Discworld: Ankh-Morpork Review

Quite a while ago, I requested a review game from Mayfair.  Due to my previous reviews, they thought that I might enjoy Discworld: Ankh-Morpork.

In Ankh-Morpork, each of the players takes on the role of a different character attempting to take control of the city.  However, these goals are secret.  Some characters might be attempting to control a certain number of territories, some may want their minions throughout the city, some are trying for money, other want trouble, and one character just wants to thwart everyone else until the deck runs out.  To do this, the gameplay is fairly simple.  On your turn you get to play a card.  This card will allow you to do various things - place minions, assassinate minions, build a building, draw more cards, earn money, and possibly play more cards.  After you have played any cards that you are allowed to play, you draw back up to five cards, and play passes to the next player.  Once someone has achieved their victory condition, and still has it at the start of their turn, they win!  If this never happens and the deck runs out, then one of the specific roles wins.  If he's not playing, then you add up points to find a winner!

Let's start this review off with a confession.  I've never read any of the Discworld books.  (Though, now that there are two games about them, I'm thinking that maybe I should!)  So, just like I said with Guards! Guards!, any of the flavor or humor of the game will be missed on me.  So, I'll just be reviewing it in terms of gameplay.  If you are a Discworld fan, I think that it's safe to assume that you will like the game better than I did, simply because there's an entire layer of the game that is I'm missing!  So, at the end, when I give a score, I think that you're safe to add 1-2 points to that score, if you enjoy the theme.  With that said, let's start talking about the game itself.

The seven different secret characters

The crux of the game are the secret identities/agendas.  If this is something that you enjoy, then this game is one that you should consider.  When playing Ankh-Morpork, just like playing any other secret agenda game, it is very important to attempt to bluff a different agenda.  Are you attempting to control a certain number of territories?  It might be smart to start off the game spreading out as much as possible so that everyone thinks that your agenda is to have minions all over the city.  This way they will spend all of their efforts (and good cards) on stopping you from completing the wrong agenda - which may allow you to swoop in and complete your actual agenda.  I thought that this part of the game worked well, and so I consider this a pro for the game.

The next thing that I liked about Ankh-Morpork are the "trouble markers."  Trouble markers are placed on territories any time a minion is placed in or moved to a territory that already has a minion present (and doesn't already have a trouble marker).  This trouble marker does two things - it allows assassinations to occur, and it prevents buildings from being placed.  However, as soon as a minion leaves the territory (through movement or assassination), the trouble marker is removed.  These markers really added quite a bit more strategy than I would have initially assumed.  It seems like they are always in the opposite state of what you want - if you're looking to build a building, then it seems like there is going to be a trouble marker there, and if you're wanting to kill someone else's minions (ok, you're always wanting to do this - but, if you are wanting to do this and actually have a card that lets you), then there will inevitably be no trouble marker.  So, Ankh-Morpork has an interesting dynamic in trying to figure out how to add or remove trouble markers while still being able to do the action that you actually care about - instead of simply helping the player after you.

The third pro that I will mention for Ankh-Morpork is that it is really simple to teach, and I think that it could be easily learned by anyone, regardless of how many games they have played in the past.  I consider this to be really important, especially since I think the game will appeal to Discworld fans and not just "normal" board gamers.  This means that, if you are considering buying this game for someone that you know that is a big Discworld fan, but they haven't played a lot of strategy board games, then Ankh-Morpork is a game that they should be able to learn without feeling too overwhelmed.  Which means that they'll actually play it!  (Which is a good thing - a played game is always better than an unplayed one.)

Example cards - I missed all the references

However, I still had some complaints with Ankh-Morpork (really, just one major complaint).  My complaint was that there seemed to be too much luck involved in what you draw.  Specifically, cards that allow you to play another card are better than anything else.  This is because they allow you to chain cards together to turn into a super-card.  For example, a card that lets you gain $3 and then play another card doesn't sound that great.  However, if you have another card that lets you play a building, then suddenly you have the ability to gain $3 before building a building - and there's a good chance that the $3 will provide you with the funding that you need to complete that building.  And, if that card allows you to play another card, then you might also get to play a minion on your turn.  And if that lets you play more cards... you get the picture.  So, cards that allow you to play an extra card are better than any others.  Then, there are some other cards that are just drastically awful.  There is at least one card in the deck that does nothing.  Nothing.  Playing it is the same as passing on your turn.  It is only helpful if you get a bonus for discarding or if an opponent plays something that forces you to give them a card - because then it will clutter up their deck, instead of yours!

Overall, I give Ankh-Morpork a 7.5/10.  But, as I said before, you have to keep in mind that this score is completely devoid of enjoying the theme.  If you enjoy the Discworld theme (or just really love secret agenda games), then I think that Ankh-Morpork will be a great choice that you should definitely consider buying, or at least consider looking for an opportunity to play.  If, like me, you have never read any of the Discworld books, then I still think that you can enjoy Ankh-Morpork, but there are probably games that you will enjoy more.

If Ankh-Morpork sounds interesting to you, then you should check out Guards! Guards! A Discworld Board Game, Battlestar Galactica, and Cosmic Encounter.

I would like to thank Mayfair Games for providing me with a review copy of Discworld: Ankh-Morpork.

Dungeon Command: Tyranny of Goblins Mini Review

The latest army set that I've been able to check out for Dungeon Command is the Tyranny of Goblins army pack.

In my original review, I focused on the pros and cons of Dungeon Command.  And, while doing so, I was using the Sting of Lolth and Heart of Cormyr sets (though I didn't necessarily go too much into details about the sets themselves).  If you haven't checked it out before, I'll encourage you to go ahead and read my Dungeon Command Review, as this review will be focus on mentioning some of my favorite elements of the new set.

The first thing to mention about the Goblin set is the leaders.  I actually like both of the leaders, though their powers are quite different.  "Snig the Axe" has a special ability that allows you to deploy creatures during your Refresh phase.  This does a couple of nice things - first, it allows you to react to what your opponent is doing each round.  Second, you don't have to wait an entire round to have your reinforcements join the fight.  The other leader is "Tarkon Draal."  Tarkon's ability costs his opponent an extra Morale any time they cower.  This is a small thing, but it really helps you finish off their troops, as an extra Morale really adds up if they start cowering.

A new friend, and an old one.

A couple of creatures deserve to be mentioned.  First is the Feral Troll.  And, specifically, I need to say "hello" to this figure, as it feels like it is becoming an old friend.  Dungeon Command is (at least) the third different game in which this figure has been sold - he was in the original Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures game, Heroscape, and now Dungeon Command.  However, he is also fairly useful - he has a "Regenerate 10" ability that allows him to heal 10 damage at the start of each turn.  This, along with 120 hit points is a pretty amazing combination.  But, the figure that is probably my favorite is the "Bugbear Berserker."  Why?  Because he has Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution (thus making it easy to actually play order cards with him), and he also untaps each time an adjacent enemy creature is destroyed.  So, as long as you're killing, you get to keep on killing!

Some of my favorite new order cards.

When it comes to Orders, there are some cards that would be useful in any set, and also some nice combinations that are provided within this set.  One of the cards that I would currently put in most any Order deck that I built would be Grovel.  It is a Level 1 that can be played by any creature, and it prevents 30 damage at the cost of 1 Morale - an exchange that I'm willing to make (after all, it's Cowering at 1/3 the cost).  The more interesting combination in the set centers around "Mortal Wound."  Mortal Wound allows you to prevent all damage to a creature from one source.  However, it attaches to the protected creature, and will kill him during your next Deploy phase.  Fortunately, there are four other cards that allow you to remove all attachments from a creature.  So, if you can use Mortal Wound to prevent large amounts of damage, and then remove it on your next turn, then you have suddenly been able to save yourself quite a bit of Morale.

Overall, I give the Dungeon Command: Tyranny of Goblins set an 8.5/10.  I thought that it added some useful creatures and order cards that can be included into your other sets, and the leaders are strong enough to warrant playing with the Goblins if you enjoy their faction.

If you're interested in Dungeon Command, you might also want to check out Heroscape, Yomi, and Legend of Drizzt.

I would like to thank Wizards of the Coast for providing me with a review copy of Dungeon Command: Tyranny of Goblins.

Dungeon! Review

Recently, Wizards of the Coast decided to re-print a classic game from the 1970's - Dungeon!

In Dungeon! each player takes on the role of a different adventurer with the goal of looting the dungeon.  Each character has a certain amount of loot that they are attempting to collect before returning to the Great Hall for victory.  Each turn, you can move your adventurer up to five spaces - but you are stopped if you go into an uncleared room or chamber.  In these rooms and chambers, you must fight a monster.  After selecting the monster of the appropriate level, you find the number that your adventurer must roll.  After rolling the dice, if you have rolled high enough to defeat the monster, then you gain loot (if you are in a room or the monster had stolen loot).  If you do not defeat the monster, then you roll again to see what happens - this can range from nothing, to losing some of your loot, to being killed and having to start over.  Turns continue in this manner until one player has collected enough loot to win and successfully returns to the Great Hall (with that loot).

Find the number your character needs to roll

The first pro for Dungeon! is that it is easy to teach anybody.  Now, this pro comes with a caveat.  Though it is easy to teach anybody, that doesn't mean that adults will enjoy the game.  This should probably be considered a kid-friendly game more than a non-gamer game.  However, with that said, it seems like the kind of game that you could enjoy with young children.  The amount of luck and die rolling involved would help put both children and adults on approximately equal footing when it comes to chances of victory, which I think could add even more to the children's enjoyment.

Oh, and the next pro for Dungeon! is that it's inexpensive.  A suggested retail price of $20 for a full board game with any kind of role playing element (however small) is essentially unheard of.

Now that I have listed all of my pros for Dungeon! it's off to the cons.  There is a ridiculously overpowered strategy in the game.  Do you want to know what it is?  It is to roll the dice well.  This strategy will defeat any other strategy that players choose to implement (like not rolling well).  Basically, the entire game is dependent on luck.  The higher you roll against monsters, the better your chance of victory.  However, as opposed to games like Runebound where you defeat the smaller monsters to level up and get better weapons before continuing onto the harder monsters, you will have essentially the same chances of defeating a huge monster at the end of the game as you would at the beginning.  (The one exception is that you might be able to get a "magic sword" which can give you a +1 or +2 bonus to your rolls - normally a +1; again, unless you roll well.)  So, if you're going to go after gigantic monsters, you might as well do it right at the beginning before you have loot to drop.  But, then you might get really good loot and drop it later where someone else can go get it.

You better play friendly with those dice!

The next con for Dungeon! is related to the first con.  If you choose the sub-optimal strategy (you don't roll well), then you are going to be very frustrated in this game.  I played a game of Dungeon! where one of the players spent significantly more time without loot than with loot.  Each time they earned any loot, they immediately lost to another monster (of a level that they were "recommended" to be fighting), and then would have to spend the next several turns fighting that monster in order to re-gain their loot.  After all, once you've already lost all of your loot, there's not really much downside to losing to a monster.  However, it can be incredibly frustrating to play the game and constantly roll slightly too low to beat the monster - just to see your high roll get used by determining how the monster smashes you in return.  (This is the kind of frustration that makes people want to flip the table.  I'm not condoning this action - just stating that this is an example of what could possibly cause someone to want to do that.) 

That's really all there is to Dungeon!  Overall, I give it a 6.0/10.  And, honestly, I only gave it a score that high because it can be played with kids.  However, like Uno, just because your kids will enjoy it doesn't necessarily mean that you will.  If you're looking for a highly luck based game with a lot of die rolling and a slight role playing element, then you should check out Dungeon!  Otherwise, you should probably stay away.

If you are looking for games for children, you might also check out Hey, That's My Fish! or Scallywags; or, if you're looking for a role playing game, you might check out Runebound or Legend of Drizzt.

I would like to thank Wizards of the Coast for providing me with a review copy of Dungeon!

WWE Topps Slam Attax (Rumble) Review

 
Hello.  My name is Josh, and I am an adult that enjoys watching professional wrestling.  Because of this, I buy wrestling games that I know will be awful.  At least I have a board game review site, so that I can at least pretend to have a reason for buying these games. Recently, this meant I bought WWE Topps Slam Attax (Rumble).

In the WWE Topps Slam Attax game, each player chooses nine wrestlers and sets them face-down in front of them.  Now, after determining who goes first, the active player will select one of their wrestlers and decide if they will attack or defend - and, optionally, can specify a sub-category of this (such as reverse or block for defense).  Their opponent must select one of their wrestlers and do the opposite - defend an attack or attack a defender.  Both players flip over their cards, and whichever one has the highest number wins.  The person who wins five of these matchups first wins the game.  (There is also a weapon card that you can use once per game to increase your number by the number of stars showing on the weapon - but as far as I know, you can both do this at the same time and cancel each other out.)

Some cool classic wrestlers are included

There's really one pro for this game - it has cool, collectible WWE cards.  And some of them are pretty and shiny.  And (at least where I bought them), they're cheaper than other collectible WWE cards.  Granted, I don't really buy a whole lot of WWE collectible cards, so this pro is only somewhat useful.  That's it - I'm done covering pros.  And, now that we've covered the pros, are you ready for the cons?

First of all, the rules are absolutely awful.  Awful!  There are supposedly three different ways to play - standard, Rumble, and Match play (if I remember the names correctly).  But, do you want to know the differences between the three?  Yeah - so do I!  I bought the standard starter pack, and it told me basic rules.  Then I searched online to see the different versions - nothing.  I searched harder - still nothing.  I have no idea how to play the versions that aren't explained on the back of the package.  Also, the different cards have various icons on the back of them - such as which part of WWE they are affiliated with (Raw, Smackdown, Divas, etc) and a star rating.  As far as I know, these don't mean anything.

Know what these do?  Nothing!

And, speaking of not meaning anything, my second con is that there are a lot of completely worthless cards in this game.  I don't mean that John Cena is stronger than some random guy you've not heard of, and so taht guy seems worthless.  I mean that there are a lot of cards that have absolutely no gameplay element whatsoever.  Such as the pay-per-view cards (Wrestlemania, No Way Out, etc) and the match cards (Ambulance Match, Steel Cage Match, etc).  You know what you do with these?  You set them off to the side and pretend that this is the setting of your game.  To the best of my knowledge, that is all you do.

But, I briefly mentioned that John Cena is better than a lot of the other people.  Do you know why this is important?  It's because the strategy in this game is to have all of the good wrestlers.  If my nine cards all consists of the major superstars such as John Cena and the Rock, then I don't have to have any strategy whatsoever to win - I'm going to flip a card better than yours.  Because you didn't obsessively collect the best ones.  (And, by the way, what were you thinking??)  I've played a lot of collectible card games where it's important to have all of the good cards.  But, in those, you have to use the cards in the right way.  In this game, if you have better cards than your opponent, you're going to win - it's like if you were playing the card game "war" and one person had Aces and the other had 2's, and you were playing to see who could win the first four matchups.  Doesn't that sound exciting?  (Short answer - no.)

Overall, I give WWE Topps Slam Attax (Rumble) a 2.0/10.  This game is awful.  You really shouldn't play it.  However - if you want to collect shiny WWE cards, it might be something to look into.

Whereas WWE Slam Attax isn't one of the better games I've played, I would recommend checking out Gloom, Dixit (which is a storytelling game), and Glory to Rome.