Roborally
I arrived in time to join 7 others for a massive game of Roborally. I was handed a nicely painted mini and laughed at my green robot with purple highlights. His name is Hulk X-90 and I just couldn't resist saying "Hulk Smash!".
So what happens is each turn you are dealt a certain number of cards each turn. These cards are what you use to program your robot. The cards have arrows that show straight,right,left or backward and you place them face down on your robot card to show your planned movement. This brings about one of the funny parts of the game as you watch everyone twist and turn their bodies or hands to make sure they are turning their robot the right direction. After everyone is done, players flip their cards over and based on the number in the upper corner determines the player turn order.
The organized chaos now begins. Robots start to move and if another robot is in your way, you push it in the direction you are moving. You more than likely just messed up your opponents plans and they will curse your name. There are plenty of hazards on the board from fire to pits. There are also conveyor belts that move and twist your robots or walls that impede your movement. The goal is to get your robots to the various flags on the board. They are numbered and you have to stop on each flag in order. If at any point you die, falling down the pit or by driving off the board, you can restart at the last flag you touched. Sort of like a re-spawn point in video games. After all movement is resolved, you get to fire a laser and any robot in your line of sight takes a point of damage. Damage is bad because at a certain point it forces you to keep a direction card locked in your program area. This means that every round until you repair you are stuck going a certain direction.
We were playing with 8 people and the game began to drag and certain players interest waned looking at what other games were about to start. We also dropped the race from 4 flags to 2 since several players dropped out. What did I think? I like deciding my path for my robot and hoping no one else interferes with my plans. I like the elements on the board, like flame throwers, that also need to be part of your plans. Now I also felt the game was starting to drag on as only two of us had gotten to the first flag after an hour. The game can also be hard for some people spatially as they get lefts and rights confused because of the robots orientation. That said, I would like to play this again, maybe with less people and on a tighter map.
Play time with rules: 2 hours 35 minutes
Final Scores: 2 Flags-Joe;1 Flag-Mary,Chris,Kearn;0 Flags-Mike,T,Blade,Sam
Stock Car Championship Racing Card Game
This is a game I can't believe I played. If you know me, you know I hate NASCAR and that people consider it a sport. I don't want to start a rant so I will discuss the game. The game has a predetermined number of laps and a deck that simulates the track. Players use cards to pass, block, draft or challenge the other racers. I chose the Tide car because I wanted a clean win.
So a typical turn goes like this. You flip the top card of the track deck over and a lap count is on the card. There also can be hazards too. From the cards in your hand, you have to discard cards that add up to be equal or greater than the lap count. If you can't, you are considered out of gas. After that we determine player order. It is based on the speed rating shown on the top of the card in your discard pile. Action cards let you try to pass other cars either inside or outside. The car you are passing can attempt to block you. Once everyone goes new cars are drawn and you start all over again until the lap count is met.
We were playing a pimped out version with the Hot Wheels and I personally liked it better than generic cards. This game didn't do much to improve my opinion of stock car racing but it was a bit more fun than I thought it would be. The game is random due to the cars and some of the high lap counts can leave you short of Action cards useful to you during your turn. Also shorter races don't leave you to much time to advance very far. It was a fun distraction but I don't know if I would play it again.
Play time with rules: 45 minutes
Final Placement: 1st Chris, 2nd Tom, 3rd Rhonda, 4th Joe, 5th Kearn, 6th Mike
The New Era
Are you looking for a game that captures the feel of Mad Max, then you might want to try New Era. In New Era you each play a faction, set on supremacy of the new world. You do this by gaining control of locations you discover or by influencing your rival factions locations. The game starts each round with a draft of face-up cards. Each person ends up drafting 2 cards and then 1 card off the top of the deck. You have some options available to you but nothing too brain burning.
Production comes next which gives you resources, workers, cards or victory points to use in the Action phase which is next. There are a lot of actions to choose from such as develop locations, take faction actions, trade cards or get workers. You keep preforming one action until you have to pass. Once passed, your locations are closed to the other players, which is a nice way to protect your buildings from being conquered or other players workers. After everyone passes, you check to see if anyone has reached 33 points (we totally missed this phase) if they do the game ends. If not proceed to the cleanup phase, basically get rid of anything unused and pass the first player token to the left.
I really enjoyed this game and after a round of play grasped the game. You have to plan ahead with your locations to help you get more resources each turn. Using neighbors locations is key to help when you can't get the card yourself. The number 3 is everywhere in this game. You can't have more than 3 of anything on or under a card and only 3 places for your location cards. The symbols in the game aren't overwhelming and become intuitive but can be a turnoff to certain players. I am tired of all the card based games but I found plenty to enjoy here. New Era is a solid game that I would play again anytime.
Play time with rules: 1 hour 30 minutes
Final Scores: Tom-64,Mike-25,Rhonda-46,Kearn-55
I also want to say congratulations to Rhonda and Mike who recently got engaged. You could always catch the two of them chatting, giving each other back rubs or holding hands. It's cute and I wish them the best.
