Flowerpower… sort of

Flowerpower is one of the games in the Kosmos 2-player line which has been out of print for quite a few years. It’s fairly popular as a wife/girlfriend-friendly game, and it’s also nearly impossible to get a copy. Fortunately someone (cuzzle on BGG) who didn’t care too much for the flower theme posted a pdf of the tiles for his big-game animal re-theme. I have to admit that the original flower version is a little on the ugly side in my opinion.

Anyway, I downloaded the file, printed it on sticky paper,  stuck the two sheets to matte board, and finally cut until my joints hurt. The next task was to come up with a board. Not a Photoshop guru, or even a student, my best effort was crayons. And since the tiles represent African big game animals, the board I created shows yellowish areas (dry, grassy plain) divided by a big blue watering hole.

Homemade board for the animal version of Flowerpower

It’s a very simple game, rules-wise, but a nice past-time for 2 people. On your turn, you pull a tile from a bag (or shuffle them around face-down) and place it on any pair of empty spaces on your side of the board or in the shared blue area.  You’re trying to create large groups of the same animal, of which there are 10 different types. You may claim the animals in the blue area only if they connect to the same animal that is on your side of the board. Your opponent can steal them if they connect to them and have a larger group on their side of the board. That adds a bit of nastiness to the game but you can also be nasty by placing a tile upside down anywhere on your opponent’s side of the board to block him, but you can only do that 3 times.

When there are no more tiles to place or when both players have run out of places to place tiles, the game ends. You then score each animal grouping one at a time, which is why there is a list of them along the edge of the board to help you keep track. Each grouping of 3-5 is worth 1 point, a group of 6-9 is worth 2 points, and 10 or more is worth 4. I had fun doing this, in fact, it was more fun than playing some versions of card-based solitaire.

I have quite a few of the Kosmos 2-player games and I think this is an excellent addition. It’s a shame that it isn’t easier to come by, but thanks to cuzzle I have my own, better looking, copy.

Secret Santa gift a big success

My Boardgame Geek Secret Santa surprised me with a game that I’d added to my Wish List a couple of days after the names were given out: Tales of the Arabian Nights. This isn’t so much a game as it is an experience.  I explain the concept by comparing it to a choose-your-own-adventure book because it feels very much like that as you’re playing.

A photo of the board and some of the components by Universal Head

Your character travels around the board and has Encounters with people such as: Diseased Hunchback, Cheating Merchant, Lonely Prophet, and Beautiful Maiden (be especially wary of beautiful women for your could end up married!). You will also encounter non-human entities such as: Malicious Merman, Lovesick ‘Efreet,  Hungry Gooleh, and a Talking Beast. Maybe your encounter will not be alive at all but a Mild Storm, House Fire, Ruined City or Strange Customs.

Whatever you encounter, you will be given a list of 6-9 reactions to choose from. Will you attack the Drunken Ne’er-do-well or hire him? Will you aid the Imprisoned Prince or just converse with him? Maybe you want to abduct him, thinking someone would pay a ransom for his Highness. After deciding how you will react to an encounter, someone reads the paragraph that tells you how that plays out, and some can be quite funny. The result of the encounter will usually give you points on either or both of the Story and Destiny tracks, sometimes you gain wealth, and sometimes you’ll acquire a new Skill like Quick Thinking, Acting & Disguise, Magic, Seduction and Wisdom.

Skills help you with certain encounters, increasing your chance of gaining better rewards instead of getting beat up and Wounded, or becoming Lovesick or Lost. You see, there are also Statuses which alter your character for a time. Some are helpful like letting you choose what the die roll will be during an encounter, and some are decidedly a pain in your… they’re not good. The one Cori and I decided we love is Insane. Truly, we’ve found that being Insane is a lot of fun and can have wonderful surprise results. I once ran into a Evil ‘Efreet or something, who had two children in his hands and was preparing to dash them to the ground. In my insanity, I ran up to him and started talking in his strange tongue. The response was that he agreed to trade some trinkets for the two children and we were both happy. Who would try something like that but an insane person? And who would imagine that it would end well?

Cori and I have played this twice by ourselves, laughing and having a great time–pay no attention to the score track, it’s only there to give you a goal. She was so taken with it that she told some of her friends about it. And last night five of them came over for a Christmas get-together. We ate, talked, exchanged small gifts and played Tales of the Arabian Nights while one woman’s son entertained himself with Boom Blox on the Wii.

Here we are, gathered around the table in the family room.

If you ever Encounter Seven Wild Women playing a silly board game, I suggest you choose to Examine because you will never again hear the like. We all had a marvelously hilarious time, confronting giants, viziers, and princesses, and even managed to throw in some quotes from Monty Python, “What is your Quest?”

Tobago

Tobago arrived yesterday and  you can’t imagine how gorgeous this game is. The wooden palm trees have details on the leaves, trunk and base; the ATVs have the windows and grill/headlights painted on; the huts are large and squat so they aren’t easily knocked over; and the statues… wow, painted and textured just like stone. You want to set it up just for the pleasure of it.

 

Close up of some of the game pieces

 

 

The board is sturdy and brightly colored, and the seven different terrains are easily distinguished. I like the way the 3 reversible board pieces fit together to give you so many island variations, and the locking pieces fit tightly to keep them from shifting. And all of this fits nicely in the specialized box insert in such a way as to keep the cards and tiny bits from sliding around.

The rules are easy to read and understand with lots of illustrations. An additional sheet is included which shows you how to set up the game on one side and how to read the Clue cards on the other. The is very handy for new players.

To set up the game, assemble the board and place the objects anywhere you like as long as 1) each hex has only one object, 2) two of the same object are not less than 4 spaces apart, and 3) the statues are not next to the ocean. The Treasure card deck is prepared by placing the 2 Curse cards in the bottom 27 cards and topped with the remaining 12. This ensures that no curse will come up right at the beginning of the game before anyone has the opportunity to pick up an Amulet to protect themselves. The players place their ATV anywhere they want and take their 15 Compass Rose markers in their color. The Site markers (grey, brown, black and white cubes) are separated and placed beside the board leaving room to lay the Clue cards beside each pile.

At the start of the game, each player draws one Clue card from the deck and places it face up next to one of the piles of Site markers, and places one of their Compass Rose markers on it to show that they helped decipher the Treasure Map for that Treasure. Then each player receives their hand of cards: 4 for a 3-4 player game; 6 for 2 players.

 

Setup for two players

 

 

On your turn you can either play a card to one of the Treasure Maps or move your ATV. You may also forego either of those actions to turn in your whole hand of cards and draw new ones. At any time during your turn you may retrieve a Treasure, pick up an Amulet, or use an Amulet’s special powers.

PLAY A CARD: The cards have clues on them that narrow down the places that a Treasure could be such as “in the jungle”, “on the biggest beach”, “not next to a hut” or “in sight of a statue”. Each Clue card placed must narrow down the possible locations by at least one hex. They also cannot contradict a previous clue, or leave no possible locations for the Treasure.

MOVE YOUR ATV: You may move your ATV up to 3 legs, a leg being anywhere within the same terrain that you’re on, or a move from one terrain to another. There are two special cases to keep in mind: 1) retrieving a Treasure ends your movement no matter how many legs you’ve used, and 2) collecting an amulet ends that leg of movement. This keeps you from popping over to collect an amulet in the terrain you’re on, then pulling a u-turn and heading in the opposite direction all in one leg. My daughter tried this, to the accompaniment of screeching tires sound effects, but we slowed her down before any harm was done.

When a Treasure’s location is narrowed down to a single hex, it’s available to be picked up by anyone whose ATV is on, or stops on, that location. When a Treasure is retrieved, everyone who has a Compass Rose marker showing their cooperation in finding the Treasure gets a portion of that treasure. Everyone gets one Treasure card (with 2-6 coins on it) for each of their Compass Roses, looks at it secretly, then hands it face down to the player who dug up the treasure. That person shuffles all these cards plus one more drawn blindly from the deck and then begins the process of handing out the loot. One card is turned over and offered first to themselves since they dug up the treasure. If they decline it because they’re waiting for a larger card, which they KNOW is in there from their sneak peek, then the next person in line from the bottom of the row of cards on up is offered the card. This continues, one card at a time, until all the cards are taken or discarded. If one of the two Cursed cards is turned over, the remaining Treasure cards are not distributed and anyone with a Compass Rose still on the map must discard an Amulet. If he has no Amulet, he loses his most valuable Treasure card. OUCH.

Now that this treasure has been found, all of the Clue cards for it are discarded and a new Map is started in this spot by the person who claimed the last Treasure card. Also, whenever a Treasure is raised , a mysterious force from the statues triggers the appearance of Amulets, which rise in the ocean and are swept ashore to the spot where each statue is facing. After placing the Amulets on the shore, the Statues turn their face on hex side in a clockwise rotation.

The Amulet can be used to remove a Site marker, narrowing down the possible locations by one hex, play a Clue card, an addition ATV move, as protection against Cursed treasure as already stated, or to exchange your hand of cards without losing a turn action.

The game ends when the Treasure card deck runs out. Players count their Treasure coins and, of course, the one with the most treasure wins.

FIRST IMPRESSION

My only play so far has been a 2-player game with my daughter, Cori. You would think that the map is very big for just 2 ATVs on the island but with careful card-play, this is still a fun game for 2 players. At least twice, the location of a treasure was narrowed down to a handful of locations, some near her and some near me. The correct card each time helped us manipulate the location of the treasure to our advantage. With more players, I think the game would be more oriented toward ATV movement, racing to get to the treasures first, giving it a little bit different feel and strategy.

The method of dividing up the treasure is a bit odd sounding but once you’ve tried it you see that it works very well. I wouldn’t call it brilliant but it does beat simply drawing cards and taking whatever comes up, or having the player who retrieved the treasure hand out cards after looking at them, or anything else I can think of quickly. The addition of the Cursed cards was a very good idea, adding a little uncertainty and a bit of push-you-luck if you happened to draw it for your sneak peek. They also add a degree of importance to picking up Amulets. All of the extra actions are nice to have and I can see using them to string together a nice combination of moves, but losing a 6-point Treasure card is painful – I know, I had to do it!

Cori and I had a great time narrowing down the prospective locations, it’s just a fun idea but also a clever game mechanic. You have to be careful not to narrow it down to a place that is too near your opponent (especially with just 2 players) but sometimes you just need to get your token in the lineup so you can get a share of the goodies no matter who digs it up.

For me, this is a very good game. It’s what I think a game should be: fun, easy to explain, interesting, and FUN. Yes, I said that twice. I like fun. I can’t imagine a game collection that was nothing but a bunch of mathematical exercises or logistical problems. This game will make you ponder the correct card to play, decide when the best time is to move, agonize over picking up an Amulet or heading for the Treasure, but in the end, it’s simply one of the best family games in my collection.

Essen 2009

I have to admit, this year I paid very little attention to the pre-Essen hype. I read a few rules (At the Gates of Loyang, Cyclades, Arena – Roma II and Dungeon Lords ) but didn’t get excited about any of them; the hoopla, for the most part, passed me by.

Then the Lists and threads started to dribble in on Thursday and Friday, and I checked the new feature, GeekBuzz, to see what was hot. There was Carson City , which I’d never heard of, doing well. Oh, it’s a worker placement. This is an annoying mechanic to me, much like reality television, and just as popular. Where are the innovative games, quick, simple and yes, elegant?

On Saturday morning I got up around 7 and while sitting around in my jammies checking the GeekBuzz, finally clicked through and found the tab for Live Video! OMG, I was freakin’ hooked! And look, people I know to “talk” to. I loved it and was so sorry I hadn’t found it earlier.

When I tuned in, a game was in progress with cool looking pieces in bright colors and a big, beautiful map. Turns out it was Gonzaga being demoed by the designer. This looked cool and unique so I hopped over to the geek and downloaded the rules. Hmm, not bad, and indeed different. It didn’t get any Buzz or even turn up on the Hot List on the Geek, but it seemed more fun than yet one more game where I have to decide whether to pick up wood or stone on my turn, or what I need to build with it.

I spent several hours that morning and Sunday morning watching the feed from Essen, designers explaining their games, people being interviewed, men in kilts and men in blow-up ostrich suits, all while chatting with fellow gamers also stuck at home. Even without the expense and hassle of travel, the crowds and odors of the Spiel, Essen became the highlight of my October. Hmm, put that way, I think I got the better end of it after all!

In the end, I came away with just ONE game that sounds like fun and has unique game play for my collection: Tobago . It’s listed as a deduction game, which turned me off when I first looked at it, but after watching the demo I saw that the players decide what is being used for the deduction by playing cards to narrow it down. The pieces look wonderful, the board is modular for variety, and it should be easy to explain to my family, who tend toward the non-gamer side of the graph.

Back at the Geek, I noticed Scott Nicholson had a video review of a game that caught my attention a couple months ago: Castle Panic . I wrote it off after a couple comments and session reports lead me to consider it too easy. Scott’s review has turned my mind around and it is now back on the Buy List.

Then a review of another game caught my attention since it specifically mentioned 2-player: Acqua Dolce. It’s a card game for 2-5 players where you’re playing cards with fish on them into the “aquarium” in the center of the table. Since I’m always on the lookout for neat little card games that can be enjoyed by just 2, I put this on my List as well.

And so ends my as yet unfulfilled buying spree. When Tobago is back in stock somewhere, I’ll be placing an order, although I’m not sure if Acqua Dolce will be available here in America. In the meantime, who knows what other reviews will catch my eye and force me to extend my List?

Napoleon Is Dead

Napoleon at Waterloo is a very basic war game using what I assume to be traditional mechanics. I may move any or all of my units, battles occur between adjacent enemy units using a CRT (combat result table), then my opponent takes his turn. The rules are even more simple than the frequently recommended Memoir ’44 since terrain offers very little to remember: each hex is one movement point whether it’s buildings, road, or forest with a road (forest without a road are impassable). Buildings double the defender’s value, making it harder to fight them.

Starting positions. French are blue; British are red. French move first.

The heart of the game, the tough decisions, and, ultimately, what killed it for me, is in the details. First is how the CRT works. This was new to me but is very familiar to long-time war gamers. Here’s how it works: count the fire power of the attacking units then compare that to the fire power of the defending units using odds, such as 1:1 or 3:1. Then roll a die and trace the result across the row to the column with the odds for this battle. This gives you the results. In this game you can get Attacker Retreat, Defender Retreat, Attacker Eliminated, Defender Eliminated, Even Elimination.

The CRT for Napoleon At Waterloo.

This means that you are constantly computing odds and trying to figure a way to increase your firepower to give you better odds. Even that wouldn’t be too much like a math assignment if not for the second rule: every unit (of both sides) that has an enemy adjacent to it must battle.  So when faced with a line of enemy, you not only need to design an attack that gives you the best odds you can in each battle, but must be careful not to forget an enemy that you happened to touch while working towards good odds on another unit. Now it becomes more like a math puzzle, a relative of Sudoku, and can take a lot of thought and counter pushing to come up with a satisfactory solution. After 3 games, I decided that this wasn’t something I enjoyed.

One thing I did like was zones of control (ZOC). This is the area adjacent to a unit that it controls. In Napoleon, a unit moving into an enemy’s ZOC cannot move any further, and cannot leave that space except as a result of death or retreat. Also, a unit that is forced to retreat cannot enter a ZOC of his enemy, and is eliminated instead. That’s very cool and a tactic to be constantly aware of.

Although I found Napoleon at Waterloo not my kind of game exactly, I did enjoy the experience of learning about traditional war game mechanics and I came away with a better feel for overall tactics. I finally found myself looking at the whole and coming up with a loose plan, rather than just concentrating on a small part of the battlefield. Call this my first baby step.

I Opened The Door and Was Warmly Greeted

I was beginning to despair that I’d ever have any more game related stuff to write about and would be left with only the mundane news, which I’m sure you would find… mundane. Do you care that I’ve been having an enormous amount of fun with InFamous on my PS3? Or that we had baby blue jays in our hedge?

O.k., you would probably be interested in the fact that Mike finally brought Goa over for the second time since he got it, probably in 2004 or 2005 when it was new. We enjoyed it a lot more this time (I suspect it’s because we’re much more familiar with Eurogames now) and I won by ONE point. We also played Elfenland, which I got for trade but hadn’t played yet. We liked it well enough but with three there was little competition so probably didn’t live up to its full potential.

You might even be interested in the fact that I decided to buy the new version of Formula De (called Formula D, for crying out loud) even though Mike has the original and probably all of the additional tracks. The production is excellent and I really like the dashboards compared to pencil and paper to keep track of your stats.

The lack of gaming and accompanying posts isn’t totally the fault of my family’s lackluster gaming attitude; I, too, have been less than enthusiastic about the games in my collection. Don’t misunderstand — I have some wonderful games and I wouldn’t get rid of most of them unless I absolutely had to. But my attention has been diverted to a sub-genre: war games.

It all started with Memoir ’44 which I got at the end of 2004. It was simple, easy to teach and fun. I’ve always liked the games with confrontation in them and war is the ultimate confrontation. This led to Commands & Colors: Ancients which is the same gaming system but with additional rules to cover the time period better. And it’s brilliant. So brilliant that I added the first three expansions to my game library.

I started looking for other light, fun war games to add to my collection. I found myself reading GeekLists about war games and posts in the wargame forum, I’ve downloaded and read a dozen set of rules, bought a couple more games to feed my need, pre-ordered Sekigahara from GMT, and even made one that’s free to download.  That’s when I took the next step, the one that led me through that door.

I had seen To The Last Man! mentioned in a GeekList or forum post which praised it as innovative so I downloaded the rules. After reading them, I thought it sounded fairly simple in rules but with plenty of depth. The innovative part is that some of the chits are not just units but armies; the units that make up that army are shown off-board and can be kept secret for a fog of war effect.

After spending a day and a half creating this game, I set it up using the 1915 scenario which is recommended, then sat staring at it with no idea of what to do with it. Sure I knew the rules but I was lost as far as coming up with a tactical move; or any move at all actually. It sat on the gaming table for 3 or 4 days taunting me. In desperation, and feeling kinda stupid, I wrote a post in the wargame forum hoping for a little advice on how to learn tactical thinking.

A suggestion or two would have been helpful; I was surprised by the number of responses I received. As usual, the gaming community at the Geek was helpful, understanding, and supportive. They didn’t act like my post was stupid at all. Besides advice, there are several links to books/articles, and puck4604 (Hilary Hartman) is sending me two magazines.

As if that weren’t enough, I received a GeekMail from RaffertyA (aka Tim) offering to teach me a game through emails. We have started with Napoleon at Waterloo, a print and play game that has a simple rule set, small chit count, teaches many of the standard war game mechanics while still offering a challenging game.

I don’t know if Tim has done this before but he’s an excellent teacher of what I’m calling War Gaming For Dummies. The first emails covered the most obvious things and yet I still found a thing or two that I didn’t know or hadn’t really thought about. I’ve made the first moves, we talked about it and changed a few things, and pressed on. This is the way I like to learn something new. It’s been fun and exciting; I love learning something new and challenging.

This whole experience has felt like I’ve left the (virtual) main room and wondered over to a closed side door. You can hear voices on the other side of the door but most people just walk by without noticing. Curiosity prompts me to open the door and I find a room full of people, talking and laughing. They beckon: come in, please, and join us. You’re going to have a great time in here.

Game Day – Mar. 16, 2009

Mike came by yesterday afternoon. I had recently traded for Conflict of Heroes and had it set up on the aforementioned game table. Funny thing about that table, the Plexiglass top seems to confuse the cats so that they don’t get on it; they’ve scratched at it from underneath, trying to get a hold of a fun-looking piece but they haven’t jumped to the surface and disturbed a set up game… yet.

Conflict of Heroes set up for Firefight #1.

Conflict of Heroes, first Firefight, I’m the Soviets, I’m totally embarrassed, losing 8-1. I think my aggressive first move was the wrong strategy for this fight. That and the fact that dice instinctively hate me.  Mike and I both enjoyed the game, and I find myself thinking about how to play the Soviets more effectively… a good sign for any game. Their high cost to fire seems to suggest that they should sit tight and fire whenever possible rather than moving in for short range confrontation.

Mike brought Race For The Galaxy, which I’ve resisted up until now due to all of the icons on the cards, but decided to give it a shot. We played a teaching game, cards all open and Mike explaining iconography and strategy as we went. I’m still not comfortable with all the icons after that one game and don’t have any idea how I won by almost double Mike’s points, all I know is that I went for the brown worlds or any cards with brown in the icons. I’d like to play again, this time with my husband joining us to get his opinion of the game; if he doesn’t like it, there’s no point in even considering buying it.

Finally we tried the other new game I traded for: Perry Rhodan.  This is one of the Kosmos 2-player line, a pick-up-and-deliver game set in space. There are a couple of clever things about this game, one is that it takes more moves to travel away from the sun than toward it. Another is that the delivered goods cards are turned over and recycled for pick up unless a matching pair are delivered, in which case they are removed from the game. This makes getting profitable sets to deliver tougher as the game progresses. Another aspect of the game that I like is the deck of cards for each player which can help you in several ways, sometimes at the expense of your competition. Yes, everyone here likes that hands-on, mess-with-your-opponent aspect in games.

Perry Rhodan

Mike and I both loved this game and want to say to Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games, “MAKE THIS GAME AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH!”. Seriously, even though Mike became the premiere trader in the solar system by many megagalaxes, we both thought this game was an excellent addition to the Kosmos line and think it’s sad that it’s only available in German since it does have a lot of text on the cards.

How Memoir ‘44 became my Hot Game

Playing board games around here had slowed to a drizzle and then a total drought. But then we got rid of the pool table which took up a huge part of the family room and set up a folding table in its place.  Five days ago I set up the board and terrain tiles for one of the original scenarios from Memoir ‘44, covered it with a piece of Plexiglass, and waited for my opportunity.

 

Board and terrain tiles set up and waiting for 2 players with a little time.

 This has worked amazingly well.  Since half of the set-up is already done, it doesn’t take much time to finish the set up and be ready to play. The Plexiglass keeps the cats from playing with the game before we do, and it’s nice to be able to move the figures without worrying about disarranging the terrain. My husband noted that the Plexiglass also keeps the dice from interfering with the setup, unless you throw hard, of course.

So far, we’ve played almost every day since I set it up–sometimes twice. I’ve had Memoir for… what, 4 years, and haven’t  even played all of the original scenarios. I have the Pacific, Air Pack, and recently, the Mediterranean expansions but have only tried the Air pack a couple of times. I would really like to play all of the scenarios and try the rules tweaks that they offer. Hopefully, having the board set up ahead of time and waiting will help me get to them in the foreseeable future. Then I won’t feel so badly about buying the Eastern Front expansion!  And if we ever get through all of that, this will work just as beautifully with Ancients and the three expansions I have for that!!

Race Games: Powerboats vs. Snow Tails

I recently bought two new racing games, Powerboats by Cwali and Snow Tails by the Lamont Brothers. I’ve had a chance to play both games twice, Powerboats with 2 and 3 players; Snow Tails with only 2 players. They’ve both left me with a good first impression but which one leaves me wanting more?

Powerboats is, obviously, a game about racing boats around a lake. The board is modular, made up of 6 double-sided pieces that can be combined in a variety of ways, and shows land and water overlaid with a hex grid. This variety is a huge plus, offering so many different race courses that it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever play the same game twice. The board shows recommended spots (marked A, B, and C) to use as the starting/finish line, and  the 3 course buoys but I see no reason you can’t just lay out a course in any manner you wish. In fact, I was a little disappointed in the placement of these and would rather choose my own course marker spots.

Movement is determined by special 3-sided dice. These are cool looking and unique but if you enjoy the dance of the dice when you roll them, you’ll be disappointed. This is more like dropping the dice rather than rolling them, but they do offer a method for randomization. On your turn you can add or remove a die from your “speed” track, then choose to roll as many of your dice as you wish. This is a clever way to speed up or slow down and ensures that you can’t slow down too quickly; you can’t step on the gas for a long, straight stretch and then go to a super slow speed to make a corner. Very nice.

This is a quick, light, fun game offering no real tough choices and between the dice and the many small islands you need to maneuver around, it can cause frustration. It’s very likely that you have 3 dice and want to really step on the gas to catch up but instead find yourself putting along at 4 or 5 hexes on your turn. Or you re-roll a 3, hoping for a 2 or a 1  to turn around a spit of land and get…a three. If moving three causes you to crash into land, you take a damage token and lose all of your speed (lose all of your dice). When you get your fourth damage token, your boat is too beat up to continue and you’re out of the current race.

Snow Tails takes you to snowy climes, racing sled dogs. Your weapon of choice this time is cards–a deck for each player with numbers 1-5. On your turn you can play 1, 2, or 3 cards but they must all be the same denomination. These are played on either or both of your dogs or discarded to determine the strength of your braking. Movement is determined by adding together the numbers on your dogs then subtracting the brake number to get your speed, then, if the dogs’ numbers are different, drift the number of lanes that the numbers are different. So… your left dog is pulling at 5, your left dog is pulling at 3 and your brake is set at 2. Your speed is 6 (5 + 3 – 2) and you drift 2 lanes to the left. It’s fairly simple, logical and thematic but it does take time. And you don’t always get to go exactly where you’d like to go because you’re limited by the cards in your hand. If you try to plan this turn and still take into account the cards left in your hand that you’ll have to deal with in the next turn, your brain is likely to ice up.

If you’ve misjudged your speed or drift, you could collide with another sled, which means you don’t get to refill your hand to 5 at the end of your turn, or run off the track, which gives you a “ding” card. The “ding” card counts towards the 5 card hand limit so avoiding them is paramount if you wish to retain control over your sled. If you should have to draw your 5th ding card, you are out of the race, of course, since you have no number cards to play.

The game comes with many double-sided track pieces, some straight, some curved, and two u-turns. If you’ve become proficient at handling your sled, you can throw in a piece of track that narrows down to a single lane or one that you set up trees on so that the first player who hits one takes out the tree and damages his sled. 

Snow Tails is different from other race games because the card management is more complex, taking into account several aspects of movement at once. It requires more thinking and planning than Powerboats which means it isn’t as fast a game, but that is precisely the thing that keeps me wanting more. The challenge to manage the cards, to find the right combination of speed and drift, is addictive. And even with a damaged sled, you can still have enough control to win, as evidenced by the second game we played when I had 3 ding cards by the half-way point but still came in first.

I enjoy both games and am glad to have them in my collection but I consider Powerboats to be a lighter game, more likely to be put in the “family game” category. Given a choice, I would rather play the tougher but more interesting Snow Tails.

Two New Games

When Mike arrived this afternoon, he brought with him his two newest games: Prophecy, which he’d played a couple of times with his wife, and Battlestar Galactica, which he was itching to launch on its maiden voyage.

Prophecy is an rpg-adventure style game like Runebound or Return of the Heroes, both of which I’ve played with him. The board, compared to Runebound, is very simple which keeps you from having to over-analyze your next move. It also offers several ways to move more quickly from space to space so it doesn’t bog down while you slog your way from one end of the “kingdom” to the other like Return of the Heroes.

Prophecy's board, image by Werner Baer

I found Prophecy to play quickly, not necessarily in the total play time, but in how the time flies while you’re playing. I’m not sure how long it took us to finish the 2-player game (with the game-ending conditions modified to whoever got two treasures from the Astral plane), but it never left me feeling like I wish it would hurry up and be over. There are enough choices to give you a feeling of control but not so many that your mind starts to overload and smoke begins to curl lazily from your ears.

Rpgs are not my forte but in the other two that I’ve played, I would watch Mike as his character’s stats increased so quickly that my mind began to boggle with wondering, “HOW did he do that?” while my poor soul either couldn’t find anyone to fight or lost most of the fights. In Prophecy, I still lagged behind in strength and magic but I made up for it with better equipment and skills and managed to collect the two treasures needed before Mike had managed to win one.

Prophecy is definitely a game I am willing to play again, and not just because I won. I like how smoothly and quickly it plays, and the many ways you can improve your character’s overall strength. There are plenty of bad guys to fight, lots of weapons and spells and skills to acquire, the board was always full of choices but it never felt overwhelming.

Richard joined us for the semi-cooperative game of Battlestar Galactica. I’ve never watched the show but have a general idea of its premise, which I think is helpful to immerse yourself in the world of the game. The humans are trying to get their space ship home while their enemies, the Cylons, are trying to prevent them—a simple and timeless story, no?

Each player chooses a character which has both good qualities that benefit your team and a bad quality which hampers you. For instance, my character could choose between two of the Crisis cards drawn at the end of your turn (these are bad things that happen to make your humans miserable) but it cost her two hand cards to take any action related to the room she was in. I think this was a neat addition to the characters, giving them each a weakness to deal with.

My character's card, image by C. Hahn

On your turn you first draw cards corresponding to your characters specialization, such as a pilot, a military leader, political leader, or support. Next you may choose to move to another room in the ship, then you can take 1 action. Finally you draw a dreaded Crisis card. Many of these cards are “Skill Checks” that require your team to pick cards from their hand to put into a pool blindly in hopes of coming up with enough points to pass the skill check. This is where the unknown Cylon can mess with your plans.

You see, as in Shadows Over Camelot, there can be a traitor among you without your knowing it. At the beginning of the game, a card is dealt to everyone which identifies you as either a Cylon or not a Cylon. As if that isn’t bad enough, half way through the game, a second round of cards are dealt. Now you KNOW there is a traitor, you just have to figure out who it is and try to through them in the Brig and keep them there.

We had a very good time with this game even through there were only three of us, partly, I think, because it was so easy to get into the atmosphere of the game. I enjoy Shadows Over Camelot but more as a family game since it feels like you’re just collecting poker hands, running to the right spot and playing them one at a time. The theme in Galactica is so easy to fall into even if you are not a die-hard fan of the show.

Richard turned out to be our Cylon after the half-way point. We threw him in the brig but couldn’t keep him there. He came dangerously close to spoiling our trip home but in the end, the humans won. We were nearly out of food and fuel, our morale was low and we’d lost a lot of our population but we made it.

This turned out to be a hit with all of us, even my non-gamer husband. It moves along very nicely with no real down time since you have to watch the other players for signs of traitorous behavior, and the many Skill Checks keep you in the action a lot of the time even when its not your turn.