Review: Spirit Island

Game Name:	Spirit Island	Published Year:	2017
Game Publisher:	Greater Than Games	Player Scale:	1-4
Game Designer:	R. Eric Reuss	Run Time:	90 - 120 min

In a distant land, yet unexplored lays a beautiful Island where nature still rules. But with the ever-growing colonial powers reaching further at the end of the world it was a matter of time until they managed to find this place.

Welcome to Spirit Island!



In this coop game, each player will play as one spirit of the island representing the embodiment of nature, from the river, plants or thunder to the darkest beings. You’ll be helping the Dahan, the indigenous inhabitants of this Island, to get rid of the colonial settlers and prevent them to taint this paradise. It won’t be easy, and you’ll have to use your whole arsenal of powers to accomplish this.

How it plays?

Game mechanics are relatively simple to grasp. In every round, you’ll start with the growth phase, your spirits will grow progressively stronger as the game goes on. In this phase you’ve got different options depending on your spirit, but they usually end up in some combination of adding presence to the island, gaining energy, power cards or recovering your hand.



Then everybody will select at the same time the power cards that are going to be played this round.  Fast powers will get played next to no particular player order, followed by the invaders turn and finalising with the slow cards. This is where the game gets complex, there are so many strategies, combinations and combos to do that it can be a bit overwhelming on your first game, but this is the beauty of this game’s system. With simple mechanics it manages to get a brilliant card system that will make your brain hurt thinking the best move working together as a group because believe me, you won’t stand a chance if you don’t cooperate with each other.



Each spirit (There are a total of 8 spirits in the base game, 2 extra in the Branch and Claw expansion, and 2 extra available as a promo) has a starting deck of 4 powers each related to your spirit’s nature. Then throughout the game, you’ll get to increase your hand with new powers from a common pool. You have minor powers and major powers, for this you always get 4 cards, keep one and discard the other 3. This makes the game cycle through the deck at a good pace and you can always find something more useful for your spirit’s gameplay. For the major powers you’ll have to discard one of your other power cards, these ones are usually very powerful and will be more useful as the game advances. Also, each spirit has special rules, and innate powers printed on its board that get activated by certain elements.



The invaders follow simple rules, where they ravage, build and explore in this particular order. But you have knowledge of where this is going to happen with s couple of turns in advance. The way this works is, they explore in an unknown place, next turn they build in the terrains they’ve explored and in the following turn they will ravage in those. So you will have to strategize around this.

Wherever they manage to ravage successfully it will place a blight, which hurts you and if these grow in number can be game over at some point. The game will end in victory depending on the fear level of the invaders, as it will change the victory conditions. In general, the more fear, the easier is to win. By increasing the invader’s fear, you’ll also get fear cards that will be very helpful to win the game. You will lose if blight reaches a certain level or the settlers have finished with the invasion and you haven't reached the victory conditions yet.

With the Branch and Claw expansion, you also add extra terrain effects (diseases, beasts, plants, …) plus the events that change the game a fair bit.



If this didn’t sound like enough content already, the game can be tweaked as you want with certain elements. You can add scenarios, which will change the objective for the game quite significantly, you can add invaders behaviours with different levels of difficulty and also you can add blight cards that will make your game unique once the island gets blighted.

Solo game

The game can be played with just one spirit, some people like it more playing multi-handed, but I have to say that I’ve enjoyed all my games with just one spirit. Some are more difficult depending on how the invaders expand as they start slow but gain inertia and become really powerful at the end, but you need to reach that end. Definitely makes for a good challenge every time and with so much variation not a single game will be the same. Otherwise, there is no real difference with the multiplayer game, as it scales really well. For these reasons is one of the most beloved games in the last few months in BGG's 1PG.

Opinion

I am really impressed with this game. I’ve heard people describing it as a mix of Mage Knight meets pandemic, not sure if I would compare it too much with Pandemic. This you get the same satisfying eureka moment when you find the perfect combo to devastate the invaders when all seems lost like Mage Knight has and I love about it, and the ever-growing invaders in your lands, the invasion can spin out of control quite easily like sometimes it happens in Pandemic. But the game definitely stands on its own.

Art is good, the map is not the prettiest, but it makes it really easy to spot everything once it starts getting crowded. Components are nice, and the card quality is good. Every spirit plays really different, and they all feel balanced to me, I was really impressed by that. Don’t get fooled by the colourful artwork, the game is heavy, strategic and will make your brain hurt to win, even in the lower difficulties. But is not unfair and always feels rewarding to win it.

I would recommend getting the Branch and Claw expansion if you like the game, the base game feels complete on its own, but it adds quite cool features to the game that I wouldn’t go back now and has two more spirits to play with! The game was part of a Kickstarter campaign but is easily found in retail (I bought it this way) and there will be another campaign for it later down this year. If you want the promo spirits it was recently in the BGG geekstore and can be bought in the designer's website, though it seems currently out of stock.

Pros: Rewarding gameplay (love the card system with the fast/slow powers), high variability and flexibility for tweaking the difficulty.

Cons: The game is more complex than it seems, this might be a problem for some people. If you suffer from analysis paralysis the game will get very long for you.

You may like: Mage Knight, Start Trek: Frontiers

What are you waiting for then, go get yourself a box full of deadly spirits!

 

A4 Quest Review

Publisher:	Boar & Dice, Thistroy Games	Published Year:	2017
Designer:	Michał Jagodziński, Paweł Niziołek, Jarosław Wajs	Player Scale:	1
Artist:	Paweł Niziołek, Jarosław Wajs	Run Time:	5 – 15 mins

Three things about me you should know in regards to this review.

I love and have loved comic books since I bought a Batman compendium at a car boot sale for seventy-five pence when I was six years old.

My all-time favourite computer game is the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Recently, because of a new job, I’ve been playing and enjoying a lot of solo gaming.

 

[caption id="attachment_2490" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The beginning of your quest[/caption]

 

What do these things have to do with A4 Quest?  Well, if you were to blend them together with some dice and tokens you’ll get something like this game.  And what’s even better is that it’s a Print and Play - but if you fancy a printed version with some bonus content look no further than this Kickstarter.

 

[caption id="attachment_2487" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Three very different quests to choose from[/caption]

 

A4 Quest looks like a comic book, with bulky, exaggerated cell-shaded style characters and landscapes provided by the clearly very talented Mr Jaroslaw Wajs, taking you on a little adventure, or quest if you like, from the top left of one A4 page to the bottom right.  You’ll fight enemies, hunt for food, riffle through treasure chests and explore mini-quests along the way, each time hopefully earning a little experience or some other boost to help and better prepare you to face off against the boss.  And, you do it all with five dice and a few tokens - loose change and a dice app will do the job equally well in a pinch.

Four of those dice form your pool of personal “energy”, with each encounter you’ll allocate one of these dice to the task, and taking into account any modifiers, consult the table to see what you’ve won.  Every now and then you’ll need, or just want to, make camp and rest, that’s when you get to have something to eat (spend one of your steaks)  and replenish your dice pool.

 

[caption id="attachment_2493" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The tantalising, teasing treasure table[/caption]

It is a simple game of dice allocation, but it poses some wonderfully taxing questions and puzzles for you solve.  You see, four dice won’t get you very far, especially if you are a dice rolling jinx, and what you do with your higher rolls is normally pretty obvious - kill baddies.  But what about everything that isn’t a five or six?  And that is where this game gets fun, and by fun, I mean challenging.  You’ll plan all your dice out, I’ll hunt here with my four, pick up some steak, I’ll dip into the treasure chest with that five and increase my defence, keeping my six for that enemy in the next cell, using my two to move to the next section.  Phew!  But, oh no; you’ve run out of dice now, you didn’t plan ahead so now you’re stuck with having to rest, miss out on stuff, taking a risk right before your next big fight.  if only you hadn’t hunted, or took the treasure, or whatever…

 

 

[caption id="attachment_2491" align="alignnone" width="4032"] A string of enemies and tough choices in Episode 2[/caption]

 

Something has to give, there is a fundamental cost to doing each action, spending those very limited resources.  On the other hand, you need to keep doing each action to progress, to toughen up and replenish your dice pool and health, you’ll never defeat the boss or some of the tough enemies, without boosting your stats.  Opportunities to bump your character up are tantalisingly frequent tempting you to spend your dice, “Ooooh, look here, a treasure with a plus-three modifier, so my four becomes a seven which means I can get some crystal, and a crystal means I can really kick ass when I get there.

The only time you ever feel like you have enough dice is when you have four, and no sooner does that happen that you get rid of one. Often I find myself questioning Past-Rory’s decision-making abilities, almost allowing myself a “do-over”. Despite the limited selection of action choices, quite wonderfully this game doesn’t get old, choices are never obvious since with each game, each roll of the dice your story changes.

 

[caption id="attachment_2492" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The Knight, ready for adventure!  Packing extra steaks, because...steak![/caption]

 

There is an unavoidable drive forward (it’s in the rules), much like a story or comic you always have to move on to the next cell.  This pace not only ensures a short play-time but creates a brevity and a sense missed moments, passing by opportunities which you’ll no doubt regret later on.  Yay!  You’ve got all the dice you need but none of the bonuses.

 

[caption id="attachment_2489" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Archers suck, Knights Rock and don't get me started on the Paladin[/caption]

 

With four characters (that’s including the recently released Mage) and three adventures, there is plenty of simple variety.  The archer plays very differently to the Knight, who in turn is leagues away from the Paladin, and each adventure ups the ante, ups the challenge, and they all use the same components, giving this game a nice array of play options, complete all episodes with one progressively more powerful character, or try each hero against each story.  None of this will ever take you too long to do, and knowing this gives the game a feeling of being open and malleable.

A4 Quest is a quick game but packs a good walloping punch, or perhaps a sharp jab, to the ol’ grey matter as you weigh each seemingly easy choice against its inherent loss of a die.  A poor roll of the dice is almost as agonising as rolling four sixes, and it’s the choices these dice represent that catch you off guard.  All too soon you’re on your final assault of the boss and you don’t have the attack that you need, and you’re down to one steak and...and...how in blazes did the bottom of the page get there so flippin’ quick?!  I should at least another foot of paper surely!

 

[caption id="attachment_2488" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Fighting the boss is never going to be a walk in the park[/caption]

 

Best of all, this is just the beginning.  A4 Quest is the precursor to something grander, something different, new and fresh in the world of tabletop gaming, which you should pay attention too.  Episodic Gaming.  We’ve all heard of a Legacy game, and maybe even played (or at least started) one or two.  Page Quest Season 1: Mythical Artifacts is the brave, bold new step Board and Dice are taking us.  Using the same mechanics as A4 Quest, Page Quest is a real-world nineties setting of adventure, but with one big difference, your missions; the story, will be e-mailed to you monthly.  You’ll have to wait for the next episode, much like the comic books that this game looks like, you’ll following and developing your story, your character as actual, literal time passes, making decisions about how it develops for you, and only you.  Because here is the other great thing, it’s solo play – (it can be played two-player too though) the biggest trouble I’ve had with my game of Pandemic Season 1 is getting everyone together - I bought Pandemic just before my son was born, now he is walking and talking (one of his first words was Batman, I’m so proud) and I still haven’t finished that game!  I can’t see that being a problem with Page Quest.



Is this the next twist, the evolution of legacy gaming?  Will this be the next big movement in board game mechanics? Maybe.  But, I for one am very excited about it.

This review is based on a Print and Play PDF that I downloaded and printed myself, like a big boy.  

Review: Temp Worker Assassins

Game Name:	Temp Worker Assassins	Published Year:	2016
Game Publisher:	Self Published	Player Scale:	2 – 4
Game Designer:	David Newton	Run Time:	45 – 60 mins

If you’ve ever wanted to kill your boss, imagine how much more you’d want to kill them if you worked at Bureaucrat Castle, where your boss could be a Payroll Pirate, a Public Relations Troll or even the Acquisitions & Mergers Viking.  Well now you can! (you can’t go and kill your boss, this isn’t an endorsement, it’s a board game review).  As a top-class assassin you’ll infiltrate the castle-come-office, you’ll stalk your victim, you’ll plan and when the timing is just right, CHLUNK, you’ll hit them with…a stapler.

Temp Worker Assassins is a deck building, worker placement game that takes place over 5 turns framed as days of the week, using your Assassin meeples you’ll scurry off to certain departments, which will invariably enable you to become a more proficient killer by either imbuing you with particular skills, equipment or allowing you to access different Targets.  Alternatively, an assassin can make an attempt on a Target, where the player will begin playing and chaining cards from his/her hand to deal out more or equal damage than the Hit Points of the Target.  On a successful attempt the Target card is awarded to that player for Victory Points, and kill or not, that assassin meeples is set to the dungeon to think about what they’ve done.



 

Once all Assassins are placed, the day ends and they all leave for the night to work and kill again the following day.  After five rounds of this, the game ends and victory points are totted up and a winner is declared.

The core mechanics of this game are very simple, and the streamlined interlinking of Deck Building and Worker Placement make this a very easy game to pick up and play for veterans, and also for newer gamers.  The game pace is such that players will very quickly establish their strategies, patterns and counter patterns, so as each new day begins, there is a flurry of movement as workers are placed, and only as the day wears on, do your options become limited and more thought required – which personally I think makes for a clever and interesting thematic mechanic, as I do far less work in the afternoon too. I’m also more likely to want to kill my boss by the end of the day (again, don’t actually kill your boss).



Like many worker placement games, strategies need to be adaptive, as “Blocking” forms the core player interaction – although there are a few cards that specifically hinder opponents, and in later rounds Targets fall quite rapidly, so if you’re planning on an attempt you have to be fast acting to get the one you really want.  The same is true of plundering the supply line of stationary when you need that last pencil to improve the score of your stapler.  With ten Departments, many with multiple action slots to be filled there is always some choice, more choice than one normally expects to see in such a game.  On occasion this can lead to a little Analysis Paralysis, and every so often a Department falls a little flat in comparison to another.



There are five standard Departments in each game (six in a four-player game), means the large deck of cards provides a wide range of variation and game-on-game variations.  There is even a “Hard Mode” when you’re ready for more of a challenge.  Equally there is a decent array of Target cards that you can’t always bank on that potentially very valuable General Service Golem making an appearance (this Target awards 3 victory point for each Typing Pool Zombie you have killed, where these Zombies are very, very easy to kill, but in themselves worth very little).  Finally, there is a very large deck of Stationary cards, and as these are what you’ll be building your deck with there are plenty of them – here I would lean towards there being too wide a range – especially in a two player game, where circling through them is much slower.  Having a set of cards that were removed in a two-player game would make the deck far slicker.



I’m a fan of deck builders, and this game does a very good job with this mechanic, there is a great deal of satisfaction when chaining card after card into a grotesque stationary-horror tableau of fantastical death.  Unlike some deck builders, where a small, concise deck is preferred, Temp Worker Assassin excels with a larger deck where much of the fun is drawing cards.  The gamble and risk of pulling the card you need is what makes this game for me, and sets it aside from others such as Star Realms or Dominion- where you are limited to the cards you have in your hand.  Instead, Temp Worker Assassin has more of a Texas Hold’em Poker feel, gambling on the next card out the deck being the one you need to make the kill.  No, you don’t need to risk this, and you can build your hand more conventionally – which is how I started playing – but as soon as one player starts taking those risks and hitting bigger rewards the game changes pace completely.

Depending on the spread of Departments, Stationary, and Targets occasionally it can be difficult to play catch up when a player is able to take the lead.  The Bulletin cards – awarded each day for the player who makes the first kill are pretty powerful cards and are certainly worth fighting to gain a couple of.  The easiest way to do this is the Typing Pool Zombies, which aren’t worth a great deal individually, but stacked up, especially with the Golem can be a highly lucrative tactic.

Adam Bolton has done a jaw-droppingly brilliant job with the art work in this game.  As a lifelong comic book fan, the comic book slant on the fantasy artwork can’t be ignored or highlighted enough, and it does something different with an otherwise very tired genre – I’m looking at you Magic the Gathering.



Temp Worker Assassin blends two very simple mechanics and does so simply and seamlessly, and yet feels and plays differently.  The theme is fun and charming accentuated by the brilliant artwork allowing this game stand out from a genre crowded area of tabletop gaming.

 

The Good:

Easy to learn and play

Great variability

Plenty of choice in each round

Amazing artwork

Different and funny slant on fantasy genre

The Bad:

Little player vs. player interaction

Few catch up mechanisms

Gameplay can be a little longer than game weight expectations

I want oversized cards to see the artwork better

I also want custom Assassin meeples – but then I’m just greedy

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