Small World

It's a world of slaughter, after all! Haha!

Heather here.

Small World is definitely in my top 10! I love this game, everyone I play with loves this game, and everyone I know loves this game.

Small World has a fantasy theme where you are a certain race and have a special power to accompany it. Every time you play, the combinations will be different. I know you are DYING for me to tell you some of the races and powers so here we go:

Races:

1. Elves basically don't die. That's awesome!
2. Dwarves collect extra coins.
3. Ratmen have sheer number on their side.
4. Giants get to conquer areas for 1 less token.

Special Powers:

1. Seafaring allows you to conquer seas and lakes (which no one else can do).
2. Spirit allows you to keep your declined races on the board, if they don't die.
3. Beserk allows you to roll the die before each conquest.

Now you must be wondering, "What the heck does all this mean?" Good question!

Game Play for 1st Round:

1st: You start by picking the person with the pointiest ears to go 1st (which is always Michael). For your 1st turn you will pick a race and special power combo. Before the start of the game, you set up 5 combos, chosen at random. So on your turn, you pick one. You then will take all tokens that go along with your race and sometimes for your special ability.

2nd: Conquer some regions. You need 2 race tokens to conquer a region + 1 for every other token on that region. You can also redeploy your troops, trying to reinforce your regions.

3rd: Gain your victory points! You get 1 coin for each region your race tokens occupy, then add any extra that your special powers give you.

Game Play for all Other Rounds:

1st: Conquer new regions. (same as above #2)

2nd: Go into decline. You flip all your race tokens over, discarding all but one on each region it was occupying. Discard your special power (unless it states otherwise). If you already have a race in decline, you must discard all those tokens, leaving only one race in decline. That is your turn. So when it's your turn again, you'll pick a new race/special power combo.

Game End:

The game ends after the marker gets to the last round and everyone has had their turn. Count all your victory points and whoever has the most wins!

We do have some expansions to this game that add some cool races and special powers. It's just nice to have even more options and variety.

Why I Like This Game:

This game is fun because you get to kill people, conquer regions, kill yourself and get new characters, and get victory points after each turn. I like having some of the expansions to help keep this game from being monotonous. But even without them, it keeps me entertained because the race and special powers are never combined the same.

I do have to say that Michael and I went and demo'd (spelling?) Small World Underground, which is a new stand-alone game. The races and special powers are just about the same as Small World, but with underground creatures. I don't think I will buy it because it's just too similar. If you like more dungeony things, get Underground, but if you like more bright/outside things, get regular Small World. 

Lost Cities vs Lost Cities

Michael and I have had Lost Cities the 2 player game for a couple years now. We just recently purchased Lost Cities the Board game in an auction on BGG. Then I had an idea to compare and contrast the 2 similar yet different games.

Lost Cities the 2 player game:

Number of Players: 2

Contents of Game: Cards

Time: 20-40 minutes

How to Play: You start with a hand of cards. The deck consists of four different colored cards numbered 0-10. You want to collect the same colors and in assending order place them one by one in front of you. The order of play is play a card then draw a card. The game is played until the last draw card is drawn and then 2 more rounds are played. The score is figured out by totaling the value of the cards played, then subtracting by 20. So you want to have a value more than 20 when all your cards are placed. Whoever has the most points at the end wins!

Lost Cities the board game:

Number of Players: 2-4

Contents of Game: Game board, cards, event tiles, figurines, victory point chips, and artifact chips

Time: 30-60 minutes

How to Play: You lead a team of 5 to search for lost cities. There are 5 different paths they can take and each team member must use a different path. You have a hand of cards with a deck consisting of 5 colors with 0-10 twice in each color. You want to place the cards in ascending order to advance a team member along the path. The least amount of cards you have, the more negative points you'll get. Along the way, you may gain event tiles that give you special bonuses. You play 3 rounds and whoever has the most victory points at the end wins!

Awesome 2 player games

Upon request, here are some FUN 2 player games and a little description of them:

1. Micro Mutants: This can play 2-4 and is a dexterity game. You flick bugs to try and land on opponents bugs to kill them.

2. Hive: This is only a 2 player game. You have a hive of insects that all have different capabilities and you try to surround your opponents queen bee with your color of bugs.

3. Alhambra: This plays 2-5. You purchase tiles to add to your own Alhambra. Some tiles have walls and others don't. Having a long wall gets you extra points as well as having the most of each color tiles.

4. Space Hulk: This is only a 2 player game. The pieces of this game are amazingly cool! One side is the genestealers (alien) and the other are the marines (humans). Each piece can do something different. The genestealers are trying to kill the marines with sheer number and the marines are trying to get out of the scenario unscathed. The only con to this game is....it's expensive! Especially for just a 2 player game, but it is super fun, every piece to the game is intricate and sturdy, and the scenarios always change when you play. This makes for an exciting and different game every time!

5. Alien Frontiers: This can play 2-4. You have ships (dice) and can place them on certain docking stations depending on your roll. See Michael's earlier post of this game for more info.

6. Earth Reborn: This plays 2-4. This game is different every time you play it. There are different scenarios to set up the game board, it reminds me of a puzzle. Every time you advance to a new scenario, a new task or item is added. So the 1st scenario is basic and the 10th scenario is advanced. It is amazing!

7. MagBlast: This plays 2-8 and is a card game. I don't know about 8 players though. That seems like it would be a little long in play, but it's fun with 2-4. You have a command ship surrounded by your fleet of 4 ships. Each player is trying to blow up opponent's command ships to win the game.

8. Lost Cities: There is a card game that plays 2 player only and then a board game that plays 2-4. I will actually be posting about these two games in more detail soon. The basis for the card game is you have 4 different colors of cards numbered 1-10. You are trying to gain these cards to play in ascending order. The least number you use, the more negative points you get.

Stone Age

Heather here....

OK so I have been thinking about my top 10 games and of course I have to add Stone Age to the list!

The basis of this game is that you live in the Stone Age (imagine that) and are trying to master the art of agriculture, process resources, and build huts.

 So each round is broken down into 3 Phases:
1. Play your people on the board (you can place one or more at a time, depending on where it is)
2. Use the actions of your placed people
3. Feed your people

Here's a part that makes it fun! You can almost never place all of your people where you want them to go. Here's how and where you can place them:

*The starting player starts. Every round the starting player changes.
  
Phase 1: They can place one person on the tool maker, 2 people on the hut (the baby makin' hut), 1 player in the field, as many people as they want in the field to hunt for food, up to 7 people in the forest, clay pit, quarry, and river, 1 person per each civilization card and 1 person per building (hut). Once they place one or more people (depending on where they put it) the next player puts one or more people into one place until everyone has placed all of their people.

Phase 2: So the tool maker gets you a tool that starts with a value of 1. This tool helps when you roll dice. If you needed a total of 18 with the dice but only got 17, if you had one tool you could use that to bump you up to 18. Only one person per round can get a tool.

   *The baby makin' hut gets you one extra person. Only one player can place 2 people here per round.

   *The field gets you one extra food for your people. At the end of the round you need to feed your people so having one extra food you would only need 5 food if you had 6 people.

   *The hunting field gets you food. You get one die per person you have in the field. You then total your die roll and divide by 2. That's how many food you get.

   *The forest, clay pit, quarry, and river are similar to the hunting field. There can only be a total of 7 people on each one of these resources. You roll a die for each person you have in that resource and then divide. But the forest is divided by 3, the clay pit divided by 4, the quarry divided by 5 and the river divided by 6. So it's harder to get more of the other resources.

   *Civilization cards get you extra goodies. Those can be extra points, food, or resources.

   *Buildings get you extra points.


Phase 3: Feed your people.

Whoever has the highest score at the end wins!

SO make babies, get tools, get points, get resources, get food. Simple. Easy. Fun.