Pandemic Playthrough - Researcher, Quarantine Specialist & Researcher

A Sunday evening with some free time to kill. Score! While the wife is busy with writing her book (she has to meet her deadline), I thought I should rejuvenate my brain tank with a board game. The only solo game I currently own and enjoy is Pandemic, ergo another session report from me...

Solo 3-player Pandemic Playthrough
5 epidemics (normal mode)

Random roles according to sequence:

• Researcher
• Quarantine Specialist (QS for short)
• Scientist

Our starting lineup

5 Epidemic cards shuffled into the player deck

Board at the start of the game

I have heard that there is a power combo between the researcher and the scientist. The researcher would pass her cards to the scientist to find cures.

But looking at this lineup, I can see that I'm going to have a hard time moving around the board without an operations expert nor a dispatcher. And when it's hard to move around the board, the likelihood of the researcher and the scientist meeting up while treating diseases is highly improbable.

But I decided to take up the challenge anyway. So cards shuffled and cities infected. OMG, red cities are swiftly being infected? But I really shuffled my cards! Anyway it looks like the cities infected with 3 disease cubes are at different parts of the board - Chennai (black), Ho Chi Minh City (red) and Johannesberg (bottom yellow). Looking at my player hands, it is going to be very hard to reach all three critical cities.

Starting infections

Our researcher starts by ferrying from Atlanta to Tokyo and manages to treat the patient there who begs her to go over to Seoul to treat his cousins there. The quarantine specialist makes his move to Ho Chi Minh City but has no more moves to treat anyone there. Our scientist decides to use his flight ticket to Cairo, walking to Johannesburg and treating one patient there. Fortunate for out heroes, our quarantine specialist was able to prevent an outbreak from occuring in Ho Chi Minh City and also prevent a cube in hong kong.

I'll save you the trouble of reading the details so I'll just skip to the summary of the playthrough (though my mind is itching to tell you all the details).

Our scientist's first turn produced an epidemic. New York got critically infected but I used the event card Resilent Population to take that card out if the game. That way, it will never appear again in this game. One less city to worry about. 

1st epidemic by the Scientist

Playing the quarantine specialist, common logic would be to place her at critically infected cities. From previous experiences, the QS is most effective when we predict where the cities will infect so I decided to bring her to wherever there were plenty of not so critically infected cities around her. By knowing which cities were already hit, I positioned her where I thought the infections would strike next and this worked wonders like pitting Chuck Norris worth a bunch of diseases. Before her turn came again, she had already prevented 3 cities from having another cube.

I was lucky when during the 2nd epidemic that the QS was next to Kolkata and Kolkatta was drawn as the city critically infected. The QS kicked the disease square in the face out of that region. It's nice to have feelings like this when playing QS.

Our first cure was an amazing feat. I saw that I could cure two diseases in one turn if I moved the scientist to a research center and sacrifice any attempt to treat diseases. The photos show it all. My researcher went over and gave the scientist 3 red cards (the scientist now had 4). When the scientist's turn came, she found the cure for red, took two yellow cards from the researcher and found another cure for yellow. Holyacaroni, two cures in one turn! That's like hitting jackpot. I love having these moments of shear brilliance in Pandemic. 

Shear brilliance - Finding 2 cures in 1 turn! 

First cures. Woohoo! 

Our first outbreak happened 3 epidemics in, in Lima (yellow). The epidemic card pulled out Lima to critically infect and after shuffling the infection pile and placing on top of the deck, Lima was drawn again! Yes, there are always these moments where you will feel helpless no matter how you plan and strategize. Only an event card can turn these situations to "ha I got you this time, game system". So yea, I cud not do anything about it.

1st Outbreak in Lima

The QS managed to set up our second research station in Bangkok, so now we can fly from one side of the map to the middle of it. Our researcher took the opportunity to shuttle a flight over there and pass a blue card to the QS, who managed to find blue's cure on her turn.

After finding the cure, QS quickly ran to Mumbai to pass the Black card to the researcher on the researcher's turn. That's when the 4th epidemic happened causing an outbreak in Johannesburg.

Finally the researcher received the black card from the QS and ran to a research station to find the last cure clocking our win at 40 mins.

Researcher found the last cure

Victory!!!

Summary:

Play time - 40 mins
2 outbreaks
4 epidemics drawn and 1 left in the deck
4 cures found (VICTORY)
Scientist - 3 cures
Quarantine Specialist - 1 cure

Board view at the end

An awesome game for an awesome night with many memorable moments of brilliance and fortune.

I hope you enjoyed the session report. Click on "like" if you'd like to hear more session reports from me or drop me a comment on what you think about this session or about the Pandemic games you've played. Were they as exciting as mine?

Till next time, Kudos!

Elder Sign Board Game Review

Elder Sign

by FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES

for 1-8 players

Play time 1 hour

Setup time 10 mins

Teaching time 15 mins

Reason I bought Elder Sign is because of the dice, and because it can play up to 8 people, and because it is portable. The game works, but I've had some bad experiences teaching it. Since 3 months ago till now, we have not craved for this, so I'm not sure it is ever going to come back on the table again. I still play it solo though.

Elder Sign is a HP Lovecraft themed Arkham Horror Lite coop game with dice and lots of luck. There, I've summed up the whole game.

If you have not played Arkham Horror or Eldritch Horror before, then I'll need to explain this game a bit. You throw dice to complete tasks which will give you items or Elder Signs!!! Yes, one of the ways to win this game is to collect these Signs and once you hit the amount you need, then game over for the bad guys. The other way is to go head-to-head with the Boss. It is fun to throw dice but there are some drawbacks to Elder Sign that makes it not so fun which I will explain later in this review.

Game Components 5/10
Very beautiful artwork on all the cards. The cards make up your board. You don't get a board here, and I wish they had a board. It would bring so much more attraction to the game. But I believe this game was made to be protable (It comes in a box considerably smaller than most other board games of its kind) so the cards would have to do. But I still think they skimped on this to make it cheaper, which brings the game experience down by a few notches.

The cards are sized well but the words are so small, and in writing that makes them look like scribbles. I can hardly read them. To get into the theme of the game, you will need to read each card, but it is such a hassle because you have to lift each card up to read it that our gaming group just skimped on the theme itself. What a bore. No theme, no good gaming experience for me! The cards are quite thin so just sleeve them up.

Oh they also give you a beautiful clock to fix and play with. Though in the long run, I foresee the clock falling apart after plenty of turning.

You're given 6 green dice, 1 yellow and 1 red one. All are beautifully carved in dice and the only component I can find no fault with in this game.

Finally, you get a whole bunch of tokens (they look like hundreds) the size of lady birds, like really small. So take your kids below 6 years old out of the gaming room before bringing this out. So far I have yet to miss a piece but it is highly likely that a few tokens may go missing after some time.

Game Mechanics 7/10
During setup, an Ancient One is chosen (Boss evil) for your team to fight against. On the Boss card, you will see a number of Elder Signs you have to collect to win and the number of doom tokens you can afford before all hell breaks loose and the Ancient One comes into the world. Every player then gets a character card on which you will have Stamina points and Sanity points, get either of these down to zero and your character either dies or goes insane. Your character card also shows one special ability that each character will have that is important to win the game. Make sure you use it to its full ability.

6 adventure cards will be placed face up and during a turn, an investigator (character) will have to go over to any of these adventure cards and try to complete the task set before him/her by throwing dice equal to the requirement of that adventure. During the game, you may choose to lock a die roll on your investigator or on a friend who is already on that adventure (usually because he/she failed it before this). Or if you have items on hand, you use them, usually either to add the yellow or red die, or lock a die. These things will help you heaps during the game so make sure you stock up on items and keep using them to gain more items. If you fail to complete the tasks, you are punished with the items listed on the card. If you are successful, feel the victory as you get rewarded for your efforts and luck in dice rolling. Some of these adventures have Elder Signs as rewards, which you have to collect before the Ancient One awakens.

If the Ancient One awakens, then muahahahaha "the Dark Lord is aliiveeeee". Just kidding. Once you wake the Boss, everyone goes to battle mode and you will have to roll the combination on the Ancient One card every turn until either the all investigators die or go insane, or you reduce the Boss' doom tokens to zero and defeat him. Well all the best defeating the Ancient One. It is very hard to defeat the Boss. There is also the Boss, Azallalalalathu, who has no dice combination on his card, which means you all lose when he awakens.

Oh I almost forgot to mention the dreaded clock. After every turn, the clock moves 3 hours forward. Whenever it hits 12 (supposedly midnight), a myth card is drawn and effects resolved (usually add doom tokens to the track). This mechanic helps to scale the amount of players so that the game doesn't take too long and at the same time keeps the same difficulty level whether with 1 player or with 8.

Replayability 7/10
10 Ancient Ones to defeat, 12 characters to choose from, various adventures to play through. Yes, this game is made with replayability in mind. However, I'm not sure how I am going to get this to the table again considering all the other better board games that I have.

Game Experience 5/10
I had a really good experience with dice when I was playing King of Tokyo. They say all dice games came from Yahtzee. So I had this urge to find a coop game that was driven by dice. Elder Sign came into my list of games to get.

My experience playing this game with casual gamers is... not so good. Like I mentioned, the cards are really hard to read and there are so many small components to keep track of. Everyone just wanted to find the cards that had Elder Signs as rewards. Soon enough they lost all their items and kept on failing tasks. We still won the game though so the claims that this game is too easy is valid to an extent.

The die rolling is really fun. Completing the tasks makes you want to do a victory dance. The mechanics to lock dice is fantastic too. But for some reason, it still lacks the ooommph that we had with King of Tokyo. Or maybe my friends weren't that into the HP Lovecraft horror theme in the first place. I do not know what was the reason behind it but game time kinda sucked with this game.

I do notably wish to state that playing the game solo is fun and I have played this a few times alone when I just had to free my mind off some work. Maybe I just haven't found the right group to play this with.

A friend just played it with his gaming group last night and they had a hard time beating it. They mentioned that the adventures and monsters locked the yellow, red and green dice at the start of the game. Then they couldn't even roll a peril and a terror at the same time. Funnily, I have never had a hard time beating the game. Must be really bad dice rolls that they experienced. Yes, this game will mostly be based on luck.

Overall 5/10
I'm a bit disappointed that this doesn't get more plays. Solo-ing is the only time I enjoyed this game. Usually when playing with other players, they get bored in between turns and talk about the sky, the moon and everything else. So instead of a coop game, it is a make your site rolls count game.

No point complaining now, just play solo all the way. Or maybe get wifey for a two player game. Yea, that might work...

Pros:
Dice are cool
Beautiful artwork

Cons:
High downtime with 4+ players
Complex
Teaching this is hard
Easy to win
Horror theme
Lots of small components



Played the game? Feel free to comment and let me know how much you enjoyed the game...

Love Letters Card Game Review

Love Letters

by AEG

2-4 players

Play time 15 mins

Setup time 3 mins

Teaching time 3 mins

A very light and quick game which shines with 4 players. Very simple to teach and mostly luck-based after the first few rounds. Strategies become very clear after two rounds. However, with that said, it is still a fantastic game to play especially when you are waiting for someone to arrive. The luck draws beginner gamers and it does little to impact your experience as you will be competing to see which one of your guesses are the most accurate.

Love letters paint a picture where you are the other players are trying to court Princess Annette. But the only way to reach out to her is via a love letter passed to someone in through the gates of the castle. Hold on to the higher numbered card at the end of the round and you win the round. Or you can try to knock out the other players to win the round. Basically only one love letter reaches to Princess Annette and at evening when all the doors are shut, she will open up the love letter to read it. The winner gets a love token from the Princess. Collect a number of love tokens and you win the chance to take Princess Annette out on a date... *sigh

Game Mechanics 7/10
To make the game as simple and as quick as possible, the designer did a wonderful job. At setup, each player gets one card. Every turn a player takes a card from the draw pile, adds it to his hand (now you have 2 cards in hand) and then chooses one card to discard. The card discarded activates and the player will have to follow the instructions given on the card, even if it hurts himself/herself. Sometimes, a player will get knocked out. This means that the player discards his/her hand and sits out of the game until the next round begins. At the end of the round, when the draw pile is empty, players compare their hands to see who has the highest numbers card. That player wins the round and receives a love token and another round begins again. Collect a number of love tokens and you win the game.

So easy, so smart. Although the game mechanics are simple, I have to give a high mark for this one as they do make the game as it was meant to be - quick and easy.

Replayability 6/10
I only bring out this game when I need a no-brainer and something light to play really quickly. The more you play, the more boring the cards will be (only 16 cards). We do enjoy it every time we play but this doesn't see the table as much as some heavier games. I keep it in the car for whenever we have to queue or wait somewhere, we can bring this out for a quickie.

Game Experience 8/10
Definitely worth the time every time we play it, although that's not saying much since after half an hour playing this, we move on to other games. The experience goes something like this...
  Dude: "I bet you're a priest, if you are then you're knocked out!"
  Gal:  "Oh Sh*t, how'd you know?"
  Dude: "Woohoo.. I'm on a roll today, I guess.."
  Bro:  "LOL, too bad I win, I've got the Princess"
  Sis:  "Not so fast, I play the Prince, you have to discard, haha, you're knocked out"
  Bro:  "!@#$%"

Overall 7/10
Anytime you have family gatherings, this game can be brought out before dinner, while mom's still cooking, instead of watching TV all day. It is really cheap and well worth the money. Get it and you can fill all those boring minutes waiting for something.. or someone..


What did you think of the game? Feel free to leave me a comment on your opinion of it...

Shadows Over Camelot Board Game Review

Shadows Over Camelot

By DAYS OF WONDER

For 3-7 players

Play time 1.5 hrs

Setup time 10 mins

Teaching time 15 mins

Shadows over Camelot is a cooperative board game with a traitor element in-built if you so wish to add this to the game. It spices things up considerably but I cannot comment on this much because I have only tried the purely coop version and that already rocks.

This game kinda got me hooked on to board games. It is full of theme and simple to teach. When a friend of mine suggested we spend the night playing Shadows over Camelot, I wasn't enthusiastic. Board games to me meant monopoly, chess or scrabble - games that were plain and bland and simply a way to kill time, not that these games weren't good, but you can tell when a board game has the ability to imerse you into an adventure and a story, and when it is just plain do this, get that and you win. So I just went along with it and boy was I in for a surprise.

The theme of Shadows over Camelot brings you to the story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. Sir Lancelot has just deserted the king and the forces of evil are going against the kingdom of Camelot. Players each play as one of the courageous knights who will travel to the outskirts of Camelot to complete tasks and attain white swords and rid the evil shadow that is looming over Camelot.

Game components 9/10
Miniatures.. Lots and lots of miniatures.. Oh joy.. And colored too though not pre-painted.. I like the components.. The boards are creative with beautiful pictures of Camelot and it's various tasks to accomplish. There are quite a few boards and some even double sided to expand on the tasks. Cards are sturdy and will last a couple runs.

Game Mechanics 7/10
It feels a bit like a poker or solitaire game though not totally. I will not go through every task that you will be attempting. I will simply go through the basic turn-phase.

Setup will consist of everyone receiving their cards in hand including a Merlin card which gives the player/players some abilities to cancel bad events later in the game. Then everyone gets a 6-sided die placed on its side to denote the player's life point value. Everyone chooses the knight they wish to be and grabs their specific knight miniature and places it at the round table of Camelot. Then the first player turn begins.

Each player's turn consists of 2 things - one heroic progression and one evil progression (we like to call them the good thing and the bad thing).

A good thing you may do on your turn may be only one of the following:

• Movement to Camelot or to any quest on the boards
• Placing a card down to progress a certain quest
• If you are in Camelot, you can
• Draw 2 white cards or
• Choose to fight siege durgeons (I hope I got the spelling right)
• Play a special ability card
• Discard 3 cards of the same number from your hand to gain a life point

Then after your heroic action, you have to now choose which of evil moves forward. You may do one of the following:

• Add a siege durgeon to the board
• Draw a black card and resolve it
• Lose a life (how heroically sacrificial this is =.=")

Quests are resolved by placing the correct number of cards and with the right numbers onto the quest itself. The holy grail quests is the exception where you have to place Grail cards there to complete it. As the progression of evil goes, they get to place a card also. This usually happens every time you draw a black card. Complete a quest and you get to gain white swords plus some rewards listed. Lose a quest to evil and you gain black swords plus some negative effects listed.

To win the game, you must collect a number of white swords more than the number of black swords once the round table is filled with swords.

To lose the game, well:

• Forced to place the last siege durgeon on the board
• All the knights' life point reaches zero
• The number of black swords on the table is more than half the number of swords that can be placed on the table

So as you can see here, the game is very difficult. The only way to tweak the difficulty of the game is to add or reduce life points.

Replayability 3/10 (without traitor)

If you do not play with the "traitor" component, then replayability may be quite low after you've defeated the game. Our group played twice and defeated the game. We played one more time just to see if the game would get any easier and yes it did. However, like I mentioned at the beginning, we have not had the chance to try with the traitor component. I believe the replayability value will skyrocket once we have (according to what I've heard). This makes the difficulty level of the game increase significantly so the challenge will definitely be there.

Game Experience 8/10

This was the first Euro game of its kind that I played and it got me hooked to the world of board gaming. So believe it or not, this game gave me an experience of a lifetime. The adrenaline pumping into me as we watched our quests being taken over by evil, and as we won quest after quest, we breathed a sigh of relief and high-fived one another. I truly felt as if I am a heroic knight trying to save Camelot from destruction.

Some things that I found disappointing about the game was that you can only do one thing every turn. Play with 7 players and that one thing that you do counts because you are going to have a super-downtime once you're done with your turn. This makes every turn even longer if some players only wait for their turn before starting to decide what they should do. Moving from one place to another is considered a good thing (What? You mean I move and I end my turn there?). Cards do not come easy because you have to use a turn to draw cards as well. So we feel very limited in our actions, unlike Pandemic where you can strategize and do 4 actions. Decision making is minimal for your good turn but maximum when you decide which bad thing you wish to do. Nobody wants to do a bad thing, but you're forced to do it.

My marks for experience is raised due to the fact that during every turn, there is communication going on among all the players. I love socializing and team work and Shadows over Camelot provides this experience with a very simplistic game play. This helps non-gamers and casual gamers to join in on the fun as well. 

Unfortunately, for every coop game that we have come across, it does suffer from the Alpha gamer syndrome. Typically, one player (a heavy gamer usually) will control everyone's decisions making everyone obey his commands as he strategizes for everyone.  If you are playing board games with people, a good thing to keep in mind is that teamwork comes from the team itself. Let your team make their own decisions and give their opinions even though you may not approve of their lack of thought in their decisions (Sarcasm, totally). It is good to mention that this has not yet happened in our gaming groups. Our main goal when playing is not to win or not, but it is the experience itself teaming up with others and to see how far we can go as a team. If we have a player trying to make decisions for everyone, we will definitely ask him/her to calm down and allow everyone to play as they wish, even though if it means making some losing choices.

Overall 8/10

I love love love coop games. And Shadows over Camelot is the culprit for that. I can't wait for the next session where we can add the traitor in. Awesome experience, awesome teamwork, awesome memories.

Pros:

Awesome experience

Awesome team work

Awesome memories

Cons:

Alpha gamer syndrome

Limited actions per turn


What did you think of the game? Leave me a comment on your opinion of it...

Pandemic Board Game Review

Pandemic

by ZMAN GAMES

for 2-4 players

Play time 1.5 hours

Setup time 10 mins

Teaching time 15 mins

Who ever thought everyone could actually win together in a board game? Pandemic is one of those games where you can. This is a cooperative game (the first of its kind) that has one of the best and classic designs. Everyone was so impressed by it that game designers decided to come up with more cooperative games and now we have a ton of them that has copied or tried to improve upon the basic idea of either everybody wins or everybody loses. And I think it's just brilliant.

My first cooperative game was Shadows over Camelot. This was introduced by a friend and it got me hooked to board games from then on... So cooperative games have a close place in my heart. Some time soon, I might just do a game review on Shadows over Camelot... 

In Pandemic, players will become a character/role that is part of a medical team of experts trying to cure the world of diseases which are infecting the world more and more during the whole duration of the game. There will be moments of "Ok we can control this", and as the game progresses, "Sh*t, we have to treat that one there. No this one, first. Sh*t we're going to lose.. Arrr!", to "Phew, that was a close one. What the ****, another Epidemic card?". Well, you get the idea.

Game components 9/10
The board is made with awesome material and the printing made to last. After 10+ games, nothing has deteriorated, no blunt edges or scratches, so a good quality board. Cards are a bit thin so i sleeved them to avoid damaged corners. You get wooden blocks for pawns.. And the coolest part are the translucent cubes in four different colors, 24 of each color. Then some other wooden components that make up research buildings, infection rate and outbreak rate.

The components do their job well so I have no complaints there. However, don't let your 2-year old get his hands on them. Otherwise, you'll be losing the game more often... (well it's true...)

Game Mechanics 8/10
Coop games have a very awesome mechanic in that every turn, each player will play the good guy and then the bad guy or vice versa depending on which sequence the game system decides to make you do first. Basically you're all ganging up to go against the game itself (or going against the designer if you wish to put it that way). All good coop games have this similarity - that it is never easy to win. So for the first few tries, you're definitely going to lose a few times. But that's ok, because the challenge will make you come back for more, and you'll be thinking about it night and day trying to figure out how to beat the freaking system.

At setup, every player gets a character card which depicts your role in the medical team and your special ability that will help the team if you use it well. Players will also be given a number of cards in hand with countries or events on them.

Then every turn, you can perform 4 actions which comprise of walking/driving/ferrying around the board, flying using the cards you have in your hand, building research stations to travel to and fro on the world map, treating diseases and finding cures. And trust me, 4 actions are not enough to do all you wish to do.

After deciding and executing the actions, the active player will draw 2 cards and resolve any Epidemic cards if they draw any. You may only have 7 cards in your hand at all times.

Then comes the bad event - infections. You will draw cards equal to the infection rate, and infect the said cities with disease cubes. Have more than three in a city, and an outbreak occurs which infects all the cities adjacent to that city. And if these cities have more than three cubes as well, a chain outbreak occurs. Sometimes, chains can happen three or four times and you'll be covering your eyes as your precious cities are engulfed by the likes of the flu virus.

There are 3 ways to lose this game and only 1 way to win. Have 8 outbreaks and you lose. Finish up all one color of disease cubes and if you cannot place the number of cubes required on the board, you lose. Finish your player deck and you lose (This helps to keep the playing time controlled but oh boy does this hurt your chances of winning). The only way to win is to find all four cures. You do not need to eradicate the diseases, just find the cures.

Repayability 8/10
The replayability factor in Pandemic comes mainly from the different roles available to you. Different combinations provide different advantages and a different way to strategize and a different way to play. Pandemic also gives you the option to tweak the difficulty of your game by adding or taking out Epidemic cards. That way if you're up for a greater challenge, just add one more in.

The expansions "On The Brink" and "In the Lab" provide you many variations which make you want to play the game more. I have not had the chance to play these yet, but from the reviews of some, it makes me want to get them.

Game Experience 8/10
I love it... Most of the time, you will think that you have got it covered and this game will be a breeze, until someone draws an Epidemic card.. and then chaos happens. The challenge it gives as a coop game makes me feel like I'm playing a chess game but at a cooperative level. We all want to win, and win together we will, if we unite our brains together and work as a team. And I love team play. The feeling that comes when we manage to find all the cures is exceptionally satisfying..

Sometimes I play this game solo as well. Since it's a multiplayer solitaire game, I play 2-3 players myself just for the mental challenge which refreshes me every time.

This game may be brain taxing for the more casual light gamers. Wifey doesn't like it because of the uncertainty of not knowing when and where the cubes will appear next, and also when Epidemics will happen. But I say bring it on...

So get a bunch of tough competitive gamers and force them to cooperate together to play this game. It will be a blast watching them squirm as they realize that no one person can gain the glory for himself/herself.

Overall 8/10
A good rating for a good game. Pandemic will do justice for regular board gamers. Light casual gamers may wish to look for something less brain taxing. But if you love the challenge and you love team work, get this game. Awesome for the adult and youngsters alike.

Pros:
Coop
Difficult (Challenging)
Good strategy/Less luck (although some luck is involved)
Teamwork

Cons:
Not for light casual non-gamers
Difficult
Brain taxing


What did you think of the game? Leave me a comment on your opinion of it...

Pandemic Board Game - Session Report 1 [Medic, Dispatcher, Researcher & Contingency Planner]

Here's to the best combo for Pandemic!
We played 3 games last night with 4 players. The 1st game was set on normal difficulty (5 epidemic cards), 2nd and 3rd games on hard (6 epidemic cards). We won the 1st and 3rd games, both we were lucky enough to have the same combo but with different players holding the different roles.

Below is the session report for each game

For how Pandemic is played, you may refer to my review

Game 1
Contingency Planner (Me)
Researcher
Dispatcher
Medic
(NORMAL difficulty)

This was a first game for my friends. After going over the rules, we were pumped. Well I was pumped. So pumped I forgot to inform them how to win, just how to lose, haha... This was probably because the only other two games I've won before this was one solo game and a 2 player game with my mom (apparently 2 player games are quite easy). And I've played tons of pandemic, already 10+ games, solo and with other 3-4 players.

We started with me, the contingency planner, as I had to show them the ropes. After treating a few diseases, drawing cards, infecting the board and ending my turn, everyone already knew how the game was going to be played. So bonus for me :) (I never liked to keep teaching everyone how to play again and again).

The dispatcher was all in, moving the medic immediately to treat diseases at locations the were most populated with red and blue cubes. As events were played, the contingency planner would bring those events back from the discard pile again. The airlift helped a bundle. No one needed to build a research station throughout the game as the dispatcher kept teleporting us to different parts of the board. No research station built!!! This is definitely a first.

It was exciting because after everyone collected roughly enough cards, we strategized and everyone came back to Atlanta for a conference meet thanks to our dispatcher. Our researcher shared enough knowledge to the medic to find the last two cures. And we won with lots of player cards to spare and 4 outbreaks in.

Our dispatcher friend said that this game was easy. I found it surprising because it was never this easy when I played the game before this. I can only conclude that this roles combo was one of the best!
So we upped the level to HARD! and thus the next game continues...


Game 2
Operations Expert
Scientist
Researcher
Quarantine Specialist (Me)
(HARD difficulty)

We decided to let the Operations Expert go first after strategizing. Our effective friend, flew and built two research stations, one in red and one in yellow. Pretty neat trick.

It got easy for us to run over to where the disease cubes are and treat them first. However, as time went by, infected areas got stacked together and outbreaks chaining everywhere that we barely managed to find the first cure before the game wiped us out.

The Quarantine Specialist never did her job well, preventing only one outbreak from occurring. The Researcher had no good cards to give away and the Scientist went too far from the others.

We were terribly destroyed this round.

In the middle of the game, we decided to call the disease cubes "Zombies". Oh no, the zombies are coming out of Paris! Kill them, Scientist!


Game 3
Medic (Me)
Dispatcher
Researcher
Contingency Planner
(HARD difficulty)

Ooh I got the Medic!!! My fav character in the whole game. So I decided to use my ticket (player card) to fly over to Red and start treating diseases. After collecting enough cards, the black cure was found by me, followed by the red cure by our Researcher.

This was a closer game for us. We had a hard time figuring out how to win when our player cards were dwindling down so fast. Almost at the end of the game, the infections grouped in the middle of the world. All the blue cubes sprouted out causing outbreaks and chained outbreaks till we were at 7 outbreaks (our last outbreak before losing the game). We also placed our last blue cube on the board. Referring to the rules, we were still safe (until another blue cube is needed).

We paused for a breather and counted our turns left - 6 more turns before the end (4 players which means only 1 round to go). Our dispatcher sacrificed his turn to find a cure to allow the Contingency Planner to find her cure first. Fortunately, no epidemics happened between them and we were able to win the game before losing. This was a really close call (we had one last epidemic card hiding in there)

Summary
3 memorable battles with lots of strategy. That is what makes Pandemic one of the classic games that never fails to entertain medium-heavy gamers like me. And with a gaming group like this, oh joy..

This combo has given me my first 4 player win, and my first HARD difficulty win. So I'm inclined to agree that there are character combos that make the game easier to win. All in all, a good night's worth of gaming.

Memorable times
Like remember that time....

• when the chain outbreaks almost killed us and we were left with one outbreak to go and used our last blue cube but still won in the end
• how our dispatcher called for a conference meet at Atlanta
• all hell broke loose when two epidemic cards were drawn in turns back-to-back?

Oh Joy! Till next time, KUDOS...

Dixit Journey Board Game Review

Dixit Journey

By ASMODEE GAMES

3-6 players
Play time 40 mins

Setup time 5 mins

Teaching time 5 mins

Dixit is not one of my favorite games. But it is my wife's favorite. She is over the moon when I have enough guests to play a Dixit. You can consider me as a mediocre gamer because heavy games like mage knight and war of the rings turn me off, while overly light games like Dixit do not pose a challenge to me.

Dixit is a super light, party game for casual non-gamers, best for people who you want to introduce into the board game world. It is the game I would only bring out if I see someone who has no interest in games for that matter. Most of the time, it is the wifey who brings it out for us to play.

Game components 10/10
Looking into the opened box, everything is placed neatly in the well-made insert, though you will have to squeeze some cards here and there once you sleeve them (and believe me, you will want to sleeve them after seeing your precious cards damaged at the edges). The cards are beautiful with creative, beautifully printed pictures on them. They are much bigger than the normal size poker cards so you'll have to buy special sleeves for them. The board is sturdy and will last many games. The voting tokens are thick, printed double sided and do their job well. The player pawns are good plastic (finally no more wooden ones. I got wooden ones in pandemic and shadow hunters). So good quality components. No complaints there.

Game mechanics 8/10
Everyone is dealt 6 cards. On the cards are beautifully printed pictures of anything you've never seen before. Throughout the game, every player takes a turn to be a storyteler. The storyteller chooses a card and describes it vaguely. Then the rest of the players choose a card from their hand that best matches that description and passes it to the storyteller. The storyteller shuffles the cards and places them on the numbered board. Then everyone tries to guess which of the cards belongs to the storyteller using voting tokens.

Once the voting tokens are revealed and placed on their respective cards, the scoring begins. If all players chose the storyteller's card or nobody chooses the storyteller's card, everyone gains points except the storyteller. If at least one player but not all players chose the storyteller's card, the storyteller and those who chose his card gains points. You also get bonus points for anyone who chooses your card when you are not the storyteller (terms and conditions apply).

The first player who reaches 30 points win.

Replayability 5/10
Yes, you can play a number of times but after a few games, you will find the pictures are repeating. 84 cards and very soon, you will cycle through all of them. So unless you get more expansions, the pictures will get boring. And it's not only me. Wifey also commented on the same thing, just so you know that this is a common feeling between gamers and casual gamers alike.

Game Experience 4/10
There is nothing wrong with the mechanics, because I remember, the first time I played it, how well I thought the pieces and the rules did their job in this game. However, the game lacked that challenge that I was looking for. Heavy gamers will probably rather sit out and watch than play. The only skill you will learn out of this game is how to read people. After games of Dixit, you will get to know someone by the way they describe their card. Once you know this, it is easy to predict his/her cards (like I said, no challenge, no math, no memorizing, no strategy, no puzzle, no freaking challenge)

They call the active player a storyteller, but all we do to describe a card is mostly just one word. And call them a storyteller (bullocks). Of course you are not limited to one word. But if you say more than one word, everyone's going to likely choose your card and you won't get the points you need to move your pawn and win the game.

Overall 6/10
Don't get me wrong, this is a good game - for casual light gamers. It can accommodate a party of people as well (have a look at the variant below for 7+ players). It is also good when you just wish to have something light going in the background as you socialize. But it is definitely not my go to game to scratch an itch. My wife loves it for the pictures, but like I said, soon enough you'll get bored with seeing the same cards over and over again.

Pros:
Bring out when having a group of non-gamers
Super light
Component quality is fantastic
Beautiful pictures

Cons:
No challenge =.="
Pictures get boring after some time


Game variants
2 player coop variant
The storyteller chooses and describes a card in his/her hand. The other player chooses a card to best match that description. Then draw 4 more cards from the draw deck and shuffle them with the 2 cards chosen. Reveal them and guess the other person's card. For every correct guess, the plauers get a point, and for every wrong guess, "Dixit's" pawn moves forward a point. Get to 30 before the game's pawn and you win, otherwise you have lost.

7+ player variant
(not play tested yet)
You will need to make up extra pawns and voting tokens for this. Paper voting tokens would do just fine but if you don't mind everyone knowing each other's votes beforehand, players can use one voting token and just place them on the cards ignoring the numbers on them. After the storyteller shuffles everyone's cards and lay it face up, everyone gets to vote for two cards. Scoring follows as per normal except that if a player choosen to use one voting token instead of two and he has chosen the storyteller's card, then he/she gets bonus 2 points.

7+ player variant version 2
Group them 2 in a group and play it just as above variant except each group gets to choose 2 cards from a combined hand of 10 cards. The players play as a group and win as a group.


What did you think of the game? Leave me a comment on your opinion of it...

Shadow Hunters Board Game Review

Shadow Hunters

by ZMAN GAMES

for 4-8 players

40 mins to 1.5 hours (depending on number of players)

Setup time 10 mins

Teaching time 15 mins

They say the game breaks down at 4 people. I don't care really. Shadow Hunters is such an awesome game that I even created a variant to play with 2 or 3 (Sometimes it's just my wife and I, and sometimes mom would tag along for a session or two). And I still enjoy it. Watch out for my variants at the bottom of the blog.

Game Components 7/10
Out of the box, the board opens up pretty well. After 5 uses, it is still in good condition except maybe some movement scratch marks shining due to its printing. Markers are made of wood and painted according to various colors. The cards themselves are sturdy, but i didn't want to risk it being like my Pandemic cards (a bit damaged at the corners after 5 games), so i sleeved them up.

Game Mechanics 8/10
At setup, everyone is dealt a role card. Role cards are either a Shadow, a Hunter or a Neutral. The basics - Shadows kill Hunters, Hunters kill Shadows, and Neutrals are caught in the middle of the battle so they do what ever they need to do to achieve their own objectives to win. During the game, these roles are hidden from other players except yourself, until of course someone is forced to reveal themselves or they choose to reveal to use their special abilities (you can only use your special abilities when you reveal - unless you're someone like the unknown who can remain unknown to anyone else throughout the game)

A board is placed in the middle and on the board are everyone's hit point markers and Area cards (where each person is). Each turn, a player will roll two dice, one 4-sided and one 6-sided, add the total up and move according to where the number shows on those Area cards. If you roll a total of 7, you get to move anywhere. After moving, you resolve the Area effects (what the Area allows you to do) such as draw a card or damage/heal someone or steal an equipment card from another player.

3 types of cards can be drawn by a player during his turn - black cards for weapons (very good for Shadows), white cards for armor or healing (very good for Hunters), and green cards for identifying who someone else is. The green cards bring the kick of this game to a whole 'nother level. How you say? Well, you draw one, secretly read it to yourself, then pass it to another player. The effects of this card apply to that player. So for example if one says, "I bet you are a Shadow or a Neutral, if so take one damage", then if the player takes a damage, you are one step closer to knowing who he/she is. And here's the fun part... No one else knows what is going on between the two of you!

After resolving effects, the player may choose to Attack. To do this, he/she chooses a player on his/her "combined" Area (two Area cards are considered in a "combined" Area if they are in the same square drawn on the board), rolls the two dice and this time substracts one from the other for damage. This creative new mechanic has amazed many though it seems pretty trivial to me.

So once you have been dealt damage equal or above the hit points that your character/role has, you are out of the game (unless for some spectacular reason, your Mother's Love allows you to heal all your damage just before you die - some freaking crazy ability). Shadows win when they kill all the Hunters and vice versa. Neutrals win when they reach their own personal objective stated on their character cards.

The game board

Replayability 9/10
10+ games in and I still cannot find a reason to stop playing this. Our group went on to 2am once playing 4 games straight. The replayability is high with so many character cards (20 roles). Each player who joins your gaming group has different personalities that also make this game so replayable. Hidden role games are the best in this arena.

Game Experience 9/10
If not for the down time, the game rocks! 5-6 people, very enjoyable. Play 7+ players, still enjoyable but it will take some time before your turn comes around again. Another negative would be if a player gets killed early in the game. With 7+ players, you'll have to wait for some time before the game resets again.

Ever played Mafia or Werewolf or The Resistance? This game is very similar with some complexity added to it to spice things up. Usually in hidden role games, it is very difficult to guess who is for you and who is not. In Shadow Hunters, the green cards do this for you. So rather than lucky guessing, strategy counts more here. And the fun part is that only the both of you know this little secret.

Seriously a fun party game. It will take a few rounds before everyone is familiar with the roles, the strategies and the cards. But they will be in simply because the tension and the challenge built into the game makes it attractive, even to the non-gamers. The mechanics are easily explained and once they get the hang of the dice and the cards, it is all-round fun fun fun.

We played this 4 games straight and ended at 2am. Well worth my money.

Overall 8/10
It is a very fun game to play. I bring this to every game night hoping my friends will mention it. And it never fails to entertain. The replayability shows. Only downside is that I cannot play it solo. Casual gamers will need some time to understand everything that is happening, especially the green cards, but soon they'll catch on and have some good fun, though you'll still have to guide them along the way. Every game is memorable, like the time Joan had 1 HP left and use her Wight ability to give herself two additional turns to take out two other hunters and win the game for the Shadows.

Do i recommend this? Oh definitely. 8/10 from me is saying a lot.

Pros:
Hidden role with special abilities (everyone gets it)
Easy to understand mechanics
High replayability
Teamwork among Shadows/Hunters

Cons:
Player character cards need a bit of explaining to non-gamers
Downtime
Players killed have to sit out of the game


Game Variants
As promised, some of my Shadow Hunter variants

2-player variant:
1 hunter, 1 shadow - play with characters faced up and no green cards (landing on a green Area, draw any card)
It's a bit dull, but all in the name of hitting each other and luck. So don't expect this variant to be with much strategy. Just remember to take away any character card that does not have a special ability that can be used once revealed

3-player variant:
1 hunter, 1 shadow, 1 neutral - play as per normal
Still based on luck but with a wee bit of strategy. I played this with my wife and mom. We had quite a blast "cursing" when we got a bad card and being happy just to deal damage. The revealing part comes very fast though.

3-player variant version 2:
3 Neutrals - play as per normal without green cards (landing on a green Area, draw any card).
This will be fun trying to figure out who has which objectives. See someone collecting equipment = stop them from collecting equipment! See someone trying to die, stop this!

9+ player variant (not recommended):
Just add in more markers from other games. Downtime is increased but you can add the option to half everyone's HP (not play tested yet). Increase the fun by role playing while you take your turn and trying to deduce who everyone is by socializing when someone is taking their turn. I played this once, and it did not totally break the game but there were some observers.


What did you think of the game? Feel free to leave me a comment on your opinion of it...