Bohnanza Card Game Review

Bohnanza

by Uwe Rosenberg

for 2 to 7 players

setup time - 3 mins

play time - 40 mins

teach time - 5 mins

Planting beans have never been so fun. You trade beans, plant beans, harvest beans, and plant some more. Oh the joy. Not convinced? Read on...

Bohnanza is a well designed card game where players are bean farmers trying to collect coins by planting, trading and harvesting beans. This is tricky because you are only given 2 fields to plant your beans at the start of the game. A third bean field can be added by paying up 3 coins. Only beans of the same kind can be planted on one bean field (e.g. stink beans are planted on the empty field or the field with stink beans). Listed on each card are the following:

• Bean name
• Number of the same bean card available in the deck
• How many beans needed to be planted in the same field to get a certain amount of coins (4 coins max)

Players receive 5 cards at the beginning of the game. They are not allowed to rearrange any of the cards in their hand. The first card will be the one that faces the player and the last card will be the one at the back of the hand.

At the start of each turn, a player will follow the following steps:

1. Plant the first bean card (the one fully facing the player in their hand). This is a must and if there are no empty fields or fields with the same bean cards, then a field has to be harvested in order to plant this bean card (even if it means you do not get coins).
2. Draw two cards from the deck and place them face up so that everyone can see. These beans are to be planted in this round and there is no exception. So the current player has to either trade those beans away or plant them on his/her bean field.
3. Draw two/three cards (depending on the number of players) and at them one at a time at the back of your hand.

These simple steps to follow allow anyone from newbie gamers to core gamers to enjoy this game. This game is packed with deep strategy and at the same time not intimidating for players new to board gaming. A certain amount of luck comes from the drawing of cards but the strategies one uses can push them towards winning. In other words, you do have some control over your game. The small luck element ensures that every game is filled with good decisions to make and this is evidence of good board game design.

My take on the game:

This game is becoming a favorite for me and wifey. Since I bought Bohnanza two months ago, we have been seeing consistent plays. Everyone thoroughly enjoys it and wifey would ask to play Bohnanza even if it is only the two of us. Two player games are different than normal games because there is no trading involved, but wifey enjoys it just the same.

I myself enjoy trying to figure out good strategies to gain the most coins. Do I go for beans that give better coin values or do I keep the ones that I know are going to be played next from my hand? Do I get the 3rd bean field but lose 3 coins? Would that cost me the game?

Furthermore, who doesn't like gaining rewards after hard bean planting work? I reckon the designer had plenty of play testing with this game to tweak and tune and design one that I can say is very well balanced. Every bean has its merits and demerits of planting. Every bean is unique. 

So yes, we love this game. It is cheaper than most board games in the genre. I would play this over Settlers of Catan. Bohnanza is faster, trading is better, interaction is more, and it can support up to 7 players. 

Pros:

Cheap

Lovely artwork on the cards

Well-designed = well balanced

Good for the casual and hard-core board gamer alike

Cons:

The box insert is not designed for cards with sleeves.

DnD Adventure System Board Game Variants

I created this tool sheet which should work for the following DnD Board Game Adventure Systems:

• Castle Ravenloft
• Wrath of Ashardalon
• Legend of Drizzt
• Temple of Elemental Evil

I love the board game but my issue with it is that it is predictable and does not give enough the feeling of heroes crawling in a real dungeon. So after a bunch of plays, I've decided to try out a couple of variants to randomize monster appearance, number of monsters that appear, how often encounters happen and whether the heroes are able to surprise monsters.

Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System Board Game Variant Play

Random monster generation

Instead of having monsters on every tile that the heroes explore, the random monster generation will keep the monster appearance unpredictable (Yes there can be 0 monsters as well)

·        Instead of an automatic monster card draw after drawing a new dungeon tile, roll the D20 and follow this:

o   easy – Number of monsters = D20 divide by 6 rounded down

o   med – Number of monsters = D20 divide by 5 rounded down

o   hard – Number of monsters = D20 divide by 4 rounded down

·        Or if preferred roll a D6 or D4 instead

o   easy – Number of monsters = D4 divide by 2 rounded down

o   med – Number of monsters = D6 divide by 2 rounded down

o   hard – Number of monsters = D4

Monster Perception & Hero Dexterity

Determines whether hero is able to make a surprise attack on the monsters and for how long before the monsters realize this

·        Instead of monsters activating on the active hero’s turn, roll a D20 to check if the monsters notice you. If it’s a surprise attack, for how long?

o   easy – Surprise value = D20 divide by 6 rounded down

o   med – Surprise value = D20 divide by 8 rounded down

o   hard – Surprise value = D20 divide by 10 rounded down

·        The surprise value shows how many turns the monsters

Encounters

Encounters are a chore to deal with and it’s not fair that you get punished every time you don’t explore. However, they are still required for a good DnD experience. Take out the normal encounters that happen during the Villain phase and do the following instead.

·        Place number of tokens equal to the difficulty level (any tokens e.g. hit point tokens) on top of the encounter deck. Whenever you would draw an encounter card, remove one encounter token instead. When the tokens dwindle to 0, draw an encounter card and resolve.

o   easy – 4 tokens

o   med – 3 tokens

o   hard – 2 tokens

·        Optional for higher difficulty – If you draw a dungeon tile with a black arrow, add one more monster to the number of monsters rolled on that tile.

·        If you draw a special dungeon tile (one with a name on it), then refer to the PocketDM for its specific encounter entry.

The reason I did not include random dice rolling for encounters as well is because too much dice rolling can ruin a DnD experience. The encounters are still unpredictable but you can still plan around this. The PocketDM really helps to build story into your games.

Summary Table of Notations:

	Easy	Medium	Hard
Random monster generation with D20	*D20 / 6	*D20 / 5	*D20 / 4
Random monster generation with D4 or D6	*D4 / 2	*D6 / 2	*D4 / 1
Surprise attack values (number of turns)	*D20 / 6	*D20 / 8	*D20 / 10
Encounter token counter	4	3	2
Black arrows	0	0	1 additional monster

*Notation – [dice] divide #number rounded down

So try it out and let me know how it goes...

Legend of Drizzt Board Game Review

Legend of Drizzt - DND Adventure System
by Wizards of the Coast

For 1 to 5 players

Play time 1.5 hrs

Setup time 15 mins

Teaching time 15 mins

Disclaimer - I have not played any of the other DND Adventure System board games (Castle Ravenloft & Wrath of Ashardalon)

Legend of Drizzt is a board game themed around "The Icewind Dale" Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore which is based around the dungeons and dragons world. The board game is a cooperative game where up to 5 heroes team up together to go dungeon crawling in order to come out victorious in their quest. The game features characters, villains and quests from the R. A. Salvatore's novels. You and your friends may choose to play the legendary king dwarf Bruenor Battlehammer or the quick witted halfling, Regis, or the courageous barbarian, Wulfgar, or the beautiful, Cattie-brie. Of course Drizzt is also a hero you can choose to play who in my opinion is super powered in this game.

Players will delve into the caverns to fulfill their quests. They start on a start tile and reveal additional cavern tiles when exploring. Monsters appear in the caverns and attack the heroes. Traps and encounters happen. Treasures are found. All these happen until either the heroes complete their quest or one hero gets knocked out with no healing surge available at the start of his/her next turn.

Gameplay 7/10

At the start of the game, a quest is chosen and read aloud to set the dungeon crawling mood. Players choose a hero to play, takes their respective hero board and figure, chooses their hero's active and passive skill cards to use during the quest, and takes their hero stance tokens, and hit point (HP) tokens.The hero figurines are placed on the start tile unless specified otherwise in the specific quest.
According to the quest book, instructions are given on which cavern tiles to shuffle together for the particular quests and whatever else that needs to be prepared. Then the game can begin.

Each turn follows a pretty strict flow - hero moves and/or attacks, exploration happens or does not happen, encounters happen, monsters activate and attack. Player cards are provided for each player to remember which actions to perform. After a turn or two, everyone will be familiar with the flow.

Just like a DND dungeon crawling game, each hero will have movement points showing how many squares they are allowed to move, what's their armor class for defense and their hit-point value. Each hero in this game also has a special ability, something only that particular hero can do, which may be special attacks, special effects or special actions they can perform during the game.

Players use their hero's movement points to move their hero around in the cavern which grows bigger every time someone decides to explore.

Attacks happen via a D20 (20-sided die) die roll. The player decides which At-Will power or Daily power to use before the die roll. Bonuses and effects if any are added to the die roll based on the cards. Then the armor class of the target is subtracted from this value. If the value is still a positive number (including 0), then the target is damaged. Damage is given based on the attack power card used (usually 1 or 2 damages).



When the monsters activate, they follow the pre-programmed instructions given on their respective monster cards. The monsters move and attack as stated on the cards. Sometimes their attacks may also poison or immobilize the heroes.

Rinse and repeat, the heroes continue exploring, fighting and defeating monsters until they reach the goal tile, which reveals the boss monster or any other objective that the quest book has provided. Once the heroes complete the quest, they win! If either hero gets knocked out and at the start of their turn, has no healing surge to stand up again, then the heroes lose the quest.

Experience 8/10

It is a great idea to have a co-op with monsters acting on their own instead of having a player play the dungeon master and controlling all the monsters. This way, every one gets to play together as a team, all against the game system. I love how the cavern tiles reveal themselves during exploration rather than having the whole map already there at the start. It gives a realistic sense of  actually crawling in the dungeon.



Because they made a game system to go against you, you can actually play solo, which IMO is more fun than a multiplayer game (you get to control everything). It is not so difficult to control 2 or more heroes solo. I can finish a game solo in half the time it takes for any number of players to play.

Playing this with other players, if there is an Alpha gamer (most often the owner of the game), the one who knows all the powers that every hero has, this one person may take control of the whole game and every one else will just be following. Games like this get really boring when really the only decision you can make is, well, none... You get to roll the die and watch the cavern unfold and cool looking monster figurines get placed on the tiles, some towering over your heroes.



Saying all this, we do enjoy this game from time to time. Kids love it because it looks cool. We love it because we get to do some real dungeon crawling, not knowing what will turn up at the next corner. If you're just looking to have a fantasy session, becoming imaginative heroes, looking to have a few laughs over drinks, then get this. If you're looking for medium to heavy strategy, then get the Castle Ravenloft DND Adventure board game. It is the same thing as this but ups the difficulty significantly.

Replayability 7/10

The quest book is filled with 13 quests with different ways of getting to your objective. Some will pit players against each other, some will divide you into teams, and one which will insert a hidden traitor that no one, even the traitor himself, would know until the end of the game.

So far we have not gotten the chance to try out these other quests yet, so I'd say the replayability is still there. However, most of the people in my gaming group would go with Descent if they wish for a dungeon crawling board game experience. Which means that this game stays on my shelf until I manage to find another opportunity to bring it down again.

Components 7/10

The figurines look good, color coded, some bigger than others. The boss figurine is a cool looking demon. Not expensive if you consider how many figures they are giving you for the price you pay.



The rest of the components are sturdy and card stock is thick. However, the art looks a bit dull and bland. There are many tokens and the box has compartments to place them. You will just have to figure out which works best for you.

Overall 7/10

I had the hots for this game for over a year before I got my hands on it. Everything from the mechanics to the tile laying to the dungeon crawling and to the characters, all of it drew me to this game. This would be a good gateway game for those players who are thinking of getting into tabletop RPG but are not sure they would like to spend the time and effort to sustain one.



Good for casual gamers who like dungeon crawling. You can finish a session in an hour and a half.

Pros:
Nice figures
Good mechanics of tile laying and monster activation
Kids can learn how to add and subtract

Cons:
Art bland
Difficulty - easy
Light, new gamers will find it a chore to understand how to use their powers/weapons


Variants
There are many other self-created quests online that you can print out and use. Many ways of using the game system to meet your gaming group needs.

You can actually use the components in this game for a your very own Tabletop RPG dungeon crawling. It is a very good system that is set up.

You can also get the rest of the DND Adventure Systems to combine and create your own dungeon.

Legend of Drizzt - After a few playthroughs (Pictoral)

Legend of Drizzt Board Game -

a pictoral summary after a few playthroughs

Finally got my copy of Dungeon and Dragons - The Legend of Drizzt board game. After playing it with a friend, I could not wait to get my hands on my copy. Unfortunately, my circumstances meant that for the next 3 months, I will be away with my wife to a foreign land. Which meant no board game nights for 3 months! 

For the last 3 weeks, I have been playing this game solo until yesterday night when Wifey agreed to join me on a dungeon crawling session. Wifey is more into casual games like Dixit, Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. So dungeon crawling would be a significant step up for her. We did not do so well together in our first game though with more plays, we might improve our strategies. 

Here, I will post some photos and summarize on a few sessions. Unfortunately, I cannot remember all the details to every session. But all the pics I took would go to waste if not posted. So just for my entertainment and yours, I will do a quick summary of some of the games that I managed to get some pictures from.

What a finished board looks like. After winning this game, I decided to lay out all the monsters I encountered during this session on the board and take a pic. Looks like Catti-brie is in trouble. Let's hope Wulfgar gets there in time...

Catti-brie stumped to find a Feral troll after failing to defeat the monsters she had stumbled upon. IMO, kiting is child's play to Catti-brie. With her ability to move an extra 2 spaces after exploring, the whole board can be filled with monsters and she will still survive after exploring again.

The Feral Troll, the most formidable monster in the whole game, not counting villains. Look at it towering over our hero. If its swipe hits, your hero goes flying out the window (if there were windows in caverns)

A close up shot of the Feral Troll's nasty grin. Looks like our hero is getting an arrow to launch at it.

In this session, Wulfgar and Athrogate team up to find and defeat Shimmergloom, the dark dragon. Our first explore brought the drow wizard who teleports to a tile with the most heroes and attacks all the heroes. Then a Feral Troll pops up to join the fight. "Tempus!", shouts Wulfgar to the God of Battle.

Athrogate quickly summons Snort, his pet boar, after being surrounded by spider swarms.

Snort goes down after an encounter with a water elemental. Snort goes in for the attack, deals one damage and dies beside the water elemental. His sacrifice will not be in vain!

The battle with Shimmergloom. A close call. Athrogate is knocked out while Wulfgar uses the last healing surge to get up and deal the killing blow to the fiery dragon! That was a lucky session, yes it was...

Bruenor goes after Yvonnel Baenre with Dinin, the drow-spider mutation of Drizzt's brother, by her side. A secret tunnel lies nearby for Bruenor to escape. "Juz 'n case me shield is not enough for protectin".

Wulfgar toweing ove a Goblin Champion. Goes who wins, Thor's hammer or big axe...

This was a memorable one yet. The dice were killing us with lousy rolls. And how lucky for us to land on two Feral Trolls at opposite ends of the hallway. Run, heroes, run!

Wulfgar standing up against another Feral Troll after defeating his first Feral Troll.

And that's all folks...

Tune in for more session reports from time-to-time.

Friday by Friedemann Friese

Friday Board Game

for 1 player (strictly solo)
play time 30 mins
setup time 5 mins
teaching time 15 mins (if you're teaching yourself)

Fun! fun! fun!

Sometimes we all need that one board game that we can play solo especially when no one's free for a board game night and your hands are itchy to touch some components and when you feel like a bit of strategy. Not having enough time for a full fledged board game? Take on Friday, and you'll have time spent "wisely".

Friday is a solo deck building game (as said in every review). The theme is about you (Friday) teaching Robinson Crusoe how to survive the island of hazards (If you've read the story of Robinson Crusoe, you'll immediately know what I mean. If not, I just peaked your interest to find that out). To do this you choose which hazards to fight. You also choose whether to win or not because by winning, you add good cards into your deck (good experience thematically) and if you lose, you get to take out the bad cards from your deck (learning from mistakes thematically). At the end of the game, you should have built a good enough deck to face the tough pirates who have come to raid the island.

Components 7/10

For a cheap, small game, Rio Grande Games have given you all you need and more. 3 square-shaped boards to place your different piles of cards on. Although this is simply a deck building game and you could do without the boards, they do give you an added board game feeling instead of just a card game. The boards also help you remember which deck is which.

The cards themselves are thin and elongated vertically. I found these easy to shuffle when shuffled sideways. The art on them is comically cartoonish but IMO adds to the flavor of the game. I do not really look at them much throughout the game but mostly at the numbers on them but I do appreciate good art. So far after plenty of games (probably more than 20 games), the cards are still in perfect condition. They are bendable and do not defect easily although they are thin. I do take good care not to roughen up the edges when I take them of the table hoping that will make them last longer.

The life tokens are in the shape of leaves and made of wooden blocks colored in green. A very nice touch to a survival game in an island. 

Yes, only three components in this small box. Cheap as I got it for $15 and have played it so much. 

Mechanics 8/10

Deck building, an art of mechanics. This game uses it so well making it seamless and easy to adapt to any player, new or old. 

You start with a deck of 18 cards, good and mostly bad cards (a.k.a. your Fight Deck). Each of these has a comical Robinson drawing and a number at the top left showing its strength and a number of life tokens drawn at the top right depicting how many life tokens it takes to discard that card. Some of the cards have special abilities which you can use by tapping the card sideways (just like in Magic the Gathering). You also begin with 20 life tokens.

You draw two hazard cards from the Hazard deck and choose which to fight. This is where most of your decisions take place as you need to balance which cards you need in your deck and whether you are able to fight that hazard. Each hazard card has the top and bottom side. At the top side is the hazard side which shows the strength you need to defeat the hazard and how many free cards you get to draw. The bottom side of the card shows a Robinson drawing just like in your starting cards with numbers and life token drawings on it so if you add this card to your Fight Deck, this side will show you how much better your deck will become.

After choosing which hazard card to fight, you discard the other hazard card and Robinson Crusoe goes into battle mode. You can draw as many free cards up till the number stated on the hazard card. After this, it will cost one life token for every additional Fight card you draw. If your card has any special abilities, you may tap and use them at any time. Once tapped, you may not use it again. Some abilities allow you to draw additional cards for free, some give you life tokens and still others help you destroy bad cards. If your strength matches or is greater than the number needed to defeat the hazard, you have won this fight and the hazard card, along with all the Fight cards you have drawn is placed in your discard pile (Don't worry, you will get to use these again later). If you decide not to draw any more Fight cards and lose to the hazard, you discard the number of life tokens equal to the number of strength you still need to defeat the hazard. For every life token you discarded this way, you can destroy the face-up Fight cards according to the amount of life tokens they have at the top right corner. This will then help you to take out the "poison" from your deck.

Once your Fight deck of 18 cards is fully drawn, and when you need to draw an additional card, you will add the top card from the Aging deck to your discard pile, shuffle them all and this will now make your new Fight deck. So all the Hazard cards that you have won go into your newly shuffled deck which you get to use when you draw them out again. An Aging card is a bad bad card. Thematically this shows Robinson getting older and making more mistakes. It takes two life tokens to get rid of Aging cards.

So as you play the game, your Fight deck gets stronger. You'll need to strengthen your deck because after going through the Hazard deck, you reshuffle the discard pile to form the new Hazard deck and now they become harder. The number you now have to match is higher than the previous level. You go through the Hazard deck 3 times and after that you will face the tough Pirates. 

Gameplay 8/10

The strategy is there. There is luck involved in which Hazard cards and Fight cards you draw but the strategy is in the statistics, knowing which cards are left in your Fight deck, and building the most appropriate Fight deck to get more cards that you need. What you do in your first round, second round and third round, just before the pirates, will determine how far you will get in the game. 

The different special abilities allow you to shape how and when your deck will be a certain way. Say for the first round you needed more life points, then when a Hazard card comes with life tokens, you will choose those. Or say you needed more strength, you still need to pace yourself because those cards that have higher fight strength will cost more strength to defeat first. So you might wish to get a lower Fight strength first and go for the higher strength cards later.

I always pick this game up when I do not have an hour to play. It is so enjoyable. The steps are easy to learn and once played through, the game will flow like a river - take two cards, choose one, fight, win or lose, repeat. This is one game where the simplicity does not take away the strategy. The point system and also the possibility to adjust the game difficulty level makes the game accessible for both the heavy gamer and casual gamer. 

Replayability 7/10

The point system and 4 difficulty levels allow the game a sufficient amount of replayability. After the game is over, whether or not you have defeated the pirates, you get to total up your points and see how well you did to survive the island. The more you play, the better you will become to beat your previous score. This is not a competition with anyone but yourself so it takes the "take that" pressure away. 

I'm currently at level 4 (the highest level) and managed to beat the pirates just today actually! The available strategy in this game does bring you back again and again to play and beat your old score. However, I'm not sure if there is any meaning to play anymore after you've found that optimized strategy to beat the game. As with most solitaire games, after finding out how to beat the game, it becomes more of a routine. I would say that the different difficulty levels provided do need different strategies to win each time. 

Then again, with most solitaire games, some of us do not care if we use the same strategy to play again and again. To give you an example, if you have played the game "2048" on Android or iPhone app, you will know what I mean when I say the game is addictive. It is a solitaire game where there is only one optimized strategy to win. But we still play it again and again hoping that by chance we can achieve a better score. Heck, I have managed to get 4096 once and have been trying to get there again ever since (Not much luck so far). Friday gives you that kind of addiction, to come back again and again to beat your old score. There is always a chance that you will get lucky today.

Overview 8/10

Love this game. A very cheap alternative when you have no one to play with you. Get two boxes and you can challenge a friend and play together. There are variants that folks on BGG have come up with for multiplayer games (You'd have to get more than one box for this). The game is portable, so you can bring on trips to take away that boredom and itch for board games. A word of caution - Do not take this out to play solo when you have friends around as it will deem you a social outcast.

A fun, addictive, solo, deck-building game. It will not hurt your wallet to get one immediately.

Pros:

Can play solo

Addictive

Cheap cost

Simple

Filled with strategy

Cons:

Can play solo

Addictive

Cheap components

Let me know what you think of the game once you've played it! Leave me a comment...

Descent 2nd Edition Review

Descent 2nd Edition - Journeys in the Dark

2-5 players

Play time 2.5 hrs avg

Setup time 20 mins

Teaching time 20 mins

"Descent: journeys in the dark second edition is a narrative board game in which one player takes on the role of the treacherous overlord, and up to four other players take on the roles of courageous heroes. Featuring double-sided modular board pieces, countless hero and skill combinations, and an immersive story-driven campaign, descent: journeys in the dark second edition transports heroes to a vibrant fantasy realm where they must stand together against an ancient evil.this updated version of the classic board game of dungeon-delving adventure features a host of enhancements, including new heroes and monsters, streamlined rules, a class-based hero system, campaign play, and much more"

I had the privilege to play this with an introductory board game group (A group that introduces new board games). Two sets of Descent were opened and two overlords ran two games simultaneously. We played Fat Goblin Encounters 1 and 2. It was an awesome experience altogether. I played a hero necromancer who reanimated a skeleton over and over again. It might be just me but I felt like the overlord was being lenient on us. The first game went by without the overlord using any of his overlord cards. He lost and we, the heroes, won. The second game, the overlord wanted to win so he used advanced monsters to up the challenge but we tied that game. The dice wasn't on his side that day but I did feel that the overlord could have won that game if he made the right choices. 
Okay okay too much blab, on to the review...

Gameplay 9/10

I did research this game a bit before I played it which made me want to buy it. Now that I have played the game, I really want to buy it!

Mechanics are very simple to teach and the details can be taught as the game plays out. It takes some time to setup the maps and choose the heroes and monsters. It is pretty straight forward - Refer to the quest guide (mostly one page per quest), fix up the puzzle maps together as shown on the quest, read out the objective and special rules, heroes are chosen by the players playing heroes, overlord choosing his/her open monsters. As soon as the objectives of the quest is understood and the players know how to read their hero cards, the game can begin.

Everything here makes sense - the movement of heroes, the straightforward objectives (the overlord has objectives as well), the attacking using dice, etc. It is a dungeon crawl encounter that makes sense, definitely up my alley. Every turn, a hero gets to perform two actions, whether to move and attack, attack and attack, move and move, stand up (after getting knocked out), or rest (to heal fatigue). You can also move, attack and then continue with your leftover movement for two actions.

For monsters, they also have movement and attack dice, almost exactly like the heroes. The lieutenants that the overlord controls (boss monsters) are exactly like the heroes with stats and everything. However in Descent, you will not see any adding up of points and stats like you see in DnD games. They streamlined this to make it accessible to everyone. Which doesn't take away much from the game at all.

There is a really creative, strategic mechanic that is added called "Fatigue". You use fatigue to do extra moves, but your fatigue is limited so you'll have to strategize when best to use it. It adds to your decisions which gives seasoned gamers good strategies to incorporate.

The dice really add to the game. They have creatively created different colored dice to represent the intensity of one's attack or defense. On some of the faces, each die has a lightning bolt symbol as well which represents surges. These you use to activate different skills and spells your hero/monster may have. Range is also embedded in the dice for range attacks. All these add both luck and strategy to the game.

There are 20 quests in the scenario book. You can either play them as individual encounters or link 16 of them in campaign mode. Campaign mode offers so much more as you get XP to increase the skills of your heroes or overlord cards for the overlord and the heroes also get gold to spend in between Quests to get better equipment. I love games that allow leveling up. It just allows one to be the character instead of just playing it.

Some players would like this - no one dies in this game. They just get knocked out and lose a turn to come back around the next time, or another player can use one of his/her actions to revive a hero adjacent to him/her.

The Experience 8/10

The experience is good. There are some balancing issues where the first few quests are easier for the heroes. I guess that just makes the challenge more worth the win for the overlord. I have not played the later quests yet, so I cannot say much here.

Replayability 9/10

I see this getting many plays especially in campaign mode. Whether we will get tired of this, I'm doubting. With 16 Encounters to complete, this is definitely replayable. The number of cards you can get also attracts you to play more. The monsters, however, remain the same few so you'll be seeing a lot of them being reused in various quests as you play.

The fact that this is only semi-coop would mean that it is definitely replayable to see who can be the best overlord. The number of heroes that a player can pick can also be factored in.

There are so many big and small expansions available for Descent 2.0 that it looks like the game is endless. As an adult who has a day job to keep, my time in board gaming may be only twice a month. So this game would probably last me way more than a year if I consistently play this.

Components 9/10

Oh gosh how do I begin. The map tiles are beautifully printed and sturdy. They will last a lot of games. They fix together to form a stable map (not easily broken if the table is knocked). 
The cards are durable and beautifully designed. Hero cards are big but skills and equipment are small - probably to reduce the play area. 

The miniatures, and oh so many of them, are sweet... Monsters in red and white, heroes in grey. the heroes are pretty small. Would prefer bigger ones but it does not hinder the gameplay. The lieutenants (evil bosses), however, are in token form (like what?). Yea, they didn't have enough cash to make these into miniatures so now they sell the miniatures separately and each one cost a bomb, well to me at least. It would be nice to have them with the base set, but oh well.

There are many tokens for conditions, health markers, fatigue, etc. The tokens are thick and coin sized, which I appreciate over pea size ones. I hate losing my pea size tokens.

Overall, really good components. Opening this will be just like opening a toy box.

Overall 9/10

I might give this a 10 once I own it and have played a few more quests. Every moment I'll be thinking about the game. But currently, it is sold out at my favorite board game store. 
A dungeon crawl that is a must have for any board gamer into dungeon crawling/delving and leveling up. One of the best productions of Fantasy Flight Games. Go get it!

Pros:
Gorgeous components
High replayability
Engaging gameplay
Rules make sense
Character enhancement

Cons:
Needs the right group to play with (Some over-competitive people take an hour to make one decision)
Balancing issues between the Overlord and the Heroes


How did you find this game? Let me know if there are some things i might have missed out that you wish to hear...



























Awesome components
Awesome gameplay
Awesome experiences

Lieutenant tokens? Are you kidding me?
May be a bit complicated for the light gamer

Malaysian Politiko 2E review

Politiko

3-6 players

Play time 1 hour

Setup time 3 mins

Teaching time 5 mins

It's election time (Finally!)

Politiko is a card game about wacky scheming, cynical realpolitik - in other words, it is about a game about winning the Malaysian general election!

The player to get 8 voters in his/her voter pile, wins. Easier said than done. 

As we all know, through the news, TV, internet, reader's digest or any media of that sort, that the Malaysian general election was filled with all the hanky panky stuff you can think of, from frauds to phantom voters and everything in between. This card game tries to emulate all these, but they were wise enough to mask the party's names with other names. But of course, everyone knows which parties they actually represent. We just hush hush about it. Sshhhh!

Mechanics 7/10

Typically, you start by choosing a party to run. The party card gives you Voter Restrictions (which type of voters may/may not vote for your party), which prevent you from adding certain voters to your voter pile. On each party card, there are also Alliance Restrictions, which lets you know which parties you cannot form an alliance with.

After that, each player is dealt a hand of 7 cards. Throughout the game, your hand can only have a maximum of 7 cards at the end of your turn. During a turn, the active player will start by drawing 2 cards into his/her hand. Then they either add voters (election time - no quantity restriction) into their voter pile following their Voter Restrictions OR play 2 schemes.

Schemes can be "Scheme" cards they can play during their turn. These "Scheme" cards can vary from stealing voters from other players to enhancing your party further. Schemes may also come in the form of joining/creating/breaking out of an alliance with one other alliance or party. Schemes may also be in the form of closed door meetings, i.e. exchange as many cards as you want with as many cards the other player wishes to exchange (the number of cards need not be equal for the exchange - I guess parties never get their fair share during closed-door meetings).

After their actions, the turn ends and the next player begins.

The mechanics are typical of a cards game but what rocks in this game is the double mechanics. You can choose either to continue adding voters from your hand into the voter pile or play schemes but not do both. This provides the players with thought based strategy, to think up a plan before their turn comes around.

Gameplay 8/10

I thought that a game with a bunch of cards would be like playing UNO, but in Politiko, you get so much more than just wanting to play all your cards. The choices for strategy provided in this game is wide. Do you form an alliance or win alone? Do you play schemes or add voters into your voter pile so that other players cannot steal the voters they would need from your pile? What do you do with the voters in your hand that you cannot play? 

There is so much variety to this game that you are always on your toes thinking of your next move.The fact that the other players can sabotage you is also a plus. If they see you are winning, everyone will come around and start attacking you. But if you have a solid plan, you will not crumble so easily. 

The thing that attracts in this game, and this is the same thing that attracts one to buy the game, is the theme itself. So far in all the games that I have played, I have learnt so much about the politics in Malaysia. Very often it is the dirty parts that make a party win the election (at least in Malaysia). And this game emulates it so well. Give away free wifi and you get voters. Give away money and neutral voters will vote for you. So much of Malaysian politics is displayed here. We laugh about all the cards being played (even the voter cards). You will need someone to roleplay and read all the titles being played because if players are too focused on what the card does instead of what the card represents, you will miss out on a lot of fun.

Downtime in this game is minimal. You still have to wait till it's your turn to play cards. However, interaction is definitely guaranteed because even the quiet ones become loud when they get their voters stolen. 

Replayability 8/10

Even if I already know what every card does, every different group you play with has a different play style. And play style changes when they learn new strategies after a few plays.

There are also 9 different parties for players to represent. Each party provides players with different opportunities to try out different things.

So replayability for this game is high on my list especially since it is light and can be played during travels.

Edit: Just to mention also that there is already an expansion out for this game. They title it "Sabah & Sarawak". More cards! These cards represent the schemes being used in East Malaysia thus adding more fun and laughter to our beloved game.

Overall 7.5/10

Since I bought this last week, it has never failed to hit the table. We are all excited to be a party and gain our voters. Randomizing the parties also add to the fun and laughter. I have played 5 games already (including lunchtime at work :p)

Politiko can be bought at any Borders bookstore in Malaysia. Or go online at LoyarBarang.com and see if you can get a copy for yourself!

If you have played the game and wish to share your experiences with me, do drop me a comment below here. I'd love to hear from you.