Hegemonic--A Double-Take Review

Space, the final frontier... Hegemonic is a new 4X game for 2-6 players from Minion Games. For those who may not be familiar with 4X games the four X's stand for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. So maybe they should be called 4-eX games? Anyway. Hegemonic takes place in space, as players act as the rulers of different "houses" looking to expand their reach and control in the galaxy. What did we think of Hegemonic and the final frontier? Let's take a look!

The Overview

Like most 4X games, you'll start with a little, and grow your space, units, and power--eventually clashing with other players. But unlike most 4X games, this is done with influence, and not big fleets and the roll of the dice.

There are TONS of pieces, parts, and cool bits to this game. We'll list them here, but if you'd like to see them live and in video. Click here to see our unboxing video on YouTube.

1 - Galactic Core Board, which is the center of the game play and has a turn order tracker on it.

9 - Five-Sector Galaxy Boards - The five sectors are hexes, and you use a certain number of these boards depending on the number of players in the game.

The bits - there are an even number of all of these split into six colors -blue, green, orange, purple, red, and yellow.

90 - Industrial Complexes - two of these are used for score tracking.

54 - Political Embassies

72 - Martial Outposts

18 - Quantum Gate pairs

18 - Political Agents

18 - Fleet Units

1 - Score Tracker Board

48 - Sector Tiles - These have an assortment of possible bases that can be built on them of varying powers and ranges; this will all make sense shortly. Some of them also has a background color, which means it's part of one of three different Factions that can lend support in conflicts.

36 - Action Cards - This makes a set of six cards per player; they're all all the same set of cards, but they have different colors to let you know who played what.

54 - Tech Cards - This is a deck of cards with technology on them that can be advanced, or power values that can be used to help you win a conflict.

1 - Arbiter Token - This is the 1st player token but also has some benefits in game play.

12 - Leader Cards - These are optional and add some more options to the game play.

81 - CAP Tokens - this is the game's money

6 - Player Board - Very cool two-layer boards that hold all of your bases and show how much each costs to build, how much money you can keep at the end of a turn, and how much you gain at the beginning of the next turn.

The Setup

There are examples for setup, depending on how many players are in the game, but it should be noted that there is also a specific number of sector tiles and boards to put into the game.

Eight sector tiles are randomly selected per player, which create a draw stack. Choose a start player. Each player places his or her starting tile--each color has one on--the board. There are suggestions on where these should be placed, and they cannot be placed on the Core Galactic board. Each player then places one Industrial Complex, one Political Embassy, and one Martial Outpost on that starting tile. Each player then in turn draws two tiles and plays one adjacent to their starting tile--this one can be placed on the Core Galactic board--and then places the other one face up next to the draw stack, which creates the "Sector Pool" that will be used for the remainder of the game. Then each player is dealt two cards from the Tech Deck.

The Gameplay

After you've set up, play moves through six different phases. The first two phases start with the Arbiter, and then things get interesting. Here's a quick rundown of the phases.

Phase 1: Collection--Players receive CAPS equal to the highest "gain" number value for each track on their board--Industrial, Political, and Martial--that has an empty spot on it. In other words, the more they've built from one of those tracks the more money they get at the beginning of the turn.

Phase 2: Expansion--This is a pretty simple step. You draw one tile from the Sector tile draw stack, place it faceup in the Sector Pool, and then select any tile from the Pool to add to the board. It can be placed on any empty space, except for the very center space where the turn order tracker is.  Then you draw two cards from the tech deck, and either discard one of them, or pay the cost denoted on a card to advance that technology. You also can only advance a tech if you have built that specific track to the particular tier denoted on the card--for example, if you've built your martial track into the second tier, but the card requires a martial tier of three, you can't advance that technology just yet.

Phases 3-5: Action Phases--All three of these are identical. You'll be playing an Action card from your hand, resolving the cards in the order of the number on the card (they're 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, and 4), and then getting your card back. You do this three times, and then move on to the next phase.

Phase 6: Arbitration--At this point in the game, whoever has the most money receives the Arbiter token. Then players pay money to the general supply until they have no more than the lowest "retention limit" value that is revealed on their board. These show up in the spaces that you build your bases from. The more you've built, the less you keep at the end of the turn--think of it as administrative costs for your growing empire...

And then you score points at the end of each turn. Players add up their power (or influence) on each 5-sector board: Whoever has the most gets six points, whoever has the second most gets three points, and if any other players simply have presence there they get one point. You get an extra two points for being the only player on a board, and an extra one point for each score awarded on the Core Galactic board.

Then you go back to phase one and do it all again.

The game ends on the round that the board is filled. The board is scored one last time and whoever has the most points wins.

Action Cards

We really need to take a minute to explain some of the Action cards, because this  is where the meat of the game lies. There are a lot of options, and a ton of housekeeping that comes with the Action Phase, so let's dig in.

Each Action card has several actions you can choose from, and all of them allow you to choose up to two Actions. Most of them have a Basic action that allows you to use one of the actions to gain two Caps, or draw one tech card and advance one or discard one.

Here's a quick overview of the cards:

Assault - 1 - This action allows you to attack from one type of base to a non-alike base, for example you can attack with a Martial Fleet to an Industrial complex or Political Emabassy. This is a "Destroy" action so doing this only weakens your opponents and you don't take over the area you assault.

Industrialize, Politicize, Martialize - 2 - All three of these cards have the same number, and each does the same thing but for a different area of influence: Industry, Political and Martial. This Action card allows you to choose from the Basic action, or to build new bases -of the type you selected--and/or gates, fleets, and agents. Each base built has a "range" and "power" value printed on the tile you build them on, ranging typically from 1-3.

You can also choose to attack and "Takeover" the same type as you are building this turn. This allows you to not only weaken your opponent but allows you to takeover and build the same type of base you just destroyed.

Subvert - 3 - This action card gives you the Takeover ability of the number 2 action cards, but you can do it with non-alike types of conflict--like card number 1, you can attack Industrial and Political with Martial power.

4 - Discover - This card gives you three options: Capitalize, which lets you to gain more money--often a power play to gain the Arbiter token next round. Survey, which allows you to add another tile from the pool to the board. Research, which allows you to discard and redraw Tech cards.

We feel we should also spend some time on the conflict-resolution mechanics of this game, this is where the game grinds to a snail's pace.

There are three distinct battle systems used in Hegemonic. Which one you use depends on what power you are using for your attack - Industrial, Political or Martial. And each of those areas has a unique defense value that is totaled.

When you attack with Martial power you must have a fleet in play, then pay to move that fleet, and pay to attack--based on the power of the base you're attacking. Then you calculate the attack power of your fleet by the number of one base that has the "range" to reach the fleet, and all of the bases that have the "range to reach that supporting base --and your gates can add other bases because they create adjacency and add your fleet's power, which is denoted on your player board and dependent on the tier you have reached on the Martial track . You then add up the total defense power of the defending outpost, which is simply adding the power of the defending  outpost, along with any  outposts that can reach it with its own range, along with any outposts that are within the defending outpost's range, and the power of any fleets that may be on the defending outpost's tile. Then you add the power of one tech card--using the icons on the bottom to match the type of conflict--and then total up the power and see who wins. It's THAT simple!

Industrial doesn't have fleets or agents so you can only attack within one complex's range adding attack and defense power from outposts that are within range, and a tech card from each player's hand.

And Political conflict is much like Martial conflict except you move your agents and only draw support from political embassies that are within range of your agent and then those around the board that are on the same Faction (color) as the supporting embassy.

There are a couple of advanced rules options, including Leader cards that let you do some really fun stuff.

The Verdict

Jeremiah--Let's talk about the components first. Everything in the box is really top notch. It's very well designed both artistically and graphically. It's a really great game to look at. The way the Martial outposts stack is cool in both form and function. The player boards are great and ingenious too. All the plastic mini bits just fit and work. My chief complaint about the components has to fall upon the rule book. The layout and explanation of the conflict, especially, leaves a lot to be desired. The gameplay is really complex with tons of moving parts and things to keep track of, and having anything short of an amazing rule book to reference was very frustrating at times.

Firestone--I agree on the components. I was blown away by the 2-layer player boards. All of your stuff fits right in the spaces, and if you bump it you won't have to spend 10 minutes righting everything. The plastic bits are cool, and I totally agree: The stacking Martial Outposts are cool. The Sector tiles are colorful, and interesting, and convey a lot of information using colors and icons in a nonobtrusive way.

Jeremiah--The expanding and exploring portions of Hegemonic are really, really cool. It all made a lot of sense, and was fun to plot out what you could do on your turn and think ahead and try to figure out what the other players were looking at as well. The monetary system works really well too. As you build you find out how necessary it is to build evenly, and the more you build there's a good chance you'll lose out on being the Arbiter because the cost to build increases as well.

Firestone--One of my favorite things about this was the Sector Pool. I really dislike the randomness of the tile draw in Eclipse. "Hey, I drew a crappy one! Hey, you drew an awesome one! Good for you!" Blech. Now, it can absolutely still happen that an opponent will draw exactly what she needs, and you won't, but at least you're not stuck with the one tile you drew. There are always options in the Sector Pool, and that tile that was useless to your plans earlier might be important to your plans now...

Jeremiah--The battle system, though, made the game feel unnecessarily bogged down. We trudged through each and every conflict, and had to dig into the rule book to find answers. I understand: There are three different types of power on the board, and they all use their power differently. Awesome. But there is just SO much to keep track of, it really kept us from wanting to attack the other players, which kind of stinks in a game that's designed to be one quarter eXtermination.

Firestone--Yeah, the conflict resolution is CONVOLUTED. It's not enough that you're trying to figure out what you need to do, and what you think your opponents might be trying to do, but when you add on this extra layer of conflict resolution, it's enough to make your head explode. Just like Jeremiah, every time there was a conflict, we'd have to go through all of it, step by step, and resolve it. Anther problem was that even if you were THINKING of attacking someone somewhere, you had to figure this whole thing out by yourself, because you didn't want to telegraph your move. But that meant more time, and a greater chance that you'd screw something up since you're doing it alone. "Okay, so if I attack there, I'll have to do it with that power, so I'll have to play this card. So now we add up his power, and then mine comes from there, there, and...there, so that's...and then I'll have to play this card, and hope he doesn't have that card..." Ka-BOOM!

I know it sounds like we didn't like it, but I like everything but this aspect. Unfortunately, this aspect is a huge part of the game. This isn't enough to keep me from playing the game, and I think it will get easier as you play more. It's just something you should know going into it.

Jeremiah--Our game group is split pretty much right down the middle about Hegemonic. Myself and a few others liked the game and see how much fun it can be. Others just couldn't abide the intricacies and the multiple battle systems, and all the housekeeping that went into it. I will say there is nothing in this game that makes it unfriendly to family players, or deeply offensive, other than the very involved and intensive learning curve. The theme is fun and exciting, but the game is long and laborious; many casual players will not make it halfway through the instructions.

Firestone--Yeah, this is a gamer's game for sure. I played twice with gamers, and they all thought it was pretty good, but they were all put off by the conflict resolution. Some of them would play again (as would I), but some would be fine never playing again.

One good thing was that our first game was with four brand-new players, and we finished in just over two hours. That's just not happening with Eclipse and Twilight Imperium III...

In the end, this doesn't feel much like a 4X game to me. Sure, you're drawing tiles and expanding and taking things over. And there's technology, and all of the things you'd expect in a 4X game. It just didn't feel like one... What it really felt like was an area-control game--El Grande if El Grande decided to do CrossFit, maybe...

Jeremiah Final Verdict--Hegemonic is not for the faint of heart. I have to give this one somewhat of the benefit of doubt. To be fair my game group does not often play 4X type games, it's mostly Euros, cards, co-ops and the like for us. So this was a pretty new experience, and deeper level of strategy game than most of us have played. I get the feeling a few of us may get together and sit down with this one and really enjoy it. But a table divided can not stand, so we had a rough time getting through this one a few times. The art, concept, and deep mechanics are well thought out. Maybe a little too well thought out. Don't even think about putting this on the table with kids, family or casual gamers; it's simply too much for those situations. If you're into 4X games, and love deep, and at times tweaky mechanics, this will be right up your alley, so in that setting, I say Put This One on the Table.

Firestone Final Verdict--I'm very conflicted on this one. The components are top-notch. The art direction, and "small" decisions, such as having three distinct shapes for the powers, and stackable martial triangles, are inspired. It doesn't much feel like a 4X game to me, so it's not going to replace Twilight Imperium III. And while I like area-control, this one has such complex resolution on conflict that I would rather just play a classic such as El Grande. But I still liked Hegemonic! I just didn't love it. There's very little luck. It's interesting. It looks great. It's obviously well-thought-out. As long as you have the correct expectations going in, I say Put This on the Table!

We'd like the thank Minion Games for providing review copies of Hegemonic. This in no way affected our opinions on the game. 

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Relic Expedition—A Double-Take Review

September 13, 1997--I brought the machete down again and again today--cutting a swath through the dense jungle. It's been days since we've seen anything besides this oppressive jungle and more bugs than I thought existed in the entirety of the world. As the son was setting, we did run across a pair of giant paw-prints. I pray we don't meet their owner... It's been a few years since an exploration game broke any new ground. But newcomers Foxtrot Games are hoping to change that with their first game: Relic Expedition. So how is it? Let's see...

The Overview

You're an explorer, making your way through a jungle in search of treasure. But there are dangers lurking around every corner. Well...jungles don't have corners, but you get the idea. The first player to collect four matching Relics, move to a helicopter clearing, and use three Action Points, wins the game.

The Components

• 4 Wood backpack racks
• 4 Explorers
• 3 dice
• 4 large tile boards (Basecamp, Mountain, Cave, River)
• 16 Wood animal figures
• 36 Triangle curse markers
• 50 Draw supply tiles
• 1 Cloth bag
• 20 Board supply tiles
• 36 Relic tiles
• 16 Starting jungle tiles
• 96 Regular jungle tiles

The Setup

• Place the starting tile in the center, and then each player puts his explorer on one of the camp spaces and grabs the Backpack rack in his color.
• Randomly place one of the starting Jungle tiles onto any empty space adjacent to an Explorer. Any unused starting tiles are removed from the game.
• Place the regular Jungle tiles, Animal figures, Board Supplies (with the green faces), Curse marker, and feature tiles next to the board.
• Place the Draw Supplies into the bag.
• Place Relics facedown onto the Relic Table spaces on the feature boards--the Mountain has 4, the River 6, and the Cave 6. Place the remaining Relics facedown in a pile next to the board.

The Gameplay

On your turn, you'll roll the two dice--the animal one and the number one. If an animal is rolled, and one of those animals is on the board, it moves. Starting with the person who rolled, he will choose one of those animals and move it one or two spaces. If there are any other of that type of animal, then the next player clockwise will choose one of those unmoved animals and move it. This continues until each animal has moved. There are some specific rules on where and how an animal can be moved, but those aren't important for the review.

If an animal moves to a space with an explorer, an encounter happens. What that looks like will depend on the animal. Snakes will cause that explorer to lose a turn, but a player can trash a first aid kit supply token to avoid it. Boars cause you to lose a turn and become "knocked unconscious"--which means all of the things in your backpack are placed on the space, and can be stolen by other players until you pick them up on your next turn. This can be avoided by playing a trap or tranquilizer supply token. Panthers wreck you even worse, and cause you to lose your stuff and be MedEvacced out.  You can enter on a helicopter clearing of your choice, and hopefully make your way back to where your stuff is. Again, tranqs and traps can help with this. Monkeys will take a random item from your bag; hopefully it's not a Relic. They can be bribed with bananas.

The number die will give you a result of either 2, 3, or 4, and that's the number of actions you can take. As you move through the jungle you'll reveal new tiles, and sometimes animals or Relics or new features will be revealed. There are rules that govern what can and can't be traversed, and how many action points it costs, but, again, it's not important for the review. Just know you'll be moving around, trying to avoid animals and trying to get Relics. There are three special features that have loads of relics on them. The Mountain, Cave, and River features are all triggered when you find certain tiles. The feature is now moved to the board, and the Relics on them are open season. But each feature also takes a special supply token to traverse. So a Raft to get on the river, and a Headlamp for the cave. It's evocative and interesting.

The Relics have six different insignias and six different colors. Someone has to have four matching Relics--either the same color or the same insignia, make it to one of the boards helicopter landing spots, and spend three action points. Each backpack only holds eight items, so this makes for some interesting decisions, as the closer you get to winning, the fewer handy tools you can carry in your backpack. So you might be winning, but you're also vulnerable.

The winner flies off into the sunset, leaving the others as Panther Chow...

The Verdict

Firestone--I really did like this game, but the fact that your actions each turn are determined by a die roll just kills this for any kind of serious play. That simply means it's a family game, and that's okay.

Jeremiah--Yeah, that die roll is a head scratcher for me too, but definitely not a killer. Our family and my gaming friends enjoyed it. If the die is that big of a killer I think playing with a house rule of a set amount if actions is a suitable option.

Firestone--The exploration aspect of this was great. In a game such as Tikal, the jungle is still constrained by the board, so the "exploration" aspect is mostly muted. I think one of the reasons Carcassonne works so well is that it can go anywhere and everywhere, so you're never sure what the board will look like. Similarly, the jungle we revealed in Relic Expedition was different every game. And the special features like the cave and the river add even more interesting exploration options. It just works.

Jeremiah--Couldn't agree more, the feature pieces are a nice variation from just placing hexes. But the art design and the way the jungle is revealed as you explore it is awesome! Every time we play the jungle looks unique and picturesque!

Jeremiah--MEEPLES, MEEPLES, MEEPLES! Monkeys, snakes, jaguars, boars, Indiana Jones-looking adventure meeples! They're all awesome. Everything about this game's bit and boards is super well done!

Firestone--Yeah, that's all top-notch. Those animeeples are great, and way better than just using tokens. The board tiles are all nice and thick, and the artwork is great. And I really like the art and aesthetic of the supply tiles; those just grabbed me for some reason.

Jeremiah--My only complaint is the rule book; it's a small book, designed to look like a pocket field guide. I get it: The form is awesome, but the function isn't so much. The learning curve isn't that strong on this one, so you don't have to grab the rule book too often after your first play or so, but the rule book made it a little tough for quick-referencing certain scenarios. Again the form is awesome and it fits the theme perfectly. But the function leaves a little to be desired.

Firestone-- Making it a Field Guide was clever and evocative--and I didn't even mind that it was small. It has color pictures, and line drawings of the animals, like you would find in an old scientific journal. That's cool! If it had been organized better, and had everything I needed, I wouldn't have complained at all.

As it is, there are a few times where the Field Guide says, "See the Quick Start Guide for details." Well...no. A quick-start guide should never have the details. It's a quick-start guide. The rules should have everything, and the quick-start guide should be for starting...quickly. It should gloss over rules. That, and the fact that rules weren't found where you expected them to be made it a little slow to get started. It's not overly complicated, and after a couple of games you probably won't need the rules at all, but for the first couple, it's kinda rough.

Jeremiah--While I agree that the dice roll to determine the number of actions a player gets each turn is maybe a little to far down the random trail, using the die to determine which animals--if any--move/attack that turn is spot on and the way it plays out is seamless and balanced.

Jeremiah Final Verdict--We've certainly seen our share of Kickstarter games that have come to market with questionable gameplay, component quality, and everything from minor to major design flaws. But Relic Expedition is one of the best Kickstarter games we've seen! The game is fun to play, has massive replay value, is gorgeous to look at, and appeals to everyone from kids, to families, to casual players, and maaaybe even some serious gamers. We didn't do a list of top Kickstarter game's but if we did, Relic Expedition would be a top 5 game on that list, no doubt. So with that I say, emphatically, put this game on your table!

Firestone Final Verdict--I've been thoroughly impressed with Foxtrot's first game. They stumbled a bit on the rules, and I can't get on board with the action die, but this is a great, great family game. It can be hard to truly capture the feeling of exploration, but Relic does that really well. As the board opens up, you realize how well done the game is, and how thought-out the decisions are. Combine that with cool animeeples, great artwork, and a little luck, and you've got a game that deserves to be on your table.

We'd like to thank Foxtrot Games for providing review copies of Relic Expedition. This in no way affected our opinions on the game. 

Thanks for reading!

Kickstarter Weekly - Sept. 26, 2013

It's that time of week again, that special time when we bring you some really cool games that are trying to scratch and claw their way onto the gaming market. Will they make it? Will they fail miserably? Only you can decide! So buckle up, and hold onto your hats, it's time for Kickstarter Weekly!

Featured Campaign

Keep the Crown - Jamal Jamie

We've received review copies of this one, and the initial impressions are pretty good right now. It's a game that kids can play well, but also one that adults won't dread pulling out... "Oh. You want to play Candy Land... Again." The rules have many layers to increase difficulty and strategy, and there's enough randomness to keep the replayability pretty high.

The campaign ends Oct. 30 and a pledge of $40 will score you a copy of the base game. Check it out here!

BattleAxe - Nick Ryan

This one looks like a pretty solid miniatures-based battle simulation. There are plenty of miniatures, and different soldier and troop classes, to use as you attempt to take out your opponent's king. The game looks pretty solid, but I wonder if the funding goal for this one is set a little too high, especially for someone unfamiliar to the Kickstarter community.

It takes a pledge of $65 to get the base game, and the campaign ends Oct. 23. You can check it out here!

Robot Turtles: The Board Game for Little Programmers - Dan Shapiro

This campaign is blowing up! They've already hit over a $500K in funding and 12,000+ backers. Robot Turtles is a board game for 3-8 year olds that in some way teaches fundamentals of programming. Players play cards with movements on them to navigate their turtles on the board and to their goal.

If you want to get in on the campaign, hurry, it ends TOMORROW! A pledge of $29 will get you a copy of the game, and you can check out the campaign, right here!

Marrying Mr. Darcy - Erika Svanoe

In the category of games your wife will be thrilled to play with you is this nifty looking strategy card game where players take on the role of characters in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" trying to land a marriage proposal from the most eligible of bachelors, Mr. Darcy. The campaign has already hit its funding goal, but there aren't many stretch goals that look terribly intriguing, other than helping get the game out to more folks.

$30 gets you the game, and the campaign ends Oct. 17; you can check it out right here.

Well that's it for another KS Weekly; we'd love to know if you're backing any of these projects, or maybe some others that we may have missed!

And as always we appreciate your subscription over on the right --->

And we'd love to interact with you on the webs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and of course our brand new Podcast!

Chicken Caesar! A Mini-Review

- by Jeremiah A few weeks ago I wrote about my inability to get Chicken Caesar on the table. Well, we had a breakthrough a few nights ago and managed to fumble our way through a first playthrough. So my opinions aren't yet complete, nor is my full understanding of the rules. (There's a lot going on here!) I thought since it has been so long since receiving the review copy I would at least update everyone on the status, and give some initial thoughts. So, here goes...

The Setup - This is a pretty straight forward process: Select a color, and the correct number of chickens (pawns and matching cards) depending on the number of players in the game. Stack the office tokens next to the corresponding offices on the board, and set the tax rate to 3. Give everyone 1 Frumentum token which is the currency of the game. And give the first player the Suffragium token. Oh, and also grab your Latin-English dictionary--you'll need it. For instance, while frumentum is the currency of the game, it is actually Latin for grain, because you know, chickens. And Suffragium means "vote", because you know, Caesar...

Game Play - The game begins with selecting a starting player, then players take turns placing their chickens in the 4 different political houses, which are Aedile, Praetor, Censor, and Consul--and of course the office of Caesar. The game goes through several phases, in which players (after turn 1) advance into vacated office seats, perform their office actions (changing tax rates, assigning guard chickens, choosing to exile a chicken from office, or overseeing the improvement of monuments), gain the rewards of their office (sometimes money, but always an office token to place on their chicken's corresponding card), and then resolve attacks from the foxes who will more than likely take a chicken off for dinner. And finally, Caesar usually dies, and players make suggestions to improve their dead chickens' monuments.

The main scoring engine is to either gain tokens from many different offices, which are cashed in at the end of the game, or to earn a ton of cash during the game. Frumenti is then totaled and whoever has the most wins.

The Verdict (albeit not the final one!) -

I think I like this game. It is about what I thought it would be. Obviously I've only had one go at it, and the learning curve is pretty steep, but I'll offer my comments thus far, and would love to hear your thoughts as well.

Components - The quality of the components are great, I felt from an artistic standpoint there is a touch of an identity crisis. The art design and imagery is great, and of high quality, but the only thing that makes it "Chicken" Caesar is the fact that the cards have chickens on them, and the tiny little foxes above the tax rate indicator on the board. Otherwise the board is set in ancient Rome, with pristine alcoves for monuments of the deceased, and a swank palace for Caesar. It looks great, but it doesn't look Chicken-ee enough in my opinion. It's quite the juxtaposition.

The Game Play - The crux of the game play is player interaction; if you're simply moving your pawns around the board, you're missing out. We played with four players, and we had fun with trying to barter, beg, or bribe our way into better positions, but I can see the game thrive with 5-6 players and give more chances for sub-plots to take place.

Likes and Dislikes - I like the spirit/idea of the game, I love games that are highly interactive and are driven by trying to outsmart the people at the table instead of trying to outwit the game (unless of course it's a co-op). I like the theme; it's what first attracted me to the game, to be honest. It seemed ridiculous, in a good way, but I don't know that the players experience the "barnyard" in barnyard politics. My biggest dislike is the rule book; it's dense, and the designers know it, and admit it, so this isn't news to them or anyone. But it really created a hurdle for us as we played through the game. If there was a quick question we needed clarification on, it often felt like we had to read a full-out thesis on the issue at hand before we got the answer we were looking for. For many, this would be a game killer. I'm hoping to power through this and get a better grasp of the rules so when we play a second time we can get through it more smoothly. But it can hinder a player's ability to make an informed or well-thought-out decision if they are unaware of the process that comes next.

Overall - Like I said, overall I think I like this one. It needs a few more plays for me, but there is a fun game on the other side of that rule book, one that hits a lot of sweet spots for me. Stay tuned for more thoughts and my finalized review soon!

Thanks for reading; we hope you'll find us on the interwebs at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and we invite you to tune into our Podcast every month as well!

Railways Express—A Double-Take Review (Plus a Video Review)

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer. ~Corrie Ten Boom Today we're taking a look at the new game from Eagle Games, Railways Express, which is a stripped-down version of the Railways of the World series. So what do we think? Let's find out...

The Overview

Railways Express is a tile-laying train game where you're trying to connect each of the four cities on the map that match your color.

2-4 Players

Ages 7 and up

15 minutes per player

The Components

64 plastic locomotives (16 in each of the four player colors).

231 track tiles—these include straight tracks, curved tracks, and complex crossing tracks.

120 reroll cubes in each of the four player colors.

4 wooden dice—2 track dice and 2 terrain dice.

1 game board. This thing is huge. The scale might be 1:1...

18 Service Bounty Cards for an optional way to play.

24 Railroad Operations Cards for an optional way to play.

The Setup

Each player has four cities on the map in his or her color, and one of those cities is considered the Home City for that player. (Monterrey for Blue, Los Angeles for Yellow, Minneapolis for Red, and Montreal for Purple.) Each player places a train in their Home City, and then places two reroll cubes in their other three cities. Then each player places one reroll cube in each of the "neutral" gray cities on the map, and takes two of the remaining reroll cubes to start the game. Designate a start player.

The Gameplay

Each turn in very simple:

1. Roll the four dice and split them however you choose.

2. Build track tiles on the map based on the roll.

The track dice have two sides with two straight tracks showing, two sides with two curved tracks, and two sides with one of each. And the terrain dice have two sides with grassland, one side with water, one side with mountains, and two sides with all three terrains, which acts as a wild.

So you roll all four dice, and the pair them up—one terrain die with one track die. Then you place up to four track tiles following the terrain and track you rolled. You can split the placement however you'd like. So if you roll a mountain and a grassland, you could place one mountain track, two grasslands, and then the other mountain track.

Your first track played in the game must be from your Home City, and each subsequent placement has to either come off of a previously placed track tile or a city of your color that you've previously connected to.

Because of where you are on the board, and the terrain and track you roll, it's possible you won't be able to place any track down at all—or will only be able to place fewer than four tracks. That's here the reroll cubes come in. You can turn in any reroll cube you've collected to reroll one or two of the four dice. You care free to use more than one reroll cube on a turn if necessary.

You can choose the order of cities you visit once you leave your Home City. Once you do connect to one of your Home Cities, you get to collect the two reroll cubes on it. No player can ever connect to a colored city of another player. You are free to connect into and out of any of the gray cities on the board, and if you do, you get your reroll cube on that city. Because the spaces are hexagons, up to three players can connect to each of those gray cities, but the fourth player is just out of luck.

But the point of the game isn't to connect to the most cities—it's to connect your four cities. So don't get distracted. Once someone does connect those four cities, each player who hasn't had an equal number of turns gets one final turn. Ties are broken by reroll cubes.

The Extras

The game comes with two decks that give you more options for play.

The Service Bounty Deck consists of 18 cards that are identical, other than the city named on the card—there's a card for each of the gray cities on the board. You shuffle the deck at the beginning of the game and deal four face-up. If someone connects to one of those cities while the card is visible, he or she gets an extra reroll cube, and you discard that Bounty and draw a new one so there are always four visible bounties.

The Railroad Operations Deck are various cards with various powers, that include being able to play on any terrain without having to roll a terrain die, a free track tile placement on a certain terrain, and cards that you play on others that keep that player from playing on a certain terrain type. You get to draw a card when you connect to a gray city (not one of your own).

The Verdict

Jeremiah—So let's talk about the components. Everything was well-made—the cards, the board, etc. There were some choices that I wouldn't necessarily have made (wooden dice, plastic trains seemed backwards to me), but nothing that ruins the game. The only quirky part about the components were areas of the board that were or were not considered to be water hexes. The rules say that only the bright blue hexes are water not the pale blue, and sometimes it was really hard to define what those were.  Oh, and did we mention, the board is HUGE!?

Firestone—Yeah, unless it's something like Twilight Imperium, I almost always prefer wooden pieces to plastic, but they're mostly good. (The wooden dice are just okay.) I agree that those ambiguous water spaces are the board are annoying, though it's easy enough to make a house-rule decision. Publishers: If a space isn't a water space, don't put water in it! No one will be angry if you err on the side of clarity!

Firestone—I was pleasantly surprised to see that the game was for ages 7 and up. And it proved to be true! We even played with my 5-year-old, and with a little help, he was doing well. We'd talk about how to split his dice, and then he would put them down where he wanted to go. The age requirements might be my favorite thing about this game.

Jeremiah—Yeah, I was really glad that even on the box it says the game is for ages 7 and up. Most games I play with my kids (5 & 7) have an age rating of 8, 10, 12, 13 etc. and up. Railways Express is a great, introductory tile placement game, and is really for just about any age of gamer!

Jeremiah—I really enjoyed that this was SO easy to learn, but it didn't feel like an easy game to play. Which is to say that I felt like there were some weighty decision to make, concerning how to spend your re-roll cubes, which path to take and so on, but the mechanics were pretty light weight and uncumbersome.

Firestone—I felt it was kind of decision-light, but that just means it's a good family game and not a good gamers' game. I like family games, so it's not really a dig.

Jeremiah—While there are some decent decision making moments, the game is really driven by the dice. For "certain people" *cough cough* Scott *cough* that can be a major downside. But dice-rollers have a certain appeal for the casual player, and this Railways Express is no exception to that. This will be one that I pull out for casual players, or family game nights for sure. Making the right decisions can definitely give you a great advantage, but there aren't so many decisions to be made that a casual, or younger player will be gripped with analysis paralysis.

Firestone—Since when do I not like dice?! Oh yeah...since always. :) Look, if you roll better in this game, you will do better than those who don't. Period. Again, in a family game that's fine.

Firestone Final Thoughts—I've not played any of the Railways of the World games, but as an "express" version of anything, this does what it's supposed to. It strips down play, and is a great introduction to the concept of building tracks on the map. As far as I'm concerned, this was the very, very first step in introducing my 5-year-old to Age Of Steam. If you're playing with gamers, keep it on the shelf, but when it's with family or nongamers, put Railways Express on the table.

Jeremiah Final Thoughts—Railways Express is exactly what Eagle Games says it is. It's an express, or streamlined version of their hit title Railways of the World. It plays fast—an hour max, and probably faster with experienced players—which could definitely earn it a spot as a solid filler game, although that would seem weird because it's so HUGE. If you're looking for a quick-playing game, especially with casual players or a game for your family game night, you should definitely put this game on the table!

Thanks for reading! And if you'd prefer watching, just click on the vid below! And please subscribe to our YouTube channel while you're at it!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXrTJz0VbS0]

Michael Coe Founder of Gamelyn Games - an Interview

We’re very excited today to have a chat with Michael Coe, founder of Gamelyn Games, and designer of Dungeon Heroes, about the newest title scheduled for release from Gamelyn Games, Fantasy Frontier!

Michael, thanks for chatting with us!

So, tell us a little of the Gamelyn Games story; how did you arrive on the gaming scene?

Gamelyn Games is a rapidly growing games and toys company based out of Arizona. My wife Brittany and I started Gamelyn Games shorty after I transitioned out of Crash Games, the publishing company I had previously founded with Patrick Nickell. Brittany and I are both family focused individuals and we actually just started a family of our own! We truly share a passion for providing families and friends with awesome games and toys. We both grew up as gamers and little inventors and I’ve had a burning passion all my life to create games and share my ancient ideas… yes, I’m getting old, so we set out to make our dreams come true!

We’ve started to hear the buzz coming out of Gencon about Fantasy Frontier, but for those who don’t know the game, can you give us a quick overview?

Absolutely! Fantasy Frontier is a 2-4 player euro game that delivers an epic airship experience! Players compete for victory points by creating geographic patterns, building settlements and through aerial combat. The game boasts a synergetic package of tile placement, pattern recognition, worker placement and resource gathering.

What inspired the creation and design of Fantasy Frontier?

It all started when I was about 5 years old with The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin! I say that jokingly but maybe there is some truth to it. I did absolutely love the airship toy and I had the whole crew! I’d be lying if I didn’t say that ever since then I had an affinity for airships. It seems every time one showed up in a new video game that game quickly became my favorite; Mario Bros. 3, Final Fantasy 2, Chrono Trigger, Warcraft 2 and many others.

In addition to my love for airships, I love map making. I began playing D&D at eleven and once I had a turn at being the DM I was hooked. I would create my own worlds vast with adventure. I’d spend hours creating maps of the worlds and their key areas and then bring them to the table for players to explore.

Fantasy Frontier is a product of my dreams to create a game of airships and cartography!

What is the “hook” for Fantasy Frontier? That is to say, what one thing about the game sets it apart from other games?

The emphasis on map making from atop a fantastic airship sets Fantasy Frontier apart! Also, the theme; as much as people have been calling it steampunk (and I take no offense to that) it is actually high-fantasy. Naomi Robinson has done a magnificent job capturing that theme.

Lastly, the integration and execution of a euro game with optional take-that elements.

Like so many indie (and established) game publishers, you’re funding this title through Kickstarter; you’ve also had plenty of success in the past bringing games to market through crowd funding. What bit of advice would you give an up-and-comer looking to kickstart a project?

Create a complete project plan that includes a pre-production schedule, marketing strategies, a production schedule, and a post-production plan. Do your research about Kickstarter, taxes, production and shipping costs, marketing costs etc. Sound overwhelming? It can be, but remember a wall is built one brick at a time.

Your BGG bio says you’re also a professional actor! Whoah! Do you still act, or are you just making games for a living?

I haven’t acted in some time, but I still love it! I plan to return to acting once I am able to make games full time. I work an average of 80-100 hours a week between my day job and Gamelyn Games. Once I can cut out my day job, I’d love to return to acting.

Hypothetically speaking, if you were trying to impress someone at a party or social gathering while talking about your acting career, whose name would you drop when listing off folks you’ve worked with?

Kathy Bates, Kate Mara, Gregory Smith, Chris Pratt… I’ve been very blessed to have worked with some really awesome and really talented people in the acting industry.

What are some of your favorite games to play right now? and why?

Board Games: Chess, Carcassonne, and Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small. I really enjoy many others but these are recent visitors to the game table. Chess for the epitome in strategy and tactics that it is, Carcassonne for capturing medieval landlording in an approachable package, and Agricola All Creatures… for the breeding…lol =D

Video Games: Legend of Zelda (NES), Adventures of Link (NES) and Pilot Wings (SNES)… why? Because it they make me feel like a kid again alright, you want the truth? There it is!

Word on the street has it that Eric Vale, of Dragon Ball Z fame, will be doing (or has done by now) the voice work for the Kickstarter video of Fantasy Frontier. Any other cool surprises you can tell us about coming during the campaign?

The coolness of Eric Vale doing Fantasy Frontier is a hard act to follow. I am working on some fun ideas for the campaign stretch goals but can’t let the cat out of the bag quite yet.

We’ve had some conversations offline about the review we wrote for Dungeon Heroes. We wanted again to thank you for understanding our point of view. We’re also very curious if there are any plans for the future of Dungeon Heroes? Dungeon Heroes has a very bright future! The game has been received tremendously and the stores can’t keep it on the shelf. This is all fuel for the 4 player version I am currently working on. I’m also exploring additional expansions to the current 2 player system. So, lots of good stuff in development. Dungeon Heroes lends itself well to expandability and my well of creativity for it is deep.

So what does “down time” look like for the Coe family? Or do you get much of that? I make time for “down time” because that is the time I get with my wife and daughter, the two most meaningful aspects of my life. We spend time going to the park, the mall, going out for dinner and even sometimes the arcade, Jolene (my daughter, 10 months old) loves going out and meeting other kids and seeing the wonderful world we live in. We also spend good quality time at home just relaxing and playing with Jolene, teaching her new things. She just took her first two steps the other day! Good times!

Okay...5 Questions/5 Words (or very short phrases) to answer them! Aaaand GO!

• Favorite dirigible? Ooo… that’s tough… I’m going to cop out and say that I love them all equally. They are all my babies after all. =)

• Favorite urban legend you wish was actually true? LOL! I don’t wish any were true! That’s just macabre! There are lots of fairy tales I wish were true though.

• Best part of an Oreo—Cookie or Stuffing? The 10 year old me would have said the stuffing, but the current me has grown an appreciation for the synergy that the stuffing and cookie have together.

• Favorite toy when you were a kid? Wow, that’s a hard question. I was big into toys as a kid, but I think I loved my Ninja Turtles and Jurassic Park collections the most.

• Name of your first RPG character? Jolene, a Paladin in D&D advanced 2nd edition. Also, the name of my mother and now my daughter. ROFL… wow I’m a geek, bad!

Michael, thanks so much for taking some time for us, and congratulations on all of your success so far!

For more information on Fantasy Frontier you can follow this link RIGHT HERE to the Kickstarter campaign, or visit www.GamelynGames.com.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to look for us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube AND now on our very own podcast!

Mayfair Makes History

It's no secret that one of the biggest events in gaming happened just over a week ago, in Indianapolis. Yes, we are of course referring to Gencon. Mayfair Games, one of the world's top publishers, and gatekeepers of the Catan franchise, had HUGE plans for the con this year. How huge? Well, let's find out...

Mayfair set out to make the Guinness Book of World Records by hosting the world's largest group of people playing a single game of Settlers of Catan. And set the record they did! 922 Settlers fans sat down to roll the dice and trade resources on the Island CONTINENT of Catan. Setting an Official Guinness World Record.

With so many game events going on at Gencon, you may have been playing in this event and not even realized it. So we've compiled a list to help you determine if you're a part of gaming history

10 Signs You’re Playing in a Guinness World Record Breaking, 922-player, Settlers Of Catan Game.

10. You have 2.5 hours between turns to use the bathroom.

9. You have to keep track of which of the 153 subtle shades of blue you are. “You’re Cambridge blue, not Carolina blue! Sheesh!”

8. GenCon has been over for a week and you’re still on turn 2.

7. The Longest Road is 4.2 actual miles long.

6. There’s a 1 in 922 chance of the robber hitting you, and it still happens three turns in a row...

5. The 75-pound accountant in the Wolverine costume keeps screwing up the board with his homemade, aluminum-foil claws.

4. You were the last to place your first settlement and the only hex left was in Gary, Indiana.

3. Someone finally snaps, jumps onto the table, rips off his shirt, yells “I am the king of Catan!!” and passes out.

2. You find out that guy was Klaus Teuber.

1. 3,723 “Wood for sheep” jokes!

Congratulations to Mayfair, and thanks for reading!

Stay tuned this week as we bring you all sorts of other fun stuff from around the gaming world! And don't forget to check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube!

How would you handle playing a game with nearly one thousand people? Leave it in the comments!

A Double-Take Review of King's Forge

There's a new dice-rolling game on Kickstarter! Do you have what it takes to claim the King's Forge and become the greatest blacksmith in all the land? Let's see what this game is all about!

The Overview

You are trying to be the first player to craft four items for the king. If more than one player accomplishes this feat on the same turn, whoever crafted the highest-valued item wins.

The Components

91 dice, including:

• 42 black Metal dice
• 22 green Wood dice
• 14 red Gem dice
• 10 blue Magic dice
• 2 white Library dice
• 1 purple Cemetery die

53 cards, including:

• 26 Craft cards
• 18 Gather cards
• 4 Storage cards
• 4 Black Market cards
• 1 Player One card

4 tokens: 2 yellow "Automatic 6" tokens and 2 green "+1/+1" tokens

The Setup

Everyone gets a Storage card and five black Metal dice.

Set out the four Black Market cards. Then you'll choose which Craft cards to use in the game—between 9 and 13, depending on the number of players. You sort them according to their worth (a number between 1 and 48), place the three least-valuable ones out on the table, and then put the rest of the cards splayed out above the three low ones, with the dice icons visible to all.

Then take the 18 Gather cards, separate out the two Mine cards and the two Forest cards, and then shuffle the remaining cards and choose seven randomly. Place them facedown in a pile near the Black Market cards.

The Cards

These are complex and a key part of the game, so they deserve their own section.

Gather cards are unique cards, each with an upper and lower half. When you claim one of these cards, you'll choose which half you're going to do on that turn and "pay" a number of dice, depending on the card. The Gather cards have squares on them. White squares mean you can choose any die to fulfill that. A green square means you can only use a green die to pay for that square. A red is just like green—only red!! And a square that's half blue and half red means either color will work. So one card might have you paying any one die to get a black die. Or another might have you paying two green dice to get a red die. Or yet another might have you pay two dice (one of which you'll lose forever) in order to change any 1s rolled to 6s.

There are also Black Market cards. Every dice spent here is lost forever, but it will allow you to get that green or red die you desperately need.

Crafting cards have a number of dice on the bottom (between 1 and 6), of differing colors. Each die on the cards has a number on it as well, and that's the minimum number you need on that color in order to craft that item. So the lowest-valued item (the Anvil) takes three black dice and at least 2 on each in order to craft it. The Battle Axe takes a black 4, black 5, black 6, green 4, red 4, and blue 4.

The Gameplay

The game is divided into two phases: the Gather phase and the Crafting phase.

First deal four of the Gather cards face-up to the center of the table, and then each player grabs any dice on his or her Storage card.

Now each player in turn order can either:

• Claim a Gather card.
• Take a Black Market Action and ditch a Gather card.
• Pass

To take the Gather card, you just pay for it with the required dice, and place it in front of you. (And if you get any dice from the action, you grab the dice and put them on your Storage card. You'll get them next turn.) Then you deal out a new Gather card and it's the next player's turn. If you take a Black Market action, you pay for it, grab the dice and put them on your Storage card for next turn, as normal, and then you choose and discard one of the face-up Gather cards. Or you can pass. If you're the first person to pass, you get to choose either a black die and add it to your current pool of dice. Or you can grab a "+1/+1" token, which allows you to add 1 to two different dice during the upcoming Crafting phase.

The dice you start the turn are all you use over both phases, so it could be that you don't want to gather anything and only craft, or vice versa. But those dice are it. That Gather phase if over if everyone passes, or if there are no more faceup Gather cards and at least one person has passed.

In the Crafting phase, each player in turn order rolls the remaining dice he or she has, manipulates them if possible (due to Gather card abilities or tokens you might have), and then tries to craft an item. You have to have the correct dice colors with the correct (minimum) values in order to attempt it.

Editor's Note: In our video review we were playing a rule wrong. In the rules-set we received, it said in one spot that you could only craft one item, and in another that you can craft as many as you want. We only noticed the "one craft" rule, so we playing that incorrectly, and mentioned that incorrectly in the video. Please forgive us. And play correctly.

One of the key mechanisms in the game is stealing. A player in later turn order can steal an item that you're trying to craft on that turn. In order to do that they only have to meet the dice values you already have, and then at least one of the dice has to have a greater value. So if I try to build the Anvil with a 2, 2, 2, you could steal it with a 2, 2, 3. And then there's weeping and gnashing of teeth...

A player further down in order could also steal the item from the player who stole it from you! After everyone has a chance to craft or steal, you reset things, gather back your dice, and shuffle up the Gather cards and start a new round.

The first person to craft four items (you play through the full Crafting phase) wins. If more than one person accomplishes that on the turn, whichever of those people who crafted the item with the highest value wins.

The Verdict

Firestone—This is a good game! I'm not a big fan of dice-rollers, but the way you can manipulate them here makes this a dice-roller I actually enjoy!

Jeremiah—I enjoy a good dice roller, and this is a good dice roller. I love that there is much more than just dice-rolling going on here too!

Firestone—I used to think the stealing mechanism was too powerful. I might still think it is, but after some thoughtful back-and-forth email discussion with the designer, I'm coming around. I never thought it was enough o a problem to keep someone from playing.

Jeremiah—I never had a problem with it. I felt thematically it was perfect. Maybe stealing isn't the proper term. It's more of an "I made a better object than you did so mine got accepted by the king. Maybe you shouldn't produce such sub-standard wares and you wouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing happening, and no, you don't get a consolation prize for under performing!" mechanic. Or you could just say it's stealing.

Firestone—I can't really comment on components since what we played was a prototype version, but I LOVE the artwork I've seen so far on this. It's cool, colorful and evocative. I hope it reaches some stretch goals that allow them to produce some slick dice, too.

Jeremiah—Yeah, I'm pulling for the cool dice. I like dice. I own a lot of them, and the dice in the prototype were sort of boring and smaller than standard dice. The artwork we're seeing on the Kickstarter page really puts the game over the top. Having pretty pictures on a card doesn't make it play any better, but lets face it: We're a visual culture, and those sort of ascetics make a difference.

Jeremiah—I've played a handful of 2-player games now, and the game seems to benefit from multiple player interactions. It's still fun with only 2 , but it gets really fun with 3-4 players!

Firestone—Yeah, I think more is better on this one. Some guys in the group played 2-player, but they thought it wasn't as good as multiplayer—which they'd also both played.

Firestone Final Thoughts—My gaming group played this two times in a row the other night, and that almost never happens—even with published games, let alone a prototype. I play a lot of prototype and prerelease games, and this is one of the best I've played in a long time. I can say without hesitation: Put this on the table! Gamers! Nongamers! Youth groups! I think this would fit them all.

Jeremiah Final Thoughts —There's a lot to like about King's Forge! From solid well thought out mechanics, down to the little details with some cool geeky references. It's those little touches that make a big difference when you're sitting at the table. I've had a lot of fun with this one! The theme is cool, and completely friendly to any group of folks you'd want to play with! Without a doubt I recommend you put this on the table!

You can check out our video review below. And head over to the Kickstarter page to jump in on this one! Thanks for reading!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IIEGfp18Vg]

Kickstarter Weekly—July 25, 2013

Hey everyone! Welcome to yet another installment of Kickstarter Weekly! There are a lot of projects on Kickstarter asking for your hard-earned dollar—some are good, some are great, and others... We write this piece every week to let you know which ones we're excited about and hopefully give you some useful information along the way!

Let's get started -

Pack of Heroes - Adventureland Games

Set in an alternate vintage comic book universe (that totally doesn't exist) Pack of Heroes is a 2-player head-to-head card game battle. Using your heroes and their abilities the goal is basic: Defeat your opponent! If nothing else this game looks super stylized and has awesome fake retro art! $20 gets you a copy of the game and all unlocked stretch goals. They've already funded so every backer will push them onward toward those stretch goals. Plus there are some sweet add-ons including T-shirts and action figures! You can find the campaign here.

Pigpen - Island Officials

We told you about this one last week, but wanted to remind you to check out our interview with designer Kevin Kulp, and developer Jason Tagmire RIGHT HERE! This is an inexpensive family game that we think you'll enjoy! Our Double-Take Review is on its way too! Check out the campaign here!

Byzantio - LudiCreations

This 4-player board game takes places in a realm that finds itself without an emperor, and no heir apparent. As one of the noble houses you will try to gain control of the throne. The 4-player game is said to take only an hour (and that includes teaching the game!). They've already funded within the first 2 days and are on their way to knocking over stretch goals! You can still get in on the early bird funding price of $38 to have it shipped to the US and EU. Check out the campaign here!

Privateer - Ensignia Games

Well you know I (Jeremiah) especially have a soft spot for pirate games, and this one looks like a winner! Claiming lots of player interaction and shifting circumstances that keep all players involved even while players are not taking their turn, the goal is to increase your captain's infamy by way of buying, selling, and stealing cargo and goods. You can get in on a few early bird levels—right now the lowest level is $43. Check out the campaign right here.

Shuriken - Awesome Enterprise

This modular tile board game boasts a battle between 2-5 ninja clans and 250 plastic ninja miniatures. Along with the modular boards comes the possibilities of special scenarios and unique setups to increase replayability! This one is a bit pricey, coming in at $75 for the game, but all those pieces parts will quickly run up the cost of a game like this! You can check out the campaign here.

Congrats!

VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game - Dice Hate Me Game

A big congrats to the folks at Dice Hate Me for crushing the campaign for VJTCGTDG! They managed to unlock 5 stretch goals in the process, which means Angry Dice are on the way! Be on the look out for this fun dice roller, and we'll be sure to check in with designer TC Petty III and Chris Kirkman of Dice Hate Me to keep you up to date on all things VJTCGTDG!

Thanks so much for reading, and check back tomorrow for an special installment of Kickstarter Weekly as we feature nothing but games powered by Game Salute! Yes, they have that many games in the pipeline that we're giving them their very own post! So, don't miss it!

As always we ask that you subscribe to the blog over on the right. And you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now on YouTube!

TOG Visual - Michael Coe and Dungeon Heroes!

One of our first stops at Origins was the Gamelyn Games booth, where we had a little chat with Michael Coe, founder of Gamelyn Games and designer of Dungeon Heroes, a fun little 2-player dungeon crawl with outstanding components.

We'll be writing a full-out Double-Take Review of Dungeon Heroes very soon, but until we do you can get a good feel of the game from watching the video. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umrpX-fUfaA&w=560&h=315] We'd like to thank Michael for sharing some time with us, and look forward to reviewing Dungeon Heroes soon!

Thanks for reading and watching!

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