Pocket Landship - a review

I have been given the opportunity to do a preview/review Pocket Landship designed by Scott Allen Czysz and published by Word Forge Games. 

This is currently on Kickstarter and you can join in this project through April 9, 2019 via the link below.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wordforgegames/pocket-landship?ref=discovery_saved_ending_soon

This game is based on a print and play game that was created in 2017.  The original game was set in World War I, but this edition has a Steampunk theme.  This game is coming to Kickstarter later this month and the copy I was given is a demo copy.  So, some component quality can change from what I have, and I know they plan to include more content in the game than what is included here.

I really like the artwork included in the game and hope they can add more to the final version.  I’m a fan of Victorian science fiction and this game really evokes that theme.

This game can be played solo or as a 2-player co-operative game.

Story (from thr rulebook)

The war in Europe rages on.  What started years ago as sporadic attacks by unknown enemies and strange stories of land ships, has grown to horrific slaughter by monstrous, steam powered mechanizations.

These land warships and the destruction they caused have shifted alliances.  The major forces of western Europe have joined together. Desperate to gain a technological edge, the new alliance has developed landships of their own, powered by oil, not steam.  These landships are smaller, faster, and better armoured than the enemy.  Although still heavily outnumbered, these new weapons finally offer the Western Alliance hope.

Set-up

The player chooses their landship by selecting a Hull and cannon and either sponsons or an infantry unit.  Each of these is represented with a card and has a set amount of damage it can take and has a chart on the card showing the effect of the die roll each turn.  You will also choose a commander for your landship.  The commander will give you a one-time ability that you can use during the game.

You will be facing 9 enemy units, set out in three columns 3 rows deep with the front card face up. 

A die is placed on each of the cards of the landship and on each enemy unit showing the damage points they can take before they are destroyed.

Objective

To win the game, the landship must destroy all the enemy units without losing its cannon or hull.  If the landship’s cannon or hull are destroyed, the player immediately loses.

Game Play

Each turn, the player will roll 3 dice and will assign one to a section of the landship.  It is up to the player on how they die are placed and the order in which they are resolved.  The value of the die determines the effect that turn.  This can range from damaging a unit in a specific section, repairing damage to your landship, or getting stuck in the mud.  There are also results that give you extra dice to roll on the following turn or allowing you to adjust the result of a die.

On the enemy turn, a die is rolled for each unit in the front line (typically 3) and assigned from lowest to highest from left to right.  The dice are then resolved from left to right.  The enemy’s fire might damage a section of your landship, or it might pull back to repair itself, or it can fire and miss.  The enemy might also reduce the number of dice you can roll on your next turn.

The game continues alternating between your turn and the enemies turn until only 3 enemy cards remain or the player only has 2 cards and then we enter the Final Battle.  During the final battle and most of the mechanics stay the same, but neither you nor the enemy can repair your units any longer.

In addition, the player can choose to roll 1, 2, or 3 less dice in a turn and make repairs to their landship.  They may repair 1 section of the landship for each dice they chose not to roll but may only repair a section 1 point.

For every 2 landships the player destroys, they get access to a card from the advantage deck.  These cards give the player a perk that can help them out of a tight spot during the game.

Thoughts

This is a light, dice chucking game.  It is easy to learn and plays quickly. 

There is not a lot of depth to this game, but it isn’t trying to be something it isn’t.  The enemy reacts with randomness, but it can feel like they are making a hard push with lots of damage a couple of turns in a row, or they can make a cleaver withdrawal with a unit that is nearly destroyed.

The decisions the player makes are limited, but there is a nice balance between repairing your landship or attacking the enemy.  Once the final battle starts and neither side can make repairs, you must hope and pray that you are able to deal out damage more quickly than the enemy.

The demo copy only came with a couple of the campaign scenarios.  They look interesting and I’m intrigued by what the options there will be. 

I’m hoping that the additional cards that will be included will give more replayability and more options for your landship and wider variety of enemies, but even as it stands now, I will be giving it my support on Kickstarter.

You can watch my video review of the game below.

Paint Pathfinder Models for the Rolling Meeple

A fellow YouTuber reached out to me and asked if I would paint some models for him and his wife to use on their channel for play through videos of The Pathfinder Adventure Card Games.

They picked out the models and had them shipped to me and I put some paint on the models.

I think they turned out pretty well and I think Kyle and Katrina were also pretty happy with them.

Pathfinder Model Sneak Peek

Painting Pathfinder Iconic Character Harsk

Painting Pathfinder Iconic Character Lini and Droogami

Painting Pathfinder Iconic Character Damiel

Painting Pathfinder Iconic Character Adowyn

Do you trick out your board games?  

Battle Ravens - a review

I’m going to be doing a review of Battle Ravens designed by Dan Mersey and published by PSC Games.  I was provided a pre-production copy of the game to review.  This game will be launching via Kickstarter on November 20, 2018. 

This game is set in the Viking era and represents a shield wall battle between Norse and Anglo-Saxon armies.
I have a pre-production copy, so components could be different in the final edition, but what I have here is very nicely done.  At first, I wasn’t all that excited about the cardboard standees that represent the units in the shield wall.  I have been a miniature gamer for many years and thought that models would add a lot to the look of the game.  However, the art work on the standees has grown on me and I think they actually look very nice.  They are a little difficult to tell apart, but I’ll talk about that a little later.

The rulebook is laid out well and has some snippets of poems from the dark ages that add a nice bit of character to the book and really fits the theme of the game.

Set-up

The players set up their shield wall with 3 hirdmen and 3 bondi in each of 6 sections in their shield wall.  Each player also has 3 thralls set up behind their line.  Each player takes 20 Raven tokens that are used in the game to take actions.  Both players roll 4 dice, and whichever has the most successes is the first player throughout the game.

Objective

To win the game, you need to capture 3 sections of the enemy’s shield wall.  If the enemy section has no models in it during the end phase, all of your models across from that section move forward and take it.  Your models that take that section are out of action as they are now busy looting the bodies and tending their wounds.  For each section you lose, you must remove 3 raven tokens from their pool and remove one thrall from the board. 

Raven Placement

At the beginning of each turn, starting with the first player, the players take it in turns placing raven tokens into sections of the shield wall.  A player can place up to nine ravens in an area, but they are limited to placing ravens in each area one time.  So, if I place a single raven in an area and then my opponent puts 5 in the area across from it, I can’t go back and add any ravens to that area.

Raven tokens are essentially action points that can be spent in that area.  This is an interesting mechanic as you have to decide if you want to put a lot of effort into a couple of areas or spread out your violence across your whole line.

Actions

The raven tokens allow you to take an action during the game.  On your turn, you can spend as many tokens as they like from 1 area to either attack or move.  The ravens are also spent to defend against successful attacks your opponent makes against you.  When attacking, each raven spent allows you to roll 1 die.  One hit is scored on a 4 or 5 and 2 hits are scored on a 6.  Each player has 3 Thralls, running around behind their lines shooting at the enemy.  The effect of these in the game it that each thrall can be spent to reroll one attack die each turn.

After the attacker rolls to hit, the defender can spend as many ravens as they like (from that area) to try to block hits.  They roll one die for each raven spent and any successes reduce the number of hits.  Successes are the same as attacks so a 4 or 5 blocks one hit and a 6 blocks two hits.

Unblocked hits are applied to the models in the enemy’s section.  It takes 2 hits to knock out a Hirdmen and it takes 1 hit to knock out a bondi.  You must apply all hits if possible.  Extra hits that don’t knock out a model are ignored.  For example, if I have 2 hirdmen in my area and receive 3 hits, I will remove 1 hirdmen for 2 hits, but the 3 hit is ignored because it isn’t enough to knock out the other hirdmen.

When moving, you spend 1 raven per model you wish to move, and each model can move one space left or right.  You cannot move over an area of your shield wall that has been captured by the enemy.  Moving can be important to fill gaps in the wall during the game.

Advanced Rules

The advanced rules add tactics cards to the game.  Each side has a deck of 10 cards and draws 5 of them at the beginning of the game.  These cards allow for a variety of actions to be taken at different times during the game.  The decks for each faction include different cards so the tactics of the Norse are a bit different than the Anglo-Saxons.

These cards add some interesting options and I think are a great addition to the game.

Thoughts

This is a light wargame and I thought it was a lot of fun.  It is easy to teach and learn and it takes 45 minutes to an hour to play.

The game really feels like a battle of attrition.  While movement is important, I didn’t do a lot of it until I had to fill holes in my line.  As both sides start losing models, the lines get thinner and thinner and eventually, you just don’t have the models to plug the holes in the line.

I really like the action system in the game.  Placing ravens at the beginning of the turn forces you to decide where you want to focus your efforts.  But then you have to decide, based on the enemy’s ravens, if you want to strike hard with a big attack or hold some back to defend against their attack.

I did have a few minor quibbles with the game.  The artwork is very nice, but the units can be hard to tell apart.  Each model has its name on the base, but that is mostly covered by the plastic stand.  This adds a little time to the set up as I had to separate out the forces to place on the board.  I will bag the models in the future by faction, so it is easier to set up.  But maybe a little different design would make this quicker.

My other minor problem is this is a dice game and luck can play a big factor.  This is fun and frustrating at the same time.  It is great when your 2 die attack becomes 4 hits and represents a surge in the line.  But it can feel frustrating when you are on the receiving end of that attack.  I’ll call this a pro and a con as it is fun when one side is clearly falling behind but pulls off a great attack and swings the battle back into their favor.

At the end of the day, I was impressed with this game and will be playing it more.  If you are looking for a heavy wargame simulation, this probably isn’t for you, but if you want a lighter wargame that is easy to get into, then you should check this one out.  

You can watch my video review below.

Space Empires: Replicators by GMT Games - Unboxing

I joined in on the P500 pre-order of Space Empires: Replicators at the last minute.  This expansion of Space Empires 4x is published by GMT Games and was designed by Jim Krohn.

This is the second expansion for Space Empires 4x and this one adds several new features to the game:  a new race (the Replicators), terrain tiles, a resource deck, and some new ships.

Below you can see a couple of pictures of the contents.

Such pretty art on the box

3 types of production sheets

4 copies of the Research Chart/Ship Chart

2 sheets of ship tokens

6 sheets of Terrain Tiles

Empire Advantage Deck

Resource Cards

The components are nice and match well with the components of the core box.

Memoir '44 - Sidi Rezegh Airfield Battle Report - 6 x 6 Game Challenge

I pulled out my Mediterranean Expansion for another game of Memoir '44.  I played the Sidi Rezegh Airfield scenario and I took control of the British forces.

This scenario is most comprised of armor units and played very quickly.  I had a bit of a challenge with this one and was defeated pretty quickly.  The great thing with this game is that I can reset the scenario and replay it again.

I'm not sure if I'm making bad plays of if I'm just unlucky.  Either way, the games are fun and I will continue to play this game.

Memoir '44 - Operation Cobra Battle Report - 6 x 6 Game Challenge

I sat down and tried my hand at a solo play through of the Operation Cobra scenario.

I took command of the Allied forces.  I made some not so great choice for myself and paid the price for them.  The enemy also had some pretty good rolls.  I will definitely be playing more scenarios solo.

For solo play, I use a pretty simple process that I've stolen from others.

• Remove the Ambush card from the deck.  
• Chose the side that you will play in the scenario.
• Set up the board as normal and deal yourself the appropriate number of command cards.
• The enemy doesn't get a hand of cards.  Instead, on their turn draw a number of cards based upon the number they would normally have for the scenario (see below) and play the best card.
• 5 or less command cards - draw 2 cards.
• 6 or more command cards - draw 3 cards.
• If a recon card is used that normally allows you to draw 2 cards and choose one to add to your hand, then I will draw an additional card for the enemy on their next turn.

This isn't a prefect system, but it works well enough and you will find that the enemy is a pretty challenging opponent.

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear - Solo Play Through 3 - Partisans

I played my third game of Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear for my 6 x 6 game challenge. 

This time I played the first scenario from the core box, but I used fan made Unit Spent Counters.  These replace the normal action point mechanic in the game and add a little unpredictability to units being spent.

The Unit Spent Counters were created by Kevin Kitchens and are available on BGG here. 

The Russian forces have a distinct advantage in this scenario, but it is still fun to play and does a good job of teaching the basic mechanics of the game.

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear - Solo Play Through 2 - Tank Hunter

I sat down for another game of Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear.  I played the second scenario from the solo expansion; Tank Hunter.

This scenario is very challenging and I have yet to beat it.  I did actually manage to kill a tank this time, but still didn't manage a win.

I'll need to try some different tactics next time.

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear - Solo Play Through 1 - Search and Destroy

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear is one of my favorite games.  I have not played it as much as I would like, but it is a fantastic games.  I decided to play this game as part of my 6 x 6 Game Challenge so that I can get a few more games played.

I used the solo expansion for this game and played the Solo Mission 1 - Search and Destroy.

This game is full of difficult decisions.  The player constantly has several options and you have to pick one.  This means that you might miss the opportunity to do something else.

The game was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to getting more games played as I work through the game challenge.

AVP: The Hunt Begins - Painting Juvenile Aliens

I found a very inexpensive copy of AVP: The Hunt Begins at a convention recently.  My buddy Bill and I went in together on the game.  I have not had a chance to play it yet, but I did get a chance to start painting some of the models.

First up on the paint table are the juvenile aliens.  I went with a simple paint job and like the results.

Paints Used:
Army Painter
   Matt Black
   Dark Tone
   Gloss Varnish
Vallejo Game Color
   Royal Purple
   Chainmail Silver

Next up will be the adult aliens.  I'm going to be using a different color pallet for them so they are easy to distinguish on the table.

Xia: Embers of a Forsaken Star by Far Off Games - Unboxing

Another game arrived that I backed via Kickstarter.  Xia: Embers of a Forsaken Star is an expansion for Xia: Legends of a Drift System.

This expansion added more missions, titles, ships, and events.  In addition, it includes a solo option.  The solo option is what sold me on backing this and I'm pretty excited in giving this game a try.

The components all look very nice and are high quality.

This game has some pretty cool visuals and I hope to get this on my table soon.  There are several games that claim to be sandbox, but most don't really fulfill that promise.  However, from what I've read and watched from others, this game really does give that sandbox feel (with certain limitations) and offers several paths to victory.

This War of Mine by Awaken Realms - Unboxing

I received my copy of This War of Mine (another game I backed on Kickstarter) last week.  I often like to see what is in a game before I buy it so I thought I would make an unboxing video to show off the goodies.

In This War of Mine you play as a group of civilians trapped in a besieged and conflict-ridden city, enduring many hardships that often test the essence of humanity.

During the day you take shelter in a ruined tenement, which you need to maintain, search, and add improvements to.

During the night, you will guard your shelter and possessions and explore other locations to find various supplies.  You will meet different characters; some good and some not so good.

Your goal is to survive until the hostilities end.

This game has a pretty dark theme and is not going to be a light hearted experience.  It won't be for everyone, but I think it looks interesting and I look forward to playing this game.

As far as the components go, most everything looks pretty good.  There are a lot of cards and they are of decent quality.  The tokens look nice.  I really like the look of the board.

The art work throughout fits the theme very well and sets the tone for the game.

I'm not real impressed with the miniatures that come in the game though.  The are not as detailed as well as they could be.  Other than that though, all the components seem to be good quality and should add to the immersion of the game play.

Gloom of Kilforth - Unboxing

I backed Gloom of Kilforth: A Fantasy Quest Game on Kickstarter and received my copy of the game last week.  I wanted to share with all of you the goodies that come in the box so have put together an unboxing video.

Description from BoardGameGeek:

The land of Kilforth is a perilous domain filled with nefarious monsters, mysterious Strangers and treacherous Locations, and dominated at its centre by The Sprawl, a huge city where intrepid Heroes begin their journey to fame and fortune. Throughout the land various factions vie for power over each other, such as the supposedly noble Order of the Rose or the terrifying Doom Guard. And presiding over the world outside Kilforth is the ever-present Overlord, Masklaw. Over the coming month, a deadly Gloom will descend upon Kilforth,which the Heroes must Battle through to prove their worth, defeat an Ancient evil, and save the land from darkness.

Gloom of Kilforth is a card game of high fantasy with a Gothic edge, playable in 1-3 hours, where 1-4 players, working individually or together, must take their humble adventurers on a journey through a dark world of magic and peril. They will visit strange places, stranger people and overcome powerful enemies in their mission to discover mysterious artefacts and mystical Spells. Players follow their Hero’s tale from modest beginnings through an epic story to an exciting climactic battle for the fate of the world. Gloom of Kilforth takes about 45 minutes per player to play.

I've not yet read the rules so can't speak much about the game itself, but overall I'm pleased with the components except one minor gripe.

The artwork in this game is fantastic.  The box looks great and when you open it up and start to take a look at all the cards, it only gets better.  The amount of art is surprising and it all has a consistent feel to it.   The cards appear to be of good quality and should hold up to repeated play.  I will probably sleeve my copy of the game, but I do that with most card games, regardless of the card quality.

There are some wooden tokens included that look nice and functional.  Nothing special, but not bad either.

My big complaint (and it isn't that big of a deal) is the card board tokens.  They just don't seem to match up to the rest of the game.  They aren't quite as polished as the rest of the game.  They look functional and will work just fine in the game, but the could have used a bit more work in design.

I look forward to playing this game and seeing how everything works together and I can't wait to get to see all the monsters, locations, spells, etc in use.

Xia: Legends of a Drift System - Unboxing

Today we will be taking a peak inside of Xia: Legends of a Drift System published by Far off Games.

This is another game that I backed via Kickstarter (No, I don't have a problem.).  I backed this when they announced they were doing a solo expansion.  I had previously been looking at this game, but I wasn't sold until they decided to put out a solo version.  I gave them some money and they gave me this game with the promise to send the expansion later.

The expansion is getting closer to being completed so I thought I would open this box up and see what kind of treasures it holds.

There are quite a few components in this box and they are all pretty nice quality.  I like the design of the components.  They are colorful and look easy enough to read.











The ships included with this game come pre-painted (which isn't always a good thing), but these look very nice.  Yes, some people could do a better job, but these look pretty good and they come already done which I count as a bonus.





This game looks to have a lot of content and once I get the solo expansion, I'm sure you will find me exploring the vast reaches of space.

Too Many Bones - Unboxing

I received my copy of Too Many Bones published by Chip Theory Games a couple of weeks ago.  I purchased this game through Kickstarter.

Too Many Bones is described as a dice-builder RPG.  It is supposed to be a strategic, fantasy based RPG that puts the player(s) in control of characters as they travel to the northern territories in search of a enemy forces that they must defeat.

I put together a video showing off the components that come in the box.

Overall, I'm impressed with nearly all the goodies in the box.  My only complaint is really a pretty minor one.  The health chips are plastic instead of the nice clay poker ships that are used for characters, monsters, and other things.  I really feel that they should included the upgraded clay health chips in the game.  They are available as an add-on if you would like to purchase them.  As I said this is a minor gripe.

I really like the artwork in this game.  The play mats are very nice, the cards are plastic, so they will hold up to repeated play very well.  The rule book looks to be easy to read.

There is a lot in this game and I look forward to reading through the rules and trying this game out.