Yay for Games!

It has been a super long time. We have been playing games, but not as often as we used to. Life makes us tired :)

We played some games last Saturday and here's what they were:

1. Andromeda: A pretty cool little game that requires trading, collecting cards to gain dominance of the 7 different planets, and trying to get the most points. This requires strategy and a little bit of luck. Pretty easy game.

2. Tammany Hall: This plays in 12 years. After every 4 years elections for mayor take place. You are trying to backstab, build alliances, and gain influence to become most powerful. Fun game!

3. El Grande: I 1st played this game about 6 years ago and remembered hating it. So I played it again to make sure I did and I actually liked it. You are trying to take over countries to get the most points. Each country is valued different and you can play different cards that allow you to do different actions to help you get those points. 

Long time...

Well, it's been a long time. My bad! We haven't been playing games as much as we used to during winter, but now we have come out of hibernation! Here's a few games we played this past week:

1. King of Tokyo - This has to be our new favorite game! It is a dice game where you are trying to be the King of Tokyo (kind of like King of the Mountain). You can attack others, gain money to buy temporary or permanent cards that help you do cool things, gain life, or gain victory points. The point is to be the last one standing or make it to the number of victory points 1st. Heather almost always wins from getting victory points :)

2. Love Letter - This game was surprisingly fun and pretty quick. There are a total of 16 cards. You are trying to send your letters to the Princess and have her read them before anyone else. It plays in rounds. Whoever wins each round gets a victory point. The 1st one to four wins!

3. Skyline - This is a quick game too. You just roll a die and build a building. But be careful...you could easily demolish your city instead of building it!

Friday Night Games

So every other Friday we have game night. I thought it might be fun to post what we played. This last Friday we had a pretty good turnout: 9 people! We had 2 tables going all night.

Table 1 played: Age of Steam. This is Travis' favorite game. He has TONS of different maps. It is similar to Steam (or so I hear) where you build the track and transfer goods using your train.

                          Rex. This is the remake of the 70's game Dune. It can be a long game, but is still fun. You are trying to win the game using your individual way to win. Sometime during the game, ally cards are played and you can try to win with an ally. Also, you're trying to avoid being destroyed :)

Table 2 played: Conquest of the Fallen Lands. This is a simple game where you try to conquer lands by attacking and fortifying them. If you do, then you gain money equal to the cost of the land. Whoever has the most money at the end wins.

                          Alien Frontiers. I've done a review of this game before. It is a worker placement game but your workers are ships that are dice. Each turn you roll your dice and can place them depending on what you rolled.

                          Bears! This is a very quick dice game. Each player has 5 dice and are trying to make matches with the communal dice. Each match is worth a certain number of points and some get you minus points if there are still bear dice in the middle. Everyone who played enjoyed it!

Both tables played: The Resistance. This game is played almost every game night/day. It is quick and fun. It plays up to 10 and really gets your brain hurting with 10. There are so many spies vs. resistance. Team leaders are trying to get their team approved to go on a mission. Spies are trying to fail missions and resistance are trying to pass missions.

                                Last Night on Earth. 3 people left by this game so 6 of us played (which is the limit). I don't know what it is about zombie games, but they all seem the same to me. So this game was just alright. We did not play the advanced game, however, so I would be interested in trying that too. Depending on the # of players you have some players who are zombies and some who are humans. Each team is trying to kill the other. Zombies are actually hard to kill which makes it a little more fun for the zombie players, but the zombies are never completely out of the game like the humans are. I don't really like those kinds of games because if you get out of the game early, you get bored waiting for the game to be done.

Transition Games

I was thinking that many of my friends have never played "real" games before. Sure they've all played Monopoly, Scattergories, Balderdash, Catch Phrase, etc. But most have never even heard of Descent, Galaxy Trucker, Outpost, Summoner Wars, etc. So I want to list a few games I like to call transition games. These games allow most people who've played games you can buy at Wal-Mart to start thinking in a different sense to be able to get accustomed to "real" games. Please do not think I'm trying to be rude by saying "real" games, I just can't think of another way to put it :)

1. Ticket to Ride: This game is becoming quite popular and I've even seen it for sale at Target and Borders. You get destination cards and try to connect your trains from the 1st to the 2nd destination. But beware, you don't know where you're opponents are trying to go, so they may steal your path 1st. It is a fun and easy game to start with.

2. Settlers of Catan: Many people I know have actually played this game already. I have never played with the expansions, which I hear make it super fun, but Michael and I got so sick of this game because it was the only one people ever wanted to play. SO we sold it so no one could play it anymore :)
In this game you are trying to gain resources by building roads, settlements and cities. Your resources may not be produced each round though. Certain conditions get you victory points. Whoever has 10 victory points 1st wins!

3. Roll Through the Ages: This is a dice game. You start with a certain number you roll (I think it's 3) and try to build up your colonies, buildings, monuments, etc from your dice rolls. I like this game quite a bit because the dice aspect makes it a little harder and sometimes frustrating which always makes a game fun!

4. Alhambra: You start with some money cards in your hand and are trying to buy the little square pieces in the middle to build up your Alhambra. So each player has their own Alhambra they're building off of. You can either build, buy, or take cards as your turn. Simple and fun!

5. Citadels: This is a card based game. Each round the king starts (and the king can change each round). The king takes a character card that allows different things to happen. Then they pass the leftover cards to the left, they pick a card and pass it until everyone has a character. Then you start in order - card #1 goes 1st, #2 is 2nd, etc. Each character is trying to gain gold to build up districts. Once someone has built their 8th district, each player gets one last turn. Then whoever has the biggest cost of districts wins!

6. Mag Blast: This is a card based game too. You will start with 5 total cards laid out on the table for all to see. In the middle, you will have your command ship surrounded by 4 fleet ships. Each player is trying to kill off your command ship by shooting at it. Whoever is left with a command ship wins!

Kids Games

I've decided to change it up a bit and post about different fun games for kids. We've played all types of games and just yesterday played 2 kids games. It got my brain thinking, which I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not :)

These are in no particular order:

1. Animal Upon Animal (in German it's Tier auf Tier) for 2-4 players aged 4+. This game has a die you roll to determine which animal you have to place upon the stack of animals already in place. Easy peasy and fun!

2. The Black Pirate (in German it's Die schwarze Pirat) for 2-4 players aged 5+. You are playing in the high seas. Roll 2 die to see where the treasure lands and if you'll be the pirate ship or your own ship. Then take a bellows and blow air onto whichever ship to try and gain gold. Fun game!

3. Hexenduell (I can't think of what it stands for in German, but it's something about a witch) for 2-4 players aged 5+. Each player uses a magnetic witch to push around her broom to gain their magic crystals.  The pieces of all 3 of these 1st games are super nice and would last through a good beating.

4. Zombie Dice for 1+ players aged 5+. You have a certain number of dice in a cup. Without looking you take 3 dice and roll them. You are trying to gain brains and avoid bullets. Once you roll 3 bullets, you are dead. If you quit before you roll 3, you keep however many brains you have. Whoever makes it to 13 1st wins.

5. 10 Days in America (there are many of these...Africa, Asia, etc) for 2-4 players aged 10+. I would say that an 8 year old could play these games. You have a deck of cards with different places (cities, countries, etc) and also ways to travel (plane, boat, etc). You have to put these in an order that would get you from point A to point B correctly. This is a great geography game!

6. Bag-O-Loot for 2-4 players aged 10+. I would say an 8 year old could play this game. You are trying to gain collections of cards by making them yourself or stealing them from others. It has elements of Rummy & Go Fish.

7. Bears! for 2-4 players aged 7+. If you have 2 copies of this game, 8 players can play. In this game you have your own set of dice that you roll. Then you look in the center dice that everyone shares and try to make matches with your own dice. If you can't make any, then you roll your own dice until a match can be made. Whoever matches their dice 1st calls out Bears and then you tally the score. Quick and fun!

8. Blokus for 2-4 players aged 5+. You arrange different shaped pieces onto a board trying to keep building onto your own color while trapping others so they can't build upon their color.

9. Cartagena II for 2-4 players aged 8+. You are a pirate who has escaped prison and are trying to figure out what to do now.

10. Cloud 9 for 2-6 players aged 8+. You are taking chances while riding a hot air balloon. Roll the dice, if you have the cards of the dice colors then you advance to the next level and gain those points. If you roll and don't have those cards, you lose the points and go back to the beginning.

11. Dixit for 3-6 players aged 8+. You all hands of different pictures. You pick a picture and say a phrase, word or sound that goes along with the picture. Then everyone picks a picture and everyone puts them on the table randomly. Then everyone guesses what picture it is and points are awarded based on the outcome.

12. Flash Point for 1-6 players aged 10+. I think 8+ could play. This is a cooperative game of putting out fires and saving people (and pets). Tons of fun!

13. Forbidden Island for 2-4 players aged 10+. I think 8+ could play. You are racing to get treasures before the island sinks. Good times.

14. The Great Dalmuti for 4-8 players aged 8+. This is a card game to see who gets rid of their cards 1st to become the Great Dalmuti and boss everyone around :)

15. Have You Herd? for 2-4 players aged 6+. You are rolling dice to build up your farm and make combinations to get the most points.

16. Ingenious for 1-4 players aged 10+. I think 8+ could play. You are connecting like objects to gain points on your own board and defeat your opponents.

17. No Thanks for 3-5 players aged 8+. You start with 11 chips. Flip over a card and decide if you want it or not. If not, you place a chip on the card and continue around the table until someone takes it (willingly or because they ran out of chips). Each card = the points it is. The one with fewer points wins.

18. PitchCar for 2-8 players aged 6+. We played with a 5 year old. You build a track, and have a circular disc represent your car. Everyone takes turns flicking it around the track. Whoever finishes 3 laps 1st wins.

19. Tumblin Dice for 1-4 players aged 13+. You can play with 5+ you just do the adding/multiplying for them. You can also add more people to the game by using more dice. You start your die out on the starting area and flick your die. Where it lands is its point value. Whoever has dice left on the board at the end of the game adds their points and if they have the highest points they win!

There are many many more games but now I'm tired :)

Ascension: Storm of Souls Expansion

Ascension: Storm of Souls plays exactly like Ascension (go here for Ascension's review: http://boardgameaddicts.blogspot.com/2011/08/ascension.html) but with a little variation. This expansion includes an event card that all players are subject to. The events will change throughout the game.

They also threw in a new monster that can always be defeated; Fanatic. Fanatic costs 3 (instead of 2 like the Cultist) and gets you one honor. When you defeat Fanatic, you put him in front of you. This monster is considered a trophy monster. You may never have more than 1 Fanatic in front of you at a time. There are certain events that come into play that tell you what to do with your Fanatic monster.

This game can be played with 2-4 people as a stand alone game, or be combined with your other Ascension games.

Happy gaming!

GOSU & Kamakor

GOSU is a card army building game. Kamakor is the expansion that adds new goblins/clans. It's pretty quick and pretty fun! You can play 2-4 players.

You start with one level 1 goblin and play it in front of you for free. This will be your most bottom left goblin in your army. Now that it has been played, you do its immediate effect or need to remember its effect for later.

Then you take another card. It can either be another level 1 or a level 2 goblin. If it's level 1, place it to the right of your 1st goblin. All level 1's will be on the bottom most row. If the level 1 goblin is in the same clan as your 1st one, it plays for free. If it's not, you need to discard 2 cards to play it. If it's a level 2, place it directly above your left most level 1 goblin. All level 2's will be in the row above level 1 goblins. You cannot have more level 2's than level 1's. To play a level 2, you must have a goblin in the same clan as the level 2 goblin.

Level 1

Level 1 and 2

To play a level 3 card, you must have a goblin from the same clan in level 1 and 2. Place the level 3 directly above the left most open space above level 2. All level 3 cards will be in the top row.

Level 1, 2 & 3

*Note: Level 2 & 3 goblins are free but you have to have the same clan in level 1 and/or 2. The clan symbols are in the upper left corner. The levels are directly underneath the clan symbol. 

Once you have nothing you can do, you pass. When you pass, you are done for the rest of the round. After everyone has passed, it is time to battle. Count your points and whomever has the most points gets a victory point. Then start a new round. The game ends when someone has 3 victory points.

Much of the game is played building or mutating/changing your goblins. Goblins can also be trapped or destroyed which helps add some strategic planning.

Happy gaming!

Crokinole

Michael has looked at Crokinole boards for many years now and I have never let him buy one because they are about $150-$250! That's just WAY too much $$!! But Mayday Games now mass produces them and sells them for $99-$129, depending on if they're on sale. We, however, came across a discounted one because it was returned by a customer. The description said it had small bumps on the board but that the board was still 100% playable. It was $60. So we gambled and bought it. Boy am I glad we did!! It is an awesome game!! It also makes a nice wall hanging, lol!

*It is for 2-4 players (but some boards aren't set up for 3 players).
*It can play in 5-10 minutes.
*It is a dexterity game where you flick pieces and try to get points with them like darts.
*If your opponent has a piece on the board, you must hit one of their pieces in order to keep your piece on the board.

*If your opponent doesn't have a piece on the board, then you can flick your piece anywhere, but the very middle circle counts as 20 points. The 2nd circle counts as 15, the next 10, and the last one 5. So when you're both done flicking your 12 pieces, you count how many points you have.

Simple. Fast. Fun. 

Alhambra

Alhambra is one of my top 10 games. I think I may have more than 10 top ten games :)

I like this game because it is pretty simple, you don't have to think a ton (which many people we play with like), and I almost always get the longest wall! Lol! We just recently got the City Gates expansion but have not played with it yet.

As a bonus, the instructions come in 6 different languages! Haha!

Game Play:

You start out with a hand of cards that equals 20 or more. There are 4 different colors of cards ranging from 1-9. You also start out with a starting tile, a counter, and a tile reserve board.

You are trying to build your own Alhambra. This is done by buying & building tiles and adding them to your own Alhambra. There will always be 4 buildings to buy at a time. If one of those tiles was a red building, was located in the green market and cost 8, I would have to spend at least 8 worth of green cards from my hand to buy that building. I would then either place it next to any of my tiles in my Alhambra or on my reserve board for future placement. If I played exactly 8 worth of green cards, I get to take another turn (either buying tiles or drawing cards).

You gain points from having the most color of each building tile and for each wall that is connected to your Alhambra. Scoring will happen 3 times; twice secretly in the middle of the game and once at the end. Whoever has the most points at the end wins!!

7 Wonders

I got Michael 7 Wonders for his birthday this year. I really had no idea what it was about but I knew it was one of the games he wanted so I picked it. Now it is one of my top 10 games!

It is actually a fun game (not because I win almost every time, lol) because everyone takes their turn at the same time. This cuts down on waiting times and helps to keep attention spans of all ranges. Seven Wonders plays 2-7 players which makes it even more appealing because most games only play up to 5.

7 Wonders is a game about the 7 wonders of the world, go figure. Each player has a different wonder that can get them special abilities. The point of the game is to build up your wonder. How do you do this?

Game play:

1. Everyone starts with a hand of 7 cards.

2. Everyone picks a card they want to add to their wonder and places it in front of them face down. Then passes their hand to the player on their left or right, depending on what round it is (there are 3 rounds).

3. When everyone has picked their card, they are flipped over and any immediate effects are resolved now.

4. Then everyone picks up their new hand and starts all over. When your hand has 2 cards left, you pick one and discard the other.

After the 3rd round the points are counted. Whoever has the most victory points wins! Here's some examples of how you get points:

*The blue cards only give you points at the end of the game. The upper middle number is your points for the end of the game.
*The green cards are worth 7 if you get all 3 symbols and worth how many of the same symbol you have squared (if you have 3 of the same symbol it would be 3 x 3 = 9).
*Some of the yellow cards get you victory points based on different color cards you (or sometimes your neighbor) have.
*Red cards get you points if you beat your neighbors amount of red cards. The 1st round you would get 1 VP, the 2nd round you would get 3 VP, and the 3rd round you would get 5 VP. If you don't beat your neighbor you get a -1.
*Purple cards only come out in round 3 and get you different VP for all sorts of different things. They are pretty cool cards.

If during game play everything is confusing, it will all make sense once you score. So you'll have to play at least 2 times in a row....and you'll want to!!

**Note: There is more to this game that I am not talking about so you'll have to read the directions.

Ascending Empires

Ascending Empires is a dexterity game for 2-4 players. It's a nice little twist on dexterity games as you can also do different types of actions to take each turn instead of always just flicking a game piece (like Pitchcar or Micro Mutants).

I guess the biggest complaint about this game is the board. The board consists of 9 sections that fit together like a puzzle. Because of this, the pieces are not flush and causes your ships that you flick to stop or get misdirected when it hits a higher spot in the game board. If you think about it before you flick your ships, you can push down on the pieces to help make the board flush. This seems to work just fine.

Ascending Empires plays 2-4. I liked it better with 4 but Michael had no problem with just 2.

Here's what the board looks like set up:

Here's what you can do on your turn - choose 1 of the following:

1. Recruit troops - you can recruit troops onto any planet without having to reveal it (they all start face-down).
2. Use 2 movements - Launch a starship, Land on a planet, & Navigate a ship each count as 1 movement.
3. Create a colony. These count as +1 to the planet's defense.
4. Create a city. These count as +2 to the planet's defense.
5. Create a research station. These help develop technology but count as +0 to a planet's defense.
6. Develop technology. These help get you added bonuses.

Navigating your ships is the dexterity part of this game. It's pretty fun to do and not too difficult (except for the board issue). Ascending Empires plays pretty quickly so you don't get too bored in between turns.

Another part of the game I like is destroying other starships! You have to have 2 of your starships within range of 1 opponent's starship in order to destroy it, which is a little more difficult. Or you can just ram one of your ships into someone else's ship, which also destroys your ship. This seemed to be easier to do.

Happy gaming!

Time's Up

So we went to Borders today because they are closing and everything is 40-60% off. I bought a book and our friend Kristin bought Time's Up. She LOVES that game and we told her they had it so she wanted to get it. Anyway, it made me think of reviewing Time's Up...so....

Time's Up is a party game for 4 or more players. The rules suggest you have 2 person teams but we like playing boys vs. girls.

You start by passing out 40 cards total then dealing each player 2 more cards. Then players discard 2. If you want a shorter game, you can deal out less cards or if you want a longer game you can deal out more cards.

You pick a starting team and they pick a starting player. That player has all of the cards face down. When they timer starts the player flips over the top card and then follows the rules according to the round. Time's Up plays in 3 rounds: 

Round 1: Plays like Catch Phrase. You can give as many clues as you can without saying any part of the title or words on the card. Passing to the next card is not allowed.

Round 2: No more than one word can be used for each clue and passing is allowed. But your teammates can only guess 1 answer for each clue.

Round 3: Only pantomime and sounds are allowed. Your team can only guess 1 answer for each clue and passing is allowed.

Of course you are timed during these rounds. You have 30 seconds to get your team to guess as many clues as they can.

Once the deck runs out, meaning all the cards have been correctly guessed, the round is done. Teams count how many cards they have, each being worth a point, and note it on the provided paper. All the cards get put back into the deck and are shuffled, then the next round starts.

So as you can see it is different than other games because the rules change each round. This makes it a little bit harder and a lot more fun. The ideal thing to do would be to use pantomime from the very beginning to make it a little easier for your team to guess.

Ascension

We had ordered Ascension from coolstuffinc.com in June and hadn't received it until Friday August 12. The way coolstuffinc.com works is they ship your whole order together, but if you ordered something that is a pre-order, they won't ship everything until it the whole order is fulfilled. So anyway, we went to GenCon and learned how to play Ascension for free (oh yeah). And it was amazing!

Ascension is a deck building game (like Dominion) and plays a lot like Dominion and Magic mixed together. Unlike Dominion, there are only 8 cards total for you to look at at any given time. 3 of those cards are permanent cards that never change: Mystic, Heavy Infantry, and the Cultist. The other 5 cards are constantly changing.

Examples of changing cards: Heroes, Constructs and Monsters.

The upper right hand corner is how much the cards cost if they're in a Rune (the triangle) or how much militia it takes to defeat them (if they're in the red).

On your turn, you start with 2 Militia cards and 8 Apprentice cards. You shuffle these and draw 5. This is your starting hand. You make the other 5 your face-down deck. Your deck will start growing as the game goes on.

Game Play:

So you use the abilities on your cards to acquire new cards, put used cards into your discard pile, and then draw your new hand of 5. Some cards will let you gain honor and all monsters you defeat will get you honor. Whoever has the most honor at the end of the game wins.

We have played this game almost every day since we've received it. We love it! It's a pretty quick game for the most part. It plays 2-4 unless you get the expansion then it plays up to 6! We played with 5 yesterday and it played a little slower than 2-4 players, although 2 of the players had never played before. I think I like it best with 3.

One last picture of the whole game board set up before I end:

Telestrations

Heeeeeeere's Heather! lol!

Let's face it, many people we play games with like party games. Party games are fun, but in moderation. So here is one of my favorite party games: Telestrations!

Telestrations is based of off telephone and pictionary. Everyone has their own sketch book and marker. You draw a card and roll a die to pick which idea from that card you have to draw. It plays 4-8.


Example of game play:

I start with the word weightlifter. There are 4 people playing. I write the word weightlifter

then I draw it on page 1 and pass it to the left.

Player 2 looks at page 1, guesses what it is on page 2, then passes it to the left.

Player 3 looks at page 2, draws the guess on page 3, then passes it to the left.

Player 4 looks at page 3 and then guesses what it is on page 4 and passes it to the left.

I now have my own booklet back. I look through the pages and laugh at what people drew and guessed! It gets a lot more interesting with 8 players. This game allows you to get to know people from their guesses/drawings. It's a lot of fun when the guesses don't match the original pictures!

Quarriors!

We just received Quarriors on Thursday. Michael was SO excited for this game because he loves dice games so he read the rules and we played Thursday night. I have to say it was pretty cool!

It is a deck building game (like Dominion or Ascension) but with dice instead of cards. Here's what the game play area looks like:

Each card represents a monster or a spell. You are trying to build up your Quarry by using Quiddity (magic that acts like $) to gain them. Each card has a cost. If you achieve that cost with your Quarry, you add the die to your Quarry. Here's how a turn works:

1. Doesn't pertain to your 1st turn. But every other time you would score your creatures you have in your Ready area. Each creature is worth a certain amount of glory.

2. Draw 6 dice and roll your Active Pool. Place these dice in your Active area. Here is a picture of what the dice look like. They are cool!

3. Ready spells and summon creatures. Each creature has a cost located in the upper left corner of each die. You must pay to ready them. Spells do not cost anything to ready.

4. Attack! This is part of the game and actually makes it quite fun. Unlike other deck building games, there is not much interaction with players so having to attack your friends makes it a little more exciting. As you can see in the picture above, the attack is located in the upper right corner. If I were attacking with a 3, I would kill any creature with a 1 or 2 defense (located in the lower right corner of each die). Each die has different sides. Not all sides contain the creature. Some contain Quiddity. This makes it a little harder to always roll a monster. Each creature card contains a picture of every side of the dice so you can see your odds of rolling a monster each time. Monsters that did not die remain in the ready area. Monsters that did die go into the used side of each players game area.

5. Capture 1 new dice. You can now use your Quiddity you rolled to gain one new creature or spell. This will be moved to the used side of your game area.

6. Move spent dice to used pile. All of your Quiddity, whether used or not, goes into your used pile.

That's how the game works. It is fun and a nice little twist to regular deck building games. I love playing with dice because it makes it harder to get what you want every time. I think that makes games more fun!

Our 1st GenCon Experience

Michael and I went to GenCon Indy, the biggest board game convention in America, I think. It was from August 4-7. We arrived Thursday evening and made it over to the convention to look at our options for the next few days. It was a lot to handle! Things I noticed the 1st day:

*There are some weird people.
*There were a ton of people.
*Every room in the convention center and rooms in the connecting 4 hotels were filled with events!
*There was a ton of games you could play either by buying event tickets or sometimes for free!
*There was an auction to bid on items.
*It didn't smell nearly as bad as I thought it would.

We were able to learn and play Ascension (which is a game we have, but never played), Talisman (which is another game we have but never played), Munchkin Quest and Dungeons & Dragons. We really wanted to play Descent, but it was $6 and 5 hours long for the intro game and they were sold out. Bummer!

So we realized that it is important to look at the list of all events and plan our days out before we get to the convention so that we can buy our tickets the 1st day we get there.

All in all, it was great and we will definitely be going again next year!

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!