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Divinus Board Game Review - Lucky Duck Games

Demigods eh? You think every thing is going well and life is nice and quiet, then all of a sudden you're reminded that you've actually got to go and prove yourself and show how powerful you are in order to ascend to some kind of Pantheon type thing. Well, in Divinus you need to. Now, I don't want you to cringe when I mention this game, but Divinus from Lucky Duck Games seems to have crawled from the same evolutionary pool as Charterstone. Now that might be enough to have some of you wince slightly but hang fire. I'm very aware that not everyone had the best time from that game and time has seen it as more an experiment in gameplay than a direction to forge ahead with. What if I said that Divinus also seems to have inherited its mother's love of Carcassonne. Does that make you feel any better? I hope so. I really do.  Divinus is another entry in the application based games that Lucky Duck Games are quietly and regularly producing from their studios. They seem to have

The Old Hellfire Club Kickstarter Preview - A Sideways Glance

'Aye! I said scuffling my way through what must have the best part of at least forty men, all armed with rapiers and skilled in the art of shuffling people off their mortal coil..' 'Ah, I think you'll find it was a group of urchins that were only armed with germs and the foulest of language'  'I think you'll find Madam, that there were at least twenty of them!!' 'I think you know that actually, you were chased down the street crying by an angry seamstress wielding a loaf of bread. You cried sir, and then ran into a lamp post.'  And this is pretty much how The Old Hellfire Club plays, a collection of tales and stretches of the truth, more akin to messages on the sides of buses, but this time you can call people on their fabrications and steal their drinking gin pennies while having a jolly good time while the nonsense progresses.  For those who are concerned about their ability to tell a tale as old time, do not fret nor

Solar Storm Kickstarter Preview - A Sideways Glance

In space no one can hear you apply sun screen.. Apologies for the frankly dreadful attempt to start off a first thoughts piece for Dranda Games and their game Solar Storm. A disaster averting sun spot of an adventure where factor 50 isn't going to cut it and winding down the window to let in a breeze might just cause slight chafing or actually third degree burns. Though bad intros aside, what we have here is mixture of card game and resource management with a theme that places you in red alert, trying to avoid an impending disaster as you attempt to restart your stalled spaceship as it crashes towards the sun. The ship is represented by a 3 x 3 grid of cards with the energy core in the centre, awaiting patiently for the other surrounding cards to divert power to it so you can get the hell out of there and save your burning soul. Each card has three spaces to represent potential damage as well as information on what resources are required in order to both repair and send

Dan Hughes First Impressions (Without Unboxing) (NOT A REVIEW)

In what can be said as a strange direction in the industry, I was recently sent a review copy of the latest version of Dan Hughes by Jude & Dilisio Games LLC which as you know has been on release for some time. Well I would probably say escaped rather than released, I wouldn't say sent, it was kind of a case of the local courier dropping a rather Hughish box outside the office where I work, ran the doorbell and dashed off in his van, laughing heartily, with a very familiar acting voice indeed.  In these situations, I normally have to answer joking questions from my boss, like 'What have you got delivered now for goodness sake?'   'Is this another wizard outfit'  'How come I'm obviously paying you too much money?' In this case the boss had nothing to say, and truth be told it was almost embarrassing to have such a large parcel in the office. Not as embarrassing as trying to get the box tied to the car, driving 20 miles per hour down the mot

Airecon - Wandering Non Wizard Travels To Harrogate (Or There and Back Again)

It is a difficult thing to prepare for meeting people that so far, you have only really interacted with online. I'm happier to share a direct message, or Facebook chat, because you can't really see that what I've done is deleted the sentence some seven times before I sent it. It's allows me to self edit in so many ways on the fly. Even in the realms of the podcast, while I give the impression that the conversation is free flowing and goes anywhere, I don't necessarily have to worry about people experiencing what I'm actually like in real life. Every time I cringe at something I've said, every point where I want to beat myself up for being stupid, I can simply highlight the guilty sound wave and delete with the press of a button. The final version, a trimming down of potential embarrassment. The only person who knows at the time is the guest and so I pray for short term memory loss and forgiveness. Even if they do remember, it can later on be a little

Teotihuacan: City of Gods - Review

Where do I start with Teotihuacan: City of Gods? Getting it on the table it looks equal parts complex and beautiful. Essentially a Euro, with elements of set collection, some tile laying and board which is a giant rondel the game offers a myriad of strategies to pursue in your bid to outscore your opponents. The game is based on the Aztec city of the same name (pronounced Tee-oh-tay-wah-Kan, I am reliably informed by a Mexican colleague), and in it players take on the role of families vying for favour by helping to build the pyramid in the city, whilst worshipping at various temples to gain the favour of the gods. The board itself has a scoring track on the outer edge, with the rondel inside that comprising 8 different areas where players can take actions. Moving in towards the centre there are also the three temple tracks, the Avenue of the Dead and the eclipse track, before slap bang in the centre is the pyramid. Gameplay The ultimate aim of the game is to outscore

Legends of Novus - FUNdaMENTAL games - First Impressions

The Legends of Novus from FunDaMental Games is one of those strange games where the theme, the promise of adventure, and the components make you fear that you’re about to be embroiled in a quest with the complexity of Mage Knight proportions. It talks a big game here, there are counters and decks of cards, a map with various locations to visit, and actions that will take you exploring or battling or finding equipment to help level up your character and complete your quest. It all looks like there’s going to be a need to watch playthrough videos. You’re going to have to bring in the Rodney or the Rahdo to help you figure things out. You might possibly end up putting it to one side and playing Scythe instead. It’s potentially that kind of a game, where you feel like the brain is going to be burning after 10 minutes of decisions. There will be analysis paralysis and tears. Swearing at your own ineptitude and all to the sound of a constant flickering rule book. But. It’s not

Flip & Find's Diner - Review

Flip & Find's Diner takes a game anyone with children will know - tile matching - and puts a little extra ingredient into the mix. Does this elevate it beyond that basic premise of finding matching tiles though and is it worth a mention in the crowded world of board games? Read on to find out. I first heard about Flip & Find's Diner on none other than We're Not Wizards back in March 2018. Gerald King III of Spontaneously Combustible Games was a guest talking about the forthcoming Kickstarter campaign for the game and I was impressed enough to back the campaign. The game duly arrived around the turn of the year and here are my thoughts. Game Setup & Gameplay As I said previously, at it's heart this is a tile matching game. 25 ingredient tiles are laid out face down in a 5 x 5 grid. Then the extra element comes in. 5 order cards are laid out at the bottom of the tile grid, face up. Alongside this a tip deck is placed face down. A player&#

Loke BattleMats - Giant Book of BattleMats - Playtest and Guest Review

When Loke BattleMats were kind enough to reach out and offer me a chance to try out their Giant Book of BattleMats, I had to concede it would be unfair for me to even attempt to look over their fantastic offering without coming across as some kind of ignorant buffoon. Luckily for me, all round good egg and excellent DM,  Neil Alexander, who runs RPG campaigns regularly in Dunfermline and Edinburgh was happy to take a look on my behalf.  So I took the chance to outsource this review to him so he could try the Battle Mats out on some active campaigns.    The Giant Book of BattleMats certainly live up to their name, coming in a ring binding of A3 size  and 62 pages of various style maps and possible scenarios for you to live out your campaign. You can either use the pages separately or open them up so that you can create an entire A2 scene which will allow you to easily place additional items on the map to enhance the experience.  The Laminated pages serve two purposes i

You're Doing it Wrong!. - Janice Turner - Wren Games

Disclaimer: No gamers were harmed during the writing of this blog post. So, you’ve designed a game, you spent many hours, days, weeks even designing and/or finalising the artwork and writing the rule book, you successfully fund on Kickstarter and your game goes out into the wilds. You start to see photos of people not only playing, but enjoying your game on social media and you feel great. Those hours, days, weeks were worth it. Your creation is bringing joy to other people’s lives. And then you see a photo where someone isn’t playing your game quite right.   I mean, it’s not like I’ve played this game hundreds and hundreds of times and the gameplay is now muscle memory and ingrained into me on how it should, MUST be played. But you look at the photo and all you can see is THEY ARE PLAYING IT WRONG! You want to reach into the photo and correct it. But they are having fun. What they are doing wrong doesn’t actually affect gameplay. In fact, it has exactly zero impact

Hey Kickstarter, Lets make some noise

It's been an interesting year for the crowdfunding platform, with its share of multi-million dollar successes, controversies surrounding outright potential fraud and plagiarism, and continuing dramas centering around project fulfillment or lack there of. We have our first taste of Kickstarter as an actual pre-order store and our stalwart Big Name behemoths seeing push backs against some of their expected successes. At the centre of it all, the old debates surface and swirl and disappear only to surface again. For those jumping on the platform for their first time, with their game clutched tightly to their chest, they'll often hear the echoes of previous creators ringing in their ears. 'Kickstarter isn't fair' 'Kickstarter has raised the bar for everyone' 'Kickstarter makes it impossible for those without a budget' 'Kickstarter isn't for those who aren't prepared to make an effort' 'Kickstarter won't help those who don't do

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