2013 Holiday Gift Guide—Stocking Stuffers

This section of of our Holiday Gift Guide is for small games that can fit inside a stocking. Most of them fall into the "filler" category, but some of them have deep gameplay that belies their simple packaging.

The Great Heartland Hauling Company—Breaker, Breaker! Welcome to America’s heartland. It’s time to grab your trucker hat and hit the open road. In The Great Heartland Hauling Co., players will travel the heartland picking up cargo and selling it for profit. Clever design and great thematic gameplay! It's between printings right now, but you can preorder from the Dice Hate Me Games Web site.

MSRP: $20

Ages: Box say 8 and up, but we've both played this with younger kids.

Review: http://wp.me/p2hTk7-A5

Maximum Throwdown—In Jason Tagmire's card-flinging free-for-all players choose a team (deck of cards). Then they start throwing down... Literally. Each card has special icons that either score points or give special powers to the player who threw them, but if someone covers your cards you lose those powers and points! A fun and unique card game for all!

MSRP: $19.99 (Find it online)

Ages: The box says 12 and up, but that seems way high. Should be fine with 8-year-olds and up.

Qwixx—This is a wonderful, fast, easy-to-explain dice game that's completely portable. It's a great filler, and would definitely work with nongamers. We've even played with my 5-year-old. Don't hesitate to pick this up.

MSRP: $11.95

Ages: 8 and up, though younger should work fine with just a little coaching.

Review: http://wp.me/p2hTk7-SG

Coup—Coup just came out in a retail release. And you should buy it. There's so much bluffing in this game. So much intrigue. So much awesomeness. The actor Wil Wheaton even encouraged readers of his blog to read MY review of the game.

MSRP: $14.99 (Find it online)

Ages: 10 and up.

Review: http://wp.me/p2hTk7-EP

Hanabi—This is on my (Firestone) short list for Game of the Year; it would easily fit on the Gamers' Game list, but is here based on size. You have a hand of cards that you only point away from you. The other players are trying to give you clues about your hand, while trying to figure out clues about their own. And the whole point is to lay down cards in the various colors, in numerical order. It's fantastic.

MSRP: $10.95 (Find it online)

Ages: 8 and up

Review: http://wp.me/p2hTk7-RH

Council of Verona—The first title in Crash Games' Pub Series, a series of games that can be played anywhere. Council of Verona packs lots of game play into a tiny box. It features a good deal of bluffing and intrigue. And fits nicely into any gamer's stocking!

MSRP: $14.99 (Find it online)

Ages: 13 and up

The Duke: Robert E. Howard Expansion Pack

If you're gamer doesn't have The Duke, you should seriously go buy them a copy... Like right now. And what would be a better addition to that game, and a perfect stocking stuffer than a sweet four tile expansion pack featuring the legendary characters from the work of Robert E. Howard!? That's right you can bring Kull, Soloman Kane, and even Conan the Barbarian to fight along side your Duke and hack and slash your way to victory!

MSRP: $9.95 (Find it online)

Ages: 13 and up

Review: (of the Duke) http://wp.me/p2hTk7-122

12 Days

A card game that has an obvious holiday theme, so it seems obligatory that we should add it to the list of  games that should be stuck in stockings! 12 Days was also JUST featured on the latest episode TableTop featuring geek hero Wil Wheaton, if you want to see it being played, click here (Just be aware they use a lot of cuss words -that are mostly bleeped out- on the show)

MSRP: $15.95 (Find it online)

Ages: 8 and up

Stay tuned for our final entry: The Gamers' Games! Thanks for reading!

What You Missed...

Thanks for joining us this week at Theology Of Games. Here's what you might have missed... We had a chock-full Kickstarter Weekly post.

Then we got word that the worker-placement game Tzolk'in is getting an expansion.

Then Jeremiah took us on a trip to his adolescence, and the joys and pains of Doctor Who.

Then Firestone talked about his love of expansions, and whined about bad expansions.

Then we brought you a review of the game Coup, which is up on Kickstarter, cheap, and lots of fun!

And finally, we shared the latest episode of TableTop, where they play The Resistance.

Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next week!

TableTop Joins The Resistance!

By Firestone A number of months ago we told you about TableTop, Wil Wheaton's Internet board game show. Well, the latest show has them playing my favorite game: The Resistance. If you've wondered what is so great about this game, this is a great chance to watch a group of people actually playing. You'll see paranoia, accusations, mistakes, subterfuge, and all of the others things that make me love this game so much—and they aren't even particularly good at it! Be aware: They do occasionally curse. Some of the "big ones" are bleeped out. Others aren't.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_QRczGzXqw]

A Review. Of Coup. For You.

By Firestone Lately I've found myself getting completely hooked by small games with big gameplay. The Resistance. Hanabi. And now Coup.

Components

• 15 cards—five characters (Duke, Assassin, Captain, Ambassador, Contessa) repeated three times.
• Summary cards
• Money

Now, there are a few different printings of this. The components might be slightly different—and the art is certainly different—but that's what you'll be playing with.

Setup

• Place the pile of money in the center of the table.
• Give each person two dollars.
• Have each person draw two cards, look at them, and place them facedown in front of them.

Gameplay

Coup is a game where you're influencing important people to help you do your bidding, and decrease your opponents' influence, until you're the last person standing. It's a little tricky to explain (those summary cards that come with the game are really necessary), so stick with me. On your turn you can do one of four things—the last thing has some sub-things...

1. Collect Income—which means taking one coin from the bank. Nothing can stop you from doing this or affect this in any way.
2. Collect Foreign Aid—which means taking two coins from the bank. Why would someone Collect Income when they can Collect Foreign Aid? I'll tell you in a minute.
3. Coup—Pay seven coins and launch a coup against an opponent. That opponent chooses one of their facedown character cards and discards it faceup. Nothing can stop you from doing this or affect this in any way.
4. Use the Special Power of a Character—Each character has a special power, and you just do it.

The Duke allows you to take three coins from the bank.

The Assassin allows you to pay three coins to kill another player's character card.

The Captain allows you to steal two coins from another player.

The Ambassador allows you to draw two character cards from the deck, exchange one, both, or neither of the drawn cards with the character cards you already have, and then put two cards onto the deck.

The Contessa doesn't get an action. (But she gets other stuff. Hang on.)

What's interesting is that you don't have to actually have that character card to do the Action... You can bluff your way into any action. So maybe I have the Assassin and the Contessa in front of me. When it gets to my turn I can say, "I'm going to take three coins, because I have the Duke." And that's just what I do. Unless...someone calls my bluff. Anyone at the table can say that I'm lying. If that's the case, one of us is losing a card. If I'm bluffing, I have to admit it, turn one of my character cards faceup, and I'm down to one "life." (You're out of the game when you have to ditch both characters. You've essentially lost your ability to influence people anymore, so you're thrown out to the dogs. Or something.) If I was telling the truth, I show that do actually have that character, the person who wrongly accused me has to ditch a character card, and then I get a new one: You place the card on the pile of remaining cards, shuffle them up, and draw one. It might be the one you just got rid of, and your opponents have no idea. That's one of the great things about this game.

In addition to Actions, some of the characters have a Blocking ability.

The Duke blocks someone from collecting Foreign Aid. (Which is why you might want to just Collect Income rather than Foreign Aid.)

The Captain blocks someone from stealing coins from you.

The Ambassador also blocks someone from stealing coins from you.

And the Contessa blocks someone from Assassinating you.

Again, someone can claim they have a blocking character even if they don't. And again, unless someone calls the bluff, the block happens. The last person with influence (a character) wins. The game is layered and tense and...poker-like, in a way. It's also very simple and elegant.

Recommendations

Family Game? Maybe! Certainly not until they're older. Even then, I'm not sure this is something my wife would want to play.

Youth Group Game? Possibly! It would depend greatly on the group.

Gamers' Game? Definitely! Coup is a terrific gamers' game—especially if your group likes games such as The Resistance.

Final Verdict

The first time we played this, we played it five times in a row. And that was in less than an hour. I will say that this wasn't good with six players, IMO. There was too much information on the table toward the end--because so many characters were discarded--so it slowed down as people tried to figure out who their opponents might still have. Four players felt good, and some people said they thought it might be best with five.

We also had a situation where three people were left, and all three had one character left. On one person's turn he was going to Coup someone, but whichever opponent he didn't kill would just kill him. So he was essentially in the position of deciding who won. Blech. That was my only complaint.

I like Coup a lot, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. It's not going to replace The Resistance, but for a change-of-pace filler it's just completely awesome.

So where can you get your own copy? Well, Indie Boards and Cards has a Resistance-themed Coup up on Kickstarter right now! It ends in two weeks, and it's way overfunded. And the best part? It's only $15 shipped. Check it out.

Thanks for reading! And make sure you check us out on Twitter, Facebook, and now Instagram!

Kickstarter Weekly

Welcome to Kickstart Weekly! We're toying around with the schedule for this post so today, you get it on a Saturday! Enjoy! Coup - The Resistance - Indie Boards and Cards is currently launching a Resistance themed version of Coup, a card game of bluffing, and deception! If you've been reading TOG for any amount of time you know that we're big fans of The Resistance titles and are looking forward to yet another addition to the franchise! Check out the campaign here, you can jump in and get a copy of the game fairly inexpensively!

Greater Than Games - Galactic Strike Force: The Cooperative Deck Building Game The same folks who brought you Sentinels of the Multiverse are bringing you another deckbuiler, this one is set in a sci-fi universe in which players are working together towards a common goal. The game looks cool, and GTG has a great track record of bringing quality games to market. Follow this link for their Kickstarter Campaign.

Ares Games - Galaxy Defenders, a co-op miniatures game. Another sci-fi co-op game, this time using miniatures players will fend off an intergalactic invasion! The miniature prototypes displayed on the campaign are looking slick! We don't usually cover miniatures games, but this one looks like it breaks out of the typical genre box. You'll find out more right here.

Pixel Lincoln Playing Cards Funded!! Our good friend Jason Tagmire and his pixelated pal along with the good folks over at Game Salute, have done it again, the Pixel Lincoln themed Bicycle deck has funded and they managed to knock off a few stretch goals along the way! Congrats, to Jason, Game Salute, and Pixel Lincoln! Find out more here! And read our most recent interview with Jason here!

Following up: Machine of Death -

This game crushed it's campaign bringing in over half a million! A big congrats to David Malki and the gang for hitting another home run with their twisted concept of fate, and death. Best of luck! See what the hub-bub is about right here! And read our interview with David right here.

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great weekend everyone! If you want more fun and info from TOG check us out on Facebook and Twitter!

We're Back! Plus, International TableTop Day...

Well, we're back from Indiana, and trying to put out fires and get caught up. It was so busy that we only had time to play a couple of games of The Resistance: Avalon—at 1 in the morning at the hotel Starbucks. But at least we got to play!

Anyway, the big news in the gaming world is that Geek & Sundry's hit YouTube show TableTop has announced International TableTop Day, on March 30, 2013. This seems like merely an excuse to get together and play games—which we're fine with. It's a celebration of the 1-year anniversary of the show. Some big publishers are offering promotional materials for the event, so hit up their Web site for the details and to find an event near you...

The Best Board Games of 2012!

Thanks for joining us for Post #200 here at Theology Of Games. In the Better Late Than Never category: Here they are—our picks for the best games of 2012! Now, realize that even though we both have a board game group that meets weekly, there are some games we just didn't get a chance to play. So games such as Mage Wars and Snowdonia and Myrmes just didn't get played. They might have made the list, and I'm sure we'll play those at some point. You'll just have to wait for the review. :) We also went off of the release dates as seen on each game's page on Boardgamegeek. There are a number of games I was sure came out this year, but I was surprised to see they were actually released earlier (Mage Knight, King of Tokyo, Kaispeicher). So without further ado... 10. Mice & Mystics—It's essentially a dungeon crawler. You go through rooms, you fight swarms of baddies, you have weapons and armor and special powers, you roll dice, and you're following a loose sort of plot. My group is eight missions into the campaign and we're having great fun. One big reason it doesn't rate higher is that once I've played through the campaign, I'll likely never play the base game again. (Or at least until the expansion comes out.)

9. Lords Of Waterdeep—This is a worker placement game with a thick veneer of fantasy to it. There's a fair bit of mess-with-your-neighbor-ness to it, but I was okay with it.

8. Smash Up—A card-battling, shuffle-building game, featuring different factions that you can combine to smash up one of several bases on the table. Light rules, cool cards, and fun faction combos. Check out our review here.

7. Plato 3000—This was a surprisingly fun little filler! It's basically rummy with special powers—if you can snag a copy, you should do so! You can read the review here.

6. Gauntlet Of Fools—This is another filler that grabbed our attention. You grab your hapless hero and head into the dungeon, where you'll almost certainly die. Sounds fun, right?! Well it really, really is. Read our detailed thoughts on it here.

5. Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game—The minis are way cool. The gameplay is fast and fun. AND IT'S STAR WARS! This is the kind of game I expect to sink a ton of cash into, but the looks on my kids' faces when we play makes it worth it. Here's our review of this terrific game.

4. Android: Netrunner—The first of two LCGs on the list is a remake of the classic CCG from the 90s. This reboot is excellent. The key is the asymmetrical play—with one playing the powerful corporation and the other playing the plucky, tricky hacker. This has so much potential for interesting expansions...I can hear my wallet screaming now... Here's our review.

3. Star Wars Card Game—This is the start of something really great; the base set is already climbing to the top of our lists, and they haven't yet expanded it for 4 players. With the unique Edge Battle mechanic, paired up with some pretty awesome card artwork, the sky is the limit for this LCG. We're really looking forward to what Fantasy Flight has in store. In the meantime, check out Jeremiah's review.

2. Tzolk'in—I can't remember the last time I was this enamored with a game. Rather than gush over it here, I'll just point you to my review.

1. The Resistance: Avalon—What can we say about this game that we haven't already? The Resistance is one of our favorite titles of all time, and Avalon adds just enough variance and depth to keep us coming back for more back-stabbing, lying, skulduggery and intrigue. The new/optional roles have increased re-playability even more. Read our review here; then go get the game. Now. What are you waiting for?!

So what did you think were the best games of last year? Let us know in the comments, and make sure you "Like" us on Facebook. And over on Twitter too!

A Double-Take Review—The Resistance: Avalon

Avalon

It's no surprise that we love The Resistance here at TOG. So a new version with some special powers sounds great. Is The Resistance: Avalon as good as it sounds? Well let's find out. We're not going to explain the mechanisms of the game. You can read our review of The Resistance here, where we explain the game in detail. The new game is identical in basic gameplay; the difference is that there are roles in this game.

The whole thing has an Arthurian legend theme, so the roles are characters from the mythology. The game seems to assume you'll play with at least the Merlin and Assassin cards. Merlin gets to know exactly who the Minions of Mordred are. When everyone's eyes are closed, the evil players raise their thumbs, and Merlin opens his or her eyes. So they have perfect knowledge in the game...but, they can't be too obvious about letting their teammates know who the baddies are, because at the end of the game, if the Servants of Arthur have won, the Assassin gets one last chance. He can talk things over with the other baddies, and then he assassinates the person he thinks is Merlin. If he's right, the bad guys win.

good

Ever since I heard about that, I was troubled. It seemed awful that the baddies could win based on a complete blind guess. After playing, I'm less concerned. Usually the Assassin seems to be basing the decision on the way people acted, but there have been a few times when it's a blind guess that happens to be correct. It's really frustrating. Yes, the Loyal Knights who aren't Merlin need to be doing more to make themselves seem like Merlin, but that doesn't take the sting away.

There are some other roles, too.

Percival is a Servant of Arthur, and he gets to know who Merlin is.

Mordred is a Minion of Mordred (duh). He doesn't reveal himself to Merlin at the beginning of the game.

Evil

Oberon is a Minion of Mordred, but he doesn't show himself to the other Minions—nor does he get to know who the other Minions are.

Morgana is a Minion of Mordred, and she gets to show herself as Merlin when Percival is in the game. So both Merlin and Morgana will have their thumbs extended, but Percival won't know which of them is Merlin and which is Morgana.

The Kickstarter copy also came with Lancelot, who might change allegiances halfway through the game.

Firestone—The first thing I have to comment on are the components. First, a couple of the cards have a misprint on them: the word unknown is spelled unkown. This is a small mistake that doesn't affect the game at all. It's just shocking that it wasn't caught. The other problem is this: Instead of voting cards, as you have in the original Resistance, you have tiles you vote with. After just one game, these were showing considerable wear—and after many games they're in awful shape. I'm not sure why they went with tiles over cards, but it seems like a terrible idea in retrospect.

Jeremiah—I couldn't agree less! The first thing that I loved about the new version of the game was the tactile feel of the new voting tiles; it seems to  streamline the hands-on feel and it's easier (along with the Leader tile) to keep track of each different component and stage of a round. With the first version, cards always seem to get shuffled into the wrong pile or mixed up, etc. The durability of the tiles is questionable, but even my sleeved cards from the first set are showing signs of wear (and they don't fit in the box as well). I also really enjoyed the new set of tableaus that are included. There is now a separate tableau for your game dependent on the amount of players, and each quest is labeled with how many knights are to go on that particular quest. It again streamlines the gameplay and requires less squinting from across the table to see how many folks you are selecting for the next quest.

Firestone—Madness! :) But I do agree about the tableaus. Those are super helpful and convey just the sort of info they need to.

The roles are interesting. I like the uncertainty Morgana creates. Percival seems hard to play well; there are times when he really should reveal himself—or help in some way—and new people still seem hesitant for some reason.

Oberon creates some fun situations: In one game I was Merlin, so knew the baddies, but didn't know who was who. At one point a baddie put two Minions on a mission and I realized he had no idea he'd done that because one was Oberon. Of course, I voted that mission to go because I was more than happy to see them both on it; even if it failed they would almost certainly both vote to fail it, and now the group had a lot of information. The problem was that everyone noted that I'd voted for the failed mission to go forward, so now I was suspect! At any rate, I liked the mayhem that character caused.

The Lancelot promo comes with a few variants, and we've only played one so far, but I didn't like it. Two people are dealt Lancelot cards—one of which is a Minion and one of which is Loyal. You play as your card, just like normal, but starting on the third mission you draw cards from a deck and there's a chance the loyalties will switch. Sounds cool, but if you're on the last mission, and your side is about to win, and you suddenly have to switch to the losing side because of a card flip? Blech. What should have been interesting was just frustrating for whomever was winning (and now suddenly wasn't), and a cheap victory for the person who was losing, and suddenly wins.

Jeremiah—We haven't delved too deeply into the different roles; it is stressed very clearly in the rules that you shouldn't start adding more roles to the game if there are too many new/inexperienced players in the game, and as of yet, every time I have played there have been several folks new to the game. And grasping the roles, along with Merlin and the Assassin and how to play off of those roles, is quite the task, without muddying the waters too much.

Firestone—Overall, this is a mixed bag for me. I like this version better than regular Resistance. But I don't think I like this better than regular Resistance with the plot cards. You can play Avalon with the plot cards from the original game (we haven't done that yet), but it makes no thematic or aesthetic sense to mix the two. I'm not sure why they didn't create plot cards for Avalon that fit that theme. They could be the same exact ones, just with new names and art.

I'm glad I have both, and we've certainly been playing Avalon exclusively since we got it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us return to the original over time.

Jeremiah—With this I agree; I thought I would be more excited about this game than I actually am. I enjoy the level of strategy that Merlin brings to being a good guy; in the original it becomes a chore to hide your disappointment when you've been dealt an operative role. Trying to figure out who Merlin is, and then act as if you are Merlin definitely makes it fun for everyone at the table. The absence of the plot cards is palpable, even more so is the stark contrast in the theme when you try to add them in. The way the plot cards are played is a HUGE part of my strategy when playing a baddie, so I would LOVE to see them re-themed and offered as an add-on sometime soon.

At its core Avalon is The Resistance, with more options and different aesthetics; I have yet to introduce the game to someone who didn't want to play again as soon as the first one was over. And Avalon is no different.

Thanks for reading!

Firestone Update—Well, we've played this a bunch more, and have had no desire to return to the original yet. Still lots to be explored with just the roles, and we're having a great time. I recommend this completely.

A Resistance Expansion Is On Its Way!

This one's from the rumor mill--but it comes from a reliable source. The Resistance is getting an expansion! The owner of Indie Boards and Cards has swooped into a couple of threads on boardgamegeek.com, and hinted that an expansion will be going up on Kickstarter soon. He also said it won't just be more plot cards, but some new ways to play the game. We can't stop crowing about this awesome game, so more ways to play has us super excited. We'll keep you updated, and post a link to the Kickstarter project once it officially goes live. In the meantime, make sure you sign up to win your own copy of The Resistance. The contest ends tonight, and right now your chances are REALLY GOOD. Thanks for reading!