JR Plays Episode 5 - Mechs vs. Minions, Charterstone, Kemet, and more

Last week I played Mechs vs. Minions, a campaign-style miniature game from Riot Games, the makers of League of Legends. Light spoilers, since everything is technically revealed during the campaign, so I cover the tutorial and the first scenario, which is much less than other reviewers have already revealed.

I also played through a bit of Charterstone, an upcoming Legacy eurogame from Jamey Stegmaier and Stonemaier Games (Scythe, Viticulture, Euphoria), and it was great! I can't talk much about it since it's still in development and nothing is final, but I do give a few thoughts about the general experience.

 

Listen on iTunes 
Listen on Google Play

JR Plays Episode 4 - Secret Hitler, Sushi Go! Party, Stonemaier Games Design Day

Last weekend Cody and I packed our bags and headed out to St. Louis for the Stonemaier Games Design Day. We played games with new friends and some folks we hadn't seen since last year's event, and had a great time trying testing our games and seeing what else our friends had.

We got to try Secret Hitler, a game that's been on my radar since the successful Kickstarter earlier this year, and I am very happy to have had a chance to try it.


Listen on iTunes
Listen on Google Play

JR Plays - A Podcast of Weekly Game Reviews

It's been increasingly difficult to make time for writing full-length game reviews while managing all my other commitments - Nerd Night events, full-time work as a game designer and developer, spending time with Amy, and doing all the other things that seem to take up my free time. I still play a TON of games (just scroll down and look at the right side of the screen to see the last 20 games I've played), and I still love talking about them - I just have less time to write than I would like.

With that in mind, I've started a new weekly podcast, aptly named 'JR Plays', in which I'll talk about all the games I've played each week. Sometimes I'll go into detail, and sometimes I'll skim over things that weren't particularly interesting, but I'll definitely have something to say about each of them.

Please click the link for whichever service you use to listen to podcasts and subscribe. I'd love to keep filling your mind with my thoughts about games, and of course, I really appreciate your taking the time to stop by and lend me your eyes, or ears, or I suppose your fingertips possibly?

Subscribe to "JR Plays":
on iTunes
on Google Play
on Soundcloud
on Stitcher

We'll still be publishing reviews at The Nerds' Table, so don't fret - tune in for more soon!

JR

First Impressions of Epic, by Rob Daugherty

$15 tuck box with four factions? Seems good...

Epic isn't just an exclamation anymore; it's also the next in the line of Rob Dougherty's genre-defining card games, which includes Star Realms and various Ascension expansions. Epic's not a deck-builder, so that's new territory from one of the hobby's giants, but the rest of the game will look very familiar to fans of Rob's previous work.

Epic was delivered to Kickstarter backers this weekend, and I've played about 10 games, including a quick two-player draft session. I've already had a half-dozen heated conversations on such subjects as "is it good" and "of course it's good" with my close gaming friends (also backers), so it's time for a quick first impression for those who aren't getting KS copies, or who may have a chance to pick up the game elsewhere. 

JR reviews Rise to Power at Edo's Guest Reviews

Thanks to Edo for letting me post a video review on his channel! Check out the full geeklist of his reviews here, and if you enjoy the video, please like and subscribe to Edo's channel!

Innovation, by Carl Chudyk

Imagine, if you will, the halls of the Hyatt Regency at DFW Airport in November 2014. A few thousand of my friends and I are huddled together, sitting, waiting for the great pearly doors to swing open and let us ascend into BGG.Con. It's warm inside. There are lawn chairs, and men lounging in them. It's morning, so the smell of fresh-caught taquitos is in the air. A fellow con-goer - lonely, bearded, and proud - looks to me and says, "Innovation is the only game you'll ever need to own." I pall, unsure if I should trust his wild eyes and be led into the darkness... 

Fast forward three months, into the bitter depths of a Texas winter fraught with frigid evenings and frantic gaming with my mates. We've played Innovation a half-dozen times, each round more topsy-turvy than the last. We've nearly lost our wits keeping up with the swirling madness pouring from that golden box. To contain the unpredictable malice that's enveloped us, a member of my crew utters these words of invocation, "Innovation is just Fluxx for smart people."

The enchantment momentarily broken, we force the cards back into the paper vault from which they came. Our breath returns in quick bursts as sanity settles into our minds once more. I wonder, which of these friends was correct? The one who insists Innovation is a vital organ, like a heart or dice tower, or the one who reduces it so aptly into an exercise in randomness? I am lost, I can't find my way. 

Come, join me as I search for my answer...

Eminent Domain: Microcosm, by Seth Jaffee

"Microgame" is an ambiguous term in the tabletop gaming world. It's kind of an "I know it when I see it" thing - Love Letter (16 cards) is definitely a microgame, and so is Tiny Epic Kingdoms (lots and lots of cubes and boards and pieces), but I don't often hear folks call Coup a microgame, even though it comes in the same size box as TEK and has fewer cards than Love Letter (albeit with some chips and other little boards).

I admit confusion at what constitutes "micro", but I still use the word to describe those things that definitely are a game in a small package. Not all microgames are created equal, and in a Kickstarter-led world of reducing components and size and weight to reduce shipping and printing costs, there's a whole host of games that are playable, but fit squarely in the "flash in the pan" variety. 

Not so with Eminent Domain: Microcosm. At 34 cards and about a playmat's worth of table presence, ED:M could absolutely be called a microgame, but I'd rather call it a great game. Just like its macro predecessor, Eminent Domain, there's nothing micro about the depth of choices and the various paths to victory that emerge during play. The experience lives up to everything I expect from larger, deeper two player games like Patchwork and Akrotiri, and for this I say it's one of my favorite games of the year! 

Patchwork, by Uwe Rosenberg

There are an understood set of popular themes for games that show up across our favorite titles - space, The Renaissance, exploration, nautical combat, high fantasy adventures, wild west showdowns - if I put up a poll, I bet I could get 20 examples of games that fit those themes. But what about quilting?

Patchwork is a two-player game about making a quilt. It's not a zombie quilt, or a space quilt, or even a magic quilt for Dwarves that live in a cave. It's a regular quilt, and you probably won't even finish it. You'll have some holes left, and it will be covered in buttons (???), and you'll feel so zen while you're doing it that you'll never poke fun at your grandmother's habits again.

With that, I invite you to join me as I explain why Patchwork is one of my top-five games this year.

Shadows Over Camelot Reviewed by a Traitor

This is a guest post from Aubrey House, a regular in my Thursday night gaming group. Aubrey is a long-time MMO player who's new to tabletop gaming, and I've asked her to weigh in on various games to provide a new player's perspective. Aubrey has played Shadows Over Camelot twice, first as the traitor, then a few months later as one of the heroes.

Shadows Over Camelot is widely recognized as the first cooperative game to have a hidden traitor. It still compares favorably to the giants (Battlestar Galactica and Dead of Winter). I asked Aubrey to answer a few questions about her first time playing a co-op/hidden traitor game, both with and without the hidden traitor mechanic.

Please enjoy a Q&A session with Aubrey!

Mascarade, by Bruno Faidutti

Sometimes the fog of war and the din of battle are too much. Sometimes alien invasions are more than a person can handle. A person can only stop a world-wide spread of a disease so many times before needing some rest and relaxation. When world saving games and battling ancient evils gets to be a little too much, there’s always the Mascarade.

Hide behind your mask, bluff your friends, and collect the gold. In Mascarade you take on the role of a guest at a grand party and, using your wit and wiles, try to collect thirteen gold coins before the other guests. There are three potential sources of gold in the game. The courthouse, the bank, and other players. Each character has a unique ability that helps or hinders the flow of gold. The catch is that nobody, even you, can really be sure who you are.

Horrible Hex, by Jon Moffat

I had the good fortune to attend Unpub 5 in Baltimore last weekend, a collection of incredibly bright designers and a breeding ground for great game design. I met with Aaron from Stone Circle Games and got a demo of Horrible Hex, which I'd been looking forward to since my Back It! interview with designer Jon Moffat. I was also excited to play because of their hilarious Kickstarter video (link below).

Horrible Hex is a tile placement game for 1-3 players, in which players vie to create patters of red and black hexes by sliding, swapping, pushing, and jumping tiles on the board. It's a delightfully simple game, as the only real barrier to learning is understanding the two steps in the turn (movement, then placement) and the symbols on the hexes themselves.

If you're a fan of abstract strategy and tile placement games (I am), then I think this game could be right up your alley. More after the jump!

Railways of the World, Video from Edo's Guest Reviews

Hey Nerd Nighters, I was asked to give a few guest reviews of games I love for Edo's Game Reviews! Here's the first in what should be a series of them: Railways of the World by Glenn Drover and Martin Wallace.

Give it a watch, and let me know in the comments if you would ever put your head through a game board like I did :)

See more of Edo's Game Reviews here - they're great!

DC Comics Deck Building Game: Heroes Unite, by Erik V Larsen

Here's another guest review from Raoul Mowatt, original Nerd Nighter! 

The first expansion to the DC Comics DC Deck-Building Game does a lot of what an expansion should do: bring a bunch of twists to the base game so that the experience of playing it is just familiar enough to remind you of what you loved about the original and just new enough so as to deepen the play experience.

If you’re unfamiliar with the original DC Comic Deck-Building Game, check out my review of it here.

Heroes Unite, despite its name, is not a cooperative game. It introduces seven new DC superheroes to play as: Shazam, Hawkman, Red Tornado, Black Canary, Batgirl, Nightwing and Booster Gold. (Some copies of the game include a promo Starfire.) For supervillains, it features such New 52 characters as K’El, Graves and Helspont. So some of the deeper cuts of the DC Universe. For some, playing less iconic characters might detract a little.

Though the characters are less famous than those in the original, they tend to be more powerful. I’ve found it’s easier to have broken turns and decks in Heroes United.

Cosmic Encounter, by Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Bill Norton, and Peter Olotka

Play It Again, Sam

In this golden age of gaming we're enjoying, new releases hit our local game stores like a heavy rain pounding on so many windshields. With each blockbuster, those classics we grew up with are pushed back farther into the recesses of our shelves, left to gather dust and retain fond memories as we buy new Star Wars minis and wield our new-found authority as Sheriffs.

I've been told that Cosmic Encounter is "a game that should have meant even more than it did." I'm not sure exactly how to interpret that, but I assume it means that if CE were released today, in our surge of attention for games, that it would be an instant classic.

But wait... it's already an instant classic! From all the way back in 1977, Cosmic Encounter continues to be a fantastic game. Read on, intrepid gamer!

DC Comics Deck-Building Game, by Matt Hyra

Who's your favorite? 

This is a guest post by Raoul Mowatt, proud Chicagoan and owner of many, many games! Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap other games in a single bound! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s the DC Comics Deck-Building Game! I’d heartily recommend "DC Deckbuilder" to just about anyone. 

I’ve probably played it over a hundred times, and it still remains one of my favorites, which should tell you something about its replayability (or my easy-to-please nature, or both). It is a quick game that’s easy to pick up and play.

Duels For the Iron Staff, by DeQuan Watson and Galen Ihlenfeldt

Duels For the Iron Staff is a 2-4 player card game that pits wizards against each other in a magic-fueled fight. Each player uses spells, actions, and magical components to do damage to opponents, heal themselves, and gain every inch of advantage possible. If you're a fan of light strategic play and light screw-your-neighbor elements, then I've got a hunch Iron Staff will fit in your collection.

Full disclosure: I wasn't compensated for this review, nor have I received a copy of Iron Staff. That said, DeQuan and Galen are dear friends of mine, and I've done my best not to let that influence my opinion of this game.

For a more detailed consideration, read on!

Escape From the Aliens in Outer Space, by Mario Porpora

Spoiler alert: You probably won't. 

Darkness. Echoing, terrifying, darkness. Ten minutes ago your bridge was alive with activity, bustling with the ordered chaos that marks a ship in space. Now, only the chaos remains.

Step through the door quickly, close it silently.  

The pod you beamed in wasn't empty, despite assurances to the contrary. For a brief moment there was struggle, and you saw just enough to understand. Now, all you can do is run. 

Eight steps down the hall, step to starboard, then duck into the maintenance shaft.  

You can navigate this ship by memory easily enough, but the darkness cripples you. They seem to prefer it. 

Pass the first three doors, open the fourth, step into the escape pod. 

You could kill one with a weapon, but the rest will overwhelm you. The escape pods are your only hope. 

Slam the hatch. Strap in. Fire up the pod. 

The pods have failed. For you, there is no Escape From the Aliens in Outer Space.

Shadowrun Crossfire - Deckbuilding in the Streets of the Sixth World

The career of a shadowrunner is very much like that of many summer insects. Short, flashy, and a moment of bad luck will get you swatted. Shadowrun Crossfire is the latest release from Catalyst Games. It brings many of the ideas from the pencil and paper roleplaying game and distills them down into a cooperative deckbuilding game.

But does two hundred and four cards do enough to put you in the Sixth World?

Under Two Reviews #16 King of New York by Richard Garfield

"Under Two Reviews" is a weekly video series in which we take a look at tabletop games and present them to our readers in under two minutes.

When Iello Games revealed their adaption of New York, I was a bit suprised to see Chistopher Walken's part recast as a giant robot Mantis. And Lawrence Fishburne as a T-Rex lawman was brilliant. But it turns out, I was mistaken, and this game is not based on the 1990 Crime Drama at all. Come watch the video and learn what the game is actually about. It'll be quick, I promise.

Enjoy the video after the jump!

No Thanks, by Thorston Gimmler

Normally you’d see a fancy introduction here, rife with theme and some compelling story about the time I did something or that one thing I think is cool. Not today, friends. No Thanks isn’t a game about theme or stories – it’s a game about numbers, pure and simple, and one of my favorites.

No Thanks is always in my backpack. If I got the heads up that I would be soon be marooned on an island, I’d make sure it was in my jacket pocket. It’s the first game I think of when I’ve got 10 minutes to kill and a group of gamers and non-gamers that need something easy to understand but interesting enough to pull everyone into the “magic circle.”

You can save yourself a few minutes and just go pick this up at your Friendly Local Game Store if you’d like, but if you want to see my strategy guide, read on!