Review: Leaving Earth

Game Name:	Leaving Earth	Published Year:	2015
Game Publisher:	The Lumenaris Group, Inc.	Player Scale:	1-5
Game Designer:	Joseph Fatula	Run Time:	60-180 min

"It [the rocket] will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven."

(Wernher von Braun)

Welcome to Leaving Earth, a game about the space race. In this review, I will cover both the base game and the expansion Leaving Earth: Outer Planets. In Leaving Earth, you’ll take control of one of the world’s space agencies and will try to accomplish missions in space. If you want to be the first and grab the glory, you’ll need to plan and assess the risk of doing the mission before other players grab the points.

[caption id="attachment_926" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Full game setup (using only 1 of the 5 agencies) with the Outer Planets expansion.[/caption]

How it plays

[caption id="attachment_927" align="alignleft" width="300"] Base game map.[/caption]

You are presented with a map of the solar system detailing different zones and how they’re interconnected. The base game is only composed of Planet Earth, the Moon, Venus and Mars. If you get the second edition of the game it will come with a mini expansion integrating Mercury.

 

The Outer planet expansion will add Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and a number of their satellites for you to explore. The locations that can be explored have multiple copies so the exploration results will be randomized in every game, as you only use on of them per game.

[caption id="attachment_929" align="alignright" width="300"] Multiple copies of an exploration place with different results in the reverse.[/caption]

The game will play in a limited number of rounds representing each a year, starting at 1956 and going all the way up to 1976 on the base game or 1986 with the Outer Planet expansion. Every year all the agencies get the same amount of funding and they need to spend it on developing technologies, building spacecrafts, training astronauts, … In your turn you can also build spacecrafts with the pieces you already have and launch missions into space.

Each round, all players get a turn and they can perform as many actions as they can or are able and then the next player goes. If you don’t spend your funding it is lost, and in the next year you’ll start with the same amount as every year. Once everybody has done their actions you resolve all the end of year actions like feeding your astronauts in space or resolving any perils.

[caption id="attachment_919" align="alignleft" width="300"] Technologies and manoeuvers.[/caption]

There is a large selection of technologies you can develop, and these will be prerequisites for most of the rockets you can build or certain manoeuvres you can perform in your missions later on. When you develop a technology, you always get a certain amount of outcome cards that go along with it. Every time you fire a rocket or perform a manoeuvre involving one of the technologies you have to flip one of those cards.



You can have 3 different results, a success, so everything goes as planned. A minor fail, which usually result in something not working but able to be repaired. A major fail, which usually result in everything getting lost in a big ball of fire. Independently of the result, you can get rid of the card once revealed by paying the amount indicated, if not it will get shuffled back with the other cards. This mechanic will include a bit of luck and uncertainty to every action you do in your missions. You can perform tests as many times as you want, paying to get rid of the cards, once you have no more cards is always an automatic success, however; this requires money and time that you might not have, remember, this is a race after all.

[caption id="attachment_923" align="alignleft" width="300"] Mission cards[/caption]

 

Missions will be assigned in the game’s set up, depending on the chosen difficulty for the game you will draw a certain number of cards from the easy, medium and hard missions decks.  Including the Outer Planets expansion this changes a bit, apart from the missions you draw from these decks, there will be a certain number of non-explorable missions from the outer planets, and while exploring the locations it will add extra missions. As you don't use all missions in a game this will add to the replayability of the game. All missions are available for everybody and they are worth a number of points. The first person to accomplish a mission gets the corresponding card with its points. When this happens, all other agencies receive a bonus in their funding for the year. There is a wide range of missions, from a simple survey, to find life or bring samples back to Earth.

[caption id="attachment_920" align="alignright" width="300"] Example from the rulebook of planning a mission.[/caption]

 

Planning a mission is an essential part of the game, and unfortunately, might involve too much math for some people. Based on the difficulty of the manoeuvres and the mass you’re trying to move you’ll need to calculate the amount of thrust you’ll need for the different manoeuvres. Fortunately for you, if using basic mathematical formulae and calculator seems out of place for a game, each agency card has a table saying how many rockets of each type you’ll need to use depending on the difficulty of the manoeuvre and the mass you want to move. You’ll still need to plan using pen and paper for the hardest missions.

[caption id="attachment_925" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Outer Planets calendar track shows the windows of opportunity for the slingshot manoeuvres.[/caption]

With the Outer Planets expansion the slingshot manoeuvres were incorporated, as these depend on the alignment of the planets, you’ll need to look for windows of opportunity based on the calendar year planning your missions, adding, even more, depth to the game system.

 

 

 

Solo Game

[caption id="attachment_918" align="alignright" width="300"] Components for one of the agencies.[/caption]

The solo game is a bit different, you still run the space program for an agency, but as you are not competing with anyone you can perfectly plan your movements. There is a win condition though, you need to have more than half of the points of the total missions by the end of the game. To keep the game challenging is recommended to play in difficulty high or very high. With the addition of the Outer Planets expansions, some of the missions are unknown until you explore the planets or satellites, which will add further difficulty. The agreed convention on how to play this is you need to accomplish all the non-explorable missions of the outer planets and then with all available, you have to score half of the points. This is one of my favourite games in my collection to play solo, I highly recommend it if you like the theme and don’t mind doing some basic math.

Opinion

[caption id="attachment_922" align="alignleft" width="300"] The 5 space agencies of the game[/caption]

The game is all about planning, there is a bit of luck involved with the outcome cards as you can get delays due to fails, but the game is very strategic. The different agencies add to the theme, but they are all the same, so there is no asymmetry in the game. There are different approaches to each mission, there will be an optimal solution, but it will take you a few games to gain enough experience with all the technologies and there is the race aspect of the game, your mission might be the optimal one, but if someone tries their luck and achieves the mission before you all that planning might be for nothing. This is where you need to assess if taking the risk is worth it.

There is definitely a learning curve in the game, but with the different difficulty levels, you can approach the harder missions at your own pace while exploring the game. The fact that the exploration places are random and that there are so many missions in the pool is going to be rare to play the same game twice in a row, the replayability is very high. The fact that the game is so mathy might put some people off, but for me is one of the reasons I like this game so much. In big groups, the downtime might be too long if a couple of players suffer from analysis paralysis frequently, and for me, this is a brilliant game as solitaire.

The artwork is just magnificent, it’s got this retro vibe of the space race and the map looks gorgeous displayed on the table. The components are good quality but being a game produced by demand you can see that is not from a big production company. One of the problems of this is that is not widely available though now is easily ordered in different online shops in EU. As a fan fact, if you happen to visit NASA you can actually grab a copy there. The rulebook is very well displayed and I didn’t find it difficult to get into the game, and Joseph is always willing to answer anyone in BGG forums if you have any questions regarding the game.

The good: Highly thematic, gorgeous artwork, brilliant gameplay. Multiplayer is quite tense and solo is a great puzzle.

The bad: If you play in a big group the down-time between turns might be quite big if the players like to take their time planning. Some people might not like the mathy aspect of the game.

You might also like: High Frontier (3^rd Edition)

That’s all for the review folks!

If the idea of cruising into space making the next great discoveries of humankind appeals to you, this is a piece of art to have in your collection. Try to replicate the Voyager program or the Cassini mission which will end in September ‘17 with the spacecraft crashing into Saturn. I leave you now with one of the latest photographs of this great mission (thanks to the NASA image gallery)

Review: Smash Up

Game Name:	Smash Up	Published Year:	2012
Game Publisher:	Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)	Player Scale:	2 – 4
Game Designer:	Paul Peterson	Run Time:	45 mins

If a Mash-Up is to take elements of two or more pre-existing pieces of music and combine them to make a new song, then Smash-Up is the same but for a card game just more aggressive, the “good” aggressive: where an “attack” really just means putting a card down on the table.  In this game, you will not take on the role of Dinosaurs, or Pirates, or Wizards, or even Ninjas.  You’ll take on two of them.  If you’ve ever wanted a game where Zombie-Dinosaurs take on Ninja-Pirates whilst Trickster-Aliens run amok, Smash-Up is that game.



The base game comes with eight factions, each with their own twenty-card deck; players will pick two decks, and they will “shufflebuild” a new Smashed-Up deck to play with.  As you would probably believe, each faction plays very differently, so the combinations of your shufflebuilt deck vary quite considerably.  Ninjas are understandably very sneaky, Wizards are great at pulling extra cards and playing bonus actions, Zombies turn the discard pile into basically a reserve hand (as in a hand of cards, not an actual zombie hand, that’s gross).



Whatever your shufflebuilt deck, cards are either Minions or Actions.  On their turn, a player can play up to one of each, in any order.  Minions are assigned to a base and are used to eventually score you points, but on the turn they are played they may also provide an attack or an extra bonus.  Actions, vary between each of the factions and can be anything from (Wizards) Summoning a card from your deck, or (Ninjas) have Hidden…Ninjas, which allow surprise Minions to appear just before a Base is Scored and so on.

The aim of the game is to be the first to acquire fifteen points, this is accomplished by Smashing Bases (yes, there is more smashing in this game than a mash-up of an old Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse comedy sketch and the Incredible Hulk).  A base is smashed when the combined value of all the Minions, from all players, reaches or exceeds the Base’s strength. At this point the Base is scored with the player with the highest value of Minions scoring the first place prize, second place gets, well they get second place, down to third place.  Coming in first doesn’t always bag you the most points though, so careful timing and planning are key in this game.  That is the game: simple, straightforward and fun.

As I’ve said the game comes with eight factions, and the combining of these does mean there is a fair amount of replayability in the box before you consider getting any of the numerous expansions; however, some factions ‘work’ better together than others, and some don’t work well together at all in my experience.  As a twist on the deck builder mechanic, luck plays a fair part into which two cards are drawn each turn, I occasionally find my ten cards max hand filled primarily with actions, that I don’t really want there.  Actions or abilities to pillage your discard pile (zombies I’m looking at you) or your deck (Wizards!) do then feel like they have a distinct advantage here.

[gallery ids="904,900,895,897" type="rectangular"]

The artwork provided by Dave Allsop et al is brilliantly cartoony, and if I’m honest – was the reason I plucked it from the game shelf.  This game looks brilliant, it is just a few cards, but the art on each card along with the accompanying text is great, and really works to add to the chaotic fun theme (that even the least geeky person at the table will be very familiar with). Somewhat unusually I’m going to mention the rule book which is likewise kept very much in the crazy, friendly fun style, it is written in a personable manner, giving a feeling of someone teaching you how to play rather than a dry read through.  The box is very light on components, it is just a deck of cards, which for some is enough, for others (myself included); there is a desire for something extra in the form of Base Mats (as seen in the play through photo).  It would be nice if AEG would release these officially, but in the meantime, you can download and print them from BGG you’ll be able to fit the five needed for the base game on one sheet of A3 card (I use artists mount board, anything around 150 gsm is pretty decent)

This is a very fun game, it is light in strategy and with very slick rules making it easy to teach and engage with.  It is a game of direct conflict though, where players will really race and stuff each other over to score bases and win; that out-and-out aggressive play may not be everyone’s cup of tea – especially when one’s ability to engage in that conflict is governed by a random deck of cards.

Smash Up is a very light, straight forward fun game with fantastic artwork and tongue firmly in cheek.  Don’t expect to be thinking and planning your strategies while this box is on the shelf, or ever being overwhelmed by choices when playing, but when it comes down you are sure to have a good laugh stickin’ it to those pesky Trickster Dinosaurs!

Review: Gloomhaven

 

Game Name:	Gloomhaven	Published Year:	2017
Game Publisher:	Cephalofair Games	Player Scale:	1-4
Game Designer:	Isaac Childres	Run Time:	90-150 min

“The far east of the kingdom, a new city, full of adventures, treasures and opportunities.” At least is what they sold you when you decided to move to these lands. You found a decaying town, full of shady figures in every corner and full of dangers outside its walls. And that persistent fog doesn’t help with the gloomy atmosphere all over town. At least there seems to be plenty of work for a mercenary looking to make a quick gold, and that is why you decide to stay, there is always time to move on to another place. Your first visit into town is the only tavern, the Sleeping Lion, that has to be the place to be to look for news and work. You ask for the house Ale, which is better than you expected, and look around to find out there are a few mercenaries around too. Someone approaches and ask you “Hey! You look like you’re new around town and you’re looking for a job, do you want to join our group?”. Your story starts here.

Introduction



Gloomhaven is a dungeon crawler made of interconnected quests that form a persistent campaign. The common denominator is going to be the band of mercenaries that you are going to create at the very beginning of the game, on which heroes will come and go.The premise of the game is that you’re going to play an epic campaign of around 70 scenarios in total, including secondary quests where your decisions will alter how the city evolves. This is a legacy game, which means your decisions during gameplay will have permanent effects.

How it plays

[caption id="attachment_833" align="alignright" width="300"] Some of the classes boxes and secret envelopes of the game[/caption]

You start with 6 different classes unlocked that you can chose from to create your heroes, and as you keep advancing in the game you’ll be able to unlock new classes up to a total of 17. Each class has its own ability deck and plays quite differently, adding a lot of variety during the whole game. When you create a new character, it will get a personal goal, that once completed will retire the character and unlock a new class, this is not optional and even if you get a bit attached to your character after a few quests you’ll be very excited to see what is coming with the new unlocked one.

[caption id="attachment_831" align="alignleft" width="300"] Game map and quests book, this is where your adventures start[/caption]

In town, you’ll be able to level up between quests, buy new objects at the shop with the hard-earned gold from your adventures and donate to the town’s church among other activities. New objects get added to the shop via designs found in the dungeons and increasing the prosperity of the city. As you keep playing some of your decisions will affect the city and how it will grow. Between quests you will also have small encounters, that get solved via chose A or B kind of decisions.

The quests are quite varied although most of the objectives consist in killing everything in the dungeon, but from time to time you get something quite different. The gameplay usually feels more of a puzzle than the usual dungeon crawler, as there are no dice in Gloomhaven, which for me personally is welcome to this genre. There is still a bit of randomness via the battle deck which I’ll explain in a bit.

[caption id="attachment_837" align="alignright" width="300"] Character's cards[/caption]

At the beginning of the quest you get to choose a limited number of cards (depending on your character) from your total card pool. These will be your actions for the game and will also act as a timer. Every round, the players will choose two cards from their hand, that they will commit for the round, and use one of them as initiative. The initiative will determine the order of play for the round. In your turn then you’ll be able to use the upper part of one of the cards and the lower part of the other card, these being your actions. Some actions will discard the card and others will force you to lose it. After your hand is depleted you’ll have to rest, before you get back your discard pile except one card that gets lost. This way, little by little, your hand will be reduced until you don’t have cards to play and you’re exhausted. Brilliant system, it is very strategic and keeps the whole game tense.

[caption id="attachment_836" align="alignleft" width="300"] Battle deck[/caption]

As I said before, there are no dice in the game, but the battle deck will have a similar effect. It will add a modifier to your attack, like -1 or +2, critical hits (x2) or a miss. The advantage of having this deck of cards is that you can modify it with perks that you gain by accomplishing battle goals and levelling up. A very dynamic system that keeps things interesting for building your character as you want. Talking about levelling up, each time it happens apart from the perk you also get to add a new card to your pool. This means that even if you want to play the same class you can build a different kind of character.

[caption id="attachment_835" align="alignright" width="300"] One of the many enemies you'll encounter in the game's dungeons[/caption]

In the dungeons, you’ll face multiple foes, 34 different kind of enemies and 13 bosses in total. As this is a pure co-op game the enemies will be controlled by an AI deck, which will be unique for each kind of monster with different actions. Some of the enemies share an AI deck, for example, archers from different races, they all have the same actions but different statistics. Rules for controlling the enemies are simple and quite straightforward not requiring too much time to manage their turn. They all share a monster battle deck in the game.

Solo game

Being a full co-op game you can play solo running a couple of characters, here it will depend on how much your brain can take, I particularly found the sweet-spot running 3. One of the things I like about the game is that you can keep playing with the same group of mercenaries but using different characters, as they can drop in and out quite easily, though you can always make a different group, they won’t share some achievements necessary for some quests, but there is so much content that they will play wonderfully. You can always try to start the game from the beginning with a second group keeping track of everything unlocked separately, but I think the effort is not worth it seeing as how much content the game has.

After the game got delivered Isaac released 17 extra scenarios, one for each class, meant to be played with only one character that will unlock an special item for that class. You can find them for free here, the original post from Isaac at BoardGameGeek or as there is right now a second Kickstarter campaign you can purchase a printed copy with the extra cards as an add-on.

Opinion

Don’t get overwhelmed with the 50 pages rulebook, I actually found that is quite an easy read and the rules are straightforward and easy to remember. The game is oozing with the theme all over, is refreshing to see different races and some of the encounters’ results will depend on race/class sometimes. The quests are quite typical for a fantasy game, but the story they create keeps you engaged for athewhole time, in our gr, up we are around 15 quests in, with only one character retired and we are far from getting tired of the game.

I found the gameplay quite innovative with the use of cards, very strategic and leaving little to luck, in that aspect the game feels more of a puzzle to solve than the usual dungeon crawler. You have to plan the quests carefully so you don’t get exhausted too soon; all of the quests we’ve played so far were never an easy win. The quests themselves also feel very well balanced for all player counts, that will change the number of enemies you’ll encounter. Talking about difficulty, the game gives you the option to play in an easier or a more difficult mode changing the level of the enemies. This is calculated depending on your group average, so it won’t matter if you have low characters in more advanced quests at it will balance itself out, and so far it has worked pretty well.

I would say that the game is on the medium/heavy spectrum, though not difficult to pick up it will take a couple of games to start seeing how to use wisely your cards. We lost our first game by exhausting too soon, and we learned our lesson. If you lose the quest, you’ll need to replay it, but the good thing is you keep the XP and loot gained in the failed run. All in all, the learning curve for the game is appropriate, keeping the game challenging at all times without it being overwhelmingly difficult, and if you want a greater challenge you can always increase the difficulty.

Component wise, the quality is good, I would have liked to have thicker cards, but as they don’t get shuffled they are holding pretty well. The art is good and there is a lot of variety. The ability cards don’t have any pictures, but this means the abilities text can take the whole card making it very easy to read and more practical. One thing I would have liked is to see a bit more variety in the terrain tiles for the dungeons. All in all, the production is excellent for the price tag and how much content is in the box. If you’re a fantasy or RPG fan, and love dungeon crawlers, I would recommend you run out right now and book a copy in the next reprint through Kickstarter, for me is the closest thing to an RPG in a box that I’ve played so far. If you are not, go get it anyway!

The Good: Thematic, strategic puzzle-like gameplay without dice, legacy aspects of the game, the classes play very differently, so much content...

The Bad: With such a big game, you’ll need a big time commitment to fully enjoy the whole experience it offers. The game is heavier than the bookcase is holding it at the moment.

That’s all for the Gloomhaven review folks!

If you like what you’ve read and were doubting about picking up the game you still have a couple of days left to support Isaac directly through Kickstarter and jump into the second print of the game. The game has rapidly risen in the BoardGameGeek ranks (currently #7) and is gaining its own place in the podium with merits.

Time to finish the Ale at the Sleeping Lion and head out looking for new adventures, I’ll see you around in Gloomhaven!

Jesus

Review: 7 Wonders

Game Name:	7 Wonders	Published Year:	2010
Game Publisher:	Repos Production	Player Scale:	2 – 7
Game Designer:	Antoine Bauza	Run Time:	30 mins

Govern, manage and rule one of the ancient civilisations of the world, and raise up your monuments and your wonders to show all that yours truly is the greatest.  In this game of tableau building, drafting and set collection each player will take responsibility for and guide one of these old world cultures hem through three ages of early civilisation, building up their scientific knowledge, their armies, and their resources in the hope that they will build their Wonder and be crowned the greatest kingdom.

7 Wonders has managed to rack up pretty much every board gaming award out there, as you’ll see from the award emblazoned box, and this is with very, very good reason.  Each player is given a wonder to build, represented by their tableau which will be placed in front of them, this will act as a guide to a player’s strategy – although it is by no means compulsory to build your wonder, doing so does bring with it some decent bonuses and victory points when calculating the end game score.



This game was my first experience I had with the drafting mechanic, which I have grown to love, but at the beginning, it felt very, very alien to me and some of my friends just flat out don’t like drafting games.  You’ll start each of the three Ages with seven cards, from this hand you’ll select the one card you want to play – this could add some resources to your culture like; stone, brick wood, cloth etc. or it might be more troops/training for your army, or even expanding the minds of your civilians with scientific structures and so on.  This card will be placed face down until each player is ready.  Simultaneously the cards will be flipped and you’ll gain that ability/resource from here on out.  You then pass the remained of the hand to the player on your left (in the Second Age it’s your right, and then back to your left for the Third and final Age).  The wonderful (pun intended) thing about this mechanic is that you’ll really have to plan ahead to do well, you’ll have to carefully consider and weigh your hand each and every turn.  Do you take the card you want/need, or do you take the card your neighbour (or even your neighbour’s neighbour) wants/needs?

[caption id="attachment_815" align="alignleft" width="300"] First Age Cards[/caption]

At the end of each Age combat is resolved (more on that in a minute) and new Age begins, bringing with it a brand new hand of cards, which are slightly more advanced or “better” than the previous Age.  At the end of the Third Age all the final scores are calculated and the winner decided.  Now, despite the pretty quick actual play time of the game, the end game scoring is a little…complicated, which; on the one hand, is very good because trying to work out who is winning throughout the game is difficult, but on the other…it is just a pain to do.  There are in fact apps around that will help with this, but it is a major (and not uncommonly noted) drawback to an otherwise great game.

This game seats up to seven people, and with numbers that high you might worry that there will be too much player interaction, or too much going on, but what 7 Wonders does so well is that it only has you directly competing and trading with your immediate neighbours at the table.  This gives every player a slightly different experience, and opens slightly different opportunities and styles of play, especially in larger groups.  This dynamic means that you really only need to play close attention to the person on your left and your right, you still need to be mindful of the other player’s but you can’t directly interfere with them anyway. Because all players act simultaneously the pace of this game is very, very quick – certainly, if everyone knows how to play – so keeping track of who is doing and collecting what is easy and at no point is it ever overwhelming.



The box states that this game can be played with two people, and as far as facts go, that is true.  It really isn’t very good with two, and it’s only an OK game with three, but it quickly gets better, more fun and more dynamic with more players; this best games of this I’ve had are with seven, and I probably wouldn’t want to play with less than five these days.

The component quality is of a great standard, with decent, thick cardboard tableaus and slightly larger than standard playing cards (this does mean you’ll need different, larger card sleeves though) with beautiful artwork from the incredibly talented Miguel Coimbra, all of this combines to make a rich and vibrantly tactile playing experience – is it any wonder (again, pun intended)that all the cards are played face up when they look this good?

This game has, what I would argue two levels of player interaction: ‘Table Led’ and ‘Player Led’.  On the table, there is a subtle semi-indirect player interaction.  What I mean by this is that one civilisation can’t overtly attack or hamper another.  Combat works in a simple and fluid fashion; at the end of the Age, players will compare their military score to the player on your left and right, the highest score wins and receives victory points for that win (and negative points for the loss).  This simple system allows players to see from very early on how they will fare in the forthcoming “battle”.  Trade is handled in a likewise manner: a player can buy good from a neighbour for a small cost, this purchase doesn’t detract from a players ‘stockpile’, but does increase their treasury.

From a Player Led viewpoint, the interaction is more explicit but is secretive.  As a player, you can assess and guess as to what your opponents are trying to amass and accomplish, and you can try and scupper those plans by taking the card you think they need.

With two levels of player interactions, on top of wonderful components and art work makes 7 Wonders a brilliant and varied game, with many nuances that continually change as the players become more experienced and change.  Although this game does sit two players, it really, really shines when you have all seven civilisations on the go.  This is a game I have had in my collection for years, and it isn’t going anywhere; it works as a splendid introduction into the drafting mechanic, and since most cards are played face-up, it is a game that can be taught easily too.  7 Wonders is a “one of those” classic games that everyone should at least try, just warn your wallet, because you will want to buy this.

With classic, big title games like 7 Wonders, it is very easy to forget how good they really are and get wrapped up in the newest release.  I probably haven’t played this in about a year, but it was such a great experience, why haven’t I played it more?  When was the last time you dusted off an “old classic/favourite”?

Playtest UK: Birmingham

Recently I had the pleasure of joining the Birmingham division of Playtest UK for their monthly meet up and…well, playtest.  This was my first experience of going to one of these meet-ups; up to this point Bad Pets had only been put in front of local gamers, friends, and family.

These guys were game designers, experienced playtesters and I was a little nervous.  They were worn and battle tested by countless prototypes, rulebook writings and solo run throughs, in their wake the remains of once hopeful and futile game mechanics writhed in agony, as their bootsteps crunched ever onwards through the piles of discarded cards, tokens and meeples.  Okay, that’s a little over the top.  They were (in order of appearance), Rich, James and Chris. In short; they were all top bokes and each brought a unique, interesting and thought provoking perspective to the games we managed to squeeze into the evening.

Unfortunately, we only had time for two games, Bad Pets – mainly because I was there
first; early bird ‘n’ all – and because it only takes two people twenty minutes to play.  After that we launched into the impressive looking, sounding and playing; Master of Olympus.

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I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what I did as a designer having my game tested that could have been done better, and what I did well.  Did I get some valuable feedback?  Yeah, I sure did.  Could I have gotten more?  Yup, I sure could have.  My game was ready for testing, but I wasn’t.  Rich’s game was certainly ready, and he seemed a lot more prepared than I.

Now don’t get me wrong, it was an incredibly valuable experience and I would urge anyone thinking about designing a game to go along.  Even if you just want to do some testing first before you put yourself out there.  Before you do any of that though, maybe have a look at my thoughts, failings and “Rules of Thumb” below, so that maybe you can dodge them:

The Pitch – this may seem like an obvious one but pitching your game is really important, for two reasons.

1. For you; it is solidifying what the game is in your head, it may have gone through a few changes, so it may not be what it started as. Also, it’s really good practice, especially if you want to put you game in front of publishers.


2. For your playtesters the pitch should act to set the tone for comments, but also sets their expectations. Bad Pets is a very light, quick, cartoony game; so comparing it to Scythe or Fury of Dracula is kind of redundant.

I think I did this well, I dusted off the old description of “competitive jigsawing” and it was well received as both a joke and as a very general description of the game.  My playtesters Rich and James knew it was a light game going in, so their end game comments (and…debate might be too strong a word, but there was a definite difference of opinion) about its depth for me indicated I have the game weight I want.  

Target Acquisition – game design is as much art as it is science, and changes are
iterative, so playtesters should be very clearly informed what they are testing for.  Playtesting shouldn’t be done for fun, it shouldn’t be approached the same way as a game night and the clue is in the name.  You are there to test.  To me, that sounds more like work, ok; work that is fun, but work none-the-less.  In the early stages you might be testing everything.  It the latter stages you might also be testing everything.  But in the middle, you need to know what outcomes or experiences you are looking for, and so do your playtesters.  This may mean you don’t have to play the whole game from start to finish.  If you are just testing one aspect, then set the game up to enable that test to come about.

 Richard did this very well, he knew the Athenians might not be well balanced, and that my Macedonians may also need tweaking.  He had also recently revised his combat system, and was curious to see how it went.  I, on the other hand didn’t mention any of my last changes (I had added a third bonus, removed Pets, and added the Clock and Picture tiles) all of which needed testing, and I didn’t mention one of them.  This meant I was prodding for feedback on something they hadn’t paid a lot of attention to, so I missed out there.

Buggs Bunny – Why is there a rule called Buggs Bunny?  The catchphrase: “What’s up, Doc?”  The question of whether or not you will accept, welcome or completely ignore “suggestions” is one that you, and you alone can answer.  There are merits either way and it is fair to let your playtesters know which side of the fence you stand on, and your stance may be different for certain parts of your game – and that is cool too.  So what is up for change?  What is up for refinement, enhancement?  Ultimately, everything is “sort-of” in this category, even if you don’t want it to be – if enough people tell you X thing is bad/doesn’t work, it probably means it doesn’t work.

 Bad Pets is, I think in a pretty good place and I’d like to think that it mainly comes down to balancing and fine tuning, that being said; the guys did present some really interesting ideas for bonus tile actions.  There were also a few rule refinements needed but their out of the box thinking, a completely new, novel idea is one that is certainly worth exploring.

 Criticise – Please note that this is not “Provide constructive criticism”, no, because that is paradoxical and silly.  But mainly because as a playtester you are more or less literally being asked to criticise, it is the designer’s responsibility to be constructive with that criticism.  The more objective and specific you can be, the better; however, you don’t have to be.  Telling a designer that “something felt a little off”, “it felt a bit flat” is valid feedback.  Games are, fundamentally; exercises in fun and if something isn’t working for you, the player, then say so.  This then starts a conversation, and discussion about the why, the what and how., led by the designer.

I was told that there didn’t feel like a lot of control in Bad Pets, and that it felt like there was a lot left to chance.  Fair feedback, but not the feedback I wanted to hear for a game that is meant to be light strategy:  This is where there was a difference of opinion.  For Rich’s game I really, really wanted to do something that the rules allowed, but the gameplay didn’t really want me to do.  This was a surprise for Rich, as no one had tried to do what I was doing (so hopefully very valuable), and I was the only person “negatively affected” by my actions – I still got to do what I wanted, just not in the way Rich had intended (and I won the game).

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I gotcha back – But remember, don’t be a dick, and that supporting designers, publishers, and developers is how we have gotten to this fantastic playscape, where there is pretty much a game for every possible theme, every mood, and occasion.

Shut Up – Okay, so this is more advise I’ve heard, but many people advocate the importance of the designer not getting involved with the game, just sit back and watch it played, and if someone “attacks” your design, listen first, think second, have a cup of tea third, think some more about it, really think about it fourth.  But don’t argue, don’t defend or justify.  It is your game, and you can design it the way you want…but, there could be a seed of value to what they’re saying.

My game did come under some (very mild) criticism, and it was really hard for me to just listen to it, but by not saying anything, or rebuffing the comments my silence encouraged a conversation and debate leading to my favourite “I think I’m going to be mulling over how to play this game all night.”  It also led to some really great ideas to move the game forward…however; I didn’t remain completely silent…  

 

In writing this piece, and ahead of playtesting and designing a game in general I’ve found some excellent resources, so if board game design and or playtesting is something that sounds like fun (and they both are great fun, trust me), you should check these out:

Playtest.co.uk – is the place to start (if you’re in the UK), find your local group and go along, I bet you’ll have a great time, play some interesting games, and meet some top class people.

The Board Game Design Forum – is a hotbed of resources, and a place where like-minded people can virtually gather and share ideas, and support.

The Board Game Design Lab – is your one stop shop for “How to’s”, Gabe has collected, collated and indexed pretty much everything there is to know about building a board game found anywhere on the internet.  Well done Gabe!

Additionally, Gabe hosts a great podcast where he talks specifically about designing games, in this interview with Rob Daviau they talk about Playtesting.

Brandon Sanderson’s almost related video on writing groups also makes for a very interesting and comparable advice, just switch things like “character” for theme, and “plot” for mechanics and you’re away.

 

If you’re in the area and fancy joining the Birmingham Playtesters we’ll be meeting on 11^th May 2017 – you can find the group on Facebook or on Meetup.com – where we’ll hopefully be playtesting Jame’s Greek Mythology RPG Hetairos and Chris’s stock market game set on the island of Yap, where they use large stones as money.

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Thanks for reading folks

6 Great Solo Gateway Games

My intention with this article is to make you see, the reader, that there is another aspect to gaming that you might have overlooked or even never thought about. I want to talk about solo gaming.

One of the things I love about this hobby is that is very social, I like to gather around with my friends and get lost in other worlds for a few hours, but sometimes is not possible to get together or sometimes you just need to disconnect. The great thing about solo gaming is that you play whenever you want, and is all about beating the puzzle, because who doesn’t like a good riddle? That moment I arrive home from work, after being in front of a computer screen for 8+ hours, and I sit, open a game’s box to get lost for a time I wouldn’t change it for anything.

When I first got into this hobby, I found that it was difficult to gather friends frequently, but I didn’t think about playing solo. Until on one of those bored days roaming around in BoardGameGeek, I found the 1 Player Guild. They got me interested and I started looking at their lists and experiences playing solo. Everything sounded great, and believe me when I say it still is, I have made lots of friends in that small community that keeps growing strongly every month.

As with everything there is a cup of tea for everybody. There are a few different groups of solo games. I would divide them, theme and mechanics apart, mainly in pure solo games, solo-able games and coop games. Pure solo games are those games that are designed just with the solo player in mind, and there are many more than I thought there would be. In this category I would also put multiplayer games that have a solid solo variant developed. Coop games are usually multiplayer games that are easily played solo managing a couple of hands, and is the exact same game as multiplayer as you always play against the game, is just you taking the decisions. Solo-able games are those multiplayer games, that don’t have a solo variant but with their mechanics is easily played solo and is still a challenge. In my ever-growing collection, I have got a bit of everything, but the common denominator, is that no game that can’t be played solo somehow will make it. I would say that I am a big fan of coop thematic games, though lately I’ve been exploring more into the wargame world.

I’ll start listing a couple of games that are a good starting point into solo gaming. Maybe some of you never thought of soloing one of these games, or maybe you’ve never heard of them, but for me are very good experiences and it will cover different themes, systems and mechanics. One of the things you’re probably going to notice is that most of the games are not easy to win, but I found that if I win regularly to a game I lose interest in it quite soon, so be prepared for some good challenges.

Onirim (2^nd edition) – Z-Man Games

By Shadi Torbey

This little game was designed as a solo only game, though it has a small variant in the rules to play it 2 players coop.

The basis of the game is that you are caught in your dreams in a labyrinth and you have to find the exit to escape. In order to do that you have to open 8 doors, but nightmares are haunting you, and they are not going to make things easy for you. I found is quite an easy game to pick up, but as said, it’s not easy to master. The mechanics are simple and the wining conditions are straight forward, you have to open the 8 doors before the main deck runs out of cards.

The game plays in about 10/15 minutes and is on the light spectrum. I find the artwork to be very good and fits the thematic of the game. If you get a hold of the second edition it comes with 7 expansions that you can mix in however you want into the base game and each of them adds small mechanics via spells, that let you play with the cards and the main deck and is where the game becomes really interesting.

The good: The game plays fast, it becomes relatively complex adding expansions for a game of its size, it takes very little tablespace and is quite challenging.

The bad: I found that you end up shuffling a lot during the game.

Hostage Negotiator – Van Ryder Games

By A. J. Porfirio

This game is solo only, and is my go to for a fast rolling dice game.

The basis of the game is that there is a hostage situation and you’re called to deal with it. Your objective is to capture the hostage-taker, and you have to try to save as many hostages as possible. You have cards in your hand that let you deal with the hostage-taker and the situations are solved rolling dice. First you need to know what the demands are and then you need to capture (dead or alive) the hostage-taker before he escapes or before he kills half the hostages.

The game comes with several hostage-takers; each with different background stories and demands that change each situation,  increasing the replay ability of the game. There are more hostage-takers as small expansion packs, that add new mechanics to the game too. It plays in about 20/30 minutes, and although there is quite a bit of luck involved you can try to put the odds in your favour with your actions. The components are good quality and there is quite a lot of game in that small box.

The good: Game plays fast, is very easy to pick up, is very thematic and challenging.

The bad: Some people might find the theme a bit dark, though it gives me the vibes of an 80’s action movie and I love it.

Pandemic – Z-Man Games

By Matt Leacock

One of the games you most probably hear of and maybe never thought of playing by yourself. This is a full coop-game, and though it doesn’t have specific solo rules (at least in the base game) it is very easy to solo taking up more than one character.

I find it very easy to take on different roles at the same time, the abilities of the different characters are very straightforward and there is very little keep-up between turns.

The basis of the game is that deadly diseases are breaking out all over the world and you need to stop them in order to save humanity. Check out Rory’s review for more in depth game mechanics.

The replayability of the game is very high, with different roles and the variable starting setup. The game solo plays very fast as you follow your own strategy and is also objective oriented (win-lose endgame). One thing I’ve heard people complain before about this game is that they have a player in their group giving orders to everybody, not letting them chose, I’ve never had this problem with my group, but if you do, this is a very good way to solve that problem.

The good: Timeless and very thematic game. Quite challenging and fast to play.

The bad: If you want pure solo rules from the designer you need to get an expansion, though I don’t think is mandatory to enjoy the base game by itself.

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island – Portal Games

By Ignacy Trzewiczek

Another co-op game, but this one has specific solo rules out of the box. This one is not only a very good entry point on solo gaming but is one of my favourite games in my collection.

The game comes with different scenarios, and each of them is very different and makes each game feel different. The base of the game on each scenario is that you need to explore an unknown island for different reasons (you are stranded there, you’re looking for a lost treasure, …), gather resources and survive. All this while trying to accomplish the objective of the scenario in limited number of rounds. At its core is a very thematic eurogame, worker placement and resource management, but with an island that is there to get you. This is quite a strategic game, in that you need to think ahead, as you have limited actions, but with the uncertainty of what is going to happen every round with the events – and here there is a bit of luck involved.

The game runs in about 2 hours and I would say is in the medium weight spectrum. Playing solo you can take the role of one character and get the aid of your dog and Friday, or as a pure co-op you can always try to go managing a couple of roles. I do prefer the lattert, but the game is perfectly playable with just one character. Some of the mechanics of the game are brilliant, components and artwork are great and I love the variety of the different scenarios.

The good: Thematic and very challenging. Replayability is very high.

The bad: Sometimes it can feel unfair, but losing is fun with this game.

Viticulture – Stonemaier Games

By Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone

This is a pure eurogame, it has a small deck of cards that will block you out of some spots every turn acting as an opponent. This deck of cards is designed by Morten Monrad Pedersen, and it follows its own design philosophy of the Automa. The Automa concept debuted with Stonemaier games, and with Viticulture specifically, since then they have added automas to their other line of games, and they are brilliant.

The basis of the game is you need to produce wine and sell it scoring victory points. The difference between the solo game and multiplayer game is that in the solo game you’ve got a limited number of rounds to reach the amount of victory points to declare victory. Every season you’ll draw an automa card that will block certain action spots of the season. Simple concept but is challenging to win against the automa. You can also play in different difficulties, which in the hardest ones you’ll need to have a minimum of points in every round or else you lose, this is very challenging and my go to solo game. The automa deck also works with the Tuscany expansion map.

As there are different editions of the game, if you own any of the original kickstarter ones the automa deck comes in the Tuscany expansion. From retail, if you get the essential edition of Viticulture it will come with the automa deck. The game is easy to learn and production quality is very high. The solo games are quite fast, running in around 30/40 minutes.

The good: Challenging, different levels of difficulty and great components.

The bad: If you own one of the old editions you’ll need to get the automa deck in the expansion.

Mage Knight: The Boardgame – WizKids

By Vlaada Chvátil

I couldn’t finish the list without mentioning this game, that has been in the top solo games list for a very long time. I’ve played this game multiplayer and it was a drag, excellent mechanics, too long and very little to no player interaction at all. Solo game on the other hand, although still a bit long, you don’t have to wait for the other players to think their whole turn for 20 minutes each, and is an awesome experience.

The game comes with just one solo scenario, though the replayability is very high with the random generated maps. I haven’t got bored of this scenario yet, but in BoardGameGeek there are plenty of resources that tell you how to solo any scenario of the game if you want a bit more variety. The basis of the solo scenario is that you are a Mage Knight and your mission is to conquer the cities of this unknown land. In your way you’ll level up, gain artefacts and new powers to deal with greater foes. The game plays with cards and there is very little luck involved, is just you and how can you optimize the best combo with the cards in your hand and as you progress you will be building a more powerful deck of cards to use.

In the solo game, there is a timer that will limit your time every round, though is not very limiting. The game is very challenging by itself. If you enjoy the base game, you might want to add up the Lost Legion expansion, which changes the timer with a moving army you have to defeat. If the base game is good, the Lost Legion expansion as a solo game it brings it to a new level of greatness.

This is probably the heaviest game of the list, and it plays in around 3 to 4 hours for me, maybe with more experience you can end up reducing that time to 2/3 hours. The rules are very clear and is not difficult to play, but there are quite a few exceptions to remember during the whole game, I do still check the rulebook while playing. The learning curve is a bit steep for a new player, but is worth it, and as you play more you’ll see what strategies to follow and it will get easier. Components are good and the cards have great artwork, it comes with painted minis.

The good: Thematic, excellent gameplay, brain-burning puzzle.

The bad: It might be too long for some people. There are small mismatches with the expansions cards and tokens in some editions.

That’s it for the introduction to solo gaming folks!

It was difficult to choose from so many great games but I think I gave a good selection of games available in the market with different mechanics and that make a good entry point to another aspect of this great hobby.

Thanks for reading.

Jesus

Review: Farsight

Game Name:	Farsight	Published Year:	2017
Game Publisher:	Braincrack Games	Player Scale:	2 – 4
Game Designer:	Jamie Jolly	Run Time:	60 mins

Governments have fallen.  States have collapsed.  Kings, Presidents, and Emperors have been deposed.  The corporations rule now, vying for control of markets, customers, resources and land.  What started in the mid twenty-first century as acquisitions and mergers soon became monolithic hostile take-overs; it wasn’t long after, that the hostility spilt from the boardroom and the stock-markets to the streets; to the ruins of the fallen towns and cities.  Farsight puts players in control of a small army, made up of general infantry, giant mechanoids and highly skilled specialist soldiers.  It is with this force of men and machines that they seek to take control of key battlefield objectives and to do so at any cost.

This is a quick-play wargame, bringing you all the deep strategy you would expect from a wargame, but with far less set-up and far less faff, with the game being started almost immediately out of the box.  Common attributes, such as hit points, movement and unit differences have been stripped down to their essentials so there are no charts or tables of figures, all the information you need is on each troop card.

The game is broken down into four phases: Events, Deployment, Specialist and Battlefield.  Event cards are drawn from the Event Deck which can range from unearthing a network of hidden tunnels, to a meteor shower or tornado, and all of which impact the following phases in some way.  Deployment, unsurprisingly, is when each player, in turn, adds another unit to the battlefield.

The Specialist phase is where this game really starts shaking things up and the big “Unique Feature” stamp is applied refreshingly, interestingly, and liberally.  These units don’t appear on the board, instead, they are deployed on the enigmatically named Shadow Map – a dry-erase mini version of the battlefield.  Specialists Units have, as their name suggests; special abilities: Spies are used to neutralise the “Fog of War”, forcing an opponent to reveal their otherwise hidden unit and Saboteurs sabotage units as they come in range.  To combat these there are Assassins – guess what they do?  They hunt out opposing Specialists and, well, they assassinate them.  Obviously.  This phase is perhaps the most exciting aspect of the game, watching as an Assassin slowly closes in on your lone Saboteur and the cool, smug satisfaction that comes with chalking up another “kill” is grimly fulfilling.

The Battlefield Phase is where all the movement and action takes place and this is where the streamlined warfare mechanic in Farsight really shows off.  All units are deployed as cards, face down – to represent the fact the enemy doesn’t know what type of unit it is.  Whilst in this hidden state a unit may move up to three squares – once revealed this become two squares.   Units can’t move diagonally and one unit per square.  Easy.  Simple. Elegant.  Combat is dealt with in an equally efficient manner.  Number of dice equal to Attack strength against number of dice equal to Defence Strength are rolled with applicable modifiers.  Each hit is a wound.  After three wounds/hits the unit is destroyed.

Not to make this game sound like a German car, but it is the mechanical efficiency of
Farsight that makes the game so engaging; so quick out of the box, and to play.  Unit types, movement and combat are so uncomplicated and intuitive you won’t be faced with a situation where you don’t know what do to.  The “unnecessary” considerations that bog and slow down traditional tabletop wargames have been replaced by no-nonsense board game mechanics, merging these two game formats to create something with both a tactical and strategic depth, but also with a very short set-up, tear-down and run time.
Now, I’m not a fan of dicey games so the fact that this game comes with diceless rules is a big ol’ tick in the win column, placing Farsight very securely away in the strategy corner of the chance vs. strategy showdown.  It also has a semi-co-op play mode, playable as
one-on-one, two-on-one, or two-on-two, as well as the ability to build customisable armies.  The artwork from brian Coughlan, Volkan Kucukemre, and Jakub Vykoukal is top notch and helps transports players visually to the grim and dreary dystopian future. The miniatures (by Toby O’Hara) that will be an optional extra look jaw-droppingly-flippin’ fantastic too.  However; the look and lore of Farsight don't transcend from the artwork and graphics into the game, which of the four factions a player chooses having little effect on army build, tactics, or strategy.

This simplification of war gaming I think is one step too far, with the reduction in asymmetry meaning a fundamental aspect of war gaming: my orcs versus your elves, isn’t there.  This does mean that each and every win, will be down to your ability to manage select and coordinate your troops, as opposed to any army or racial traits.  It is the player that wins rather than the army, as all information is universal it arguably achieves Jolly’s goal of finely blending the big rolling battles of war gaming, with the stripped back, open, and game of chess.

Leaving much of the rigmarole usually associated with tabletop war gaming behind, Farsight provides an accessible, engaging and strategic wargame, and it does so quickly, elegantly, and effortlessly.  Stunning miniatures and artwork alongside simple mechanics means getting this to the table again and again will be easy and rewarding.

Review: Carcassonne

Game Name:	Carcassonne	Published Year:	2000
Game Publisher:	Z-Man Games	Player Scale:	2 – 5
Game Designer:	Klaus-Jürgen Wrede	Run Time:	30 - 45 mins

 

Named and themed after the beautiful French city, Carcassonne has players in the role of a cartographer (almost), creating and managing the rolling southern French landscape.  Players will construct cities, piece by piece, connecting them with roads, to other cities and monasteries.  As they do this they will be placing their followers, and depending on where they are placed they become a Knights, Thieves, Monks or left in a field; a Farmer.  With these followers players will amass and fight for their share of southern France, and more importantly; victory points.  
Carcassonne is a very simple tile placement game; players take turns drawing a tile from a Carcassonne-stamped cloth bag and then place it on the playing space anywhere they choose as long as any connecting tile has a matched edge.  In this way cities, roads and, fields continue to grow with players scoring more and more points if they are able to finish the city – completely enclose it, or the road – so it has two definitive ends.  Monasteries, on the other hand, are considered completed once the Monastery tile is completely surrounded.  In all of these instances, once the City, Road or Monastery is completed the player retrieves their follower/s.  It is in this way that Carcassonne really brings any depth of strategy, as players have only a finite amount of followers, and their commitment to the board can be made or broken by your opponent’s choices and style of play (more on this in a moment).  Finally, Farmers; these guys earn a lot of points.  A lot, but that inherently comes with a cost; once you turn your follower into a Farmer, it stays in the field, permanently reducing your follower pool.

Carcassonne is a light weight game, with rules that are very, very easy to grasp and it is also a pretty quick one too, making it a great “Gateway Game” or a lighter filler game for the more experienced. That being said it is not without its own strategic kick, as a player will continually have to choose when placing a tile to either scupper their opponents or advance their own agendas.  Closing off their opponent’s city or road and keeping their score low, or creating a massive, sprawling hodge-podge construction that can never truly be completed, and thus disposing of their followers for the remainder of the game.  However; Carcassonne does easily open itself up for very aggressive play – which given the type, feel and look of the game doesn’t quite fit – you could build a road through a city, making it virtually impossible for an opponent to finish; but playing in this style feels more like you are stopping your opponent from winning, rather than trying to win yourself.

There is a fair amount replay value in this little box, and there are a plethora of expansions to add to the game making it more fun and challenging by adding everything from the mini-expansions of wizards and witches to engineers and pigs.  The base game will serve you very well though, with a large assortment of tiles to randomly choose from, games will never be the exactly same, yet being essentially the same.

In short, this is a highly accessible, quick-to-table game, which will provide plenty of enjoyment over a pretty short run time.  It scales well, but I would argue it plays better with just two players, it is even a great addition to a game shelf for younger gamers.  Its compact size makes it a great game to travel with too. There is a chance that you may tire of this game though, even though it has a lot of replay ability, it has a limited amount of variety within.

Review: Pandemic

Game Name:	Pandemic	Published Year:	2008
Game Publisher:	Z-Man Games	Player Scale:	2 – 4
Game Designer:	Matt Leacock	Run Time:	45 mins

 

There are four deadly and destructive diseases rampaging across the world and only you and your fellow agents from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can stop them.  To do this not only must you treat the poor, suffering inhabitants of the world’s worst affected cities, but you must simultaneously research and develop a cure.  Time is running out fast, the diseases are spreading and intensifying faster, and at any point another epidemic could burst forth and lay waste to all of your carefully considered plans.  This is Pandemic, and easily the best £25 (ish) you will probably ever spend.

Pandemic is a rich, exciting cooperative game, meaning there will be no sour-faced tantrums or table flipping.  You will win or lose as a team, and the success or failure will never feel like it was caused by one person or one decision.  In fact, when you lose (and you will), it will feel very much like the board is displaying some sort of Jumanji-esque sentience and is playing you back, and your victories will be all the sweeter for it.

Pandemic handles the very morbid theme of world ending plagues in a simple and abstract fashion that makes this game suitable for the young, the squeamish and those recovering from major surgery.  The globe and the un-named diseases are represented by four different colours, and each level of infection is a corresponding coloured cube, the stages of the cure – the Player Deck – is similarly dived into the same four colours.  The Player Deck and Infection Deck are both made up of cards denoting one of the forty-eight cities on the board and the Cure/Disease colour.

As agents of the CDC players will use their four available actions each turn to Drive, Ferry or Fly around the globe in an attempt to Treat Diseases, Share Knowledge, build

[caption id="attachment_600" align="alignright" width="300"] The different Roles provide additional replay and strategic value.[/caption]

additional Research Stations and hopefully Develop a Cure.  To create the all-important Cure, one player must have their pawn at a Research Station with five, colour-suited city cards.  Sounds simple?  Not a chance.  After spending their four actions, players will gain two more cards from the Player Deck and then a number of new cities will become infected using the Infection Deck.  Trading cards between players isn’t nearly as simple as everyone wishes it were, and while players are trying to do that, more and more cities are becoming infected, or the infection is escalating.  The pressure never comes off; the board, the cards, the very game itself works against you, and it will take cooperation and team work to overcome, and win a game.

As if this wasn’t already enough, hidden amongst the Player Deck are the cards that every Pandemic player quickly comes to fear the dreaded; Epidemic Cards.  The more of these in the Player Deck, the more difficult the game, and what these bring is as simple and as elegant as it is devastating. Increase - more Infection Cards now need to be drawn - Infect - a new city is infected at the highest level of infection - and Intensify  - all of those previously infected cities are shuffled and placed back on top of the deck, ready to be infected all over again.  This is usually where Outbreaks start happening, and they are as bad as they sound.

Should the Infection level of a city surpass three, every connected city becomes infected.
And if that city also has three cubes on it, you have an Outbreak chain-reaction on your hands.  Yes, this is also as bad as it sounds, maybe worse, as every time an Outbreak occurs the Outbreak Track advances, and when it reaches the skull and cross bones…well, you lose.

The players also lose if ever more disease cubes are needed than are available.

So to conclude three ways to lose, one way to win.

[caption id="attachment_594" align="alignleft" width="300"] Getting a cure isn't as easy as it sounds.[/caption]

Pandemic does a fantastic job of creating a tense, suspenseful atmosphere around each game, done through a simple illusion of choice.  The objective is attainable; five colour suited cards.  Simple, if only you were able to focus on that you’d accomplish it easily, but the game distracts you with Epidemics, Outbreaks and mounting pressure by other players who have become attached to the idea of treating and removing cubes.  Although the cubes and pawns are the very basic of components their very lack of tangible connection creates a very visceral one - YOU are in a city when it outbreaks, not the Researcher.  The lack of detailed miniatures and fancy disease tokens actually contribute to the immersion of the drama that is unfolding on the table before you.  The plans and counter-plans that players create to combat a random deck of cards to maintain a sense of control of the game creates some truly brilliant and unique player interaction.  That a trembling hand and held breaths accompany each successive reach for another card from the Player Deck when you know statistically and Epidemic Card should appear any moment...

In cooperative games, some players may have a tendency to “quarterback”, or control the gameplay, and it is

[caption id="attachment_596" align="alignright" width="300"] Event cards provide a little relief for players[/caption]

very easily done; I know I’ve done it myself.  But “no-one is as smart as everyone”, and you won’t see all the angles all the time.  Once; my nine-year old niece spotted a simple solution that I had completely overlooked and it is in these moments, seeing another player draw the same conclusion as you, or even a better one, that this game will always be one of my favourites.

Pandemic is a game that can come to the table again and again, and in many cases, it won’t even leave the table between games.  With a short run time, short set up time and deep atmosphere I doubt I will ever get tired of playing this game.  Of course, there are plenty of expansions which add new variants and roles for players to assume and these all have their own merits, but if you say:

“Fancy a game of Pandemic.”

My answer will always be: “Yes”