Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition – Board Game Review

For #Blogmas 2020 day 30.

Cards Against Humanity is a card-driven party game that is very adult in content which can cause just about anyone to blush at some point. The Family Edition is designed to be played with children.

The game comes with a bunch of cards, most are white ‘answer’ cards with the rest being black ‘question’ cards. The question cards are either a literal question or a sentence with a missing word. Each player (as many as you can fit in a room) gets 10 white cards each and the starting player gets a black card. This is read aloud and all the other players choose one of their 10 cards to either answer the question or fill in the missing word. These offerings are then read out by the starting player prefixing each with the original question and the player who submitted the funniest response wins the black question card. Everyone who submitted a white card gets a new one and the next player gets the next black card. Play continues until it is decided to stop. The player with the most won black cards is the winner.

The overwhelming subject matter of the Family Edition is undeniably fecal in content. So many words for poo. There are other topics as well, but mostly poo, vomit or farting. However, having played this with an 11 and 12 year old, I can safely say they have levelled their subject matter appropriately. Both boys found this game absolutely hilarious and the adults were not all that far behind, to be honest. This isn’t a game about winning, it very much is the taking part that this is all about. With a hand of ten cards there are almost always good responses at hand for any black card. My main issue is the American content. The adult version of the game proudly boasts on the box cover that it is tailored for a British audience, it’s a shame they didn’t do the same for the family edition. There are some terms that we just don’t use here and some celebrity names we had to look up – a basketball player, some rapper and a dancer. Granted, had these been changed for a British football player, rapper and dancer I would probably still not know who they were, but at least I might have heard of them. There are also references to the Republicans and Democrats. It wouldn’t have been had to have either switched these our for British alternatives or provided some blank cards to make our own corrections.

I think I prefer this to the adult version, for one, I can play it with my children and also I can play it with just about anybody else without fear of offence being caused (the adult one goes to every ‘there’ there is).

Final score: Buy it!

Minecraft: Builders & Biomes – Board Game Review

For #Blogmas 2020 day 29.

Minecraft: Builders & Biomes by Ravensburger is a game loosely based on the hit computer game Minecraft. It is a 2-4 payer game that take about 20-30 minutes to play.

The game itself is comprised of 64 tiles, 64 wooden blocks in 4 colours and 16 white weapon tokens. Each player gets 5 weapon tiles a score counter a player board and a Minecraft character and standee. There is also a cardboard structure that is used to quickly assemble the 64 wooden cubes into one big cube.
The 64 tiles are shuffled and laid out in a 4×4 grid with each space containing 4 tiles. Space is left between the piles of cards with the corner spaces acting as the spaces where the players characters can stand. Around the outside of this 4×4 grid are the white weapon tokens (not including the corners).

Each turn, a player may perform two actions:
Move 0-2 spaces and reveal the four tiles surrounding that space,
Take a weapon
Fight a Mob
Take 2 blocks from the cube
Build a building

Each tile may reveal a Mob or building. Mobs can be fought using three random weapons pulled from a player’s weapon pile. If enough damage is pulled from the pile, the Mob is destroyed and VPs are gained. The Mob tile is then claimed and may add extra points or abilities later. Taking extra weapons from the perimeter will increase the chances of success. There is no negative result if the combat is unsuccessful apart from a failed use of an action.

Buildings require the expenditure of particular cubes and are then placed on the player’s board. Each board has 9 pre-printed Biomes in a 3×3 grid and each building must cover either one of these Biomes or a previously placed building. Each building has a Biome type, building material and building type. More expensive buildings will generate points when built.

There are three scoring events during the game, each one activated by the removal of the final block from each of the top three layers of the cube. The first round of scoring scores for a contiguous single Biome on the board. The scoreing tiles provided give further detail as to how much each Biome type is worth. Round two ignores the Biomes and focusses entirely on the building material. The final round of scoring focuses on the building type. Final points from any defeated Mobs are scored and the game ends.

Those familiar with the computer game, may find this board game not very much like Minecraft on the table. The wonderful wooden building blocks (which were much bigger than I expected) are used purely as currency, with the resultant buildings being cardboard tiles. The Mobs are printed on cardboard but are instantly recognisable and most of the traditional Mobs are featured. Forgetting for a second that this is a Minecraft game, this was actually a lot of fun. The turns were easy to execute with plenty of options each turn but I was never overburdened by too much choice. Fighting Mobs had a good level of excitement, particularly as a player’s starting weapon stash is mainly comprised of useless poisoned potatoes. The extra weapons not only added extra damage but also other abilities as well such as the pickaxe providing a free block.

I can’t not address the theme of this game, however. There is no crafting, though one could argue the nature of mining the big cube. I played this with my kids and their exclamation of “an Enderman!” near the end of the game when one popped up was certainly good, but if you have no knowledge of Minecraft, this game could be given a generic fantasy, space, robot or dinosaur, etc. face-lift and be exactly the same game.

I must stress though, that this is indeed a fun and entertaining game and not some generic trash hiding behind a popular franchise mask. The blocks have a good solid feel to them and the player boards do look nice. I think a separate board for the score trackers would have been better than having individual trackers around each player’s board. The markers feel very much like an afterthought and are too big to fit on any single space on the tracker and, due to the nature of adding stuff to the board, easy to get knocked.

Final score: Worth playing or for fans of Minecraft Buy it (but knowing it’s not Minecraft on the table).

Everdell: Spirecrest- Board Game Review

This is for #Blogmas 2020 day 28.

For this review, I’m going to assume you already know about how the main game works.

Spirecrest from Starling Games is the second main expansion to Everdell. This one adds yet another extension to the main game board, this time at the bottom, a bunch of new cards to go on this board (none for the main deck), five of large animal creatures, saddles, journey tokens, fox workers as another option to play as and a bunch of walking rabbits, one for every worker animal type there has ever been including all the expansions and extras.
The cards are small and normal sized and split into the four seasons. The small cards are weather cards and each game, one weather card will define what the weather is doing for that season. These cards generally limit what can be done during that season such as much certain actions cost more or even banned outright so new strategies need to be employed. There are only three weather cards per season, but this does give a fair amount of variation. The normal-sized cards are discovery cards, three of which are made available to each player when they end each season, but only one can be claimed each time. These can give certain benefits or rewards and may include one of the new large wooden animals that replaces a player’s worker (who can ride it with the help of the saddle). At the end of each season players also claim one of the journey tokens to keep until the end of the game. Once a player has completed their game, they then send their rabbit along their constructed journey, paying the required costs to score some extra points if they can.

I liked this expansion a lot. The look really compliments an already gorgeous game, the large animals, even if they never get used, look amazing standing on the board. I love how the introduction of the weather can make for a much more varied gaming experience and am looking forward to experiencing there different weather combinations. The discovery cards added a nice little incentive or benefit to the game play and I also appreciated that there were no more cards to add to the main deck, which I feel has enough in it as it is. I did find it a little tough to get the saddles on the big animals and get the worker animals in, but they looked great once done. This game with this expansion takes up quite a bit of table space now, leaving not all that much room left for the players’s cities. This is an even bigger problem if coupled with the other expansion(s). We played on a big table with just this expansion, and space was tight.

This didn’t make the game any more complicated, nor did it add much extra time to the game play. It simply slots in an extra thing each time a player changes season and gives a few extra abilities and scoring opportunities. I can see this being a standard inclusion in all my future Everdell plays.

Final score: Gametastic!

Space Base – Board Games Review

For #Blogmas 2020 day 27.

Space Base from AEG is a competitive 2-5 player game and takes about an hour to play.

Each player is given a board with 12 spaces and a deck of 12 narrow cards numbered 1-12 which go in the respective spaces on the board. 18 extra cards are placed in the center of the table which can be purchased by players and added to their board during the game. The first act of the game is for each player to take a random card from the deck and adding it to their board. Each added card replaces the existing card in that space and that replaced card is turned upside down and under the top of the board with only the red section in view.
A player’s turn comprises of rolling two dice and can either take the reward from the corresponding blue section of the card that matches the total of the two dice, or the two cards matching the two individual dice.
The main rewards can be gold which can be used to buy extra cards, income which increases the minimum gold a player can be left with and Victory Points. There are also some other rewards that do other things too.

While the main player is gaining the rewards for themselves, the other players may also gain rewards from red sections of their deployed cards. There can be multiple deployed cards for any space.
There are also some special Base cards, one for each of the twelve spaces that give instant points, but blocks that space for any further cards for that space.
Play continues until a player reaches 40 VPs.

The components themselves are very nicely made, the cubes that keep track of the scores are particularly nice looking, though a dual-layered board would help to keep the cubes in place. Thin narrow cards are a little tricky to handle but makes sense in order to fit twelve across a player’s playing area. Placing the cards under the board is a neat idea, but it’s easy to lose already deployed cards by pushing them all the way under the board. Towards the end of the game when there are many deployed cards, it does get a little fiddly getting those cards in place without knocking everything out of place.

The artwork and theme is nice to look at, but pretty generic and could be themed on anything to be honest. Why there needs to be a complete list of all the ships and their classifications in the back of the rule book when none of that has any relevance to the game, I don’t know. Many of the ships all look the same anyway.

The game play is very easy to pick up, though it does take a little while to remember to use the blue rewards on your turn and the red rewards when it’s not.
A fun game with a relatively short play time meaning that a few games can be played in a gaming session.
Final score: Buy it!

Deep Blue – The Review

This is for #Blogmas 2019 day 25. As such this is a bit quicker than my usual reviews. At some point I’ll come back to this and dive deeper into it.

Deep Blue is a push-your luck game by Days Of Wonder. In this game players control 2 boats as they traverse the big blue heading for diving sites and then diving for sunken treasure.
Each player has a starter deck of four cards and can use these cards to either purchase extra cards in a quasi deck-builder style or to move their two boats about on the central board.
In a turn a player can:
1. Play cards to move boats.
2. Play cards to buy extra cards.
3. Resting – all played cards are placed in each players’ personal discard pile, these are shuffled and three are added to the hand.
4. Diving
Once a boat reaches a dive site, they are placed in one of the available bonus slots that either assist with a dive, or improve the rewards from a successful dive. When a player declares they are going on a dive (by putting the diving bell on the appropriate spot) players who have boats at adjacent locations may rush their boats there (but not on a bonus spot).
The lead diver then draws gems out of the bag. There are 19 gems to start off with but more can be added during the game. 8 of the gems represent diving hazards (4 oxygen depletions and 4 monster encounters). The diver can draw gems from the bag until they either choose to stop or draw more hazards than they can deal with. The first oxygen and monster is freely overlooked, but the subsequent require either a diving bonus or a card in hand. If the dive is successful all players get the full points. If not, only those players who could counter the final hazard get the points.

Thoughts:
This is one of the more basic games from Days of Wonder, but there’s still enough going on to keep it interesting.
The push-your-luck mechanic is always a divisive one, so if it’s not a thing you like in games, this is probably not the game for you. However, I did enjoy the level of stress and indecision that builds up with the drawing of each gem, even if it’s not me doing it – or even invested in that particular dive. There can be a certain element of pure luck, for one dive I drew two oxygen gems and that was that.
As usual with games by Days of Wonder, this is a beautiful game with well-produced components. All the cards are fully illustrated and the gems are a mixture of opaque or translucent. There are some Captain’s Log cards which add special rules for four dives in each game, which is a nice way of giving each game a different feel. However, the cards themselves haven’t got the rounded corners that most playing cards have and feel like they’ve just come off the guillotine.
Each player is also given a rather snazzy plastic treasure chest to hold their victory points in. This does seem to be a little bit over the top, particularly as all the previous Days of Wonders games have 1-sided VP tokens that simply sit face-down in front of each player. They’re nice, but unnecessary – had they been made out of wood, they would be better still.

Final thoughts:
I liked this game but I can see fans of previous Days of Wonders titles feeling a little underwhelmed as this is not as meaty has they rest. Having said that, knowing Days of Wonders’ propensity for throwing out expansions for their games, I would not at all be surprised to see a slew of expansions bigging up the game over the next few years. I would probably get them too.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Game Review: Sorcerer

Sorcerer (Kickstarter edition)

from White Wizard Games
Contents
Box Contents
How to Play
Scores
Further Thoughts and Final Verdict
Expansions

Box Contents

1 rulebook
4 battlegrounds
4 double-sided player boards
Red glass beads
Blue glass beads
7 red cuboids
Double-sided Damage/Omen tokens
Flame tokens
Tree tokens (with Kickstarter expansion)
3 Fate tokens
1 Blood card
1 Moon card (with Kickstarter expansion)
2 Moon tokens (with Kickstarter expansion)
9 Character decks or 10 cards each (4 in base game)
9 Character skill cards (4 in base game)
9 Character avatar Standees (4 in base game)
6 Lineage decks of 20 cards each (4 in base game)
6 Lineage skill cards (4 in base game)
8 Domain decks of 10 cards each (6 in base game)
8 Domain skill cards (6 in base game)
7 custom d6 battle dice
1 large d8

How to play
The object of the game is to win. Winning is achieved by being the first player to control two battlefields (or 3 in a 3+ player game).
Either randomly or by selection each player chooses a Player, Lineage and Domain deck and matching character standee.
After separating out the 3 skill cards, the 40 remaining cards are shuffled to create the grimore (main deck).
The deck is placed on the player’s board along with a blue bead on the 6 of the energy tracker and the red bead on the 6 of the turn tracker. Each player also gets 1 Omen token in their omen pool and the first player get the Fate token.
The skill cards are placed next to the board for player reference.
In a two-player game, three battlegrounds are placed between the players.
In a three + player game, one battleground is placed between each player. The base game allows up to four players. Each battleground gets 2 red cuboids which start off in the middle (an extra counter may be needed in a four-player game).
Certain decks also come with their own special card (i.e. Blood Card or Moon Phase card) which also need to be separated out and put in a place of reference.
Each player deals themselves 6 cards. They may mulligan.
Each player places their avatar in a battlefield, the abilities of their three skill cards will only affect that battlefield.
The Action Phase
Starting with the first player, each player takes turns to perform an action.
To perform an action a player must first spend 1 red action point (move the red bead down the track by one). In this way all players will get to perform six actions.
The actions are:
– Play a card from hand: Each card has an energy cost and must be paid by moving the blue bead down the energy tracker by the requisite number. Spells are played straight to a player’s personal graveyard (discard pile) and actioned accordingly. Minions are played to any battlefield (in a 3+ player game minions can only be played to the battlefields to the left and right of the player and spells can only effect those battlefields). Items are played to already played minions.
– Move a minion: A minion can be moved from one battlefield to an adjacent battlefield (some minions have flight and can move to any legal battlefield).
– Gain two energy: Move the blue energy bead up two spaces.
– Gain two cards: Pick up two cards from the grimoire.
Once all players have performed all six actions the action phase is complete.

The Battle Phase.
Starting with the battlefield on the first player’s left, minions battle one at a time until all minions have battled or been destroyed. In a two-player game, the first player gets first attack in the middle battleground only.
All minions have an attack and defence score. To attack, a minion is tapped (turned sideways) and their attack value is counted (their red value + any extras). That many dice are rolled to determine damage (up to 7 dice). Die rolls can be:
-Blank (a miss!)
-1 skull (a hit!)
-2 Skulls (a double hit!)
-1 star (a critical hit! – or a double hit if the Battle Phase commenced with no opposing minion on that battlefield).
Both players involved in the battle can spend an Omen tokens to force die rerolls to better or worsen the roll outcome. The first player may also flip the Fate token to force a complete reroll (but only once per turn).
Damage done can go to any opposite minion or to the battlefield. The attacking player only gets to choose where damage from a critical hit goes – all other damage is decided by the defending player.
Damage counters are added to minions one at a time to denote damage. If damage = minion defence (the blue number) the minion is destroyed and sent to the graveyard with any items it was carrying.
Damage to the battlefield is indicated by the red cuboid and is placed on the tracker on the defender’s side of the board. When the damage reaches 12, the battlefield is completed and turned over with a red cuboid on the victor’s side. When a player has 2 such victories, they win. In a 3+ player game, the battlefield is reset and the first to win three victories is the winner.

Scores

Number of players	Mostly 2 players, but has the capacity for 4 with a little rejigging.
End game conditions	A player controls 2 battlegrounds (or 3 in a 3+ player game).
Victory condition	The player who controls 2 battlegrounds (or 3 in a 3+ player game).
Replayability	If I don’t play it tonight I’m gonna freak!	With 96 different deck combinations with just the base game and 432 deck combinations with the current Kickstarter expansions, this has a lot of replayabilty.
Reading Requirements	Oh yeah! I forgot it did that!	As usual with this type of game, there’s a lot of information that builds up in front of you. No card has too much writing, but it’s easy to forget bits, particularly with the skill cards.
Rules Comprehension	I only read through the rules three times	The rulebook reads quite well and is laid out logically. The player boards also sport the crucial details so there’s not too much flicking through the rulebook.
Game-Breakability	They clearly game-tested the meeple out of this	With over a year waiting for this on Kickstarter, there was a lot of testing. However, with 96-432 different deck combinations there will be stronger synergies than others.
Durability	Use as directed	Don’t get wet! Also the cardboard standees are made from a good rigid cardboard, but could be damaged if caught wrong.
Box Size	Under Arm	A little bigger than the average box.
Play Area	Coffee Table	With 2 players, you don’t need too much room, with more players, more room will be needed.
Component Stability	Indoors or no wind	The standees from the expansions come with tiny bases, but the base game does come with spare bigger ones.
Storage Layout	Hey, I can fit all my expansions in here too!	Particularly regarding extra cards (all sleeved too). I have heard that those who got the extra battlegrounds have found that the bit of the box that holds them isn’t deep enough to take more.
Aesthetics	Photogenic	I love the box art particularly. I’d say the battlegrounds are a bit dark and bland, the player boards have two great sides. The card art isn’t to my personal taste but is okay.
Theme	Good, if you like that sort of thing.	Excepting the artwork, there’s nothing here that really shouts out ‘Sorcerer’ and any theme could be super-imposed over this without changing anything of the game. Some may find the demonic theme more Torches and pitchforks and I know some will have nothing to do with it because of that.
Turn Time/Involvement	Already? I’m still choosing 3 cards to discard from my last turn	Although every person has six actions to perform, because they can only do 1 action a turn and the actions are pretty simple, the turns move quite quickly. It’s a bit slower during the battle phase. With a 3+ player game, it may even be possible to have two simultaneous battles going on if there are enough dice.
Game Length	We’ll get a couple of games in before bedtime	Provided everyone knows how to play, this should be about 40-60 minutes.
Setup Time	Minutes	The bulk of the time is spent separating out the different decks. The box comes with some nice dividers for the Character, Lineage and Domain decks, but nothing for the individual decks. I’ve tried using the selection process using just the skill cards, but then there’s sifting through trying to find the relevant decks picked. I may need to make my own dividers to make this easier.

Further Thoughts
The main issue with this game is the demonic theme which will limit who will actually play this with me. I know many of you will scoff at this or not even think this is a thing, but for some, this is a real problem.
Apart from that, this game plays a bit like Smash Up, with the similar deck mixing mechanic and battleground break point goal but with a much better focus on the combat. The Omen token mechanic makes for some interesting extra strategy choices where a player may play a weaker minion purely to increase their Omen stash. The order of battle turns on the battleground also keeps players thinking about what should go where, and when.
As I’ve mentioned above, the artwork isn’t to my taste, but I can look past it to enjoy the simplicity and complexity of the game.
I feel it’s a stronger game as a two-player, but am grateful for the adaptation to accommodate extra players. I’m glad I got it with the extras and will keenly keep an eye out for more.
Final Verdict: Add this to your collection!

Expansions
These came with the Kickstarter but will probably be available as expansions too:
Each of the Character Packs comes with a deck of 10 cards, a Character Skill card and an Avatar Standee. The bases are small but can be swapped out for the extras supplied in the base game.

Each of the Lineage Packs comes with a deck of 20 cards and a Lineage Skill card. Both these packs come with extra rules and counters.

Each of the Domain Packs come with a deck of 10 cards and a Domain Skill card.

Lunatic Asylum Domain Pack – Kickstarter Stretch Goal
Royal Palace Domain Pack – Kickstarter Stretch Goal

The reverse of the player boards features an Egyptian theme – they play exactly the same regardless, but three matching battlefields were made available. I declined having spent enough, but I’ve heard they don’t fit too well in the box.
3 Egyptian Battlefields with red cuboids.