Planeswalkers in Grand Melee, part 36: Ral Zarek

Ral Zarek is the most recent planeswalker to hit the magic tables, and also one of the oddest. More than any other planeswalker Ral Zarek encourages you to gamble. Very fitting for a blue/red character.

Ral Zarek costs four mana to cast, of which one must be blue and one red. He enters the battlefield with four loyalty counters and has three abilities. The first two are useful, the third is more of a gamble. Literally. We’ll get to that.

The first ability lets you tap target permanent, then untap another target permanent, for the cost of adding a loyalty counter. Very nice. You be be untapping one of your creatures or lands, while tapping down something one of your opponents needs.

The second ability costs two loyalty counters, and with this one Ral Zarek deals three damage to target creature or player. Lightning Bolt is a popular spell even with multiple players at the table, and this ability will be useful at all times.

The final ability is the one that catches the eye, and makes this planeswalker unique. You need to remove seven loyalty counter to pay for this one, and you flip a coin five times. For each flip you win, you get to take an extra turn after this one. This could be fantastic (five additional turns) or useless (no extra turns), but will more likely be generally very good, as two or three additional turns is going to set you up nicely.

Verdict: Good. The abilities look unconnected, but Ral Zarek is actually an excellent representation of his colours. The first ability gives you the controlling finesse of blue, the second gives you the straight blasting ability of red. The final ability gives you the chaos that the red/blue colour pairing is known for. All in all a perfect card, and a great addition to the game. This is not the most powerful planeswalker, but this is certainly a character that feels right, and will no doubt be a joy to use.

Connections: Like Ral Zarek? You may also like [Ajani Vengeant] [Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker] [Domri Rade]

Don’t like Ral Zarek? You may prefer [Liliana of the Veil] [Jace, Architect of Thought] [Vraska the Unseen]

 

Dragon’s Maze Multiplayer Set Review

Dragon’s Maze is the third and final set in the Return to Ravnica block, which has been wildly successful so far. Return to Ravnica is the highest-selling set in Magic’s history. If the 30% rise in sales in Q1 2012 is anything to go by, Gatecrash is either second or outsold even return to Ravnica. See our multiplayer review of the first two sets here and here.

In Dragon’s Maze all ten guilds of Ravnica return, with the guild Abilities seen in either Gatecrash or Return to Ravnica. If that weren’t enough there is an eleventh mechanic, this one new to the set. Split cards make their return in Dragon’s Maze, but with a twist. Usually a split card allows you to choose which half of the card you want to cast. The Dragon’s Maze split cards all have the ‘Fuse’ ability which allow you to choose to cast both halves of the card if you wish. This “have your cake and eat it” change is bound to be popular.

While the other ten mechanics are all known, the additional cards plug some gaps and add powerful new options for every guild. Each guild gets and equal share of the pie, so no one is being favoured over everyone else. There are a few reprints in this set, including Putrefy from the original Ravnica.

Each guild has a “champion’ in Dragon’s Maze, a legendary creature in that guild’s colours. Each of the champions appear at rare and they all add something interesting to the mix.

Another way this set has mixed things up is in the distribution of cards within a pack. Usually, Magic boosters contain one basic land, regardless of what set they are from. With Dragon’s Maze the basic land is replaced by a random guildgate, giving the set mana fixing in every pack, great for a multicolour set. In some packs the guildgates will be replaced by one of the “shock lands” from Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash. There is even the possibility of receiving the new Mythic Land, Maze’s End in place of a guildgate! This doesn’t affect the normal distribution of rares and mythic in packs, making it possible to open a pack with two Mythic rares, Maze’s End and one of the set’s regular Mythic cards.

This set has taken multiplayer into account, something that makes the cards of all rarities interesting to the grand melee player. There are plenty of “each opponent” type effects, from the life-sucking Extort cards to the punishing Ruric Thar, guild champion of the Gruul.

Ten interesting cards

1. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed – a multiplayer beast who punishes all your opponents
2. Tithe Drinker  – a cheap vampire that presents an early threat
3. Zhur-Taa Druid – a creature that damages each opponent when it taps for mana
4. Ready//Willing – a great combination of creature-boosting
5. Unflinching Courage - best creature enchantment since armadillo cloak
6. Maze’s End - the land to end the game, in your favour
7. Blood Baron of Vizkopa – another creature to fear
8. Gaze of Granite – mass removal a la carte
9. Warleader’s Helix - Lightning Helix has a big brother
10. Ral Zarek a very interesting planeswalker design

 

See also: [Return to Ravnica] [Gatecrash]

Classic Game Review: Rogue Trooper

Rogue Trooper is a 1980s game from Games Workshop, one of the many board games this company released in the 1980s. The game invites you to avenge the Quartz Zone Massacre by taking on the role of one of the few survivors. The game is set in a grim world of the future where decades of war have turned the air of the planet poisonous. Troops from both sides must fight in full body suits for protection and one tear can prove fatal.

You are a genetic infantryman (GI), developed and clones to be able to survive the otherwise poisonous atmosphere, and with better weapons and more intense training than the average soldier. To protect their investment, the military embed a bio-chip in the head of each GI. Should the GI be mortally wounded, a comrade can extract the bio-chip to be added into a new clone body later. Before this, each chip can add a tactical advantage to you by controlling your supplies, gun, or tactical equipment. Because when you’re reduced to a silicon chip, it’s nice to make yourself useful.

The objective of the game is to be the first to identify and kill the traitor general who sent your regiment to its destruction. Do do this you must complete a series of missions, which you get from mission cards. Successful missions give you the clues you need to unmask the traitor and confirm his location.

The game takes place on a colourful board representing the landscape of Nu Earth, where the game takes place. Having gone rogue, you are being hunted by both sides, so military encounters are best avoided where possible. Each hex of the board has a coloured boarder to tell you who is controlling that hex. Blue for Norts (the enemy), Orange for Southers (sometimes the enemy) and Grey for the front lines, which are the most dangerous of all. Red hexes offer something different, sometimes good, sometimes bad. It’s mostly bad.

Over the course of the game you will cross-cross the board moving through various hostile environments in your search for the traitor. other players are trying to do the same, and will help or hinder you as they wish. If another player dies and you are close enough, you can extract their bio-chip and add it to your equipment. If you have space, and if you really want to. Should you visit the military command satellite, they can be cloned a new body, and start playing again.

Ultimately, this is a game for fans of the original comic book series. Published in 2000AD in the 80s, Rogue Trooper was second only to Judge Dredd in popularity. There are plenty of fans of the series around, as the recent successful Kickstarter for a Rogue Trooper miniatures game shows.

If you aren’t familiar with the series the learning curve is that much steeper as there is plenty of assumed knowledge here, such as who you are and why you are so obsessed with finding the traitor, and why your own side have disowned you, even though you are always helping them out.

The board game provides a nice afternoon’s diversion, though it does not play as well as a modern-designed boardgame, meaning fans of the series will get the most out of this, which isn’t surprising. Players of Dungeon Run will be familiar with the ‘cooperative right up to the final sequence’ style of game that Rogue Trooper offers.

If you enjoyed this review you may also like our reviews of:

Dungeon Run

Rune Age

Small World

So…..I’ve Discovered Rune Age and I LOVE it!

Rune Age is a deck building game from Fantasy Flight and is set in the Runebound Universe.

You would probably know by now that I love my deck building games as I run the Thunderstone (old version with all expansions) as a league at the club. Only exception is Dominion – HATE it……. 

I am really, really looking forward to getting my Lord of the Rings Deck Building Game when it arrives in stock at Milsims in March… but it’s Rune Age we’re here to discuss…… so on with the review.

The game is for 1 – 4 players, and has 4 different scenarios you can play. Two can be played solo (yay!). They are:

Resurgence of the Dragonlords

This scenario is designed for players who enjoy a well-rounded experience. At it’s heart, the scenario is a race to defeat a powerful enemy, but with direct player confrontation sprinkled in . It is possible that no one defeats the objective and all players lose.

Can be played solo and this is the one I shall use as my review.

Runewars

This scenario is designed for players who want outright confrontation and player elimination. This scenario lasts until only one player is left standing. The game varies each play because of the random dragon rune power cards that provide players with unique powers.

The Cataclysm

The Cataclysm is designed for players who enjoy working together as a group to defeat a common enemy. The key is survival – at all costs. Just be mindful of selfish, backstabbing players who are only looking out for themselves. The other solo adventure.

The Monument

The Monument is designed for players who dislike player elimination and do not enjoy other players mucking with their strategy. The main player interaction in this scenario is fighting over cities as well as drafting the popular neutral cards before your opponent drafts them for himself. Ultimately, this scenario is a race against your opponents to acquire the most gold to win the game.

So… What’s in the box???

The components are colorful and well made, the quality is high.

There is a comprehensive rule book, although there were a few questions when we played that took some digging to find the answers…

The 4 piles below the rules in the picture are the 4 races partaking in the game:

The Latari Elves - Greatest of the Eleven Tribes, the first people of Mennara.

The Daqan Lords - A union of lords, great in power and prestige, an ancient coalition held together by long tradition of nobility and rule of law.

The Uthuk Y’llan - Cruel, barbaric, and infused with the blood of demons. The First Darkness lives again!

Waiqar the Undying - Waiqar the Magnificent, Waiqar the Conqueror, Waiqar the Betrayer. Master of Zorgas and Lord of Mists.

These decks contain the cards that form the Barracks – your troops and your strongholds. More on this later. The top card represents your Realm and you have 20 Hit Points.

Under these in the next row are Neutral Units, Tactic Cards, Dragon Rune Power Cards (only used in the Runewars scenario), the Attrition Dice and the damage tokens 1 & 5 value.

Next row are the 4 scenario decks.

Then the last row holds the city deck and the 3 gold decks.

Quite an impressive display for such a small box!

The Game Setup

The set up is simple and the layout is compact in the table center.

1.) Choose your scenario.

2.) Choose your Race.

3.) Determine the first player.

4.) Place your realm card in front of you.

5.) Build your Barracks.

6.) Populate Terrinoth – place the following: Gold, neutral Cards, Cities, Damage Tokens, Attrition Dice.

7.) Gather starting resources – Each player takes five “1″ Gold, and three “1″ cost units from his Barracks.

There is a table that tells you how many cards to place on the setup depending on the number of players.

Shuffle your deck of 8 cards and draw a hand of 5.

8.) You compile the event deck according to the rules (there are different levels of cards) and place the objective card where it can be easily identified.

You are now ready to play!

So, I will play a solo game of Resurgence of the Dragonlords using the Waiqar the Undying deck.

TURN 1) I turn over my hand and find that I have 3 gold and 2 Reanimate.

During my turn i do the following step:

Step 1.) Refresh exhausted Cities and Strongholds (I don’t have any yet).

Step 2.) Perform actions. During this step I can perform any no. of actions including Combat, spending gold, spending influence. I can do any no. of actions any no. of times as long as I have the cards to do so.

So I have 3 gold, I could buy 3 reanimate or a skeleton archer and a reanimate, but I decide to buy a Necromancer from my Barracks. The Necromancer allows me to draw two cards from my deck and if a Reanimate or Skeleton Archer is drawn put 1 into my hand, otherwise the cards are discarded.

I can do no more so I draw back to 5 cards (to do this I have to draw the remaining 3 cards, shuffle my discard pile and redraw another 2 cards). This ends my turn. NOTE: ALL players redraw to 5 cards at the end of each players turn. This means that if combat has taken place during a players turn, those involved ALL draw back to 5 cards.

Although we did not realize it at the time on Sunday, when you have influence to spend, you can spend 1 influence for each card in your hand you wish to keep instead of discarding at the end of your turn.

The Event Phase

At the end of ALL players turns (I guess you could say the round), The Event Phase occurs. This is when the nasty things can happen…..

I turn over the top Event card and find it is Slumbering Dragonlord this is an Enemy Card.

This card, if you defeat it, will become a reward. It will give you 1 influence as indicated by the 1 in the gold circle top left.

Influence is used to buy the gold cards and neutral cards.

As it is not an instant card, the event phase ends and it is again my turn.

TURN 2)

I again draw 3 gold and 2 Reanimate cards.

This time I look at the enemy, but I don’t have enough troops to attack and defeat it. The Reanimate card allows me to place another Reanimate from the discard pile onto the battlefield, sort of raising the dead! But at this stage of the game I don’t have a discard pile…..

So I elect to purchase a Skeleton Archer for 2 gold and another Reanimate for 1 gold. These and my remaining hand are placed in my discard pile. I draw the remaining 4 cards in my deck, shuffle my discards and draw the 5th card. This of course has yet again removed my discards and the Reanimates special power is useless…..

Event Phase 2:

The event card this time is an instant and must be played immediately. It is Rally Support.

When this card comes out, the first player gives it to the player on his right, so I give it to myself! Thank you!

This card also gives influence and remains in the players realm area.

TURN 3)

I have drawn 2 gold, 2 Reanimate and a Necromancer.

So I decide to attack the Dragon.

I play the Necromancer and draw a Skeleton Archer and a gold. I put the archer in my hand and discard the gold.

I play the skeleton, his effect is that he can destroy an opponents unit that is equal or less than the combined total of all skeleton Archers in play. It does not help against Event enemies

You will notice that the Dragon has a picture of the Attrition Dice on the bottom left. I now have to roll and see if it destroys any of my units during the battle. Units destroyed this way are put back in the players barracks and may be re-bought.

I roll and…….

Next I play the Reanimate, there are none in my discard pile so I play the second. I count my attack which totals 7 and I defeat the Dragon and claim his as a reward.

He was a toothless Dragon after all! Maybe Undead don’t taste so good!

So I place with my other influence producing card. Just above my Barracks.

I now spend my 2 gold and buy another Skeleton Archer.

Time to use influence, I tap a card and purchase a 1 gold card.

I redraw to 5 cards and turn over the next Event Card.

Event Phase 3)

The card is another instant and a good one at that!

Bountiful Harvest allows the first player to draw 1 card and each other player 2, as I am solo I’ll only take 1..

With no enemies and only 2 Reanimate and 4 gold, I purchase a Stronghold from my Barracks.

Another card giving influence, I can now target the neutral cards or 2 Gold cards.

I do just that tapping 2 cards and taking a Battle Cry.

This card has the following text:

Resolution: Add 1 to each units strength in your army.

At this stage it is probably pertinent to talk about the timing of combat.

There are two types of combat:

Battle: This is combat that is against a target NOT controlled by a player.

Siege: This IS combat against a target controlled by another player.

Now, there are distinct steps within each of the different  combat turns.

Battle

When a player conducts a battle, his goal is to secure a stronghold, neutral city, Enemy or instant.

1.) Declare Target

2.) Assault During this step, the player plays unit or tactic cards one at a time from his hand. If he wants to use a card’s When Played ability, he must do so immediately after playing the card. Using abilities is always optional.

3.) Attrition During this step, the player rolls the Attrition die. Destroy any units of your choice if 1 or 2 skulls are shown.

4.) Resolution Use the resolution abilities of all units, tactics or enemy cards.

SIEGE plays the same steps but without the Attrition step.

SO……….

The game continues on this way until a player feels that they can beat the objective. Of course, the objective might disagree and actually beat you all! So to cut a long story short here is my last hand…..

I have drawn rather well, a Demon, a Necromancer, 2 Dark Knights and a Battle Cry

So I lead out with the Demon, followed by the Necromancer. Fortunately I draw a Skeleton Archer and a Forced March.

I discard the Forced March. (allows me to destroy 1 card to draw 2).

I then play the 2 Dark Knights and the Skeleton Archer (1 at a time)

I then play my Tactic Battle Cry and my Reward card Dragonlord Margath

Okay so lets take stock…

I have an attack of 19 looking good enough to take out the Objective Card Resurgence of the Dragonlords who has a toughness of 18.

The Attrition step is next and I roll a………

But luckily I have another Reward Card won earlier that allows me to re-roll the Attrition Die!

And I roll a…….

I choose to destroy the Skeleton Archers.

Now the Resolution Step kicks in.

So I now have 17, the Dark Knights get plus 1 strength for each other friendly unit in the combat, so that’s another 6 and the Battle Cry gives me another 4.

So that’s a total of 27 and the Big Fella bites the Dust!

I really enjoyed the first time I played this last Sunday at the Club, and the solo was not too bad and will definitely try it again.

I am really looking forward to playing with four players and the elimination scenario sounds interesting…………

There is an expansion (on it’s way from Milsims today ) that adds two more factions!

I hope you enjoyed this review, I highly recommend this game.

Truhlsrohk signing off, now where did I put the game…………..

If you ejoyed this article you may also enjoy our looks at:
Summoner Wars
Mageknight the Boardgame
Quarriors

Planeswalkers in Grand Melee, part 35: Domri Rade

Domri Rade is a young rebel of a planeswalkers, in the green and red colours. He makes his debut in the Gatecrash set.

Domri Rade costs three mana to cast, of which one must be red and one green. He enters the battlefield with three loyalty counters and has three abilities. These abilities all work well together, but demand that you use them in a particular kind of deck.

The first ability adds a loyalty counter and lets you reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, you may put that card into your hand. Nice for the extra card draw, but it does lean you towards building a deck with Domri Rade, creatures and lands only.

The second ability costs two loyalty counters and a creature your control fights another target creature. When two creatures fight, each deals damage equal to its power to the other. Abilities such as Deathtouch or Lifelink still work, but other abilities such as reach, flying or first strike don’t do anything in a fight.

The final ability costs seven loyalty counters, so you must have used Domri’s first ability at least four times. This ones gives you an emblem, with creatures you control have double strike, trample, hexproof, and haste. It may well be worth taking the time to get there, drawing extra creature cards along the way. Remember an Emblem is an effect that lasts for the remainder of the games regardless of what happens to Domri Rade after that. There is no card or effect that can remove and emblem, though if the game is restarted (through Karn Liberated for example), the emblems won’t be there at the start of the new game.

Verdict: Marginal. Domri’s abilities are all strong, but demand that you turn up with a deck made up of little more than Domri Rade, creatures, and land. You may not survive long enough to see the full potential unfold.

Connections: Like Domri Rade? You may also like [Garruk Wildspeaker] [Sarkhan Vol] [Vraska the Unseen]
Don’t like Domri Rade? You may prefer [Karn Liberated] [Jace, Architect of Thought] [Gideon, Champion of Justice]

Game Review: SAGA

Saga is a historical miniatures game from Gripping Beast and Tomahawk Studios. The game puts the player in command of one of a number of factions from Dark Ages Europe.

As the title might suggest, the game puts a lot of focus on the various Viking raids and voyages of exploration that occurred in Northern Europe in the centuries following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

The core rulebook covers rules for the game and also for four separate factions; Vikings, Anglo-Danes, Welsh, and Normans, putting the game squarely in the 11th Century.

Armies will typically be 20-30 models, with variation either side if you are going for an elite or horde style army. Putting an army together is quite straightforward. Each army has access to a Warlord and three types of troops; Hearthguard (the elites), Warriors, and Levy (the dregs). 1 point will buy you 4 Hearthguard, 8 Warriors, or 12 Levy. You can spend these points however you wish. A typical game is 6 points, and starter games are played at 4 points.

The rules themselves are straightforward and allow for some deep tactical play. Units are activated one at a time and can move, charge, or shoot as you wish. When you activate your Warlord he can command a unit nearby giving you a 2-for-1 activation.

It is the way you activate your troops during the game that SAGA is truly innovative. Each army comes with its own set of SAGA dice and a Battle Board. SAGA dice are six-sides and have three different symbols; a common (seen on 3 faces of the dice) uncommon (2) and rare (1). At the start of each turn you roll a number of these dice depending on your remaining forces. You then use the dice to activate units and also to play special abilities. Each battle board is themed around the army it represents.

Battle Board abilities played at the right time will give you a winning edge. The Battle Board also brings a tremendous amount of variance into the game. You can theme your army around taking advantage of particular abilities on your board, leading to many different viable builds for each army, even when you are using 20-30 models.

Currently there are two expansions for SAGA, each adding four new factions. Often, the same SAGA dice can be used across multiple factions. For example the Norman dice can also be used for Breton or Byzantine forces.

SAGA is a great addition to the tabletop miniatures field, and is sure to feature in many a gamer’s collection.

Planeswalkers in Grand Melee, part 34: Gideon, Champion of Justice

Yes, the name is stupid. Luckily, everything else about this white Planeswalker is awesome. He will have a huge impact on multiplayer tables and is the best multiplayer Planeswalker yet printed.

Gideon, Champion of Justice costs four mana to cast, two of which must be white. He enters the battlefield with four loyalty counters and has three abilities. Each ability is awesome in its own way, and when combined together they become close to unbeatable.

Gideon’s first ability adds one loyalty counter, for this “cost” you add a loyalty counter to Gideon for each creature target opponent controls. You should gain a clutch of counters each time you use this ability.

Gideon’s second ability has a cost of zero; it neither adds nor removes counters to use. For this Gideon becomes and indestructible human soldier creature util the end of turn. His power and toughness are each equal to the number of loyalty counters he has. When you consider how many loyalty counters Gideon would have after using the first ability even once, you can see how great this creature would be. But wait, there’s more!

The third and final ability has a huge cost and a huge effect. The cost is to remove 15 loyalty counters from Gideon. Remember you have to have that many loyalty counters to use this ability, and you’ll want more. What does this ability do? Four simple words; Exile all other permanents.

After using this ability, there will be nothing other than Gideon, Champion of Justice remaining, assuming you waited util there were more than 15 counters of Gideon before using this ability. Players are building again from scratch, except that what they once had is now out of their reach in the exile zone. You have a planeswalker with an ability that turns himself into a creature. Using this ability with enough counters on Gideon (say 20-30) should see you kill your opponents one by one before they can recover.

Verdict: Awesome. This is a planeswalker you will love to have and hate to see.

Connections
Like Gideon, Champion of Justice? You may also like [Elspeth, Knight Errant] [Ajani Vengeant] [Karn Liberated]
Don’t like Gideon, Champion of Justice? You may prefer [Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker] [Tamiyo, the Moon Sage] [Vraska the Unseen]

Gatecrash Multiplayer Set Review

Gatecrash, the latest expansion for magic: The Gathering, was released on the first of February. It follows on from the successful Return to Ravnica set released in October last year (see our multiplayer set review here).

Gatecrash focuses on five colour pairs -two-colour combinations- each represented by a guild. These are:
Ozrzhov – Black and White
Boros – White and Red
Gruul – Red and Green
Simic – Green and Blue
Dimir – Blue and Black

New Mechanics: Each guild has its own mechanic to help give it an identity separate form the others. These appear both on multicoloured and mono-coloured cards. For example the Gruul ability will appear of red/green cards, mono-red cards, and mono-green cards. Each ability has its use on the multiplayer table. The abilities all involve creatures in some way, making them vulnerable to spells that affect or destroy creatures.

Extort: This is the Orzhov ability and it appears on creatures. Each creature with extort allows you to pay an additional black or white mana for a spell you cast. Each time you do this, an opponent loses one life and you gain one life. Over the course of a long game this adds up to quite an advantage.

Battalion: Appearing only on creatures, the Boros ability rewards you for attacking with three or more creatures. Battalion abilities trigger when you do this, giving a bonus either to the individual creature or to every attacking creature. Battalion takes a while to build into but can be potent if you time it right.

Bloodrush: This Gruul ability allows you to get extra value from creature cards in your hand. You can pay the Bloodrush cost and discard the creature card with Bloodrush from your hand to give a bonus to an attacking creature. As with Battalion, this is an ability that rewards aggressive play. Bloodrush is an activated ability, not a spell, and so there are few ways to counter it.

Evolve: The Simic ability exists only on creatures (there’s a pattern here), and it lets them react in a positive way to the next creature you cast. If a creature with Evolve s on the battlefield and a creature with higher power OR toughness enters the battlefield under your control, you can put a +1/+1 counter on that creature. This allows your early smaller creatures to keep growing as you play larger ones later on.

Cipher: The Dimir ability is a little different from the others. This ability exists only on instants and sorceries, but requires that you have at least one creature in play to function. When you cast a spell with Cipher, as part of the resolution of that spell, you may Encode the Cipher spell onto a creature you control. A creature may have any number of spells Encoded on it in this way. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, you may cast all spells Encoded on that creature for free. This works a bit like a creature enchantment with the added bonus that the encoded spell cannot be targeted (the creature can though, so be careful where you Encode those Cipher spells!). Cipher spells are priced higher than you would generally expect for their effect so you need to cast them two or more times to get the real value from them.

Every set adds cards to the multiplayer pool, and Gatecrash is now excpetion. Several cards have clearly been designed with multiplayer in mind, so there are plenty of interesting cards to check out.

Gatecrash – 10 useful cards for multiplayer
1. Assemble the Legion – this Enchantment gives you an increasing number of 1/1 soldier tokens each turn, getting out of control quickly
2. Gideon, Champion of Justice – quite possible the best multiplayer Planeswalker yet printed, this will be the subject of its own article when our series on Planeswalkers in Grand Melee resumes.
3. Cloudfin Raptor – starting off an an inoffensive 0/1 flyer, this creature can grow into a real threat thanks to its Evolve ability
4. Sepulchral Primordial – a 5/4 with Intimidate for seven mana is okay, but this creature also lets you take a creature card from each opponent’s graveyard and put it onto the battlefield under your control. Nice.
5. Legion Loyalist – a swift creature with Battalion that can give all your creatures a powerful bonus
6. Wasteland Viper – for a single green mana, the Bloodrush ability grant a small stat bonus and more importantly Deathtouch to one of your attacking creatures.
7. Consuming Aberration – in conjunction with Cipher spells this creature can get out of hand fast.
8. Borborygmos Enraged – this legendary creature turns you spare lands into Lightning Bolts
9. Vizkopa Guildmage – this card will doubtless become the kaystone of many passive decks that drain the table of life.
10. Biovisionary – an alternative win condition that some way wish to try out

See also: [Return to Ravnica] [Dragon's Maze]

Classic Game Review: Railroader

Last year I wrote an article for the web-site about my personal experiences growing up with games and in the first instalment I mentioned a number of board games I came across in the 1960’s that were critical to fostering an ongoing interest in games beyond my childhood years.

One of these was “Railroader” a game put out by the UK manufacturer, Waddingtons. I managed to acquire a second hand copy of “Railroader” last year and over the Christmas break I got to play it again and thought I would share a few thoughts about it now I’ve re-visited the game as an adult.

“Railroader” is a game about building railroads in the American West of the late 1800’s. It’s for four players and involves you building a track across the board, moving your train and dealing with elements on the board that threaten your success of being the first train to reach Buffalo City (the end space).

It’s a beautifully presented game with well-rendered exterior box art and game components. The board is large folding map of the American Great Plains reproduced in full colour on solid card stock. It is punched through with holes for placing four sets of railroad tracks.

That’s right, the tracks are not printed on the board; you get a big selection of straight and left/right turn tracks made from plastic that you press into the board, building your railroad as you go. The gaps between the sleepers form the spaces that regulate movement of you trains. Each player gets one train, rendered in a specific colour. A train is made up of a miniature model of an engine, a carriage and a caboose that you couple together and place of the tracks. As it moves (by the roll of two dice) the front of the engine is used to count spaces. In addition to your train you receive a limited supply of five red plastic cubes representing explosives.

In “Railroader” each turn you can do one of two things; build track or move your train. A roll of one die determines if you can lay 1, 2 or 3 pieces of track. A roll of two dice moves your train. When you move, the position of your engine (and in some circumstances the position of your caboose) trigger different events printed on the board. For example:

- If your engine is over a river, you may place one of your five explosive pieces on an opponent’s railroad, ahead of their train. This reduces their train’s speed to one die until they reach the explosives and remove them from the track.

- If your engine or caboose is over an ‘ambush space’ you must uncouple your engine and send it back to the nearest garrison. Here it collects troops and has to journey to your train and re-couple again before you can progress forward.

- If you engine ends up on a ‘hazard space’ you draw a card from the hazard deck and one of many possibilities can occur, generally made to move your train forwards or backwards.

The other thing you have to look out for is the possibility of de-railing your own train. This can occur if your movement roll exceeds the amount of available track spaces you have built, and with hazard Cards often moving you forward, this can be a real danger. De-railing cause you to remove the leading piece of rail and to position the engine of your train 7 spaces from the rail-head.

The game progresses with players managing the building of their track vs the movement of their train. Build too much track ahead of you without moving your train and someone is going to put explosives at the end of your rail-head, reducing your speed to a crawl. Don’t lay enough track and you can end up de-railing your train. The game picks up pace when the trains approach Buffalo City and there are multiple spaces to sabotage trains and slow each other down. First train to reach the Buffalo City buffers wins.

So…did I enjoy “Railroader” as much as I remember it from the 60’s? I would say no, but in doing so I would not bag “Railroader”. I’ve played a lot of games since then and, a result, have encountered more exciting products and better designed game systems. I would now consider the random element in “Railroader” is too high for my liking but that is not to say the game cannot be enjoyed– it still has elements that make it superior to typical ‘roll a die and move’ games.

In playing “Railroader” again after all these years, it was interesting to note some of the similarities it shared with modern euro-games and, perhaps, this is why I was attracted to the game in the first place and why I remember it fondly.

“Railroader” was designed for four players (like many euro-game titles) whereas most games of that era were designed for six players or more. It allows you to do one of two things in your turn; build track or move your train. Compare this to “Ticket to Ride” where you draw cards or lay tracks. “Railroader” makes you manage your track and movement, much like hand management games popular at LXG today. Lastly, the contents of the game have obviously been produced with quality in mind, which is something that euro-games enthusiasts are accustomed to.

So, overall, my exposure to the games that followed the 60’s has slightly tarnished my appreciation for “Railroader” but it’s still a fun game and worthy of dusting off to play once and awhile. In the 60’s I would have rated “Railroader” as a 5 star game but with the passage of time I would have to give it a lesser score, however it’s still worth a 3.5!

Great Moments in Roleplaying Part 6

At a recent meeting I decided to start running a role playing group, made up primarily of some of our younger members with a couple of adults acting as mentors. During the day quite a few very funny situations arose and it reminded me of all those great moments that have occurred over the past 30 years when running various RPG campaigns. I thought I would share one each week on the site.

DEATH
It’s all very funny until someone gets hurt. In an RPG game players are always losing hit points, getting into negatives and usually getting healed before anything too drastic happens. But now and again the dice roll the wrong way and there is that small silence when the group realise that someone who has been with them for a few months (or years) has departed and shuffled off this mortal coil. Let’s examine a number of memorable demises that I have witnesses in role playing games over the past 30 years…

Lightning Rod
This involved a guy named Nigel who was a Cleric worshipped the Goddess of the Sky and Storms. Nigel’s party was travelling through a mountain pass when a severe storm struck. Everyone took refuge in a cave but not Nigel. I true role-playing form, he said he wanted to give praise to his Goddess and climbed to the highest peak in the region, while lightning arced down around him. I asked how long he was going to stay there and his response was that he would stay till the storm diminished. I informed Nigel that the storm was very dangerous and could last up to three hours. Not a problem! I informed Nigel that I would assign a 5% chance of being struck by lightning everyhalf hour.

On the second last roll it happened – 8d6 to a 2nd level character was not pretty and Nigel bit the dust (or became dust). The party emerged from their cave the next morning and found Nigel’s charred remains. After a brief prayer (and the compulsory looting of the body) they proceeded to bury the ex-Cleric and noticed he died with a smile on his face. Nigel was happy with the result and, to this day, claims he met his end when he was kissed by his Goddess!

The Quivering Puddle
In my RPG campaign the ancient Elves had a network of rapid transport around the world using ‘Tas Stones’. These were large circular slabs of stone that when activated using the correct command phrases and imbued with an appropriate amount of spell energy, teleports you to a connected site. Players are aware that these things are dangerous to use if you don’t have sufficient power to use them or to direct where you want to go if you don’t know the correct words top trigger a desired location. But that never deters brave adventurers.

In one particular game the players had managed to release a demonic creature that was on the rampage. It had chased them into an underground complex and they had come to a dead end where a Tas-Stone was set in the floor. The Wizard in the group knew what it was and told the players about the dangers of using the device but the roaring of the approaching demon soon silenced his concerns. The party stood on the Tas-Stone and the Wizard activated it using his highest spell-slot.

Of course, this wasn’t enough power to make it work correctly and I have a wonderful set of percentile tables for players to roll on if this happens. Essentially they trigger minor effects; things like your hair turning fire-engine red, going blind for a few hours, ending up in the wrong destination etc. I include a cascading effect; if you roll above 95% on a table, you progress to a more dangerous table. There were three levels of danger to progress through. One of the players, Ian, was unlucky enough to roll 96% on table 1, then 98% on table 2 and ended up on the last most dangerous table, where he rolled 100% – the absolute worst result! This resulted in poor Ian arriving at the destination with the others, except he was turned inside out! His horrified comrades poured healing potions over the pulsating mass of flesh, bones and throbbing organs in a bid to save him but it was too late. Ian had been reduced to a quivering puddle.

The Halfling Mace
In one game there was a player named Warren who played a sneaky little Halfling. The group he was with were a bunch of desperados who had no money and no equipment. I introduced two new characters to the group one morning – a lawful good cleric played by a guy called Alan and his seven year old son, Owen, who had rolled up a paladin. The cleric and his trusty paladin had a bit of cash and the paladin was suited up in his best armour and had a broadsword at his side.

Warren and the desperados looked upon the pair with envious eyes and graciously invite them to dine on filleted squirrel and hedgehog at their humble camp-site. After exchanging pleasantries the cleric and paladin turned in for the night. The desperados said their goodnights and snuggled into their moth-eaten bed-rolls. Their beady little eyes all opened a few minutes later and a flurry of notes was passed to the DM.

Warren led his little band quietly up to where the cleric and paladin were sleeping, intent on stripping them of all their worldly goods. The band of villains laid into the sleeping duo and, once the surprise round was over, combat got underway. Ye old role-players may remember the days of DnD when there was a statistic called percentile strength. If you rolled an 18 for Strength when creating you character, you also rolled percentile dice that further increased your strength. Now little Owen had managed to roll up a character with 18/96 Strength, which meant he had something like a +5 hit and damage modifier. He woke to see his dear old dad’s character being beaten senseless by the bad guys and leapt to his aid with his sword. During the resulting melee Owen killed two of the desperados and knocked out Warren the Halfling, before they managed to disarm him.

The paladin was backed into a corner by the surviving bad guys. Weaponless and surrounded by three surviving thugs (one who had Owen’s sword) he looked around desperately for something to fight with; a branch or rock – anything would do! As Owen took a step backwards, he almost tripped over the unconscious body of warren the Halfling, who was sitting nicely on 0 hit points. Little Owen suddenly had a brainwave. He grabbed the Halfling by the legs and started laying into the desperados, using the Halfling like a mace! There was a look of sheer terror on Warren’s face as he realized that this was going to hurt. I quickly made a rule of thumb that Halflings, used as weapons, inflicted 1d6 damage and that the ‘weapon’ took damage equal to the amount of damage it did to its target. He killed two of the desperados with the Halfling Mace; the last guy begged for mercy, gave back the paladin’s sword and ran for his life.

Owen saw that his father was still alive and rushed to his aid. As he did so, he tossed his Halfling Mace aside. The weapon was useless (and dead) anyhow, having been reduced to a bloody bag of broken bones!

The Most Ridiculous Death?
My younger brother who found a large stone that had a magical aura which he then tried to swallow. I said it will do you damage and could kill you. He continued to try and eat the rock. OK…I got him to make a system shock check (another olden days DnD rule) and he failed.

There…you’re dead.

And his reason for this insane action? He figured that, if the rock was magic and he swallowed it, he would absorb its magic powers and become a mighty Wizard.

Makes sense.

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Game Review: Dixit

Dixit is a game I picked up for my 10-year-old for Christmas, and it has become a family favourite.

Dixit comes with over 80 lavishly illustrated cards, and can be played by up to six players. Play continues until the first player reaches 30 points, or until the cards have all been used.

Each player is dealt six cards from the deck. In your turn you choose a card, and give a clue about the art of that card without revealing it. Each other player considers the clue, selects a card from their hand that fits the clue, and hands it to you, also without revealing it.

You then lay all the revealed cards out and the other players have to guess which of the cards is yours.

The trick of Dixit therefore is knowing where to pitch your clue. Too easy, and you don’t get any points. Too obtuse, and you don’t get any points. The fact that players also score a bonus point if someone incorrectly chooses their card means that people will do their best to pick a card that matches your clue. Pitch your clue just right, and you’ll get the full 3 points as do all players that correctly picked your card. You need some players, but not all, to get your clue. Dixit is a goldilocks game.

Dixit takes around 40 minutes to play through, and the usual reaction from people to their first game is to immediately want to play again. Usually once one full round has been played people understand the aim in terms of pitching their clues just right.

Dixit is a fun cross-generational game that should appeal to many LXG members.

If you enjoyed this review of Dixit, you may also enjoy LXG reviews of:
Aqua Romana
Black Sheep
Colossal Arena

Great Moments in Roleplaying 5

Communication Breakdown
It’s the task of the game master to assist players in visualizing their campaign world. This can include anything from what an NPC looks and sounds like to vivid descriptions of battles and spells effects. Most times everyone knows what is happening and there is no problem but occasionally there can be a problem in communication that can lead to events that are amusing or even deadly for the players concerned.

A few years back I was running a game for a group that included a guy called Ben, who wasn’t really familiar with the fantasy genre (or the real world come to think of it ). The group was adventuring in a regional area and came upon a fishing village and there was a market selling local produce. The players decided to stock up on a few things for the road and Ben decided to engage one of the vendors in some light-hearted conversation.

“What are you selling my good man?” chirped Ben.
“I have this fine halibut, good sir”
“I’ll take one” said Ben and paid two copper pieces.
This all sounds straight forward and harmless but read on…

Shortly after this, the group headed off inland into some forested lands and I rolled a random encounter of a grizzly bear. This was a bit of a challenge for a first level party but there were plenty of trees to escape into for our heroes. Now, as I began to introduce the encounter, the players began to talk about some movie they had seen last night and entered into a loud exchange of banter, not fully listening to their GM. I was describing this huge bear that was crashing through the undergrowth while they continued to chat and finally one of the players (a guy called Chris) caught something that I said about a bear.

“Hold on guys”, said Chris, quietening his comrades, “It looks like we have an encounter. Did you say
it was a bear? How big is it?”

I gestured with my hand to indicate a height of about four feet and said, “It stands this high at the shoulder”. Now at this critical moment, the rest of the group exploded into laughter about something to do with the afore-mentioned movie and drowned out my words. Chris did see my hand motions though and nodded sagely. He told the rest of the party that this will be easy and everyone drew weapons to face the charging bear. There was a litany of:

“I draw my sword!”
“I prepare my mace!”
“I’ve got my bow ready!”

“I draw my halibut!”

Halibut? That was Ben. Everyone stared at him with this image in their head of Ben waving a large silver fish at the rapidly approaching bear. There was a moment’s silence, then Chris finally said, “Good plan Ben, but don’t worry about luring it with food, we can take this little sucker down easily!” I had been puzzled by Ben’s use of his halibut but I was perplexed by Chris’s description of this giant grizzly bear as a little sucker. Everything soon became clear though.

Ben had won the initiative and charged forward, striking the bear with his halibut. It had zero effect and the bear then hit Ben, splintering his body. He sailed through the air and lay in negatives in the heather. Chris looked at the others and then at me with a questioning look and then shrugged his shoulders and ran into combat, joined by the others. Over a few rounds the bear made mince-meat of the group. I believe three died, furiously fighting the bear and one managed to survive by climbing a tree after seeing his friends go down one by one.

After the combat was over and the bear had given up on shaking the terrified survivor out of his tree, we discussed what had just happened. Chris asked how may hit dice did the bear have and if it was a special magical beast. After a confused conversation we finally came to the realization that Chris thought the bear was four foot tall from the top of its head to the tips of its toes when standing upright! Having missed the important bit about ‘four foot high at the shoulder’ he had ended up with image of a baby bear in his mind and just couldn’t understand how Boo-Boo was taking everyone down with one hit.

And what was it with Ben and his halibut? At some stage Ben had heard someone mention that a halberd was a cool weapon. However, he had mixed it up with the word halibut and thought he was buying a halberd, which of course, he was going to take out the ‘baby’ bear with.

Next time: Classic Deaths

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Game Review: Power Grid

Behind a bland box cover lies a very interesting game. Power Grid is a game where you must provide power (electricity) to as many homes as possible, as quickly as possible, while competing against other players who are trying to do the same.

To achieve victory you will bid on the power assets you want to own (such as a coal-fired power station) and then establish grid connections and start powering those house. The more houses you power, the more money you make, enabling investment into more efficient generations and wider grid connections.

The game takes place over a number of rounds, and each round is divided into three phases. In the first phase, you will bid against the other players to secure the best power generating assets. This phase gives an interesting set of choices. Do you bid up assets you don’t want, making your opponents overpay? Do you go compete with opponents for the same power resource? While coal is cheap, if everyone is using coal it stops being cheap quite quickly (sound familiar?).

In the next phase you make your grid connections and in the final phase you power as many homes as you can. The game ends when a player can power 15 or more homes, which is a lot easier than it sounds. I guess you could see each ‘home’ as a suburb rather than an individual house. The game takes place on a map, and laying your grid connections to give yourself the maximum number of connections for the cheapest price is a sure path to victory. Just be sure you don’t get cut off by your opponents!

Power Grid is a fun, tactical game best played with 5-6 players. There’s a lot of nuance, and thanks to the different generators, different resources, and a double-sides board with two separate maps, no game plays like the last. If you find yourself getting bored, there are additional boards you can buy and also new sets of power generators to fight over. Power Grid is best suited to players 12 and over, as even though the game is broken down into phases, it is fairly complex.

Power Grid is one of over 300 board games available in the LXG games library.

If you liked this review you may also like our reviews of:
Cyclades
Dominion
Settlers of Catan

Great Moments in Roleplaying part 4

(by Keith Done)
At a recent meeting I decided to start running a role playing group, made up primarily of some of our
younger members with a couple of adults acting as mentors. During the day quite a few very funny situations arose and it reminded me of all those great moments that have occurred over the past 30 years when running various RPG campaigns. I thought I would share one each week on the site.

Triggering Emotion: When RPGs Become Dramatic
On the whole RPG’s I have run are pretty light-hearted affair; players fight the baddies, grab loot and pursue their goals in the game. However sometimes, under the right circumstances, genuine emotion creeps into the game, usually as a combination of the players immersion in their characters and the NPCs portrayed by the DM and the circumstances that the DM puts the players in. Emotions can run from something like elation at completing a really difficult scenario to that quiet sad moment when a player of much-loved NPC bites the dust. Let me share a few examples from campaigns I have run over the past 30 years.

Terror
Players encounter monsters on a regular basis in an RPG. Should they be scared? If I was confronting some of the things out of the Monster Manual, in reality, I’d need a change of underwear. But players usually quietly analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the terrifying beast that the DM has unleashed on them; they prepare correct spells and send in the tanks to do a lot of hacking and slashing. They rarely display any trepidation or fear in engaging these creatures.

But not all the time….

I recall one game where the players were hunting down a werewolf. The foul creature had attacked some local villagers and escaped into the countryside. The players were tracking it down and I decided to add some circumstances gleaned from Hollywood movies to the mix. I introduced a fog that arose as the sun slowly sunk into the west. This limited their vision and I began to describe strange snuffling sounds out there in the fog and the occasional sound of something big moving past relatively close by. Players told me they were peering into the darkness and fog to see if they could see anything. When they turned back to their companions to discuss matters at hand, I’d say, “They are not there, you lost them in the fog while you were intently looking for the werewolf”.

As players became isolated from each other, in the dark, with a monster out there somewhere, a general nervousness began to be shared around the gaming table. Players began to become very quiet and start expressing their plight with various expletives. I then told them of a baleful howling nearby and introduced a looming farmhouse and barn, with the bodies of slaughtered farm-hands scattered about the area that one player virtually tripped over. Affected by the discomfort of imaging their situation in the game, the players were reunited by retreating to the barn. Here they would be safe. They all made it there and, together they slammed shut the big barn doors and bolted them.

As they all came down from a real adrenalin rush after being creeped out by being lost in the fog, their fear was replaced by that particular kind of laughter that only comes from release after an emotional rush. I then quietly informed them that they heard the sound of claws being slowly dragged along the length of the barn, the sound moving relentlessly toward the rear of the structure. The players, as one, turned from the main doors and took in the rest of the barn.

To this day, I clearly remember everyone’s face as I said, “You can see the rest of the barn in the dim light and the scratching sound continues down the far wall. At the opposite end of the barn you see a small back entry. It’s open, the door gently creaking in the wind. A set of long fingers with three inch
long razored claws, curl around the door-frame as you watch….”

I looked up from my DM notes to see five people with their mouth hanging open. There was a moment of absolute silence before everyone completely panicked, shouting out what they were doing. The battle was on and they soon slipped into that old familiar combat routine, but the journey getting to that moment was what made the game that night.

While discussing how players usually react to nasty creatures, I must mention my son Alex. He has only recently been introduced to role-playing games and, while all the seasoned adult players engage in combat easily and expect Alex to be a co-operative member of the fighting team, Alex experiences the game in a more realistic manner. A few months ago he was playing a Ranger and the party he was with encountered a huge rabid grizzly bear, charging through the woods at them.

The Fighter prepared his trusty great club; the Wizard unleashed a Magic Missile spell, the Cleric took up a supportive position with the Fighter. And Alex? He rapidly climbed a tree, crying out to the others, “What the hell are you guys dong, it’s a huge freakin’ bear!”

Although Alex statistically was one of the party’s better fighting assets, the players were unable to convince him to come down and help, as the bear began to beat the snot out of them. Many combat rounds later, the others had joined Alex up his tree! He continues to have a reputation of being reluctant to fight big nasty things with lots of teeth, although he doesn’t mind taking on the odd goblin or two.

Sadness (and Anger)
In a game I have been running this year, the group ‘adopted’ a young 12 year old girl called Kaeleen who they discovered was the daughter of a thuggish man who would beat her. One member of the party, a thief named Sky, secretly worships an evil Goddess and took particular interest in the girl, only from the point of view that he could eventually hand her over to his temple for induction into the cult. Kaeleen interacted with the group for a number of sessions and they were wary of the influence of Sky over the child, resulting in a few angry exchanges and warnings to the hedonistic thief. They had begun to form an attachment to the NPC.

The party were navigating a remote river system in canoes and they became the prey of a rather wily Wyvern whose hunting grounds encompassed the river, happy to find a larger meal than fish. It descended upon the players, targeting morsels it could easily carry off to its lair and eat at its leisure.

On the menu were Kaeleen and Sencheena (a belligerent Halfling Wizard). The Wyvern dive-bombed the canoe and missed its target on its first run. One of the players put up a fog cloud around the canoes to hide them from the Wyvern. The creature continued to attack but with reduced hits, while the players fired arrows back and Sencheena fired off Magic Missiles (which always hit and really started to hurt the Wyvern!

I had decided that the Wyvern would withdraw to lick its wounds as the Halfling’s spells were taking their toll on the beast. I did a last strafing run and, because of the fog, determined a random character. Unfortunately, little Kaeleen got hit by its tail and, although the damage was slight, she failed a DEX Check and was hurled out of the boat. At that moment in time, the only player who was aware Kaeleen was in the water was Sky – and Sky does not lift a finger to help anyone, if it puts him in possible danger. He didn’t say a word as Kaeleen floated away downstream. The others were alerted to her plight by her cries of, “Help me Uncle Sky…please help me!”

The emotional stress (and anger) in the party at that time was palatable. A much loved NPC was in peril and the players knew Sky had cut her loose (but their characters didn’t know that!) The Wyvern dived in to grab up the struggling Kaeleen in its claws and as it tried to make good its escape, a player spent some Hero Points to lasso the beast. Hooray! The heroes were going to save the child; a wave of triumph swept across the table. Then I had them make a DC check on the rope and, to their horror, it snapped! The Wyvern was free and, despite a few final volleys from Sancheena, it escaped with the girl in its claws.

There was a sense of loss at the table that evening and you could feel the sadness for the loss of (a non-existent) child. However there was also the anger that continued to brim over at the actions of Sky. Quite a few questions were levelled at him to try and bring out what had happened, so players could take action against him. But Sky skilfully dodged them and they still continue to be unaware of the true circumstances surrounding Kaeleens’s death.

Now reading the Pathfinder Bestiary, I noted that Wyverns are quite intelligent and that nasty Halfling Sencheena had done a fair bit of damage on him. The next morning, as the players rested from the fight at a little beach and had a service for Kaeleen, I had the Wyvern pay a visit. From the cliffs above the beach, it observed the players gathering and dropped a present for them. As Sencheena led the others in a lament to honour Kaeleen, the torn and bloodied dress of the child landed on the ground in front of them. With a shriek, the Wyvern flapped its wings and took to the air, heading south. Sencheena was fuming and her hatred for the Wyvern was visible in the player’s gaze. She had made an enemy!

Next time: An Amusing Problem with Scale

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12 Games of Christmas, Revisited

Last year, we featured a three-part series on what sort of games to buy for a gamer, and with present buying season upon us yet again, it seems like a good time to revisit the articles.

The series doesn’t claim to select the absolute best games, rather to list 12 good games that you could buy. The games are listed in an order from those suitable to younger players through to complex games that more… mature gamers would enjoy.

Four games are covered in each part.

Part 1: Connect 4, Hey That’s My Fish, Settlers of Catan, Small World

Part 2: Quarriors, Dominion, Magic: The Gathering, Puerto Rico

Part 3: Power Grid, War Machine, Dystopian Wars, Twilight Imperium