The Great Big UK Games Expo List Of Things I’m Excited About

Or GBUKGELOTIEA for short.

By this time next week, another UK Games Expo will be over, and we’ll all be awaiting the next one whilst resting our feet and throats, all hopefully with a plethora of new games.

It seems that each year there is more and more for us gamers to feast upon, and this year I’ll be…shall we say more active, not only am I hitting up the Playtest Zone for three hours playing my game Bad Pets, but I’ll also be press, so they will be reports a plenty post expo.  Before we start counting all chicks though, these are the analogous eggs I’m keen to get involved with.

Alley Cat Games (Stand B1):

Lab Wars and Cauldron Master will both hopefully be there for anyone that missed out on the Kickstarter, they’ll also be demoing their next game Dice Hospital which is all over social media and for good reason – it looks ace!

Mayfair Games (Stand B2):

Don’t really need an introduction, but thanks to Tom Heath’s Geeklist, Barenpark jumped onto my radar –so I’ll have to now check it out, although this, for me could very well be an insta-purchase.  Let’s face it, bears are cool

City of Games (Stand C3):

Frank West’s game: The City of Kings funded a couple of months ago now to the tune of £283, 371.  Pre-Orders are still available but he’ll be there with a couple of demo games of this going on in all its glory.

 Monolith Board Games (Stand C26):

Three words for you:

Batman

The

Boardgame.

PlayFusion Ltd (Stand D3):

Lightseekers is another Kickstarter that I missed last year and it looks awesome: an amalgamation of a computer, RPG, Comics, Action Figures and CCGs – with Augmented Reality!  No, I’m not kidding.  Companion apps are one thing, but this game could be breaking seriously new ground and is worth watching.  Just check out the link and watch the campaign video.

Entropic Games (Stand D13):

This is the where and how my Kickstarter compulsion began, Mr Gary Wareham has apparently a lot to answer for in my house according to my Better-Half.  Oligarchy the dystopian card game will there to play and purchase so I’ll be there hopefully taking down an Oligarch or two with my Religious/Gaia deck!

Hall or Nothing (Stand D14):

1066, Tears to Many Mothers will be reviewed and demoed ahead of the Kickstarter campaign which starts just after the expo (I think, you'll have to ask Tristain to be sure), and the gorgeous, Gloom of Kilforth will be there for sale and demo; which is great news for me since I wasn’t part of the Kickstarter scene in August 2015 – as I understand there isn’t a planned retail release so if this game looks evenly mildly interesting get to stand D14 ASAP on Friday morning (I’ll see you there) – alternatively you can make a late pledge, it just doesn’t sound as dramatic.

One Free Elephant (Stand D20):

ORE-SOME! Will there to play and buy if you missed their Kickstarter from earlier this year, and they will also be demoing Carcosa, the Cthulu(ish) themed tile placement game.  Not one for the kids –trust me – but a game I’m looking forward to checking out.

Wreck And Ruin (Stand D22):

Mark, of Wreck-And-Ruin-Fame, will be hosting demos of his game Wreck and Ruin, a diesel-punk, post-apocalyptic game full of car chases and destruction which he is aiming to release into the Kickstarter wild early September.  I’ve heard great things about Mark and his game from some very reliable sources so he is certainly one to watch.

Inside the Box Boardgames (Stand E7):

My love for this not-quite-so-little-anymore-UK-indie company should really go without saying, but their giant stand this year (96 square flippin’ metres) will be a must for anyone attending.  The massively successful Kickstarters: Statecraft and Sub Terra games will, of course, be present along with a tease of their next game Newspeak.  Not only that, but there will also be “immersive” versions of both going on too.

The Walrus Games (Stand E16):

Everdark was a stand-out game last year, and Ed has gone on to make some great leaps and bounds with the game over the last year.  His Kickstarter campaign is set to begin on Friday 2^nd June at the start of the expo, keep an eye out for those early bird specials (that may or may not be part of the campaign) and go and see Ed as soon as you can – I tried to last year and his stand had a queue, all day every day.

Braincrack Games (Stand G7):

These guys will be showing off Mined Out which funded earlier this year, and maybe even a little bit of Farsight which will be finishing its Kickstarter campaign in the next few days.  Lewis Shaw is a personal hero of mine so I’ll certainly be popping to see him (he’s the guy responsible for the Board Meetings logo)

Temp Worker Assassins (Stand H8):

This game made it through to the Wyvern’s Lair last year and had a very successful Kickstarter campaign which I stupidly missed, but David Newton will be bringing along a few games to play and sell with a special promo card made especially for the expo.

Inspiring Games (Stand H19):

Legends Untold will be there to play with the all new artwork and they’ll also be showing off their next project Lord of the Horde, and fingers crossed they may even bring along Beastie – and if they don’t I’ll be writing a very strongly worded letter to Kevin Young.  Very strongly worded.

Badcat Games (J19):

ElemenZ will launch on Kickstarter just before the expo so there will be a great chance to get a hands-on of the demo before pledging to their campaign.  It looks like a fun dice management game with some cool art, so I'll be swinging by to have a closer look.

NSKN Games (Stand K11):

Strawberry Ninja and Pyramid of the Sun look absolutely delightful, and I know Jésus is interested in Shadowascape and Mistfall, so we'll be checking this stand over with care.

Grublin Games (Stand T12):

Perfect Crime will be available for demo which sounds utterly brilliant and will bring me one step closer to being in Ocean's Fourteen (at least in my imagination)

Peculiarity Uk:

Robbie Munn will be showcasing his game at the expo: Summoner’s Isle, which I’ve been playing over the last few weeks – preview to follow in the next couple of days – but the short story is that it looks wonderful, it plays brilliantly and is a lot of fun.  You'll find Robbie with Wotan on the Double Decker bus with his first game War of the 9 realms which I didn't have time to play last year so I'll be getting on board (oh dear) for that one.

 

 

Playtest Zone:

Beardy Bros – Ravage is live on Kickstarter right now and looks to be a truly brilliant dungeon crawler with and Orc-ish twist.  If you are undecided about this game you’ll be able to at least see it – I’m expecting this game to packed all weekend long (Designer Iain Scofiled will also be at the Modiphius Entertainment stand H5 with Ravage too if you miss him in the Playtest Zone).

Gobblin Goblins is also a game I want to have a playtest of as it sound like a good fun family game Saturday 10-1

Bad Pets - that's right, my game, will be there too.  Pop into the Playtest Zone on Friday between 11-1 to grab a game.

Master of Olympus - from my Richard will at the Playtest Zone too

I'm also going to try and check out a few seminars too.

Of course, I've not mention loads of games, designers, companies stands etc. These are just a choice few that I'm really, super excited about.

What is going to be the first stand you check out?

Review: Comanchería - The Rise and Fall of the Comanche Empire

Game Name:	Comanchería: The Rise and Fall of the Comanche Empire	Published Year:	2016
Game Publisher:	GMT Games	Player Scale:	1
Game Designer:	Joel Toppen	Run Time:	60-360 min

“Warriors are not what you think of warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defensless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity.”

 Sitting Bull (c. 1831-1890),

Hunkpapa Lakota

Introduction

 This is the second game in Joel Toppen's "First Nations" series. Let’s go back in time to North America, XVIII^th - XIX^th Century, the Native Americans dominated a large part of the lands. With this game, we’re going to focus on the story of the Comanche people, the Lords of the Southern Plains. This game is a full solo experience and with it, you will see their struggle against the different Colonial powers of the time. Your objective in the game is to develop your culture and military power and meet the historical period check at the end so your legacy survives.



How it plays

The game plays in sequence of phases, cycling through them in every turn. This will make advance the time at th end of each turn and trigger at some point a passage of time (a jump to the next generation of your people).

It gives you an option to play from 5 different scenarios, each one contemplating different historical periods of different length and ranging from the easiest difficulty to the hardest.

Every turn you play it will emulate from 6 months to two years and every Passage of Time will be a new generation on the tribes, also known as Comancherías.

[caption id="attachment_1114" align="alignleft" width="300"] Historical period cards[/caption]

There are 4 historical periods in total in the game, and they can be linked together through the different scenarios. However;  each time you get to the end of the time period, you’ll need to pass a victory check, if you succeed you can continue to the next period as indicated in the scenario. If you fail then is game over immediately. Another way to lose is if both your culture and war counters are at zero at the same time.

[caption id="attachment_1115" align="alignright" width="300"] Player aids with the sequence of play[/caption]

The sequence of play is very detailed in the player aids, and once you get the pace of the game you won’t need anything else to play. The first phase is the “War column phase” if there are any enemy war column in play they will move and act based on the war card information drawn that turn.

Then, it will be your turn to act. You have 3 basic action trees to choose from.

[caption id="attachment_1116" align="alignleft" width="300"] War deck[/caption]

The first tree is the Actions tree that will let you use the Comanche bands you have available at your Comancherías to hunt buffalos, move around the plains, raid enemy tribes or settlements and trade. This will drain your bands, as you use them for the different things they’ll lose strength.  The second tree is the Culture tree allowing you to increase and advance the culture of your people. The final tree is the Planning tree, which lets you refresh units and it will update the leadership of your Comanchería.

[caption id="attachment_1110" align="alignright" width="300"] Draw chits[/caption]

The 4^th and last action possible it will usually trigger at points throughout the game, (under some conditions you can take the action voluntarily), this action is called the Pass

age of Time. This action, though taken very few times during the game, will be critical for your success, and preparing well for it will determine if you win or lose the game. It is with this action that you might meet the conditions for a victory check but also is your option to grow the Comanche Empire.

After the player has taken all their actions you’ll move into the last phase, the operation clean up. This is where the AI will take its actions, such as deploy war columns, hunt, settle or recover (there are 10 different possible actions in total). This phase will prepare the map for the next round of the game too.

[caption id="attachment_1112" align="alignleft" width="300"] Development decks, one for each historical period[/caption]

At your disposition during the game you'll have different kinds of resources, some of them you can gather like buffalos or horses, others more powerful like guns you can only trade for them. As you keep playing you'll have options to acquire development cards, which have powerful events that can turn the balance to your side in difficult moments or culture cards that will shape the culture of your people and give you permanent abilities.

Opinion

[caption id="attachment_1109" align="alignright" width="300"] Culture cards[/caption]

The game is a brilliant example of a great solo design. The rulebook is very well done and not very extensive with 20 pages, with plenty of examples, design notes and cultural and historical references. With all that the learning curve is steep, there is a lot going on in this game and decisions matter. The first couple of games you’re probably not going to know what to do but you’ll learn over time from your errors, and this makes a great experience for me.  It is both difficult and rewarding at the same time. Like most of GMT games, this one comes with a playbook, where the designer walks you through a few turns doing the different actions of the game with lots of explanations, this will be your first stop in this game as it will keep telling you which rules to read at the same time you’re playing the game. If this is not enough for you, the designer has done a very good job with a few youtube videos where he goes through this playbook and gives you additional insight into the choices he makes.

[caption id="attachment_1108" align="alignleft" width="225"] The AI engine[/caption]

The AI is very simple to run, and its decisions will adapt to the state of the board in a very straightforward manner; it is a brilliant design. The chit pull system of the game makes things very interesting, as you’ll try to push your luck to get those success chits, but as you keep drawing them the proportions of the enemy action chits will increase. So how much the AI will act this turn will mostly depend on how far you want to go, a reaction for every action, again, brilliant.

The replayability of the game is high, you can play the same scenario a few times and not a single game will be the same. You can also choose to go through different paths via your choice of culture cards during the game, plus the development deck will be randomised every game. He is also very active and helpful on the game’s forums at BoardGameGeek. The game is very challenging, I still haven’t attempted the most difficult scenarios as I still struggle with the easier ones, so it will give you plenty of hours of entertainment before you even think of attempting the great challenge of a full campaign of this game. The production is excellent as with most of GMT’s games, thick counters, mounted board and artwork are thematic and gorgeous.

The Good: The game is challenging, the game system is brilliant and engaging, lots of meaningful decisions to make.

The bad: Might be difficult to get into it to some people due to the uniqueness of the system, but if you struggle and you’re still interested; keep watching those videos, once you get the hang of it, you’ll see how rewarding it is. Even if you know how to play you’ll still need to go through the player aids regularly to apply the process correctly, this might put some people off too.

You might also like: Victory Point Games state of siege series

That’s it for my review on Comanchería folks!

This is a game that every solo gamer should at least try once if not own, and I believe it will appeal to not only wargamers but to any gamer due to the uniqueness of the system. This is a keeper for me and as far as I am concerned I will follow Joel Toppen’s future games closely.

I hope to see you around in the Great Plains.

Jesus

[caption id="attachment_1164" align="alignnone" width="700"] Coffee Coolers Meet the Hostiles, by Howard Terpning[/caption]

Review: Overseers

Overseers is the English reprint of the Japanese game Chenghuang: Guardian of the City first published in 2015 by Big Fun Games.  This game marks the first game from ThunderGryph Games and was successfully funded on Kickstarter in July 2016 raising €62,710, 712% of its €8,800 target. The copy seen in the photos below is the Kickstarter edition so some components may vary from a retail purchase of the game.

In Overseers players take up the mantles of celestial beings whose purpose is to continually strike a balance in the world of men, to do this they will apply Traits to human-kind such as Courage, Hope, Greed and Anger, however; they will also be in constant conflict with one another, thus ensuring that no one Overseer can impose their will exclusively upon mankind.
Truth be told; the theme in this game is a very simple, yet very beautiful, veneer; so if theme is of paramount importance to you in your games, then this one will certainly not be plucking that string. Do not stop reading though, because mechanically this is a wonderful game of drafting, set collection, and bluffing with variable player powers and heaps and heaps of player interaction. And to top it all off, these things are pulled off quickly, deftly and with panache.


Overseers is played over three rounds, with the player collecting the most victory tokens being deemed the winner, a three-player game will take about thirty minutes but do not mistake its brevity for any lack of depth. Each player will be dealt a new Overseer at the beginning of every round, each with their own special ability, before being dealt a hand of six Trait cards. As a Set Collection/Drafting game, each player is looking to put together the best five cards they can, selecting one card from their hand before passing the remainder to their neighbour. The really main area of Overseers comes from the following Phase: Placement.
Here, players will place their five cards on the play space in front of them, three of the cards will be face-up, the other two face down. All players then discuss who they believe to have the best and highest scoring set of cards, before entering the Vote Phase and simultaneously placing their Token in front of that player.
The Judgement Phase only affects that one chosen player, where they will either Admit (and discard two cards of their choosing) or Deny that they have the best hand. In the Showdown Phase all players reveal their cards, and if the voted player Denied, and didn’t score the highest scoring cards, they get to take one of the discarded cards to bolster their final score! Which is ace. Alternatively, they lose two of their best cards if they did have the high score.

The Greed Phase allows the player with the most Greed cards (very low scoring) to steal a card from another player! Which introduces a brilliant and simple Take That system into the game.

The round ends and each player dives into the Overseers stamped cloth bag to dig out their victory tokens with the winner being declared after three rounds to the player with the most victory points. These coins are a bit of a struggle, with denominations of 1, 5, 10, and 20 it varying shades of grey through to a greyish-gold on one side and then a uniform grey/brown on the reverse makes this part of the game a little sluggish and saps some of the pace in this game, I have a mind to pimp mine out with some simple wooden tokens at some point and if you have any form of colour blindness you may struggle even more here.
Overseers may well be my favourite drafting game (insert gasp here), and this is for one very simple reason; because it is very easy to keep track of what you are giving to your neighbours. With only six types of cards to keep track of, you almost feel like a card counter in a Las Vegas casino; you know you passed your neighbour a (blue) Courage card each and every time, but come the Placement phase he isn’t showing any? Not a chance, he is sitting on a hidden 21 points there and so we enter the Vote phase and everyone around that table thinks they know what each other has hidden. This is integral to the enjoyment of Overseers, you make the best of the draft but go charging into the next phase with a slither of knowledge, with accusations ready, and so the player interaction ramps up.
I always enjoy this part of the game, the bluffing, the miss direction, and even the trying to attract all those counters (that I like to call the Denial Trap). In my games, this phase can get pretty heated, increasingly so with each successive round. However, the boisterous extremes I’ve seen this game taken to aren’t fundamental or necessary, shyer, quieter players will certainly be able to fully engage with this phase, just with a lot more decorum. Choosing your play group is important with this game, much like many games that use a bluffing/bidding mechanic, arguably these mechanics in Overseers are more accessible than Sheriff of Nottingham for example, as all players are simultaneously hiding something, and no one person is the “bad guy”.

The art and graphic design (from Studio Amatiz) are…noteworthy. It is brilliant, the Overseer cards and box art have the very popular and attractive spot UV varnish, the artwork itself is beautiful, intricate, and detailed, reminiscent, I think, of Soul Calibur. But; it is a little racy for my very English sensibilities. All the Overseers are women, all of them are Caucasian, all of them are scantily or revealing clad, some of them are verging on pornographic. None of this is relevant to the theme of the game, it has been a very conscious decision to have these cards look this way, simply to have them look that way.

The trait cards, conversely, are purely graphical, simple large, bold iconography with Chinese writing which is all you need for a set collection card game.
Some people will be absolutely fine with the artwork, they will appreciate the talent and skill required for it, and then just get on and play the game. I’m not one of those people though unfortunately, sometimes I play games with my nieces and nephews who are all roughly around thirteen, and I simply wouldn’t feel comfortable putting Meixiu
(a girl’s name meaning grace and beauty) down in front of a thirteen-year-old boy or girl, and even some grown men or women could be made to feel uncomfortable with the art too. For me, this limits who I can play this great game with, it limits when I can play it and these limitations result in people missing out on a great, fun little game.

This game was one of the first games I ever backed on Kickstarter, and I’m proud to be one of the 2,617 to help bring it to life because it is fabulous. Overseers has a lot of my favourite game mechanics and some of the best player interaction I’ve experienced in a competitive game. It is quick and light, and although may sound fragmented and clunky with all the phases, it is actually very slick and easy to pick up. I only wish that I could get Overseers to the table as often as it deserves.

You can pre-order your copy of the second print run here and there are still some of the first print around here.

If you like Sherriff of Nottingham you may also like Overseers.

5 Great Lunch Break Games

Do you remember when you used to run around playing football or some such on your lunch break as a kid?  At some point lunch breaks just became a break in the day to eat, maybe have a chat and catch up on social media, sure they were still ‘fun’ in the loosest possible use of that word – but they weren’t being used to their fullest potential.  Until now.  Now, I play games.

5 Great Lunch Break Games

When looking for lunch break games there are some very specific considerations to take into account, and these are:

1. Run time: each one of these games easily plays in less than 45 minutes, including set-up and tear down – you still have to eat after all.


2. Player count, obviously with higher numbers, the runtime goes up, so we kept these to mainly two player games.


3. Space, unless you’re planning on taking up the big table in the canteen, all of these games fit on a 2 x 2 foot table.


4. Accessibility, by this I mean the games have to be easy to pick up and understand, we want limited Analysis Paralysis (AP), and rules that are very easy to explain when teaching the game.


5. Sticky Fingers, whether you’re eating a sandwich, burger, salad or soup you’re going to need to manipulate tokens, cards etc. so games that either has few of these or games that are easily protected.

So in alphabetical order:

7 Wonders Duel - Repos Production

Antoine Bauza & Bruno Cathala

This is the proper two player variant of 7 Wonders, so if you are a fan of that game, you will no doubt adore this.  With cards laid out in a pyramid fashion, and only some cards initially visible it imitates the draft system from 7 Wonders, but for two and it masterfully brings the level of choice into this game that the two player variant missed.  Each turn players are presented with a simple choice, which card/ability to they want to add to their civilisation, this choice must be carefully measured against what your opponent will want, and what your opponent will be able to do that you can’t.

A fantastically tight and tense game with three very different win conditions that tie together to instil a strategic balance. Of this list, 7 Wonders Duel probably has the most strategic depth, so you’ll probably only fit one game on a lunch break, but like the l’oreal adverts: it’ll be worth it.

Read the full review of 7 Wonders Duel here

Boss Monster – Brotherwise Games

Johnny O’Neal & Chris O’Neal

Face it; it’s more interesting being the bad guy.  In this NES inspired dungeon themed tableau builder you get to be just that, in spades.  Each player is a Boss Monster at the end of a dungeon that hapless heroes will traverse to try and kill you unless you can squash, skewer, maim and otherwise stop them.  The artwork, gameplay, style is all in the vein of a classic 8-bit side-scrolling computer game.  Even the damn box looks the part – which makes busting this game out to any gamer over thirty, a piece of cake.

Dungeons are built over five cards and are either Trap rooms, or Monster rooms, each of which will have a certain type of treasure.  Treasures attract the different types of hero from the town (a central pool of hero cards).  Bosses need to collect ten souls but have only five Hit Points, which heroes dish out automatically if they ever make it through your not-quite-death-trap dungeon.

Read the full review of Boss Monster here

Downsize – Braincrack Games

Lewis Shaw

This is a game about cut-throat corporations trying to maximise profits, and minimise costs, it short they are trying to downsize.  In this very slick and simple hand management game players will be firing (discarding) their employees (cards in their hands) in specifically matched pairs, the varying combination of pairs will grant bonuses such as the Corporate and Investments pairing, which grants access to the two cards from the Returns decks, or a Legal and HR which will force a player to hire another employee.  The aim of this game is not only to have no cards but to have no cards AND have collected the highest value of Returns.  The Market Movements expansion (it comes in the Boardroom Edition) adds, even more, conflict and strategy.

This is a really quick, light game with plenty of out-and-out player interaction.  You’ll need minimum space to play and seats between 2 and 6 players comfortably – the more players, the faster and more vicious the game!

Read the full review of Downsize here

Jaipur – Game Works

Sébastien Pauchon

In the hustle and bustle of Jaipur, two of the wealthiest and most influential traders compete to earn their place in the court of the Maharaja.  To do this they must manage their stock holding, maximise their trading and ultimately reap the largest reward.  This is a swift and deft game with a wonderfully simple economics engine at its heart which makes use of hand management and set collection.  Your seemingly limited choice of two actions opens a wealth of dilemma, trade cards from the market, or sell from your hand.  Naturally, the sooner you sell, the better the market for those goods, so more profit, and the more you sell, again the better, but also what goods you sell is important too.  Not forgetting the camels; you need camels, but having camels isn't getting you money or goods.

A wonderfully simple, quick and deep game, with a very small footprint, brilliantly bright components and compelling game play.

Star Realms – White Wizard Games

Darwin Kastle

In deepest, darkest space there can be only war…and a bit of trade.  This very quick-fire deck building game is a cracking lunch break filler, making use of very simple mechanics and rules.  Cards will add to your Trade ability (allowing you buy new ships and space stations), increase your Authority (Hit Points), or deal damage (…does some damage), some cards do one of these things, some do two, or all three.  Sometimes additional effects are triggered depending on what other cards you already have in play.

The four factions: The Trade Federation, The Blobs, The Star Empire or The Machine Cult, all behave slightly differently, and combinations of these four can be brutally effective at dealing damage, which is the aim of the game.  Yes, the theme is a little slapped on, but the game itself is fun and quick enough to be enjoyed without needing you to believe that you are leading an attack run in an Imperial Fighter.

And that is my list of great lunch break games, what are yours?  Why don’t you share your lunch break games on Twitter using the #LunchBeakGames

Other games that came very highly recommended for this category included:

Deep Sea Adventure

Onitama

Love Letter

Mint Works

Review: Android Netrunner

Game Name:	Android: Netrunner	Published Year:	2012
Game Publisher:	Fantasy Flight Games	Player Scale:	2
Game Designer:	Richard Garfield & Lukas Litzsinger	Run Time:	45 mins

[gallery ids="1018,1015" type="rectangular"]

Android: Netruuner is Fantasy Flight Game’s ode to these two masterpieces of science fiction Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by the brilliant Philip K. Dick and the film Blade Runner (Ridley Scott) and the game lives up to that standard.  It is not directly licensed but the stamp and feel of the rich worlds created by Dick and later by Scott respectively are found on each and every card in this game.  This game is a two player, deck building, hand management all out competitive assault, and what’s more, it is a Living Card Game (LCG) – which means it is continually growing, changing and adding to the meta.  One player will take on the role of a hacker (Runner), and the other will be one of the mammoth megacorporations (Corps) that more or less rule the world.

 

Netrunner is as about as asymmetrical a game as you are likely to ever find, with both roles having slightly different rules, and completely different abilities, yet when learning and mastering Netrunner it is important to have a full understanding of how each side plays and works.  Imperative in fact.  In their turn, each player has a number of action (Clicks) to use in various ways which include drawing additional cards, gaining Credits, playing one of many types of cards.  Over the course of the game the Runner will build-up an arsenal of programmes, hardware etc. while the Corp will be trying advance and protect their Agendas and Assets

Android: Netrunner hinges on the intangible, the mysterious and all important Agendas.  These represent highly valuable sets of data, which need to be Advanced for the Corp to utilise and score them.  For the Runner, these are the target of their Runs (hacks).  These highly valuable Agendas naturally need defending, for which the Corps use software known as Ice, and the Runners need Ice-Breakers to…, well, break or otherwise circumvent the effects of Ice.

Throughout the game the Runner will attempt to make Runs against the Corporation, when successful they can claim Agendas for themselves (thus scoring) or can discard (Trash) cards if they are unable to steal them.  This is where he action of the game lies, as the Runner will need to be able to bypass the Installed and activated (Rezzed) Ice, of which there are different types, with differing strengths and abilities.  The Runner needs exactly the right one for each piece of Ice – or lots and lots of brute strength.  Failure to break and Ice’s Subroutines can result in anything from Ending the Run to causing Brain Damage.  Yup, Brain Damage – complete with little brain tokens.

[caption id="attachment_1017" align="alignnone" width="3173"] Various Runner Cards[/caption]

Netrunner is very, very competitive, although to point that out may seem odd since in the vast majority of games players compete, but in Netrunner the joy of the game comes from that conflict and the frustration of being bested.  And the game is full of these moments. As a Runner this game does capture the essence of a hacking (I guess, all I know about hacking I learnt from the films like Matrix, Swordfish, and Hackers).  Committing a Run is a puzzle to be solved, it’s about having the right tools, and the right know-how to pick that particular Icy lock.  There is a great sense of apprehension about uncovering a new piece of Ice, and to discover that you went through all of that to find a poxy booby-trapped Asset, that you’ve gained Tags and maybe even taken some Brain Damage its brilliantly, enjoyably annoying.  For the Corp player, desperately rushing to Advance Agendas, but not trying to look like you are advancing Agendas, and ensuring that you generate enough credit to be able to Rez that Ice if you need to, does feel like you are spinning lots of plates, that you have to cope and manage your ‘business’ on lots of fronts simultaneously. All of this means that there is never a dull moment in Netrunner, each player has a very specific, well understood and achievable goal to work towards with each and every Click.

[caption id="attachment_1014" align="alignnone" width="3430"] Various Corp Cards[/caption]

Netrunner has its own, specific vernacular, which isn’t uncommon in many games these days, however, it this game it feels very much like it uses this in place of a more fully implemented theme, this is most obvious in the rule book, a thirty-six page long book with lots of facts and examples but very little flavour (except a slab of it towards the end).    When I introduce people to this game I try and use the game language, yet often I get “So, Ice is basically a Firewall?”  And “Clicks” very quickly become “Actions”.  This makes the learning curve for this game a bit steeper, one of the best things I ever did with Netrunner was buy some play mats as they really, really help when you start playing.  So, your first couple of games will be a bit rocky, there will be lots of referring to the rule book and maybe even some FAQs about some of the card abilities.  Once that is out of the way though, you can really get under the skin of this game, you can really start tinkering around with the decks and that is engaging, rewarding and above all; tremendous fun.  This is what you are meant to do with Netrunner; its why the box is so damn big for just a few cards and cardboard tokens, it is so you can fill it with all (at least some) of the expansions and boosters.

The game encourages you to buy the expansions, to add to your collection and find new and interesting combinations of effects, new ways to beat your opponent.  As this is an LCG new expansions become available throughout each year, all containing the same cards allowing you and your friends to evenly compete making Netrunner not just a game of deck building, of luck and strategy but also one of intelligence.

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If all you ever buy is the core set (and playmats, trust me, it is very worthwhile; you can tank me later), and you and a friend or two can work through those first difficult games you will very quickly, very deeply fall down the rabbit hole that is Android: Netrunner and never look back

If you love your Sci-Fi themed tabletop games you should also check-out Adrenaline, and if you love Deck Builders then it is also worth taking a look at Dominion