Valley of the Kings

Guys, just because its Egyptian themed doesn't mean triangles become pyramids. Its a triangle.

Valley of the Kings is a small box game from AEG's Pocket line of games that includes Cheaty Mages and Sail to India. It is a deck building game set in ancient Egypt. A mechanism and theme that the board game hobby has certainly seen a lot of. Does Valley of the Kings deserve your attention anyway?

One of the starting cards - unlike "copper" it remains useful until the end of the game.

Valley of the Kings does a lot of things that we're seen in previous deck builders. Players buy cards from a pool of available cards, and put them into a discard pile, which will be shuffled into their personal deck later in the game. The available cards in Valley of the Kings are set up in a triangle, and are cycled in a way that is reminiscent of Ascension, but here only half of the cards that are face up are available for purchase, which adds a bit to that formula.

The game also adds two bigger innovations to deck building. First, each card can be used to execute 1 of 3 actions.
     1. The card can be played for money in order to buy cards in the center.
     2. The card can be played for its action.
     3. The card can be buried (permanently removed from their deck) in a player's tomb, for its victory point value.

In Valley of the Kings, any cards left in a player's deck are worthless at the end of the game. Only those cards which have been purged from each player's deck and placed into their tombs are counted as points. This is the essence of what Valley of the Kings brings to the genre - and the main reason the game is so much fun.

As one might expect, cards which have strong abilities are also worth a lot of points. So just like in Dominion - where there is a point where players have to decide to stop buying action cards and start buying point cards - players in Valley of the Kings have to choose how long they want to keep playing that valuable action card, and when they want to bury it in their tomb to ensure it gets counted as points at game end.

One of my favorite things about any deck building game is trying to thin out my deck to make it as efficient as possible. Valley of the Kings really lets me play around with this idea because players are allowed to get rid of any card in their hand once per turn. I like this both because it gives me a lot of control over my deck, and also because there isn't a safety net. I think it would be possible in this game to buy the wrong cards, thin too much, and simply be out of the game. I'm not saying this is likely, or that this game is especially punishing, but I like being treated like I know what I'm doing by a game and its designer.

Valley of the Kings also plays with deck composition by having a fair number of cards in the deck whose actions involved getting cards out of one's own deck, and putting them into the deck of another player. This action would be interesting in any deck building game - but is even more interesting here, as even the weakest/least exciting cards in the game (your starting deck) are worth victory points. So yes, by using one of these cards and then burying another card a player could potentially thin 2 cards from her deck in a single turn, but will the other player bury the card I just sent? Is making my deck a few cards stronger worth the victory point cost? In a two-player game, even a card that is just worth a single victory point could result in a 2 point swing if the shunned card ends up in the other player's tomb.

Deck building is one of my favorite mechanisms in games. Despite this, there aren't many deck building games that I have fallen in love with. Ascension, Trains, and Star Realms are some of my favorites - but with so many mediocre deck builders out there, its hard to keep playing all of them and being disappointed over and over again. That is part of why I think Valley of the Kings has been such a hit for me. The game keeps enough about the genre the same, while putting its own interesting twists on the formula.

I would definitely recommend Valley of the Kings to fans of deck building, and even to those who might feel like deck building doesn't have anything new or fun to explore. I'd rate it a solid 8.0.

Istanbul Review

Istanbul is the Kennerspiel des Jahres nominated (2014) game from famed and accomplished designer Rudiger Dorn. It has players assuming the role of a merchant and his assistants moving through a bazaar, interacting with the various vendors and meeting up with other merchants, family members, and even the governor!



Istanbul's "board" is made up of several separate tiles, which are laid out in a 4x4 grid. This can be done randomly, but the rules do suggest specific layouts for beginner and advanced games. The goal of the game is to gather goods and money in order to acquire gems. The first player to acquire 5 gems (6 in a two player game) will be the winner!

On a player's turn, she must move her merchant and her stack of assistants either 1 or 2 spaces (not diagonally) and do 1 of 3 things:

1. If none of her assistants are already on the tile, she drops one off, and performs the tile's action.
2. If one of her assistants is on the tile already, she picks that assistant up (places it on the bottom of her stack) and performs the tile's action.
3. If none of her assistants are already on the tile and she also has none in her stack, her turn ends. 

Here, the yellow player need to decide if she will go back to a tile where she had previously dropped off an assistant, or go to the fountain (the only tile that can be used without an assistant) to call back all of her assistants.

A lot of the strategy of Istanbul is planning out a couples turns ahead, so that you don't have to deal with option 3, and do basically nothing on your turn. 

The tiles that make up the board allow players to do a variety of things. Some are Warehouses that allow players to load as many of a certain kind of good as they can carry in their carts. Some are Markets that allow players to sell sets of goods for money. Others are Mosques that reward players with upgrade tiles for having a certain number of goods.

Two of the more important tiles are the Sultan's Palace and the Gem Market. These are the two main ways to acquire gems. At the Sultan's Palace, players can trade in goods for a gem, which makes the next gem more expensive for the next player. The Gem Market lets players buy gems, with each successive gem purchased more expensive than the last, just like the Sultan's Palace. 

The first available gem at the Sultan's Palace (in a 2 player game) costs 1 jewelry,  1 fabric, 1 spice, and 1 fruit. Once that gem is taken, the space it was previously covering is added to the next gem's cost.

Istanbul is a game that hit me right in my wheelhouse. It has a lot things that I love about board games, like variable setup, player powers (though you don't start with them), advanced planning, upgrades/engine building, and even some dice rolling! 

From left to right: The blue upgrade tile adds another assistant to a player's stack, the yellow upgrade tile (my favorite) allows a player to pay $2 to retrieve an assistant from anywhere on the board and place it in her stack, the red upgrade tile allows a player to set a die to a 4 or reroll whenever rolling dice, and the green upgrade tile allows a player to purchase 1 of any good when visiting a warehouse.

Speaking of upgrades and dice rolling, let me talk about the upgrade tiles. There are four total, and just like the Sultan's Palace and Gem Market, they become more expensive as they become purchased. They are also pretty important to doing well in Istanbul. Once players are more familiar with the game, an interesting race happens in the beginning of the game where the players will rush to grab either their favorite upgrade tiles or a cart expansion.

(Left) At the beginning of the game, each player can only have 2 of each good. 

(Right) By visiting the Wainwright tile, players can purchase cart upgrades for $7. 

Players have to visit the Wainwright during the game as early as possible, because the additional capacity will allow them to purchase upgrade tiles they may have been priced out of, it makes it easier to make money at the market tiles, and it makes it much easier to acquire gems from the Sultan's Palace. 

There is so much to like about Istanbul. Mr. Dorn has not only reimplemented a version of his Goa auction mechanism, but he has finely crafted a fantastic medium weight strategy game. Istanbul has so many options for players to explore, with many interesting decisions to be made each turn, and planning ahead is very much rewarded. The act of planning out your actions in just the right order so that you can not only do everything you need to do, in the order that you need to do it in, and also end up with all of your assistants back in your stack is just so satisfying. 

One thing I don't always love about the game is the luck of the cards and the dice. Some of the cards are just better than others, especially if they are drawn at exactly the right/wrong time. The dice can really hurt a player who doesn't have the applicable upgrade tile, and can result in several wasted actions. The interesting aspect that arises from the randomness of the dice, however, is that the value of the dice manipulation upgrade tile is a bit more fuzzy than the values of the other 3 upgrade tiles.

After I got Istanbul, I played it 5 times in 4 days. It is absolutely one of my favorite games from this year. It plays well with all player counts, does not overstay its welcome, and despite having a fair amount of complexity, I feel like I could teach this game to almost anyone. Istanbul deserves all the hype around it, and despite being up against two very strong contenders for this year's Kennerspiel des Jahres (Concordia and Rococo), I believe it should (and will) win the very prestigious German "expert game of the year" award. I give Istanbul a 9.0/10.

North Wind Review

North Wind was published by KOSMOS in Germany a few months ago (as Norderwind), and is being released here by Z-Man Games soon. It is the latest game from famed designer, Klaus Tueber. You might recognize that name - Mr. Teuber designed what is arguably the most popular hobby board game ever, The Settlers of Catan.

North Wind is a light/medium weight game where players are trade captains sailing from port to port, delivering goods and dealing with encounters like pirate attacks and merchant ships. Similar to Catan, the game is a race to 10 points (8 in a 4 player game). The main mechanisms in the game involve upgrading a "player board" (more on that later) and a small dose of push-your-luck as players draw tiles from a deck, usually choosing to either use an one of two actions per turn to perform the action of the tile, or continue drawing.

The "player boards" I mentioned earlier are amazing. They are 3D cardboard ships that help players track upgraded abilities and to store resources. The mast, for instance, indicates how many tiles a player is allowed to draw from a deck on her turn. Players begin with the ability to draw 4 tiles before their turn ends, but this can be upgraded to draw as many as 6 tiles per turn.

There are 3 decks of tiles in the game, 1 each for the ports - Norderkap, Trutzhavn, and Olesand. During set up, each deck is seeded with its corresponding port tile, then 6 more random tiles are added, and the deck is shuffled. One of the more interesting parts of the game is that although the deck is shuffled whenever a player chooses to go there, the composition of the decks doesn't change during a game, so once players get to know what is in each deck, the decision of which deck of sea tiles to explore each turn becomes more and more informed.

The action tiles in the game allow players to purchase or sell goods, upgrade their ship, or search a shipwreck (gain 2 gold). The most interesting part of the game is how each player decides to upgrade her ship. Players can put a crew member in the crow's nest and gain the ability to check the first tile in a deck after deciding to go there, and then either put it back or move it to the bottom of the deck. Players can hire an accountant so that whenever they sell goods, they gain +1 gold. There are 3 other crew members players can add, but each player can only choose 4 of them to have in any given game, and once a crew member is added, she cannot be changed.

The upgrade tiles also give players the opportunity to raise their masts (thus allowing them to draw more tiles each turn) or to add cannons to their ships (allowing more die rolls when combating pirates).

That's right! Pirate attaaaaack! There are four fog tiles in the game. If a player draws one, she rolls the white die, and will most likely have to fight off a pirate ship - though there is a 1 in 6 chance she will discover treasure in the fog, and not have to fight anyone. If she rolls at least 1 skull on the die, she has to either pay 1 gold to continue her turn, or choose to battle. For every cannon on a player's ship, she gets to roll her cannon die 1 time. She can also hire a cannoneer when using the action of an upgrade tile to increase the odds of hitting the pirate ship. If a player wins the battle, she gets a pirate captain to throw in her ship's brig. Losing a battle with a pirate ship can be painful - the player's turn ends immediately (so she loses either 1 or 2 actions depending on if she had taken one yet or not). But since one of the ports (Trutzhavn) is basically a prison, it is likely that at some point during the game, players will choose a sea tile deck wanting to find a fog tile.

Speaking of delivering to ports, on the main board, each port has a column of contracts. If players have these resources when they draw the port tile for the corresponding city, they can deliver them to earn a victory point. Once a player puts her cube on a contract, it is fulfilled, and none of the other players can fulfill that same contract.

The game proceeds like this, with players taking turns drawing tiles from one of the sea decks, and using their two actions, until 1 player has place all of her victory point tokens out onto the board that player is the winner!

North Wind is a great family strategy game with excellent components, a fun theme, and plenty (but not too many) decisions to be made. There is a good combination of short-term and long-term considerations to be made, which is good to keep more dedicated "gamers" interested, and to keep those less initiate in the hobby from feeling overwhelmed.

The mix of short-term and long-term decisions is really brought out in the way players upgrade their ships. Do you want to get a Treasurer, which will be a big help in the beginning of the game? Or a Lookout, which will always be pretty valuable, but will let you see all 7 of the tiles on a turn if need be? These decisions are very engaging, and being able to make your actions stronger (especially in ways that you choose) is something I think everyone inherently enjoys.

There is limited interaction between the players, but what interaction is there (completing contracts) is a nice addition. Since most of the columns of contracts build upon each other as they ascend, having the contract you were collecting resources for taken by another player is unfortunate, but not too punishing. I really like the fact that the overall goal of the game is a race, and the way that the contracts are taken off the board as they are completed contributes to that sense of urgency.

North Wind is not an especially deep game, but there is a good amount of game here, especially for groups just getting into the hobby, or for those "mixed" groups that are made up of "gamers" and their "non-gamer" friends (thoughts of playing this with my parents come to mind). I had a good time playing North Wind, and though I probably wouldn't bring it to any of my monthly gaming meetups, it would certainly be on my list of games to bring when playing with people whose only definition of "Euro" is the EU's currency. A solid family game - I'd give it a 7.5.

Sail to India Review

Sail to India is a new release in the US from AEG's Big in Japan line. The designer, Hisashi Hayashi, is no stranger to having his games imported to the US from Japan. His game Trains was a big hit at Essen in 2012, and was brought here by AEG in 2013 to critical and commercial success. Sail to India was released overseas last year and caused a lot of excitement.

Pretty much everything you get in the box.

Unlike Trains, Sail to India takes a minimalist approach to its design. Upon opening the small box, players will only find 28 cards, 52 cubes, and a 20 page rulebook. Does Sail to India rise above this meager component list to become more than the sum of its parts?

As you might expect, game play in Sail to India is fairly simple. As you might not expect, there are some novel ideas in the box that take a few turns to fully understand. The cubes in Sail to India are used to represent several different things. If they are placed beneath the location cards the cubes are ships, if placed on the cards they are either buildings or goods, if placed on a player's historian card they represent a player's victory points.

Those cubes sure are multitaskers!

On a turn, a player has two actions. The possible actions are:

• Employ a marker - pay $1 to move a cube from out of play onto the Lisboa card (into play and available to perform other actions)
• Move ships - move each ship cube up to your movement value, reveal any facedown location cards adjacent to any of your ships, and (optionally) convert ships to trade goods by moving those cubes onto an adjacent location card on the good pictured
• Sell trade goods - sell as many goods as you wish and gain money and VPs based on the number of different goods sold
• Build a building - pay $2 to place a ship cube onto a building space on an adjacent card - immediately gain that building's benefits
• Acquire technology - pay the indicated amount to move a scientist cube from your Domain card onto an unoccupied technology
• Increase ship speed - pay the indicated amount to increase your ship speed

One of the most interesting aspects of the game is that because cubes have many uses, but each player's supply is limited (especially in the beginning of the game), players need to balance what they are using their resources on. If a player would ever gain more than $5 on her wealth track, she would have to place an additional cube from Lisboa onto the wealth track to mark the money she has over the first cube's $5. But if she does not have a cube available in Lisboa, she will have to take it from elsewhere - maybe a ship, a building, or a trade good - but she cannot use any of her cubes that have not been employed yet and are still out of play. 

This simple constriction is the source of almost all of the interesting decisions in the game. Players need to manage the growth of their companies. Since the game puts limits on how broadly each company can effectively be, players have to decide things like, "Will having $6 in wealth be worth it, or could that cube which is only tracking $1 be better used elsewhere? Should I sacrifice that $1 to build a building I need, or should I discover a new location card and make that $1 cube a VP cube?"

While these types of decisions were very interesting to me, the game still fell a little flat. One thing I didn't care for in the game is that since everything is public, the game felt a little calculable. And with only two actions per turn, doing anything competent opponents don't see coming a few rounds away is almost impossible. While this is likely part of the design rather than an oversight, it is a part that I didn't particularly care for. 

Sail to India is certainly an easy game to recommend for board game enthusiasts who are interested in design and like seeing where the current trend of minimalism in design is going. It does a lot of interesting things with very few components or rules. The game will also appeal to those euro gamers who enjoy being able to "math-out" the very best strategy and know what the best move is for them each turn - and want to do so in a smaller, easier to digest package.

I have used the word "interesting" several times in this review, but I haven't used the word "fun" once. For me, that's where this game falls short. I think there is a lot to explore here, but for me, doing so was not especially enjoyable. Maybe I'm a victim of the hype or maybe I'm just done with micro-games - either way, I would give Sail to India a 6.5/10 - an innovative game that impressed me with its mechanisms, but left me feeling cold.

Bruxelles 1893 Review

Bruxelles 1893 is the first published game from Etienne Espreman - but after playing it, most people wouldn't be able to guess this. In fact, I've heard a few other reviewers mention that someone playing this game without knowing who designed it, might guess that it was designed by seasoned vet Stefan Feld. And I can't say I would disagree with that idea.

The Bruxelles board

In Bruxelles 1893, players are vying with the each other to become the most successful and famous architect in the Art Nouveau style. The main mechanism in Bruxelles is worker placement, though area control, auctioning, and card drafting mixed into the game in very interesting ways.



There are two boards in the game - the Art Nouveau board is modular and has the 5 basic actions on it, and there is also the Bruxelles board, which has the card drafting area, the art workshop, and several tracks (including the score track).

To begin a round the first player will flip over the top Stock Market card. This card will indicate which two (usually - sometimes 3 or 4) areas of the Art Nouveau board she can choose to be available for the round. All of the spaces outside of the chosen range are not available.

On a turn, a player will either pass for the round, or place one of her assistant pawns onto one of the boards. The spaces on the Bruxelles board are never completely blocked off, but whichever player has the most assistants on these spaces at the end of a round will lose one assistant indefinitely. These spaces allow players to either take 3 joker building materials, take money according to the stock market card, execute any Art Nouveau board action, or activate a number of her Public Figures.

This Stock Market card indicates the first player should put the frame on the Art Nouveau board at either intersection 3, 4 or 4, 3.

Players can also place onto the Art Nouveau board. There are 5 actions available on this board, and they are:

• Take any two building resources (not jokers)
• Construct a building
• Create an artwork
• Display (sell) an artwork
• Recruit a Public Figure

The bottom of the Art Nouveau board and available bonus cards.

When a player places an assistant on the Art Nouveau board, she also needs to place some money along with the pawn. At the end of each round, each column on the Art Nouveau board will be evaluated, and the player who bid the most money in each column will receive a bonus card. These cards can be discarded for a one-time effect, or kept to multiply one of the end game scoring categories (and ignoring the discard effect).

This player would get 15 points for building 3 buildings (and an architect level of 5), 3 points for assistants, 6 points for leftover artworks (3 works x a multiplier of 2), 3 points for Public Figures, and 0 points for leftover money (what was he thinking?!?)

After all players pass, the round ends. Bonus cards are awarded, as well as bonus points for having a majority of assistants around a completely surrounded intersection on the Art Nouveau board. First player is determined, and she flips the next stock market card to begin the next round. After five rounds, bonus points are awarded for buildings constructed, assistants not in court, Public Figures remaining, artworks remaining, and money remaining. The player with the most points wins!

Bruxelles is a complex game with a lot of interlocking pieces (many of which I didn't even mention) and a lot going on. There are many things to consider with each placement. Do I want to risk going to the Bruxelles board? Can I afford to lose an assistant next turn? How much money should I place with my assistant on the Art Nouveau board? Do I really want to win that bonus card - or should I at least make it hard for the players who I think want it?

Despite all of these considerations, Bruxelles is such a well put together game, that after the first few rounds, the game starts to flow very beautifully. The mechanisms get out of the way, and the players are free to play with the different strategies that Mr. Espreman has so elegantly laid out for us to explore.

One of the best things about Bruxelles is how many paths to victory there are. Being confronted with the decision to either take an immediate benefit, or to choose to multiply something (a choice between 4 things) for end game scoring and giving a direction for the remainder of the game is a great one.

Bruxelles is a beautiful game. It takes a bit to teach and to learn, but the payoff is more than worth the effort. I would rate Bruxelles very highly - a 9.0 in my book. I very much look forward to see what Etienne Espreman has in store for us next, and I highly recommend it to fans of more complex strategy games - it is surely one not to be missed.

Cheaty Mages Review

Cheaty Mages is a recent card game release from AEG and that Seiji Kanai guy. You might recognize that name from another recent Japanese import of his that had a modicum of success, Love Letter. 

Cheaty Mages is a fairly simple almost area control type card game with some wagering, hand management, and "take that" thrown in. The premise of the game is that the players are all mages, watching an arena battle and betting on the outcome. And, as referenced by the title of the game, the players are not just spectators, but use their magic to take an active role in the battle. 

During each round of the game, 5 fighter cards are dealt to the table to participate in the current battle. The top judge card is also drawn - this is the judge who will impose rules on the current round.

The first thing a player does, is choose 1, 2, or 3 bet cards from her hand to play face down in front her. If a player bets on 1 fighter, and it wins, the player will receive double the prize money printed on the fighter card. If a player bets on 2 fighters, she gets the printed amount, and betting on 3 fighters will net the player half the printed value on the fighter. After 3 rounds, whoever has the most money is the Cheatiest Mage!

Enchant Cards                      Direct Cards                   Support Cards

During a turn, players cast spells on the fighters. There are 3 types of cards - Enchant (face down spells), Direct (face up spells), and Support (event cards that will usually affect the other mages instead of the fighters). 

In turn order, players will either play one card, discard a card to look at all the face down cards that are affecting a fighter, or pass. Once a player has passed, she is out for the remainder of the round, which will end once all players have passed. 

At the end of the round, all cards are flipped face up, the winner of the battle is determined, and any successful bets are paid out to those mages. To begin the second and third rounds, players are dealt (in a 3-4 player game) 4 new cards from the deck, but not more than the hand limit of 8.

That's basically the game! The judge for a round can affect a lot, as each spell card comes with a mana value, and if a judge's mana limit is exceeded on any one fighter, the judge will usually either disqualify that fighter or discard all spells played on him. The judge for a round may also not allow certain card types to be played at all during a round.

Cheaty Mages is loads of fun. If you've ever played Reiner Knizia's Colossal Arena, the gameplay should sound pretty familiar to you - and it is very reminiscent of the good doctor's now 15 year old game. But Cheaty Mages adds a lot to that game.

First, a few things that I didn't love about the game. I like the idea of the judges, but I don't like when they disallow certain card types. If a player has a hand full of Direct cards, and the judge that gets flipped for the round doesn't allow any Direct cards to be played, how is that fun? I also wish there were more fighters in the deck. There are 10, and only 5 are needed for each round, but I think it would be more fun to have a bigger variety. 

One of my favorite things about Cheaty Mages is the hand management aspect. Knowing you are going to get 4 cards to start the next round, give a huge incentive to only play 4, so that you can have your hand completely replenished for rounds 2 and 3. But when it comes down to your turn, and you have 4 cards left, and no one else has passed yet, what do you do? This goes to another point I like about the game - Cheaty Mages is chaotic, but there is definitely some strategic play to be found here. A good deal of it comes from seeing the odds, and the fighters, and how certain card combinations will play out, but most of the strategy in the game comes from playing the other players. Working out temporary alliances with the other players - that may be based on either lies or incorrect assumptions about shared bets - is where a lot of the fun comes from in this game. 

I also love the hidden betting mechanism. I like hidden roles in general, but I really like that in this game, players not only have hidden agendas, but they also get to choose those agendas, AND have to decide how much risk they are willing to take, in terms of betting on 1, 2, or 3 fighters.

Something I generally despise in games is "take that." But another thing I like about Cheaty Mages' hidden roles is that the "take that" aspect of the game is somewhat blunted in the game, because any attacks are not against any player in particular, but against a fighter...that your opponents are hopefully supporting.

I would rate Cheaty Mages 8.5/10. It is a short, simple game, with a lot of subtlety and delicious backstabbery. During my first game of Cheaty Mages with a group of close friends, and after playing a 10 mana card on a fighter (thus disqualifying him from the round), my best friend stood up from the table and shouted, "I friggin hate you!" That moment was so laugh-out-loud funny, and the whole game was just so much fun, I knew immediately that this was my kind of game. 

Jim would like to thank AEG for providing him a review copy of Cheaty Mages.

Dungeon Heroes Review

Dungeon Heroes, from Gamelyn Games and designer Michael Coe,  is a 1-2 player tile-laying and bluffing game that sets a team of heroes (a Mage, Warrior, Rogue, and Cleric) against a wily dungeon keeper and the monsters that lay in wait.

Gameplay is pretty simple. The Dungeon Lord gets to draw 4 tiles, and places them face down on the board. These tiles are things like monsters, traps, shifting floors, portals, and loot for the heroes.

After the Dungeon Lord has taken her turn, the Hero player gets four actions to move and act with his heroes. Each hero also has a special ability. The Wizard can move one space either orthogonally or diagonally, and can also spend an action to reveal a tile.

The Warrior can only move orthogonally, but is very good at fighting - any monster tile he lands on is instantly eliminated.

The Rogue can move both orthogonally and diagonally and can disarm traps on the dungeon floor.

The Cleric can move orthogonally and can spend an action to heal an adjacent ally.

Once all of the dungeon tiles have been placed on the board, the Dungeon Lord's turns become a bit more active. At this point, the Dungeon Lord can do the following for one action each:

• Reveal a dungeon tile (if the tile was a monster, replace the tile with a monster figure)
• Move a monster figure 
• Attack a hero with a monster figure

After all the tiles are revealed and there are no more monster figures on the board, the winner is determined.

"hmm...this tile is surrounded by traps...could it be loot??"

If the Hero player has a clear path to reach the remaining treasure tiles needed to win (3 out of 4) with at least 1 hero surviving, the Hero player wins. Otherwise, the Dungeon Lord wins.

"ack! Poison gas!! Well, it's been nice knowing you heroes!!"

Dungeon Heroes is a light, fairly abstract game - though with some nice art and character abilities to give a sense of theme, with just the right amount of bluffing and luck. Set up is a breeze, as is teaching and learning the game. I personally found the Dungeon Lord's side to be a little more fun to play. I really like the bluffing and planning of the dungeon much more than the (sometimes) guesswork the Hero player has to deal with. As the Hero player, the challenge of trying to outguess the Dungeon Lord's feints was very fun as well, but as the Dungeon Lord, I had to deal with the randomness of the tile draw, as well as the interesting decisions that came up when I had drawn not monster or traps, but loot that would benefit the Heroes. Do I keep it far away from them, or bluff and put it right in front of one of them, hoping they'll avoid it just because I put it right in front of them?

I would give Dungeon Heroes a solid 7.0/10. It doesn't reach for the stars or reinvent the dungeon crawl, but what it aims for it does very, very well. It is a fun, two player battle of wits with a light fantasy theme. If you think you'd enjoy a short, relatively simple 2 player bluffing game, I'd strongly recommend checking out Dungeon Heroes from Gamelyn Games.

Julius Caesar Review

Julius Caesar is a 2 player war game from Columbia Games and designers Grant Dalgliesh and Justin Thompson. As a gamer, I have an appetite for all kinds of games - except that I have not played very many war games. The closest I've played to war games are a couple of the C&C games and (my favorite game of all time) War of the Ring. So after doing some searching on BGG for good intro wargames, I was excited to hear that Columbia Games was willing to send me a copy of one of the most recommended titles - Julius Caesar.

The starting position for the Pompey army. 

Julius Caesar is what is known as a "block wargame." In these types of wargames, player's units are represented by wooden blocks, with information on only one side. This means that players are unable to see exactly what enemy units are in each location - just where the other player has units.

The only VPs outside of Rome (worth 2) that start the game up for grabs.

The game will end either after 5 rounds, or immediately after a round where 1 player controls cities worth 10 or more victory points.

The number in the red banner is the card's movement value. The number of silver medallions is the number of levy points the card is worth.

A round begins with each player being dealt 6 cards from the 27 card deck. There are two kinds of cards - command cards and event cards. Each player has to discard 1 card from their hand. Then both players select 1 card to play. determines both who moves first, as well as how many movement points and levies the player receives. 

Some of the event cards in the deck. If 1 player plays an event card, that player goes first. If both players play event cards, they are discarded with no effect.

Unless one of the players plays an event card, whoever plays the card with the most movement goes first. This player will first move any blocks he wishes to move and then can either "heal" a block on the board for a levy point or deploy a block from her levy pool for a levy point. Then, if any cities contain units from both armies, battles are resolved. 

Each unit has a strength value and a combat value. A unit's strength value corresponds to how many dice it will roll when it attacks. It also represents each unit's "hit points." Each time a unit suffers a hit, a unit's block is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise - thus decreasing its strength. 

In this example, Antonius would roll his 2 dice first, causing hits on 2's or lower (which would be assigned to the Roman legion, because it is the strongest opposing unit). Then Pompey would attack, and so on.

Battles are fought in phases, with all defending A units rolling attacks first, then attacking A units, then B units, then C, and so on. As mentioned above, units roll a number of d6's - each die that is the unit's combat value or lower is a hit. Hits are immediately assigned to the strongest opposing unit. Battles are fought until one side is eliminated, one side retreats, or until the end of the 4th round of combat (when the attacking force needs to retreat). 

Play continues in this way until the players have played all five of their cards. Then a winter phase takes place, where each side needs to check stacking limits - each city on the board can only hold 3 units during this phase (more if the city is worth any VPs) and any surplus units are removed from the board. 

The game will end during the winter phase when 1 of the armies has at least 10 VPs or after 5 winters.

One of the things I didn't care for about Julius Caesar was the number of exceptions to rules. There may not be many for a wargame, but for someone fairly new to the genre, I found myself checking the rule book pretty regularly even after having played the game a few times.

Another nit I would pick with the game is the size of the map and the size of the blocks. The map looks very good, but on a few occasions it became unclear which units were in which city. Stacking the blocks helps a little, but they fall down and remembering how strong the units that fell were was a hassle.

I wasn't sure what to expect before playing Julius Caesar. I had never played any of the Ancients C&C games - so I had never played a block wargame, or really any game where not knowing what or where your opponent's units are is a feature of the game. This part of the game - not being sure of what you are marching towards, or thinking you remember what units are in that city, and being totally wrong - is very enjoyable. I also really liked the balance of having to go get 10 VPs but also knowing that defending armies have a pretty big advantage in combat (attacking first) is really interesting. I found myself moving my armies close to my opponent's, hoping she would attack so that I could (hopefully) wipe out her force while I had the defensive advantage and then march towards the points she was holding.

I also really enjoyed the combat itself. I liked the almost puzzly feeling of trying to assemble an army that have a good balance of early attackers (As or Bs), likely hitters (high combat value), and strong units (lots of dice), and then taking those armies out and seeing how they do in the field.

On the whole, I really enjoy Julius Caesar. I would give it an 8.0 out of 10. I really like the combat, the hidden units, and while I don't know much about the historical context, I like the theme as well. I think I would rather play this over something simpler than Memoir, and would also gladly play it if I wanted to play War of the Ring and the other player wasn't in the mood for something so long. I think Julius Caesar is a great game to look into if you haven't played many wargames, but are interested in dipping your toes into the water. After having enjoyed my time with Julius Caesar so much, I'm now looking into getting copies of games like Hammer of the Scots and Crusader Rex.

Jim would like to thank Columbia Games for providing him a review copy of Julius Caesar.