Saboteur Review

 

A game that I recently picked up because it supports 3-10 players is Saboteur.  This is a game that I felt like writing about, but I only have a little bit to say - I really need to figure out when I call a review a "Mini" review and when I don't.  Maybe I should call this a "Semi-Mini" review?

Choose your identity

Saboteur is a hidden identity game (like Bang! and The Resistance).  In it, some players take on the roles of Dwarven miners - their goal is to dig a tunnel to reach the gold.  The other players are Saboteurs - they are attempting to prevent their fellow Dwarves from reaching their goal.  To setup the game, there are three potential goal cards - one with gold, two with coal.  These are placed face down with a card's width between them, and a start card is lined up with the middle goal - but with seven card's height between them.  On each turn, you can either play a path card, an action card (a misfortune, an anti-misfortune, a map, or a cave in), or you can simply discard a card.  After you do one of these things, you draw a new card.  Play continues going around until either the miners have created a path to the gold (at which point they all get victory point cards with the person completing the path getting the most - and telling his buddies that it was like that when he found it!), or the Saboteurs have prevented them from being able to do so (at which point they get victory points).  Shuffle, re-deal, repeat.  You play the game over a series of rounds (I believe three rounds is standard), and whoever has the most points at the end wins. 

The first, and most obvious, pro for Saboteur is the reason I bought the game - it can support 3-10 players.  And, though I haven't played it with all of the different numbers, I think that it would play fairly similarly with any number of these players.  Yes, you will have less control and more downtime with more players, but since you are also attempting to figure out who the Saboteurs are (and convince the other players that you aren't one!) I think that you will still be equally engaged throughout even the bigger games.

My biggest con for Saboteur is that your "secret" identity really isn't very secret - at least not for long.    Either you are actively helping the other team, or there is a good chance that they will figure you out.  There are some exceptions for this - like if you actually don't have any good cards you can play, so you start discarding.  Overall, though, it seems like if will be figured out pretty quickly.  This might not be the case as much in a really large game (one person might be able to evade your notice until late in the game), but in order to do that, they would probably be doing something helpful - which hinders their team's goal.

Action cards

The next con that I have is that it seems to be too easy for the miners to win.  This might be me being incredible naive because I haven't played enough, but from the games that I have seen, the dwarves normally win.  And, these games were played with seven players.  Yet, if you play with eight or nine, you still have the same number of Saboteur cards, but you increase the number of miners!  This dilutes the number of Saboteurs, thus making it easier for the miners.  Another factor in this would obviously be the paranoia level of the players - if everyone starts off by assuming that all of the other players are evil, thus throwing misfortune cards on good players, then the "team effort" is doomed for failure.  However, if the (good) players starts off the game assuming that most everyone will either be helpful or at least pretend to be for a few rounds, then you can quickly build a path to the goals (and make the Saboteurs desperate, thus forcing them to reveal themselves). 

Overall, I give Saboteur a 6.5/10.  Everything about it (except for maybe the secrecy of your "secret" identity) works, but nothing about it really pulls me in and makes me want to play again.  If I want to deceive my fellow players, I'd rather play Battlestar Galactica, The Resistance, or Shadows Over Camelot.

Zong Shi Review

An interesting "little" game that I've had the opportunity to play recently is Zong Shi.

In Zong Shi, you are attempting to impress townspeople with how amazing you are.  Generally, you do this by building amazing works, but you can also do it by sucking up to the elders, and running a sweet pawn shop.  Each round consists of players alternating placing their two workers - the Master and the Apprentice.  Basically, the Apprentice can do anything that the Master does aside from working on a project - but he gets less of a reward for doing each action.  The different actions include starting a project, going to the temple to draw "scrolls" (cards), going to the pawn shop to get "Exchange tiles", visiting the marketplace to collect resources, and visiting the town elders to get victory points.  However, if your Master is working on a project, then he will not be able to perform any other actions (so he will pass on his turn).  The game continues with players selecting these actions until one player has completed six projects.  Then, everyone gets one last turn, and the player with the most victory points wins.

The first pro that I have for Zong Shi is that I like the Master/Apprentice mechanic.  There may be other games which give you workers of different skill levels, but I do not remember any that I have played.  I think that it adds an interesting layer of strategy to figure out which of your workers you are going to place each round to try to maximize your Master.  The Apprentice can be useful when you only need to do something small - collect a single resource, visit a single elder, get a single exchange tile.  However, you are always better off sending your Master - or, more specifically, you would be better off if you could place two Masters instead of using an Apprentice.  But, your Master can only be in one place at a time; and that place will often be in your workshop working on one of his projects.  And thus, the player who is able to best utilize both his Master and his Apprentice will probably claim the victory.

Some of the Masters have been playing in paint

The next interesting thing about Zong Shi are the Exchange tiles.  Each work (and elder) requires a certain combination of resources.  For example, the Merchant Statue requires two Gold, one Jade, and one Ivory.  Exchange tiles allow you to substitute materials.  For example, if I had a Gold/Jade Exchange tile, and I wanted to build the Merchant Statue, I could substitute any of the Gold for Jade and vice versa.  So, if I wanted to, I could build the Merchant Statue for three Jade and one Ivory.  This element of the game is neat, and is also useful strategically, as having a lot of Exchange tiles will allow you to focus on getting materials, without having to worry as much about which materials you are collecting.  I'm not really sure how thematically it fits in.  (You get these at the "pawn shop" - is there a dealer that has an infinite supply of each of these, and you bribe him to let you trade?  If he has an infinite supply, why does he care about your bribe?)  But, either way, I like this element of the game.

The final pro that I will mention for Zong Shi is that there are multiple paths to victory.  In the last game that I played, I successfully completed six projects before anyone else had built four, and so I was the one that triggered the end of the game.  However, none of my projects were especially valuable.  Another player had visited all of the town elders, and most of the other players had more Exchange Tiles than I did.  At the end, the player who had visited the town elders and completed a Masterwork project (a big, expensive project) was the winner, even though he had only completed two projects.  So, "multiple paths to victory" may not be the best way of describing Zong Shi, but the player that best capitalizes on his opportunities should be the winner - and how those opportunities present themselves will not always look the same.  (One thing that I will note strategically - as someone who generally loses at this game, I highly recommend building Masterwork projects.  That is the only area of the game where you can repeatedly score eight victory points.)

The first player Buddha looks nice

However, though I enjoyed Zong Shi, there are a couple of cons that I should mention.  First, the Exchange tiles can wind up causing you to spend quite a bit of time calculating, especially if you only have a few of them.  They give you flexibility, but the flexibility causes some processing to occur in your brain.  So, you will spend a decent amount of time looking at what resources you have, what you can turn them into, and trying to match that up with the project you are wanting to begin.  You'll have to do this processing both when starting the project itself, and when planning to try to get the resources or Exchange tiles that you need.  This doesn't necessarily take a long time, but it can occasionally slow the game down.

The other con that I will mention is that some of the cards are simply better than others; and some strategies also seem especially strong.  For example, there is a card that allows your Apprentice to start on a project (instead of your Master).  That is amazing, as it frees your Master up to do all of the other actions for a few rounds (its like having two Masters).  Another card allows you to start on two projects at the same time!  That is also wonderful, because it is like giving your Master several extra turns - and can also help you end the game more quickly, if you are trying to do that.  These cards are drastically better than a random resource from the bag (which is what one of the other cards gives you).  Now, I'm not saying that any of the scrolls are useless - at the right time, any of them can be useful.  But some of them are (in my opinion) far better than others.  And, similarly, allowing one player to complete multiple "Blacksmith Tools" projects (this allows them to complete their projects one turn faster) also seems like it could allow an experienced player to have a significant advantage.  (Though, it does not guarantee victory, as I completed two of these and still lost, due to not using them to build Masterwork projects.)

Overall, I give Zong Shi an 8.5/10.  I enjoyed the game, and I think that it added some nice new elements to the "worker placement" genre.

If Zong Shi sounds interesting, then you might also check out Kingdom of Solomon, Le Havre, and Caylus.

I would like to thank Gryphon Games for providing me with a review copy of Zong Shi.

Star Wars: The Card Game Review

A game that I've been literally wanting to try for over a year is Star Wars: The (Living) Card Game.

In Star Wars: The Card Game, one player takes on a Rebel faction (there are pre-constructed decks for Jedi and Rebel Alliance) and attempts to thwart the objectives of their opposing Imperial faction (decks for the Imperial Navy and Sith).  Each turn starts with the "Balance" phase - on the Imperial turn, the Death Star track will go up by one or two points, depending on which side is controlling the Force, and on the Rebel turn, they can damage an Imperial objective if they control the Force.  (The game is played on a countdown, with the Rebels attempting to destroy three Imperial objectives before the Death Star track reaches 12.) After this, the active player refreshes their cards by removing one focus icon from each card.  Then, they draw back up to their hand limit (after optionally discarding a card).  Next, forces are brought into play.  Finally, we get to fight!  The active player can choose any number of their "ready" characters (any that don't have a focus token on them), and attack their opponent's objective.  The defending player can choose to defend the objective with their own ready characters, and if so, an "edge battle" occurs.  In the edge battle, players play cards back and forth face down until both pass - and then whoever has played the most "Force icons" wins the battle.  The player who wins the edge battle gets to use extra icons (some icons on characters are only valid if you win the edge battle), and players alternate taking turns assigning damage, starting with the player that won the edge battle.  Finally, after all of the conflict is resolved, the active player has the option of assigning characters to the Force.  After assigning (or choosing not to assign) characters to the Force, whoever has the most Force icons assigned to the Force flips the Force icon to their side.  Play continues like this until either the Death Star dial has reached 12 or the Rebels have destroyed three Imperial objectives.

They also created custom artwork instead of movie images

So, the crux of the game is definitely the conflict - after all, this is Star Wars.  And, my first pro is that I really like the conflict system.  Specifically, I like the amount of strategy that goes into any given battle.  Instead of the game simply being "I have bigger and stronger guys, so I'm going to obliterate you" (though this happens sometimes), attackers and defenders generally start off at least relatively evenly matched.  However, once you start the battle, there are important decisions to be made.  First, you fight an edge battle.  When doing this, how much force do you want to commit?  Do you want to use one of the incredibly strong characters (like Obi-Wan) from your hand to help win the battle?  There are also "Fate" cards that can be played in the battle that provide effects when they are revealed.  One of these cards cancels the edge battle, discarding all the played cards, and starts a new one - so you must be careful not to over-commit.  But, once the edge battle is resolved, there are still relevant decisions - like who attacks first, and who do they attack.  Often characters are going to die in the fight - so, do you commit them first to ensure that they are going to get to strike, or do you swing first with your better characters to try to kill off some of your opponents before they can attack?  Do you attack their strong characters or the characters you know you can kill?  These decisions will drastically alter the outcome of the game.

The next thing that I like about Star Wars is how some of the resource generation works.  Some cards allow you to generate several resources, but you must put a focus icon on the card per resource.  However, each card only has a single focus token removed in the refresh step of your turn.  So, if you choose to generate a lot of resources from a single objective, then it will take you a few turns before you can use resources from that objective again.  Basically, there is a "cool down" period.  (This cool down period applies to characters as well.)  I like this concept, and I think that it causes there to be more important decisions.

A Force struggle - the Jedis are winning!

Another thing that I find interesting about Star Wars: The Card Game is how deck building works.  Now, admittedly, I haven't done a lot of deck building (the Core set doesn't provide you with a lot of versatility in this area).  However, the deck building is driven by objectives.  Instead of creating a deck card by card, you create a deck based on objective sets.  In order to use any given card in a deck, you must include the entire objective set - which consists of an objective and it's corresponding five cards.  And so, instead of deciding on 50 different individual cards to put in your deck (or more), you have to choose 10 objectives to use.  I think that this will help in keeping the game balanced as more sets come out (though we will see), because as powerful cards get introduced, they may or may not have other strong cards in their objective set.  So, if you want to add an extra copy of Darth Vader, you may be adding several weaker cards along with it.

The last pro (that I will mention) for Star Wars is that I like that your units can serve different purposes.  We have already discussed how edge battles work - and so, one use for a unit is to discard them in an edge battle.  Some of your characters, like Mon Mothma and Grand Moff Tarkin, can also be used to generate resources.  Obviously, you can also use your characters in battle.  Finally, you can commit your characters to the Force, which is a critical element of the game.  (By the way, I also like how committing characters to the Force works, and adds another element to the game that players must balance.)  So, with each individual card, you must decide which way to use it - and, if you are able to use your cards to counter what your opponent is planning, you will probably win the game!

Obligatory picture of R2-D2

With all that I love about this game, there are a couple of things that I'm a bit hesitant about.  First, the resources can sometimes get frustrating.  There are some cards in each deck that allow you to generate extra resources, but there is no way to carry them over from one turn to the next.  Granted, many card games of this nature don't allow you to carry resources over, but Star Wars seems to have struck an odd balance where I either didn't have nearly enough resources (you have a minimum of four that you can generate) or I had far too many - all dependent on whether I drew the cards that help with resource generation.  Hopefully, spending some time in deck construction will help with balance out some of this.

The next con that I have for Star Wars is really pretty trivial, and is common to many games of this nature - some cards seem a bit too powerful.  Now, as I've already mentioned, there is at least some balancing of this by the objective sets - having powerful cards in your deck also means that you're going to put some weaker cards in your deck.  But, if you draw the powerful cards, you have a major advantage.  And some cards, like Force Lightning, seem ridiculous.  Force Lightning lets you kill an exhausted character.  Just, *poof*, they're gone.  Doesn't matter if its Yoda, Obi-Wan, or some grunt.  There are a couple of cards that I've seen that allow you to cancel an opponent's event, but if you don't have one, then you just die.  Similarly, if the Rebel player draws Luke and Obi-Wan early, and his opponent doesn't draw anything that is able to easily deal with them, then the Light side might run away with the game.  I know that most card games have some luck of the draw elements to them, but for whatever reason, I noticed it more in Star Wars.

Overall, I give Star Wars: The Card Game a 9.0/10.  I really enjoyed this game a lot, and I'm looking forward to giving it more plays to see how well it stands up over time.

If Star Wars: The Card Game sounds interesting, then you might also check out the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, and Game of Thrones: The Card Game.

Priests of Ra Mini-Review

Now it's time for a quick rundown of Priests of Ra.

Let me start off by telling you that Priests of Ra is a remake of Ra.  I have already reviewed Ra, so I'm going to assume that you're familiar with that game.  (If not, go check it out - Ra is an awesome game!)  This review will mainly highlight the differences.

Building the pyramid is a different scoring mechanic

Priests of Ra is an auction game like Ra, and all of the bidding, sun tiles, and Ra tiles work in exactly the same way.  The difference is what pieces you are bidding on.  In Priests of Ra, you are bidding on buildings, workers, pyramids, priests, and plagues.  Each of the buildings and workers are double sided, with different images (and colors) on each side.  When a player pulls a tile out of the bag, he gets to select which side is showing.  However, when a player buys a priest, he has the option of flipping over one of his pieces - whether one that he just bought, or one that he already owned.  For scoring, workers score at the end of each epoch, and you get points for having the most workers of a certain color, and another bonus for having at least three types of workers (this bonus is an "ankh" and scores after the third epoch); then they are discarded.  With buildings, you score points for every "complete" building (a pair of buildings of the same color), with a bonus if you have three or more types of "complete" buildings; you keep buildings from one epoch to the next.  Priests are worth two points each, and are then discarded.  Pyramid pieces only score at the end of the third epoch, and are worth points based on how tall your step pyramid is.  Plagues are scored after each epoch, and you lose points based on how many you have, with the penalty per plague growing as your number of plagues grows.  At the end of the third epoch, whoever has the most points wins.

So, yes, Priests of Ra is basically the same game as Ra, but slightly different.  One of the most impactful differences (that I actually like) is that, in Priests of Ra, plagues stay from one epoch to the next.  In Ra, you can get plagues that don't hurt you (if you don't have the tile that is being plagued), but in Priests of Ra, plagues always hurt you, and if you collect too many of them, can hurt you really, really badly.  Yet, they aren't so bad that a single plague is really all that damaging - after all, if you can buy a large collection of tiles inexpensively because there is a plague, that might be worth doing.  However, just because one plague doesn't hurt you doesn't mean that you should not be careful.  If you get enough plagues, you can lose 20 points - after each epoch!

It even has the same Ra piece

The next thing to mention about Priests of Ra is the tile flipping.  Instead of the "god" tiles in Ra (that let you steal a tile from the currently available tiles, Priests of Ra has priests.  Priests aren't as strong as gods, since you can't take what you need from the center, but they are still quite helpful since they can both flip tiles and get rid of plagues (if you have three priests during an epoch scoring, you can discard a plague tile - this is the only way to get rid of plagues).  Like gods, priests can be useful or useless based on when they come up, and what tiles come with them.  In Ra, a god tile is worthless (ok, it's action is worthless, the tile is worth 2 points) if you purchase it with your last sun - you are out of the round, so you can't steal any tiles.  However, in Priests of Ra, priests that are purchased with your first sun tile are also fairly useless, since you really won't care which side most of your tiles are facing at that point.  They can at least still be used to cancel a plague later.  Again, not really better or worse than Ra - just different.

That's really about all I have to say about Priests of Ra - if you feel like my review should be longer, go read the Ra review again, and pretend that everything I'm saying there is about this game.  Then you should feel better!

Overall, I give Priests of Ra a 9.0/10.  It's a good game, and I actually enjoy it quite a bit - however, I'm dropping it a bit from Ra, simply because it's not innovative.  It's a remake.  And, whereas that is not a bad thing, I don't feel the need to own both games, so I will probably be parting with this one.