Washington's War Review

One game that I was incredibly excited to receive a copy of was Washington's War.

Washington's War is a Revolutionary War board game.   One player takes on the role of the British army, and the other takes on the role of the Americans.  The game is played over a series of rounds - each round representing a year between 1775-1783 (in a long game).  On each turn, both players get to draw 7 cards.  These cards can be either "Ops" cards, or Events.  Events simply do something to alter the game, or a phase of the game.  They can help in combat, determine when the game ends, move the French closer to a treaty with the Americans, have Benedict Arnold betray the Americans, and many other things.  There are two types of events - Mandatory and Optional.  With Ops cards, a player can bring in reinforcements, move a General (possibly to attack), or gain Political Control in different regions of the board.  At the end of each round, many troops are lost to winter, and Political Control can shift if certain parts of the board are isolated from others.  After a certain number of turns (based on which events are played), players check for victory conditions - and whoever has Political Control over enough of the colonies is declared the winner!

The first thing that I like about Washington's War is that a lot of the elements of the game give it a nice historical theme.  Specifically, some of the things like winter attrition, though incredibly challenging in gameplay terms, make complete sense in the setting of the game.  One of these elements is the fact that, even in battles, you generally don't kill especially many troops.  I think that this really depicts the inaccuracy of the muskets used during this time - it's much more likely that you will destroy a large army by catching them in a place where they can't flee (thus getting them to surrender) than it is to wipe out them out on the battlefield.  Honestly, this element of a war game where you are pushing armies around instead of killing them reminds me of the Game of Thrones Board Game and, though I didn't really like it especially much in that game, I think that it works well in Washington's War.  (It helps that you can wipe out an entire army if you can force them to surrender.)

Ok, I thought the flash made this picture look cool.

My next two pros really are very intermixed, so I'll talk about them at the same time.  First, I liked that both sides had significantly different advantages and disadvantages (this also works with the historical feeling to the game), and second, I liked how "Isolation" and placing Political Control markers worked.  The two sides in this game play quite differently.  And, if you want to win, then you truly have to capitalize on your strengths and find ways of exploiting your opponent's weaknesses.  Specifically, the British player gets a lot of troops, especially early, and has major combat advantages to start the game.  The American player, however, is able to quickly get small armies positioned on different parts of the map in order to gain Political Control and isolate the British player's control - and winning the game is about Political Control (and not killing things), so this is a very useful ability.  One of the elements of the game that you check at the end of each round is called "Isolation."  Basically, it means that if you can't find a way to connect your Political Control markers to some troops or some neutral areas of the board, then you will lose your control in those areas, as the people will feel isolated from your influence.  It isn't generally very easy to isolate your opponent's political markers, but successfully doing this at the right times during the game can really determine which player wins and which player loses.

Now that I've mentioned several things that Washington's War did very well, there were a few areas that I disliked.  First, this game is overly complex.  One of the reasons that I was so excited about this game is that it has a 90 minute playing time - and, for the most part, I've found this to be accurate.  However, it also has a 24 page rulebook that is very text heavy (there are a lot of diagrams and such - I'm more focusing on the length than the quality), and also has another 14 page book for examples of play, strategy tips, and design notes.  To read through and really understand the rulebook will probably take around an hour.  I read it three times before my first game.  And then, I referenced it repeatedly every time that I played.  Basically, here's how it reads, "the British player performs this rule like X, but the American player does Y.  Exception: in Z situation, everything is different."  There really feels like an exception to every rule.  Oh, and the French armies (obviously) work differently than either the American or the British armies.  Yes, I realize that much of this is attempting to capture the historical feel of the Revolutionary War, but it seemed quite excessive.  Additionally, I thought that, though the rules covered everything, they weren't one of GMT's better rulebooks.  Rules weren't laid out in the actual order that you would encounter them in the game, and I often wanted to look up rules, but wasn't able to find what I needed in the index.  This led to flipping pages and trying to remember what section covered that exception.  The complexity and the rules will definitely be your biggest hurdle in enjoying Washington's War.

My next con was that I really disliked Mandatory Events.  More specifically, I really disliked that Mandatory Events made your hand significantly worse.  Some Mandatory Events are fairly neutral - they set what year the game will end.  However, other Mandatory Events would actually help the other team!  I've played card based political games (like Twilight Struggle) where you might draw your opponent's cards and you have to make the most of a bad situation.  However, in Twilight Struggle, there are ways of mitigating the impact of these cards.  In Washington's War, if a British player draws one of the strong American Mandatory Events, then he is forced to play it, and he doesn't get to redraw a card.  So, not only does it help his opponent, it also hurts his hand because he has one card that is functionally useless.  If you draw an opponent's Optional Event, then you can at least use it to give yourself an advantage in combat, or discard it to perform a political action.  With the Mandatory Events, it's like having a card in your hand that says "Pass."

Playing this card helps.  A lot.

The final con that I will mention for Washington's War is that I felt that it was far too luck based.  This luck came in what cards you draw and how important single die rolls were.  Now, I'm really okay with luck in games.  However, I feel that there is a disconnect in Washington's War - rule intensive games have a highly strategic feel to them.  Generally, the longer it takes to learn a game, the more I want random factors of the game to be mitigated.  Here's an example of a card that is amazing - "Baron von Steuben Trains the Continental Army."  To start the game, the British get a +1 advantage in every combat.  Why?  Because the American troops are horrible and throwing pitch forks at them.  However, this card permanently removes this bonus from the British.  See how this is useful?  So, if an American player draws this card early, then he will have a much easier time than if the British player draws it and is able to discard it during a combat.  Another element of luck is in determining your General's combat rating.  To start a fight, each player rolls a die.  On a 1-3, the General's rating is cut in half for that battle.  That hurts quite a bit.  But, then the battle is also determined by a single die roll (with modifiers).  I can outnumber my opponent by 3-4 troops (5 troops is a massive army in this game, and is the most that you can ever attack with), have the better General, and discard a card to give myself an advantage and still lose the combat.  Yes, this represents the fact that things go horribly awry in battle.  But, the winner of a battle coming down to how players roll a six-sided die became frustrating to me.

Overall, I give Washington's War a 7.0/10.  If you can get through the rules and start playing the game, then there is quite a bit to like about the game.  However, with the very steep entrance barrier mixed with the fairly high luck factor for the game, it didn't quite live up to the expectations that I had for it.

If Washington's War sounds interesting to you, then you might also want to check out 1989: Dawn of Freedom, Game of Thrones, and Twilight Struggle (really, everyone should check out Twilight Struggle if you haven't yet).

I would like to thank GMT Games for providing me with a review copy of Washington's War.

Top Ten Most Played Games of All Time - Fall 2012

Ok, that's a pretty lofty title.  But, more specifically, this is my top ten most played games.  And, to determine this, I am basing it off of total time that I have invested in playing a game - not my current feelings about a game.  After all, there's a decent chance that I've played some of these so often that I'm at least a bit burned out on them.

There are a few caveats on this list, though.  First, I don't actually pay attention to how long I've played a game, so this is all based on guesswork and conjecture.  Second, I'm basing this off of total game time, not number of plays.  So, a game that takes three hours to play may wind up much higher on the list than a game that I play dozens of times but doesn't take as long.  Third, I didn't count anything that you can play with a standard deck of cards.  Finally, I'm not counting time playing the game in an electronic format (otherwise Dominion and Axis and Allies would be much higher).

With all that said, lists are fun - so let's get to

My Top Ten Most Played Games of All Time!!

10. Power Grid

I love Power Grid. That should be obvious by it being on this list! This is one that I love so much, that I wrote a computer version of it in order to learn a new programming language. Though, admittedly, I may be remembering the time spent doing that, and it may be clouding my judgement about how much I've actually played the "real" game.

9. Betrayal at House on the Hill

Want to know how great this game is? I don't even care about horror themed games, and it still made this list! I absolutely love the thematic gameplay, the betrayal half-way through the game, and the book of scenarios!

8. Battlestar Galactica

This became one of my office's lunch games. Unfortunately, lunch breaks are only an hour. Do you realize how hard it is to maintain a lie over several days? However, the game is so amazing, that we put up with that slight nuisance for the opportunity to play it - again and again.

7. The Resistance

I said in my review of The Resistance that, for the money, this is the best game that I've ever bought. I can't even speculate on how many times I've played this game - or how many times I've fallen for someone's deceit!

6. Shadows Over Camelot

Both the first co-operative game I played and the first game with a traitor element. This combination adds up to playing back to back games for hours on end. Unfortunately, for some of my friends, they have been permanently branded as a traitor from all of these sessions. (If you're curious, I am referring to my good friends "Traitor Nic" and "Traitor Heath.")

5. PitchCar

How does a game that takes 5-10 minutes to play get on a list like this? You play it a lot. I have probably averaged playing PitchCar five times or more every week for a year and a half. Yeah. That's how it's on the list.

4. Star Wars: Customizable Card Game

This was my high school game of choice. "Obsessive" probably doesn't quite cover it. If the time I spent building decks was factored in, instead of just the time actually playing the game, this one would be #1. However, depending on my parents for transportation kept my ability to play in check, and keeps it "down" at #4.

3. Monopoly

Everyone was a kid sometime, right? I loved this game as a kid. Loved it. However, just because I loved it didn't mean I could convince people to play it with me. It did have a brief re-emergence in my graduate school days. And, for that matter, I'd still be willing to play it if anyone was interested.  Many people hate Monopoly, but I'm not one of them.

2. Risk 2210

Risk 2210 is probably the first game that started my deep plunge into "strategy" board games. After discovering this gem while working on my bachelor's degree, I started playing this with friends from my dorm every day. We knew when each other's classes ended each day, so that we could immediately start a game afterwards. And I would dare say that I spent half of my waking hours over at least one Spring Break playing this. I'm currently on my third physical copy of the game, having worn out one copy and had another one stolen.  There's a fair chance that I'll wind up with a fourth copy soon, as my current copy is also fairly "well loved." 

1. Heroscape

I own everything that Heroscape has put out. Did you catch that? (In case you're not overly familiar with Heroscape, they put out around 50 small expansions, 6 large expansions, had over 10 promo items, and had 4 master sets.) Yeah - that's how much I love this game. While working on my master's degree, I had a Heroscape board permanently set up in my dorm room. And, fortunately, I had several people that enjoyed playing with me, to the point that we played every night for around a year.

Honorable Mention:

Some of my other all time favorites didn't quite make the cut. They include Puerto Rico, Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (I expect this one to be on a future list), Dominion (I have played the base game over 500 times on my iPhone; I just checked), Pandemic, Settlers of Catan, and Axis and Allies.

Well - there you have it, the 10 games that I have played the most!  This list is a bit hard to argue over, unless you've been secretly following me for all of my life and timing how long I've played various games.  However, I would be curious - what are the games you've invested the most time into?  Feel free to let me know in the comments!

King of Tokyo Review

One game that I've been hearing about for several months now is King of Tokyo.

In King of Tokyo, each player takes on the role of one of several monsters attempting to destroy Tokyo.  But, though Tokyo is fairly defenseless, the other monsters are contesting you, as they want to be the ultimate destroyer of the city!  Each turn, you run six dice.  You can keep any number of them that you want, and you can re-roll the other dice up to two more times.  Based on those dice, you can do a few things - with claws, you attack whichever monster is in Tokyo (or, if you are in Tokyo, you attack everyone else), with hearts, you heal damage (unless you're in Tokyo), if you get three matching numbers, you score that many victory points, and if you roll lightning bolts, you gain energy.  Whenever you attack someone in Tokyo, they must decide if they are staying in Tokyo, or leaving.  If they leave, then you are forced to take over Tokyo - which gives you one point, while making you a target.  But, for each of your turns that you are still in Tokyo, you gain two points.  At the end of each turn, you may also use your accumulated energy to buy upgrades.  The first person to score twenty points wins.  Or, since you're awesome monsters and fighting each other and such, the last monster standing wins!!!  (This is actually how most of my games end.)

The first pro for King of Tokyo is that it's incredibly fun to play.  This is one of those pros that is really hard to quantify or explain, but some games are simply more fun than others.  I think that some of the things contributing to the fun of King of Tokyo are the goofy theme, the awesome upgrades, and breaking all odds with die rolls.  (How can you be angry when someone in Tokyo rolls six claws and wipes out everyone else at the same time?  I have seen this happen at least twice.  No, it was never me being awesome like that.)  Of course, it also helps to talk about your monster in the third person.  One of the guys in my game group always uses Meka Dragon.  And generally, when going into Tokyo uses his best Meka Dragon voice to announce, "Meka Dragon new King of Tokyo!"  This is just a light, enjoyable game that you can play while joking around with your friends.

An upgraded Meka Dragon

The next topic for King of Tokyo is both a pro and a con - the upgrades.  The upgrades really make the game play differently each time.  The upgrades are awesome.  You can heal, deal damage to everyone, deal extra damage every time you attack, gain victory points, take another turn, etc.  Buying upgrades and making your monster even more phenomenal is really fun.  However, the upgrades can also make the game imbalanced - if one person gets amazing upgrades, then they can really run away with a game.  Also, if really expensive upgrades are dealt at the beginning of the game, then they can become a bit of a non-factor, as it will take longer before players are able to actually purchase any of them.  Now, you are allowed to clear out all of the upgrades (at the cost of two energy) to provide yourself with better options.  However, this is not done very often - especially since you may unintentionally set the next player up to be able to purchase an upgrade that you can no longer afford.

My third pro for King of Tokyo is that I appreciate that it is interactive.  There are several dice games that have come out recently (Martian Dice and Zombie Dice come to mind).  But, in those games, it doesn't really matter if you're playing by yourself, or with five friends.  The only real difference is that you have to wait longer between turns.  However, in King of Tokyo, your decisions are heavily influenced by the other players.  Did someone just hit you for five health?  Guess what - you're going to be trying to roll hearts.  Is someone in Tokyo down to two health?  Sounds like the perfect time to try for claws to finish them off!  This really sets King of Tokyo apart from other dice games to me.  This is a game that you can enjoy with friends, and the more the better (up to the six player that it supports).

Potential Kings of Tokyo

So, whereas I don't have any more "cons" for King of Tokyo, there is one thing that I will mention.  (I considered leaving it out, since I consider it fairly obvious.)  There is a lot of luck involved in this game.  It is a game about rolling dice.  Yes, there are upgrades, and yes, you get to make some decisions about what you keep and what you re-roll.  With that said, rolling what you need is a better strategy than planning ahead.  If you don't like luck based games, or you're not in the mood for a game with a high luck factor, then don't play King of Tokyo!  (Until later, when you are in the right mood.)

Overall, I give King of Tokyo an 8.5/10.  The game is a blast to play.  Whereas it won't be for absolutely everyone, I would encourage everyone to try it at least once if you have the opportunity!

As a final note - I was at a gaming event recently and saw someone that had taken some figures from Monsterpocalypse and was using them for King of Tokyo.  This was amazing!  I may need to find some of these for my own copy.  After all - beautiful plastic figures are better than cardboard figures.

If King of Tokyo sounds fun, you might also check out Liar's Dice, Dixit, and Martian Dice. And, since everyone has their own opinion (which doesn't quite match mine), you might also want to check out Play Board Games' King of Tokyo Review, or this other review of King of Tokyo by Games With Two.

I would like to thank Iello Games for providing me with a review copy of King of Tokyo.

Empires of the Void Review

I would like to thank my guest reviewer Chris C. for his thoughts on Empires of the Void!

In Empires of the Void, 2-4 players control alien races competing to wrest control of the galaxy from the crumbling Pyrious Empire.  Each race builds a fleet of ships while expanding its civilization’s
influence farther into interstellar space and researching new technologies.  Competition over high-value planets is fierce, and inevitably these budding empires come crashing together in space
combat.  In the end, the race which has best managed expanding its empire’s scope, diplomatic ties and technological expertise will win.

To long-time gamers, this will all sound pretty familiar.  Empires of the Void is a great example of a classic genre called “4X” games: players explore, expand, exploit and exterminate.  The granddaddy of space-themed 4X games is Twilight Imperium, an epic game of interstellar conquest.  While Twilight Imperium is a masterpiece, many gamers have a hard time getting it to the table because of its 4+ hour play time and complicated rules.  In the last two years, there have been several attempts to put out new games that capture the Twilight Imperium experience in a more reasonable play time and with a simpler rule set.

Empires of the Void does an excellent job of integrating and re-imagining many of the classic elements of the 4X genre into a new game.  Players start with only their race’s home world, and must build a fleet and expand into neighboring systems to gather more resources. Each race has unique abilities, and I found these to be interesting and fairly balanced while still clearly distinguishing each race and suggesting a particular play style.  The expanding civilizations quickly collide, and neighbors must fight or negotiate over planets between them.  Diplomacy is important here - two players wasting resources battling over their shared space will quickly find themselves at a disadvantage to the other races.  With a small number of high-value planets at the center of the board, though, peace can not last forever.  Managing your resources carefully and building an effective fleet is essential.

The artwork on the board is well done

The game also adds a number of unique and fun mechanisms to the standard 4X formula.  A novel turn structure keeps the game moving at a brisk pace.  Each turn begins with a building phase where players construct ships and research new technologies simultaneously.  Then a card is drawn triggering an event - perhaps space pirates invade a planet or a wormhole is discovered linking two distant parts of the board.  After the event, each player gets an action phase in turn order to move their ships, conquer planets and attack other civilizations.

The game takes place over 11 rounds.  In the 5th and 8th rounds, the event is replaced with a scoring phase where players earn victory points for their planets, technologies and “influence” (explained momentarily).  There is also a final scoring round after the 11th turn.  An upcoming scoring round tends to spell conflict as players try to grab points from each other.  I loved the way this prevented anyone from getting too comfortable and kept things moving.

Diplomacy plays a central role in expanding your empire and winning in Empires of the Void.  There are two distinct ways to take control of a planet.  A player may conquer a planet by attacking it.  This provides access to the planet’s resources and victory points.   Alternatively, a player may attempt to ally with a planet by sending a diplomat and playing diplomacy cards corresponding to the type of race that lives there (planets may be peaceful, scholarly, mysterious, militaristic or capitalistic).  Each planet has a unique special ability that is available only to its ally (for example, access to unique ships or technologies) and allied planets contribute to a player’s “influence” total, giving them a chance to control the galactic council for additional points in scoring rounds.  Allied planets also provide  resources and points like conquered planets, but diplomacy is a bit harder than simply taking over a planet.

Empires of the Void features bright artwork and nice components.  Each civilization has a beautiful player board with a large colorful illustration of that race.  The player boards also have helpful reminders about the turn structure, the available actions, and the cost of each ship and the required corresponding technologies.  The modular board is large and attractive, always getting lots of attention at my game club.  There are many types of ships, represented by thick cardboard pieces with nice illustrations.

Very colorful components, all around

The game does have a few flaws.  While the rulebook is easy to read, it has a few errors and doesn’t explain every situation that can come up during the game.  We found ourselves checking the internet for clarifications several times in our first two games, though the rules are mostly simple and straightforward.  Some of the event cards can be particularly brutal, possibly taking away control of a crucial planet in the early game.  In my group, we’ve taken the worst ones out.  Additionally, it’s very possible for players to fall behind a bit in the early game and have trouble catching up due to bad die rolls.  On the bright side, the designers have put a free promo up on their website that addresses this problem by giving players a way to slightly modify some rolls.  We like this promo a lot and always use it now, though it can extend the game length a little since players will be able to set up bigger civilizations more quickly.  Also, while the board position is randomized in each game, all of the tiles are used every time - I wish they had included more map pieces for added replayability.

So where does Empires of the Void fit into the world of new space-themed 4X games?  In my opinion, this game does a better job of capturing the epic feel of Twilight Imperium than its two main
competitors, Eclipse and Space Empires 4X.  Eclipse is an excellent and very popular new game, but it feels more like an economic optimization game than Empires of the Void or Twilight Imperium.  Diplomacy plays a less central role in Eclipse, and players aren’t forced to deal with each other as quickly or directly.  Space Empires 4X is more of a gritty war game than Empires of the Void.  It does an excellent job of setting up epic space battles, but it plays best as a 2-player direct conflict game and lacks the unique alien races and bright artwork of Empires of the Void.  Each of these games is
excellent and each excels at a particular aspect of the space conquest genre, but Empires of the Void does the best job of condensing the full range of possibilities that exist in bigger games like Twilight Imperium into a 2-hour play time.

I highly recommend Empires of the Void.  It’s great both as an introduction to 4X games and for hardened space-combat vets that are looking to get their fix in a shorter game.  As with any game that
features direct conflict, play it with folks who won’t take it personally when their prized planets are snatched out from under them.  The game has beautiful art, is easy to learn and adds several neat
mechanics to the genre.  If building an intergalactic space empire and conquering alien worlds sounds like fun to you, pick this one up today.
9.0/10

If you are interested in Empires of the Void, you might also want to check out Civilization, Galaxy's Edge, and Risk 2210 AD.

I would like to thank Red Raven Games for providing us with a review copy of Empires of the Void.