This week the King's GameNight group played Sub Terra II on Tabletopia. A relatively quick subterranean exploration game for 3-6 players. I believe this game is an online working prototype for an upcoming Kickstarter project from Inside The Box Board Games. Game Overview Subterra II is a light to medium weight cooperative tile-laying adventure game. Players choose from 10 different unique characters. Each character offers an advantage on how to interact within the game. Though i have not played the first Sub Terra game, I believe it has similar mechanics with more of a horror theme. This article is only covering Sub Terra II as that is my only experience thus far. The basic goal is for explorers to enter a volcanic cavern, find an artifact in the inner sanctum and return it to the surface. Oh yeah... and try not to become downed (defeated) along the way. Players explore the caverns by drawing and placing tiles. Traps and other obstacles are revealed along the way. Also present are the guardians who attempt to keep the explorers from achieving their goal. Players work together, each with their characters' unique abilities, to make their way through the treacherous caverns to the inner sanctum. Each round the guardians move and attach (if present) and a tracker is moved. The tracker is essentially a timer indicating when the volcano will begin to erupt, releasing lava into the chambers. If at least one explorer can get the artifact back the the surface alive, then the group wins. The victory is even sweeter if many or all of the explorers make it out. There is a table used to grade the level of success based on the number of players that survived. Gameplay and Thoughts In our gameplay, the group selected characters and set off to try to beat the game. Our initial attempt fell short, ending with all four explorers being "downed" by the guardians. Since it didn't take long (about an hour), we decided to give it another try. In our second attempt we selected a couple of different characters to tweak our team's dynamics. One of the new characters was the Priest. We felt we needed an explorer with healing power to support the team in this next attempt. The second time we worked well together and moved rapidly through the caverns as we had just played and were already familiar. In this game we successfully got to the inner Sanctum took the artifact and returned it to the surface, thus winning the game with all but one explorer (me) making it out. I was left for dead to suffer a fiery death by lava. The addition of a character with healing power proved to be a real advantage. It may well have been the primary reason we were successful in the second game. This is a fun game for a group who enjoys playing cooperatively. The rules are easy to learn and the tile-laying makes the layout of the caverns different every time. It is not mentally challenging, however it does have many interesting decisions to be made: what orientation to place a tile... whether to heal yourself or another player, etc... The game is definitely challenging to win, at least at first. It can take several attempts before your first win. At least that was the case for me. As you get better, you can change the starting position of the tracker to make for a more difficult game. This is not usually the kind of game I gravitate toward, but was a fun diversion. It is easily played on Tabletopia and can get new players up-and-running very quickly. I would recommend to those looking for something a little lighter and without competitive play. Solid fun. If you would like to check Sub Terra II on Tabletopia, click here. Or use this link for the Board Game Geek page. Thank you for reading about this gaming experience on King's GameNight. To stay in touch with more King's GameNight information follow the Facebook page.
Game on!
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I may have mentioned in the past that I'm looking forward to Ankh – an upcoming game from CMON. They have finally announced that it will launch on Kickstarter on April 14th. Ankh: Gods of Egypt is the third in a trilogy designed by one of my favorite game designers, Eric M. Lang. The new game is preceded by Blood Rage and Rising Sun. As in the first two games the designer and artists draw inspiration from ancient culture. The artwork and miniatures are stunning. In this third game Eric is changing things up a bit with the addition of scenarios. Also different than its predecessors, is player elimination and the possibility for the game to win leaving all players with a loss. Read more about the game in a recent article published on CMON's site, click here. I saw a prototype of this game at Gen Con and the figures look amazing. I'll be looking forward to getting a chance to play it. The official Kickstarter campaign just launched on April 14th! Use the following link to go directly to the Ankh Kickstarter page. Game on! This past weekend I had a chance to play Everdell with my friend Nikki. We are still practicing social distancing, so we met virtually using Tabletopia. I'll share a brief overview and thoughts about this game featuring cute woodland creatures. Overview of the Game Nikki had recently played a solo game of Everdell and was able to teach me. There aren't a lot of complicated rules and for the most part everything seemed fairly clear. The two main mechanisms used in Everdell are worker placement and tableau building. Actions on the board are available to all by placing your (woodland creature) worker meeple on an available action space. Some spaces are shareable and can accommodate multiple workers, while others are exclusive and only have room for one. Players gather resources and collect character and construction (location) cards. As players acquire the necessary items to play a card, they may play it to their city, which is the tableau of cards in front of them. Play goes on through a series of four seasons. Each season has a slightly different bonus at the beginning and each season adds additional workers to each player's pool. After the final season, points are tallied and the player with the most points wins. Thoughts and Comments
I really enjoyed learning and playing Everdell for the first time. That may be in part to winning my inaugural game. I must have had an excellent teacher. Somehow, everything just seemed to fit in place and work the way I needed it. Next play probably won't be as forgiving. I really appreciated having relatively simple/short rules and being able to get started quickly. Even with its relative simplicity, this game offers a lot of decisions. Determining which cards to select/play versus when to gather needed resources. How can I assess the quality of the components in a virtual setting? First, I can describe what is seen on screen and compare to other virtual iterations of games. Second, I have actually seen the physical game and components as well. At the back center of the game board is a cardboard constructed tree used to support game pieces and house cards. This centerpiece really enhances the enjoyment of the game. It adds ambiance, drawing you into the storybook atmosphere. The animal shaped meeples and great illustrations also add to the attractiveness of this game. Everdell bridges the gap between casual/light players and the more seasoned hobby gamer. If this sounds like something that interests you, it's definitely worth checking out. To learn more about Everdell click here to visit the page on BoardGameGeek.com. Please use the comments section below if you've already played Everdell and would like to share your thoughts? Take advantage of this unique situation where many of us are sequestered to our homes and play with family members. If there's nobody available to play board games, then consider giving Tabletopia a try. It's a great way to play tabletop games online. Game on! Trying to choose which game to play is sometimes more difficult than playing a heavy Euro game. Different groups and gatherings may require unique game selection processes. What can you do to make the process easier? Are there games which satisfy different types of gamers? I share my thoughts on this subject. What's the Problem? Sometimes its difficult for a group of people to select a game to play. Much the same as the common family dilemma of deciding which restaurant to eat at or movie to watch. How do you as a game host or as a gaming group make a selection that everyone is happy with? Is it even possible? With so many games to choose from and new games coming out all the time, gaming collections have grown. One of the results is deciding which game to play has become more difficult. The fewer the choices, the easier the decision. As a game night host, one of the typical duties is to decide or help decide which game to play. I have had experiences where certain people ended up having a bad experience or simply didn't enjoy the game that was played. Does that mean the game is now black-listed and can never be played again? Can or should you play games that you know might be problematic for an individual or two? I think you'll never avoid the occasional bad game experience. Don't let that dictate game selection too much. There are other factors that are a good foundation upon which to build a foundation for your game selections. With each group and gathering there is a unique dynamic. Selecting games for each group might be a different process and could result in many styles/types of games. Photos below are of some of the gaming groups I've played with. Missing are photos with other friends and family. Game Selection Thoughts and Options
The first criteria for selecting an appropriate game for a particular group is to understand what kind of group is gathering. I have made the mistake of trying to introduce a rules-intensive miniatures game to a group of friends who were just looking for a medium or light-weight game. Here are some typical groups/locations you might find yourself playing:
Once you've determined the type of group and the style of games that best fits the group, you've narrowed it down to the most likely types of games that will succeed. Now, how do you select from within this field. I may be making this too hard. Sometimes its as easy as getting your group together and asking "What does everybody want to play." However, its been my experience that question results in differing opinions and several indecisive "I don't know" answers. Then, you're right back to where we've started... how to select a game for your group. I suggest a few basic options:
These are just my thoughts and recommendations. You'll need to find your way within each of your gaming circles. Keep in mind, you'll most likely not be able to make everyone happy all the time and that's okay. Every group will probably be unique in how game selection works best. Test out different options to see which works best with your groups. I hope you've found this topic interesting. If nothing else, maybe it got you thinking about game selection within your gaming groups. Maybe you'll consider a new or different game selection method. Post your comments about how you make game selections or problems you've had when choosing a game. Stay in touch with future articles and information on King's GameNight Facebook page. ... and game on! |
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