INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: KICKSTARTER ARRIVALS

So I just thought I would give some initial impressions of some Kickstarter arrivals that I have unpacked, purely based on the contents and the rulebook:

Mysthea- Looks really good. Storing it back in the trays is a bit of a pain. The game looks good. The standard miniatures look like they lost a bit of detail a they are quite small. The game looks quite fun. I am very happy I got the language pack for cards with text.

Neta Tanka- The deluxe edition had allot in it. The KS exclusives didn't quite fit well into the storage boxes. It looks very interesting but also looks like it has allot in it. Hopefully it won't be too complex.

Batman- That was allot of stuff. I doubt I will go with the new Kickstarter in June as there is allot here. The miniature bases and lack of player aides with a poor rulebook is very annoying.

Clash of Rage- Looks really fun. However, the boxes have heaps of unused space around molds. I think I can pack in all the stuff in the base game.

Wreck Raiders- The dice are a bit clunky, which affects how much they can roll compared to rolling them in the box. Looks like a nice small set-collection game. The component quality is okay, but looks like it plays quite fun.

BOARD GAME REVIEW: DUELOSAUR ISLAND (2018)

Duelosaur Island is a game that is a sister game to Dinosaur Island in the same way 7 Wonders and 7 Wonders Duel are related. This is a two-player game that shares the general idea of the larger games, but changes the mechanisms to more suit a two-player game.

Duelosaur Island is a mixture of a card-drafting and dice-drafting game. You are trying to collect cards that can be dinosaur attractions, facilities, or specialists to give you powers, income (both in visitors and coins) and special powers. You then collect money and dinosaur attractions to give you more excitement. At the end if the game, most visitors wins.

At its core, the game sounds exciting. Each player choosing the specialists available and the dice position to give different combinations of bonuses. However, this is definitely a game of one too many steps. Compared to really good 2 player games such as Raptor and 7 Wonders Duel, it plays very slowly as one player chooses all the combinations to go out. Unfortunately, this is also the only place any real interaction comes.

Add to the slow pace and lack of interaction in this game is the production errors. From the PR marker where you can't see what is underneath it (something you need to do quite often) to all the errors in the rulebook, this game feels rushed out. It is a shame, because the core idea sounds okay. It just needed a bit more development to streamline it a little bit and get rid of all the production errors.

2 out of 5 duelling waffles.

KICKSTARTER RETROSPECTIVE: STRIFE and A SOFTER WORLD

So this is a new series where I look back at my Kickstarters (2 at a time) and give a retrospective on where are they now.

A Softer World 4- Lets Do Something Wrong: So the first Kickstarter I backed (and how I found out about Kickstarter) was due to a webcomic I was reading (A Softer World). This is a great comic which seems to set up a normal scenario then twists it via a few photographic panels. This kickstarter gave me a flask and a book. The Kickstarter was cool, although you miss the alt-text (what you get when you leave your mouse cursor over the comic) if memory serves me correctly. All up, a good Kickstarter, although I think I eventually wore out the flask (I drank cordial from it because it looked cool, not alcohol).

Strife- Legacy of the Eternals: This was a perfect information game where the conceit was that it was like war (play a card to beat the other), but your champion inherits traits from your last champion (i.e. bonus power, an ability, etc.). It was a better idea than it was in execution. The rulebook needed more examples and the special ability rules needed to be a bit clearer. There was a follow-up Strife that could be combined, but it didn't interest me too much. I did sell this off eventually as better games for 2 players were available.

BOARD GAME REVIEW: FANTASY DEFENCE (2018)

Fantasy Defence is a 1-2 player co-operative card game that was on Kickstarter. It is by Sweet Lemon Publishing, and is a fast-paced card game where you have to survive and destroy a hoard of enemies. This review will be including the Stone King campaign expansion as well.

The game is quick. In the game, you have a deck of defenders, a bunch of battlements and a deck of enemies trying to break through. There is also a boss enemy you have to defeat, some spells that help you out, and a leader who is quite powerful. Your units can move a limited amount between battlements between the enemy assaults, and you have to either defend the gate or take the loss of health (called morale) for the greater good.

In the game, you have a choice of 2 factions that play very differently. You have the manuevarable elves or the combo-tastic humans. Each plays very differently with just a few changes in the power match-ups of the cards, and it is very well done. However, the problem with the game is that you see your whole deck and the enemy deck every game. Without the Stone King campaign expansion, there is no variety between games. You see the same enemies, same abilities and have the same units availale. This makes the puzzle very static.

However, the Stone King expansion is nearly a must for this. This adds allot of different enemies with different abilities, new units for you to use and events to play through, amongst other spoiler things. The story is really good to play through, with changes between levels to keep things fresh. However, the most important part is that now you can introduce changes (or use a random subset of enemies and defenders) between non-campaign games. One suggestion is that you keep to the story suggestions about which units get replaced, otherwise you may end up with too many low powered units for the big creatures.

The Stone King expansion is a must for this game. Without this, there is very limited plays in the base box before you have seen most the game has to offer. With the expansion, it adds allot of variety and makes it a very smart game. It should have been included in the base box, or at least some variety included in this (i.e. maybe some monsters you deal out of the monster deck) as opposed to just the order of monsters. So be warned, without the Stone King, this game would be a solid pass.

3.5 out of 5 fantastic waffles (with Stone King expansion).

BOARD GAME REVIEW: 7TH CONTINENT

The 7th Continent is a game that was on Kickstarter. It took around 2 years to complete after it funded successfully. The goal of the game was to recreate a choose-your-own-adventure style game on a big sprawling map. 

And was it worth it. The answer is a resounding yes. Although not a perfect game, it achieves exactly what it sets our to do. It is a cleverly done game where the designers have. Pearly thought through allot of it. 

At the heart of the game are two mechanisms. The first is the interconnected cards that form the map. Each card has different events and symbols as you explore around it. The second is the series of action cards that are also your life pile. There is also a crafting and inventory system on top of all this. 

And all this comes together awesomely. It is a game system of a choose your own adventure. Sometimes it is unclear where you have to go for your mission (called a curse) and you may waste a session not getting to the end. Sometimes if you miss an obvious clue you can get stuck exploring things unrelated to your curse. But for the most part it works great. 

This is a game that tells a story where the mechanisms serve to help tell the story. On top of all this, the mechanisms are pretty simple and the game is pretty easy to learn. It raises the bar for story games and is a great Kickstarter success story (even without miniatures). 

5 our of 5th Continent Waffles. 

BOARD GAME REVIEW: 7th CONTINENT (2017) INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

7th Continent is a new board game that was released on Kickstarter and has surged up the board game rankings. It is a game that aims to take the old Fighting Fantasy Games or Choose Your Own Adventures of old and translate them to a board game set on a sprawling map. This is just must my initial impressions and I will update this later.

The aim of the game is to break a curse on your character after they returned from an expedition to an unknown land (the titular 7th Continent). You complete this by exploring the land and hoping to work out the mystery before your life-force (deck of action cards) runs out. 

The game is played over a set of numbered cards split between maps and events. Each revealed card related to a number and uncovers the map and events that you can interact with. These are resolved through a push-your-luck mechanic with your action deck, with more cards drawn increasing your chances but also using up your time more.

The game is amazingly fun. It builds on your knowledge between games as you know where and when to explore and what are red herrings for your current curse. There are multiple curses and the map is quite large. The only concern is with replayability as the map doesn't change, but each of the curses starts you in different locations. 

Everything in this game comes together well. The sense of exploration and choices as you uncover the map and work out the mini-puzzle that each curse gives. The life deck introduces a push-your-luck mechanic. And that isn't even going into how the exploration and the item crafting is implemented and how it interacts with the map.

Overall, this is a hearty recommendation. If you like story-driven games or exploration-type games, this is nearly a must-get. A new Kickstarter is coming for another module for the game and will offer the base game if you don't feel like paying secondary market prices.

5 out of 5 Continental Waffles

BOARD GAME REVIEW: ENDURE THE STARS (2017)

Endure the Stars is the first game out by Grimlord Games. It is a game that has a bit of an identity crisis. By the same token, it is also a game that encompasses the worst aspects of Kickstarter. 

Endure the Stars is a space-themed dungeon-crawl type game. In the game, you and your team are on board a spaces station where something has gone wrong. The corridors are teeming with alien monsters, deadly machines and crazed cultists (depending on which scenario you play). Each scenario gives you some objectives to complete to get through, with multiple scenarios capable of being stringed together as a campaign.

The identity crisis comes because the game doesn't know what it is trying to be. Originally, it looks like it may be a survival horror. It even has some mechanics to support that (resolve checks, noise generation, diceless damage from the monsters). However, it then plays out more like a light dungeon crawler where you get your items and chuck some dice to kill stuff. And it is where these two mechanics merge where the problem lies. There isn't enough mechanics to make searching and then moving out with the best weapons a negative, but so many enemies spawn and move that without doing this or exploiting certain rules, you quickly get overwhelmed.

The worst part of the Kickstarter come with the rules. There is already a 3 page FAQ and 1.1 rulebook out that adds a couple of rules and changed. However, the added rules do not appear to be well tested. Similarly, a lack of playtesting (particularly blind testing) is apparent in how some rules and mechanics did not work. And for a game that was this expensive on kickstarter, it just isn't worthwhile.

You definitely get plenty of component bang for your buck inside the box, with nice tiles and miniatures and a variety of heroes to choose from. With maybe another 3 months of solid development and proper testing, this could've been a real gem. They should also have doubled down on a certain theme and modified the game to suit (i.e. survival horror with stronger but fewer monsters, limited searching and weak items but diceless; or dungeon crawl with no noise mechanic, constant minion spawning and unique starting items for each character and no searching). At the moment, it just feels like a bit mess. Which is a shame because it feels like it is about 80% of the way there, but so many other games in both genres are 100% (Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition; Dungeons and Dragons series of games).

2 out of 5 Enduring Waffles.

BOARDGAME REVIEW: NAME OF ODIN (2016)

NSKN Games have released a game that seems to be in the latest in a spate of Odin games recently, In the Name of Odin. Funded off Kickstarter (as per most their other games), this game probably best exemplifies this studios strengths and weaknesses.

Name of Odin is primarily a euro-type, card-driven hand management game. You recruit Vikings and heroes, build a settlement and go on raids in order to get victory points. Everything is very abstract as you quest for points, but the theme really comes across from the artwork on the board and the cards looking suitably Viking-ish.

This game is a really pleasant game. There isn't really any player blocking or griefing other players as you instead focus on building your hand and settlement up to achieve points. As the cards are multi-use, you constantly have choices at to how play your turn. This leads to the game having a simplicity as you can plan your turns ahead but a depth as you have to constantly think how your hand can get you points this turn and set you up next turn (and whether you should sacrifice for this).

Unfortunately, the problems stem from what appear to be late design changes. The Viking minatures don't quite fit on the storage spaces (suggesting they might have been cubes at some stage). There is no player color marker on your player boards and no player aides (considering there are 9 different actions you can take, this is a critical oversight). And the end game can mean whoever takes the last raid ends of on negative points for lost raiders (suggesting points for leftover raiders was a late addition).

These are a real sham because the prototype copies reviewers had (i.e. Rahdo) had player aides and scoring tracks on the player boards (so you know who you are). I really like this game and the options it represents. It makes me think (like their other games) if a professional developer could've made this game great (more playtesting after the final changes to pick up these issues). As it stands, it is merely a very good game that perhaps highlights the dangers of Kickstarters for talented but smaller companies.

3.5 out of 5 Raiding Waffles.

BOARD GAME REVIEW: MONSTER MANSION (2015)

Monster Mansion was a Kickstarter project that is based around escaping a modular-board within 10 minutes/player(real time). It also has a hidden player role mechanic, unique characters with different stats, and different monster decks for different experiences.

The basic gameplay is that every turn, you draw from the Monster Deck (which may be a monster that follows you around, a curse/blessing, or nothing). Then you take one action (moving or attacking or healing). And then your turn ends. This continues in real-time until you escape or the time runs out (and you all die). Once you reach the exit, you need to roll 5+ on a dice to actually escape.

This game suffers from a lack of direction. There is definitely allot going on (modular board, character powers, hidden roles, time-based gameplay) but it just feels like you are waiting and reliant on your monster draw. You draw weak monsters or nothing, you advance to the exit. You draw strong monsters, you are stuck attacking, hoping not to die. And some of the random roles and cards are harsh if you fail (immediately losing 3 health when you only tend to have 4 means you are often a monsters meal next turn) to increase the difficulty.

But at its heart, this feels like a roll-and-move game, just replace the rolling with random card draws. Maybe with the steady hand of a developer rather than the excesses of kickstarter this idea could've been made allot better. At the moment, most the game just comes down to hoping to draw good cards (with no way to manipulate too much) and hoping for the best. This game doesn't offer too much extra from other games (Zombie 15 immediately springs to mind). The components, however, are really cool.

1 out of 5 Monstrous Waffles

BOARD GAME REVIEW: ZOMBIE 15"

Zombie 15" is a really good Zombie game. My view of it might just be colored by the fact that this is the first time-based game I have played, I am a sucker for a well-themed game or I really like co-operative games, but Zombie 15" has been the stand-out game that I have played in 2014. And there were allot of new games that I have played over 2014.

Zombie 15" is a co-operative game for 2-4 players. It is played on a modular board, with tiles set-up that can be changed to create different scenarios. Each player takes the role of a teenager with some different powers as they try to survive and outrun the main zombie horde. In each game, you have a goal to achieve in 15", often involving cutting a path through some zombies to a finishing tile.

The main strength of this game is right there in the title. Zombie 15" is played over 15 minutes. At certain times (depending on the scenario, every minute or 40 seconds), more zombies appear on whoever's turn it is. There are no traditional turn limits- just however many action you can fit into 15". This encourages the game to keep moving fast and analysis-paralysis is severely punished. It also means that no games ever drag, as you know that each game will last 15 minutes. The set-up time is also only approximately 10-15 minutes.

The artwork and plastic figures for the game are great and really match the exciting, upbeat tone of the game. They are colourful and never take themselves too seriously. The only complaint is some of the Zombie figures seem quite flimsy, but this is a minor complaint. The board, character cards and item cards all look fantastic and are of god quality.

One thing the game could improve upon is the co-operative aspects of the game. Most the scenarios just degenerate into each player leap-frogging the previous player and trying to kill zombies to clear a path. However, with a modular board and custom scenarios, I anticipate that the replay value of this game will go up. I have already been thinking of rules to put the Left 4 Dead Zombies in the game (especially the Witch and Tank) or to modify some of the tower defence-based scenarios, and the game encourages you to make up your own custom scenarios. There is a website where they will post them, although how flexible the core game is to allow custom scenarios remains to be seen.

Overall, Zombie 15" is my stand-out board game of 2014. Although I have played more serious games and games that ran longer, Zombie 15" has a strong, colourful theme to make it stand-out and is always allot of fun whenever we break it out for a game or 4.

4 out of 5 hordes of waffles.

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: LEAVING MEGALOPOLIS (2014)

 Leaving Megalopolis was released in 2014 and is a bit of a different take on superheroes. It is kind-of like an Escape From New York-style superhero tale showing how ordinary people are coping when their protectors turn on them. It follows the story of a group of ordinary people trying to escape a city (Megalopolis) that super-powered individuals have turned into their personal hunting grounds.

 The premise of the story is that Megalopolis is protected by a bunch of superheroes. One day, a dimensional rift opens up and the superheroes all unite to battle some kind of eldritch horror. When they defeat this horror is when the real problems start as it drives the superheroes a bit insane. The heroes now have an insatiable desire to kill once every few hours or so, but also limiting them to the city limits.

 Into this horror, the story follows Mina. Mina is a cop who is trying to find her way out of the city with a bunch of people who are drawn to her in the hopes that they lead them to safety. Mina and her group are trying to escape the city limits to escape the superheroes. In their travels, they meet different civilians and how they are trying to cope with the villains.

 The art throughout Leaving Megalopolis is superb. It really captures the horror of the crazed heroes and the brutality they are inflicting on the population without being too over the top and gritty. The tone of the book is definitely more Marvel Zombies than horror, however. The design of the superheroes also fits in well with the story.

 The story is very tightly woven and very good. You never get the feeling that characters are taking stupid actions just to progress the story, and you can understand all the characters points of view. Whether it is the pragmatic Mina or the people who make deals with the crazed heroes, the story never feels like it is forced. The ending leaves allot to be desired as it doesn't really resolve too much, but as a first-issue an adequate job of setting things up. The one thing that it doesn't set up well are the different characters personalities. Outside of Mina, most of the supporting cast feel like interchangeable cannon fodder for the heroes.

 Overall, Leaving Megalopolis is a story I would definitely recommend. The story is good, the characters are compelling and the art backs the story and tone of the comic without being too over the top. Although it has a few shortcomings, for the most part it a very good first-issue.

 4 out of 5 granite-laden waffles.