The Plucky Plank: BLOB gets Legendary

This month’s recap of the BLOB is going to be different. I am going to try a new layout with a section on brief overview of game play and not a regurgitation of the rules. There are multiple places online to find the rules. The main focus is going to be about my thoughts of the game. My opinion of the game is based off my initial play, so if you are looking for more analysis into the games, I am not the best choice. I think most of us can decide if a game is fun after one play and if the investment of time into further plays is something you want to do. I also will not be recapping the moves during the game because I can’t remember what I did during the game and don’t take notes beyond final scores.

One of my favorite people to play games with is leaving soon. As a “Snowbird” he likes to hibernate in Florida for the cold Michigan winters. Have fun fishing in the tropical sun Tom and see you in the spring. I also ate way too many sweets this time but it is so hard to resist all the colorful Christmas cookies and cupcakes.

Legendary: a Marvel Deck Building Game BGG Link

Starting Cards

Game summary
Using a starting deck consisting of SHIELD Agents and Troops, players recruit Heroes to strengthen their decks to attack villains and ultimately defeat the Mastermind behind the whole scheme. Defeat the Mastermind 4 times successfully and the player with the most Victory Points wins. However if the Mastermind’s scheme is successful, then all the players lose.

What I think
I ended up playing it 3 times and with 3 and 4 players. So you can imagine if I played it that much, I enjoyed the game. I got excited drafting heroes into my deck and the “abilities” of the heroes made sense for the character. For instance, Iron Man helps draw cards which makes sense because it is information gathering or calling for reinforcements as the leader. The Superheroes were the draw to the game for me. I liked immersing myself into the theme and got frustrated when the Mastermind would win. So like most cooperative games, I wanted to play it again to try and win. The game really is cooperative only when the heroes lose otherwise the player with the most victory points wins.

The villains can be a bit annoying early in the game as you watch the Villains march across the board because your deck isn't strong enough to attack. This can put you behind with certain scenarios where the game wins if a certain number of Villains or Bystanders are in the escaped area. Since the deck is random, you may get Henchmen, which are easier, or Villains that are just too powerful.

The Heroes can also frustrate you because again of the randomness of the draw deck, certain Heroes are absent and you could purchasing a card just in the hopes of getting something better to the market. It kind of reminded me of Ascension and was one of the reasons I disliked Ascension but at least the Villains and Heroes are separate decks and you always seem to be able to do something each turn. The icons and artwork are great and easy to understand. The Icons are easy to distinguish and become very intuitive after a few turns.

Mid game vs the Red Skull

To me, Legendary plays like every other deck builder out there. Draw a hand, play cards, discard and draw a new hand. It also suffers from what I call “unbalanced turns”. What I mean is one player can cycle through his entire deck for a 5 minute turn and the remaining players can complete their turns in under a minute. I am sure a few of you are saying “What is wrong with that?” and to that I say it disconnects me from the game and makes the game drag on too long. It was one of the reasons I ended up never playing Dominion again or at least not with competitive players.

I thought Legendary was fun and I got sucked into the Superhero theme. I cheered as we defeated the Mastermind and was the first one ready to retry when we failed. Although, Legendary doesn’t bring anything new to the deck building genre but the theme is lacking in board games and is welcome by me.

Scores
Game 1: Tom-20, Kearn-10, Joe-11, Chris-15 vs. Red Skull
Game 2: All Players lose vs. Dr. Doom
Game 3: Tom-30, Kearn-10, Scott-28 vs. Dr. Doom

Alien Frontiers BGG Link

New Factions

Game summary
For those unfamiliar with Alien Frontiers, the game uses dice as ships which you dock at different stations on the board to earn resources, expand your fleet (more dice) and colonize the planet. There are also Artifacts (cards) which give you abilities to manipulate your die or other players dice. The game ends when a player places their last colony on the planet. The player with the most victory points wins. A player scored 1 VP for each colony on a territory, 1 VP per territory you control (majority of the colonies on a territory), 1 VP for controlling the territory with the Positron Field and 1 VP each for possessing Alien City or Alien Monument card.

What I think
Alien Frontiers is still one of my favorite games and the Faction expansion adds some nice new powers and choices for the players to use each game. If you want to use a neighbor’s faction, you end up paying the resources to the owner of the faction. You really have to weigh if it will be more beneficial to you to use the faction. We choose randomly so in our game, one faction was more valuable and used more often so that might be a drawback. I also didn’t use the new Agenda cards so I can’t comment on them at this time. I think it is a must buy for fans of the game.

Scores
Game 1: Chris-4, Joe-10, Kearn-3

Loopin’ Louie BGG Link

Louie is coming for your chickens!

Game summary
A simple game, each player has a chicken coop with three chicken disks. Louie flies around the board and knocks the chickens down. You can prevent this by using your paddle to make Louie jump over your chickens. The last player left with chickens wins.

What I think
Loopin’ Louie is easily one of the most silly, addictive and entertaining games I have ever played. It is such a simple game that causes laughter and rowdy good times with children and adults (especially with some adult everages).

Scores
4 plays and everyone won once.

Tahiti BGG Link

Island tiles

Game summary
The goal of the game is to collect crops and fish from the neighboring islands in your canoe and return them to the home island. For each full set of crops or favorite foods (secret tiles handed out during the set-up) collected earn points at the game end. The game is divided into two phases, the first is the Exploration phase and the second is the Depletion phase.

Player Board

What I think
The game is a simple and leisurely game of grabbing cubes from one location and returning them to the home island. The toughest decisions in the game were cube placement and what islands to place the depletion tiles on because both would directly affect your opponents. I liked the reef as it made you choose between the most direct paths but you could risk the loss of a good or to take the longer path. I enjoyed the quality game pieces and beautiful Polynesian art. The game was a bit basic for me and I think it could get stale after multiple plays, but I could easily see its charm for families or new gamers.

Scores
Game 1: Liam-15, Kearn-21, Eric-25, Chris-24

Schotten Rennen (Scots Race in German) BGG Link

On your Mark........

Game summary
This loosely themed racing game with dice and luck in Scotland has you rolling dice each turn. If your roll is equal to or higher than the printed number on the tile, you progress forward. If the roll is lower, you can use a risk token to role the yellow die and add the result to your total. If it is higher, you continue on. If it still is lower, you go all the way back to the start. At any time you can stop and pass the dice locking you into the current tile. The first player to cross the finish line wins.

Neck and Neck to the end!

What I think
The game is a total dice chucking, press your luck and mock your fellow player’s bad dice rolls kind of game. Also heading back to start didn’t put you out of the race. I went back several times and caught up quickly. It fit the bill for the type of game we wanted to play at the time and I enjoy these types of games. Sometimes you just want some light fun and laughs. Kilts are optional.

Scores
Game 1: Winner – Ken; Losers- Liam, Eric, Kearn

Trajan BGG Link

Game summary
This is a very simplistic summary to a deep and strategic game supposedly set in ancient Rome. Players move cubes around an action tray which allows them to take actions on matching areas on the main board. The player with the most points at the end wins the game.

What I think
Trajan is a complex game with many options to score points. Some options of where to go at certain points in the game are obvious but it can create some long thinking moments if you want to maximize your points each turn. I noticed the most contested areas in out game were the shipping area and the senate. Getting in earlier than the other players to use a boat and score on the more profitable side is a huge plus and the disappointed look on their face is a nice bonus. By influencing the senate you choose first and dictated who got what bonus tile for the end of game scoring.

My favorite part of the game was the use of the personal action tray. I enjoyed planning out my turns by moving cubes of certain colors to each area to help me move them later in an upcoming turn or to match Trajan tiles next to the cup. Each turn I contemplated this to avoid clumping to many cubes in one cup, because each cube you move moves the game clock and that brings the demands of the people. If you can’t meet the demands you end up losing points.

Action Tray

I like a good theme and this game has none. As I said above, supposedly sent in ancient Rome, but at no point did I feel I was influencing the people of Rome. In my mind was moving this cube two spaces gives me the military option and the ability to grab the 10 victory point area. The game can also drag out if you or the other players contemplate your move too long but I find that to be a problem with many games that offer multiple choices each turn.

I am a theme junkie and criticize games often for being too dull and theme less. Games that feel like number crunching/ spreadsheet tasks and you try to eliminate all least productive options and maximize your points. There are those elements in Trajan but the personal action tray just squashed that voice in my head. I admit that sometimes I judge games too quickly and I would have missed out on a fantastic game. I want to play this again.

Score
Game 1: Tom-111, Kearn-115, Chris-112, Scott-95

The Plucky Plank: Bad Color! Bad, Bad Color! Green attracts Those We Do Not Speak Of. - 6/23/12

S:Mother, when is dad coming home?

M:I've been dreading this day. Your father isn't coming home.

S: Why mommy?

M: You remember when your brother entered the church to become a friar?

S: Yes.

M: Well, in exchange of your brothers admittance, we had to take a plague cube. Your father happened to be of the first generation and since time drifted past the bridge, he choose to sacrifice himself.

S:sobs

M: But don't feel to sad, he will always be remembered in the village chronicle.

S: So it's my brothers fault daddy's dead?

M: Ummmmmm.......

Pirate Fluxx
I got a bit forgetful this month and missed taking some pictures of a few games. Sorry.

While waiting for other to show up, Rhonda suggested killing time with Pirate Fluxx. I was surprised a few of the players had never played Fluxx. The rules are so simple that we started playing after a brief overview. At one point, we had to talk like pirates to draw extra cards and Rhonda got the Captain's Hat and we could only refer to her as Cap'ian. The game ended quickly as a forced goal play caused another player to win.

Fluxx will always be a humorous distraction to me and with all the various themes, there is surely a Fluxx for you.

Playtime with rule explanation = 15 minutes
Shawn-Won; Chris,Rhonda,Zach,Jerry and Kearn-Lost

Maharani

Maharani was taught to Chris and I by teacher extraordinaire, Tom. The game is just a simple tile laying game where you score points for your meeples and tiles. In the begining, the game was very close point wise as each of us looked for the optimal play with the available tiles. As you can see above in the picture, I (yellow) started off placing tiles in the area closest to me. I was so focused on majority in that area, I missed placing any tiles or workers in the quadrant directly above.

Once I figured out my folly, I tried to work my way into the other areas of the board. Unfortunately, I was too late and Chris ran away with the remainder of the game. I did manage a narrow finish in second but a whopping 20+ points behind first. So what did I think of my first play? I liked it. The whole time I was playing, I kept thinking my wife would really like it. There is tile placement and meeples which are similar to her favorite Carcassonne.

I really enjoyed the wheel which changed the orientation of the tiles. You had to decide to place the tile as is in the quadrant it was adjacent too or use one of your 4 coins to place it in a different quadrant or forgo a meeple and turn the tile in a different direction. Maharani is an enjoyable quick light game that looks spectacular when it is finished. I can see this being a good couples game and I will report how it plays with two in the future.

Playtime with rule explanation = 1 hour
Chris-98,Tom-69,Kearn-76

The Resistance
Zach talked all of us into trying a game of the Resistance. I had always been curious about the game and was eager to try it. The rules are simple but the the meta game, Whoa! The tension was almost instantaneous as every one eyed each other. The first mission went off without a hitch, the second had a fail. What!?! We had a spy. Now the fun revved up, new people were choosen and failed. Then another fail, the third try passed and the assembled team went on the mission. Another fail card!

I was the last to pick the team and I thought I had it all figured out. Wrong! I drafted the two spies and we lost. NOOOOOOOOO! The game was fun and strangely addicting. I enjoyed trying to deduct the spies by watching for tells.

Playtime with rule explanation = 30 minutes
Shawn and Rhonda-Won; Zach,Jerry,Chris and Kearn-Lost

Alien Frontiers

More people finally arrived and I joined Eric and his son Liam for a friendly game of Alien Frontiers. Pairs eluded me for several turns, so I started collecting ore and alien tech cards. A few nice dice manipulators and I was on my way to adding more dice. I have a particular pattern of colony spaces I prefer to grab. Liam preferred to pick on his father which I tried to take advantage of but Eric is just too crafty of a player.

I managed to take a lead in points and solidified my controlling interest in certain territories. I was about one turn away from winning when Liam played his last colony sooner than I thought he would and instead winning himself. Alien Frontiers is not for people who like little to no interaction. You will be constantly cursing your opponents names as they block out space stations you need. I personally love sweating out where to put my dice each turn.

Playtime with rule explanation = 60 minutes
Liam-10,Eric-9,Kearn-8

Defenders of the Realm

After last months play of Defenders, I wanted to try again now that I understood what we did wrong. The game started off slow with none of the generals moving and minor minion placement. We kept the minions in check and each of us kept going for rumors at the inns. Sapphire moved twice is a row and several minions tainted several locations. The easy manageable game became a nightmare. Eric and I fought Sapphire and defeated him but emptied our hands of our cards. Liam cleaned up a few minions that looked menacing and once again the board looked manageable.

Balazarg fell next and we were on our way to fighting Gorgutt after a recharge of cards at an inn. Then the bad luck sunk in. One location became overrun and a chain reaction of minions and tainted land ended our run for victory. The game was more challenging this time but I still think it is manageable with the right characters and of course good dice rolls. I am not burned out on co-ops yet and Defenders is a solid game with great retro art.

Playtime with rule explanation = 100 minutes
Eric,Liam and Kearn - Lost; The evil - Win

The Speicherstadt

I had become the odd man out and was waiting for two 5 player games to finish. Thankfully I was waiting long as 2 new people showed up and we decided to play a shorter game while waiting for the others to finish. The Speicherstadt fit the bill. Ken (owner of the game) taught us the rules and we started bidding. I had a simple strategy, I wanted to stay competitive with firemen and avoid the negative points when the fire cards showed up. My second goal was to make everyone else pay more if they really wanted the cards for auction.

For those of you unfamiliar with Speicherstadt, there are cards with show firemen, shipps with goods, contracts and buildings. You use your meeples to bid by placing the meeple above the card you want. When everyone is done, the auction begins. The price you pay is equal to the number of meeples on the location. You either pay the price or pass, once passed the next player gets to decide. This continues until all the cards are resolved and then a new set comes out. Watch out for the fire cards, too few firemen and you take negative points. Goods on ships are used to fulfill contracts which are worth victory points at the games end.

Back to our game, Ken and Bill always seemed to have more money than me, but a few key cards slipped into my hands at low prices. The auctions were tight and from my point of view, we all seemed evenly matched for endgame points. The game ends with the last fire card and Bill and I scored our points while Ken suffered the negative points. Points were added up and we ended in a tie. I had more money left over and won the tiebreaker. I played Speicherstadt before and enjoy its simple mechanisms. The real fun is in the placement of your meeples and driving the prices higher for your opponents.

Playtime with rule explanation = 35 minutes
Ken-31,Bill-25,Kearn-31

Village

Our final selection of the night was the Village. I have been curious about the game since I watched an Essen video about it. Tom taught us the rules and it seemed pretty straightforward. The game seemed to be like many other worker placement style games. The main difference would be the time element and the numbers on the meeples. I started off placing a worker at the wedding and adding more workers to the farm. It always seems to me, that more workers are a must. I am not 100% sure if they are as necessary in the Village.

The game moved right along with everyone gathering cubes and goods. I focused on the Church and marketplace storing up VP chits for the endgame. I also kept sacrificing my meeples at key moments to fill the book and hopefully score lots of points in the end. What I failed to do was use the Travel section of the board. A grave mistake since there are lots of points to be made up there. Tom and Ken seemed to be doing good most of the game while Bill and I seemed to be chasing them all game. It ended close with Tom scoring the most points.

Overall, the Village doesn't change to much from the typical worker placement model of games. The generational aspect of the game makes for some interesting choices of when to sacrifice or keep them for a life cycle longer. Also this has to be the first euro game with workers I have played where food is of little to no importance. Your choices are plenty which means multiple paths to victory and repeated plays.

Playtime with rule explanation = 95 minutes
Ken-53,Bill-29,Tom-54,Kearn-46

The End
We had competition this week from MichCon, but still managed to have a nice turnout. Other games played were Innovation, Core Worlds x2, Black Gold, Natulius and Pret-a-Port. Until next month, keep gaming and remember to have fun.