Rolling Dice & Taking Names

At our local game store, we asked the owner who purchases deck protectors. Expecting to hear that it is mixed from card players to board game players, we were caught off guard when he responded that it was mostly the people that play card games, i.e. Magic and the likes. Well, that just floored us, so Marty and I decided to use this 5 Minute Initiative by giving a PSA for deck protectors and how and why they should be used in protecting your board games that use cards. Now we will admit that sometimes they are not practical for every game (ie Dominon) due to what it does to storage and so forth, but for games where your cards are constantly being pawed at, Cheeto molested, shuffled, tossed, and even snorted to remind us all of what rainbows smell like, why would you not use them. Hope our enjoy our mini-rant on why you should sleeve'em to protect'em. Download

Roll the dice and take a listen to Episode 7. In this episode, we talk about dice games, what we think makes a good dice game, and just how people love dice. - The first segment is about various dice games, how they have gone beyond Yahtzee, and the way the market is now bleeding over into other categories, but using dice as the main component of the game (01:47) - In Casual Corner, Marty discusses the game Quarriors! by Wizkids Games. (15:15) - We also touch on how dice aren't used just in games, the variety of dice, and some other accessories you might need when playing dice games. (34:10) - We then try a new segment called "What's Your Point" where we debate how dice games need to allow the player to minimize luck. (44:26) Hopefully the show will give you new ideas on how to take dice to a new level in your gaming activities. Download

Eminent Domain brings pictures to mind of the Federal Government taking control of your land or property for the good of others, whether you like it or not. In this game by Tasty Minstrel Games, you are the government, or at least that is how I look at it, and you are claiming planets whether the inhabitants like it or not. Maybe not that dramatic, but Eminent Domain is a deck building game with a unique spin of having roles like the game Puerto Rico that keeps the game fast paced with minimal downtime between players. You have various actions you can take as the lead and other players can follow. Ultimate goal, get the most victory points before the end conditions of the game are achieved. Marty and I discuss the game in this 5 Minute Initiative and the anticipated release of the expansion to the game and what we hope is included to make this great game even better. Download

Marty had this brilliant idea that we should do 5 minute podcasts to discuss stuff that is going on in the gaming world. Stuff like: - Game Reviews - Game Reports - Interesting News - Local Tournament Reports - Rants - etc. The rules of the show are simple, we got five minutes to get our ideas out and if the time runs out, we stop. So the first podcast in this format will be on a game that seems to really be getting momentum in our area, Android: NetRunner by Fantasy Flight Games. It is another one of their Living Card Games which is a huge thumbs up from us because of reasons we reveal during the show. Thanks for giving it a listen Download

Episode 6 is out for debate. We were lucky enough to have Todd join us for this episode in which we discuss Eurogames vs Ameritrash. To help people have some idea what we are talking about, here are the definitions as found on BoardGameGeek: Ameritrash n. A catchphrase for "American style boardgames". In general, this means games that emphasize a highly developed theme, player to player conflict, and usually feature a moderate to high level of luck. Examples of classic Ameritrash games include Axis & Allies, Dune, Cosmic Encounter, Talisman, and Twilight Imperium. See the Ameritrash page for more information. Euro / Eurogame n. synonym for German game. This term emphasizes the more frequent publication of German-style games in other countries in Europe. Ok, that didn't help as much as I had hoped, so give the podcast a listen and hopefully it will become even clearer. During the podcast, Todd mentions a book which he read to prepare for the show. That is right, there was actually sources used in the show. That is why we bring on the guests, to help raise the level of this show. Anyway, the book Todd mentions is Eurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board Games by Stewart Woods. Just remember, that when you are looking at games and think, is this a Eurogame or Ameritrash, you will know it when you see it. Potter Stewart Download

Episode 5 is out for consumption and it is all about Coop games, one of our favorite style of games. - In the first 5 minutes, we don't jump into Coop games so don't be confused, we talk about our gaming experience with Twilight Imperium (00:00) - We then talk about a whole bunch of coop games that we have played or would like to play going from those we consider intro (Forbidden Island, Flash Point) up to the hard core (Arkham Horror) (05:01) - In Casual Corner, we talk about Pandemic. We love this game and it shows. We mention the new release and below are the images to help you understand the reference. (30:10) And sometimes we get confused between actors, but it is understandable, see they look the same. Download

The title says it all, this episode we focus on football games from the past and games that we are playing now that have a football theme . - First segment is all about the great football games of the past and one of our favorites electric football. I can't believe that has been around since 1948 and what was even more amazing is what it costs today. Makes me wish I still had my old set. (01:40) - This episode's Casual Corner is all about... well give it a listen to see (15:10) - Also in this episode we have a special guest join us. Steve, the guy behind the awesome, new, inspiring logo, talks to us about Blood Bowl. (19:49) - Finally, Marty gives his impressions of a new miniature game by Mantic Games called Dreadball. (34:43) Enjoy the show! Download

At our local gaming club meeting hosted by our Local Gaming Store, Marty and I got to play Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. So, we thought before too much time passed we would share our thoughts on the game since it is one of the newest deck building games on the market. So instead of reading two blogs, we are just going to combine our thoughts here to keep things simple. (Marty's comments are in red and I am in blue) Not going to explain in detail how the game is played, but on a high level, everyone around the table is trying to defeat a Mastermind before certain conditions are met which is determined by the Scheme card. If the conditions get met, then everyone loses. Just like all deck building games, you have ways to buy cards and you have cards you use to fight with. To be honest, if you have played Thunderstone or Ascension, then you have played this game. On to the discussion: Overall ImpressionIt was a typical deck building game. Each game you have a different Mastermind to fight and different heroes to choose from. The resource/attack values were the typical fare where some cards produce resources to purchase more cards and others provide attack strength to defeat enemies. As you build you deck you must balance those resources. Overall, I think it is a great intro deck building game. The cards were easy to understand, the theme was nice and I liked the variety in how you can tailor the game for various winning conditions. The artwork on the cards was nice and the wording on the cards was easy to follow. What I likedOne unique element of the game was as henchmen moved through the city, the location they were in could affect them in a positive or negative way. The semi-coop element was also nice. If you didn't work together you were not going to be able to beat the Mastermind. But you also had to defeat henchmen and rescue bystanders as a means to get as many victory points as possible for the final tally. Requiring the different Marvel teams to work together (Avengers, X-Men, etc.) was also a nice touch. I enjoyed that you had to defeat the Mastermind in order to win the game and not just beat the other players by scoring the most points. I think the dynamic of the henchmen moving through the city was interesting and if you couldn't beat them, there could be penalties to the group if they escaped. I liked how the locations in the city will change conditions on the cards and I really enjoyed the dynamic that you needed to play one style of card first to get the effect on the next card played.What I didn't likeI guess I've played enough deck building games to feel there wasn't enough different in this game to make it feel fresh. In addition, I didn't feel the theme was used very well. The powers of the super heroes just didn't make any sense. Why does Spider-Man give me the ability to draw the top card and put it in my hand if it costs 2 or less? I never felt like we were endangered of losing the game. Even the people that owned the game said they have not had a challenge in this game, so it might be that they need an expansion to ramp of the difficulty. Even when a henchman escaped our capture, the consequences to our decks were not that bad.Buy, Pass, WaitPASS: When I first heard this game was coming out, I was very excited about it. And if I had never played a deck building game before it would probably be a buy for me. But there is just not enough from this game to separate it from all the other deck building games currently on the market. WAIT: I was going to buy this game last year, but glad I waited until I got to play it and now have decided that I am going to wait until I see how the expansion may impact the game. I love the Marvel Universe and would like to add this game to my collection, but I want more of challenge when playing a coop game. I want to believe I am going to lose and this game didn't produce it. Thanks for reading and appreciate others thoughts on this ...

At the end of 2011, I posted on another gaming blog the three games I was most looking forward to buying in 2012. I recently reread that post to see if my predictions held true. On two out of three picks, they did not. Mage Wars I first saw Mage Wars at GenCon in 2010. With it being a new card game (and I really like card games) I had to try it out. Like Living Card Games (LCGs), Mage Wars comes with a base set and has some expansions. You sort through the cards and build a deck to play. The difference is that you don't have a draw pile. All the cards are put in a card album and can be played directly from there. So there is no randomness of a card draw. This is a very unique game dynamic that I was very much interested in. So why didn't I buy it? To be honest, I had too many games I was into at the time of release. I had invested in NetRunner, I was still trying to put an army together in Warmachine, plus I had a plethora of other board games I was playing. However, it's still on my buy and I highly recommend trying it out. Clash of Champions I was big into the World of Warcraft MMO when it first came out. I spent way too many sleepless nights trying to level up my Shaman. Soon after the MMO release, Upper Deck released World of Warcraft Trading Card Game which both Tony and I jumped in feet first. We were buying boxes, sets, individual cards...yes, we fell into the CCG/TCG trap again. A few years later, Cryptozoic Games was formed to take the World of Warcraft license from Upper Deck and continue the card game. By this time, Tony and I had gone through an intervention and realized the money sink we had gotten into. So we had stopped playing and moved onto other things. Well, in 2011 Cryptozoic had announced they were doing a deck-building game for the World of Warcraft universe. Now, I have stated my feelings on Cryptozoic and how it handles IP, but this is a game I would buy just because it was a WoW card game. So why didn't I buy it? Well, It never came out. Cryptozoic kept pushing the release date back and eventually they even removed the game from the their website. So I guess at this point it has been cancelled. So once again Cryptozoic disappoints me. But at least they had time to release a Castle card game /rolls eyes Iron Kingdoms RPG In order to expand my gaming experience, I decided to try a miniatures game. After a lot of research and discussion with my local gaming buddies, we decided to try out Warmachine. We each picked a faction, assembled some models and got to playing. But what intrigued me as much as the game was the lore behind the game. It's a steampunk fantasy type setting and Privateer Press has fleshed out a lot of the history and story behind the different races and all regions of the Warmachine world. So, when Privateer Press announced they were going to release a RPG ruleset for this setting, I knew I would be very interested in it. Again, in an effort to expand my gaming experience I wanted to try RPGs. The two biggest are Pathfinder and Dunegons & Dragons but with this new RPG on the horizon I decided to wait until it came out. Why didn't I buy it? Well, I did. In fact I pre-ordered the core rule book to I could get it as soon as it came out and I wasn't disappointed. The book is rich with stories of this world and its inhabitants. The character development and combat is something I thoroughly enjoy. I've played a couple scenarios and really look forward to participating in a full campaign with my family and friends. So there we go. Obviously I wasn't playing games in 2012 that I thought I would be playing. In our 2nd episode, I listed some games I'm interested in for 2013. We will see this time next year if my predictions were true.

Episode 3 - What do rainbows smell like?

Episode 2

Episode 1