Quick Hits

Played a bunch of new games over this weekend so far. Reviews will be coming ASAP. For now, here's a sampling of the gaming goodness!

Terminator Salvation

Fury of Dracula

There are so many cooperative games that are coming out that we’ve now started to remake/improve some of the oldest cooperative board games around. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Scotland Yard, as it’s a perfectly playable game even for gamers with more modern standards and tastes. However it’s not perfect and an update was probably in order.

Fury of Dracula fits this bill nicely. The gameplay is essentially the same as Scotland Yard, where one player acts as Dracula and travels across Europe to create new vampires and elude the Hunters. The Hunters’ job is obviously to find and kill Dracula. As Dracula moves, he leaves a card corresponding to a city on the Dracula's Trail track. Using various means, the players are able to reveal these cards and determine where Dracula may have gone. This can be dangerous, as Dracula leaves minions and traps in his previous locales. Combat involves each belligerent choosing a combat action, rolling a dice, and then determining which actions go off based on the weapons or abilities used. Damage is then dealt, and play continues until one party is dead or one party successfully retreats.

Unlike Scotland Yard, the Hunters have varying skills and abilities. The Hunters have to work together to find Dracula, and failing to use their abilities to aid their team will result in a quick win for Dracula. This isn’t always easy as Van Helsing’s and Godalming’s special abilities are geared toward helping themselves rather than helping the others. Nevertheless, coordination and teamwork are a necessity.

The game offers a lot of risk/reward options for both Dracula and the Hunters. Hunters can travel quickly by train, but may end up going nowhere if they run into bad luck. Dracula can clear the Trail and wipe out his path with the right card, but doing so erases any encounters that he might turn into victory points for himself. A player can try to retreat from combat if he or she is close to death, but doing so means that they won’t do any damage to their enemy.

Overall, Fury of Dracula does a good job of giving all the players a rewarding experience. Playing a Hunter seems just as fun as playing Dracula, and there are fewer “wasted” turns on the player’s part where they could potentially be running around getting nothing accomplished. The game is extremely social, as the Hunters must constantly discuss what to do next and how to deal with each new development or discovery. Like all turn-based games it’s important for the players not to mull over their actions for too long, as extended bouts of indecisiveness will result in a longer and more tedious game for everyone else. It should be noted that there was a previous edition of The Fury of Dracula, and that the version that I played was the Fantasy Flight edition featuring slightly simpler and much more streamlined rules and mechanics. Fury of Dracula gets a 7 of 10 from me. I can’t wait to play it again. Also, I can’t promise that I won’t make The Count references if I ever play as Dracula.

Star Trek

Random Thoughts #2

• STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!! STAR TREK IS TOMORROW!!!
• Last night's appearance on Late Night JengaJam was a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll get to do it again at some point. After the show we talked about doing some live board game playing at some point in the future, so we'll see what happens with that.
• NFL draft was last week. OU sent 5 players to the pros, including 3 offensive linemen. Texas sent 4 players, including 3 defensive linemen. This year's OU/TX game should be more interesting than ever.
  
• Halo was also fun last night. There's a special kind of joy associated with blowing up a Warthog full of enemies with a missile pod, or blowing up two enemies at the same time w/ a single rocket. TOTAL CARNAGE! I LOVE IT!
• Current D&D Campaign Count: 3. One party of three 9th level guys (Dragonborn Paladin/Warlord, Dragonborn Warlord/Barbarian, Human Bow Ranger), another party of three level 5 dwarves (Battlerager Fighter, Warlord, and Beast Ranger), and the big party of six level 7 guys (Human Rogue, Human Swordmage, Human Fighter, Dwarven Wizard/Fighter, Dwarven Cleric/Warlord, Tiefling Warlord).
  

Maus nach Haus

It's a funny little dexterity game, and like all dex games I suck at it. I give it a 5/10, as it's little more than a quick time-waster that you play in between more substantial games.



I should also mention that I'll be the guest on Late Night JengaJam this Tuesday (May 5th) at 9:30 Central. We'll be talking about the Wandering Gamer, board games in general, and other nerdy things that will make normal folk confused.

Small World

The term “light wargame” is somewhat paradoxical. Wargames are almost always a long and involved labor of gaming love. Even Risk, by far the most mainstream wargame, is no small time or energy commitment. Small World is a very different wargame, that seeks to offer a more fun and light-hearted wargaming experience.

Small World is just that, an absurdly small world map on which players use various fantasy races to conquer as much of the world as they can. The combat mechanics are very simple. You send enough units into a space, and you conquer it. You’re never inflicted any casualties while attacking, but you do stretch out your territory with each square you take.

What happens next is what sets Small World apart from other games. See, that fantasy race that you originally chose? Yeah, eventually you run out of units with that race, and the player is forced to abandon that race then choose another race to play. The abandoned race is said to be in decline, and while the controlling player still scores points for the territory amassed as that race, the player can no longer use that race’s special abilities nor can they conquer any more territory. That race’s territory becomes a target for your opponent’s expansion. With your newly chosen race, you can either defend that territory, or reconquer it yourself for some reason. The game lasts 8 rounds of each player taking a turn, and you can only have one active and one declining race at any time.

The whole game has an air of parody that really works and is amusing. The races are caricatures of the different races of fantasy and adventure. Elves are effeminate, Ratmen are numerous, and Halflings (hobbits) have underground burrows. The special powers for the races are also ridiculous and make for almost a MadLib of these creatures of fantasy. Commando Dwarves, Flying Ratmen, Stout Elves, and Wealthy Amazons are regularly hilarious race choices.

Each race also has different abilities that allow them to attack, defend, or move better or more efficiently, as well as a number of starting units. Each race is also paired with a special power that grants an additional ability as well as an additional number of starting units. So the units that you actually start off a race with are the sum of the two numbers, balanced by the potency of the races ability and its random special power. These are the only troops you get for this race, and once their gone you don’t get any more.

The pairing of races and special powers is one of the better mechanics of the game. One game you could have Flying Giants, and the next you could have Seafaring Giants. This makes for an enormous amount of replay potential and expandability, which is something that I highly value in a game. The simple combat and relatively short play time make this game easily accessible to any kind of gamer. Its irreverent attitude is refreshing and fun, getting Small World an 8/10. I can’t wait to play it again.