North Star Games has always come through for us one way or another, especially when the kids feel the need to get silly (which happens often). “Say Anything” and “Crappy Birthday” are regular hits, with the occasional “Wits & Wagers” thrown in for good measure. Needless to say that I was surprised by “Clubs” as it wasn’t the kind of game I’d have expected from North Star Games considering the pattern. While hundreds upon thousands of card game variants exist (officially or unofficially), I hadn’t seen one yet that focused on the suit of clubs…until today. “Clubs” tasks players with getting rid of all of their cards quickly while trying to collect the only suit that will score them points…you guessed it, clubs. Before we take a look at this particular card game, I’d like to thank Matt Mariani from North Star Games for providing me with a free review copy.
Board Games
My play session of “The Great Heartland Hauling Company” was an overall positive one. The folks at Game Salute were kind enough to throw in the “Badlands Expansion” pack, so I figured I’d cover it separately just to give you an idea of what it all entails.
If “Euro Truck Simulator 2” has taught me anything, it’s that you shouldn’t take bends at fifty-five miles per hours while hauling a vat of toxic substances. Luckily, “The Great Heartland Hauling Company” doesn’t test my competence as a truck driver…rather, players will be picking up and selling cargo as they move around the board. It’s a buy low, sell high kind of deal (sort of) while managing an inventory of cards and cargo. Before we take a look at this game in closer detail, I’d like to thank Dan Yarrington from Game Salute for providing me with a free review copy.
There’s been a lot of games focused around farming as of late, but I’m not going to complain. I’ve spent hours days months trying to build the perfect farm on games in the “Harvest Moon” series. Perhaps these type of games appeal to my resource management addiction, who’s to say? In “Fill the Barn”, players will be playing cards and trying to harvest crops to earn money. Before we take a look at this game in closer detail, I’d like to thank Dan Yarrington from Game Salute for providing me with a free review copy.
For those of you not familiar with the fairy tale, “Emperor’s New Clothes” is about two swindlers who create clothes for the emperor so grand that they are invisible to anyone unfit for his position, among other things. The emperor dons the invisible clothes and suspects something is amiss, but doesn’t want to appear unfit or “stupid” himself by saying so. While his ministers and the townsfolk also go along with the pretense, one little boy (who is innocent of such things) decides to speak up and point out that there really is no special clothing on the emperor. It’s this classic tale by Hans Christian Andersen that inspired the development of “Emperor’s New Clothes”, a board game by Jonathan Liu (from “GeekDad”).
“Tahiti” is a resource gathering game that tasks players with collecting the most goods for their respective tribe. The game starts players out on a small group of islands, but through tile placement, players will be expanding the archipelago (an island group or chain) in an attempt to control what type of resources spawn where. Will you have what it takes to ensure that your tribe has the most resources by the end of it all? Before we take a look at this game in further detail, I’d like to thank James Mathe from Minion Games for providing me with a free review copy.
I first learned how to play UNO as a kid, back in the day when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Not only was it refreshing to find a Star Trek variant of the game, but it gave me great pleasure to watch the kids play a game that I once played in my youth. It’s worth noting that there are a few different versions or editions of this particular game, so some of the rules and/or pictures that you’ll see below may not match up with your copy, if you happen to have one. The special edition, for example, has a few special cards that mine doesn’t. Mine came in a tin case and has “collector’s edition” written on the top, but the art on the front of the tin case is different from other collector’s editions I’ve seen. The ones I found on Amazon seem to come in your standard card package and look a bit different, but the rules are generally the same across all versions.
Games like “Castle Panic” and “Pandemic” are well received in my household, mainly because the kids get to team up with dad instead of being forced to match wits with him. It’s also rare that I come across real-time based board games (“Damage Report” being the last one), but when I do, we generally have a good time. “Rise of the Zombies!” combines these two mechanics and thrust the kids and me back into the world of the undead, a place we frequent often. This time around however, we were working together to stay alive as opposed to trying to eat each other’s brains. Before we get started, I’d like to thank Dan Verssen from Dan Verssen Games for providing me with a free review copy.
As an avid chess player and a former member of the United States Chess Federation, it goes without saying that I know my way around the chessboard. “For the Crown: 2nd Edition” showed up unexpectedly on my doorstep just the other day and I was surprised to learn that the game not only had a chess theme to it, but also deck-building mechanics. This is probably the only time I’ll ever be able to use “chess” and “deck-building” in the same sentence, so forgive me if I spontaneously combust with excitement periodically throughout the review. Before we take a look at this game in further detail, I’d like to thank Stephanie Marroquin from Victory Point Games for sending me a free review copy. It’s worth noting that there is a polybag version and a boxed version…the components I mention and the pictures you’ll see represent that of the boxed version.
It’s not often that I get to be the bad guy. In “Master Plan”, players will all be assuming the roles of supervillians hellbent on claiming the ultimate prize before their fellow colleagues do. Unlike most card games I’ve played, this one actually makes use of a “real space” mechanic that forces players to strategically place the cards they play. Players will be laying down cards in an attempt to be the first one to get their pawn to the prize. Before we get into how that all works, I’d like to thank Brad Talton from Level 99 Games for sending me a free review copy. While the game is still about a week away from being released to the general public, the pictures you’ll see in this article represent the final components.
“Pixel Tactics” is a two player card game with an eight-bit/sixteen-bit theme. Players will be summoning and using heroes to attack their opponent’s leader. The player who manages to kill their opponent’s leader first wins the game. Before we take a look at how this is accomplished, I’d like to thank Brad Talton from Level 99 Games for sending me a free review copy. While the game is still about a week away from being released to the general public, the pictures you’ll see in this article represent the final components.
One of the first “detective” board games I remember playing as a kid was “Clue: The Great Museum Caper”, which involved one player taking on the role of a thief attempting to steal paintings from under the noses of the other players. “Mr. Jack in New York” is a more recent game I’ve played that tasks one player (the detective) in finding and catching the other (Mr. Jack) through a series of logical deductions. “NOIR” feels like a combination of both games, however in this instance, both players have hidden identities and will be attempting to thwart the other in different ways. Before we get started, I’d like to thank Brad Talton from Level 99 Games for sending me a free review copy. While the game is still about a week away from being released to the general public, the pictures you’ll see in this article represent the final components.
“SKIRMISH: Modern Card Warfare” (which will be known henceforth as “SKIRMISH”) is a two player card game with a rock-paper-scissors theme. Players will be using a combination of strategy and bluffing tactics to try and capture the enemy flag. Before we start digging out trenches and defusing bombs, I’d like to thank Jayson Murray for sending me a free review copy. While the game just recently succeeded in a Kickstarter campaign, the copy I received represents the final product.
I wanted to take a time out from reviewing games for a moment to just report a bit of news that I came across recently. Mage Company, the same folks who sent me “Wrong Chemistry” to review, has a Kickstarter page up and running for their recent project, “12 Realms.”
“Wrong Chemistry” is a recent Kickstarter success that almost doubled the funding it needed to launch its way into the homes of mad scientists everywhere. It’s a game that tasks players with creating bogus elements (inspired by the real periodic table) in an attempt to score points. Players will be working with the same molecule on the game board, rearranging it however they can to get it to match the elements that they currently have in their hand. Before we begin scrambling atoms, I’d like to thank Alexandros Argyropoulos from Mage Company LTD for sending me a free review copy.
In a lot of the zombie games I’ve played, I usually find myself without ammo, medical supplies, and anything else I might need to stave off the undead. You’d think that putting countless hours into the early Resident Evil games would teach me everything I needed to know, but I guess herbs and ink ribbons just don’t hold up in the grand scheme of things. Luckily, I came across a game that doesn’t require me to fight off the undead…quite the opposite.