to make a signal fire. The game is a little complicated and I only played a few rounds but I liked what I saw.
 |
| Robinson Crusoe in mid-game |
Deadly Doodles
This is a draw and draw game. One player draws cards from a deck. Each card has pathways (a plus, a T, an L, or a straight line) that all the players draw onto their dungeon cards. Each player starts at one entrance and draws one card's shape in each square, hoping to make a path to treasures and weapons and monsters. The weapons are marked with a letter and can only be used against the monster with the same letter. If it becomes impossible to continue a route (or the player just wants to do something different), a player can start from another entrance. At the end of seven rounds, the scores (handily written on the bottom left of the card) are tallied and the one with the most points is the winner.
 |
| My board at the end of the game |
I played this on the final day of the convention, so the demo team was quite expert at maximizing their boards. Happily, they did not report their scores, leaving the three of us demoing the game to report our final numbers. I liked it but it might be too hard for my kids to plan far enough ahead to take advantage of all the resources in the dungeon.
Quacks of Quedlingburg
Players are quack physicians brewing concoctions. They start with a standard set of ingredients and buy more ingredients with different powers on their turns. The ingredients go in a bag from which they are drawn and placed on the cauldron (the player's board). The number listed on the ingredient is how far it moves along the track. Some of the ingredients have special powers, like the blue ingredient that lets you draw several ingredients and decide which one to place. If too many of the white ingredients come out, then the brew explodes, halving the benefit achieved. Once the players decide to stop pressing their luck, they see how far they got on the brew track and get money to spend on new ingredients and points to move along the VP track. Players with the blown up brew have to choose money or points.
The victory track has some rat tails in between the values. For all the players behind the leader, they get an extra space on the cauldron for each rat tail between them and the leader. That's a nice catch-up mechanism. Though it does hint that the game was originally designed as witches brewing in their cauldrons. That would be even more fun than this theme.
I liked the game a lot and would play it again. It was my last game of the con and a great ending.
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| The final round--VP track in upper left, player cauldron in lower right |
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