Mansion of Madness

Number of Players: 2-5 players
Age: 13+
Prep time: 45 minutes
Playtime: 90+ minutes

Mansion of Madness is a scenario lead game of occult horror (think L.P. Lovecraft).  This is a cooperative game investigators (up to 4) against the keeper.  

There are lots of pieces to this game when the box is first open, two instruction booklets that have a lot written in them.  Do not let this put you off.  I spent a good week or two (plus numerous youtube videos) to work out how to play this game.   With all the research I did I became dubious about how much I was going to enjoy this game.  I did run two practice runs with friends to really get my head around all the rules.  Once I was confident with the rules, I decided what scenario I was going to run.

I set up some of the cards at home so the set up for the group was decreased.  Each scenario has different tiles that make up the play area (there will be a house, garden and sometimes underground terrain), each person takes an investigator collecting their starting equipment.  They have to walk around and find the clues that help them to complete the story which has been revealed at the beginning of the game.  The Keeper is the only person who knows the conditions for which the investigators or keeper wins.  As the game continues it is possible for the investigators to discover this.

The keeper is trying to kill/stop the investigators from completing the task.  This is done through power cards that they can play, summoning monsters or creating traps and other nasty things that makes the tasks of the investigators a lot harder.

Many times through out the game, for the investigators to discover the clues they must over come an obstacle or a threat.  This can be a fight, a puzzle or some other dastardly event that the fates decide.  

Although there is a lot of learning, and a lot of preparation required for this game.  The actual game play is brilliant.  There can be a lot of story telling and RPG if the group require, to watch the investigators get scared as they see monsters appear more and more and wondering what the keeper is going to do next makes the playing the keeper brilliant.

Score 7/10 (giving a 7 because there is a lot of hard work to learn the game) once you've learnt the game, I'd turn it into a 9.

Dawn

This is the first video of a series to help teach how to play Mansion of Madness

Gloom

Number of Players: 1-4 players (if you have expansions more players can be added)
Age: 8+
Playtime: 30 minutes

Gloom is not a game for those who do not like to make people miserable.  The aim of the game is to let your family have a horrible life, get lots of minus points and then kill them off.  Of course you can help other families by giving them positive points.  

This game is can be played by just reading the story off the cards, but it is a lot more fun if the people playing can create more of a story, this can make the game more interesting and add hilarity to the game.

Each player gets to play two cards, although the instant death cards must be the first card you play, unless the cards tell you otherwise.  Some of the cards can give you extra moves or give other people other moves so it is important to read the cards carefully.  The game ends when on family is killed.  Anyone still alive at the end of the game points do not count towards the final score.

The game is easy to pick up and can be easily used as a warm up game, as the game can be over relatively quickly dependant on how mean people are to each other.  There are a number of expansions to this game, each expansion can give you a family or two and extra activities to make people miserable.

This is a brilliantly thought out game with transparent cards (which is a nightmare if they fall on to a dark carpet in a pub that is not well lit!) so that even though there could be many cards on each other it is still possible to see the points through the cards.  The cards, whilst new, do have an amazing smell.  I really liked it but there are other's who do not like the smell.

I have never had so much fun making people miserable.

Score: 8/10

Dawn

Smash Up

Number of Player: 2 - half the number of factions you've got
Age: 8+
Playtime: 30 minutes +

Smash up is just an amazing game, each play through has different bases, different groups.  So each game is completely different so to get bored of this game is actually really, really hard.

There are a number of factions a player can choose from, each faction has twenty cards so there are forty cards that each player will play with.

There are number of bases, one for each person playing plus one,  that are put in the centre of the table.  Each person may play one minion and one action per go or play one of these or nothing.  The minions have numbers on them which is trying to break the base number.  Every minion on the base contribute to breaking the base.  Sometimes minions and actions can give you extra events that you can do.

You do need to be able to add (something that when I'm tired I can't do well), With the expansions you actually get counter which help with the score keeping, if you just have the base set you'll need paper and pen.  There is The Big Geek box which is more than big enough for all the expansions and for what ever other expansions might come along.

I have always enjoyed playing this game and the hilariousness that usually ensures.  I really enjoy coming with weird wonderful combinations such as Zombie Giant Ant, or Shape-shifting Cyborg Apes.  It's all part of the fun, and trying to break bases just before someone else does is more than funny.  If you want a light-hearted game that can get mean depending on who you're playing with this is the game.  I know some people who struggle to play this game since it changes so much game to game, and from player to player.  I do love it though, watching people trying to work out their moves, and it's amazing how many people stick out their tongues or screw their faces up is brilliant, do their counting and getting people to double check really makes this game brilliant.

Score: 10/10

Dawn

Ticket to Ride

Players: 2-5
Age: 8+
Playtime: 30-60 mins

Ticket to Ride was one of the first games I bought when my interest in board games was rekindled thanks to Geek and Sundry and their tabletop channel on youtube.

This is a great game to play to introduce people to board gaming if they are nervous about playing.  Especially if their own past experience is scrabble, monopoly and the like.

The rules are simple and easy to follow.  There is a lot of strategy in this game but also some luck as you're never quite sure what carriage cards are going to come up.  The aim is to create routes between two locations on the map, the longer the route the more points it is worth.  There is also an extra 10 points for those that create the longest route.

I always enjoy this game, especially when you try and ruin someone's route... I'm mean like that.  I've played it often enough that I can find the locations relatively quickly.  I enjoy the simplicity of the game along side the struggle of trying to get the cards for the route before the other players.  There are a lot of different Ticket to Ride games and a wonderful extension that can be used for any of the board maps Alvin and Dexter.  Well worth the investment.  This extension adds an extra difficulty/frustration level and allows you to mess with other players, which, if you're playing with the right people, is a lot fun.

Score: 9/10

Dawn

Fluxx the Board Games

Players: 2-4
Playtime: 15-30 minutes
Ages: 8+

A lot of people will know the Fluxx Card Games.  They have become a popular favourite within a number of gaming groups.  I have played a number of different versions and was fortunate enough to play the original version.  So imagine our delight when there was a board game created based on Fluxx.

For those who do not know Fluxx the idea behind it is that the rules and the goals change from one turn to the next.  It's is intensely fun as it is frustrating (usually due to the other players).  It depends on the luck of the cards and how mean players want to be to each other the games could last between 15-30 minutes.

The board game is not much different.  It consists of nine individual squares that make up the board.  Each player gets three colour pieces, a card that tells the players what colour they are (this is really important), rule cards with pegs which help keep track of the ever changing rules, plus the playing cards: Actions, Keepers & Goals.

The rule tile that show the number of move, draw, play, hand limit, wrap-round (when a piece can go from one side of the board, off the board and enter the same row on the opposite side), move-a-tile (move any tile to a legal position), rotate-a-tile (move one time 90 degrees anticlockwise).  There is also a tile that shows the number of goals that is required to win which can also change within the course of the game.

It took us a while to get the feel of the game so we played it twice.  Then it got funny.  Changing the colour you're playing on people, moving tiles you know people are aiming for, moving tiles to help you win. The rules changing so regularly it is important that the rule tiles are checked.  Drawing cards is the first events that every player much do, after that the moves, playing of cards can happen in any order.  At the end of the turn players much reduce down to the hand limit.

Strategy is not a huge priority in this game due to the fluctuation of the rules.

If you are a fan of Fluxx I would recommend this game.

Score: 8/10

Dawn